Boats rides and Dance Parties

Its been a pretty busy and fun week here in Nakhon Phanom. Thai classes are going well and I learn a little more each day, though I am still far from fluent!

This past Tuesday, Oct. 20th our principles came to lunch and we were able to find out our work schedules and ask any questions we may have. My principle brought along the two Thai English teachers I will be working with and after lunch they all took me to pick out some things for my room on campus. It was my first time out and about with our my group and it was really funny and frustrating all at once! (God bless my talking Thai/English dictionary...best purchase ever.) It took three seconds to pick out which color bed frame I wanted and then almost three hours until we finally left the store! I still don't really know what we were doing but my new Thai teaching buddies and I utilized the time wisely by having a funny photo shoot with silly furniture while waiting. Picking out a blanket for my bed was also a big issue...they kept saying all the ones they had were "too small" for me! Come on..I'm not that big! Eventually I left with a brand new bed and a big blanket, pretty sweet.

Me and my new friend/co-worker A

Wednesday Oct. 21 we finished our morning classes and headed to the Mekong "Underwater World" Aquarium. Which was very small but very entertaining. After the aquarium visit we headed to a fish pond to feed some fish which was pretty disgusting but also one of my new favorite activities, they are huge! The fish also form giant swarms in the water that look like something from a cheesy sci-fi movie, how can you not like that?

fish frenzy!

After the fish feeding we were dropped off at the river for our dinner cruise. (Bring your on Food) It was beautiful and really fun to have some semblance of a night out. We ate our picnic and watched the city of Nakhon Phanom and go by in one side and the hills of Laos on the other.

Our dinner boat

The hills of Laos

The highlight of the week however was this Thursday, Oct. 22. We went to Renu Nahkon, a villiage known for its pretty girls, to see a dance performance that a school had put together for us. The dancers were all ages from 8-70 and were amazing. They started with a welcome dance and followed with a Buddhist ceremony to offer us good luck and tie white strings for protection around our wrists. (I still have the strings on my wrist from my High School too so I am super protected now, which is never a bad idea.) Then they preformed a funny dance that was about "meeting a pretty girl" that involved a circle and men trying to entice women into the center of it with them to dance. Other men would jump in and it became the Thai version of a dance off. After the dance was finished they invited us up to dance! However, before we were allowed to perform we had to change into traditional dance costumes...no easy feat for a large hipped American girl let me tell you, but with the help of safety pins I made it into my dress. (They had to pin two belts together to get them around my hips, they sure thought that was funny!) We then lined up with our Thai dance partners and out on stage we went. No practice time allowed might I add, we just winged it. It was really, really fun and we all had a blast, even if we did look like fools and sweat an embarrassing amount. After the dance we were given a drink "to see the elephants". At first I was worried we were being given a hallucinogenic drink but quickly realized it was just rice whiskey. Sadly, no elephants appeared but it was still one of the most memorable days yet.

Me getting dressed in my costume

Me dancing