Fatty Fruit Platter

Another random, fun-filled blogpost. Because my life lately is so random and fun-filled. WOOT.

1. On Saturday after our horrible attempt at a bike ride, my host mom took Suzanne and I to get our hair cut. My hair was getting super long, and to the point where I could no longer spike it up and make it look all "punk-rocker" like [or like a duck's ass... thank you mother :)] so it needed some trimming. Plus it is still super hot and humid here, so hair that is long enough to stick to your neck but not long enough to put in a ponytail is a real pain. Anyways we arrived at my host mother's hairdresser [it turns out that my host mom gets her hair washed and set every week and then doesn't wash it in the shower until the next week]. Odd. At least I thought it was, I've never heard of that before. I was a little scared about how my hair would turn out because the trend for female hairstyles tends to be mullets of all shapes and sizes. I did not want a mullet, so my host mom and I searched some magazines for celebrities with nice hair and we FINALLY found one. I was the first to get my hair done; no luxurious washing of the hair - just an attack from a spray bottle. They also didn't use scissors, just the little razor thing to make the ends all razor like. They used that on Suzanne's hair too, which is LONG, so it did not make sense at all. Then came the process of blowdrying my hair into the perfect Thai school girl bob and curling it in; not quite as "punk-rocker" as I had hoped, but I fixed it when I got home. My host mother thought it was adorable though, and whatever she thinks is cute... goes. As a bonus, it only cost me 50 baht! ie. $1.75 for a haircut that would cost $35 in Canada. Oh, I love Thailand.

2. My host mother enquired about my eyebrow/eyelash colour the other day. She wondered why my eyelashes were brown when my hair was blonde, same for my eyebrows. I explained to her that my eyelashes and eyebrows are just that colour. She seemed confused that they weren't "same, same". She proceeded to tell me that if I coloured my eyebrows darker they would be much more beautiful. So much for my self esteem :)

3. We went to a Rotary meeting yesterday and I had my two guy friends drive us on their motorbikes. You have no idea how exciting it is to sit on the back of a motorbike [unless you've tried]. Driving one is even more exciting. When I get back to Canada I am buying one because they are just SO awesome. It was nice riding on the back of a boy's motorbike, it felt like I had good guy friends - usually they don't offer me rides because I have my sexy, pink "Hello Kitty Turbo Racer" bike [with a bell and basket.. all the works.. oh my ego]. At the Rotary meeting we showed everyone our pictures from dancing at That Phanom and Suzanne and I devoured an entire fruit plate to ourselves. Next meeting I need to video tape our eating - the other fruit plate [shared by 15 people] was over half full by the end of the meeting - ours was completely empty along with the plate of fried durien and toffees. The night ended with two Rotarians driving us home while I mimicked the voices of Prison Break characters and broke into fits of hyena laughter. Suzanne couldn't help but laugh at my obnxious laugh and then I laughed even harder - we scared the Rotarians.

4. We now have a new door to the house! *ADDITION* I came home from school to find my host dad sitting in the garage wearing a blue hard hat, watching 4 men rip apart the door. He's such an interesting, little, man. If that wasn't enough he put a block in front of the door so "no maeo!"[cat] While I was watching TV my dad wandered into the TV room, still wearing the hard hat. I love him, he completes my life. *ADDITION END* So my parents decided that getting out of the car to unlock the padlock on the garage door and then getting back INTO the car to drive in the garage was too much energy [and I agree] so they put in an electrical door with a button and made a small door on the side for me to come through when they aren't home. I now have to unlock the padlock on the gate, pull my bike through into the tiny alley between the gate and the side of the house, then lock the gate and walk my bike through [occasionally lifting it up through places the handlebars won't fit] to the door where there is ANOTHER padlock. I still don't understand why the gate that comes up to my waist and anyone could easily hop over needs a padlock, but I don't ask questions. Like I said, "It's Thailand, enough said". It's crazy how many padlocks there are on doors here and how stressed out all the Thai people are about thiefs. The other day I left my purse in the kitchen when I went to the bathroom and when I came back out my host mom freaked out about me leaving it lying around. I said "But we're in the house" and she continued to tell me that a burgaler would walk in the house and steal my purse. As if the burgaler wouldn't go after the TV or the DVD player in plain sight first.. he'd go after my purse that has a total of 100 baht in it [3 dollars]. Leaving a bike outside the house and not in the garage is also unacceptable. It's crazy to think that in Canada people leave their cars and doors unlocked at their house and how people leave things on their porches all the time. Here, that is not an option.

5. My computer is fixed [HOORAH] and I have hooked up my webcam and registered on Skype. I bet you're happy, aren't you mom? :)

6. Christmas is coming soon [not in Thailand of course, but back home] and I have been very busy writing letters and getting gifts together. It's a lot of work when you have to do everything so far in advance. My family already got their giant box of presents that I sent in September so now I just have to send some for a few more people. I've been to the post office 3 times this week, I've spent more money on letters than I have on food. But that's okay because my goal to not buy anything else until December is holding up beautifully.

7. I am the English teachers' slave. It is quite frusterating sometimes. They pull me out of class to check their grammar on things, they fight with me about how to properly spell words like "neighbour". They insist that I am spelling it wrong because I don't use American spelling. Why would I? I type up their tests, their lesson plans and help them teach their students. I should start asking for money :)

"I wish that all my life I'd be without a care and flying free" - Don Besig