Mothers Day Ceremony

Since tomorrow is Thai Mothers Day (also the Queen's Birthday) there is no school, and therefore our school had a big Mothers Day ceremony this morning. There weren't really any classes today, so Cherry didn't go to school, which meant it was the first day I went to school on my own! It wasn't so bad though, I just met up with Patch and her mother outside of the school. For part of the ceremony, one student from each class was chosen as an "outstanding student" and was asked to bring their mother to the school today, to be awarded a special certificate. Patch was chosen as the "outstanding student" in her class, which is why her mother was there. I didn't really know what was going on, and neither did Patch, so I just went with them, and well, I ended up being in the ceremony with them haha. The teachers all seemed to think I would get a better idea of what the whole thing was about if if actually took part in the ceremony... Each child was given a bracelet made of jasmin flowers, "love flowers", and roses to give to their mother. Jasmine is a symbol of Mothers Day in Thailand, while "love flowers" are given to those you love. I'm not really sure why the roses were there to be honest, but the bracelets look like this:

At the beginning of the ceremony, there was alot of Thai music, and everyone there sang along to the special Mothers Day song, the Queen's song, and a few others. There was also a display of Thai dance. After all that, each mother would go up to the stage with her child, and the principal would give her a special certificate, and then the mother would go sit on the stage on a chair, while the child sat on the floor facing her. I went along with Patch and her mother, and since it was two of us sitting in front of one chair, it was quite squishy. The principal then made a big long speech, which I didn't understand of course, but Patch explained to me that it was talking about all the amazing things moms do for us, which we may not even realize or appreciate they do. His speech was thanking them for all these amazing things. When he was done his speech, everyone gave their mother (and I gave Patch's mother) the jasmine bracelet, and said "Thank you" to their mother. Alot of the moms were crying. Patch gave her mom a big hug, and it really made me miss my mom seeing it. Then Patch just told me, "Kristen, you can hug my mom too!" so we had a big group hug, and it cheered me up a bit just giving someone a big hug like that. One thing I've noticed from living here is how different the family dynamic (at least in my host family is). For example, I don't ever hear my host siblings telling my host mom they love her (actually Cherry told me that they don't tell eachother that), and they never hug eachother or anything. I think my family just may be an acception though, because from what I saw today, alot of the students are very close with their mothers. Anyways, was I was getting at was one of the things I miss the most about being home is having a mom around. Sure I have my host mom, but it's DEFFINATELY not the same.

When that ceremony was over, we went out to the front of the school, where a few trees had been planed recently in honor of Mothers Day. All the moms took turns taking pictures by the trees. I then went to see my AFS coordinator to see if Patch and I could go meet up with Manda at The Mall for the rest of the day. Before I was allowed to do that though, my coordinator wanted to teach me how to write something nice in Thai to write in the card which she had gotten me to give to my host mom for Mothers day. I'm honestly not too sure what it says, but I think it's something to the effect of "I wish you happiness and good health in the future." And it looks like this:

Patch and I went by van (one of the many forms of transportation here) to The Mall, where we met up with Manda and a few of her friends from school. We went out for lunch at a pizza place, which was alot trickier than I had anticipated since I didn't realize pepperoni is made out of pork, and Patch can't eat pork... The food was good though, amazing actually since I haven't eaten pizza at all since I've been here. After eating, we just wandered around the mall and the market outside for a bit, I didn't buy anything, and neither did Patch. Amanda did though, and I don't blame her since she only has 10 days left in Thailand!!!! Hopefully I will get to see her at least once before she leaves, I'm thinking maybe I will go see her off at the airport, since all of her Thai friends are apparently doing that too.

When I got back to my host families house, I ate dinner (even though I was still full from lunch) then played cards with Beam and Cherry a bit, and now I'm here. Tomorrow we are going to the beach! I'm not sure who all is going, but I know for sure Cherry, Beam, Kla, and I are. I'm also not sure how long it takes to get to the beach from here, but apparently we have to leave at 6 a.m. which means I'll have to wake up at 5, soo, it's time for me to go to bed now. haha goodnight.

p.s. Just heard my first Thai screamo song. It was actually fairly good, I may actually begin to have some faith in Thai music after all.