This week at school went.. well, schooly. Nothing too exciting. Just reading Harry Potter throughout my classes, visiting with my Thai friends at lunch. I was late for school one morning (not my fault.. my host dad slept in late) but it turned out okay because I just sat by myself at the front of the school and read my book.. It was soo much more comfortable than having to sit out on the ground in the field with everyone else, because I actually got to sit on a bench rather then all cross legged for half an hour which still makes my legs fall asleep (I've set a goal that by the end of the year my legs will no longer go numb!) While I was sitting there, Ajarn Supanee (my Thai language teacher from last semester) told me that if I meet her at the same place on Monday, she will bring me a new Thai dessert to try :) so I guess tomorrow morning I will sleep in a little bit late on purpose :P
My classmates are really nice (although they all randomly just take photos of me with their cellphones throughout the day, which was kind of fun at first, because it makes me feel all famous and what not, but then they start to not even warn me when they are taking pictures and they end up with really embarassing ones of me like yawning and stuff). On Friday one of the boys expressed his concern to me that he doesn't want me to feel lonely in Thailand (which actually wasn't as creepy as I just made it out to seem, my bad).. He told me that all of my classmates are here for me, and that they are all my friends (well this is what I understood from it, since he told me in kind of broken English).. He also really wants to take me shopping sometime (did I mention he is gay?) which I think should be fun.
On Friday afterschool I didn't have any plans... I ended up spending most of the evening just hanging out with my host mom in my bedroom watching The Dark Knight. When the movie was over, we went out to eat some noodles... I think part of the reason I actually enjoy eating noodles so much now is because of the fact that I can actually eat them like a Thai person, i.e. with chopsticks! I think when I go back to Canada I'm gunna be eating noodles like crazy just to proove to you all I can use chopsticks (because unlike Keith, I wasn't born with chopsticks in my hands.)
Saturday morning I woke up fairly early and headed over to P'Patch's house at about 8 30, where we 
met up with the rest of the Bride's side of the family.. I worse just my own clothes rather than a Muslim get up with a hi-jab (despite my host families best efforst to get me to dress up.. on Friday night my host mom got me to try on all of her different dresses.. but they were all too small for me (which was actually kind of lucky because some of them were '80s-esque (i.e. hot pink with shoulder pads)).. I told them I would just feel more comfortable wearing my own clothes) We all climbed onto a bus and headed over to the Groom's home. Once we got there, all we pretty much did was walk from the Mosque to the Groom's home in a procession with the Bride. Some people went bearing gifts of food and flowers to give to the Groom's family, as is the traditional way of doing things. When we reached the actual house, we just sat and ate some food, said a Muslim prayer, and that was it. Not really what I was expecting to be honest. I thought we would be around there all 
day doing all kinds of different prayers and rituals, but it turns out the main point of the whole thing was just the whole bringing the Bride from the Mosque to her Groom. So we got back to Patch's house before noon, and Patch and I just spent the rest of the day hanging out with her cousin in her cousins house (which by the way is pretty much just a shack... (it's just random boards all nailed together to kind of resemble a house.. yet there are cracks all between the walls and the floors (in some places walls don't even exist between the inside of the house and the outside) and all of the floorboards sift and sag when someone walks on them.. yet for some reason I felt perfectly at home there... maybe just because of how kind and welcoming all of Patch's family members are..)
met up with the rest of the Bride's side of the family.. I worse just my own clothes rather than a Muslim get up with a hi-jab (despite my host families best efforst to get me to dress up.. on Friday night my host mom got me to try on all of her different dresses.. but they were all too small for me (which was actually kind of lucky because some of them were '80s-esque (i.e. hot pink with shoulder pads)).. I told them I would just feel more comfortable wearing my own clothes) We all climbed onto a bus and headed over to the Groom's home. Once we got there, all we pretty much did was walk from the Mosque to the Groom's home in a procession with the Bride. Some people went bearing gifts of food and flowers to give to the Groom's family, as is the traditional way of doing things. When we reached the actual house, we just sat and ate some food, said a Muslim prayer, and that was it. Not really what I was expecting to be honest. I thought we would be around there all 
day doing all kinds of different prayers and rituals, but it turns out the main point of the whole thing was just the whole bringing the Bride from the Mosque to her Groom. So we got back to Patch's house before noon, and Patch and I just spent the rest of the day hanging out with her cousin in her cousins house (which by the way is pretty much just a shack... (it's just random boards all nailed together to kind of resemble a house.. yet there are cracks all between the walls and the floors (in some places walls don't even exist between the inside of the house and the outside) and all of the floorboards sift and sag when someone walks on them.. yet for some reason I felt perfectly at home there... maybe just because of how kind and welcoming all of Patch's family members are..)This morning (Sunday) I woke up super early to go swimming with my little host sister. We got to the pool at 8, and were scheduled to swim until 9.. but for some reason Sun-Yair (host sister) just insisted that I go swimming and she would watch (I didn't really understand why, but I think it had something to do with the fact that we only had 1 set of goggles between the two of us).. I tried to tell her she could swim rather than me, but she just kept insisting I swim. So I ended up doing 20 laps of the pool (although I'm not sure how long the pool was.. so I don't really exactly know what distance I swam) which is the most swimming I've done since I was 13. Yay me. I actually really quite enjoyed it. I'm really not one who likes to go running or things like that.. but swimming I do enjoy. and it was nice to actually get some kind of exercise for a change. After all I've been eating here, I really do need the exercise. After the whole swimming bit, we made a quick stop at the doctors office for my host mom to get her pregnancy all checked up, then we headed to Fashion Island, where I went to watch the new 007 movie with my host dad. I really enjoyed the movie, but I must admit that it made me feel kind of homesick, just because all I could think about was how much I would have rather been watching it with my real dad :(
I do have quite alot of interesting things coming up here for the rest of the month. This week is Loy Kratong festival (a Buddhist festival, but I'm not really sure what it is all about), and since my new host family is Muslim and won't be celebrating it, Cherry has invited me to go with her on Wednesday night to celebrate it. All I know so far about the festival is that Buddhist do some sort of ritual where they float something made out of a banana leaf with candles on it down the river/into the ocean. I think Patch will come along with us, so she can translate a bit.. Then the plan is that on Friday in the evening I will go by bus to Ubon to visit Rachel (although nothing is for sure yet, because my Coordinator is supposed to talk to Rachel's Advisor and sort everything out, but I have a feeling she hasn't yet...)! I'm super excited, but kind of sad because it will be the last time I will see her (as she is only here for 1 semester).
Oh, and there are pictures from the wedding yesterday here: http://community.webshots.com/album/568422231AdstRX?start=0
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