Happy Birthday, King Thingamijigiewhatsit
Monday was a big holiday around these here parts. It was King Bhumitolph-or-something-equally-unpronounceable's birthday, so everything was closed, there were fireworks and feasts and general merrymaking, mostly because I DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK!!! Oh, the joy. Happy birthday indeed.
The King is actually a pretty interesting dude. There's a picture of him in every room of every building, he's so adored here. In addition to owning the largest diamond in the world (it's roughly 5 lbs. I tried to find something to compare that too when I realized I have no freaking idea what 5 lbs feels like.), he has been in power for 60 years, since the ripe old age of 19. When his father (also King) died, the country was all asunder and generals in the army were staging various coups and plays for power and all those things stupid men do. If it were women we'd sit down, turn on Oprah, and have a nice chat about who should run the country. Anyway, King Whats-his-face had lived and learned in Switzerland since the ripe old age of 6. At 19 he rushed back to Thailand, barely able to speak Thai because he'd been away so long, and managed to wrestle the government away from said power-hungry generals.
So, celebrating his birthday seems okay to me.
Especially because we took the opportunity to make a day trip to Pattaya. That's this touristy sort of place about an hour and a half away. It really seemed like a place you'd enjoy a little more at night, if you catch my drift and I think you do, but we had a perfectly nice time. We even went to this zoo-ish place and I got my picture taken with an enormous Bengal tiger who growled quite loudly when I touched him. To quote Kathy Griffin, I'm not saying I shit myself, but I only had maybe 5 or 10 seconds to play with.
However, I obviously survived, only to watch the cheesiest crocodile show Steve Irwin could have imagined in his wildest baby-walking dreams. Complete with the Star Wars theme music and red silk ninja headbands. I was totally enthralled.
Back at school today and yesterday, of course. Today in Prathom 5 we played my own personal bastardized version of musical chairs and now several 11-year-olds are missing teeth, eyes, even a limb or two. It was a massacre out there. But you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? Nobody said learning English was going to be easy.
The King is actually a pretty interesting dude. There's a picture of him in every room of every building, he's so adored here. In addition to owning the largest diamond in the world (it's roughly 5 lbs. I tried to find something to compare that too when I realized I have no freaking idea what 5 lbs feels like.), he has been in power for 60 years, since the ripe old age of 19. When his father (also King) died, the country was all asunder and generals in the army were staging various coups and plays for power and all those things stupid men do. If it were women we'd sit down, turn on Oprah, and have a nice chat about who should run the country. Anyway, King Whats-his-face had lived and learned in Switzerland since the ripe old age of 6. At 19 he rushed back to Thailand, barely able to speak Thai because he'd been away so long, and managed to wrestle the government away from said power-hungry generals.
So, celebrating his birthday seems okay to me.
Especially because we took the opportunity to make a day trip to Pattaya. That's this touristy sort of place about an hour and a half away. It really seemed like a place you'd enjoy a little more at night, if you catch my drift and I think you do, but we had a perfectly nice time. We even went to this zoo-ish place and I got my picture taken with an enormous Bengal tiger who growled quite loudly when I touched him. To quote Kathy Griffin, I'm not saying I shit myself, but I only had maybe 5 or 10 seconds to play with.
However, I obviously survived, only to watch the cheesiest crocodile show Steve Irwin could have imagined in his wildest baby-walking dreams. Complete with the Star Wars theme music and red silk ninja headbands. I was totally enthralled.
Back at school today and yesterday, of course. Today in Prathom 5 we played my own personal bastardized version of musical chairs and now several 11-year-olds are missing teeth, eyes, even a limb or two. It was a massacre out there. But you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? Nobody said learning English was going to be easy.
posted by Laura at
7:39 PM
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