"Do you know what this is? This is cow shit!"

Mel is getting ready to go home and the word is slowly spreading around school that she is going to America. So, the requests are coming in! She was originally planning on just getting a few gifts for our favorite teachers and the director...but that is a dream long gone.  It all started when the Nooters asked her if she could her husband an Army "suit." (jacket, pants and hat) He loves army stuff and has a ton of it, I guess. Mel told Nooters to send her pictures of what he wanted and she would go to the Army Navy Surplus store and get them for him.  Later that day she burst out laughing when she got an email from Nooters with 35 attachments of pictures of Army uniforms! Oh goodness. We tried to convince her to buy it online and have it sent to Mel's house in Texas but Nooters wants to pay for it later and "doesn't have Mel's address!" (All logic is lost here sometimes)
Thhhennn the Lockers let Mel know that her husband would like a cowboy scarf from Texas. A what? A bandana. Oh you mean a bandana you can buy here in Thailand for 1/10 of the price?? Yes. Ok....Oh and her son wants a DKNY watch. This is just getting ridiculous!

So yesterday was Nooters birthday, so Lockers, Nooters, Mel and a woman we affectionately nicknamed the Librarian (because we have no idea what she does, but she is always lounging on the couches in the library) all went out to lunch.  At lunch the girls all gossiped about different teachers in Thai/English and the director and just laughed it up! It was so weird to see them let loose and it is always weird to see the Lockers smile.  They told Mel to buy the director something cowboy from Texas because he loves "everything cowboy and cowboy music." She said she would get him a belt buckle or something. And they just thought that was the funniest thing!

After lunch, we went to Swensen's in the Big C (Target) which has pictures of San Francisco everywhere and played a lot of music about SF. It was super weird.  They had different sundaes dedicated to SF classics, coit tower coffee, cable car sundae, etc. So weird. The Thai teachers had their weird sundaes with corn in them, (corn in EVERYTHING!) and we had yummy sundaes and then they said ok we are going shopping! Uhm ok? They took us to a thrift store-like place that had clothes from stores in America but were being resold. It was awesome! They had actual sizes and the clothes fit us, unlike the stick thin clothes they usually sell.

When we got back to school the Librarian called Mel over and had a Texas scarf on her computer.  She wanted two pashminas, one light brown and one that said Texas on it.  Why you would ever need a pashmina in Thailand is beyond me! Mel is trying to avoid all teachers from now until Tuesday in case she gets more requests.  She is going to be spending her whole time at home shopping for the Thai teachers and their family members!

Teacher Tiantong invited us to go on a sunset bike ride with her later that day through the rice paddies. We invited Nooters because her husband was in Laos for the week and we didn't want her to spend her birthday alone.  We met at the designated spot and Nooters rides up on a child's bike. I seriously wish everyone could meet her. She is just a hoot and a half! She says the funniest things and is always trying to learn English.  Whenever we say something and she isn't sure what it is she asks us about it and then says it under her breath three or four times and sometimes spells it to herself.  It is really funny to be driving with her and having her repeat half of what you are saying.
Anyways! We all bike off with Nooters trailing behind on her little child's bike that she says is her mother in law's...
We stop at some rice paddies with the sun setting to take a picture and she points to a pile of crap and says
"Do you know what that is? That is cow shit!" Mel and I burst out laughing!
Then she says "Is that what you say, cow shit?" "Sure or cow poop."
"Poop? Spell it please." "P-O-O-P."
"Poop, Cow poop or cow shit. P-O-O-P." "Yes, good."
A conversation I never thought I would ever have with my coordinator.  

Happy Birthday Nooters!

Little Teacher Tiantong

This was just a fun day that is just a little taste of the silly things that happen all the time!
October break so soon! I can't wait! :-)