Last Monday was “Cultural Day” at our school. This was a day sponsored by the Social Studies department when classes were cancelled while activities went on to celebrate Thai culture, past and present…I think. Honestly, Emily and I only found out about Cultural Day a few days before it occurred and it was never really explained to us, so we really had no clue what was going on most of the day. One thing we were informed of was that our presence was requested in the parade through the center of town, which kicked off the start of the day. We slowly found out that they actually wanted us to lead the parade and do so while wearing traditional Thai attire. We were given about 6 items that made up this outfit, with no instructions as to how to don them. A miniature piece of white cloth was supposed to be our “shirt”, while a large colored sheet was supposed to be our “skirt”. We were also given a sash, some fake beads, and a silver belt. With the help of many safety pins and binder clips we were able to attach the pieces to our bodies, only praying that they wouldn’t fall off mid-parade.
Unfortunately, we were only running on about 4 hours of sleep for this big day, since we had to catch the 5 AM bus back to Hang Chat after our weekend in Chiang Mai. We were nervous we might not make it back in time to get to the parade and we didn’t want to let everyone down… I mean, how could the parade possibly go on without us leading it?!? Luckily, we made it to the center of town with a few minutes to spare, enough time for the teachers to take a million and a half pictures of us. They each took turns standing next to me and Emily, one by one, with the teacher taking the picture switching in for the teacher that had already gotten a picture with us. The hilarious old gym teacher even made us pose for head shots on his camera phone as we squinted into the sun. We were told later in the day that the reason the teachers were so much more excited to see us today than they ever had been before was because it is very exciting for Thais to see foreigners in their traditional garb.
Without delay, the parade began at 8 AM with me and Emily at the lead, holding a sign displaying the name of our school. Technically, we were not the very first people in the parade, as there were parade announcers in a van ahead of us. It seems that every Thai parade is lead by or has multiple vans with their back hatch open exposing speakers that emit the sounds of announcers to the crowd. We had no clue what they were saying, but every so often we would hear our names being said…hopefully they were saying something nice. Anyways, we were given no instruction (as usual) as to how fast to walk or if we should be stopping every so often, so we just strolled along at varying speeds. At one point, someone from the van had to jump out and tell us we were walking too fast and then the students behind us would periodically tell us to speed up or slow down. The funniest part was that the traffic was not stopped for the parade, so there were cars coming at us from the opposite side of the road and passing us from behind the entire time. We didn’t have much of a crowd either, only a few people with young children waving on the side of the road. The purpose of the parade seemed to be more for fun than for entertaining the town. Side note: it felt about 90 degrees throughout the parade even though it was only 8 in the morning, and we were staring into the sun the entire time. So you can just imagine what Emily and I looked like as we were squinting and sweating but all the while trying to wave and keep a smile on our faces, as we were told this was our chance to be formally introduced to the town.
While the parade was going on, the students that were not a part of the parade remained at school to set up huts in which they displayed their Thai culture project, which seemed to fall into two categories: either selling a Thai food they had made or displaying boards with research they had done on some Thailand-related topic. When we got back to school after the parade we were told to just “walk around” and see everything. We tried to visit every hut, eating and drinking lots of different things to the point of belly aches, telling every grade their food was very good, no matter what it tasted like (we are desperate for them to like us so that they will behave in class).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p06-e7xPMpI
The day was basically a circus, with students running free throughout the campus, doing as they pleased. There were also many performances throughout the day, with students dancing, playing the drums, and performing skits. Some of the more bizarre events that occurred were the “Somtam Dance” and the massage station. Somtam is papaya salad. It comes in many different varieties, but most are super spicy. You are basically not Thai unless you like this dish, so me and Emily are slowly warming up to it as neither of us like American salad, but we have found some less spicy kinds that we enjoy…sort of. Anyways, the dish is so popular it even has its own ridiculous dance and the older students performed it for everyone, while peeling and mixing and preparing dish. The dance is impossible to describe and therefore the Youtube video above has been included for your pleasure (notice the plates of Somtam on the table on the right). Who knew making food could be so much fun? The creepy zooming on the 'girl' with the sash is an attempt to capture "Ram," one of the ladyboy students (boys who dress/act like girls). Ram was truly in his element because he was allowed to wear girl's clothes (on regular school days he has to keep his hair short and wear a boy's uniform).
Then there was the massage station. The Thais are known for their massages, and apparently they teach them young here. One of the courses at our school is a massage class where students are taught to be masseuses. On Cultural Day these students were giving free massages to teachers. Emily and I could not believe our eyes when we saw students rubbing the feet of their teachers and even giving full body massages. I can’t say I would have ever gotten anywhere near the feet of my high school teachers…no, thank you! But we couldn’t pass up on this priceless opportunity so we jumped right in for an hour foot massage…don’t worry we aren’t slave drivers, we tipped a whole 50 baht (less than $1.50), which is considered a good tip (gotta love the exchange rate)!
Overall, with our lack of sleep, Emily and I were grateful for a “fun day” at school instead of classes. It is a lot easier to make it through a foot massage than a class full of energetic, paper plane throwing 14 year olds when you are tired from a long weekend!
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