Monday was the King's Birthday. He turned 78. And because it's his birthday it's also Fathers day (similarly the Queens b-day is Mother's day). The monarch is so important here that we stand up for 3 minutes at the beginning of movies to show respect while they play a film on his life. Never never step on a money bill as it has the kings picture on it. And every room in this country has a picture of the king. He's an important guy. You can be put in jail for speaking badly of him.
But on Monday he gave a really interesting speach, basically asking people to feel free to disagree with him. He was acknowledging that he is only human and can make mistakes and it's ok for people to constructively criticize his practices. I think it's a good step for Thailand.
In our town we had a nice candle ceremony at school. Then we went across the street to clean our temple (most schools here are connected w a temple).
Then I went home to eat Glue-ay Tawd. It is my new favorite habit. I stop at a stall on the side of the road and order a 10 Baht (25 cents) bag of fried bananas and go home to sit in front of the fan and play sudoko. My friend Tara, a PC Volunteer in the North East recently admitted she can spend an hour at a time working on crossword puzzles. Well I am just as addicted to Sudoko. It's the 9x9 square logic puzzle where you have to fill in the missing numbers 1-9 in each row, column, and square.
The pictures up above are from Fathers day at school. All the teachers. And the 5th grade class.
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