stoked

Hey all,
So I am pretty sure my last blog was last wednesday. I'd check but... too.... lazy... Either way, last thursday I played basket ball with students and teachers after school and it was great fun. The students that are on the basket ball team here are goooood!
On Friday, after much struggle, Johnny and I were able to leave work an hour and a half early to get a head start on our 3 day weekend. This weekend was the kings birthday which also becomes fathers day for Thailand because he is the father of Thailand right now. While I am kinda on the subject, from now on, when speaking of his majesty I will call him frank. Because speaking anything less than shimmering praise of him can land you in serious jail here, my friends and I have given him the psuedonym "frank." It allows us to vent and doesn't offend anyone here. win frickin win baby. All week my town has been goin nutty for frankies b-day. The park by my house had two giant music stages and lots of booths selling food and random materialities. There were fireworks on several nights which I could see from my balcony. It was a pretty cool scene. Lots of little kids running around and just happy people laughing and listening to really random covers ranging from sade to the stones to lady gaga.
Less cool was how every morning of last week we "practiced" for the ceremony that we did on friday morning. whoooo. loong. also, kinda funny, i had to walk around without my shoes on for this ceremony that was first thing in the morning. The last thing i do before I leave the house is fill my socks with talcom powder so they dont stink (if you have ever lived with me you know what this is about). so, walking around this ceremony, i was leaving perfect, white powder footprints on the ground everywhere I went... and a big puddle of it wherever I sat. That and the white athletic socks didn't go over well. hahah. but i digress...
so friday we get out of work, pack and get on a bus to the bus terminal less than 5 miles as the crow flies away from my house. two hours later we get there and begin our 2 hour wait for our bus. From there though, traveling is sweet. the bus is comfy and I slept the entire way to Ban Phe (where i first lived here in Thailand). Once we are in Ban Phe we have a 15 min truck taxi ride to our hotel. By this point it was twelve thirty at night. There was no room in the cab so I jumped in the back. There were all these cool lights out to honor frank and the air was a very comfortable warm. There was a full moon out and the short ride was very very relaxing.
We got to the hotel, crashed, back up and on a ferry at 8:40 the next morning. The ferry ride to Ko Semet is less than 45 min but when you get to the island it feels like you are years away!! its soo rad. The island is a 5 km narrow spine that juts up out of the gulf of Thailand. It is national park of Thailand and is TRRRROOOOPICAL! It is surrounded by coral reefs and, for such a small island boasts an impressive amount of biodiversity. It has one main dirt road that traces the spine and is filled with ruts and sand pits and all sorts of things that make roads interesting. This main road has small paths that lead off of it to the many cove-protected beaches on the island. Most people stay within the first two coves of the ferry landing so our group of 7 was determined not to. Johnny and I rented motor scooters and cruised the island checking into all of the bungalows while the other 5 rested on a beach. This was my first time driving a moto and it is FUUUUN!! oh man! so great! we just followed the main road down the island stopping at every little cove to inquire about a bungalow and explore. After a few hours, we found a winner. We stayed at a beach called Ao Thien, i don't know if it is a direct translation, but in english it is called the candlelight beach (because at night, the restaraunts set out a bunch of candles... on the beach..... and light them!) In general the island seems like a honeymoon destination... it made Johnny, Cara and I all miss our GFs very much. (p.s. sidenote.... my gf marisa is coming to Thailand on DEC 28th. WHOOOOOT!!!!! STOOOOKED!!!) ok, back to backs. Our beach looks like something out of a corona commercial. Every picture you take of the beach is postcard worthy. The water is torquise and clear, the sand is white and there are straw huts and a few small beahside bars and people a few people just sun tanning and playing on beach. In some sections, there are trees that grow out of the shallow sea, and from them hang hammocks. Maybe coolest of all, we were far enough south that from our beach it was a 5 minute walk to the other side of the island (the other side was much less inhabited and had much better coral reefs). For the rest of saturday we just relaxed, did some mild exploring, and tried to really take in our surroundings. Saturday night we played cards and had some drinks on the beach. I got to play with Poi! It's the stuff that fire dancers twirl around. The guys that lived there were really really good at it... I was less good. Then again, after having a few drinks, one should probably be careful when swinging around a big staff that is crazy on fire on both ends. Either way, it really made me want to get better at it, it feels really cool and the fire makes a really cool noise if you get it going fast.... but i'll prob practice sans alcoholic beverages.
sunday we got up and ate a relaxing breakfast, when for relaxing swims (i saw a legit blowfish!), those of us (myself not included booya!) who forgot sunscreen got less relaxing burns. We lounged for a bit and then three of us went on a speed boat snorkel tour of the island. You could tell that all the tour boats bring everyone to the same places so they were crowded, nevertheless, it was still really really rad. We went all the way around the island and got to see all the beaches and really really fancy schmancy resorts. While the snorkeling spots were at the surface crowded with lifevest-clad non-swimmers, if you pitched down like 15 feet you were alone and surrounded by life and fecundity and radness. sweet!
after the snorkel spots we stopped at a "big fish farm" which was much more like a "big fish prison" it was all these floating planks around squares of water that were encapsulated by nets beneath. You bought these tiny feeder fish for about 30 cents and went lock by lock feeding whatever came to the surface. In one lock there was a few sharks (a couple blacktip and one that looked like a thresher but smaller) and a bunch of sea turtles. That was by far the favorite. What was sad was that if the animals were not showing themselves enough, a worker would pull the net out of the water, forcing the animals up. sad, but really cool to see (guilt). the other locks had other sharks and exotic big fish. there were a couple with groupers and some with what looked like tuna but was labeled differently. There were large angelfish and some really fast, crazy fish that i don't know the name of.
that night we went to a more crowded part of the island looking for parties. It was pretty dead haha. I was fine with that though. I was tired and dead party scene = early sleep! haha.
next morning, got up, lounged. more swimming, and said our tearful goodbyes.
The trip back was cramped but quick. The only other thing to note was that yesterday we had our longest all-Thai work meeting yet. for over 5.5 hours I had no idea what anyone was saying! whooo!

and now, the obligitory culture piece. This time, the cultural observation found me, not the other way around. In order to be able to leave work an hour early this past friday I had to fill out a leave form. It seemed a little uneccesary but I was itching to get out so I didn't ask questions. After a definitely uneccesary ordeal to obtain the last two forms Johnny and I were pretty much out the door. As we turned in the paperwork Johnny's was looked over and approved while mine met instant disproval. I had written it in black ink. I have lived here in thailand for well over a month now and this was the first I had heard that people here are not allowed to write in black ink because black pen ink is reserved for Frank! Since then, I have definitely noticed that everything is either blue or red pen ink.... but before that all of my lesson plans, all of the paperwork I have done... everything has been in black pen! I had no idea because nobody told me... until now. As there was no remaining forms and my coworkers could easily see how badly I needed to escape work I was allowed to just scrawl over my black ink with blue ink. As most of you have seen my handwriting when I write something just once, ill leave it to your imagination how bad it looked after I went over it again. But still, after it was accepted happily! And I got to leave!!!!

ok, you are all fully updated on the happenings of ashley watson's brother! (oooh schnap it stuck! craazy)