Football Fever/ King Fever

I'm pretty sure that my fracture was a stress fracture. It seems like it happened gradually rather than suddenly. I'm not really in a lot of pain though the inconvenience of walking up and down endless flights of stairs if pretty bad. I get tired very easily. TGIF! i'm so excited to relax and take it easy this weekend. i'm expecting a call from mom and dad on saturday night. i want talk to dad for father's day. in thailand, father's day is recognized on the king's birthday and mother's day on the queen's birthday. we will also have some sort of ceremony at the end of this month in which the students will pay respect to their teachers. i like the sound of that!

we only did a couple of things for King Bhumipol's ceremony. we went to this park and there were tons of people wearing yellow and the whole park was decorated with banners and pictures of the king. there was a band playing traditional thai music which frankly sounds a bit shrill to me. the timing is very strange to western ears but i suppose there's a science to it. then they had a ceremony and everyone sang special songs for the king and the national anthem. someone read a speech about the king's life and there were large screens projecting the ceremony in bangkok. everyone lit candles and then there were fireworks. after that, there were two different stages with traditional thai singing and dancing. that was the end of the first day. since then, there have been many activities going on in bangkok but very little happening here. there was a parade the other day and then they showed coverage of visiting dignitaries on TV. people are continuing to wear these yellow shirts all of the time. we only have one shirt like this and the school keeps telling us to wear it...sometimes two or three days in a row. since we have no way to wash them, they are getting pretty smelly. there is a laundry service at our apartment but it takes at least one full day. i feel pretty spoiled getting my laundry done for me!

well the world cup is all the rage here. last weekend, our english friend had a party because it was england's first game in the series. before the game, all the english guys played these special world cup songs on the CD player and sang along. after England won, we were treated to more of the rowdy singing. "It's coming home, it's coming. Football's coming home." I guess this means they will bring the trophy home. Apparently there are quite a few world cup songs which are very inspirational. I heard a song called "One" by some Korean performers. It was pretty good.

Some of my students and fellow teachers have admitted to waking up in the middle of the night to catch certain matches. the funny thing is that thailand doesn't even have a team in the competition! on TV there is a commercial playing that says,"We all speak the same language: football." it's actually a really nice sentiment so i'm trying to keep up with the games as a show of global unity. too bad america started off poorly. tonight we will go to this small pub called Au Si to watch some of the matches. tomorrow is Italy vs. US...hope we can do better than in the last game. it's kinda fun to get in the spirit of things. there are so many activities surrounding the world cup that it makes you really want to be a part of it. anyways, i'd much rather watch sports than participate in them. with my current condition, that shouldn't be too hard.