The day my khun mee graduated

So I have officially been living with my host family for more than a week. I love it. My khun mee is great, and my nong chaay (little brother) is quiet and loves computer games...but I try and force conversation upon him. I think he enjoys my company, or his mom just makes him hang out with me, but either way its been fun going swimming and playing badmitton with him.

This weekend was a CRAZY one! My khun mee graduated from graduate school at MaaChaa (maahaawitiyali Chiang Mai..Chiang Mai University). Graduation here is a HUGE deal. And when I say huge, I mean ginormous. The Thai people consider education the most important thing that you can do, so when you graduate it is considered by many as the most important day of your life (maybe even more important than your wedding.) This event was also special because the Crown Princess of Thailand was coming to give the diplomas.

On Friday, I went to a party with my khun mee's department (information sciences). Me being the only farang (white person), I had to converse with everyone because they all wanted to test out their English or quiz me on my Thai. Farang here are always put on show..which gets a little exhausting. Random Thai people always come up to me and ask to have their picture taken with me. People are always staring and pointed and taking about the "farang american" in Thai. I always get complimented on the lightness of my skin, or my "beautiful forehead." Random, I know. But Thai people want to have light skin and dark eyebrows with a big forehead, so there you go.

On Saturday, my khun mee was out all day so me and a couple of friend walked around the city. Thai people hate walking.. or any kind of exercise. My khun mee will take her motorcycle to go visit her friend across the street. But, the still manage to always have food in their hand and be WAY smaller than the average American person. I have no idea how they do it. My khun mee always makes fun of me for walking everywhere. She also tells me that I'm too skinny and need to eat more, and then puts food on my plate. When I eat it all, she tells me I eat to much and am too fat! These are both compliments in Thai, but it is very hard to get used to. Even the smallest American (or Thai for that matter) is called fat when they eat, but are too skinny when they are no longer hungry.

Sunday was the busiest day I've had here yet. I walked to church, and I when I came back my whole house was filled with relatives. I greeted them all in the traditional Thai fashion, and then we went out to lunch. At lunch, they proceeded to tell me that I needed to visit their village in northern Thailand so I could be in their Buddhist ghost festival. Apparently there is a huge festival to celebrate the ghosts of the ancestors, and 200 people dress up as ghosts and dance around one particular person they want to bless. Apparently they want me to be that person.. so I we'll see how that goes!
After that, more relatives came and we all headed to campus to take graduation pictures. It was the day before graduation, and the campus was PACKED. Every graduate was there to take pictures the day before, all decked out in their get up. My khun mee got up at 3 in the morning just to get her makeup and hair done for her pictures! There was literaly hundreds of thousands of people all over campus. I can't explain to you how filled it was. And me, being the farang, was asked to be in pictures with probably 20 different graduates.
After that, we went out to dinner, and they had a karoke machine. The relatives all pushed me to the front and said "FARANG SING FARANG SING" I sang one song, and tried to sit down, but they wouldn't let me. They made me sing for 30 minutes. That was interesting. There were only 10 songs in english, so I had to keep singing the same ones over and over again.
Monday was the big day. My khun mee got up at 2 in the morning to get her makeup and hair done, and left to go get her diploma from the Crown Princess. The ceremony is very different here than in the states. The best way I can describe it is like a conveyor belt. They all stand in a line, curtsy really fast, get handed their diploma, and then run away. No shaking of hands, no taking pictures, and its all very serious. If they as much scratch the Crown Princess with one of their fingernails, they could be arrested.
Afterwards there were parties and more parties. My khun mee probably got 30 different bouquets (of fake flowers...yeeps.) There were bouquets of money, bouquets of chocolate, bouquets of stuffed animals..stuff I would probably throw away but they are in the place of honor around the house.

ANYWAYS, I hope that wasn't too much rambling for you all. I found this weekend very interesting, but exhausting.

NEXT POST will include my internship (which I have now been working at for 2 days) and pictures!

-Kitty