The day I made my International Beauty Pagent debut

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this story, ever since I put on my facebook that I was entering in an International Beauty Contest here in Chiang Mai. Here is the down low:

On Thursday, my professor came to us girls in the program, and said that they really needed girls for the International Beauty Contest for the Flower Festival here in Chiang Mai. It sounded like a lot of fun, and how often can you say that you were in an International Beauty Contest? So about 7 of us girls agreed to join.

After a day full of art on campus ( I learned how to watercolor..which I am horrible at but I actually find really relaxing! I have been painting a lot in my free time) us girls were transported to a fancy hotel in the middle of teh city, where we met the other contestants. These girls were from all over! Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, America, Italy, etc. They were all asked on the streets to join the contest, and they all decided to take a crack at it. We arrived at 3 p.m, and spent the next 3 hours getting our hair done (in the traditional Thai style, a HUGE unflattering bun on top of the head), getting our makeup done (where they proceeed to darken (!!) my eyebrows, put on blue eyeshadow, and bright pink lip gloss. I looked like a child in the 80s that stole their mom's makeup and tried to do it themselves), and dressed us in Traditional Thai outfits. Needless today, I looked silly. All of us looked silly. We definitely were not Asian enough to pull any of that off, but that didn't matter. Its all about the Sanok (fun) in Thailand!

They loaded us all into a fancy shmancy bus, complete with a police escort, and took us into the middle of the city where the competition was giong to take place. When they told me that it was not giong to be a big deal, the definitely lied. Probably a thousand different people were there for the festival and the beauty contest, and there was a real stage with lights and microphones and everything. People were crowding around us to take pictures with us, and they were yelling "suay maak!" (very beautiful!) every where we turned. It was very overwhelming, but at least we got to use the bathroom for free!

First was the Thai beauty pagent, and these girls were LEGIT. Huge fancy dresses, white powder on their skin, perfect makeup, these girls weren't messing around. This took about 3 hours....3 hours of us sitting around. We were exhausted by the time they ushered us to the back of the stage, where they proceeded to tell us that we had to stand in front of everyone, introduce ourselves, and do a little performance to show our personality. Fortunately, I knew about the "act" and had prepared to sing head shoulders knees and toes in thai (these weren't supposed to be serious acts..haha) but a lot of the girls were freaking out trying to prepare something. They then rushed us on stage, and we walked around in circles, bowing to the audience. We then got up one by one to introduce ourselves, and give our little performance. Some girls acted, some did magic tricks, one girl sang "I'm a little teapot." When I got up there, I decided to let it all loose and be confidant. I buthchered my introduction (because I attempted it in Thai) but they were all laughing at me so that was good. And then I sang my song, and everyone started singing along! It was great! They were all clapping and laughing. I had never heard a thousand people all sing head shoulders knees and toes (in Thai) all at the same time. It was alot of fun, and I felt good about it.

Needless to say, none of the girls from the semester program won. The girl from Japan won, but we all had a lot of fun, and got to be on National Thai TV!

The next day was a lot of fun too. It was the Flower Festival in Chiang Mai with parade floats decorated in flowers, and a TON of food to eat. We rented a bamboo mat and sat around in the shade by a pond, where we fed fish and watch little kids chase the pigeons. Nice and relaxing end to a hectic weekend.

Things have been going well at school and with teaching. Midterm papers are due next week, so we are all trying to frantically write ours before we go on our meditation retreat this weekend. The kids at Baan Ponsawan still have  A LOT of energy, but Jenny and I are finding new ways to manage each day. All of us are pretty exhausted by this point, and we can't wait for spring break next month, but we have to keep pushing through! I've also gotten to eat some interesting foods including a fish head, pork intestine soup, and stirfried ant eggs (which actually wasn't that bad!) I've also learned about different language mistakes that I have been making which have been pretty embarrassing (I keep trying to order bananas..kluay said in a really high tone, but when said in a different, low tone,  I am accidently ordering a part of the male anatomy. I get a lot strange looks haha).

Love and miss you all!
Kitty