Day 26: Happy Australia Day!

So seriously, today is Australia Day! It's like our 4th of July in America, I guess, and it's my new favorite holiday! We left work at 4 and went straight over to the Aussie boys' hotel/apartment and celebrated with an amazing dinner and swimming! Ok...I just have to talk about the dinner for a minute. IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE! We had corn on the cob, potato salad, and the most amazing ribs off the "Baaaabie." Oh my word it was unreal. The ironic thing was, it was basically all American food, and they even admitted it! Haha! Either way, it was by far the best meal I've had this whole trip, and I would eat the junk out of it again right now if I could! It was cute how into Australia Day Sean and Phil were...they even had matching Australia shirts on! I'm so mad I forgot to take a picture of that because it was too funny! It was fun hanging out with the other Aussies as well--Brock, Sean's brother, and Mike, their dad. And their Thai aunt came, so it was cool to hang out with her, too. It was like a big family BBQ gathering!
I absolutely love getting to know other cultures. We talked for hours about cultural differences between Australia and America. We talked about everything from economics (all for of the Aussies work in the Australian stock market) and sports, to geography and religion. In some ways, our countries exactly alike, but in other ways, completely different.

Before we went over to Bang Na (where the Aussies live), the sky train was having "technical difficulties," so we did the only thing we knew to do...take tons of pictures and rock out to our iPod. I love watching and listening to people on the sky train. It's amazing how many small children ride it independently, especially in a huge city like Bangkok. After school, there's just a massive influx of kids in uniform in and around the BTS station. They're all so adorable. I saw one of my students today while we were waiting for the "technical difficulties" to be sorted out. He "waied" to me, and my heart smiled. ("Wai"= putting your hands together in a prayer-like way and bowing your head slowly. It's a form of respect for elders and those in authority.) It's a great way to put ya on a power trip...having people bow to you and all. Haha. People wai to say "hello" or "goodbye" or to just show respect. The proper greeting to say while wai'ing is "Suawdee caa." I wish we had stuff like that in America. Respect is such a huge thing here in the Thai culture. I love it. I tend to forget who to wai to and who to not. So, I always find myself in this awkward half-wai position, or just ducking my head or something weird as I pass by an older person. I know this will come as no surprise, but I for sure slipped up and said, "Wassup" instead of "Suawdee caa" as I wai'd to someone the other day. Haha! I would.

Anyway, I'm just having a blast here still and I don't even want to think about coming home. I'm so thankful that I'm blogging about this whole experience though so everyone at home can keep up with me while I'm here! That's going to cut down on all the stories I gotta tell when I get home, because yall are already gonna know most everything! But I'm sure I'll still spend hours talking about this amazing experience. I wouldn't trade this for the world. I still think it's crap that I'm only here for a short 7 weeks. It's amazing how much my perspective has changed since I've been here...and to think I was dreading being away from Cleveland, TN for 2 months. Haha. Nah.

I'm out.
Cwalk.