(Success) and Failure

As happens in life, many things have happened this week.

I'll start back from last weekend.

I painted this.  Now I want to paint
more things.

At the retreat, one of the final things I did was paint a bag.  Yes, paint a bag.  The resort had this little carnival area where kids could paint or arrange flowers or do origami, all sorts of things.  We had a bit of free time, so I went to go purchase a plat or two and then... sat and painted a bag.  Normally, I wouldn't consider this blog worthy.  However, it was more than amusing that everyone thought I was out of my mind.  My colleagues giggled at me for doing such a childish thing, even though they complimented the look afterward.  The Thai women running the show were looking at me with some sort of panic, like, "oh no, we can't tell this girl what's happening..."  I just sat down and started painting.  They also gave some stems of a certain fern as a stamp.  It was very calming and peaceful for me.  Although, one issue I ran into was the tourists.  Three different people at three different times, within the half our window that I was painting, stood directly in front of me and took my picture.  It really puzzled me, considering I was never a part of their trip, but I suppose as a white chick, I was some sort of attraction.

I remember one time in Peace Corps, I lost my temper from a stranger taking my photo.  I was walking to my local coffee shop, fifteen feet in from of my own house, and I couldn't believe that some stranger on the street was trying to photograph me.  He was on a moto, and he swerved across the street to stop dead in front of me, pulling out his phone as he went.  I was furious.  At this moment, I can't remember why I was so angry... probably because he was treating me like a tourist in the place I had spend almost a year and a half in.  I was being so mundane, walking to the coffee shop, and he was treating me like an outsider.  I yelled at him in Khmer and pushed his phone down away from myself.  While painting now, though, I had no such impulses.  I thought it was strange, yes, but I am still a tourist in this land.

I went to Ikea when we got back from the resort, because I was dropped off at school and they are barely a trek to one another.  I can see Ikea in the window from some of the classrooms.  Perhaps it serves as inspiration, but I doubt it.  Ikea on a Sunday was the worst idea I have had recently.  Sunday is the day that you bring the whole family to the mall.  I'm going to attempt to never visit a mall on the weekend ever again.  I bought a lamp, though, and that was what I needed.  It makes my bedroom just *that* more homey.

Pizza courtesy of Pizza Florence.  They bring it to my
home.  This time, it didn't quite fit in the box.

On Wednesday, I went to quiz night, despite being exhausted.  While my team came in last (or almost last) place, I still had a good time with some of the teachers from a school very near to my village.  My team consisted of this funny guy named Teddy, a tall ESL teacher, his Thai wife, the owner of a local bar, Chris, a physics teacher with long hair, and a science teacher.  They taught me that the sun is 8 light minutes away from the sun.  I also learned that many of the Ancient Wonders of the World were destroyed by earthquakes and that Jessie J sings something about money.  It was a good time; the owner of the bar we met in is called Jay, and he has short magenta hair.  Magenta.  He's nice, and Baan Baan bar is a little wooden house, all open air, in the middle of this city sort of landscape.  It's like a breath of fresh air, a little slice of the country in the village.

I had to laugh as well at the emcee of the quiz night. It was a room full of teachers, every teacher from the local area.  Most of them teach at an international school called RIS.  If you know teachers at all, you may know that they are the worst possible students.  The worst.  And, the guy running a quiz with a room full of teachers... was... not a teacher.  He is a guy who is spending the year travelling the world by motorbike.  His story was all well and good, but quiz night was not his forte, and I hope that next quiz night he finds himself on a team and not in the front.

Rizza is very happy to be in this dinosaur costume.
Just kidding, she hates it.

I had some small successes as well:
I set up my internet banking to top up my phone, from which I received an email saying (Success).
Four kids asked me for advice on citations, and I taught some hilarious classes.
I got a second card from the bank "for my boyfriend" that I can send home to suspend the outrageous transfer fees.
Some kids know me by name.
I bought a lego Iron Man.
I bought an outfit for my cat.
I'm making my house a home.