2002 FIFA WORLD CUP: I have noticed that everyone in Asia, including Thailand, are enormous fans of football (soccer). The city seems to shut down for a while whenver games are on tv, but now that the World Cup is over, things have died down a bit. While the tournament was going on, things got pretty crazy over here. Thais are so passionate for football and they go all out. There would be football pick up games played constantly throughout the day and night wherever there was room--on the sidewalks, in an alley, etc. I went to an indoor stadium with one of my Thai friends to watch the championship game. they had a huge screen--about a few hundred feet tall--inside the stadium and there were about 10,000 present to watch the final match. It was quite the experience and it was exactly what I have seen on tv. People brought pom-poms, drums or bongos, nation's flags, etc.
CATOI (catoy): a.k.a. "lady boys", "shims", "shemales". Thai culture is very accepting of transexuals. There are so many that are around, but it is no big deal to Thai people. There's even alot of them that attend the university I go to. At ABAC(Assumption Univ.) males have to wear a buttn down white shirt with black pants, and females a white blouse and skirt as part of the uniform. If the male has the operation they are allowed to wear skirts and a blouse. However, if the guy did not receive the surgery, they are allowed to wear the blouse, but have to wear pants. So basically, you can switch clothes according to how much has changed on your body. At first it was really weird seeing a lot of them walking around, but I'm so used to seeing it that sometimes I dn't even recognize it anymore. It's weird to us seeing a woman that is blatantly a man, but here people don't even think twice about it because it's that accepted. The same goes with homesexuality. Don't get me wrong, it's not like homo and transexuals take over Thailand, but they are much more common and much more accepted in thai culture
JULY 4TH: INDEPENDENCE DAY: The fourth of July was celebrated on the 6th of July. Every 4th, the U.S. Embassy hosts a party pn the first weekend after the 4th if it does not fall on a weekend. Any American who is in Thailand at the time may attend. It was good to get some American hot dogs, and real ground beef cheeseburgers--the burgers here are pork burgers. They had live music, raffles, games, and fireworks too. I was surprised to see how many people showed up. There was a few thousand atleast. It was a good time and was jsut ahpy not to completely miss out on the 4th.
FRESHY NITE: Later that night, back in front of my dorm building there was an annual concert going on. This huge concert was sponsored by the Freshman(hence the name Freshman Nite) and included famous Thai bands. This is sort of equivalent to a Homecoming Dance since they picked their class Prince and Princess on this night. It went on from 12 noon to about 1am. The courtyard where it was being held, and the surrounding streets turned into one huge party. It was a really seriosu event for them, and a huge stage was erected with lights lasers, smoke machines, and tv screens for a live broadcast.
GRAND PALACE and WAT PHRA KAEO: This wat, or temple, is located on the grounds ofd the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is used today by the king for certain ceremonial occassions, and used to be the residence of the royal family. The temple is very popular and known for the Emerald Buddha that is inside it. These grounds were constructed in 1782 and inside every building, which is a few hundred feet tall, the walls are hand painted, but it looks like wallpaper at first glance. Even the ceilings are hand painted. It is exactly the same design in the entire place and is said to have over 100,000 hand painted designs of the same exact design.
