Day 18 "The Farangs are watching" 1/18/14

Today we had  our coed basketball meet up at 4:30. Ryan and I decided to head to the school early to shoot around. When we got there the place was packed. It looked as though the school was having a sports day. There were two groups playing volleyball, a purple team and a yellow team. The game was being reffed by an enthusiastic teacher on a ladder yelling through a megaphone. Next to the volley ball court was another group of kids playing an organized basketball game, being reffed by another spirited teacher.  On the side of the volleyball court was the school band. In front of the band were dance teams that were also in colors matching those playing basketball or volleyball. . The dance team  consisted of more boys than girls. Many of the dancers were dressed in flamboyant regalia, with glitter makeup , and full feather and lace head dress. Those who were not participating in an event sat around the border screaming and cheering. We weren't sure when the event was going to be over, or if the coordinator of the basketball group knew that it was going on, but we decided we would stay and watch. We went into the school and sat down on the bleachers. Watching all the events was really entertaining. After a while a few of the basketball folks arrived, one of them was Lotta, a German lady from the women's league. Around 4:15 the event seemed to be coming to an end. All of the kids gathered on the basketball court and sat in their colored groups. The teacher stood in front of them and gave them a speech on his megaphone. He said something in Thai and they all turned and looked at Ryan, Lotta, and I, and started to laugh. Lotta had been living in Chiang Mai for seven years and  knew Thai. She told us that the teacher said "Look even foreigners came to watch you perform."  I smiled and waved at the hundreds of Thai faces that stared at me. This was the first time we felt singled out as foreigners or "farangs",the thai slang for white person. It was a pretty comical moment. When the event ended, we began to shoot around. About eight people from the group showed up. We played full court games for a couple of hours and got a really good workout in. After basketball we went back to the apartment showered up and grabbed dinner. Since it was a Saturday  we decided to indulge in a little night life. We went to our favorite spot; Roots, Rock Reggae. Like last time there was a live band playing. We ordered a somsang bucket, which is a small plastic bucket of rum, coke, and red bull with two straws. The atmosphere was fun and laid back. The band played similar songs to their last performance, a mix of sublime, bob marley, and some ska. We danced and enjoyed our bucket of sugar. Around midnight, when the sugar high was wearing off  we made our walk back to the apartment to sleep.