Heatstroke

geeleesee (Colorsport competition) day. Or rather three days. Yesterday was the opening day of four fun filled, no study days. I take that back. Classes have been cancelled for the whole week.
The students have been preparing for months. Cheerleading practices and designing T-shirts, building floats and having basketball and soccer practices everyday. I'm part of the yellow group (ce looung).
Since girls don't really play sports here and I'm too tall to be a cheerleader (so says the short girl) I was the "drum major" in the parade. I held a baton and wore gold platform boots, a short poofy dress with a giant,puffy sleeved jacket and a feather headress. Hells yes! Everything was yellow. The girls in my class took me to get my hair and makeup done at a salon and once again, I found out that I had to pay for this. The day before they had told me that my dress was rented and cost 800฿ out of my pocket. The hair and makeup was another 200฿. When the hair and makeup were finished, I was a little disappointed. Thai people love rosy red cheeks, so they loaded my face with blush, dark brown eyeshadow up to my eyebrows and bright red lips. Yes, I had to pay for this. I felt like a transvestite, but this wasn't the first time I'd had my makeup done this way. In Thailand, that's what they think is beautiful. It's very 80's.

According to Fashion magazines, asia is on the cutting edge. Everything travels from east to west. So I guess I'm giving all my friends a head's up. In two or three years, 80's will be back, FULL BLOWN. I'm not talking tame legwarmers or big sweaters. I'm talking mullets (very popular here), frizzy, frizzy hair, blue eyeshadow, oddly shaped shirts, giant bows and weird colors.

So anyway, I looked like a "tart" and after walking with a baton for three miles in the heat, having hundreds of people take pictures of and with me, I was told to stand in a field with all the other students as the directors of the schools gave speeches. I'm not sure what happened, but I started to feel woozy. I got a headache and soon felt like I was going to throw up. The other girls looked fine so I tried to hold out, but it became too much for me. Just as I turned around to tell the girl behind me I was feeling sick, my vision closed off. I can't describe it any other way. Darkness closed in on everything and my hearing changed. What little I could hear, sounded so far away. The thai people were shouting "she's going to fall!" and instantly I lost control of my legs. I felt a two girls supporting me, on eon each side as they carried me behind the parade float.
A few minutes later, some water and a piece of gum and I felt fine, but I spent the rest of the day trying to rest. At around 6 pm, Emma called me up to go out for namneuang. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll descirbe it now. A vietnamese salad roll with a sausage type thing, lettuce, garlic, chili pepper, sour starfruit, green banana, lettuce, mint and rice paper. You make the roll yourself. Nakhon Phanom has a ton of vietnamese immigrants so vietnamese food is really common. As common as getting chinese take out in the U.S.
I asked Pooh for a ride and pooh decided to com with us. Emma, Pooh and I all crammed onto the back of Pooh's motorcycle and we drove to Meringue. Meringue is a bakery/coffee shop/restaurant/ice cream shop that Emma and I go to for almost everything. It's not as cheap as street food, but dinner for the two of us still comes to under $4. While we were finishing up (Emma eating her three ice cream scoop sundae as an appetizer to cake...) my third host mother and host sister walked in. I ran up to say hello and the next thing I know, my host mother is buying me two loaves of hearty whole wheat bread, ice cream cake and rolls for my current host family. She would have bought more if I let her. Emma and I just looked at each other.
Pooh: "She must really like you."
Today, is another colorsport day. I went to cheer the yellow basketball team and I'm going back out there when I finish this. Maybe. It's hot and I'm wary of heat stroke. Anyway, Love to all.
More on the way.