What a Weekend!!!

Alright I've been trying to keep the blogs to once a week but I have to get all that has happened because the past few days have been so busy.
all the way back to thursday
So I caught a cold from Alayna the day before and had a really bad sleep, so going to school was a pain but it's just a cold, the same thing everything Canadian catches from time to time so I really did not care, get through the day then go and sleep
When i got to school one of my friends noticed I was sick and immediately told one of my teachers that I had a fever. this earned me a one-way ticket home, with a pit stop for lunch that the teacher bought for me, (this being the same teacher that took me to sushi). The meal was really good and after we went to a cake cafe with AMAZING cakes, after that I would have felt bad about protesting her taking me home, so I went quietly. I spent the rest of the day sitting around watching tv, snoozing, and looking up TZP online. It was time well wasted. I got to go back to school the next day after a good sleep, my grandma was freaking out thinking I shouldn't go because I might still be sick..very over protective...
Friday I had a real good argument with a british teacher about Shakespeare and why it's still taught in schools when it isn't relevant, it all started with a question on a work sheet saying "we mustn't be late, must we?" who is the world says that?
Saturday morning I had to wake up early and pack as we headed to Bangkok for the night to visit Grandpa's son, so I guess that would make him my host dad, and his family. It's about an hour drive to get from our house in Sri Racha to my host Dad's house in Bangkok. We reached his house without problem, and might I say nice house, 80's style, but nice. the first thing you notice when you walk in is literally the wall of trophies surrounding the tv.
I'll back up a little and explain. My grandpa has two grandsons. the older one who is 16 is an international go kart champion who has raced in Japan, UAE, Italy, and other countries. HE was picked by Thailand's racing committee to represent them for the past two years, he's even sponsored by
Toyota. Now he's also on the Rotary exchange and is in Tokyo Japan (lucky), the wall was his trophies, most of them being 1st place trophies.
alright now that we have that little back story out of the way.
My host Mom is really nice and has offered to take my to all these places in Bangkok including shopping, which I might even like with the prices here. Also while we were waiting for my host dad to arrive we got on the topic of tattoos which are super cheap here (like everything else) and also super sketchy. I told my Grandpa and mom that I wanted a few, Grandpa asked if I would be getting one here. It's against rotary rules so I had to decline, then he said if he somehow got it cleared by Rotary would I do it? wow a 79 year old man basically allowing me to get a tattoo, I laughed out loud, then shook my head saying if I came back to Canada with a tattoo that I didn't leave Canada with, my Dad would disown me.
We were interrupted by the arrival of my host dad. My host dad is kind of quiet but still nice and my host brother(? I think) who is the younger of the two brother and 9 years old is a computer wizz and kind of shy around me.
So we all piled into a van and headed out into Bangkok.
Our first stop was a museum, most recognized by the gigantic 3 headed elephant statue that sits on top of the museum. The basement floor was a downer which didn't give me high hopes for the rest of it. A lot of tea pots, some marble statues that you couldn't get near etc.
Then we went into the the base of the elephant statue and my breath was taken away. It is a two story room with winding staircases that lead up to a huge stained glass roof of a world map. but that's not even the cool part. Everything was decorated... ugh I can't explain it properly, I'll have to get the photos up on facebook so you can understand it but it was... truly and utterly beautiful.
Then we headed inside the elephant where there was a buddha shrine. the roof of the shrine was covered in constellations I could only name a few yet that was the coolest part of the shrine for me. It was very...alive almost. That's the difference I've found between Thai temples and Japanese temples.  Japanese temples are so calm and it feels like they are part of the earth, like they are meant to be there. Thai temples , they almost feel alive with an energy they give off. I personally like the japanese temples better but these ones are still shiny and flashy.
After we emerged from the temple my host brother who's nick name is Pangpang, bought me and himself two lotus flowers in bowls of water, we then kneeled in front of a stream that ran around the chorus of the museum. we then released them into the stream, The water represented life and the lotus represented love, Your supposed to make a wish when you release the lotus involving marriage so I made a wish for Aaron and Carolyn, hope it comes true =)
We left the museum and went to the "ancient city". It has replicas of temples and other famous building from all over Thailand, not real sized but big enough. I really hope to see some of these in real life while I'm here. I was getting sleepy though from another bad night's sleep so I missed the last few statues.
 Headed back to my Dad's house, eat some lunch (spaghetti), then left to go to my Grandparent's house that they own in Bangkok. It's in a gated community, very nice house and fro some reason I was given the master bedroom to sleep in. For dinner we had hamburgers, frozen hamburgers. g-r-o-s-s-e-s-t t-h-i-n-g EVER. those were not hamburgers. those were pure ick.
Well our after dinner entertainment we heading into central Bangkok for a play. when I got out of the car they THEY were, two of them, so beautiful, I wanted to run up and hug them, thats right my first two elephants. along with dozens of dancers doing pre show entertainments. I was so happy, but the batteries in my camera started to die so I didn't get any focused pictures. By the way Evangeline eats batteries, just destroys them in hours... Very painful for someone like me.
When the doors opened for the play and we headed inside to find our seats. the stage is a Guinness
World Records for highest stage, the seats start on the second story.
The show depicted the different kingdoms that made up Siam hundreds of years ago. Then it talked about hell, heaven, and the in between, then it talked about all the festivals that happen during the year.
It was gorgeous.  It was entirely dance and music, no talking. The costumes, the sets, the set changes. everything was amazing. I was in awe. I cannot describe how well done everything was, Hell and the world in between were most likely my favourite scenes.
At one point a river suddenly appeared. along the front of the stage and I mean a river. a man was able to jump in and submerged himself completely, it also had boats float down it, jets shoot up, and have it rain down upon it. I was just flabbergasted. They also had 4 goats, 3 chickens, 2 elephants, and a dragon in a pear tree on stage at different times during the play. Ms. Stonewall would have been proud of them.

Sunday was another early wake up. We headed out to visit the Imperial Palace. So when you look up Thailand everyone says wear full length pants to the palace or your be given a skirt to wear over top. guess who packed pants then forgot to wear them? that's right. me. The skirt was really pretty though and I definitely want to buy one for myself.
First we saw one of the largest temples in Thailand that is attached to the Palace. Everything was shiny, every surface seemed to reflect the sun. wow it was alive. Definitely a list topper for something people need to see when in Thailand. One thing I'd like to point out. I hate being in front of the camera (cosplay being the only exception) I especially hate the touristy of standing in front of building or such by myself, guess what my Grandpa loved to do every 2 minutes...rawr stomp stomp stomp, does not make me a happy camper.
The palace is something I got to see only a little of. most is behind closed gates. The inauguration building was the only one without a gate and you were not allowed inside.
I noticed right away all the buildings were love-childs between Thai and European architecture, definitely interesting.
Everyone in thailand loves their king and are very patriotic. every building flies thai flags as well as the flags of the king and queen. The royal couples pictures are everywhere, everyone truly respects and adores them. Very unlike the Queen in Canada
After the palace we took a couple of took-tooks (taxi like things similar to ones in central america) to a museum near by. This was a history of Thailand, Siam, and the country that came before Siam.
It was really interesting and i actually stopped to read all the info instead of just browsing like I normally do. It talked about all the kingdoms that used to be at war with each other until one king was able to unite them all which was more or less the territory that makes up Thailand today. When that rule was over taken by a different ruler the country was finally named Siam. The complete monarchy was booted out around... I forget. The king here is exactly like Queen Elizabeth, just a figure head more then anything
When North American and European influence came into Siam it was huge. in the early 20's Thailand went a bit ultra national, banning all other ways of life except for the thai way of life. This is when the country was renamed Thailand. the ultra nationalists weren't Hitler or Stalin thank god, but they still had the belief that Thais were the superior race to all others.
This ended by the time the cold war came around. Thailand even sided with the US (capitalism) to show that they believed in joining the world and allowing people to see how amazing Thailand is.
sorry for that class about thailand history I just wanted to get it out.
After leaving the museum we went to my grandma's sister's house for the sister's granddaughter's birthday.
We rolled up to what I imagined houses in Beverly Hills look like. fountains, sculpted bushes, 3 huge houses on one piece of property. Marble floors, everything. Grandma said that she is the 'poorest' of the 5 sisters. My grandparents are very well off to say the least. the birthday party had about 50 guests, all family members in some way or another. Everyone was really nice to me and a few people asked questions and such. Then I bumped into a guy from New York who's parents were Thai. He was really nice and we had a good conversation. I also met his girlfriend who was from California. She's a sushi chef who's half Japanese and half Mexican, also thrown into her gene pool is some Russian, German, and Irish, oh and she was drop dead stunning.
I wandered around mostly, talked to the birthday girl a little, tried some real Thai food which was pretty good, and some...different Thai dessert.
After the party we had to part ways with my host parents and Pangpang. We headed home where I now am sitting typing this. I'm also downloading "If I Had You" which plays a ton over here. go Adam.
I'm out
Kyouheikutie
p.s sorry mom for another confusing blog entry that you can't make any sense of.