Christmas in Thailand!

As the days approached Christmas I could feel the urge to cry becoming stronger. I love Christmas, and I love spending the day with all of my families and playing games, and eating great food (especially Grandma's orange stuff!). Knowing I wasn't going to have that hurt. I knew all of the celebrations would still happen. My family would still have drinks and laughs and it would go on with or without me. I felt very selfish having these feelings and thoughts because I am experiencing something many people will never get to during their life, and that should be enough to be thankful for. I can't have Christmas dinner with my family and travel the world, and realizing that I have to miss out on things back home to experience new things in Thailand, made me sad but also happy. I am so thankful to be here. I am also so thankful that my family still thought about me lots during the holidays. I got more letters than I could have imagined and I have never felt so loved before. My coordinator at my school kept telling me, "Oh wow more letters! You must have a lot of people that miss you back home!". It was a great feeling, so thank you to those who sent letters, and to those who sent messages on Facebook. I felt the love xox. When Christmas day arrived I was happy to be working so I wouldn't spend the day alone in my apartment making it worse. We had a Christmas party at the school and all the students and teachers got to dress up and play games and we had a potluck and secret santa gift exchange! All of the students brought in a small gift for the same gender and when they arrived each gift got a number. Then the kids would go up and pick a random number from a jar and that would be there gift, and whatever kid brought that gift would go next. We played games like musical chairs and other elimination games. Then each kid was asked to bring in food for a potluck lunch. OMG so much food! Someone brought in Mcdonalds fries and nuggets, there was chicken wings, so many bags of chips and cookies, homemade cupcakes and much much more. There was so much food leftover it was insane. Most of the kids got picked up early because their parents had the day off, or a half day. Some kids stayed the whole day if their parents had to work. Later in the day the teachers did our gift exchange. It was supposed to be a gag gift, but something still useful. I am with the teachers all day during the week but because they don't speak English I don't know their sense of humour or what good ideas were. When I was at a weekend market I found a change purse that was in the shape of the grumpy cat face, a mug with a mustache on it and said keep calm and drink coffee, and a frog shaped cactus vase thing. I had no idea and thought these were random enough together to be funny.... right? Well when I opened my gift it was a box full of pads... yes pads for your period. They don't use or really have tampons here so a variety of pads was in my box... lovely, but probably the best gift I could have gotten as I had no idea what some things were and they were laughing so hard at the gifts! I think the one was maybe like an emergency survival kit? I have no idea. Then the principal of the school told us to go to the BBQ restaurant down the road for dinner and it was on her. I didn't really want to go because I wanted to be back at my apartment to skype with my mom bright an early (well Canada time) for Christmas morning. I told them I could go but only for a bit. Once the principal left the teachers in broken English told me no BBQ we go dancing shhh its a secret.... alright so I work with a bunch of badass's nice lol. So we went to this large building that had hundreds of tables and a big stage but no dance floor... okay so it's a different than dancing in Canada because I was picturing a big dance floor and bar. We sat down and the teachers ordered food, they grabbed my plate filled it with food and then the beer tower came! It said it held 4L, there was about 10 of us so the first once went quick. Then they ordered two, one for each end of the table. Also in Thailand you usually have a server that stays with your table all night. So this woman would stand there and as soon as your glass was half empty she would grab it and fill it up from the beer tower. Well at first I was just thirsty because it was hot out, then we got spicy food so I was drinking a lot and then I was drunk so I was drinking a lot. It was a vicious cycle.... Then the band got loud and the teachers would scream when a good song was being played (it was all in thai so I had no idea). Then some of the teachers got up and started dancing. This was a common theme. People would just stand up and dance at their table. It was weird at first but once you tucked your chair in and got some space it was a lot of fun. When 10 hit the teachers were like teacher you go home? Well hell no now lol this was actually fun! I mean I didn't have drunk family members around and I wasn't playing Just Dance, but it felt nice. These teachers have become family to me. They always include me and make me feel involved even when I can never join in the conversations we have fun. So more beer towers kept coming and music kept playing and the rest was a blur! I woke up with my AC and fan on (which I never do to save money!), my lights were on and a started Skype conversation with Debby and a dead phone I was trying to charge to call mom. It was 6:00 am the next morning my time, but still Christmas Day in Canada. I had felt horrible for missing Christmas Day! I started to panic and called my mom quick, she was still at Grandma's thank god and I got to see everyone. Christmas was very different this year, but I wouldn't change it for anything. It was the Christmas I needed and I now have a special secret with the teachers!