Another Wedding

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I’ve been in Ponethong now for 5 weeks and have been invited to 3 weddings. At this rate I’ll have been invited to approx 60 weddings by the time I leave for home. My whole life in America and I’ve maybe gone to six. The Thai’s are pretty practical and don’t give newlyweds 3 toasters, 2 blenders, 6 photo frames, etc, etc. but do give between 200-300 baht per person. Thank goodness everyone knows I’m an “asaasamaak” and doesn’t get paid for being here. Besides, I really don’t know any of these people! The best part is the food…boy do they feed you well. This particular wedding was across the street but because the street is used as the reception area and is quite narrow, it was natural for the party to extend to my front door. Notice the picture with the speakers and stage….that’s about 20 feet from my bedroom window and no, I didn’t sleep well! I haven’t figured out why they need 1500-decibel speakers…need to check if PC health care provides hearing aids.

Along with the weddings, we’ve had an equal number of funerals. They’re interesting because I’ve not seen anyone grieve although I’m sure they must. Thai’s pretty much control their emotions except when drinking which they do an enormous amount of. In fact alcoholism is a national problem but they don’t seem to know how to address it. Anyway, some pictures of a funeral procession on it’s way to the wat (temple). There is a crematorium at the wat which the monks take care of . The mourning period lasts about 5 days and I’ve gotta tell you, there is a continuous party with, yes, music and 20 foot high speakers that play from 5am until late at night. The food is the best part.

Almost forgot to mention my weekend in Khon Koen. There were 10 of us that showed up and we did behave ourselves. We enjoyed the luxury of eating pizza from Pizza Hut and Chicken from KC, complained about the cost of coffee at Starbucks and bought the most expensive bottle of red wine we could find (600 baht, $20), and for three whole days, spoke English!!!

This week I'm starting an exercise program....Watch out Jazzercise!!

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