Acquired: one pair of red Converse All Stars. Strictly out of necessity, of course. I have pretty much spent my money only on food, lodging and transportation since I got to Thailand. Sports day gave me the perfect excuse to buy new shoes. You know, so I can cheer for the red team next week.

My student, Mike, took me to Diana Mall to get them. Bam accompanied us and we all went to the 4^th floor to buy the shoes. They had great variety and I wasn’t even thinking about buying red ones until I saw them. Only ever had black ones, so I figured I would live a little. One thousand fifty baht ($33). Sold. The socks at the sports shoes store all looked really thick so I thought that I would just buy some socks somewhere else some other time. Note: socks are not easy to come by in Thailand. Buy them when you can.

We went a floor down and found some footie-nylons. I figured I would make do with those for sports day. The students kept asking me what else I wanted to buy. I guess they don’t leisurely shop. Which is what I would have preferred doing. However, I knew they were hungry and wanted to eat at the new McDonald’s. This would be my first Thai McDonald’s experience. Since it had only been open two days, they were giving away fries for free. Free fries! I ordered a Coke and two cheeseburgers with no pickle and no onion. The usual. They got one of them right. I ate the one they got wrong first. It made the burger taste strange. Not like what I am used to. McDonald’s cheeseburgers should be one of the few consistencies in life! Then I ate the second one. Tasted exactly how it should. Phew! Crisis averted. McDonald’s always sounds like a good idea when you are hungry. But it never is. Never ever ever. I always regret it after the fact. Hindsight is 20/20. But it’s like pain. You always forget how bad it really was. Until it happens again.

Rose, Top and Lah met up with us at McDonald’s and that was fun. Rose was without her veil and I didn’t even recognize her at first. So interesting how someone’s hair can change how they look. She was even more beautiful. They were all off to cheer-leading practice, but they walked me to the wen stop and waited with me until I got on and drove away. They waved to me until I was out of sight. Have I mentioned how much I love my Foreign Language students?

On the 25^th (day before the first day of sports days), I asked William to drop me off at Lee Gardens after school so that I could make a last-ditch effort to find socks. The nylons just didn’t feel right inside Converse. I had been told that Lee was reopened after the re-build from the bomb earlier this spring. The first floor containing restaurants and a few shops on the second floor, as well as the hotel and movie theater were in business. The rest of the upper floors and the basement floor were still being redone. No retail to speak of yet. I stopped at the ATM outside, had my bag checked at the door, and headed in. I was starving. I had my choice of gelato, Sizzler, Swenson’s, Shabushi (which I really wanted to try, but thought I would save it for my birthday weekend), a couple other things…and McDonald’s. I know, I know. But I had it anyhow (sorry, Spencer). This time, it didn’t end up being a bad idea because I only had one cheeseburger. While eating, I saw that there was another mall across the road called Central. I decided that this might be a better bet for my sock quest.

I crossed the road and had another bag check. The security officer told me, “Check bomb. No bomb. Notebook.” in reference to my laptop. Oh good, I brought the right backpack… First floor was the cosmetics/perfume and jewelry counters. I didn’t think I would find socks there. And I was correct. Second floor, women’s clothing. Lingerie (that they never have in my size), tees, jeans, shoes. All too expensive and not the right size for me anyhow. Third floor, menswear. I glanced for a second, but I had already decided to ride to the top just to see what this mall offered. Fourth floor, children’s. Toys and clothing. Top floor, housewares and a Tops market. It was kind of like a really small Whole Foods. The dark wood floors and furnishings and the good lighting. More of a boutique grocery. Lots of expat stuff. All I bought were Haribo gummy bears. My fave! Ok, time to continue my mission. Back down to menswear. There was a sports shoe store there. Surely they will have socks. And they did. Sock-cess! I bought one pair of Converse ankle socks (white with red stitching) and one pair of Fila. Total was 185 baht. A little pricey for two pairs of socks. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Lemme tell you ’bout the first day of sports days. Long. Very, very long. We were told to be at the stadium at 8am. Done. They finally started the first game of basketball about an hour and a half later. Spent a lot of time getting the students to sit in straight rows in their designated section of the stands. Computer, Foreign Language, Accounting, Tourism, and, of course, Marketing. Which is where I was meant to sit. Foreign Language was directly across from us. I was excited to see the routines and props that the kids had been working on so long and hard for the last month or more.

When I say ‘the first basketball game’, I use the term ‘game’ very loosely. It was more or less a group of boys who more or less knew that the idea of basketball was to get the ball from one end of the court to the other and score points. It ended up being four quarters of traveling, out-of-bounds, hail-Mary passes, personal fouls, no ball control and no team work. Oh, a couple people made some baskets. Sheer luck. Most of the time they weren’t even playing because of the whistle being blown for the aforementioned errors. I was dreading the rest of the day if this was to be any indicator of what we were in for…

Fortunately, there seem to be two types of teams at this school. Lets call them Varsity and Junior Varsity. The Varsity teams appeared to actually practice as a team outside of school, based on how they played their games. Junior Varsity… not so much. The Varsity teams made good passes, controlled shots and worked together. Junior Varsity…not so much.

All the groups of students who were not playing sports spent the day being led in various cheers (I think there were about six different routines that they did over and over). After a while, I probably would have been able to cheer with them, even though I wouldn’t know what I was saying. I think today was all just practice for tomorrow.

They fed us lunch around 11:30am. I was handed a bundle of butcher paper with one waxed side that contained a pile of rice, three slices of cucumber, chicken and some sort of internal organ. I’m thinking liver? Maybe? Do chickens have livers? One of the teachers said “Chicken inside”. And I have seen chicken hearts. These were not them. I ate most of the rice and all the chicken ‘outsides’. Then I went across the street to 7-11, got a chai yen (first in more than a month) and some Hi Chews and Kleenex. Then settled in for another four hours of sitting on concrete steps.

I really enjoyed watching the volleyball. The boys were ok, I guess. There were some calls that should have been made and weren’t. One of the students carried the ball and sent it over the net only to be kicked back over by another player. Yet no whistle was blown for either infraction. Huh… Honestly, the five-foot-nothing male student, Pump, is an amazing spiker. He has a great vertical leap. But the girls’ teams were my favorite to watch. Had some great volleys. Lots of control and skill, not just sending it back and forth with one bump on each side. Accounting seems to be the team to beat. One of my students, Neem, is a great setter and their best spiker is Tangmo. Pi Zsa Zsa talked the other day about starting a teacher’s team. I haven’t played in years but after watching the girls today, I remembered how much I enjoyed it. I may have to consider joining.

My team had brought in a PA system. Microphone and CD player. They had been playing some pop music off and on throughout the day. Around 3pm, I somehow got talked in to dancing with the students. And when I say ‘with’ I mean that I danced while they captured it on video. A couple of the students danced with me, but mostly the students just screamed, cheered and kept filming while I got down to Party Rock. How could I not dance to it? It was actually a lot of fun. And making a fool of yourself earns points with these kids, makes them feel like you are less of an alien from the planet of fair-skinned redheads.

The day finally ended at 4pm-ish. I tried to get a wen outside Sikarin Hospital. It is close to the end of the line, so the ONE that came by was already full. I took a motorbike to the plaza, knowing I could get one there.

Tomorrow is another eight hours of sports and sitting and listening to cheering. I am hoping it will be different than today, but I anticipate not.

The upshot? Tomorrow is Friday and I have a second pair of new socks to wear. I love new socks.