Valentine's Day

Hi folks!
Well look at this...it's only been two days since Valentine's Day and I'm already writing about it! I think that is a new record. As you all know, Valentine's Day was this week and it was celebrated over here in Thailand. There was little leading up to it, but the day arrived with a bang! I got to school in the morning to see numerous rose/flower vendors lined up along the street across from school and hundreds of students walking around with flowers. I thought back to my days in middle school and high school and don't remember that many flowers on Valentine's Day - there were some, but not this many! Everywhere I looked there were students with flowers. Some students brought them to give to their friends and other brought them to give to their significant other and some even brought them to give to their teachers! Yup, us in the English Program office received several roses from students ;-). Later in the afternoon there was singing and poetry reading but the day passed by without too much activity. Later that evening was when the party really started. I was driving through town and the entire town had turned into a red, white and pink party! There were balloons, lights and flowers in every restaurant and shop and people all about dressed in red and white. It was quite the sight. I spent the evening with some teachers from work (my director and several other teachers) and while that was not the ideal Valentine's celebration, it did have its perks. First, we were treated to dinner and drinks and second, we drunk cognac. I'd never had cognac before, but enjoyed it. If only the Thai's weren't so fond of drinking everything with water it would have been fantastic. Cognac and water...whiskey and water - I just don't really enjoy that. But, I was rewarded with yet another opportunity to see how many people my director does know. After 30+ years of teaching at the same school, he knows quite a few people and those who saw him at the restaurant came up to say hello. One even gave us chocolate. And that marked the end of Valentine's Day and in the end it was just another holiday. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.
RM