The Most Random Day Yet

So as the title of this entry indicates, it has been a pretty random day out here. It started off pretty normal though. I went and ate lunch with some of the teachers that I had a few years ago when I studied out here for a summer. It was really good to get to catch up with them and I got offered a job at the school. They are needing some people to come out and teach English at the college. I gave her one of those "maybe"s that really meant that there is no way I'd want to do that job (but if anybody else is interested I'll put in a good word for you). After lunch I went out with A_ and K_'s wife out to A_'s village. Everybody out here has different places that they go and build relationships with people and so we went out basically to just hang out and see who we could meet. We walked around for a while and ended up at this little shop where a lot of people were hanging out. Basically these little corner shops are where everybody goes when they are not working and people are usually playing pool or mahjong. Mahjong is a tile game out here and it is HUGE. Generally everyone playing it is gambling, and since I can't really remember how the numbers on the tiles work, and therefore would lose a lot of money, I usually don't play. However, today out in the village they were playing and A_ was like "that's so cool!" after one of the games. At first I was just thinking that she had been living out here too long and was too easily impressed by stuff but turns out the tables these guys were playing on were some of the most high tech things I've ever seen. After a game you push a button and the middle of the table pops up and you push all the tiles into it. There is a tumbler inside that mixes up all the tiles and then turns them the right way (I'm still not sure how that part works), and then stacks them into rows. While the table is doing all this a slot in front of each player opens and a different set of tiles rises up so that you can play while the table is mixing them all up for you. The thing had lights and all sorts of other cool stuff. It is amazing what you can find out here in the middle of nowhere. So after the rain died down we left from the shop and went and helped some girl that A_ had met before plant corn. The lady has a 6 month old baby and needed a little help with planting the corn with the rest of her family. So we went out and our job was to scoop dirt with little rice bowls and cover up the corn that had been buried in the ground. They plant corn out here by making rows in the field, covering them with thin strips of plastic to keep the moisture in the ground, and then opening little holes where they drop in the seeds. So we did this for a few rows. While we were out there it started to pour rain and the girl we were with pointed over a few rows and everybody else who was planting was huddled under one of the strips of plastic that hadn't been buried yet. So the three of us squatted under this small piece of plastic with about 4 locals. I'm sure the people in the next field thought it was hilarious to watch. We worked in the field for a while longer and while we were out A_ took a break and sat on a piece of extra plastic with her friend and the baby. People over here can't really afford diapers so the babies wear crotchless pants. A_ was holding the baby for a while and then all of sudden the baby had a case of diarrhea and it got on A_'s pants leg. Luckily she wasn't holding the baby in her lap but just barely on her leg. After we finished with the field the father was putting things up and was like "what is this green stuff on the plastic? I got some of it on my arm." He was rubbing his arm in the grass trying to get it off when he found out what it was. They tried to get us to stay for dinner but we needed to get back, we had only planned on being there 2 hours and had been there about 5, so we headed back to town and then ate at a Thai place in town. The food was pretty different (I ate some purple rice out of a pineapple) but was really good. A_ and her old roommate and I spent the next three hours watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I give it two thumbs down! Way too long and the plot was everywhere. I got back to my hotel a little after midnight and the guy working the desk had locked everything up and was asleep, so I had to wake him up to get in. I don't think he was too mad at me though. I'm usually pretty cool about waiting when he is playing around on the internet (which is ALL the time), so I think he kind of likes me.