So here I am in the American Center at Lao-American College trying to type about our first weekend in LAOS [and boy was it fun.] If I thought that school was exhausting, I haven’t seen the least of it.
On Saturday, we went to a friend’s (who we call “Gum Gum”) baci. A baci is a ceremony the Lao hold before someone takes off on a long journey – in this case, Gum Gum is going to the US to study for a semester. It was held at his house and there is nothing bad to say about it. There was music and lots of celebrating.
After the baci, some ugrads took us back to the guesthouse so we could get ready for a house party. After the house party though, the ugrads picked us up to go to an outdoor French music concert. There, we just gave it our all. They said that it was more fun going with us because we formed a little circle of friends in the middle of the dance floor and then all of a sudden everyone started hopping in. I admit I was stiff for the longest time at the beginning, but assuming that I would never be able to go to any other event like this until my last year of college, I loosened up a bit. It was pretty awkward though since I was never really into that sort of stuff even at school – I rarely went to dances, and if I did, I was usually the one that sat at the table the whole night. Then right before we left the DJ started playing all these oldies, many I had never heard of. We had a great time that night.
The next morning I woke up to a really loud bang from the construction next door. It was Sunday morning and Mr. Guy from LAC hosted a BBQ for his photoclub students so we could meet some language partners. When we got there, Sandra was cutting pineapple [with style], Yaeng was marinating the meat, Brandin came in for occasional checkups, Samantha was chatting it up with one of the ugrads, Vatsana was teaching the others a new game, Amy was sick so she couldn’t come, and I helped with random things here and there for a bit and then helped with making kebabs. By 5 pm, we had a LOT of food prepared and ready to go. I met a couple girls from another school, but then they agreed to teach me Lao so it’s all good. I was surprised because back in the States, kids my age don’t really care for education. They believe they’re only going to school because they have to – like we don’t have a choice. But then here, they actually want to learn.
Just yesterday [wednesday], Nui, my friend, brought over a sheet of paper with a bunch of tongue-twisters on it. They’re serious, it really took me by surprise. Now I figured that I need to work up my courage and take advantage of the nice students I meet. Otherwise I’ll really be losing out on this experience.
Then Tuesday came running ’round the corner and we had our FIRST Lao-History class!!
Got to study hard.
