Mar. 10th

We just finished working the camp. It was incredible. Today we went to a theme park. It was pretty bad, but to the kids it was Disney World so it was fun. Later on they took us to a restaurant with a sky view of all of Bangkok. It was amazing. I learned so much about the culture through this camp....
We were treated like rock stars. As bad as it sounds, the two most important things in Thailand are 1. money and 2. skin color- the whiter you are the better. For example, the kids told me and Joey (both white skinned) that we were very handsome and told my friend Shaun (darker skinned he's mexican) that he was not very handsome. They really don't care about other features, just skin color. In all the advertisements only light skinned actors are used. One woman that worked with us was Filipino. She told me how she use alot of skin whiteners to try to look more white. She was telling me that her salary was about half of an English person's salary. She has a degree and is a hard worker and good teacher, but none of that matters. So anyway, whatever we did and wherever we went they were always taking pictures of us. Teachers, kids, whoever were always taking tons of pictures. They could communicate very little but loved us. It will be so hard to go back to a camp in the states after working here. Teachers/counselors are very highly respected. It was/is a great feeling. Even outside of camp, everywhere we go people are staring or will whisper and giggle after we pass....
Thais are also not politically correct. They do take things serious. Like when I said they told my friend Shaun he was not handsome, they were serious in saying it, but it just wasn't a big deal. At the theme park one of the kids told one of the Thai teachers he was too short for the ride, he then told the chubby girl that she was too fat to ride it. At first I thought it was awful, but the more I thought about it, it is much better to things like this alot less seriously....
We worked at a Muslim school. But Thai Muslims are alot less strict. Some girls would wear their head coverings one day and decide not to wear them the next. The society is just very very relaxed....
The women we worked for works for the American Embassy using a grant. She really liked us and thinks she can help us get one and would allow us to start our own business basically. We would submit a business plan for them to decide if they liked. The three of us have done many camps. We all are involved in sports. The other two guys are also very into art and photography. So we could try to start a camp based on teaching English through the arts and sports. We could do this all over the world. The US does this to try and show the world that we are still a positive influence around the world and that we are not a hateful culture, especially towards Muslims (looks like we need to be doing this at home too mom). This would be another option for us rather than teaching in a classroom...
We are headed to the south tomorrow so I will probably be without a computer for a couple of weeks, but go watch the movie "The Beach" cause that is where I'm going. Then we will be in Malaysia and Singapore after that.