T.A.G - Mango
I didn't teach today, so it was pretty easy going. Tonight is poker with the boys. It's "high stakes" as in 1,000 baht buy in... but that's only about $29, and I'm prepared to pay that much for the experience. I need to go get ready now... but here's a little post I wrote up a few days ago. Have a fun weekend everyone!
If you've seen any coverage of the protests in Bangkok, you've probably noticed a plethora of yellow polo shirts. If you didn't notice it, you will now I assure you!
It seems that the 'traditional dress' of your average Thai person involves a polo shirt of some kind (not necessarily Polo brand, I've seen lots of different crests & logos) and shorts. It's weird actually. On a given day I'll notice a bunch of people all wearing the same color polo shirt and think - dang, I musta missed the memo! I've since learned that the colors are significant. When I arrived it was all teal blue shirts - and that was in honor of the Queen's birthday. I've also learned that yellow is the color of the day the king was born (Monday I think). So wearing a yellow shirt on Monday is really just their way of saying "We love the King." A while back I was sitting in the cafeteria and gradually noticed that more than half the people were wearing pink. At the time I noticed it but had no clue why. It turns out that the King was in the hospital and when he was released he was wearing a pink blazer. So the pink shirts were a way of saying "Yay, the King is better - I hope he stays healthy."
It's a really strange concept... kind of like Spirit day in High School when you wore your school colors to the pep rally. It's also one of the more basic things I wish I'd learned when I was researching Thailand because I would have packed a few polo shirts!!! As it is, one of my students noticed that I always wear blue and commented on it. She was mostly complimentary but now I realize I only have the appropriate color wardrobe for Friday (blue) and Wednesday (green). And the appropriate color for a career as a teacher is orange - and I have nothing for that. Oh well. Live and learn. If you come to visit Thailand, pack a polo shirt.
And a towel.... but that should go without saying ;)
4 comments:
That's interesting! Yellow makes me think field trip since the kids at Chunky's old school used to always have to wear yellow polos to school on field trip days so they'd be easy to distinguish when it was time to round the kids up!
That's interesting! Yellow makes me think field trip since the kids at Chunky's old school used to always have to wear yellow polos to school on field trip days so they'd be easy to distinguish when it was time to round the kids up!
And I always thought Ari the weird physicist made up Yellow Day! That's all really interesting, though. Polo shirt colors as signs of one's attitude towards the regime. Preppy meets activist.
The reason the King wore pink when he was discharged from hospital is that his astrologer told him that his health would improve if he wore that colour. Thai people revere their King and Queen (but the offspring not so much), and there was a frenzy of people buying pink shirts and blouses to help the King's health, which is deteriorating. No worry about being thought gay, though. Pink is just another colour.
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