The hardest thing i've done in Thailand

Friday:
Mae and her friend took me out to a party! I was so happy to get invited and go. I dressed up nice, and wore the lip stick Mae gave me. We went to a bar called the Good View. It was next to a cannal and full of lanterns and live music. We met some of her friends, who were super nice and friendly. However my feeling of wonder and delight quickly turned into nearly insurmountable exhaustion. Mae and her friends talked enthusiastically, there was, from the beginning, no hope of me understanding, but it got harder and harder for me too catch any words here and there. The beer didn’t help my sleepy condition, and it was passed my normal bed-time 9:30 at about the same time we arrived, so I rapidly decended into a groggy trance-like-state of desperate awareness. I had agreed to go, and Mae and her friend had both come in one car with me, so I wasn’t about to make them go home right after they got there. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it any longer, Mae got a call and said her Boss was coming to join us. Now we really couldn’t leave. I probably did the worst job of meeting anyone, and I met her boss, who was a older gentle man with a wonderfully kind smile, who said, Mae translated, Mae was like his daughter, and so I would be like a daughter. I played the Farang card, and just tried to smile huge, and not pass out face first onto the table. Mae whispered half and hour in my ear, and I started counting songs up to ten, to wait for the time to pass. It passed, they kept talking. They kept talking. 14,15,16 songs. It was now over an hour. They kept talking.

At one point, Maes friend asked if I was drunk and because I thought she said sleepy I said yes, and every one laughed and Mae translated and I said NO NO! just sleepy! and I don’t know if that got across or I just looked more like a drung Farang. I think falling asleep in my chair, which was my final, desperate act, might have gotten the it across though.

I crawled into the back bench of the car, and fell asleep intantly, I only woke up when the car stopped, only we weren’t home, we were at another restaurant. Mae asked if I couldn’t sleep in the car, while they went in and I said ok. When I woke up again it was after 1 am and we were arrived back home. Also we were locked out of the house. I sat on the step and smiled at Maes friend Pi Kim, until I was able to b line it to my bed.

The night was actually one of the hardest moments I’ve had in Thailand. And I never would have thought it would have come from exhaustion. Not even counting, finding joy in where I was for those three and some hours (successful), and not be culturally offensize(maybe successful), and not care about looking like the Farang I was(not very successful), not even counting those. Just staying awake, was one of the hardest things I have ever done.