flower kids

So we just returned from a rainy weekend in Hua Hin. It was nice to get out of the smog and pollution of Bangkok, but it sucked that it was raining the whole time! At least our hotel had a pool, so we spent the afternoon swimming (it was an outdoor pool, but it wasn't raining that hard...and we were already wet anyway!). There was also a large outdoor market, which we wandered. We found the food market, which was really cool, there was every kind of seafood imaginable, there was also an entired pigs head which looked as though it had been smoked. I think that was their way of advertising that they were selling pork...I feel as though a sign is usually sufficient, but I guess the language barrier can get in the way, so a visual just avoids confusion. It was pretty cool, the eyes were still there and everything.
On Sunday, we went to the beach, even though it was gross outside (we had to go at least once, no matter what the weather was!). It wasn't raining, but it was really muggy and hot, so basically we were sitting on the beach sweating buckets but not really getting a tan at all, or even enjoying ourselves. We went swimming a little bit, but decided to just go back to the pool.
We actually had a pretty good time on Friday night, we went to an outdoor bar, just to sit and hang out. Anyway, we were sitting outside and these kids came to try and sell us flowers (these kids are EVERYWHERE!). So one of my friends gave one kid 20 THB, but told him that he could keep the flower. The kid just looked at him, put his flowers on the table and walked away with the money. We didn't really know what was going on, but then the kid came back with a big smile and a big bowl of soup...he was so skinny and tiny, he told us that he was 9, but he was the size of a 5 year old. So he came back and ate with us and some other flower kids came and talked with us for awhile (These "street kids" speak better English than our kids at Lertlah, turns out you just have to put your kids to work scamming tourists and they'll learn perfect English). We kind of got to know these kids, and kept seeing them around town, and they would run up to us and hug us and talk with us.
We saw them again on Saturday night, and they didn't even try to sell us flowers, but just came to talk. Even at 2 am, they were still working, wandering around and trying to get tourists to buy roses, it was quite sad...but what I saw next was even more sad.
At around 2:30 I was walking back to our hotel to go to bed and I saw what I hate about this country. I saw one of the girls who we had been talking to earlier, who had told us that she was 16, coming out from behind a building with an old disgusting white man who was just grinning from ear to ear. It was so horrbily disgusting. I was a little bit down the road, so I just stopped and watched to see if she was ok, but he just walked off, and she went the other direction and gave the money to whom I assume was her mom.
These old men are EVERYWHERE here! They are on the beach, wearing the smallest speedos imaginable with their young Thai girlfriends/wives whom they treat horribly. These men are in Thailand for the young girls, and it is quite disturbing, although I guess these Thai women get the last laugh, because they just have to survive their situation until their old husband dies and they inherit all of his money. We've had many conversations at school about who is actually getting used in these relationships. I know that most of these Thai women know exactly what they are doing, but I still find it incredibly disturbing to see...and it really is impossible to avoid seeing it here! Ah the joys of Thailand.
I know stuff like that happens in Canada too, but it is much more public, and common, over here. I hate it.
Other than that, I really do love it here! My kids are still extremely cute and I still like teaching. I have my second evaluation tomorrow, after which I am done (unless I stay another year, at which time I will be evaluated again).
Exams are starting soon (yes, I have to give my three year olds exams! "Can you write your name?" and "what letter is this?" are probably the toughest questions on there), so that will be a busy time, but at least I can mark their exams while they write it, the teachers of older grades have WAY more work than we do!
Alright, time to go to bed so that I can be all rested up for my evaluation. Hope everyone is doing well, let me know what's going on back there!