Blahh! I apologize for yet another late week! Between the internet problems I’m experiencing in my room and my busy schedule I’ve been a bit neglectful of you, my faithful followers! (Hopefully I have at least 2 so my plurality is justified…)
Sunday, 13/9/53
Today wasn’t so much a happy day. I had a great opportunity at an unfortunate cost. My good Thai friend’s grandmother passed away late Thursday/early Friday, so myself and two other friends were invited to come to his family’s house in Lamphun for one of the funeral days. In Buddhist funerals, there are 4 days of events. The first 3 days following the death are for family and friends to visit and pay their respects. At the end of the 3rd day (today), monks from the village Wat come to pray for the deceased and the family, and the casket is put on a castle of sorts. But more about that later.
We arrived and met his whole family and had lunch (in the same room as his grandma’s coffin…new, but not too unsettling as it turns out) before visiting the Wat that he had been a monk at. It is actually one of the more famous Thai temples because there is proof that the Buddha himself was there. It was really quite a beautiful temple! We met the monk that ordained my friend, and talked with him for a while. By that I mean my friend talked to him and I listened, and he passed on some advice…in Thai. We went back to the house for a nap before helping the family decorate the castle. The castle is a tall structure that is COVERED in flowers, candles, lights, etc. The coffin goes in, and the castle is rolled to the crematorium at the Wat on the fourth day (some villages have a spot in the forest specially for cremations rather than a crematorium, it just depends on where you go). Buddhists believe that since the body is just a vessel, and there’s nothing remaining after death, it should be burned and returned back to the earth. Some people also choose to keep a small vial of their beloved’s ashes, but it depends on the person. After the castle was decorated and evening fell, we had dinner before more guests arrived to pay their respects. Before it was fully dark, they moved the casket from the room to the castle. This involved taking it out of the mini cooler it stayed in (to keep the body fresh), and then they open it so that family and friends can cover the body in two things : 1) a white washcloth or 2) a card. Now these may seem like random objects, but here is the reasoning. The washcloth – the white cloth over the body is meant to absorb any impurities left in the body. The cards- are embellished with prayers for the deceased, last minute donated merit and wishes for a good re-incarnation. Then the casket is pulled on a rope by the extended family up and into the castle, waiting for guests to come visit. When they arrived, they were greeted by the family plus three farang girls (us! ‘Farang’ means Caucasian foreigners…it also means ‘guava’), then they lit incense for the deceased and placed it to burn in a flower pot (we had done this when we first arrived, so no need to do it now). Then they are free to walk around. Some leave, some stay, depending on their relationship with the family. I didn’t really notice because we had front row seats to watching the monks chant and say prayers for the deceased and her family. After the chants there were donations to the monks (robes, fans, etc.), and then we had dessert while one lone monk chanted a story about a mother’s love for her son. I’m not quite sure how it goes, but it lasted for just over an hour! After he finished, we said goodbye to our friend (he was staying home for the cremation ceremony the next day, and he would be ordained as a monk in honor of his grandmother), and caught a ride home with his sister (aka cousin).
Monday, 14/9/53
Today we were back at Payap. We had been invited to the cremation ceremony, however the short duration of our program made our professor unable to excuse us from class, so 10am found me in Buddhism class, taking a quiz. After lunch was Gender and Sexuality, and then ran back to change before Tim and I were picked up by Kai and Nui for yet another TEAN adventure! This time, we headed up famous Doi Suthep to visit the beautiful Wat overlooking the city. The drive up the mountain took a while, I could only imagine how long it would take to walk/bike it (sources say 4 hours to walk)!! Its good luck in Thai culture to walk up Doi Suthep…but I’ll pass. Anyways we drove up, then took the lift up to the Wat. It’s quite beautiful, and you get an amazing view of the city. We looked around, and a monk blessed us and gave us a bracelet of holy string (I don’t remember the Pali word for it off the top of my head, but I’ll try to add it in later!). I have quite a collection going! It was cold and drizzling, so we climbed down the stairs (some 500-odd stairs) and went for dinner. Tim and I passed out in the backseat right away, but 45 minutes later we woke up to find that the restaurant they had picked out was closed! We drove around and found a new place, but I was so exhausted I could barely eat. As soon as we got back to campus I ran to my bed and sleep claimed me faster than the prodigal son was welcomed home.
Tuesday, 15/9/53
Another day of Buddhism and Thai language classes. Mostly uneventful, or at least uneventful enough that I can’t remember anything out of the ordinary happening…
Wednesday, 16/9/53
After our Economic Development class in the morning, I was off with Maggie and Jenny to Baan Kingkaew (http://www.baan-kingkaew-orphanage.org/ ), a local orphanage, to do my civic duty and play with adorable Asian children! After the initial paperwork and getting set up (they don’t allow most visitors right now, because of the sicknesses going around), we rolled up our sleeves and helped out in the laundry room, handwashing the cute little uniforms and every day clothes that last about 10 minutes on average before being peed on, dribbled on, ripped off, etc. I’m anticipating finishing this with beastly forearm muscles, so enemies beware! Then we had an hour with each group of kids, freshly up from their naps! My first group was a group of 3-4 year olds, who were adorably sitting in the corner when arrived, awaiting their tin cups of milk and cookies. After the first girl triumphantly guzzled hers, she walked over and plopped herself into my lap. This was repeated by 3 other children; until I looked like a scarecrow of children (I was perfectly content!). By then they were all done, and ran around collecting toys, showing me said toys, playing with me and the toys, and then running away. Not long after the cups had been put away, Mulan (the Thai version) was put on, and I was pleased. I made a group of fans by singing along in English, unfortunately my time was up and Maggie and Jenny came to relieve me. Off to the terrible twos it was! Luckily they really weren’t that bad! As orphans, they really just want to be held and cared for. So I had the pleasure of holding several children and just bumping them up and down, rocking and tickling them. Unfortunately, they really didn’t want to be put down…so I held one child while 4 others clung to my legs, crying, because they figured out that when children cry I pick them up. Tricky blighters! Maggie and Jenny soon joined me, and the three of us canoodled the children until it was time for us to go home. They weren’t too keen to let us go, but we managed to wiggle out alive!
Thursday, 17/9/53
Friday, 18/9/53
Today I had an amazing time sleeping in before Thai class at 1:00. Tim, Skylar, and I ate lunch off campus at Nok’s, but my fried fish & rice (kao blah tohd) smelled yucky so I couldn’t eat it. After, I got ice cream at 7-11 and felt much better! Thai class was fun, as usual, and while I was waiting for the other students to come (they had gone on a Thai Culture field trip, but the aforementioned twosome and myself are in the Comparative Semester, so we don’t have the culture class), my teacher checked my homework and asked if I knew Thai before I came to Thailand! I was pleased to admit that I only knew a phrase or two, picked up the week before departure, but I love to doodle, so the characters are fairly easy, and the language itself is easy once you get the tones down. I’m quite fond of it, really. After class we watched yet another round of Payap’s Got Talent before dinner and then I went out early with Bupe, Burgundy, and Gina for some drinks before everyone else joined us at this cute little place called Zoe in Yellow. It’s co-owned by a Greek, a Turkish man, and a Thai woman ( fun fact: property is hard to get in Thailand for Farang, it usually has to be under a Thai person so many companies will have a Thai partner, even if they are just the lease-holder. This lady is actually a part of the company though, and she makes great drinks!), and I got the opportunity to talk with the Turkish owner as I chowed down on one of the kebabs he sold across the street, where his restaurant is being built. Best. Kebab. Ever (fun fact #2: a kebab and gyro are the same thing- I never knew! I knew they were similar, but it just depends on where you go!). After we danced and had an amazing night, I turned it for an early night, taking a tuk-tuk back with another friend and hopping the gate because it was after hours (gotta love being a badass in Thailand!). Saturday, 19/9/53
Saturday brought us a day of rest and relaxation, of filling people in on the night before, and a few of us took the evening to stroll Tha Pae gate area. Tha Pae is full of tourists, so there is a lot of great American food (for myself, a ham, cheese, and bacon croissant sandwich!) and other amenities. We found a used bookstore where I was able to get “The Lady Elizabeth” for 3 DOLLARS. YES! We met up with some of the guys at the “Lucky Bar”, and I read while they played pool and we just had fun before meeting up with some friends to take a songtao back to school together.
Sunday, 20/9/53
Sunday was another slow day. We went at 1:30 to a very interesting culture museum/show, where we saw two musical groups do a few amazing numbers on interesting instruments, but the main reason we were there? Our dance Ajan, Waewdao Sirisook is a world renown Thai Dancer (http://waewdaosirisook.org/) , and she was performing a series of dances. I have a video that I will eventually upload onto facebook, of her beautiful performance. She did three altogether, one we later found out that she improvised, and only knew the dance moves by watching the shadows the male dancers who had rehearsed it. It was wonderful, and the whole performance was capped off by all acts performing together, dancers and musicians alike! After that was an evening in, with McDelivery and movies, whilst studying for my quiz on Monday!
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