Paradise and Cambodia!

The Dancers

Timmy dancing

little mermaid!

my view :]

hellooooo, islands!

lunch on Koh Tan

water break in Myanmar

Sorry, I know blogs are a long time coming, and i'll try hard not to overlook anything-

Finals week! It was CRAZY! I had been studying in between dinners and plans and group activities, etc., but there was always more! I had a Thai test Monday, a test on Southeast Asian Economic Development Wednesday, an essay test Thursday, and a paper due by 5pm on Friday.  I got it all done though, mostly well researched! I flopped a bit on my paper, because by the time I got to working on it each night I was so done with academia that I couldn't form a cohesive paper.  Bad idea.  Anyways, in between were a last trip to the Sunday Walking Street, the Dance class' performance, more studying, and a last-night-in-Chiang-Mai fling Friday night, staying up all night until our 645 train, at which point I passed out the minute I could! 
   That was Saturday the 16th, and we were on the train ALL day :[ .  We slept, ate snacks, chatted, and slept some more until arriving in Bangkok around 11:3o pm.  We had an early bus to catch, so we headed to Khosarn Road, a huge farang [foreigner] destination, so there were guaranteed cheap hostels, and Gina had stayed at one the weekend before when they went on an adventure.  We got our rooms and dinner, and then showered and went to bed around one.  The next morning we had to scramble, because the bus we planned on catching we found out was half an hour earlier than we were told, and it was the only bus because it was a Sunday.  Thank goodness Tim missed our train and took a bus down, because he got there before us and got us to the right bus station and held the bus for us.  It was a miracle!  The bus ride was pretty long too, but not as bad, and much more comfortable.  Plus we had frequent stops so we could stretch our legs.  We got in at 7 and hopped the ferry [which was included in our bus tickets], and I laid on a bench and star-watched the two hours it took to get there-very relaxing and quite fun!  When we got there we took a taxi that didn't quite know where it was going, but luckily we spotted a sign and were able to get there before getting totally lost!  When we arrived they had to figure out where we were staying [we were staying there thanks to a friend, so we didn't follow normal check-in procedure], and then dumped our stuff and jumped in the ocean!  I had a nice sandwich after I called home to share the sound of the waves, and then after hanging out and more swimming we called it a night.  I couldn't find much room on the bed [there were 5 of us on a double and twin bed], so i slept on the floor for a bit before crashing on a lounge chair under a palm tree on the beach.  The sound of the waves was perfect, and just what i needed to lull me to sleep.  I woke up once to the lady from the cabin next to ours [which was ON the beach] sitting in the chair next to mine, and a second time to see a water buffalo begin led to down the beach.  Good ol' Thailand!    That day, Monday, we just relaxed by the beach all day.  We had gone to breakfast down the beach at a nice little nook called the MaeNam Cheer [Maenam was the beach we were by], and I had a yummy pancake that had bananas and pineapple in it, and it tasted a bit cornbread-y, but it was delicious!!  I made a PB&J for lunch, and then napped for a while before going back out on the beach, to sit int eh sun with a piano colada and my book [Harry Potter], my idea of fun while others were in town sightseeing.  Tuesday we headed up to see a waterfall, which was really fun! We r rode all over trying to find the waterfall.  When we got there, it was QUITE a hike to the swimming area, and there was sweat galore!  When we finally got there though, it was so worth it!!!  The water was cool and perfect!  We just sat and soaked in the greatness, before taking "Little Mermaid" pictures and heading back to return the trucks. Four of our group had rented motorbikes, so our group was quite a scene!  When we got back, Burgundy and i headed into town and got pizza at a bar with wi-fi so we could connect with our friends and families back home.  We were supposed to have a BBQ on the beach later, but that didn't pan out, unfortunately.  Some friends took us to a Reggae cub they knew, which felt like a shrine to Bob Marley, and we hung out drinking and dancing.  After my "No Woman No Cry" drink and a round or seven of dancing we decided to leave, but rather than go somewhere else I went back and to bed early because I was exhausted from our day in the sun, and we had a big day planned for Wednesday! 
     Wednesday - thanks to the bartender at the beach bar, we were hooked up with a day boat, two all to ourselves for the day, to go where we wanted.  We headed out to the reef to snorkel, our main plan of action.  The reef wasn't as great as we thought, but the fish were pretty cool and snorkeling is snorkeling, so for $8 it was pretty legit.  After, we headed to a gorgeous beach to nap, tan, swim, and relax.  I napped under the boat cover [too much sunburn!], and hung out with some friends.  After that was lunch at Koh Tan, which was great.  While we were waiting we saw a man walking his monkeys. Yes, monkeys.  After it was time to return the boats [it was just about 4], and then we headed back.  Dinner was just whatever [peanut butter sandwich again], and later the bartender's friends had their birthday bash on the beach, with free barbecue ribs that were AMAZING, with bbq chicken wings and potato salad.  Later there were fire dancers, which gave it a bit of a Hawaiian luau feel.  The dancers were really good, and the fire flinger was amazing! He could twirl the fire around like it was nothing, and would come talk to us to show off, then went down to the beach to fling embers in a peacock-esque display.  As it was our last night, the party went on for a while, and since Tim and Skylar weren't coming back, and I would only have a week, there were a lot of held back tears and memories. 
        Thursday we got up early to see off the part of the group switching islands, and then everyone else went to our farewell breakfast at Maenam Cheer.  After that was packing, and then teary goodbyes when it came time to go to the bus station.  As was becoming a bad habit, we were again late to the bus, and had to tell the song-tao driver, who wanted to drop off his friend at the massage parlor, that we had to be there now, which he attempted to do by barreling along the road at breakneck speeds, including such feats as driving in between the lanes uphill on a curve in between two cars.  We almost wet ourselves!!  Well we made it, luckily, and commenced on our 14 hour bus & ferry ride to Bangkok.  Skylar and Tim sat across from me and some random guy who ended up being really nice, but who snored so loudly that I didn't end up sleeping at all.  Needless to say I was super cranky and hungry when we got into Bangkok, because my cup o' noodles didn't fill me up at all.  We got in, stayed at the same hostel, and then after much deliberation Timmy and I got some McD's for dinner…which we realized after we had ordered that we weren't even hungry for anymore.  Fail.  Well it was good anyways, and after that we hung out a bit before passing out around 6am.  After the past week, my body hated me so much from my crazy sleep habits that sleeping until 2 the next afternoon was quite justified!  We had a nice late lunch [I had breakfast], and then walked up and down exploring.  We took a break for massages [they were amazing!] and Timmy got a haircut!  The masseuse was really skilled, and was working so hard that I ended up cracking her wrist and fingers just as much as she cracked mine!  For dinner we found a vegan restaurant with wi-fi and we hung out there for a while before going back to hang out in the room.  After a while we decided to go out and found a fun bar to hang out at and dance, but didn't stay super long.  Then, as we were walking back down the street we saw a group of kids breakdancing, including an adorable kid about ten.  They could do some really cool stunts, so we watched them for a while before heading to bed.  The next day we had to check out by a certain time, so we waited for the bus we had booked the day before to the airport, and it was a few minutes late [which had made us nervous, especially when they didn't answer their phone], but we made it to the airport quite early.  That would have been great, except that we had to wait for Adam with our tickets, so by the time we got in the super long lines and waited for a while, check in for our flight was almost over.  We then had to struggle with weight issues, because Air Asia is an economic line that only allows one carry on and one checked bag of 25kilos max.  This was such a problem because we were living in Asia for 4 months, so obviously we had a lot of luggage.  I barely made it, by taking some things out and stuffing the crap out of my backpack [which also had a weight limit, but luckily they didn't check!], but Tim and Skylar weren't as lucky and ended up with massive fees for their bags.  There was no way around it-for 3 extra kilos I would have had to pay almost $1oo.  Thank goodness the lady was understanding!  Then we had to RUN through the airport trying to find our terminal, get through passport control, and then run onto our plane.  After all that work the flight was just under an hour long, and before we had even gotten to put our music on we were there, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  We were met by Peter, the Vice President of the University of Cambodia, and ushered through the airport ahead of all the lines by an immigrations officer, who was also a student at UC.  Since we were last to check our luggage, it came out quickly, and before others had even gotten there we were off again, headed to the cars, by which the Southeast Asia TV network, part of UC and also a national news channel, was waiting to interview us!  So my first night in Cambodia I was on national TV in leggings, a panda shirt, and my headband across my forehead like a ninja, because I wasn't expecting to be on TV…I'm attempting to procure a copy for your enjoyment.  Because I was the closest, I was the only one to speak, so all of Cambodia knows that Anna K. Limbrick from Illinois was here to study, and to watch out for the crazy girl.  Then they took us in a nice escort to our hotel, which is really nice and in a great area!  The Golden Mekong is right behind the palace, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants, etc.  It's also a very safe location and near many things, especially the school.  We had an hour to shower and change, then met up to go out to a welcome dinner at a restaurant called the Bodhi Tree with Adam, our professor Kyle Latinis, and two representatives of the Seam Reap NGO Pepy, Maryann and Natasha.  Kyle ordered a vast amount of everything from bruschetta with salmon to soups to kebabs, and everything in between, much of it Khmer, but not all. We were so stuffed full of good food and wine, and then dessert  came!  Most people had brownie sundaes, but I got a delicious crepe with some filling that I'm not quite sure of its name, but it was good!  Then Adam took us out for a drink and we chatted before bedtime.  I was upstairs while there was someone else from Payap in my room, and it was kind of nice to have my own area, let alone room!  The upstairs room was bigger than my permanent room, but my permanent room is equally as comfortable.
    The next day, Sunday, we went to The Shop, a café around the corner, for breakfast before meeting the group for a quick tour of the city.  The tour included going to the school, seeing a great little Chinese noodle shop, and getting our own bicycles [and helmets!].  I'm a little nervous about biking around the city, because traffic is crazy, but I have to get around somehow!  My will is going to be published soon just in case, and if you've read this blog, I probably love you.  Just remember that!  Meanwhile, we had another dinner at a Khmer BBQ restaurant, and foodstuffs include such gems as beef in famous Cambodian pepper with limes, and squid, along with many other delicious dishes.  We walked back to aid digestion, and then turned in to relax in our own ways.  Tim and I had developed a ritual that will probably last us the entire break of going outside for his smoke break.  We were standing by the curb, and like the night before despite our naysaying, the security guard who sits across the street brought his chair and the second one next to his across the street for us, got another, and resumed his position across the street.  We're planning on becoming best friends with this guy!  We just sit and talk, and its great alone time together [if that makes sense, with 3 of us we never get time just us two].  There has been an addition to the tradition, but more about that later!

The Three Kingdoms Excursion, Sans One

Hello, friends!

  This week was quite exciting! After only two days of classes (not much else because we had to pack and do laundry), we headed down south to visit Sukothai and Ayutthaya.  There have been three dynasties in the Siamese/Thai history; and for each dynasty there is a capitol.  For the first dynasty, before the Lanna Kingdom of the north (where I am) was conjoined, the capitol was Sukothai. After Sukothai came Ayutthaya, and then after Ayutthaya, if my history is correct, the Burmese invaded and things were topsy turvy for a while, until the Chakri Dynasty, which still exists today, came into power under Thaksin "the Great" and the chose Bangkok in the south for their headquarters.  **Note: the northern Lanna Kingdom was aquired by the Siamese in the early 1900s when King Rama V, King Chulalongkorn, married the princess of Lanna.  The capitol of the Lanna Kingdom was Chiang Mai, where I currently dwell.

Tuesday, 28/9/53
     After our midterm test on Tuesday, Maggie, Pete, and I went to the travel agent and train station to look into transportation to and from Koh Tao.  After getting back, I had a little time to shower and change before heading out to dinner with Champ and a group for his birthday dinner.  We went to this really quaint litte restaurant up on one of the mountains, so we had a GREAT view of the city!  Dinner for me was German sausages (mmm! Although their sauerkraut was nothing to boast of...) and hot chocolate, much needed! The sausages weren't too German, and the mashed potatoes were cold, but the thought counted, and a bowl of sticky rice filled m

Wednesday, 29/9/53
     Wednesday we were off at 8:30am, for our 4-ish hour drive down to Sukothai.  We had a big coach bus, and luckily I had my two seats to myself...for most of it.  Pete moved up while we were watching Robin Hood, thus ruining my nap, but I survived, because Robin Hood is a fantastic movie that isn't even available in the U.S. yet (ha!)! We watched that and a few episodes of Dexter (season 1) before we made it, and by that time, we were all completely HOOKED on Dexter!  Our guesthouses were really nice! They were small little cabins, two people in each, with a 4-poster tester bed (including pulled back fabric that could be let down to envelop the bed!), A/C, a desk, wardrobe, towel rack, and bathroom.  I took a cool shower and then napped before we went on our first outing, to the Sukothai Historical Museum.  It was air conditioned in there as well, which was great because Sukothai is in the south and it was HOT HOT HOT and super humid!  After we looked around and learned some more, we rented bikes and rode to the Sukothai Historical Park to look around.  It was so much fun, I hadn't  ridden a bike in so long, so to be able to feel the wind whipping through my hair and cooling me down as we rode along the not-too-busy streets was invigorating, to say the least!  After we took some pictures and biked around, we biked through the town, stopping at 7-11 for some ice cream (which I didn't drip on myself!) to eat on our way back.  When we all had parked our bikes at the guesthouse it looked quite comical, like a biker gang had taken over!  It's the low season for tourism, so we were fortunate that everywhere we went there were few people to disturb and the vendors were more willing to negotiate, especially since we were students.  You can probably guess what came next  - a flying leap into the pool! I need not explain the insanity that was twenty 20-somethings on vacation, so I'll skip that part and go to the nap after, before a group dinner.  The dinner was delicious, they piled plate upon plate of food upon us, until we could eat no more! And then, of course, they brought us fruit for dessert!  After dinner we had some drinks around the pool, but it was hot, there were many bugs, and I had a princess bed waiting for me, so after putting down the enclosing fabric, I turned in early.

Thursday, 30/9/53
    Today, we had a guided tour around the Sukothai Historical Park, the selfsame one that we had visited the day before.  This time we saw a whole nother part of the park, and learned much about Sukothai, and their art.  For instance, the Sukothai style of Buddha statue have hands different than that of Ayutthaya.  The Sukothai Buddha hands have curved fingers, and they are uneven, like natural hands.  The Buddha also has a little swirly part on his abdomen, although at the moment I cannot recall what it symbolizes.  It very well might represent his Buddhahood.  One of the monuments we went to see was called the standing Buddha.  It is seated, of course, high on a steep hill with a stone path.  We climbed. And climbed. And climbed...and then we were there! Panting, sweaty, and camera-laden we made it to the top, and were quite wowed by magnificence before us!  We took a lot of pictures, prayed, and lit incense for our ancestors before starting the climb down.  It was hard to say which was harder- this with the humidity, or the higher up pyramid in Egypt, when it was just as hot (without humidity), but we also had to climb down, then up, then up more...and then come the opposite back out.  Either way, I got my workout!  After this we saw one more monument, where a king had once snuck up a back passage and pretended to be the voice of the Buddha in order to keep his troops heartened enought to fight off the invading Burmese.  After our tours, we left for Ayutthaya.  We arrived at our next "backpacker's" guesthouse (this was more of an actual hotel) around 7, and set out for dinner in small groups. I showered before going out, because that bus ride (full of more Dexter!) hadn't made me smell nice after all the morning's sweat! :( We found a little place with western and Thai food, but we ended up waiting over an hour for our food, which wasn't even that great! We were really unhappy, and after I just went back to my nice cool room, out of the heat, and watched a movie with my roommates before bed.

Friday, 1/10/53
  
Saturday, 2/10/53

Sunday, 3/10/53

Shenanigans!

Weekly Update:
Monday, 20/9/53

    Monday we had another quiz in Buddhism, then just regular lectures in Gender.  It was Dad's Birthday (yay!) so I called home to talk to him while hanging out outside.  It was just a lounge-y sort of evening, hanging out with my friends and studying...a little!

Tuesday, 21/9/53

      Basically the same as Monday, sans birthday :)

Wednesday, 22/9/53

     Today after Economic Development I went to the orphanage again, although this time by myself.  Since there were no details to go over, I had about 45 minutes before they needed me for laundry, so I explored the grounds and dozed off in the playground until it was time to get washing!  We went around to the rooms to put away the laundry we had folded, and collected the dirty laundry of the various rooms, then washed it and hung some of it to dry, putting the rest in the dryers.  Then I watched TV with the staff until the children woke up!  It was nice to talk to them, I told them my Thai name and they loved it!  Soon the whole staff knew, and I spent the rest of the day hearing "Fa Sai!" and running after the caller.  I spent the entire 2 hours with the 2 year olds, carrying them around, rocking them, helping them snack and drink their milk, etc.  It was another day full of fun, and again, I was exhausted when I got back.  I did, however, have the energy to make it to the Night Bazaar to shop and hang out before passing out in bed!

Thursday, 23/9/53

     Thursday passed slowly, although fun, with speakers in both Buddhism and Gender.  In Buddhism, a group of Ajan Alan's monk students came to talk to us.  Most of them had been studying English for 5-9 years, so they were quite articulate.  It was so interesting to hear their analogies, life stories, and advice.  It was also really fascinating to hear them tell stories from the Dhamma, because they could word for word recite the same things I had read in my book!  After lunch, we had a quick lecture in Gender before Remi, a kathoey friend of Ajan Stephen's, came to talk to us about her life as a kathoey.  A kathoey is, in essence, a transgendered person, but in reality, they are so much more.  Its hard to describe the difference without knowing what Thai culture is about and their views on sexuality, but often we see "Lady Boys", as they are commonly referred to as, who are more beautiful than biologically born women!  Dinner was at the cafeteria before a relaxing evening of reading and watching Robin Hood.  I went to bed early, saving up my energy for Friday!

Friday, 24/9/53

     Friday morning was sans class, so after lunch I had Thai language class at 1:00, and then nothing until 6:30 pm, when we met to go on our field trip for our Gender & Sexuality field trip (*Caution; the field trip was to the sex district, if you don't want to know, skip to Saturday*).  We started the night by having a 30 minute roam fest down the street to visit a bar or two and observe the girls out front.  My group found a really fun bar, and the girls were so nice and fun and were dancing with us and talking to us, asking us questions, etc. Very personable, as are most of the bar girls that we've met thus far.  Afterwards we went to Spotlight, a go-go bar nearby that we had actually passed a few times.  We had another drink here, and watched the girls up dancing, but they weren't particularly stunning, nor was their dancing what one would expect from a go-go dancer.  We didn't stay long (we didn't really stay long any place, as a group of 21 students and 3 professors, we stand out and aren't super welcome since we weren't buying anything other than drinks), and soon moved to Muay Thai boxing, and the bars around there to do more observing.  Here we met a young boy selling roses, as many do, and we had a lot of fun with him, having him sit with us girls or wrestling with one of the boys.  I got a rose to put in my hair (which was done specially for tonight, 4 upside down french braids containing half my head of hair, the other half down and wavy), and watched the boxing for a bit before we moved on to a Karaoke bar.  Karaoke bars here are designed for, ideally, 3-4 men go into a room to do karaoke (usually not alone) and order drinks, and then a selection of girls are brought in, and you chose whichever ones you want and pay for their time, and then you are allowed to touch and play, but no more.  We didn't have quite the same experience, we went into the room and started karaoke-ing, until we found out we had to buy a drink to stay in the room.  In favor of not being totally trashed before the end of the trip, we passed and headed to the next place, a well-known brothel.  The girls weren't allowed to observe outright, but on our way to the bathroom we could see a group of girls with numbers on them just sitting in a room behind a large pane of glass, with men on our side.  The men would choose whomever they want for the time, and then she would come out and they would go off to a room.  When we weren't sneaking around, we sat at a table in front of the stage were three un-excited looking women were singing (lip-syncing) and dancing.  After everyone had caught a glimpse, we were off to our final stop: Adam's Apple. Adam's Apple is a gay club featuring a show (I'm not sure, but it may be every night), and of course, the boys for sale.  Not all of the boys went on stage, and not all on stage took off their clothes, but they all had their shirts off and walked around, talking or waiting to be talked to.  Tim had been several times before, so in sitting with him and Lisa (also a veteran), I was able to meet the owners, several of the boys, a kathoey (lady boy), and Tim filled me in on details about the performances or the club.  They had great music and I had an amazing time, but it was very overwhelming.  The professors and faculty that we had met up with left halfway through, as well as some of the students, but a group of us stayed until the end.  After, some of us went to grab food before meeting up with Tim and Lisa at another club.  Mike's was delicious, and after Nathan and Catherine walked me to the club before meeting up with some of the others at the bars closer to campus.  I met up with Tim and Lisa, as well as 2 of the Adam's Apple guys.  One disappeared at one point, but the other stuck around, and we talked and danced and had a great time, until it was time to go home.  I was originally going to get a ride back with him, but since the other guy left we only had one motorbike, so Tim, Lisa, and I took a tuk-tuk back to campus.  We met up with three of the guys at the gates, and walked through campus together sharing experiences and stories.  All in all a great night, and a fun start to the weekend!

    *Note, the reason the go-go dancers, singer, etc. didn't look particularly excited to see us was because a large number of us are girls, and Thai women feel threatened by Western women, especially large groups of them staring.  They know we're not there to buy.  On the other hand, the boys at Adam's Apple were very pleased to see us, because most of them are straight men, who will have sex with men for money.  Thats not considered homosexual here, because they prefer women.*

Saturday, 25/9/53

    Saturday morning was slow, lunch at 7-11, and then I started my laundry. I usually do one load per day for the 2-3 days that I do laundry, because I hang my laundry to dry outside, and there's only so much room.  We had planned to go to the travel agent to book our adventure to Koh Tao for Fall Break, but didn't end up going.  Instead, Tim and I planned a date night, eating at Mike's Burgers (YUM! [yes dad, I said yum again, but this time it should be YUM YUM!]), then taking a tuk-tuk to Adam's Apple for a more relaxed night, since last night was too crazy to really appreciate the atmosphere.  We had a drink in the bar below, and the dancer we had hung out with the night before was there eating, so we got to talk to him before we went up and the show started. We got "our" table, complete with complementary popcorn, and just chatted with the owners and boys before the show started.  This time, I took advantage of the darkness to observe the other guests, their behaviors, and their interactions with each other and the boys.  I also got to talk to more of the guys, who speak pretty good English, and I got a great back/neck/arm/hand massage by one of the boys, who was a professional masseuse!  Tim and I had a great time, just the two of us! When the show ended, it was "karaoke", aka they put the songs up (Thai songs), and its really just time for the guys to hang out with whoever sticks around (it was just Tim and I).  We were suddenly the popular kids, and I got another massage, and to talk to more boys.  One of the boys was from China, so he and Tim spoke Chinese and got chummy!  Then we decided to move to the club, and spent the next 5 hours dancing and hanging out with half the staff of Adam's Apple before motorbiking home. 

Sunday, 26/9/53

    Sunday was a nice relaxing day..ish! I woke up late (beautiful!), and was just heading to the computer lab when Skylar invited me to lunch at the restaurant I've been dying to visit, called Bake & Bite.  Bake & Bite is a quaint little cottage restaurant that serves American food, and although it was lunch, we were dying for American breakfast foods.  My cuisine of choice? CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES! I've been craving them for weeks, and the time was finally here! The others got Eggs Benedict, Breakfast Burritos, Breakfast sets (a bread, meat, egg, veggie with fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee), and a Farmhouse Omelet.  We dug in and ate as if we hadn't ate in quite some time! (In reality, I hadn't eaten since 7:30 the night before, soooo....it was okay :) ).  After we had gorged ourselves, it was back to Payap for an evening of laundry, studying for the upcoming Buddhism quiz on Monday, and for Tim, Skylar and I, a dinner party with our Ajan and some other faculty.  As our Ajan is not fond of Thai food, we ordered Miguel's and had a Mexican feast accompanied by wine (one bottle, and one box...), water, and laughter.  We met one of our professors for Cambodia, and chatted with P'Nui and P'Kai (who took Tim and I to Bangkok), as well as Adam, the resident director of Payap.  We had an amazing time, listening to Ajan Ken's stories of his travels and all the cool people he's met [he cashed a check for Che Guevara, I believe].  After a scrumptious dinner and many stories, we finally headed back to campus, at which point Tim and I decided it was time to start our homework!!

Another week in the Land of a Million Smiles!

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 3^rd 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!

The days fly, the memories last…

REEEEEE-CAP!

Monday, 6/9/53
    Monday classes [Buddhism and Gender] passed as they always do, and in the evening a group of us went out to a market I hadn't visited yet, the Chiang Mai University [CMU] market.  We shopped around for quite some time, and I haggled to get myself a cute new dress.  It's a coral and beige number that is on the shorter end, but too cute to resist!  I was quite proud of having negotiating the cost completely in Thai, and having been so successful!  After the market we had an American moment and went for McDonalds/BK/Subway [they are all right next to each other at the night bazaar] before heading home.

Tuesday, 7/9/53
    Buddhism again, and then Thai language classes ruled my morning schedule.  It was a nice and relaxing day, I didn't really have anything to do, which is always nice!  Thai class is going very well, and I'm progressing at a fairly quick rate.  Ajan Ray, our teacher, is really a great teacher, and has made it really easy for me to remember words through the number of times she repeats the vocabulary.  The evening held nothing special, some homework and hanging out with friends before bed!

Wednesday, 8/9/53
      My only class on Wednesdays in Economic Development, so I took the afternoon to do laundry and nap/read before dinner, when the others joined from dance class.  After dinner, I hung out with my roommate and her friends while I did homework, and there was a crazy thunderstorm.  The power went out while I was in the computer lab, so I headed back up to the room, where it was hot, hot, hot!! The fans, obviously, go out with the power, so there was no source of cool air.  There was a lot of lightning out, so we went to the balcony to watch, a bolt every 2 seconds!  Burgundy called to see if I wanted to hang out, so we went outside on our way to the covered area [Kairos Square], and found a couple Thai Studies kids sitting on the stairs watching the show.  We sat with them [thank goodness I brought my blanket, cuz it was Cold!!!! The show was even better out here, as the bolts were more defined than from my room, which faces the opposite direction.  The sights were INSANE!  Lightning spiderwebbed across the skies, illuminating the heavens.  Zeus was showing off, and no matter who for, it worked!

Thursday, 9/9/53
       Thursday was a bit more of a somber day.  Immediately after class, Skylar and I went to the hospital with our friend.  Out of respect for him and his family, I won't say much, but it was a sad day.  I'm glad we could be there for him when he needed someone, although the circumstances were definitely not ideal.  Dinner was pizza hut - on crack.  Our pizza was Hawaiian, but the spin was a second layer underneath, which was tuna, a white creamy substance, and I'm pretty sure it was imitation crab.  We didn't know you're supposed to eat them separately, so I ate them together.  Definitely interesting.  After we left we went to a milk place for treats.  I got chocolate milk [their version, not toooo bad] and a mini sundae, Skylar got a milkshake, our friend got milk with something in it, and we all split warm toast with this green substance on top [YUM] and a volcano-esque shaped concoction involving cold bread covered in condensed milk mixed with ice and dye...weird.

Friday, 10/9/53
      Friday I was lucky enough to get to sleep in!  After lunch I had Thai language class, and after was my audition for Payap's Got Talent, the talent show here.  I was nervous as everything, yet still managed to somehow open my big mouth and agree to go first!  My parents always said to think before I spoke!  I did go first, and it wasn't so bad!  As many, if not all, of you know, my favorite home hobby is Egyptian Bellydancing. I had known about this show before I came, so I brought my hip scarf planning on going out for it.  I was shaking from nervousness, but did my dance and got very positive feedback, as well as 3/3 votes to move on!! I was so excited, and ran offstage with the blanket around me.  Since I didn't have time to buy cloth for a veil, I had used Skylar's blanket...which the judge definitely called me out for! I didn't mind, though, I was through! And even the judge that generally makes people want to cry said I had a lot of talent!! Tim and Gina went as well, and both got through with 3/3 votes as well-looks like America's Got Talent!  Friday night was an in-night, because we all had to be up early Saturday for volunteering!

Saturday, 11/9/53
     This morning was not only the anniversary of September 11, but community outreach program at Payap.  What better way to commemorate those who died for their country and beliefs than by aiding those whom are often neglected? In my case, children who are born with HIV, or whose parents have HIV.  Agape Home takes in children newborn-18, and takes care of them regardless of parental status.  Many children have parents who don't want them, and they find a loving home here at Agape.  It's really a great place [for more information, visit http://www.nikkisplace.org/index.html ]. There were other places for people to go to as well, including the Lanna Dog Rescue, Free Burma Rangers, other orphanages, etc.  At Agape, we helped them sort and count pencil bags that the children had made themselves.  Agape participates in a project called Samaritan's Purse, which involves a shoebox full of goodies for poor children in Africa, India, and Cambodia, among other countries.  The contents are a mixture of school supplies and fun things, such as jump ropes that the children make, so the pencil cases go in, and the shoebox [which is really a Christmas box] is put in a schoolbag, also made by the Agape children.  Through making the bags and jump ropes, the children are able to make a little money, and to learn responsibility.  They can save up their money to buy personal things, like a computer or a camera [they love cameras!].  Some of our students also helped the children make jump ropes, and they kids got to keep the profit as if they had made the ropes.  After work time was lunch time - noodle soup [gwai dee-ow] - with the children.  In the process of slurpin' my noodles up, I felt a poke in my back and turned around to find a new friend.  She smiled at me, climbed up next to me and spent the rest of lunch just hanging out.  After lunch, she had me throw away the rest of her ice cream [she was done], and then I became her toy.  She dragged me ALL over the playground, doing everything imaginable!  I have to admit it was fun to be back on the 'ground, although by the end of it i was exhausted! There was a demi-pop star there, and we sat on the climbing cage and watched as he went around to every part of the playground and had a photo shoot.  My little buddy borrowed my camera to take pictures of everything [including us], and then another girl borrowed it and followed Mark [the "star] around and took super up-close pictures of him.  After a while I recovered my camera before we hit up the swings, and then after back-bends in the grass [the kids were quite impressed with my skillz] I escaped to go inside and out of the hot sun.  We went to the temporary arcade that Dr. Tom had set up, and watched the kids play Guitar Hero while we talked to one of the Australian girls who worked there, and learned a bit more about the adoption process in Thailand and about the children.  One of the boys had been in really bad condition when he went to Agape and 4 funerals planned for him before he was even ten.  Now he's a pain in the butt, but doing much better, and that is what is ultimately important.  Next was the baby zone!  We had been waiting to play with the babies all day, and here was our opportunity!  We mostly played with Naomi, a 5 month old who's 14 year old mother was HIV positive [luckily Naomi isn't], and who couldn't take care of her.  Even more unfortunately, her mother hasn't given Agape her paperwork, so she can't be put up for adoption unless her grandmother comes and signs her over to Agape.  The other children weren't as fond of farang, but that was okay.  Before we were ready it was time to go back to school.  We were sad, but also quite tired, so a nice shower and rest was nice before we went to Reggie's [an American-student-owned sandwich shop which hosted us with a spread of yummy food for super cheap]  to present our pictures and see about other peoples' experiences.  The others did more with yard work and such, but they all had fun and made new friends, all in all a successful day!

*PICTURES!

**NOTE: it may be confusing as to why I end my date with '53', however the answer is simple: The Buddhist calendar lists the year as 2553, so I'm not  ~12 hours ahead of you, but really 43 years and 12 hours.

This week in Chiang Mai...

This week kicked off the start of our actual classes. We had only had Thai language and Culture classes before, but now in addition I had Buddhism, Gender and Sexuality, Thai Dance, and Economics in Southeast Asia; Thailand and Cambodia. Since I am doing a slightly different program, I’m no longer in the culture class, and no one from just Thai Studies is in our Economics class (which isn’t even economics, its more a review of Southeast Asia where we focus primarily on Cambodia and Thailand). The classes all went really well. Our Buddhism class has already taught us a lot, and our Gender class is taught by Dr. Stephen Whitehead, a well-known author and a fellow at Keele University in the UK. We had a hard week for readings, and I was the first to present in our Gender class, along with another girl. Luckily all went smoothly and I was able to pull together a great presentation very quickly. Thai dance is amazing, but a lot harder than it looks. I’m no amateur to dancing, and have practiced several different styles, but this is kicking my butt! Unfortunately, between all my classes and homework, there isn’t much time left over for cultural experiences; making it really hard to balance the two. After a full week I’ve decided to stop Thai dancing in favor of a more well-rounded opportunity in my core classes. I console myself thinking that I can still attend dance classes, and read while I watch the other students learn. I also already have the reading material so I can still learn about the history of the two dances.


My roommate, Nuna, and her friends are so great! I came back from Mae Chaem and Biew had bought me a little flower pot with a wire sticking up to put a picture in, its so cute! And then Friday she came over and she had bought me this cute little bag to put my cell phone in (I use it for my ipod), with an elephant on the front that says “I heart Chiang Mai”—its the cutest thing! They’re so friendly, and always share food with me and ask if I’ve eaten, etc. In fact the other night after they gave me the last of their snack I found out from another girl who speaks more English that the last one is supposed to be good luck, and whoever eats it will have good luck in finding a cute boyfriend! The friend also communicated the other unspoken things from Nuna and her friends, such as did I like them/living in Alpha? They are shy about their English and worried I don’t like living there. I assured them quite the contrary, I love coming back to my room and everyone smiles and waves! They posted on my wall that I have a beautiful smile, which contributed to the design of my Thai nickname, Fa Sai (clear skies, beautiful weather). My roommate decided that’s what it should be because I’m always smiling . They are the sweetest girls and I’m so glad that I got to meet them!

Friday night Burgundy and I decided to stay in, and we watched movies on KK’s computer (mine’s broken  ). She has a huge collection, so we got to watch two of my favorites- Mulan and Anastasia! Of course no matter where I go, my love of Disney comes along! It was a really good chance to bond with her (and Skylar who joined us for Mulan), and we got to bed at a decent time, which was good because Saturday we were up early to go on our International Camp Retreat! It was about 30 minutes from school at a 4 star resort. It was beautiful! Our rooms were like little bungalows, we had a room with 3 beds, AIR CONDITIONING! A wardrobe, desk with mirror, table, and bathroom (with hot water!). As soon as we got there we ditched our bags and ran for the pool – I cannot even describe the intense pleasure we got out of that pool! The water temperature was just right, there was a deep end, shallow end, and a connected baby pool (similar to Egyptian resort pools). We were in the pool for hours, although after 3 hours Bupe and I went for a killer nap on soft beds). There were balls to toss, Marco Polo, there was a hula hoop that was used to dive through and other such shenanigans. I tried napping outside too…but it was too hot! After a while we showered and went to Marika’s room for a dance party (woot woot!) while we waited for dinner. In the meantime, we made 3 trips to 7/11 to supplement the trip we made on the way to the resort in order to satisfy the tolerance levels of the Thai kids and more experienced drinkers in the party. It was a lot of fun, and quite out of control – probably a good thing dinner was really late! Totally worth it though! Gai yang! (grilled chicken!) There was also CORN! And carrots and sweet potatoes and sausages, etc. Quite a feast if you ask me! Later there were s’mores, but we were too busy dancing to go out, so by the time we got back to the bonfire…all gone . We did play some fun games, though, one of which required a girl, sitting on the shoulders of a guy, to crack eggs on his forehead and drop the inside yolk/whites into a cup….which was held in the mouth of some unfortunate soul laying on the ground. Whoever got the most of their 6 eggs in won…Gina won! Poor Awa, though, was covered in egg, and Dan had egg yolk on his forehead, despite Gina’s efforts to hold back his hair while she cracked.

The next day we went on a boat ride around the lake, and that was really fun until someone pointed out the HUGE spider in a web right near my head. It was still okay until it started moving, at which time we booked it to the front of the boat for pictures! (which will be uploaded as soon as I have a computer again…). The rest of the boat ride was beautiful but uneventful, and I enjoyed putting my feet in the water to cool down. It reminded me a bit of cruising up the Nile in a felucca, I was even in a dress this time as well! Minus several close Drake friends, plus several new other friends! After we headed back, and after a shower and unpacking Bupe and I got Reggie’s (a local sandwich shop) before I went out to see more of Chiang Mai at night with Champ.

I’ve come to notice that the best way to see Chiang Mai is hanging off the back of a Song-tao (red pick-up). It isn’t an actual pick-up (again, I’ll post a picture as soon as I can), there are seats in the back and it’s the most efficient means of transportation for farang (foreigners). There are two ladders on the back and a ledge, where two people can stand. You’re not seeing through a window-it’s a full-view scene, with the cool mountain breeze caressing your skin and mussing your hair, allowing you to smile at Thai people, and at farang, and everyone in between. Its an experience that can’t be read about –its one of the many things that have to be experienced first-hand to grasp the beauty. Put that on your list of things to do!

My Mae Chaem Experience!

I've just gotten back from a week's solstice in the mountains of Northern Thailand, where we stayed in a village called Mae Chaem.  At first we didn't know what to expect, but if you read, you'll come to see how I fell in love with rural Thailand.

Monday, 8/23/10
    An early morning (up at 7, left at 8:30) kicked off our day. Although I napped through most of the twisted trails of the mountains, I wasn't obtuse enough to not notice the general splendor-so much green!  Tall trees characterized the slopes as we drove among the peaks, one of which is the tallest in Thailand, Doi Inthanon.  The driver was going at quasi-suicidal speeds, so before our expected 3 hours there we were- Mae Chaem (maah jem).  After unloading the vans, we hit the bathrooms, where I had my first Mae-Chaem-meets-Anna-K-Limbrick moment. Priceless. I handled the squatters with grace (thank you Egypt! At least here there are significantly fewer flies…), however when I went to look around, I stepped on a rock that was much slipperier than it looked…Needless to say one sore butt, scraped palms/elbows, and a change of pants later, I re-joined the group just in time to be assigned my host mom (mae is the word for mother) and the other girls I would be staying with, Skylar and Burgundy.
    Our house, as well as two others which are in the family, are behind the Wat (temple), further away from all of the other houses in the village.  I'm not quite sure why…Anyways.  The house we stayed in was beautiful! Our room was in the upstairs/loft, which is accessible by an outside staircase.  A corner of the loft was surrounded by a mosquito net tent, and contained 2 large pallets, 3 comforters, 3 pillows, and a fan. After putting our stuff down, we went downstairs for water, and to give our hostess gifts (A tin of chocolate chip cookies), and then in limited Thai and no English, with many hand gestures, she showed us her daughters, who we gathered had graduated from university-a big deal in the rural villages.  After a little pow-wow we went to have lunch at the temple, our new meeting center, and then had Thai language class for a few hours.  After class we had a break before dinner, so a few of us took a walk out through the paddy fields - they were beautiful!  You could see the mountains all around an dolts of trees.  It was breathtaking.  It hit me…I'm standing in a rice paddy. in the mountains. in Thailand. It was a phenomenal moment, to say the least.  After our walk we met some younger family members while dinner was being prepared. At least one of the girls was family, but I'm still not sure about the rest. There were 4 students, ages 16-18, and between our limited knowledge of each others' languages we asked the basic questions, and then when it hit a lull, they ran upstairs and got notebooks, a dictionary, and class books so that we could translate questions and comments and talk more.  It was an experience, and definitely fun!  Our dinner was delicious, chicken [probably one I had tripped over earlier], rice, and an egg-and-green-pepper scramble.  After dinner we headed to the local massage/sauna place.  You haven't had a Thai massage until a little old lady is finding every ache and sore spot you've ever had and POUNCING on it like a rabid jungle cat.  Whew! I held off on the sauna for now, but I'll be back! Some rice whiskey/moonshine later, we found ourselves in a roadside pavilion overlooking the rice paddies and mountains, with the moon up, illuminating the clouds and heat lightning added the perfect final touch to a beautiful night.
Tuesday, 8/24/10
     Our culture class began today, in addition to our language class, and our Ajan for that class is Ajan Napisa [who went to NIU!]. She made class super fun, so time flew, and before long it was a nap break before we headed into another part of the village to learn how to cook Thai food.  We made 2 desserts, a soup, and stewed veggies.  We were already full from lunch, but by the 3rd station we were about to bust! We spent an hour at each station, cooking and eating the dish, then moved on.  I had my hand in every dish, although my favorite was the first one. It was a palm sugar dessert called _______, or "push-pull" because of necessary actions.  The second station was the stewed veggies, easy enough to comprehend, and the woman was kind enough to have sticky corn, pumpkin, lingonberries, and yummy juice for us while we waited for the dish to cook.  Our next station involved a lot of prep work, Rob chopped the chicken while I used a pestle and mortar [yes! i've always wanted to!] to make a chili paste, and then mix it with soy beans to put in the stew, which I put in with veggies and the chicken.  We let it stew and had a different kind of juice while we waited, but when it was done I only had enough room in my tummy for a few pinches of sticky rice [you eat sticky rice with your fingers] before I called it quits.  Our final station was another dessert, which I wasn't such a big fan of.  It has an interesting history, though.  Women would make it for their men going off to battle, but in order to avoid finding a place for them to pack the snack, it would be molded to fit inside their helmets so that they could just wear it out with them.  Ajan Napisa and I sang songs while we all took turns with the super size mortar and pestle to keep the beat up.  Finally, it was time to go.  I took some of the ____ and an organically grown cucumber back to my host mom, which I think she really enjoyed! 
     After dinner, I waited at the temple for some friends to go to the sauna with, when the abbot, or head monk, strolled by.  He stopped for a while, and we had a great conversation!  I was so nervous to be in his presence, but he was really a great man.  I found out later that he sat with Burgundy and Skylar for over an hour working on their Thai with them!
     One steamy sauna session later, our grope took a leisurely stroll back.  Tim's host dad produced yet another bottle of rice whiskey to pass around. That, with the ever-present cloud fiesta and mountains gave us a sense of the subtle beauty of village life, unknown to much of the world.  With the added bonus of a full moon and the promise of a storm to come, it was truly awe inspiring.  When we got back we met up with more people at Tim's host family's house, and we hung out there, they even gave us more whiskey and made us some food!  They were so accommodating!
    The party continued until about 9, when half the group left to go to bed.  The other half of us went out to the rice paddies to hang out in the moonlight.  Yet another amazing night in Thailand!
Wednesday, 8/25/10
     Up at 6am [ugh!] for the offering to the monks, we were excited but crazy tired! Our family didn't come, so we didn't know what was happening or what we were supposed to do.  It was cool to watch, although because our family didn't come so we had no food to offer. FROWN! We went back and showered before breakfast [gai yang/grilled chx] and class.  Again I was super tired in culture class, and luckily our Thai language teachers let us out early so I had a great nap in the temple before lunch of fried chicken, rice, veggies, sweet peas, bananas in their natural size-small, sticky corn, and packets of sweet rice given to us by the monks [badass! They can't keep food for very long so after this morning's crazy amounts of food, they were okay to share!].  Then we were off to another village to see the sights.  First was a brass hairpin maker.  He and his daughter are the last 2 metal workers in the area, and he has been honored many times, even by the king! His wife weaves bags, and I got a cute gold and burgundy one.  We saw a few more shops, and then went on to see Wat Buddha-En.  The story is that the Buddha went there and was thirsty, and from where they gave him water there has since been a continuous stream of water, which scientists have repeatedly tested and have found pure enough to drink - which we did! You're supposed to make a wish first, but I wasn't aware so I guess my real wish was "please let me not get sick from this!".  It was pretty delicious, I must say. Very watery! The temple was really cool, it contained 10 scenes depicting the Buddha's previous ten lives.  After this we moved on to Wat Gong Gaan.  This Wat was about 700 years old, and was so cool! I had the chance to meditate before we went on an adventure! As Cornelio says in this Antonio Banderas voice, "adventure is my passion!".  We went through a corn field, crossed a rickety bridge that could only hold ten people at a time, up a muddy slope, then took stairs further up to the top of the mountain.  Whew! We were all sweaty, but none more so than Cornelio and Matt, who decided it would be "fun" to RUN up all those steps! The sights were breathtaking [there has been a lot of taking-of-breath on this trip]!! You could see the whole village, the river, the mountains, the fields, the Wats, everything!  Definitely worth the exercise! It was a lot easier going down [although I thought I was going to fall down the muddy part], and then after we rounded everyone up we went Mae Chaem Market.  It was cool; Baeng bought me this crepe-esque-waffle-thing with banana creme, raisins, and chocolate - yum! We came back to the village, and I had a great shower ['ab naam' in Thai, in the village my ab naam took the form of a bucket of water and a dish used to pour the water…not as bad as it sounds, although I never felt truly clean..probably because I didn't have a washcloth or loofah to scrub with], then laid down in my bath cloth [a piece of fabric sewed into a circle, which you wrap around you and tuck in like a towel] when all of a sudden our grandma busts in [followed by grandpa] to bring us belts to go with our traditional skirts.  Apparently it was time to get dressed! Mae Pah and Granny helped us get our skirts right, and then we were off to the temple to kick off the paa baa.  At the temple we met up with the grope and took some pictures. It was cool to see everyone in traditional garb! Tim's outfit was unfortunately thick AND had shoulder pads :(.  Some of us put flowers in our hair, as the Thais do, and then we danced and played instruments down to the concrete bridge and then back again to the temple. I held the hand of little Fohd, the cute little boy who was somehow related to us, either son of my Mae or grandson…or nephew. Not quite sure.  He's super shy so this was the first time I got to really be near him without him hiding behind Mae's skirts. We danced around the temple three times [3 is the magic number in Buddhism, representing the Buddha, the Dharma his teachings, and his followers, the monks] with the money tree [students and villagers donated money and robes to the monks.  The money we raised would be used for a toilet for the monks, as well as improving the public restrooms in the village.  Because the money can't actually be held by the monks, a committee oversees everything.  After our third round we danced into the temple where we then knelt for the ceremony.  Pete represented the group for the process, lucky him! Girls aren't allowed to touch the monks, nor can we directly hand anything to a monk, it must go through a male intermediary.  It went well, there was a bit of changing, then we poured water while all holding the elbows of those in front of us, making a chain throughout the temple so we were all linked in a single blessing.  This symbolized the sharing of the boon [we got a merit for the donations, which could then be shared with one's ancestors in the pouring water ceremony] and really showed the sense of unity present.  After the ceremony was done, I took a picture with a family who wanted a picture with me, and we all hung out until it was announced that although he couldn't give us souvenirs [because he couldn't own anything and had no money to spend], the village abbot hand hand made us bracelets.  He and some elders put them on us [one white, one pink] and blessed us. Awesome! That wrapped up the ceremony, and it was back home for some yummy dinner [pad thai!] followed by a dessert of guava and bananas. Yum! Then while we were journaling/reading, our host sister brought Fohd up and I got to hold him! He was the cutest thing, resting his head on my shoulder and holding my hand. Aww!
     After a bit, we went and got Champ, Tyler, and Tim [as well as a mat, whiskey, and a giant candle], then headed to Kathryn's to hang out for a while with the group before we went back out to the paddy fields with a few more people.  It was MUCH better with a mat, and we lit the candle, setting the mood to beautiful, but eerie, under the full moon.  Ghost stories were called for, and Tyler succeeded in scaring the pants off myself and Jenny, as well as creeping out the rest of the group [for your sake, dear reader, I won't repeat the tale here!].  We talked about other paranormal encounters and other topics, but no one could top Tyler, and soon half of us decided it was time for bed. I swore up and down that I would have to cry myself to sleep curled up in my blankie, but as it turns out no tears were necessary - I was out the moment my head hit the pillow!
Thursday, 8/26/10
     Today was KILLER to get up! Breakfast was on amazing porridge-y dish of rice with garlic and bits of meat [probably chicken]. With it was another fried whitefish-yum! Then we had both of our classes, then lunch of rice, pad thai, and another unidentifiable dish of yum as well as plenty of fruit, which we learned the names of in class…SO delicious! Mangoes, rambutans, oranges, pineapple, bananas, and more! Following lunch we had a break, then observed cotton weaving [amazing-I even saw a lady hand-weaving the intricate design for the bottom of a custom-ordered sarong, with real silver string woven into the design!], coconut leaf weaving [I braided myself a headband], and fresh crab paste making around the village.  The crab paste was made at my house, and we even got to go into the rice paddies to catch the crabs ourselves! I didn't want to catch any, but I did splash in the mud!  Then I made my Mae proud by grinding up the live crabs [although every once in a while some mush would squirt outlaw!], which were mixed with leaves for flavoring, and then stored overnight.  The next morning the concoction would be boiled into a black sticky mess that was crab paste! After everyone left, I ab-naamed and had a nap before dinner and quality time with the family.  We played "set" [a card game], then played with Fohd for a while before going out for the evening.  He is honestly the cutest thing alive! I WANT HIM!
      The party was at Kathryn's again, so we all hung out there for a long time and, as Cornelio said, 'painted the town red!'. After a while, the parents were ready for bed, so we moved to Maggie's for a few minutes before we wen tout to the paddy again- this time with the WHOLE group! It was insane and out of control, so as soon as I found other people ready to go back, I headed home.
Friday, 8/27/10
     Another 8am morning followed by our 2 classes, although culture class was shaken up by us going to the daycare to hang out.  The kids were so cute! A bunch of them pulled Nathan down and enjoyed going crazy with him, and were so riled up that they tried to pull down Matt's shorets when he got there.  A lot of the kids were really shy, but they danced for us, and we sang the ABCs with them.  Because it was a Friday, they were all wearing little matching traditional clothes - adorable!  Even though he had just declared children to be "tiny demons waiting to be realeased", Tim quickly found a little cutie who he held the ENTIRE time! When we left, the kid just sat where we had put him and stared. So cute!
    After class, of course, was lunch, and then all the Thai Buddies except Champ wen tback to Payap-sad!  Then we went to the Raks Thai (love Thai) foundation to learn about their foundation, which had been taking us around to all of our activities.  The RTF has helped many of the ethnic groups in the mountains to earn a living and learn to subsist on their own agriculture.  I was so tired that I dozed off during the presentation (oops!), but soon we were up with the Karen (kah-ren, not my mother...) peoples, the largest minority that inhabits the mountains of the North.  They took us around and showed us their trees (they're important, mostly because the roots help prevent erosion), we forded the river (really shallow, not too tough at all, but quite fun!).  The Karen have a mixed belief system of Animism and Buddhism, later melded with Christianity thanks to the missionaries.  Two of their more interesting rituals involve trees. The first is that trees can be ordained as monks (Buddhist, obviously), and because they are monks they cannot be hurt! These trees have orange fabric tied around them like a belt to show their importance.  The other tradition is Animist; when a baby is born, it's umbilical cord is tied around a tree, and from that day on there is a bond between the spirit of the tree and the person.  The person cares for the tree and protects it, and in return the spirit of the tree, like the dryads of the West, commonly female, will protect the person.  Really cool!  After that they showed us their cash crop fields (not as entertaining when you live in a cornfield, but beautiful because they were on the slopes of the mountains), then to 7-11, where Champ and I got matching banana creme, raisin, and condensed milk "crepes" (they're really quite good!) before we went back to the village.  After a shower and a quick rest, our Mae got us dressed for the going away party.  We went, and after playing with Fohd for a bit, we sat in a circle, and the village elder blessed us with a song that calls 32 Kwan (good spirits) to us to protect us and give us happiness.  After, our Maes tied parts of the string used in our blessing circle around our wrists so we could carry the blessing with us (the bracelets are wracking up!).  Then came a yummy dinner, followed by a cultural talent exchange.  The village kids danced traditional dances for us.  They were so cute, all dressed up in traditional garb, with their hair and make-up done! Our host sister was the youngest and at the very front, we were so proud! Next came Gina, hula-hooping to one of Cornelio's Bolivian songs - that girl has so much talent! She can do the craziest things! We had a series of following talents, Bupe & I taught the Macarena (we pulled up kids from the village and students, and even our Mae came up!), Tim sang, 2 kids did fake Thai boxing, we did the Hokey Pokey, Cornelio did a traditional Bolivian rain dance (which Tyler, Matt, and Rob attempted to mimic...to our great amusement!), the kids sang a traditional song about Mae Chaem, and we finished it off by attempting to sing a Thai children's song.  Luckily they chimed in so it wasn't too awful! :) The adults started leaving then, so we played a game with the children, but I was pretty wiped so I headed home after not too long to pack and go to bed. 
Saturday, 8/28
     We rose, showered, ate, and then met at the temple at 9:45.  There we took pictures with our Maes, and it was very sad.  Our Mae gave Skylar, Burgundy, and I cute scarves! Many of the other students got gifts as well, some scarves, some traditional shirts, etc.  We were sad to go, but before long we were on our way home.  Luckily there were only a few people in my van, so I got to stretch out and sleep!  We stopped twice, once in the pouring rain at a covered Hmong market (potty break!), and another time at a gas station.  I mostly just slept! After getting back and showering, we headed to Carrefour to pick up some things, before dinner and going out to celebrate our return to Chiang Mai! I had an amazing time in Mae Chaem, and wouldn't have missed this opportunity for the world! I am glad to be back at Payap, but Mae Chaem was beyond words!  Rob is planning on going back for fall break, but I have the islands in mind...we'll see if next semester brings me back to bucket ab naams and rice whiskey!