Month of Festivals

The night of the November full moon marks the Thai new year: Loy Krathong! The first half of the day there were many activities with the school such as a monk speaking to the school first, then lighting many candles, viewing presentations on different areas of Thai culture by people in beautiful costumes, setting off giant paper balloons into the sky, watching students build magnificent sand-temples decorated with flowers, watching dancers and singers perform in the canteen, and watching students make and present krathongs in the gym. Each of these activities were very interesting and so Thai! The krathong-making was really incredible because students as young at 10 were making these beautiful banana-leaf boats.

Our school monk led the school in the morning.

Hey look, it's Poo! Congrats on making the blog, my friend.

Offering rice to our monk. I didn't actually get to see this because I wasn't paying attention. (Note how NONE of the students are.)

Then the students went up to light candles.

Some students played instruments in front of everyone. And I guess this happened. Lolwhat?

In each of the six M levels at our school, there are about 20 classes and each class  made a  balloon to set off.

Just some guys in blazing red short-things setting off their balloon... Actually they were pretty awesome. I took a picture with them :)

Sand temples!

And the krathong-making in the gym.

I left school early to get fitted for a dress to wear in the parade as Queen Noppamas, the woman who initiated the first Loy Krathong, on the Rotary float. The dress was very, very... very tight. Riding on the float was incredible! Climbing into the lotus flower was a little difficult because the ladder was steep and I had to flop into the giant flower and the dress was very tight, but once inside I felt like a princess. Everyone was so happy to see me and jumped in front of the float to take pictures. They told me beforehand to keep smiling even if my mouth hurts, but that warning was unnecessary because I would have done it anyways; I was so happy, the smile wasn't forced at all! Sometimes there would be a friend in the crowd so I would shout out to them. At the end, I talked with the announcers as they introduced the Rotary float (it wasn't much of a conversation; I had to shout really loud for them to hear). It was an amazing experience!! After changing out of the dress, I went with Pii Nam and my two young Thai cousins (Nong Peh and Nong Poi) to join the Loy Krathong festivities. We floated one of the krathongs given to me during the parade in the river, took pictures of all the floating krathongs, watched the krathong-making competition, watched a junior beauty contest, set off a paper lantern, admired the decorated temple, and bought street food. It was wonderful! The first lantern I launched crashed into a phone line (because I suck at launching paper lanterns), so they gave me another one for free.

No idea what's up with my face, but look at the dress!!!

Being a princess on the Rotary float.

The children's Noppamas beauty contest.

Some temple decorations :)

You make a wish and then let go of the lantern. As it floats into the sky, it gives your wish to the gods and ancestors.

Lanterns floating up to meet the full moon:)

I went to Chiangmai with my host family the next day to see the even bigger festivities. Here, we launched a krathong that fish can eat so it is good for the environment. We also launched a big lantern all together and took a photo. Chiangmai had so many lanterns, the sky looked like it was covered in stars!! My host grandmother is so sweet and always holding my hand and taking pictures. The crowd in Chiangmai was huge! It was difficult just to follow each other, so it's a good thing my host grandma was clutching my hand. We watched the Chiangmai parade, visited Pii Oi at her food shop (the poor woman works all the time), and bought food. I rode in the back of the pickup truck on the way home.

You place your mistakes and regrets on a "krathong" made from (traditionally) banana leaves and offer it to the water goddess for forgiveness, to start the new year off fresh.

Releasing a lantern with my host mom and grandma (and host dad but he's taking the picture).

Some ladies in the Chiang Mai parade.

A dancer in the parade.

Apparently, other than major holidays like Loy Krathong, Thai people aren't very excited about festivals, so my friends and host parents responded like "What? You want to go to the Chiang Mai Beer Festival? The Lamphun Lam-yai Festival? Why?" Luckily, Ice's mother runs her food stand every day of every festival, so as long as I work hard, I come along. This also means free food and learning how to make Thai street food! (Involving learning to deep-fry on-the-spot in one of those huge, slippery, wide-open pans in the middle of an Asian market at its busiest... I have several burn marks).

The Chiang Mai Beer Festival was by far the best; I discovered that you automatically become closer with someone after you throw up on them ;) Rest assured though, Rotarians, there was not a drop of alcohol in me. I was nautious from... bungee jumping!!! All four days of the festival, I participated in the free bungee jumping and made good friends with the people running the event. I figured out how to front/backflip, then they taught me how to bungee upside-down and sideways. It was unbelievably thrilling; definitely something I'll be searching for in Canada. I felt terrible for throwing up on Nye, Ice's brother, the poor guy, but I actually wasn't embarrassed at all, believe it or not. I found the whole situation funny and was laughing even as the vomit came out of my mouth. Embarrassment-tolerance level: exchange student!

Making friends with the bungee jumping guys! (I must have smelled like vomit in this picture but they didn't seem to notice/care.)

I spent a large part of the evening babysitting sleeping host cousins in the back of a pick-up truck.

Next was the Lamphun Lam-Yai (longyen) Festival. It's traditionally for the harvesting of longyen fruit, for which Lamphun in famous, but the festival doesn't really have anything to do with longyen, which is good because I'm sick of longyen. At one point while walking around in the festival, I stumbled upon Lon (long story short: I met this guy months ago before I know how to deal with overly flirtatious guys so I probably led him on simply by not rejecting him. Then after the day I met him I just ignored all his calls and texts). So meeting him was awkward. I think he was just as surprised to see me (he lives in Chiang Mai, the supercity, and this was in Lamphun, a completely different but still fairly large city), so we sort of just stared at each other in shock, then said hi, and scuffled along. Another cool thing about the festival: try going in a Haunted House with a Thai person. Alone, it would have been really boring, but with Nong Peh, Nong Poi, Ice, and Nye, it was the greatest thing in the world! Even if Puk slightly ruined the fun by acting all brave -_- It appears guys in any country have the same failed assumptions of what makes them look "cool" ;)

So that was festival month. Next up: school trip!!! :D

Anneke

EDIT: Apparently it wasn't actually the Lam-yai festival, it was some other festival that just happened in Lamphun...? I have no idea what goes on in this country! But that's why it's so awesome :)

I met a Princess :)

A Loy Krathong post really should come first, but half of it's already written but at school, and I'm too lazy to rewrite it. So meeting the beautiful Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya shall come first :)

Here she is :) Would you believe she's 65? This is a recent picture too.

She's part of a singing group called "To Be Number One", who our school arranged to hold a concert for. Our school prepared for her for months, including renovations, posters, and rearranging things everywhere. There were about 50 students, my small group of friends included, as well as students from other schools, who were given special shirts and arranged to meet her privately. There were two two-hour long practice sessions on how to greet her, how to sit, and how to act in her presence.  I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but managed to avoid falling asleep in these practice sessions.

With friends (Kik, Praew, Bam, Kat, and I) in a practice session, with a picture of the princess behind.

During the day, before she came and when not in practice sessions, the members of her band "To Be Number One" performed in the school gym. It was really cool because they were so energetic and all the girls and ladyboys were going crazy for them. The posters were 40bht, so I bought one for me and a friend and we went through the autograph line. In Canada, I seemed to have skipped the "go crazy over boy celebrities" phase, but all the Thai enthusiasm for it really sinks into you. I found myself squealing like a little girl when one of the band members wrote "love." next to his signature. Apparently, every Thai girl refers to him as the "monster of the group" (a little harsh...), but I still think he's the cutest. The boys the Thai girls like are all bulky and look too American. I'm obsessing over celebrity boys - and I thought I'd never be one to support this useless pastime -_-

In the autograph line, this is Mod, the super cute one who wrote "love." on my poster ;)

The final autographed poster: 11 out of 16, not bad

I was told the princess would arrive at 3. She didn't. She arrived at 8. This would be a prime example of "Thai time". It was worth it though.

All 50 students were seated on the ground with our legs to the side in the traditional Thai way. The security guards and police officers came in first and sat down in a row of chairs. Then the princess walked in and sat down in the big armchair in the centre of the room. As she passed each row of students, they placed their hands and head on the ground in the traditional "grap" then came back up for a "wai", then when she was seated everyone did one more "grap" all together with "Sawatdii-ka/krup". Some students from our school performed a dance for her. Then chosen students stepped forward and presented a problem of theirs to the princess. It was anything from something going wrong in their family, to school, to boyfriends and girlfriends, and the princess offered advice. To me, this was really interesting because it shows that, even after so many years and when the Royal Family doesn't hold much political power anymore, they still have the traditional image of guidance for the people. Their primary role is to solve the problems of the people, no matter how small. So I thought that was cool.

When she left, she went into another room of the school to change outfits for the big concert. She was driven down the little walkway in a decorated golf cart, while students sat down and lined the walkway, performing a "grap" as she passed. For the actual concert, she sang while the rest of the "To Be Number One" group danced around her. The enthusiasm of the crowd was inspiring :)

Sitting while waiting for the princess to pass

Then she changed clothes again and everyone watched her car leave the school grounds. That will definitely be an experience I'll never forget.

I met a freaking princess!!!

Anneke

Sport Day!!

          Last week was spent primarily in Chiang Mai with Ice and preparing for Sport Day with the school. During the afternoons, the whole school participated in preparing for Sport Day. Our school is split into colour groups and our group is "Si Daeng" (Red). It was fun because we learned the different team cheers and took many "Thai teenager" pictures with friends. I also started to discover which friends are the most fun and which ones are the most reliable.

Wasan goes western and I go Asian!

Kat and I with Nan, who is part of the "Dance for Health" team.

              In the evenings, Ice and I went with various people to help her mother’s food stall at a huge Chiang Mai festival. We helped prepare food, arrange it on the tables, and sell it. It was a really interesting experience because there is nothing like it back in Canada and we were right in the thick of it. It was a little stressful because it was so loud and there were always people surrounding us and shouting things in Thai that I couldn’t understand, and we generally worked from 4:30 in the afternoon until 4 in the morning, but it was still a great experience. I became close friends with many people in Ice’s family members and friends. There were also several ladyboy fashion shows, which were great. Not only were they often funny, but it was incredible to see a woman in a bikini, female in every way, and know they were born male; it shows that people aren't confined by the body they were born with.

See this delicious Thai food?

Well look who made it! (Ice's mom, Ice, and I)

Beauty is pain... ahah

Then Friday was Sport Day!! I spent the night with a friend and went to get my hair done at 7. We had to "doze" on our faces so it didn't get damaged, then makeup and costume at 4 in the morning. When the parade finally started, it was so thrilling to walk down the street in the most beautiful outfit I’ve ever worn, surrounded by other people wearing incredible outfits and makeup, and have people continually wave and smile at me and take pictures. It was definitely one of the greatest and overwhelming experiences of my life. The boy I was walking with, Nicky, was a gentleman and always asking if the sign was too heavy or getting Pop to carry it for me; it was so sweet! After changing into regular clothes, I spent the day with Pop and Nay, watching activities and participating in a bizarrely embarrassing eggplant game in front of the entire school (in which I had an eggplant hanging from my ass and had to push a pingpong ball across the floor with it, at which I failed miserably). The cheerleading performances were incredible; it felt like I was watching a professional performance! It blows my mind how much preparation and effort goes into Sport Day, and it is ENTIRELY organized by students. Canadian kids really need to step it up ;) Our team was very disappointed that we didn’t win the cheerleading, but it was still a wonderful day.

Carrying the sign for "Si Daeng" (Red) with Nicky and Om in front.

On Saturday, Ice and I went with her mom to the festival in Chiang Mai again and came back at 4 in the morning. Needless to say, I had a very bad cold on Sunday due to serious lack of sleep and slept the entire day through.

Teaching and Travelling!

Once again, long time no talk! Time to get back on track. The school break started at the beginning of October and ended toward the end. In that time, there was lots to do!
At the start of the break, I volunteered at Laohajit Wittaya, a local primary school, to help teach English. However, the students were around ages 5 to 9, so they really weren't interested in learning while half of their friends were also on vacation. The other teachers and I spent most of the time playing with the kids, keeping them out of trouble, helping them down the stairs, serving them all food, coaxing them to sleep during nap time, keeping them occupied, etc. A kindergarten classroom in Thailand is much the same as a kindergarten classroom in Canada, except the students are even more wild with each other, but more hesitant to talk to teachers as well. The teachers are so sweet! When talking with them, it's a mix between bits of Thai and broken English, but we communicate well enough. They're much more eager to learn English than the students, and I want to learn Thai, so there's a bit of language exchange too. Near the end, the students were much more comfortable around me and I made good friends with all the teachers, so I hope to go back once in a while during the school year.

When kids get a hold of the camera

Then came RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)! It was a 3-day camp with all the inbounds(students on exchange in Thailand), outbounds(Thai students going on exchange next year), rebounds(Thai students who've returned from their exchange year), and many Rotarians. Everyone was energetic and there were so many activities planned! It was interesting how even though this camp was focused on involving teens from all over the world, it was still very Thai; for example, we woke up at around 6 every morning for meditation, all the meals were Thai, the final ceremony, etc. One day, when we were separated into our colour groups, our group climbed up a huge set of steps to clean a temple! This turned into a well-needed water fight. Near the end there was a talent - the Mexicans/Brazilians, the ladyboys' song, and the mimes stole the show! It was a little unfortunate how all the inbounds tend to cluster together rather than integrate with the Thais, but we build such a strong bond together, it's really hard not to. The activities helped us separate a bit more though!

Water fight after cleaning the temple

Our drummer <3

The final ceremony: we were each given a candle and passed the flame around to light each other's.

Then we stuck our candles to cardboard in the centre of the room to spell "RYLA".

The whole group!! An incredible weekend.

And then the northern trip with all the inbounds! As mentioned before, we build an extremely strong bond because we are in the same situation; we all are so interested in travelling and learning different cultures that we've dreamt about this our whole lives, spent a year planning, and finally made it here. Travelling with these kids is amazing.

We went to so many different places; a Grand Canyon-like place in Nan, the Chiang Rai night market and Wat Rongkorn, the late queen mother's mountain palace and gardens (which is MUCH different than castles in England. The palace looked like a giant bamboo cabin and the gardens looked much more jungle-like. The whole place was astonishingly beautiful), The Golden Triangle (where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet), crossed over the river into Laos, and then went shopping in Mae Sai (the northernmost point of Thailand). We drove up a mountain road famous for its countless curves and switchbacks, until we came to Pai. In Pai, we crossed the giant bridge where an important battle with the Chinese took place.

Wat Rongkorn temple in Chiang Rai

At Wat Rongkorn: the start of our many travels!

The late queen mother had a great view...

The palace gardens

At the Golden Triange: to the left is Thailand, straight ahead is Myanmar, and to the right is Laos.

Children in Laos asking for 5 baht. 

Driving up the curvy road into Pai

Guy who made tea in the night market in Pai; he was so great!

Then we moved onto Mae Hong Son, where we spent two days. In Mae Hong Son province, we visited a Chinese colony, took a tour of a huge cave, visited a mud spa, and met the Karen tribe! The view of Mae Hong Son was astonishing. The way back down the mountain was QUITE difficult however, due to there already being hundreds of steep curves added to the fact that several students were suffering the aftermath of a certain incident the night before... but we all made it alive haha.

The Chinese colony in Mae Hong Son province; so Asian!

The astonishing view of Mae Hong Son city from a temple...

Meeting the Karen tribe!

Most women in the tribe make these scarves, the traditional source of income for the tribe.

Many scarves made by the Karen tribe.

The tribe is also know for having stretched earlobes.

We finished the trip in Chiang Mai, where we went to Tiger Kingdom to pet and lay down with real tigers, my friend Talia and I went Zorb balling as well. When we got to the hotel, we all prepared for a fancy dinner at the tok, to celebrate our final night. The tok dinner was incredible! Although I had to laugh at the fact that  although the tables were close to the floor with mats to sit with your legs folded behind you, in the traditional Thai way, there was also a hollowed out section of floor beneath the table for the foreigners to put their feet. During the dinner, there were many Thai dances being performed beside us in the section cleared of tables. They were beautiful and every tiny movement was perfectly timed, giving them all perfect synchronization. As people were finished up, many of us walked outside, where the dancers were selling giant paper lanterns for 100 baht. Of course, we bought, lit, and released quite a few - a great way to remember the night! When we returned back to the hotel, we dressed up in whatever costumes we could come up with and had a Halloween party!

A lion at Tiger Kingdom...

So amazing!!!

Nice kitty

Zorb balling! Exhausting, but tons of fun.

Dinner at the tak.

Setting off paper lanterns :D

Upon returning home, I was greeted by a VERY happy family because... my host mother had her baby!!!! :D My new host sister's name in Peem - she is so tiny compared to Canadian babies!
Adios amigos! (I can be Spanish in Thailand, because this is Thailand, and literally anything will happen in Thailand).

Anneke