Thursday, December 13, 2012

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 :)

Monday, December 10, 2012

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