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 :)