Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving day, 2006.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and though I spent most of the day trying to teach the story of Thanksgiving to five classes of Thai students who were only mildly interested, I had time for reflection on the many blessings in my life and time to spend with people I enjoy having fun and giving thanks together!

Thanksgiving seems to be an interesting concept for Thai students. The literal translation from Thai wan krup khun prajao is day of thanks to God. Though this is appropriate, I feel it only partially describes what the day stands for. I tried, with some help from my co-teachers, to tell the story of the Pilgrims and Indians and the first Thanksgiving. Next, I described typical activities for Thanksgiving day: gathering together of family members, watching the parade, cooking, eating, watching football, eating, playing football, sleeping, sitting, talking, eating and more eating. A day of rest and a day of thanks. Most of the students found the concept quite wonderful.

We talked about turkeys. They don't really exist here. Some students had seen them... In the ZOO! Ha! We talked about pies. Not a single person I talked to had ever seen, much less tasted, one. We talked about fall - a season that does not exist in Thailand. In fact, Thai people are fascinated by the concept of four seasons, as they have only three: hot, rainy and cold (or, as I call them: hot, hotter and hottest - "cold" season is lucky to see temperatures in the 70s F). I described how the leaves turn all sorts of beautiful colors and fall off the trees. "Real" cold weather, makes leaves die, but they give a beautiful show first. I think the students thought this was pretty neat too.

Finally, I had the students create a fall leaf of their own. I had some picture examples with shapes and colors, but they had to draw their own and color it themselves. Then, they had to write the sentence, "I am thankful for..." and write as many things as they could think of. Some students came up things such as "for being the daughter of my mother" or "for the breath of life". However, I was very very surprised that most of the students sat there and stared at me (this in and of itself not unusual) like they had no idea what I meant. We encouraged them to come up with some things in Thai and then let us help them translate. Still they stared blankly. Apparently, the concept of giving thanks is not one that they are used to contemplating.

I'm not sure exactly why this is. Though the focus is on the present moment in Buddhism, maybe prayers center around future events, such as harvest or health or maybe even future lives. I'm not entirely sure, but I was really astounded that so many students seemed to be at a loss for anything at all to give thanks for.

As for me, I spent a great deal of time this week thinking about all I am grateful for. During my time here I have learned to be thankful for so many things I took for granted before. Here is a short list of some things I deeply appreciate:

* sincere friendship
* freedom of thought and expression
* friends and family
* expressions of love across the miles (or right at home)
* critical thinking
* smiles from the heart
* toes in the grass
* cheese, baguettes and wine at a picnic
* dark chocolate
* the technology that allows people with much to help people with little

I will continue to give thanks for things here and at home that touch my life and help this world to be a better place.

Something I was very thankful for yesterday was the impromptu thanksgiving dinner I had with my Thai "family". I spend time with this family many evenings a week and really feel like a member of the family. Yesterday afternoon, I went to their house and told them not to cook dinner because it was American Thanksgiving and I wanted to make dinner for us.

I made garlic mashed potatoes, carrots and beans, creamed corn and cranberry sauce (from Bangkok) and a pumpkin pie. We bought grilled chicken in place of turkey. It was a great feast and I think they enjoyed the little taste of America. Here are some pictures:

I put the food in tupperwear and piled it on P Noot's motorcycle to take to her house.

The feast

Neuhy and Nan are excited to eat!

Yummy! Pumpkin pie!

Eating with the family

More Flower Festival


Here's my last post from the Chiang Mai flower festival. Enjoy...

The temple they build for the festival as a monument to the 60th anniversary of the Reigning monarch - King Phumipon

The ornate lamp hanging inside as seen through the window from outside

Murals adorn the walls. Each of them depicts a scene with the king. He is well loved because of all his work with the farmers and "lay" people of Thailand.

P Noot in the giant wooden shoes at the Holland exhibit

(no real tulips! For some reason all the Thais I've talked to are dying to see tulips...)

flower kisses in the "flower art" exhibit hall

More flowers

One more orchid

Emily and P Noot in the orchid house

Japanese fruit display

Having Morrocan tea in the Morrocan living room in the Morrocan house

A rose by any other name

The flower festival at long last...

These pictures are from the "Royal Flora" flower festival going on in Chiang Mai right now. The festival is truly extravagant. There are flowers from around the world, large gardens of Thai flowers and vegetables, elaborate displays, bright colors and a gigantic orchid display - itself worth the visit. Unfortunately, I can only put 5 pictures up at a time, but I'll try to give you a taste of some of what I saw. It's awesome!

At the front gate to the festival

P Sert by the decorative hills in front of the festival

In the Bangkok exhibit - depicting the floating market

A beautiful arrangement of orchids

Another orchid

Chiang Mai at night

Before I post the pictures from the actual flower festival, I wanted to share a couple pictures from the Chiang Mai night market as it is truly a phenomenon.

Chiang Mai by day is a beautiful place - dozens of temples, horizons filled with mountains, shops filled with colorful hilltribe clothing and catchy Thai souvenirs. Songtao trips can be arranged up into the mountains, or to an elephant camp nearby. Alternatively, there are several neat museums and a zoo in town. The old town wall and canal weaves around small sois (streets) filled with local shops, food and flower markets, restaurants and guest houses. Foreigners and Thais alike can be seen around town - mostly on motorbike or tuk tuk (small 3 wheel taxi).

As the evening begins to approach, however there is about a square kilometer block of streets that begin to fill. Metal carts filled with goods for sale are wheeled onto the streets and sidewalks. Everyone who traveled about on motorbikes, tuk tuks or songtaos in the day, takes to foot travel by evening and the streets and sidewalks are packed with tourists (foreign and Thai) perusing the stalls. Everything from gaudy Thai kitch to clothing to tribal treasures to food to foot massage corners can be found on one street or another. One should not attempt to enter the market area within a restricted time frame as the speed of travel is greatly dependent on the crowd packing the sidewalks. However, fun souvenir shopping and bargaining as well as magnificent people watching can be found around every corner. Here are a couple glimpses into the Chiang Mai night market...

people crowd between the shops on the sidewalks of Chiang Mai

shoes for sale

Some hilltribe ladies come to town to sell their crafts

Even Chiang Mai cannot escape McFever

Some fun decorative lights for sale light up the street corner

I'm back home again and having a quick trip to the internet despite my exhaustion. I taught 2 classes this morning after an overnight bus (slept relatively well) following all day at the Chiang Mai flower festival yesterday with P Noot and her brother P Sert. It was beautiful (pictures to come). Haven't been home in 10 days and I was happy to walk through my door. Granted, I only get to spend three nights in my own bed before I'm off to Buri Ram province to help with a drama camp (the one that was canceled due to the coup d'etat a couple of months ago) but three nights is better than nothing.

On the note of exhaustion. I have to give a shout out to the extreme amount of patience maintained by my friend Christina during our time in the country. I came here thinking that I had a lot of patience, but there is just nobody like Christina. As we waited in the Chaiyaphum bus station at 5:30 this morning (after having been on a bus from Chiang Mai since the night before) to head home, we were bombarded by the usual questions from the male Thai taxi drivers sitting around in the station.

"WHERE YOU GO?" (I did reply to the first person who asked this)

"WHERE YOU COME FROM?"

by this time, they usually figure out we speak Thai..

"Tam Arai Ti Ni?" (What are you doing here)

This one is usually followed by some others of them offering up plausible (in their minds) explanations such as studying (who in their right mind.... Sorry....) teaching English or having a Thai boyfriend. I don't appreciate these explanations not only because I don't feel the need for every perfectly strange.... Oh, I mean perfect stranger...in this country to know why I have voluntarily chosen to sacrifice 2 years of my life but also because they NEVER get it right.

I chose the mute route as to attempt to refrain from saying anything rude. Christina - every the perfectly Thai lady - proceeded to answer all their questions (INCLUDING the one about how much money she must make.... "OH, YOU GET LOTS OF MONEY! AMERICAN DOLLARS!" ... No, no, we're volunteers (my thoughts - have you EVERY heard that word? Do you know the definition? ARE YOU LISTENING or just running your mouth???...... Her: Oh no, we live the same as Thai people. It's not really a salary because we're volunteers. No, really, the same as Thai people. We only get a little money for house and food). She's a saint I tell you.

About this point they notice that I'm not speaking.

"Khao poot pasah Thai mai dai LUH?" (Oh, she doesn't speak Thai, huh?)

At which point, though I secretly wish she'll lie so they won't talk to me (but saints can't lie) tells them that I do in fact speak Thai well.

Unfortunately, this causes them to turn their verbal mumbo jumbo my way. As I am not the saint and long ago lost the patience I thought I had and because I've answered these same questions at least 234,513 time, I reply

"Poot DIE, deh MAI CHOP poot ti welah norn!" ( I CAN speak, but I DON'T LIKE to speak during the time one should be SLEEPING!"

Sorry, that was just the nicest thing I could think of at 5:45AM after 11 hours on a night bus and a full day in the sun before that.

Eventually, after she assured me that she didn't mind, I abandoned her for a seat in the (at that point) empty bus. Oh well. Another day started...

On another note. Here are more pictures from my time at Sean's site. (Will get to the Chiang Mai ones next time.)

A grandpa in Sean's town wishes us good luck and blessings by tying white strings around our wrists and offering kind words. (This is a lovely traditional Thai practice.)

He ties the string for good luck

The train pulls out of the station heading for Chiang Mai

Looking out of the train window

mountains and rice fields (harvest time)

Nan City

One day while staying with Sean, we took a trip into the city of Nan. Each province has a central (basically capital) city with the same name as the province. In Thai, this is called the Amphur Muang (or literally "district city"). Two more volunteers, Kate and Robert, were arriving, so we took the hour-long songtao (large truck with two benches in the back - popular vehicle of public transportation) ride into the city to tour a bit and pick them up. There were many beautiful temples and the weather was wonderful. However, what I noticed most was that we were not shouted at one single time. This was nearly beyond my realm of comprehension! Boy do I wish I lived in the north....

A view from the songtao

Nan traditionally has long boat competitions at this time of year.

This is one such boat which can hold something like 60 people!

A new mural depicting daily life

The Buddhas face each cardinal direction (and each door) to welcome anyone coming in from any direction. Wat Phumin

An old (several hundred years old) mural in Wat Phumin

Here are some more pictures from our time at Seans house:

(Farmer) Sean's traditional Thai teakwood house

Washing dishes (on the back porch) for dinner
(They have really great veggies in the north due to the cooler weather and more fertile land)

A yummy dinner we cooked together. Eaten traditionally - on the floor

It actually got quite chilly at night.
(Don't think I'll keep the toupe look!)

Two local girls show a traditional dance where they bend backwards at pick up something (usually money, here skittles wrappers) with their mouths and then stand back up. No hands!

A few more pictures from Loy Gratong Day in Nan province...

Emily, P Dome, Sean and Christina with our finished Gratongs


The Thumbalina like beauty queen perched atop a giant paper gratong


Some students role play a past king in the parade

We float our gratongs on the river


Small hot air baloons are released into the night sky - gorgeous!

Happy Loy Gratong Day!

Friday evening, Christina and I traveled up to the province of Nan, where another volunteer, Sean lives and works. Our main purpose for going to visit him is to help with an English camp that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday at his site. However, we decided to travel up early to see his site (nestled in the moutains of northern Thailand) and celebrate Loy Gratong day with him.

mountain view near Sean's house - during a bike ride.

Loy (float) Gratong (basket) day is a traditional Thai festival during which everyone makes "baskets" - really ordimental floating leaf and flower arrangements - and releases them onto the river. Before floating your gratong you are supposed to say a prayer. Traditionally, the prayers were for a good harvest (as rice harvest starts next week). However, any prayer will do.

Christina and Sean work on their grantongs

My finished grating

This may be my favorite Thai festival - it is peaceful and beautiful. The flowers, insence and sparklers that people put in their gratongs shimmer and sparkle as they float down the river. Last year in Korat, we had the festival at the man made pond in the center of town. This year we actually got to do it at the river.

After everyone releases their gratongs, many people purchase small hot air baloons which they release into the sky. Sean had a small one, we lit it and watched it float up into the light-speckled sky.

My last post from my trip with Katarina...

We returned to Bangkok last weekend and filled our time with temples and markets. Saturday we visited the Grand Palace, Temple of the Emerald Buddha (it's really jade) and Wat Pho before hitting the sopping mall to look for great Gucci copies. Here are pictures from the Grand Palace:

Kat and the giant guard at the Grand Palace

The actual palace

Kat by the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho


Sunday we spent the morning at the floating market (actually about 2 hours from Bangkok, which I didn't realise). It was very commercialized, which I didn't like, but really neat all the same. The afternoon brought us to Chatuchak Market - the Bangkok Weekend market - a crazy crowded place filled, in my opinion, with anything you could ever want to buy in Thailand! Here are some pictures from the floating market:

Fruit and snack sellers at the floating market

"Hats for sale!"