These past few weeks have been filled with very interesting events,
first off we had Loy Kratong festival a few weeks ago, which is the lantern
festival and water festival. It was
raining this evening, so unfortunately were could not let off the lanterns, but
another water of the festival is the sending off of a boat of flowers with a candle in the middle, which is to give
thanks to the water on the earth and to say sorry for polluting it. I went with my host mom and sent off the
little boats of flowers and saw a beauty and talent competition, where all the
girls were dressed in Traditional Thai dress and sang a traditional song. This was very interesting because it happened
that the following day I was going to be dressed in a traditional Thai costume from
the time period of King Rama 5 (late 1800’s) and get my makeup done the Thai
way, with the pale face painted on and the eyebrows filled in and a whole lot
of eye makeup. I was dressed this way
because it was sports day at my school and they had a parade at the start of
the first day to introduce all the colour groups. As a foreigner they were very excited to
dress us up and make us walk at the front of the parade, carrying egg shaped
things that represented the king and queen.
It was a lot of fun and the Thai students were so amazed that we (the
three exchange students at my school) were dressed in Thai costumes and had our
makeup up done it felt like we were minor celebrities, because they were
obsessed with getting our photos but it was a lot of fun and I hope I get to
where more traditional Thai outfits soon!
It was The King’s Birthday Wednesday the fifth of December,
and a lot of people were out around town wearing yellow in support of the King,
as well as there was a huge gathering of people in Bangkok in front of the
palace, where they king who has been sick and in hospital gave a speech to the
huge crowds, all the Thai people thought it was very emotional and were very
happy to see the King out and about.
Today also doubled as Father`s Day so not only were the Thai people
giving respects to the King, but to father`s everywhere. My host dad went out and played golf on this
day off, so a typical father`s day, my host mom also had a yellow shirt for me
to wear so I blended right in with the Thai people, except the pale skin of
course!
This past weekend, I was over at my friend’s house and her
host dad came up to us and said it was time to go we are going to my friend’s
house for dinner, no warning or anything, but it was interesting I met people
studying in Bangkok, and another student of the 4500 at my school. However that
is what some of my days are like, no warning and then we are off on an
adventure around Korat or even the nearby towns.
This past Monday was very interesting as my host family was
having the official opening of their new coffee shop, the monks came and
blessed the place, showered it with water droplets and then friends of my host
family came and ate a lot of food ( as with any Thai celebration there is
always lots of good food). Then in Thai
tradition the youngest of the family hosting the gathering get to wash the
dishes, so as one of the youngest, myself and two others, sat around three
buckets and washed to our hearts content.
It was actually quite nice to be completely immersed in the Thai culture
enough for them to think of me as part of the family instead of a guest.
This week, was filled with interesting activities at school,
on Thursday we had a day learning about religion from two monks who came to our
school, so teach my grade about what Buddha had taught them and how to lead a
good fulfilled life. That evening there
was a barbecue festival in Korat and in the town center, they had an entire
western scene set up as the stage with life performances and meat cooking
everywhere. They also had Johnny Cash
playing in the background which was a little strange to walk by the speakers
and hear his voice coming out of it because usually they have remixes here that
they play of all the famous songs.
Finally, Friday my entire grade at school went to the
national science, IT and Natural History museums in Bangkok, we then went to
Dream land, an amusement park in the afternoon.
At Dream Land, they had a snow town, so I got to go sledding and play in
the snow for a bit then head back out into 30 degree weather, it was quite and
experiences but a lot of fun! I got my one snow day in for the year.
I am now off to the Northern Part of Thailand with rotary
for Christmas, so it should be interesting seeing how all the exchanges
students react to not spending a Christmas at home.
