My time is almost up

This will be my last posting from Thailand, as I will be returning to Summerland June 4^th.  I can’t quite believe that I will be returning so soon and that my exchange year is already coming to a close.  These past few weeks I have been going around with my second host family and enjoying a new family dynamic as I have two host siblings at the moment.

These final weeks have been great I’ve been able to go visit Khon Kaen a city 2 hours north of Korat, which was really cool as they have a nine story temple with a great view of the city and the lake at its center.  I also had my first traditional Thai massage while there and that was absolutely awesome as they stretch out every part of your body and massage out any knots you may have, so during it may be slightly painful but about 20 minutes afterwards it feels absolutely amazing.  Though the best part was it that it was only 10 dollars for a two hour massage! 

Friday May 24^th was a huge Buddhist celebration as it was Buddha’s Birthday, his day of enlightenment and the day he died.  That evening we went to the temple which was all decorated with the Buddhist flag and flowers.  At the temple we all sat while the monks prayed, then we walked clockwise around the temple three times holding flowers and incense and left the flowers and incense as offerings to Buddha.  The interesting this is that you have to rock clockwise because you only walk counter clockwise around the temple during a funeral and you carry their body with you.   During  this celebration at the mall in my town they had a convention room set up for this festival and you could go in and they had the history of Buddha’s life as well as famous monks came in and answered questions.  This continued on for the entire week. 

I also had the opportunity to a mushroom farm as well as the national park and hour away from my city with my host mom’s family.  The mushroom farm was really neat as you could walk around where they grew the mushroom but they not only sold fresh and dried mushrooms, but they had mushroom salad cream, hand lotion, ice cream and more.  The national park near my city is one of the only places you find uninterrupted green space so that is always wonderful to see,  we also stopped at the Khao Yai (name of national park) Castle which is actually a hotel but has been in a lot of famous Thai movies, as well as many other places to take pictures.

I had my last Rotary meeting here in Thailand yesterday and it feels surreal as I really believe that I will be back in Canada in a few short days, but I couldn’t have asked for a better end to my exchange then the one I have had.