A Festival

It was last night, after a final peer tutoring session that I got invited to a festival downtown to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent. I first heard about it two days before, when we and our peer tutors went to the local (tiny!) museum downtown. They were setting up the stages at the time andI asked what was going on. I was hoping I'd get a chance to go, so I leaped at the idea when Ae (my tutor) and her friends Oh and Boi invited me. Boi is Anne's tutor, so she tagged along, as did Emily. Everyone else had meetings and homework. Bah.

The festival, which was held downtown at the big lake in Khon Kaen, was set up like an American carnival, but there are many monks around. You can go to tents on the water, contribute a donation, and get a Gratom, or small floating boat with flowers, incense, and candles. We collected our gratom, waied to the monk, lit the incense, and then set the boats into the water to float off. It was a beautiful sight to see these little lights and flowers atop the water. The lake was also teeming with tiny goldfish -- sold nearby so people can set them free. It's good luck. Along with the fish, there were little birds, eels, and turtles.

The carnival was really remarkably like an American carnival. I learned the Thai words for Ferris Wheel (chingchah suwan), and got introduced to the Thai version of a carousel. I also learned the words for "tuk-tuk is broken", but that's another story.

We spent the last part of the evening watching traditional dancing and singing on the big stage. I think the Thai traditional dancing is so beautiful, and kept trying to master it. Oh, who has been dancing since she was little, would play teacher for me. Then we both would laugh at my ineptitude.

Today was my Thai final. In the afternoon, we present our final presentations for Thai class. My group did a video to the Wizard of Oz parody. In Thai. Hmmm. I've seen the other groups' videos, and most are really hilarious. So this afternoon is it for Thai class, and school in general for a week. Fall break is upon us!

I'm going to Chiang Mai and the northern area for the week. I'll be back on next Friday late. Tonight Anne, Christie, Kevin and I depart on our twelve-hour bus ride, overnight. We'll spend Sunday in Chiang Mai city, Monday at an organic farm run by CIEE alumni, and then who knows.

It just feels really nice to know that in a few short hours, my obligations will be significantly reduced.