I told both of the schools that I teach at that I wouldn’t be coming this week. Christmas was Tuesday (I teach at one of the schools on Tuesdays) and even though we don’t have the day off, I really didn’t feel like teaching a bunch of kids on Christmas Day. Plus my family is coming to visit next week and I need to get things settled at the office (I have a report due to Peace Corps on the Jan 15th that I want to turn in early). With so much to do, I really didn’t want to do lesson planning & everything that comes with teaching.

I was sitting at the office on Wednesday when, much to my surprise, I saw a few students from one of my schools. Then I saw the principal and one of the teachers. And then I saw more students. There were about 20 students total (my class is about 55 but you can only fit a certain number of people in the back of a pickup truck).

The students had made me Christmas cards & bought me a Christmas gift!

The present was a BEAUTIFUL shawl…

It was so sweet and totally made my day!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas holiday! This is my first Christmas away from home & it’s strange…but it’s even stranger spending Christmas in a country that doesn’t celebrate the holiday.

I went to Chaing Mai for the weekend. A Peace Corps staff member got married and invited the volunteers to her wedding (she is Thai). I’ve been to a Thai wedding before, but I didn’t get to see the entire ceremony (they were late picking me up). So it was really neat to see.

The ceremony that we went to started at 9:00 in the morning. Normally, this ceremony is only for close family & a few friends (so it was very nice of her to let us come). The groom & his family were in another room & they had to gain entry into the room we were in. The bride’s family barred his way with chains & they asked him questions before they would let him pass.

The bride was hiding & once the groom gained entry into the room he had to find her. The groom’s family then presented the dowry to the bride’s family.

The groom also presented gifts to the bride.

Then the guests sat before the couple & sprinkled seeds & flowers over the dowry while wishing them luck.

The couple then moved to chairs & all of the guests tied strings around their wrists & gave them blessings & good wishes. (I didn’t get a pic of this, but you can see the strings tied to their wrists in the group picture).

Later that night, they had a reception at the same hotel. The bride & groom had changed into more “Western” clothes.

It took place poolside & it was gorgeous! They had a little stage that went out into the pool where they had the cake & they had candles floating in the pool. (The sign “Nid & Noi” are the nicknames of the bride & groom).

Here they are with the volunteers.

The groom is a professor at a University in Kentucky & the couple will be moving there in a few weeks (the bride is working on her Masters). I wish them the best of luck & I hope that the people they meet in America are as nice as the people in Thailand!

On Sunday, Gabe, Tara, Scott, and I went to Tomi & Derrick’s home. They live about half-way between Chaing Mai & my site. They had invited volunteers to their home for dinner on Christmas Eve. (Christmas Eve was a holiday in Thailand – Election Day, but Christmas Day was not & we had to be back at site).

It was wonderful! They have a very nice home & we were able to make some delicious food for dinner. (Gabe left early and missed out on an amazing dinner!) We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, salad, biscuits, and chicken (turkey is difficult to get in Thailand).

Some photos…
Tara with her deviled eggs.

Tomi making the biscuits.

Scott getting into the holiday spirit.

And the spread.

Christmas Day was like any other day…in the 80’s!

Again, I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas! Hopefully you were able to spend it with friends & family & if you were lucky you had a bit of snow!

To the Defense

I’ve had a lot of fun writing this blog. It’s been a great way to keep those of you back home updated as to what’s going on with my life and what I have experienced here in Thailand. I’ve even met some new people because of it. Now granted, it hasn’t all been easy…there was a period where I couldn’t get the language setting changed from Thai & the Thai government had blocked Blogspot blogs for a while & it hasn’t always been easy loading pictures with the slow internet connection (that’s why it sometimes takes me a while to get things posted).

I’ve also really enjoyed the comments I receive from all of you. I do read them even if I don’t respond to them (if you log on, I will get a name but I don’t get email address so I can’t reply). (By the way, congratulations Cory…you’re going to have your hands full with 3)! Very recently, I received some comments that lead me to believe that I have offended some people…which I am very sorry about. It has NEVER been my intention to offend anyone. But apparently some people are upset with me, so let me take this time to explain my comments.

The blog at issue was one I posted back in June where I talked about what I did for my birthday. I had asked my mom to send some cake mix & frosting so that I could make cupcakes. I had problems finding vegetable oil at the store & had issues with my power because I had to bake the cupcakes in my toaster oven.

Now let me explain my situation. I live in a very small village in Northern Thailand. I am a 45 minute songtao ride from the nearest city. Peace Corps will not let us drive so I have very limited access to transportation. The city that is 45 minutes away from my village is 11 hours from Bangkok. When I wrote the blog, I had been to the grocery store maybe 3 times. I have since found the “farang” section in the grocery store and yes, they do have cake mix. But they DO NOT have frosting. They also DO NOT have vegetable oil. These things can be found in Bangkok (apparently) but Bangkok is not an easy trip for me.

Yes, they have ovens in Thailand. But the average Thai household in the average Thai village DOES NOT HAVE AN OVEN!!!! A month ago, I was invited to a woman’s house in my village & she was proud to show-off her oven. It was the first & is the only oven that I have seen in a Thai house. Now I’m not speaking for houses in Bangkok or Chaing Mai (that are quite a bit more expensive than the houses in my village), and I’m not speaking for bakeries or other businesses…I have not been to a kitchen in Bangkok so I cannot tell you if your average home in Bangkok has an oven. But I can tell you that the average home in my village does not have an oven.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I live on a budget of 10,000 baht a month (about $300). This includes 2,500 baht for rent…which leaves 7,500 baht (which is about $225) for living expenses (which includes food). This is the same budget that the average household in my village lives on. This is not enough money to travel to Bangkok and buy expensive cake mix and frosting! This is not enough money to buy an outrageously expensive oven! This is why the woman in my village felt the need to show-off her oven. It is a luxury item that the average household cannot afford!

It has never been my intention to lie or offend anyone through this blog & it makes me sad when people post comments that imply otherwise. I don’t know how they even found my blog (do people actually go around Googling cupcakes?).

Tired?

I was riding my bike up this hill yesterday & I heard a motorcycle drive up next to me. I looked over & the driver had slowed down enough so that she was riding next to me. She looked at me, asked me if I was tired, and then drove off.

Sometimes I really hate not being able to drive a car!

The King's Birthday

This past Wednesday was the King’s 80th birthday. Now if I haven’t mentioned it before, the King is kinda a big deal in Thailand. Thais wear yellow shirts every Monday (and any other day of the week) to pay respect to the King. His photo hangs in every home and business and you can actually face up to 7 years in prison for disparaging the King. So his 80th birthday celebration was going to be pretty big.

The people from my work called me on Wed morning and told me that they would pick me up at 6:00 to go into Santisuk (I’m about 8k away) for the festivities. When we got to the field, it was just starting to get dark. They had a big huge stage with a gigantic picture of the King.

People were just starting to arrive…the event actually started at 7:00 (why we had to get there at 6:00 I have no idea).

At 7:00, everyone gathered around the stage & different villages & schools presented these egg-shaped statues as gifts to the King.

You can see the statues lined up on either side of the photo under the writing.

That lasted about an hour or so. I had fun because we were standing next to a group of uniformed “cadets.” (I believe they are in a program like the ROTC in America). I could hear them talking among themselves & mixed in with the Thai were a few English words…which usually happens when people want to talk to me but can’t remember enough English to really ask anything. Usually the first question a Thai will ask is if I speak Thai. So instead of waiting for them to ask, I turned to the group and told them that I speak a little Thai (and then the lady I was with at the time told them that I could understand Thai really well if they spoke slowly…which was very nice to hear). They were very impressed & shouted out a few questions: “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “What did you eat with your rice?” the normal questions Thais ask. Apparently one of the “cadets” was the daughter of the woman I was with.

(The woman is one of the village council members & the head of the tea-making group).

When all of the villages had presented their gifts, the mayor of Santisuk made a speech & then they had a candlelight ceremony & sang songs (I recognized the King’s song & the National Anthem among the several that were sung).

That lasted about 30-40 min and then the show started. Different groups & schools prepared dances & shows for the event. They were all amazing & the costumes were stunning!

I haven’t yet mentioned the fireworks. They started lighting off big huge fountains during the dancing. Normally, I would be impressed, but they had these fountains “stationed” in the trees & about 10 ft from the crowd. You can’t tell from the picture, but the sparks were POURING into the trees & hitting people in the crowd. I am very surprised that they didn’t start a fire!

We left at 9:00 & as we were walking to the car they were lighting lanterns that then floated into the sky.

P.S. I'm sorry about the bad pictures. My camera takes crappy night pictures.