From the Land of Smiles...

another great weekend...

Hey Everybody,


I had another really good weekend. Ohh, first of all, on Friday, I passed my ballroom dancing test…yay! It was a bit stressful because I had to dance with the teacher, but it went alright…

On Saturday I got to go to a Thai wedding with my host family. It was really interesting. Unfortunately, we had to leave the house at 6am to go to the first part, which lasted about 3 hours. Through the whole thing we sat on the floor, which is usual here. I even got to take part in a bit of the ceremony (sprinkling flowers and beans in a circle on this piece of cloth…I’m not sure what it meant). My neighbor took me up to do it. Nook and Kun Mae didn’t get to. After some more things like that they moved and went to sit on another mat and the bride and groom gave gifts to all of their close family. Then all the monks came in. They were sitting in a line at the back of the room. There was lots of chanting and wai-ing, and then the monks ate. After they ate we went outside and ate. Then the monks left and we went back inside. The bride and groom were kneeling next to each other and there was a long piece of string around both of their heads and between each other. The monks had blessed (I think that’s what they did) earlier. They had their hands out and people were coming along and pouring a tiny bit of water down each of their hands with a tiny pot. We didn’t do this because we had to get home.

After we got home and changed (well, Kun Mae changed…Nook and I were in regular clothes…it wasn’t really formal at all) then we went to Laem Tong (the big mall) Nook and I took the mini-buses there and met one of her friends on the way. We did some shopping and went to see “The Brothers Grimm” with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon. I actually really liked it. I wasn’t sure if I would, but it was pretty good. And it was nice that it was in English with Thai subtitles.

Then at 6:00 we went to the dinner part of the wedding. It was at a hotel. We got more dressed up for this part. Basically it was just a huge dinner. There were singers up onstage while we were eating, and then the bride and groom went up onstage and another man came up and spoke and then they each spoke (of course I had no idea what they were saying). Then they came down and cut the cake. They gave pieces out to the people sitting at the big table (close family I’m guessing) and some of the children that came up and asked. My neighbours son got a piece so we all had a bite…it was really good. The rest of us didn’t get cake, there was this dessert thing, with sticky rice and figs (I think)…but it wasn’t very good. Meanwhile, people had been going up and singing onstage. Just anyone that wanted to, it was pretty funny, some of them were terrible…After that we went home, because we were exhausted after being up for so long. Oh, did I mention that Nook and I had out picture taken with the bride and groom. So when they get their pictures there’s going to be this random white girl in them, lol…

On Sunday Kun Mae, Nook, Cheer (which is how you spell Chia) and I went bowling. It was fun…especially since we’re all terrible. I think it was Kun Mae’s first time bowling, and she really liked it.

Oh, and yesterday was such a weird day. It was just Monday (which I usually hate because of thai language and thai dance) but it was such a good day. I really don’t even know why, it was weird. My friend Pu even told me that I seem happier than I’ve been on any other day. I really have no idea why, but it was really really good, lol.

On Thursday I’m going to Bangkok for a few days to stay with friends of friends of my family in Canada. I’m really excited. I think its going to be a lot of fun. I’m also going to be going to a Bangkok rotary meeting on Thursday, so that will be interesting. I’ll post and let you know all about it when I get back…

I‘ll post the wedding pictures after this…

I miss you all!
-Lauren

posted by Lauren @ 10:37 AM