From the Land of Smiles...: January 2006

Chinese New Years!

Hey Everybody,

I haven't posted much in the last few weeks, but that's because I haven't really been doing very much. I've been going to school during the week and hanging out at home on the weekends. I have made a few afternoon trips to Pattaya and Bangkok with my host sister's, so thats been fun.

One thing that has happened though was Chinese New Years. It was this past weekend. On Saturday morning I got up early and went to a Chinese temple with my host dad and host sister. The Chinese Temples are different than the thai temples. I think I like the thai temples more. Oh, and two of my host aunts, one uncle, and 4 host cousins came too. Anyways, we had to go around and light candles and put them on different tables. Then we went around to the tables and put food on them. We put a plate of fruit, desserts, and meat. We put the plates on top of sheets of gold leaf (I think). Oh, and we put little cups of tea and whiskey too. Then we went around with incence and wai-ed. After that we burned the sheets of gold leaf and took the food back.

Then I went to a second temple with my host aunt, cousins and host sister. This one was a temple for a "King" except he wasn't really a king. He helped Thailand become its own country when it was part of Burma. When we were there we bought flowers and candles and incence and went and wai-ed. After that we went home.

When we were there many more relatives came. Everyone was busy for a bit finishing up food orders. Then we went and wai-ed to the "angels" who protect the house (chinese and thai) and to the buddha and to the relatives who have died. Next it was time to burn the gold leaf for the deceased relatives. Then, finally it was time to eat. There was alot of food, but alot of people as well.

Oh, one good thing about Chinese New Years is that older relatives give money to the younger ones, so everytime a new family member came all of my host sisters and cousins asked them for money. They gave it out in little red envelopes. I got 5 envelopes, from 3 of my host sisters, my host parents, and a cousin(i think). It totalled 1200 baht, which is about $35 canadian. I was pretty excited about that.

After lunch we decided to go to a movie. All of my host sisters, cousins and I went to see Underworld revolution. I knew it was about vampires, but I never saw the first one, so I had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be really gory, and had quite graphic sex scenes...not what i would have expected looking at the audience. It wasn't very good...apparently the first one was better.

That night I went with Peep and Pook (my middle two host sisters) to Bangkok. We went out to dinner at MK before taking Pook to the airport. She was going to Tokyo for a week for an internship. She works for Toyota. After we dropped her off we went to the departure desks to try to get my ticket cleared up. I have to get it revalidated because right now my ticket is booked for May 10th, although i'm leaving on June 16th. We got to the desk and they had just closed up, but the woman said that we could do it over the phone, so i'm going to try tonight or tomorrow.

On Sunday morning I went to another temple with my host mother and Peep. We went to do tombon. We gave food to the monks outside and then went inside the temple. At that point people were mediting, so Peep and I read books (there were a bunch in english). Then the monks came in and everyone chanted. It was different at this temple.Usually just the monks chant, or the people just chanted a little bit. At this temple the monks chanted first, and then many of them went to go eat (they only get one meal a day at this temple!) and then all of the people chanted. They did so many different ones that the temple has books that you can read if you've forgotten them. I've never seen that before. After that everyone else got to go outside and eat. There was tons of food, and it was really good.

It was so weird, there were alot of foreigners at this temple. Not vistors, but there were at least two foreigner monks, and at least 6 monks in training, one of whom was going to become a monk that afternoon.

After we finished eating it was time to leave so I went back inside to put back the book that I had been reading. While I was putting it on the bookshelf I heard over the microphone "where you come from" and I turned around and a monk was calling me over. He was really nice and just asking me questions, but I never really know how to behave around monks. Next to him was a younger "falang" monk, who turned out to be from Vancouver, which was really cool. I wanted to stay and ask him some questions, because I've never really had an opportunity to talk to a monk, especially one from a western country. I would have asked him some questions but Peep came in looking for me and we had to leave.

Anyways, I would write a bit more, but school's over so I have to go home. I'll post again soon.

-Lauren

lamps and paintings

Hey Everybody,

Connor wanted to see pictures of the lamps that I got for christmas and bought and the paintings that I bought in Chiang Mai, so I thought i'd post them on here for everybody to see.

Here are the lamps that I got for Christmas from Rotary and my secret santa.

And here's the lamp that I bought. I didn't assemble the whole thing when I took the picture. It will actually be tighter than this.

And these are the paintings that I bought. I bought the two colourful ones at the wat that we went to on the first day, and the other at the white temple.

I'll post again soon.

-Lauren

things that make me happy

Hey Everybody,

My friend Paige sent me an email the other day that she had made when she was having a bad day. It was a list of things that she was grateful for/ things that make her happy...so I decided to make my own, since just readind hers made me happier. I thought i'd post it, just in case it makes some of you feel happier...And its really long, just to warn you...

Things that make me happy...

- music
- palm trees
- photographs
- sand between your toes
- Christmas stockings
- playing with my dog or cat
- blasting music and singing at the top of your lungs in the car
- my saxophone
- spring skiing
- the mounty on clifton hill
- sabai pants
- mashed potatoes
- guitars
- boys who play the guitar
- my cd player
- twizzlers
- exchanges
- air conditioning
- snow days
- getting letters in the mail
- doing cartwheels
- playing the piano
- sunsets
- chocolate
- the sound that gecko's make
- live music
- running around in the rain
- finding $20 in your pocket when you bring out your winter jacket
- rowing
- my dad's french toast
- starry nights
- building a snowman
- dancing
- long walks with no destination
- laughing until it hurts
- my birchinstocks
- pretty twirly skirts
- having smooth "just shaved" legs
- haircuts
- jeans
- singing
- beach days
- buckets
- "skinny" days
- getting a good song stuck in your head
- naps
- waking up with someone's arms around you
- fun earings
- catching snowflakes on your tongue
- ice cream
- 100 baht cd's
- vacations
- caroling
- camping
- 711's
- those little plans that close up when you touch them
- cha yen
- swimming
- getting flowers
- big comfy sweatshirts
- Tim Hortons
- movie nights
- chinese food delivery
- Good night kisses
- group hugs
- water fights
- the movie "Almost Famous"
- bookstores
- getting a tan
- the smell of a christmas tree
- tiger balm
- sitting in front of a fireplace in the winter
- free shots
- henna tatoos
- watching butterflies
- freshly baked cookies
- the first warm day of the year
- fitting 14 people in a tuk-tuk
- mix cd's/tapes
- blowing out birthday candles
- swings
- seeing a shooting star
- exchange students
- massages
- kao neo ma-muang (mangoes and sticky rice)
- curling up with a good book
- playing twister
- my friends (obviously)
- my family (obviously)
- smelling pretty
- rolling down hills
- giving/recieving presents
- banana pancakes
- toboganning
- going to the drive in
- jumping in a pile of leaves
- art museums/galleries
- snowball fights
- good boy smell
- finding shapes in the clouds
- saying "i love you"
- being told "i love you"
- surprises
- scarves and mittens
- peanut butter

I'll post again soon,

-Lauren

what i've been up to

Hey Everybody,

I'm just going to let you know what i've been up to over the past couple of weeks. I just realized that I haven't written about it at all.

After I got back from Chiang Mai I was home for a few days and then I went up to Korat for New Years. I spent a few days there with a bunch of the other exchange students. It was great, we had so much fun. We went out to this great mexican restaurant on New Years (we always seem to end up there) and were one of the only tables, so we had the whole patio to ourselves. It was alot of fun. We spent alot of the few days eating actually...its just what exchange students do. I guess that would account for all of the weight gain. It was really nice to have western food though. We had pizza for lunch one day, and Lebanese food for dinner. The owner of the Lebanese restaurant is a really nice guy. There's a computer with internet that you can use for free, and he has alot of books that you can borrow, read and bring back whenever you're finished. I grabbed a couple of Grisham books on my way out. It was a really fun few days, despite the long hours that I had to spend on a bus going to and from Korat.

This past weekend I went to Bangkok. I left on Saturday morning and came back Monday night. We went to say goodbye to two of our oldies who have finished their year and were going home to South Africa. It was really sad saying goodbye, but at the same time it didn't feel like it was time for them to leave yet (I have only known them for a few months though). It also made us all think about going home. It's weird because I can barely think about it. I can't even picture myself being at home right now, as much as I miss all of you. I guess that's a good thing though. It would have been terrible if I spent my whole year being homesick. Oh, by the way, I have to book my flight home soon, so i'll be able to give you a date in the next few weeks.

Anyways, while we were in Bangkok we stayed on Ko San Rd., the famous travellers street. It was awsome. There's so many people and so much to do. It was weird seeing so many farangs (sorry, foreigners) in one place. We're all used to being the only ones in our cities. Another funny thing that we noticed ourselves doing was speaking thai to the other foreigners. It was just little things like "excuse me" or "sorry", but it was interesting that we found ourselves doing it.

The weirdest and most coincidental thing happened to me on our first night there. We were walking down the street when randomly someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Thalia, my friend from my district in Canada who's on exchange in the South of Thailand. I haven't even talked to her in a few months. It was so crazy. She was there with her mom who had just come to visit. I still can barely believe that I just ran into her like that. And then later a few more of my friends ran into people that they knew. It was so weird.

During the weekend we went to "Siam Paragon" which is a new mall that just opened in Bangkok and is the largest mall in Southeast Asia (if not all of Asia). It was huge, and incredibly expensive. They sell ferrari's and lambourginis in the mall...on the 3rd floor. There's also an entire floor which is an aquarium. We didn't go in though because it was too expensive. We did eat at the food court though. They had lots of good food...including...bagels! We were sooo excited about that! And for dinner our last day we went to the gourmet grocery store and bought some cream of mushroom and broccoli soup, a baguet, 2 types of cheese and strawberries and had a little french feast. It was sooo good. It was expensive too, but it was worth it. Cheese is a rarity over here...actually, everything in that dinner was. Thats probably part of the reason why it was so good.

For the next few weeks i'm not going to be doing any travelling. My host family says that i've been travelling too much, so I need to stay home for a while. As sad as that is, they are right. I haven't spent a single weekend with this host family yet, so i'm going to be good for a few weeks, and then hopefully go and visit some of my friends in their cities.

This weekend I have a Rotary Bowling tournament. I'll let you know how I do. There are prizes for the winners, but I never was all that good at bowling...but you never know.

I miss you all!

-Lauren