Fun Fact Friday #4

Well today is Tuesday, and clearly I'm a little behind on my blog posting but here is a fun fact I learned this past week:

First off, Thailand doesn't recognize Daylight Savings, which made Monday morning a bit confusing when my phone said one time and my computer said differently. Luckily Google helped me out and told me the correct time and I made it to class.

Secondly, telling time in spoken Thai is extremely different than how we would tell time in the US. When telling the time, the hours are divided into 5 main groups, not including noon and midnight. Below are the divisions and their names:

Midnight-12:59 am: tiiang-kheun

1:00 am-5:59 am: tii

6:00 am-11:59 am: mohng chao

Noon-12:59 pm: tiiang-wan

1:00 pm-3:59 pm: bye

4:00 pm-6:59 pm: mohng yehn

7:00 pm-11:59 pm: toom

The names of this different groups are used either before or after the number, and indicate the time of day. So it would be similar to us saying "4:45 in the afternoon." In Thai, this would be said "4 mohng yehn 45."

The most confusing part about telling time in Thai is that once you reach 7:00 pm, you start counting from 1 again until midnight. So 9:00 pm would be said "3 toom."

I hope this explanation is somewhat clear, but I'm pretty sure it's not. I definitely have confused myself more trying to explain it. Wish me luck with my Thai I final tomorrow afternoon!

Thai Dance

This week our Thai Dance class has finally started. The class will last for half a semester and includes a dance performance in April in front of the new president of the university. Thai dance is much trickier than it looks. So far we have learned a few of the basic hand positions as well as a few seated positions which make me feel a bit like a contortionist. Our second day of classes we went even further and incorporated some walking and circling with partners into the dance. I have really enjoyed the first two classes and I am especially fond of the pants we get to wear. Our first day we were given a large piece of fabric, and were instructed how to wrap the fabric around our waists and between our legs in order to make loose pants. They aren't the most flattering, but they are super comfortable and are definitely a look that I'm going to introduce to the St. Lawrence campus.

Making our pants for dancing.

Learning some of the basic moves.

Monk Farewell Party

Today a few of us returned to Wat Suan Dok to attend a farewell party for our monk friends who are graduating from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University. We could only stay for about an hour since we had classes today, but we were able to attend part of a ceremony and ate lunch with our monk friends. During the ceremony there was chanting and the calling of spirits. In some of the photos you can see the white string that is wrapped around one's wrist or lying over one's shoulder during the ceremony. This string can be seen in many Buddhist ceremonies and represents the goods spirits that are called back that grant good luck and good health for the future. After the ceremony for the graduates we took a lot of pictures. We took a few with our closest monk friend, Lat, but also were asked to pose in photos with many other monks, many who we had never spoken to before. You might notice that we are standing away from the monks in the photos, and that is because females are not allowed to touch the monks. After the paparazzi finished taking our photos, we had a quick lunch before saying goodbye. We had to say goodbye to a few of our monk friends, but Lat will be in Chiang Mai for a few more weeks so hopefully we will be seeing him again. 

A dog joins for the ceremony as well.

Farewell ceremony.

Lat

me with Lat and Tammy

Tying the "quan" (white string) on the wrist.

Feeling the Love

Despite Valentine's Day already passing, I definitely felt a lot of love this weekend from friends and family back in the states. Not only did I receive two care packages, I also received multiple letters all of which put a big smile on my face. Many thanks to those sending their love from the other side of the planet. I hope that some of my cheesy postcards have already arrived in the USA.

I got to Skype with family this weekend, and got to laugh a bit with my big brother who I will have only spent 10 days with out of 9 months. (Harry was abroad in Greece in the fall and our time home overlapped for 10 days over winter break) I'm very much looking forward to a summer back with my silly brother. A much needed Skype session also happened with my two favorite Californians. I'm a lucky girl to have such great friends living all over the place, and extra lucky that they all flock to Lake George for summertime fun.

Here's a puzzle for anyone looking for a good challenge: I saw this shirt at a market last night and can't seem to figure out what it's supposed to mean. You've gotta love Thai-English translation!

Fun Fact Friday #3

Well instead of fun fact Friday, this is more of a Random Thoughts Friday. I thought I would just include some photos of random things that I've seen in my daily life here that haven't been posted on the blog yet.

This is a photo of one of the monk's notebooks. His name is Chaiporn, as you can see written across the top. I was very intrigued to see his doodles. While the monks are able to do things like watch TV and use the internet, I hadn't really considered if any of them were artists (or doodlers more specifically) so I really enjoyed his cartoon faces.

A pretty sign at one of the temples (I have no idea what this says).

Dhammananda Bhikkhuni and her translator at one of her lectures last week

It has only rained here a handful of times, but when it rains it pours. We were caught at this restaurant during a quick shower that only lasted about ten minutes. The rain shower passed quickly and really cooled off the hot day.

Thai hair salon.

Here is the bicycle that I'm renting from the university for the semester. For about $5 I am able to rent the bike for 4 months. It has a basket in front and a bell. I have been having a blast riding around campus. Sometimes my bike likes to pretend it's a motorbike and parks between them to fit in.

Chaos in Laos

Before you start worrying, there was no "chaos" in Laos, I just thought it was a catchy title so sorry if anyone got nervous for a second. Anyways, I have safely returned from a long weekend trip to Vang Vieng, Laos. Friday evening eight American girls and myself took a 8 o'clock bus to Udon Thani, a small city near the border of Laos where we arrived around 7:30am Saturday morning and paid for our Laos visas. We then took a tuk tuk (see picture below) to the border and from the border took a bus to our final destination of Vang Vieng. We arrived there around dinnertime Saturday and checked into our hostel, Pan's Place, before heading out to grab some dinner.

Sunday morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hostel before heading out for a day of activities. We had booked a full day of outings with a tour company for only $13 each the night before. We got picked up around 9am and were driven outside of the small city about a half an hour before reaching a small cave on land that we explored before heading to a long cave in the water where we sat in tubes and pulled ourselves through the cave by a rope. It was pretty dark in the cave but the headlamps we were given allowed us to see the beautiful insides of the cave. Our Lao guide was whistling and singing in some parts of the cave, and the acoustics of the cave sounded beautiful as we floated along.

After we exited the cave we had a delicious barbecue lunch of shish kabobs and baguettes. Baguettes are pretty popular in Laos, I probably had one served with each meal. Vang Vieng is very touristy so the restaurants definitely cater to a foreign audience. After lunch we took a short walk to the Nam Song River where we kayaked 10k in sit-on-top kayaks. These aren't my favorite type of kayaks, but it was nice to float down the river and splash each other. Along the river we passed kids with masks on that we fishing using homemade spears.

Later that night after a long day in the sun we enjoyed a big dinner at a restaurant in the city. There are around ten restaurants that play the TV show Friends continuously on big screens. We ended up staying there for a few hours enjoying a familiar TV show and eating a lot of cheap and tasty food.

Monday morning we woke early and rode out to the Blue Lagoon, a popular swimming spot that has gorgeous aqua waters filled with tiny fish and great rope swings and trees to jump out of. There was also a humongous cave called the Tham Phu Kham Cave which the pictures don't give any justice for the size of the inside of the cave. We spent most of the day swimming and enjoying the area before heading back into town. We left Tuesday morning and spent a full 22 hours traveling back to Chiang Mai. Although there was a lot of travel time involved, it was definitely worth it for a great weekend in a beautiful spot with lots of activities to do.

riding in a tuk tuk

crowded bus 

standing room only

view from our hostel, Pan's Place

breakfast at the hostel

Vang Vieng's beautiful backdrop

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

this cave is a lot bigger than it looks, try to find the two people standing in the photo

hanging out with cows

Nam Song River

tree jumping 

Fun Fact Friday #2

Happy Friday everyone! The weeks have been flying by here and I can't believe it's already the weekend and that I'm heading off to country #3 of my time here so far. This weekend we will be heading to Laos, where we will be spending the long weekend in Van Vieng. There we will be doing some tubing and kayaking on the Nam Song River as well as some rock climbing in another area. The reason for the long 4 day weekend is the Makha Bucha Buddhist Holiday that will take place on Monday. During this holiday, Thai Buddhists will visit temples to gain merit and pay their respects to the Buddha. The name "mahka" means third lunar month in Thai, and "bucha" means to honor.

This week I had the amazing opportunity to see Dhammananda Bhikkhuni speak in a three-day lecture series that was held at Payap University. She is the first Thai woman to be ordained as a monk and runs a the only temple in Thailand that has fully ordained nuns. It was incredible to sit in front of such a respected woman in the Buddhist world and hear her speak about the practices of Buddhism. She spoke briefly about women's role in Buddhism, but unfortunately I am missing the final lecture of the series that focuses on women in Buddhism since I am leaving for Laos tonight. Nevertheless, it was incredible to hear her speak and I also ran into our Buddhist monk friend named Lat and he was so excited to see us. We spoke for a while and told him that we would tell him all about our trip to his native country of Laos once we return on Tuesday.

Fun Fact #2:

In Theravada Buddhism, the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism that is mainly practiced in Thailand, monks are required to shave their heads as well as any facial hair, including their eyebrows. However, the fun fact I learned this week is that monks shave their heads on the day of the full moon each month. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the current phase of the moon by observing the length of Buddhist monk's hair. The next full moon occurs on Monday, February 25, so when I see Lat again after my trip, he will be newly shaved and the moon will begin its waning phase.