So I know these posts are a little behind...but I'm working on it! On the 21st of November was the holiday Loy Krathong. This holiday is all about thanking the water god for the ability to use water and also asking for forgiveness for any misuse of water over the past year. The celebration is usually held at night when people release Krathongs, which are usually made of bread, leaves, flowers and a candle, and made previously that week, down the river. You typically release a Krathong with your significant other. Side note--we learned from our coordinator that it's a very popular night for teenage couples to loose their virginities. In addition to being a holiday of thanks, its a holiday of romance, second only to Valentines Day (which they take VERY seriously here.) So Ciana and I spent the evening with our coordinator along the Suphanburi river watching all the festivities.
A Krathong
Krathongs floating down the Suphanburi river
A float of various images to celebrate the holiday
The following Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and let me tell you I definitely missed the food. We tried to put something resembling a Thanksgiving dinner together, but it wasn't quite the same. There were about 12 farangs, or foreign white people, that gathered together at Lin's, which is the restaurant across the street from our apartment. We had chicken, rice, stir fried veggies and KFC mashed potatoes and gravy tying it all together. Leave it to American fast food to save the day. We all went around the table and shared what we were thankful for and then dug in. The meal was topped off with fresh pineapple and Chinese donuts dipped in sweetened condensed milk. Not quite the same as pumpkin pie, but delicious nevertheless.
Chelsea, me, Ciana, Andrew, Christie, Peter, Laura, Chris, Cassie, Olivia and Jenny all enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner
Family style veggies, rice and chicken
KFC pulling the meal together with gravy and mashed potatoes
The Saturday after Thanksgiving was our first English competition. As I have learned, these students are basically in school every day. They oftentimes travel into Bangkok, or nearby cities, on Saturdays and Sundays so they can go to class. This is obviously so they can improve their education but also, I swear, so they can win more competitions. It seems like almost every weekend there is a different competition in a different subject. On Saturday a school near ours hosted a competition with 85 different participating schools. The students had to express knowledge of many different subjects in English. My competition in particular was technology and English. The students had to read an entry that was about a page long, answer 5 questions about the entry, then send their answers to us via Skype. Why Skype? I have no idea. I don't know anyone who uses Skype to send files...but that's what they had to do. Afterwards, they picked a topic out of a had and had 10 minutes to prepare a 2-3 minute speech. They had to deliver their speech to us by calling us on Skype. This task seemed like a little more appropriate, but it still seemed bizarre that we were all sitting in one computer room but had to listen to the student speak through the computer. Oh well. In the end we actually had a pretty good time and it was interesting to see exactly what a competition was like. I'm sure it will be the first of many.
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