So! Onward and Outward

Continuing from my last post~

The Novice Camp:
So the novices, or naane as they're called in Thai, were wonderful. They taught us how to make two different kinds of mud bricks, and we helped to add a layer to the house they are in the process of constructing.

It's amazing to see a house come together from mud and sand! And they last for a long time, too. The huts we stayed in were over six years old and holding together well.

We also had a short, two or three hour English language session with the boys. They were very inquisitive, and they also wrote out the Shan alphabet for me~

This is my name in Shan! I showed my students at the school, and they were very surprised.

We were fed delicious food at the camp, too. They grow everything they eat themselves, and it's all organic. We also absorbed a lot of information on the practices and philosophy behind Buddhism. They had a great sign posted with one of my favorite quotes:

This is a common idea in Christianity, and it also explains the idea of how karma works.

We were also lucky enough to participate in a purification/longevity ritual with some people that came up from Bangkok.

The idea behind the ritual is that the naane (novices) all hold the end of a string as they chant.

The strings are attached to a network that then dangles down around our heads, so their prayers flow in to us.

The coolest thing, though, was that we got to see a traditional Shan costumed-dance.


The creature the costume is supposed to represent is a mythical creature from the Himalayas. Aren't they awesome? These boys competed in a cultural festival and won!

February 10-13: Trip to Luang Prabang, Laos
So we went to Laos two weekends ago. Part of the reason was because we needed to re-up our Visas for Thailand, and you have to do that coming into Thailand. The other part was because we could. Honestly, I didn't have the best time. I wasn't feeling very well - that's what I get for drinking ice coffee on and empty stomach right before the flight! Epic fail.

The highlights of the trip were probably getting to eat some pretty good American food, getting to do some English conversation, and going to a gorgeous waterfall.

Four lovely ladies: myself, Gina, Cassie, and Millie.

The water fall was so beautiful. And we also got to swim in the pools near the bottom! It was cold, but wonderful.

The other cool thing was that we actually took a prop plane to get there and back, since the flight was less than an hour. It was a much smoother ride than expected.

I was so happy to get back to Chiang Mai, though. It's a little sad to think that, now that we finally feel like Chiang Mai is our home base, we'll be leaving for Vietnam on March 3rd. I can't believe how the time has flown. I honestly don't know if I would have noticed the time passing like this unless I wasn't almost finished with my text book and didn't have several pages of poetry to show for it. It will be sad to leave this place, but I'm really looking forward to Vietnam, and I think that helps. Moving from Thai to Vietnamese will be a welcome break from Thai, and we get to stay with host families whose children are English students at the university. I've always wanted to be in a host family situation, even just for a week, so I'm so looking forward to it. I've also accepted the fact that I can always come back to these countries in the future, so it's okay to part with them for now. The future is wide open, after all.

Well, I think I'll leave off here for tonight. I shouldn't upload many more pictures to this post, and I'll probably have more time in the next week to do another post or two. Hope you're all having a great day, and here's to a good night's sleep for me!

~แอปี้ (Abby)