Happy New Year!

Last week was the traditional Thai New Year which means: Songkran Festival! We got the entire week off of school so I took the opportunity to spend the time with my Thai host family whom I lived with for about 5 weeks in Chiang Mai. I arrived early in the morning after a ten hour overnight bus ride to the Chiang Mai bus station, where my host mom and youngest sister (Fai) picked me up. It felt SO GOOD to see them. They came running towards me and gave me a big hug. I had almost forgotten how incredible they are, not to mention how much of a giant I feel like in their presence. They took me back to the house where I found Fern, who is still the best person at teaching me and forcing me to use my Thai. The 4 of us girls had a fabulous day of catching up, eating, and shopping. Then for dinner, we met my host dad as well as the ISDSI student that my family hosted earlier this semester at a restaurant for dinner. By the way, one of the many reasons why I was looking forward to coming back up to Chiang Mai was the food. Even just the idea of eating 3 actual meals was enough to get me excited. And the thought of a home cooked meal around a kitchen table seemed like paradise. Plus, I always liked having my host family there to pick out food for me because I know I ate a lot of things that way which I would have otherwise never chosen myself. So what did I eat my first day in this fabulous setting? Well, throughout the day I had: congealed blood, chicken liver, oysters, the biggest prawns I've ever seen, and frog. I guess in all my excitement I kind of overlooked the fact that I also get served some pretty wild stuff when I'm with these people. It really didn't matter though, I was so happy to be there.

The next day was the first of the three official holiday days. So we celebrated in true Chiang Mai fashion. We loaded the bed of the pickup truck with three giant buckets and used a hose to fill them all with water. Fai, Fern, and I plus 4 family friends climbed into the bed also, with our small pails in hand. Meh, Paw, and one other adult sat in the front of the car. On our way to the center of the city we stopped to buy HUGE bricks of ice to put in our big buckets. We were all set to join the world's most ridiculous water fight. You may remember, Chiang Mai is an extremely old city. Originally, it was built in a square with fortifying brick walls and a moat surrounding it. Segments of the wall still remain as ruins while the moat is still intact, which is quite convenient fo rthis particular holiday. The sidewalks in between the road and the moat were just packed. They were lined with vendors selling water guns, pails, ice, sunglasses, food, drinks, etc. But in fornt of and in between all the vendors are people just out to play. They have everything from high powered water guns to dinky squirt guns, although most people just have pails with long strings attached so that they can easily lower the pail into the moat to refill it. This is why having the moat is so great-- an infinite, free supply of water for everyone. And the streets were packed as well. Many cars were like us, pickups armed with plenty of water and plenty of people to throw the water. Many were motorcycles, defenseless and vulnerable unless they had a water gun yielding passenger. Some were the covered pickup taxis in which passengers attempted (but often failed) to hide and take cover in. Some were regular ol' cars. And some were tuk-tuks hired by foreigners for the occasion-- bucket of water included. Traffic moved only a couple of miles per hour or was stopped completely on the streets around the moat. But I'd take this traffic jam over Bangkok's any day. And so this is the setting of Songkran in Chiang Mai. There is no escaping. I was completely soaked in under ten minutes. Some people are extra gentle and simply sprinkle a handful of water over your shoulder as they walk by. This is rare. More likely, an entire pail of water is thrown on you from someone standing on the sidewalk or from a neighboring car. Or you receive a continuous, probing stream of water on your back from a water gun. Or you are momentarily blinded after being sprayed in the face. Or you are in shock after being doused with freezing cold ice water. You may think a splash of ice water would feel good and refreshing on a 100 degree day, but the thing is you are already sopping wet. All that the ice water does is send shivers down your spine and take your breath away. I have no right to complain, though, seeing as we stopped to buy ice at least three times. And whenever we ran out of water, we would simply pull over and refill our buckets from the moat. At first, I'll admit, I was a bit hesitant to start pouring ice water all over strangers. But no worries, I soon got the hang of it. It was especially satisfying to get revenge on someone who had targeted you-- which happened quite often to me, given that I am white. So basically, the celebration is incredible. I would look out onto the street ahead of our car and simply be in awe. Various businesses had stages set up along the road, promoting this or that by dancing, playing music, giving away free stuff, etc. People were swimming in the moat and even jumping off of the old ruins about 5 meters high into the water. And all you could see were people and cars and water being splashed and sprayed and poured and thrown in every imaginable direction. And although the hub of all the activity is around the moat, you really are not safe anywhere in the city. Because along any road, from the smallest side streets to the biggest highways, there are always people out waiting with water in hand to splash across your windshield or onto your motorcycle. Or if you go out shopping, you must be prepared for a handful of water on your shoulder. It's everywhere and gets everyone. And this goes on ALL WEEK LONG. If there's one thing I've learned in Thailand, it's that Thais know how to celebrate.

Traditionally, the Songkran holiday is a time for Thais to go back to where they are from and be with their families. Furthermore, it is a time when Thais pay respect to their elders, especially the oldest generation of their family or even recently deceased family members. Since both my host mom and dad are from Lampang and both of their families still live their, we drove the two hours to Lampang the next morning. My host grandmother, who lives with my family in Chiang Mai, was already there so I got to see her upon our arrival. She was so excited to hear me say a few limited sentences in Thai, since she knows no English. So those next couple of days were spent shuffling back and forth between Paw's family and Meh's family, meaning we were constantly in the company of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, great-grandmothers, great aunts, great uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. In other words, there was a lot of family. And little English. If there is one thing I've gotten good at in Thailand, it's being able to entertain myself while everyone else around engages in a conversation that i cannot understand.

But I loved being with all of the family and I loved seeing the more traditional side of the holiday. We continued to have water fights with the neighbors throughout the next few days, but I also participated in the other ways in which Thais celebrate their New Year. One evening, Paw, Fai, and I walked down the road to the river where we filled up our pails with sand. We then walked to the temple and dumped out the sand into a giant mold of a pagoda. It is an ancient belief that every time you leave the temple, your shoes take some sand away with them. So once a year you need to bring sand back to the temple to replace what you have taken away. You are supposed to do this three times, as with many other Buddhist traditions: one time for Buddha, once for his teachings, and once for the monkhood. Then the next morning, I went with my family around to 12 different houses in the neighborhood, all of which had old people living in them. Each elder gave the same blessing, in Sanskrit, to us while we all sat on the floor in a wai. The blessing, I am told, is to wish you good luck in the coming year. Each house has people constantly coming and going, meaning that the elders repeat their message for each new group that comes to see them. It was a great tradition to be a part of. Everyone was so welcoming and excited to have me. Also at each house, was food. Of course my host mom wanted me to try practically everything so I was pretty full after the 12 houses and it was still before 10 AM. When that was finished with, we headed to the temple. There, we found a small parade forming outside its gates with Thai people singing and dancing and playing music and DRINKING. Songkran is also, by the way, essentially a week-long, country-wide drinking binge. It's actually pretty bad, as over 200 people died throughout the country that week due to alcohol related accidents. Anyways, I was dragged into the celebration and forced to join in their drunken dancing which was pretty funny, I must admit. And I was completely soaked in no time with water, especially considering I was the only foreigner in sight. They marched into the temple grounds at which point they had to get rid of their drinks (you can't actually drink inside a Buddhist temple, but you can be drunk, apparently). And they continued to march around the temple three times. I managed to escape the parade and watch the rest from the sidelines with my host mom. We actually left before they finished, since they were moving quite slowly. And we went home to enjoy a long siesta after our busy morning, which is really all you can do when it is 100 some degrees out.

Being with all of that family was a great break from school life in Bangkok. I got to help cook dinner with Fern and one of her aunts. And I got to look through countless photo albums of weddings and travels and graduations of various family members. But it also reminded me a lot of holidays back home and celebrating with my own family, not to mention speaking English. All things that I am really missing. We returned to Chiang Mai on Friday morning and my bus for Bangkok left at 9 PM that night. On the drive back to Chiang Mai, we stopped at a local market where we picked up some produce and snacks. Paw picked out a bag of roasted silkworms to munch on. Fai also dug right in and went to town on them. Apparently I will try anything these days so when he offered me one I took it and popped it in my mouth with only a moment's hesitation. The outside shell had a nice fire flavoring but the inside? not so much. I politely declined to eat any more. And those are the main highlights of my trip. It was amazing to see them again and be reminded of their incredible hospitality and overall awesomeness. I promised them I would see them again before I left, in a little over a month (ah! the end is near!).

And in Bangkok news, the city turned ugly again last night. 5 grenades went off in the heart of the business district where both red shirt and recently appearing anti-red shirt protesters were gathered. One woman is confirmed to have been killed while over 80 were injured. The grenades landed in the street as well as on the raised skytrain platforms. And no one knows the real story of exactly who did it. The police are having a pretty rough time keeping the protesters in check, although many would claim the reason for that is that many of the police are secretly sympathizing with and aiding the red-shirts. It's crazy that this kind of stuff is allowed to just go on in the middle of the city. Millions of people are going about their daily business as they pass barricades of bamboo spears and troops holding live ammunition in the streets. But on the other hand, several different groups are getting fed up. There have been 'multi-colored' rallies, organization of local business owners, and meetings of the 'yellow shirts'-- all opposed to the red shirts camping out in Bangkok. But all that may only be creating more tension and more possible conflict. And the influence of all this is pretty widespread throughout the city (and country). I just found out that my two upcoming field trips--ones that were earlier postponed due to the conflict-- have been cancelled because transportation and safety is so unpredictable nowadays. But I promise, I do live and learn far from all the action so no need to worry about that.

Hope things wherever you are are peaceful and cool. And I will be seeing you soon!