I am no monk...But for the past while I have been feeling like I want to become one even though that is not possible. I wanted to tell all of you in more detail about the monks and what I do at the Buddhist University with them for four hours a day four times a week. In the process I hope to answer your questions about the lives of the monks...or at least try. If you have any more let me know.
Buddhist monks can become monks at the age of 20. They can be a novice from the age of twelve until they become monks. They can choose not to be a monk ever and just live by the less amount of precepts that a novice follows. Most of the monks at the University are monks. There are a few novices but they are past monk age and just want their experience to be more relaxed than a monk.
The University and all monk education is free. Many of the monks come from very poor families in Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, and Laos. Most cannot afford education and most are the first to get any sort of education in their village. I have heard so many stories like this.
The monks follow 272 precepts which is another term for a rule. The five main one that everyone follows are no killing, adultry, stealing, lying, and drinking. The other ones are very minor about their behavior in terms of what they wear, what they can and cannot do, but most of them are vague and considered to be of the past sort of.
The monks are allowed to have whatever they want; computers, mp3 players, phones, etc. They are not supposed to show lay people but that is being more relaxed these days. Mostly this is because it makes the mind cloudy and unfocused on the truth. I can understand this but most use it to call home and to just be normal 20 year olds.
You can become a monk and leave monkhood whenever you want. There is no time minnimum but most boys become monks for at least 3 months at some point in thier lives. It is very favorable to a family to have their son in law be a monk at one point in his life.
The monks cannot play games, in terms of sports but they can lift weights. Some monks play soccer but not very many because the temple frowns upon it.
At the University we help the monks get more comfordable with speaking enlgish. It is really fun! We sit in on three different classes during the week either grading presentations, helping pronounciation or just talking about important places in Thailand in enlgish. It is so amazing to hear about all the temples, waterfalls, caves, cities and all the places we really SHOULD go to while we are here. Too bad I have no time to do any of that with this schedule haha. If we are not in class we sit at this long table and welcome monks to talk to us. We interview them about their lives, ask them about buddhism, or just chat about what we did that day or about anything they ask. They love talking to us and getting to know more about America. They speak english well but they love speaking in Thai or in Lao to challenge us to understand. Lao is similar to Thai but since Thai is hard...Lao is harder haha.
Women cannot be monks in Thailand. In other counties they have allowed it but not Thailand. There are a few female monks but they are not accepted or recognized by the country. There is a long history behind this but it is hard to explain. I can understand why though.
Tomorrow is our last day at the University and I am very sad. I am sad that we will be leaving all of this fun monk friends behind and we may never see them again. We have written in friendship books for them and they have each written us notes too. They are so wonderful and they have made a large imprint on my life and in my heart.
Any questions more just ask. Sorry I haven't written for a while but I was failing on thinking about things to write about.
Aubs
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Happy Birthday Marit
Well today is Marit's Birthday and it has been an enjoyable week! We had a family dinner with more food than Thanksgiving last night with singing and laughing with both mine and Marit's family. We got pizza and an ice cream cake which was just the american birthday Marit always wanted, haha. Today we had a Funfetti cake with pink frosting (what Marit has every year) and the whole group sang and ate together. It was wonderful.
Tomorrow we are going to go to the pool to get a tan and then head to get dinner at our favorite mexican place in Thailand (odd concept, right). After that we are going to the rooftop bar with kids from our group to hang out and celebrate Marit's birthday a little bit more. They never need an excuse here for a party!
We had art class today which was really fun. We did an animal painting with watercoloring and then we did one of people that was supposed to be a replica from an ancient temple drawing. They all turned out different, but I have never in my life been graded for art based on quality so harshly. I consider myself to be decently artistic and have always gotten As in art class. NO ONE gets As in this class. You are lucky if you get above a C+. Some kids take it hard, but I maintain and B+ average so that is good. Marit is an incredible watercolorer and has taken classes at school and she got a B+ on her last watercolor...they sure are strict.
I am excited to move out of painting and into silverware and casting...that should be messy but fun also.
Next week is our last official week of internship and I am getting really sad about it. I really have made some great monk friends and I want to keep in touch with them for a long time. They offered us teaching positions for the future and I am definetly considering it. I love working with the monks and I would love to live in Thailand for a while, especially Chiang Mai.
What is new in the US? We don't get to watch the Olympics and I am bummed but they are worse things I guess. I am too busy to sit at any TV anyways at home so I guess there is not much of a difference.
Aubs
Tomorrow we are going to go to the pool to get a tan and then head to get dinner at our favorite mexican place in Thailand (odd concept, right). After that we are going to the rooftop bar with kids from our group to hang out and celebrate Marit's birthday a little bit more. They never need an excuse here for a party!
We had art class today which was really fun. We did an animal painting with watercoloring and then we did one of people that was supposed to be a replica from an ancient temple drawing. They all turned out different, but I have never in my life been graded for art based on quality so harshly. I consider myself to be decently artistic and have always gotten As in art class. NO ONE gets As in this class. You are lucky if you get above a C+. Some kids take it hard, but I maintain and B+ average so that is good. Marit is an incredible watercolorer and has taken classes at school and she got a B+ on her last watercolor...they sure are strict.
I am excited to move out of painting and into silverware and casting...that should be messy but fun also.
Next week is our last official week of internship and I am getting really sad about it. I really have made some great monk friends and I want to keep in touch with them for a long time. They offered us teaching positions for the future and I am definetly considering it. I love working with the monks and I would love to live in Thailand for a while, especially Chiang Mai.
What is new in the US? We don't get to watch the Olympics and I am bummed but they are worse things I guess. I am too busy to sit at any TV anyways at home so I guess there is not much of a difference.
Aubs
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wat Stay
This weekend we stayed in a temple the whole weekend and had meditation session and practices. We went there on Saturday and on the way we stopped at three temples. The first is one of the oldest temples in Thailand over 700 years old. The next was on top of a mountian and it had stairs built all the way up to the temple...I did not climb them though haha. This temple had incredible views of the Thai landscape. Last we went to a temple in a huge cave that we hiked up to see. It was super cold in there but it felt amazing after the hike. Part of it was very dark and you could hear bats everywhere which freaked me out but it was a good experience. Parts of the cave you could not see anything and only four people had flashlights so that got interesting but really funny at the same time.
Eventually we made it to the forest temple to have our meditation class and dinner. We had dinner and then we did a sitting meditation for an hour and a walking meditation for an hour and then the monks presented a slide show about the robe making ceremony that they had had there about 7 weeks prior to our arrival. The sitting meditation was VERY painful. It is hard to sit like that for such a long time and not move. We moved our hands in a series of 15 positions that were very small but it was something to concentrate on to clear our minds.
The walking meditation was one of my favorite parts...Even though it was hard to stand up after an hour of sitting. We had to focus on our feet the whole time and focus on our steps. I could tell that my mind was very unfocused and it was hard to concentrate but it was very calming and something that you can easily practice everyday.
The temple we were at was huge and had a huge overlook to the rice and longan fields of Thailand. It was beautiful to look on the small towns and greenness around us while being in such a calming place. I know that if I practice this meditation I can be a lot calmer and probably a happier person overall. Hopefully I will not forget this experience.
We had quiet time and bed after that because we got up at 5 am to walk with the monks to the town to recieve alms. We bought food and gave alms to the monks in abundance. We knew we were eating after them so we got things we liked and wanted to eat for breakfast. Little did we know that these monks could feed a small town with all the food that they get through alms. It was incredible to see the people give all they had to these monks and watch them as they were blessed by a chant and thanked by the monks. We ate the most incredible breakfast so far on the trip full of fruits, rice, pumpkin, chicken, pork, and everything under the sun wrapped in bamboo leaves.
We then had another meditation session of both sitting and walking and then free time until we left. It was a memorable experience and I suggest it highly to anyone who would want to feel at peace..no matter what religion...this was one of the best things I know I will ever do in my life.
Back to the buddhist university tomorrow...I have missed my monk friends :)
Aubs
Eventually we made it to the forest temple to have our meditation class and dinner. We had dinner and then we did a sitting meditation for an hour and a walking meditation for an hour and then the monks presented a slide show about the robe making ceremony that they had had there about 7 weeks prior to our arrival. The sitting meditation was VERY painful. It is hard to sit like that for such a long time and not move. We moved our hands in a series of 15 positions that were very small but it was something to concentrate on to clear our minds.
The walking meditation was one of my favorite parts...Even though it was hard to stand up after an hour of sitting. We had to focus on our feet the whole time and focus on our steps. I could tell that my mind was very unfocused and it was hard to concentrate but it was very calming and something that you can easily practice everyday.
The temple we were at was huge and had a huge overlook to the rice and longan fields of Thailand. It was beautiful to look on the small towns and greenness around us while being in such a calming place. I know that if I practice this meditation I can be a lot calmer and probably a happier person overall. Hopefully I will not forget this experience.
We had quiet time and bed after that because we got up at 5 am to walk with the monks to the town to recieve alms. We bought food and gave alms to the monks in abundance. We knew we were eating after them so we got things we liked and wanted to eat for breakfast. Little did we know that these monks could feed a small town with all the food that they get through alms. It was incredible to see the people give all they had to these monks and watch them as they were blessed by a chant and thanked by the monks. We ate the most incredible breakfast so far on the trip full of fruits, rice, pumpkin, chicken, pork, and everything under the sun wrapped in bamboo leaves.
We then had another meditation session of both sitting and walking and then free time until we left. It was a memorable experience and I suggest it highly to anyone who would want to feel at peace..no matter what religion...this was one of the best things I know I will ever do in my life.
Back to the buddhist university tomorrow...I have missed my monk friends :)
Aubs
Thursday, February 11, 2010
"Cut yourself some slack. Remember in 100 Years, all new people"
Today was a really fun day! In the morning we had a temple tour called "Mike's favorite wat tour". We were supposed to go to about 4 wats but because we apparently had already seen two of them we went to the other two. One was a huge chedi surrounded by little temples and ordination halls. The chedi is really old (about 700 years old) and they are just starting to renovate it. It is amazing because the renovations look really good and you can tell where the new things are but also how it used to be. Apparently they have no idea what this chedi looked like because it there are no writings about it or pictures from that time. It is called Wat Cheti Luang which means big Chedi. For those of you who don't know what a chedi is it is a place that at one point held the remains or bones of either part of Buddha or of a special monk.
The next temple we went to was a forest temple that had these caves that were made especially to try and get this Sri Lankan monk to try and live in Chiang Mai. This wat was even older than the first! It was really a cool place to walk around and there was a lot to see. All the trees had sayings on them for instance "Today is better than two tomorrows". I took a bunch of picures of these and hopefully I can do something with them. Apparently a lot of foreigners go there to take medidation retreats like the one we are going on this weekend.
Marit and I bought more elephant pants to wear for the retreat this weekend. They are so comfordable and we look so Thai wearing them...except no Thai's wear them in Chiang Mai because they are not too hip.
After the Wat tour the Buddhist university group went out for lunch at the front gate of the university. It was so delicious and a wonderful place to grab a bite to eat outside the university walls. Then we headed to a temple to visit one of our monk students that lives there. We realized that my house was not too far away from this temple so everyone walked with me to my house to visit with my family. On the way there I took them through a fantastic food market that is only visited by Thai's and us walking around there looked very odd, but it was fun! The whole group enjoyed it a lot. When we got to my house I introduced them to my family and then we went to Marit's house too to see them. The grandma here loved having all the people here and especially those students that are student leaders and know much more thai than marit or I.
I took the whole group to the flower market close to our house then and they also loved that. I can't wait until you get here Mom so you can see this market! You will LOVE it. It is like a five block radius filled with tropical flowers and beautiful trees and plants. I would have to say mostly wonderful!
We had dinner with Marit's family tonight as well and it was good to practice a little more Thai with people who speak no english at all. I wish that my family would do that more. I know they enjoy speaking english though too.
Tomorrow we have an art field trip at a pottery place and a laquerware place as well I think. It should be interesting though I hope it is part in the shade. In the afternoons we have been going to temples for art class and we get lectured at in the sun and I can tell you now that I am buring calories sweating out all the wonderful food I have been eating there.
This weekend is the medidation retreat and I am sure I will have a lot to say about that! Look forward to hearing about it soon! I hopefully will have time on sunday to post something. Until then...
Aubs
The next temple we went to was a forest temple that had these caves that were made especially to try and get this Sri Lankan monk to try and live in Chiang Mai. This wat was even older than the first! It was really a cool place to walk around and there was a lot to see. All the trees had sayings on them for instance "Today is better than two tomorrows". I took a bunch of picures of these and hopefully I can do something with them. Apparently a lot of foreigners go there to take medidation retreats like the one we are going on this weekend.
Marit and I bought more elephant pants to wear for the retreat this weekend. They are so comfordable and we look so Thai wearing them...except no Thai's wear them in Chiang Mai because they are not too hip.
After the Wat tour the Buddhist university group went out for lunch at the front gate of the university. It was so delicious and a wonderful place to grab a bite to eat outside the university walls. Then we headed to a temple to visit one of our monk students that lives there. We realized that my house was not too far away from this temple so everyone walked with me to my house to visit with my family. On the way there I took them through a fantastic food market that is only visited by Thai's and us walking around there looked very odd, but it was fun! The whole group enjoyed it a lot. When we got to my house I introduced them to my family and then we went to Marit's house too to see them. The grandma here loved having all the people here and especially those students that are student leaders and know much more thai than marit or I.
I took the whole group to the flower market close to our house then and they also loved that. I can't wait until you get here Mom so you can see this market! You will LOVE it. It is like a five block radius filled with tropical flowers and beautiful trees and plants. I would have to say mostly wonderful!
We had dinner with Marit's family tonight as well and it was good to practice a little more Thai with people who speak no english at all. I wish that my family would do that more. I know they enjoy speaking english though too.
Tomorrow we have an art field trip at a pottery place and a laquerware place as well I think. It should be interesting though I hope it is part in the shade. In the afternoons we have been going to temples for art class and we get lectured at in the sun and I can tell you now that I am buring calories sweating out all the wonderful food I have been eating there.
This weekend is the medidation retreat and I am sure I will have a lot to say about that! Look forward to hearing about it soon! I hopefully will have time on sunday to post something. Until then...
Aubs
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Interesting week with no internship...
I am sure the Monks will miss us and wat suan dok this week or maybe not. They do not have class so therefore we do not have an internship. I am not really sure what we are supposed to be doing but yesterday we went to a temple of a monk friend and chatted for a while and he showed us his room and we just hung out. Today we went to the library to get some books on buddhism and then headed to the pool and read buddhist teachings while getting some sun. It is really a hard life here let me tell you...
Tomorrow I think I am going with my host father to a fashion show for the faculty of humanities which probably includes many lady boys apparently. Sounds like a drag show to me so I am excited. Apparently my host father is the Emcee so that will be fun to watch.
We had a speaker in our culture class today that talked about social benefits of buddhism and how he started a program using monks and lay people to spread HIV/AIDS education and prevention. He also talked about using meditation to calm the mind and help accept death in a better way. He was so cool and actually the first white monk (from australia) that I have met so far. Or at least he was a monk at one point. Very cool. I talked to him about interning with him in the future..he sounded interested. He travels everywhere teaching so that would be a great thing to get involved with.
I am having a hard time learning Thai these days. It seems like Marit is picking everything up and I just can't remember anything. I wish there was a tea around here for concentration. I would drink it. She is very good with language but I am much better with visuals and maps I have learned. Funny how it has taken me this long to figure it out.
I am trying to get a Thai friend of mine here to fly to Minnesota and visit in May. She is already going to be in Florida and I want her to see Minnesota. Marit and I might split the cost of her flight to Minnesota because she can't afford it. She is one of the coolest people I know here and I am sure that she will love Minnesota. If she comes I can impress everyone with my Thai as well which would be cool.
I might put a picture of the pagent up...that way all of you can see how funny we all look as Thai beauty queens.
Aubs
Tomorrow I think I am going with my host father to a fashion show for the faculty of humanities which probably includes many lady boys apparently. Sounds like a drag show to me so I am excited. Apparently my host father is the Emcee so that will be fun to watch.
We had a speaker in our culture class today that talked about social benefits of buddhism and how he started a program using monks and lay people to spread HIV/AIDS education and prevention. He also talked about using meditation to calm the mind and help accept death in a better way. He was so cool and actually the first white monk (from australia) that I have met so far. Or at least he was a monk at one point. Very cool. I talked to him about interning with him in the future..he sounded interested. He travels everywhere teaching so that would be a great thing to get involved with.
I am having a hard time learning Thai these days. It seems like Marit is picking everything up and I just can't remember anything. I wish there was a tea around here for concentration. I would drink it. She is very good with language but I am much better with visuals and maps I have learned. Funny how it has taken me this long to figure it out.
I am trying to get a Thai friend of mine here to fly to Minnesota and visit in May. She is already going to be in Florida and I want her to see Minnesota. Marit and I might split the cost of her flight to Minnesota because she can't afford it. She is one of the coolest people I know here and I am sure that she will love Minnesota. If she comes I can impress everyone with my Thai as well which would be cool.
I might put a picture of the pagent up...that way all of you can see how funny we all look as Thai beauty queens.
Aubs
Saturday, February 6, 2010
MISS FLOWER CHIANG MAI 2010
Those of you who know me very well know that it is really unlike me to be in any sort of beauty pagent. On this trip however, I have decided to do anything and try everything. So when the director of my trip asked if I wanted to compete in a beauty competition for the city of Chiang Mai I said yes along with twelve other girls from my group. We had NO idea what we were getting into.
We started off on friday leaving class early to go get ready at 3pm. We got to this hotel and they had all these people waiting to get us dressed in traditional thai outfits and put makeup on us and do our hair. There were 22 total women in the international section of the competition. So after getting all ready, having dinner and working on some sort of a talent we were ready to leave at 6:30pm. We then got in taxis and went to the festival. There is this street full of flowers and people selling food and we had to line up in twos and were police escorted through this market area to the stage. While we walked we had to say hello to everyone and wave. Can you imagine me doing this? Hammed that up for sure.
Then we got to the stage and we had to wait until the Ms. Thai pagent got over which took forever to start and didn't finish until 10:30pm. Then we had our competition where we had to say something about ourselves in Thai and then do a little talent. My talent was to name all the US states in alphabetical order in a song. It was fun but I was very nervous in front of all those people. We didn't finish the pagent until almost 12:30pm.
Both Marit and I had all of our families there to cheer us on. They stayed the whole time until they escorted us home. It was great to have them there. They gave us flowers and cheered us on loudly which is anti thai norm.
Overall it was a ton of fun! I was really tired at the end but I will definately remember this for the rest of my life. I am glad that I did it but I can tell you now...never again.
One of the girls got third from our group but the first and second place positions were sort of rigged. The first place girl was chineese and lives in Thailand so therefore knows Thai fluently. The second place girl's dad was part of the tourist police so she knew everyone from the competition.
Today we went back to the flower festival to walk around and hang out with the group to watch the parade. We had fun but it was really hot and we got sunburned. Luckily the rest of the weekend is for relaxing and maybe going swimming? Tomorrow night we are going to hang out with a good Thai friend and do some more shopping!
Marit might put up pictures of the festival on facebook so either look at those or I will try and put on on this page.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Aubs
We started off on friday leaving class early to go get ready at 3pm. We got to this hotel and they had all these people waiting to get us dressed in traditional thai outfits and put makeup on us and do our hair. There were 22 total women in the international section of the competition. So after getting all ready, having dinner and working on some sort of a talent we were ready to leave at 6:30pm. We then got in taxis and went to the festival. There is this street full of flowers and people selling food and we had to line up in twos and were police escorted through this market area to the stage. While we walked we had to say hello to everyone and wave. Can you imagine me doing this? Hammed that up for sure.
Then we got to the stage and we had to wait until the Ms. Thai pagent got over which took forever to start and didn't finish until 10:30pm. Then we had our competition where we had to say something about ourselves in Thai and then do a little talent. My talent was to name all the US states in alphabetical order in a song. It was fun but I was very nervous in front of all those people. We didn't finish the pagent until almost 12:30pm.
Both Marit and I had all of our families there to cheer us on. They stayed the whole time until they escorted us home. It was great to have them there. They gave us flowers and cheered us on loudly which is anti thai norm.
Overall it was a ton of fun! I was really tired at the end but I will definately remember this for the rest of my life. I am glad that I did it but I can tell you now...never again.
One of the girls got third from our group but the first and second place positions were sort of rigged. The first place girl was chineese and lives in Thailand so therefore knows Thai fluently. The second place girl's dad was part of the tourist police so she knew everyone from the competition.
Today we went back to the flower festival to walk around and hang out with the group to watch the parade. We had fun but it was really hot and we got sunburned. Luckily the rest of the weekend is for relaxing and maybe going swimming? Tomorrow night we are going to hang out with a good Thai friend and do some more shopping!
Marit might put up pictures of the festival on facebook so either look at those or I will try and put on on this page.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Aubs
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The blog you have all been waiting for...
Actually probably no one reads this on a daily basis or even monthly but I like to humor myself. Today I had the most interesting lecture again about buddhism from the 82 year old man today. His name is Ajan Saeng. If you get a chance and are extemely bored you can look him up and see that he was a crucial part of the Buddhist university that I am interning at. He wanted to connect the lay people and also those who weren't Buddhist with the Buddhist lifestyle. He created something called monk chat which is what most of the farang (foreigners) go to when they visit this temple.
This man is incredible. Initially you think "wow this is going to be the most boring hour and a half of my life" and when you look at the clock again you wish that he had four more hours to tell stories and just teach us about buddhism. He knows so much and can relate everything to Christianity for those people in the class who only know and seem to only want to know Christianity. He knows more about the Bible that I ever knew which is not a lot I guess. You can see his loving kindness and compassion right there in front of you. I am very sad that today was the last lecture for us to have him as a professor.
Anyways here are some tib bits of info you might be interested in about Thai culture:
1. Take off your shoes. Sometimes in the oddest places but take them off...if you don't it is major disrespect especially in a temple. You can put on slippers at home though to warm your feet...not sure why they would be cold in 90 degree weather but ok.
2. The Wai. This is the term for when the hands are together at lip level and you bow slightly to say hello and goodbye. You are supposed to do this to anyone older than you especially a professor (more of a bow) and even more a monk (extreme bowing). Never do this to a taxi cab driver, a younger sibling, or someone with less status. It is considered rude.
3. The thai nature is very unique. Yes means no most times. Your family might say yes yes but really mean no no. For instance if they don't want you to do something they won't say anything about it so you would never know but if you ask they would still "lie" to you. It is a very pleasing society trying to please everyone even if what they are saying may not be true. This is the first hard part in living with a Thai family.
4. Don't touch anyone's head or feet. Just don't do it.
5. The cars have the right of way and if you get hit it is most likely your fault.
6. At the street vendors normally you can get half price for everything in their inital sale. For instance I bought some fake raybans first it was two for 500 baht then I said nothing higher than 300 baht and started to walk away. Every step I took the man lowered the price until it hit 300 baht for two pairs. Aka two pairs for about ten dollars. If you speak in thai you also get a lower inital price.
7. Time is irrelevant. Arriving 20 minutes late for a lecture is fine. Also the Thai students that have class at 8 always walk by us at about 8:10 with no hop in their step. Aka time is no big thing.
8. You must pronounce thai correctly or else it means something completely different or they cannot figure out what you are trying to say. It is odd because most times you can figure out english no matter how sloppy. Apparently you can not do this in Thai.
9. Dogs are everywhere. They do not have homes and most times are fed by random scraps people leave. They are not friendly dogs and you do not pet them or feed them or even like them much. But they are EVERYWHERE. Today I counted about 11 walking from the buddhist university back gate to the front gate which is the length roughly of a football field. They must feed them there.
10. If you get up early enough you can give the monks food in alms. It is quite the experience and sort of enjoyable. Do not touch a monk if you are a woman so don't hand the monk something put it in his basket. Monks cannot touch women.
11. There are ladyboys everywhere in thailand. They are called catoys which is not how you say it but it is one of those things that can't be spelled in english. They are legit lady boys as well and you would have never guess them to be men. Some are monks too and there is one class full of them. I have yet to meet one yet but I am planning on it. Sexuality is much more fluid here than in the US. People talk about homosexuality very openly and also about crossdressing. It is very comforting to know that some people out there do not judge based on sexual preferences. This is a lesson for the US to follow.
Well those are a few good things I have learned from the family and the University which I really appreciate. We learned today that every person no matter who they are is a teacher and every moment in life is a lesson. I hope to take that along with me on my journey through Thailand.
Aubs
This man is incredible. Initially you think "wow this is going to be the most boring hour and a half of my life" and when you look at the clock again you wish that he had four more hours to tell stories and just teach us about buddhism. He knows so much and can relate everything to Christianity for those people in the class who only know and seem to only want to know Christianity. He knows more about the Bible that I ever knew which is not a lot I guess. You can see his loving kindness and compassion right there in front of you. I am very sad that today was the last lecture for us to have him as a professor.
Anyways here are some tib bits of info you might be interested in about Thai culture:
1. Take off your shoes. Sometimes in the oddest places but take them off...if you don't it is major disrespect especially in a temple. You can put on slippers at home though to warm your feet...not sure why they would be cold in 90 degree weather but ok.
2. The Wai. This is the term for when the hands are together at lip level and you bow slightly to say hello and goodbye. You are supposed to do this to anyone older than you especially a professor (more of a bow) and even more a monk (extreme bowing). Never do this to a taxi cab driver, a younger sibling, or someone with less status. It is considered rude.
3. The thai nature is very unique. Yes means no most times. Your family might say yes yes but really mean no no. For instance if they don't want you to do something they won't say anything about it so you would never know but if you ask they would still "lie" to you. It is a very pleasing society trying to please everyone even if what they are saying may not be true. This is the first hard part in living with a Thai family.
4. Don't touch anyone's head or feet. Just don't do it.
5. The cars have the right of way and if you get hit it is most likely your fault.
6. At the street vendors normally you can get half price for everything in their inital sale. For instance I bought some fake raybans first it was two for 500 baht then I said nothing higher than 300 baht and started to walk away. Every step I took the man lowered the price until it hit 300 baht for two pairs. Aka two pairs for about ten dollars. If you speak in thai you also get a lower inital price.
7. Time is irrelevant. Arriving 20 minutes late for a lecture is fine. Also the Thai students that have class at 8 always walk by us at about 8:10 with no hop in their step. Aka time is no big thing.
8. You must pronounce thai correctly or else it means something completely different or they cannot figure out what you are trying to say. It is odd because most times you can figure out english no matter how sloppy. Apparently you can not do this in Thai.
9. Dogs are everywhere. They do not have homes and most times are fed by random scraps people leave. They are not friendly dogs and you do not pet them or feed them or even like them much. But they are EVERYWHERE. Today I counted about 11 walking from the buddhist university back gate to the front gate which is the length roughly of a football field. They must feed them there.
10. If you get up early enough you can give the monks food in alms. It is quite the experience and sort of enjoyable. Do not touch a monk if you are a woman so don't hand the monk something put it in his basket. Monks cannot touch women.
11. There are ladyboys everywhere in thailand. They are called catoys which is not how you say it but it is one of those things that can't be spelled in english. They are legit lady boys as well and you would have never guess them to be men. Some are monks too and there is one class full of them. I have yet to meet one yet but I am planning on it. Sexuality is much more fluid here than in the US. People talk about homosexuality very openly and also about crossdressing. It is very comforting to know that some people out there do not judge based on sexual preferences. This is a lesson for the US to follow.
Well those are a few good things I have learned from the family and the University which I really appreciate. We learned today that every person no matter who they are is a teacher and every moment in life is a lesson. I hope to take that along with me on my journey through Thailand.
Aubs
Monday, February 1, 2010
Faa cye (Beautiful Sky)
So I offically have gotten myself a Thai nickname. It has been a while since someone has given me one and a monk decided to give me one today. I love it so much I am going to tattoo it on my forehead so everyone will know it. False. But I do love it. It means beautiful sky and it is the most meaningful gift that anyone has given me on this trip so far. The monk who gave it to me kept saying "beautiful, beautiful sky...it is good".
As you can tell it was another good day at the buddhist university. It was just farang chat again so we had time to ask our random questions to the monks and to have them tell us about their lives..very interesting. I learned more about the robes that they wear and one guy even showed us how you wear it and also how you can wear it in other styles. I also learned some more Thai language and also some Laos language which they have a slang term for but we call it just Laos. My favorite monk is from Laos and he would only give up his monkhood so he could make more money for his family back home.
I am so surprised that I am having such a fun time at the university. I for sure thought I would get bored at some point but that is not the case at all. I am wanting to listen in on all the conversations instead of just mine and I get lost when my ears dart around the room. All the monks noticed I was gone for three days and each of them came up to me and asked why I wasn't there and if I was feeling better. Apparently word gets around fast there.
Tomorrow we have writing class again in which no one pays attention because all the letters look the same and all sound the same to us...really fun. I hope one day I can recite the alphabet but seeing as they have 44 consanants and 20something vowels looks like that might be more of a feat than I am capable of.
Not much went on today I guess other than that. I did get an A on my Thai language oral test so pat on the back for me. Marit beat me by one point and Mike kept saying I have to call her Pii Marit now because of the one point. Very funny. I am still older. I do call her Pii Malee at home though because everyone does here. Maybe I can get a monk to give her a Thai nickname too.
I have an idea for a good post tomorrow so look forward to reading that!
Faa cye (Aubs)
As you can tell it was another good day at the buddhist university. It was just farang chat again so we had time to ask our random questions to the monks and to have them tell us about their lives..very interesting. I learned more about the robes that they wear and one guy even showed us how you wear it and also how you can wear it in other styles. I also learned some more Thai language and also some Laos language which they have a slang term for but we call it just Laos. My favorite monk is from Laos and he would only give up his monkhood so he could make more money for his family back home.
I am so surprised that I am having such a fun time at the university. I for sure thought I would get bored at some point but that is not the case at all. I am wanting to listen in on all the conversations instead of just mine and I get lost when my ears dart around the room. All the monks noticed I was gone for three days and each of them came up to me and asked why I wasn't there and if I was feeling better. Apparently word gets around fast there.
Tomorrow we have writing class again in which no one pays attention because all the letters look the same and all sound the same to us...really fun. I hope one day I can recite the alphabet but seeing as they have 44 consanants and 20something vowels looks like that might be more of a feat than I am capable of.
Not much went on today I guess other than that. I did get an A on my Thai language oral test so pat on the back for me. Marit beat me by one point and Mike kept saying I have to call her Pii Marit now because of the one point. Very funny. I am still older. I do call her Pii Malee at home though because everyone does here. Maybe I can get a monk to give her a Thai nickname too.
I have an idea for a good post tomorrow so look forward to reading that!
Faa cye (Aubs)
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