Nan, Chiang Mai, and Buddhist Lent!

Oh my gosh I have SO much to catch up on! So Friday, July 27th Teacher Nongnoot (Mel and I affectionately call her Nooters) and another teacher, Tiantong, took us to Nan to work on immigration stuff.  We were told the day before, after school, it was all very last minute, of course.  We drove in the school van and the driver, Nong, put on a DVD of Rod Stewart in concert, immediately. Teacher Tiantong asked us if "he was a gay?" So Thailand.  We sang and danced to some songs and then they put on a weird Thai video. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains that only took about an hour and a half.  The actual immigration stuff took about an hour, where we filled out paperwork, showed passports and were told to report back in 90 days.  Then they took us around Nan city and to a really yummy lunch by the river!  I love going to meals with Thai people because they order the weirdest stuff that we get to try!

Then they took us to the famous temple in Nan, Wat Phumin.  It has a mural of a whispering couple that is the symbol of Nan. 

Famous whispering couple

The Nooters, Tiantong, Mel and I in front of the Temple in Nan!

The next morning we met Teacher Tiantong for a 5:30 am bike ride (!!!) At first I was dying, it was so early, but it ended up being really fun. She rode us over to the "Blue Shirt Village" where the Mohamms are made.  Mohamms are what Phrae is known for.  They are blue dyed shirts and everyone in town wears them on Friday.  Then at 8, Nooters picked us up to take us to Area 1 (The headquarters for the school district in Phrae) because we needed to judge the next round of the speech competition! There were four different provinces in this one, Phrae, Sukhothai, Uttaradit, and Lampang.  Mel and I got broken up and I was judging private schools and she was judging the Mini English Program.  We both agreed later that the judging seemed weird, every person that we liked the other two judges didn't like as much.  Umm who is the native English speaker here?!? (They were both Thai)  The judges all had clear favorites, whatever, we made 500 baht! It was an experience, and at the end everyone wanted to take a picture with us.  Nuey ended up getting third in the Government school division.  Of course, there is another competition in a month and we must start preparing the four again for that in the mornings, it's never ending!

After the competition Nooters dropped us off at the bus station because a couple of Mel's friends were in Chiang Mai for the weekend and we wanted to meet them for the night, and Jane and Erica were going to be there! When we got to the bus station all of the tickets were all sold out! Woops! Lampang? Two left! Sweet! So we took a mini van to Lampang hoping that there would be a bus/van to Chiang Mai!
aaannnddd....everything is sold out. We were just starting to feel dejected when a random ticket seller came up and asked if we wanted to go to Chiang Mai? YES! How did they know? So we hopped aboard and headed to Chiang Mai where Jane and Erica had already saved a room for us at a guesthouse.  We met them and actually ended up running into Mel's friends at the mexican food place we were going to for dinner! Small world.

Then we all went out and have a really fun time! There is an area in Chiang Mai where the farangs all hang out called Yellow Bar and it is really fun. 
The next morning I was feelin the night before...if you know what I mean...Mel and I were going to meet our friends Nick and Allison but I needed to sleep it off a little more so while they had breakfast, I slept at the table near by...:-) (Love you Mom!!) I felt better by lunch though and was able to be a regular human being again. 
We headed over to the bus station around 3, like usual and looked into heading back to Phrae.  EVERYTHING WAS FULL!! AH! Everything to Phrae was full, everything to Lampang was full, everything to Uttaradit, Sukhothai, anything we could think of was full...so we headed over to the train station to see if that could be an option! There was one at 5:30! Thank goodness! We wouldn't get in until late but at least we would be in our own beds tonight!

We were so excited for the train! It was our first time! And it was super fun and beautiful!

We ended up getting to Denchai, the closest train station to Phrae, (20-30 minutes away) around 11 and of course there were no Songtaus around... Thank goodness a guy came out and asked if we wanted a taxi. YES! It was SO  expensive but we didn't even care. Our night wasn't over yet though...The guy kept wanting to take us to the nearby hotel even though we kept trying to explain that we lived here.  We had to get some hotel people and random passerbys in on it before they all got that we lived at the UD apartments.  Ahh one of those nights.


Also, we had a 4 day weekend, because it was the start of the Buddhist lent on Thursday, August 2.  So on Wednesday, everyone went to nearby Wats and there was a parade to celebrate the beginning of the lent.  The lent last for three months and means the monks must stay on Wat's grounds at night.  Usually they go out at receive donations early in the morning from people in the streets, now however, the people must bring the donations straight to the Wats for the monks.  Also, you shouldn't drink or smoke or do drugs during this period of time. Everyone at school had prepared beautiful donations for the monks and they were making a really cool float for the parade.  They donate a really large candle that lasts a year and the monks used to use it for their light but now, since they have electricity, it is used more as a symbol to remember the olden days.

Teacher Melissa joining Poom in the parade!

 One of the floats and a giant candle!

 meditating

Mel and I got to go to the temple with pratom 6 and we went to Wat Metang, the temple that helped found our school, our mother temple, if you will.  It was really cool, they did some chants, we were allowed to donate some food to the monks along with the other teachers, and then we walked around the Wat three times while making a wish/dream.  I love being included on that kind of stuff! Teacher Nonglak (Locksmith/Lockers) took us to watch the parade, which was pretty fun! We had some tea (Thai iced tea!) and watched our kids march by! Loved it! Such a fun day!

Especially since the day before my computer died! The closest Mac people are in Chiang Mai and it could take 2 weeks! AH! I am dying. Hopefully it isn't completely broken though...cross your fingers!

Also I guess I need to explain 555 a little more (ELISE!)  So 555 is the same as Lol.  5 in Thai is Ha and if you say 555 you are saying HaHaHa, kind of like laughing. So they just say 555, it's cute!

Ok, another big post coming up later! Mel and I met a bunch of OEG people in Koh Phangan for the four day weekend! SO FUN! Love you and miss you all! Sorry if I am a little out of touch, I have to just borrow Mel's computer when she isn't using it!