Day 16

Day 16 was a normal class day, but in the evening, the girls in the dance class had a performance along with several other Thai performing groups. The stage was semi-outdoors, and it was really cool to see all the performances! One of them was quite long and all in Thai, and the Thai students thought it was hilarious, but it didn't make much sense to me, so that wasn't my favorite part, but the dance girls did a great job. Thai dance is really intricate and precise, while still being graceful and almost fluid, so it is really fascinating to watch. The whole performance was held in honor of a guy that was really important to the performance world in Thailand...I don't remember his exact story, but I think it may have had something to do with a television show? Anyways, he passed away, so the celebration was held in his honor. There was also a small "museum" set up to display different types of Thai art. I'm not really an art buff, but this was cool stuff!!

Some of the art

I asked someone what this was, and they told me "skin". It became clear a little later that it was actually leather, but I will admit to being slightly concerned that it was, in fact, human skin. But no.

Some cool costumes and (the reason for this picture, really), the screen set up around them. It was a bunch of string wrapped randomly around a metal frame with flowers stuck in here and there. I loved it.

My class went to Wat Suan Dok for "Monk Chat" - Wat Suan Dok houses a lot of younger monks who are attending university, and so a few times each week, they have a couple hours set aside for farang (that's foreigners) to come ask questions and learn about monkhood, Buddhism, etc.

Apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but it was at night, from far away, and the lighting was weird. Anyways, these are the girls in the dance class performing!

Remember the screen thing I talked about before? this is a closer look at it.

More skin art.

Another one of the fancy costumes, though not nearly as intricate as what the performers actually wore that night.

This is green tea. I like green tea.

Another picture at Wat Suan Dok

Days 13-15

Believe it or not, I didn't take a single picture for days 13, 14, and 15. When I finally realized that I had three completely undocumented days, I resolved to get my act together and be sure to pay attention to even the small things, since those are part of the whole that makes up the country I've completely fallen in love with. So. Days 13, 14, and 15 were business as usual and not filled with extraordinary adventures, but they were good days nonetheless.