From the beginning of October to October 25th, Wiangjedee School had an extended break between terms. After completing exams, everyone was free for several weeks. I took the opportunity to travel to Chiang Mai, one of the largest cities in the north, and stay at Wat Ram Poeng to complete a 10 day meditation retreat. The experience was one of the most difficult and challenging experiences of my life. The temple rules were very strict: only two meals a day, no socializing, no reading, no writing, etc. I was even reprimanded by a monk for making eye contact with people. I became very familiar with the floor. Beyond that, at the temple, as a meditation student, I was doing about 9 hours of meditation a day. The temple teaches Vipassana (insight) meditation. It is all about being aware of and acknowledging the present moment, and tries to help students find that realization through the awareness of basic daily routines like walking, eating, and sitting. In the practice one does 15 minutes of walking meditation (left foot goes thus, right foot goes thus...) before switching to 15 minutes sitting meditation and trying to concentrate on breathing and then back again. sitting meditation was especially difficult for me, my brain was constantly throwing random memories and thoughts out. Because I was alone all the time, I felt like I was going a bit crazy by the end. I was so happy to come home to Li and look people in the eye again, and talk to them, and sleep on a mattress that wasn't an inch thick, and read, and do things. It was such a wonderful feeling!
During the break, I also traveled up to Chiang Mai with a couple teachers. I was able to shop(hooray!, go to a mall, visit some temples, and get a massage. It was nice to go to a city, though it was really, really weird to see so many foreigners around. The only foreigners I usually see are teachers.
School started up again this week, but, unfortunately, I haven't started studying yet. I can't remember the last time I was this excited to go back to school. Both this week and next are sports day- geela-si in Thai- so much of this week was spent playing football, badminton, volleyball, and running. Next week, there's supposed to be a parade even, and the festivities go til late. In the meantime though, there has been a couple days of class. Lacking a schedule, I've just followed my friends to class and gotten started on other work (like this blog). My host family is doing very well, I feel like I'm starting to get even more relaxed and comfortable around them. Go to school, come home, read, do homework, talk with my host mother about Thai language and culture, eat at the grandparents' house, come home, watch Thai soap operas. My host parents own a hardware shop, a guesthouse, and an orchard, so they tend to be very busy with their work.
Right now in Thailand, it is the tail end of the rainy season, and there has been a lot of flooding in some northeastern provinces. The floods have gotten so bad in some areas that it reaches the second floors of two story houses. In Lamphun, the flooding was very mild, and was most evident in the lower ground.
