Loy Krathong, More Nakprasith and Sam Phran, Plus Various Food Musings

Okay, okay. I know.

It's been two weeks, and you are foaming at the mouth, champing at the bit, straining the traces, desperate for news from Thailand, and more importantly, from us. Sorry, we've been a bit busy, what with life and all.

Okay, so we will start with about a week and a half ago. In Thailand once a year they have a festival called Loy Krathong. Everyone makes or buys a 'krathong' (basically a little platform made from banana leaves and stalks, with flowers and a candle on top), lights it, and then floats it down the river. Before you float your krathong, you are supposed to apologize to the spirit of the river for all the damage humans do to it. I think, anyway, I'm not completely sure I understood correctly.

Here is a picture of Evan with our krathong, and a close up of the krathong:



It was beautiful to see them floating down the river lit like fireflies. There are also krathongs built like small hot air balloons of paper, which are lit and then rise until you can't see them any more. Apparently, sometimes these krathongs fall down and light people's houses on fire. But they are very beautiful to watch ascend.

We went to Loy Krathong with Jeremy and two of the Thai teachers who teach with us at Nakprasith, as well. We bought krathongs, floated them, apologized to the river and made our wishes, then ate some noodles and ambled home. It was a nice evening.

Okay. Now on to what I think you all have been most curious about: the school. And what it is, exactly, that we do there. As I said before, the school is called Nakprasith. It has about 5000 students, from kindergarten until the equivalent of the end of high school. Evan and I both teach 25 hours a week in one hour blocks, and Evan teaches from first to sixth grade, while I also teach some of the high school classes. The kids are very well behaved for the most part, and super cute especially at the younger ages. I don't have any pictures of them yet, but I will post some later. Here is a picture of Evan in his uniform; we have to wear these blue polo shirts every day with black pants.

The kids don't know much English, but they are willing to try for the most part to learn. All in all, the job is going pretty well. Here is a picture of the front of the classrooms we use:


All right, now on to the food musings. It continues to be difficult to find good vegetarian food, although the one restaurant we've found still makes very good food for me. Most other places though, seem bemused at the idea, and aren't really sure of the definition, evinced by serving me meat or fish multiple times. Today we move to our new house, which has a kitchen! We'll let you know how it goes.