Lahu Wedding

I have been here a little over 9 months already and I finally made it to a small Thai village! One of my students invited Stacey and I to go with her to her cousins wedding. The wedding took place in a small village up in the mountains, not far from Mae Sai on the border with Burma. We were only in the village for about 24 hours - just a taste.
My student (Naley) grew up near the village and for me the best part was seeing her interact with her family. I couldn't understand what they said, but it was so nice to see her completely at ease. We were invited to stay with her aunt. They gave us our own room with a fan. They had electricity, a huge TV, a kitchen with a refrigerator, even a washing machine! I think that after being a here a year my standards have changed. Technically where they lived isn't what I would be used to at home. However, just the fact that is was clean (ie. no trash lying around) made my opinion go way up.
The main street through the village in Mae Fa Luang.
The wedding was not a traditional Lahu wedding. Usually Lahu people do not get married in a church. This was a church wedding with a wedding dress, tux, vows, music - in short just what I would expect at home. Afterwards we all walked down the hill to the brides home where there was a huge tent. We had a delicious lunch cooked by the women in the village. The couple changed into traditional Thai costumes and came out to greet the guests.
The wedding program in Thai, Lahu, and a smidge of English.
The inside of the village church.
The bride and groom singing during the reception.
Back at the house a few of the young girls were still in their traditional Lahu dress ready to ham it up for the camera.
We left shortly after the wedding and my visit was capped off with a thrilling ride down the mountain on a motorbike. This time it was fun, which I attribute to a good bike.

Today I head for home. I will see some of you soon!

Culmination Time

The last few weeks have been very busy, plus, I got my first taste of an extended period with no electricity! Fortunately, here in Thailand, that isn't a huge deal. But it did cut me off from my late night blogging and the relaxation of a good book before falling asleep. Apparently now our electricity is fine since the lights are on and my computer hasn't shut down.

One of the most exciting things for me since I last wrote was our graduation. We actually only had one student graduate this year. (Usually it is between 6 and 8, but his whole class left last year.) It was still pretty fun, though, because the students performed, choir performed, and two of my piano students played songs. I was pretty excited about that. It takes a bit of courage to get up and play. Especially when your hands shake and your palms sweat - both of which make playing piano difficult! One of the girls had never played in front of a group, but she did a nearly flawless job. It made me feel good when she said she decided to play because I had put in a lot of time so she wanted to show what we had done. Awwww.

Another highlight of the music show was a song that two of the students composed. It's just fun to see them get really involved and come up with their own ideas for things. Their song was actually pretty good and the Thai students especially liked the style.

One of the students was the MC, which put a smile on my face because she was so confident. Plus she came up with all of the transitions and comments herself.

Toward the end of the program I directed the choir and was a little nervous because our songs had started to fall apart just a couple days before the performance. On graduation day, though, it came together very nicely.

The graduation mainly consisted of the awards, music, graduate speech - and then a buffet. This year we also had a magician come and do an act. His son stayed with the school for a few months so he volunteered his time. He definitely had the students laughing.

These are all my students this year. It is kind of funny to think of how all my energy goes into those 13 people...

Relaxation and Harrowing Rides

I've had the chance in the last couple weeks to see a little bit more of my "home". One would think that after all the time I've been here I would have seen more of Thailand. I am slowly chipping away at the places to see.

Chiang Rai
Two weeks ago I headed up to Chiang Rai with Stacey for my final visa run. (I've already been here 9 months - crazy!) Early Friday morning we set off for our bus. Sadly, we missed it by 3 minutes. No worries though, as 45 minutes later we were on a different one. Around one in the afternoon we arrived in the northern city of Chiang Rai Thailand. After my other visa runs to Laos and Cambodia it was nice to have a 4 hour bus ride and be done with the trip. Our goal was not actually to see much but to relax. Our goal was mostly accomplished. We stayed at a nice place called The Chat House that had clean, comfortable rooms and HOT showers! We got massages and ate delicious food. I think we hit almost every farang style restaurant in the place. While our meals at the school are good, and we are lucky because we don't have to cook (although cooking sometimes would be nice), it is still nice to have a meal that doesn't have rice in it. Friday night we went to an Italian style restaurant that even brought complimentary bread to the table. Ahhh, the things one takes for granted at home!
Saturday continued the relaxing theme and I don't believe there is anything too worth while to note. Saturday night, however, we enjoyed the Chiang Rai night Bazaar. They had a quite a few unique things for decent prices. Mostly it was just fun to walk around and look. I have a feeling I'll be back someday.

A group singing at the Night Bazaar.

Makes one wonder what happens in areas without this sign...Actually, it was outside a Buddhist temple. One of the tenets is not to kill any living thing - even animals.
Sunday afternoon I took a bus to Mae Sai so that I could cross the border into Burma. I ended up arriving rather late, so I think I was only on the Burma side for about 5 minutes before I had to come back and catch my bus. I met a student of mine and a young man staying at the school who also had to extend his time. The three of us found out there wouldn't be any more buses leaving from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai so we caught the last bus to Chiang Rai and the 4 of us stayed another night. We left bright and early the next morning to gear up for another day of school.

Doi Suthep and Huai Kaew Waterfall
Last Sunday one of my students asked if I would like to go to a popular waterfall with him and his family. I readily agreed since the day was beautiful and I thought it would be fun to play with the kids! They asked my brother too, plus another of my students and soon we had a little motorbike caravan. I didn't know where the waterfalls are located, which is probably a good thing since it was my first time riding on the motorbike with Ben. While he is perfectly trustworthy, in some ways he's still my little brother and it's just weird to put my life in his hands! Considering the twisty turns and steep inclines, it was definitely better that he was driving. There's no way I could have gotten our little motorbike up the mountain. After many exclamations of "Ben, slow down!" and numerous replies of "Erika, I have to keep the rpms up!" we arrived in one piece at the waterfalls. We took some pictures and cooled our feet in the stream.

Ben, two of my students, and their daughters.
Soon someone suggested going further up the mountain to Doi Suthep. Even though I was a little worried about my nerves I gave an enthusiastic yes. Doi Suthep is probably the most popular tourist attraction in Chiang Mai. It's a Buddhist temple situated atop a hill, with great views of Chiang Mai. It was the views that I was most interested in.

The view could have been better...but it also could have been worse. When there is burning up in the mountains you can't see the city below.

The stupa at Doi Suthep.
After an exciting and not-as-terrifying-as-I-thought-it-would-be ride to the bottom, we headed home.

Jay flying past us on the way down the mountain.