Kristen in Thailand: Ayutthaya OR Thai Massage Course OR Kristen and the Germans

Ok, here I go:

Overall I had a really fun (sanook maak) time in Ayutthaya. My days there pretty much consisted of waking up at 9 a.m., showering, going to a nearby market to buy something for breakfast (which involved running across a huge street whenever the traffic was minimal), studying Thai massage for a couple of hours, going out for lunch either to the market or to a nearby Thai restaurant, studying Thai massage for a couple of more hours, then either going to TESCO LOTUS to go shopping/eating or making several "sev runs" to the nearby 7-11 for slurpees (which the Germans have all been deprived of until now) until it was time for bed. We would also quite often watch movies on my laptop at night, after we discovered we could buy cheap copies of DVDs at the local night market.

We had one day free from studying, and we spent it going to an elephant farm type thing (we were planning to go elephant riding, but it ended up being too expensive), and then visiting a few different temples. Later at night we went temple sightseeing again, as alot of the old temples in Ayutthaya are lit up at night. It was nearly impossible to get any good pictures, as they would either end up too dark, or too blurry. Because of this, and just because of how beautiful these temples are, I think this is one sight everyone must try to see in their lives. The temples in Ayutthaya (of which there are hundreds, as Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Thailand) are somewhat unique, because during the battle between Thailand and Myanmar (which took place in Ayutthaya) all of these temples were burned down, and most of the heads of the Buddha images were stolen. So when you look around, all you see are these headless bodies made out of stone, sitting in a meditation type style. It looks like this:

Another interesting thing we saw on our temple sightseeing was a Buddha face which is carved into a tree. I'm not sure what the story behind it is, or who apparently carved it, but I did find it interesting that there was actually a sign saying that when taking pictures of it, you must not be standing in the photo as that would make your head appear higher than the Buddha's head, which is not allowed. There was even a special guard standing there to make sure everyone squatted like so in their pictures:

As for the learning Thai massage part, let's just say Thai massages are a workout to give. Overall the whole process takes 2 hours. Starting with the legs and feet, then moving to the arms and hands, more on the legs and arms, the back, then the face/head, stomach, and last but not least we crack the persons back (although I'm not really strong/skilled enough to actually get the persons back to crack, so I just give them a stretch). On Thursday we had our final exams, which none of us were really sure if we passed. We asked the teachers, and they just told us that we know all the steps, we're just not skilled at doing them yet, and that it usually takes about 2 years of practicing everyday in order to develop these skills, so after 1 week it's not surprising that we were a little lacking. But they gave us our certificates anyways! So you all in Canada can look forward to having some nice Thai massages when I get back (which is now only 7 months away by the way).

While I was in Ayutthaya the election for mayor of Bangkok was held, and my host dad's party didn't win. Apparently now there are riots going on in Bangkok, and AFS has sent out an email saying they are forbidding people to make week exchanges to Bangkok and to travel independently. They also warned us not to really speak to anyone about the situation, as it is a touchy subject and we don't want us to get ourselves into any unnecessary trouble. But for anyone who has seen anything about it all on the news, you shouldn't worry about me being here. The part of Bangkok I am in is perfectly safe, so as long as I avoid going to the small part where it is dangerous, I will be fine.

In other news, when I got back to my host families, Cherry informed me that from now on my host Gramma will be sharing our bedroom with us, and will be sleeping on the bed with Cherry. While I think this is deffinately an improvement from where she was sleeping before (on the floor behind the couch in the living room), I'm not really sure if I feel entirely comfortable sharing a room with both of them. That kind of living situation just seems a little odd to me.

Today Elisabeth, Charlotte, and I were to go meet Rose (AFS lady) at her school in the morning. When we arrived there, Rose was nowhere to be found, so we called her, and it turned out she was still at home, and asked us instead to meet her at The Mall. So we headed to The Mall, met up with Rose, gave her the money we owed her, and she explained to us about the Optional Trip for next week. 15 AFS students will go (including Elisabeth, Rachel, and myself) to the South of Thailand for 3-5 days, and spend it just relaxing on the beach, maybe doing some snorkeling. Fun things like that. The only problem is that I think I've gained a little too much weight to be looking good in a bikini. So I think I will just go Thai style and wear my shorts and t-shirt into the water. I'm really feeling glad that I've been keeping so busy lately (with Rachel coming here, then going to Ayutthaya, now going to the South) because it is really making the time fly by sooo quickly. October is almost half-way over already. Eek!

Oh, and by the way, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home! I hope you all eat much turkey/mashed potatos/stuffing/cranberry sauce for me!

Here are a few of my favourite pictures from the massage course: