Thai Night

Last Monday we had Thai night where we all got to hang out and have some traditional Thai food and just have fun! We were asked to prepare a presentation and a group of us figured that since we had been learning so much about Thai culture from our teachers, we could switch things around and show them some stuff from America. So we each grabbed a teacher and taught them an "American" dance step (I taught mine the Roger Rabbit...she did it amazingly!) After teaching them, we all gathered in a huge circle and started yelling "Go Ajan, Go Ajan" (Ajan is teacher) and they each had to jump in and do their move. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. People were doing the "Sprinkler" and the "Cowboy" and the "Running Man" and the "Lawn Mower"...basically every ridiculously funny steo you could imagine...and the Thai teachers loved it! Traditional Thai dancing is very delicate and gentle and it was so great seeing them bust out and be rowdy. Talk about some cultural exchange. Unfortunately, since I was up there dancing with them, I wasn't able to take pictures of their moves. Hopefully someone else did and as soon as I find some pics, I will post them. But here are a few that I got to take.

Earlier that day, we had a Medical session that was pretty depressing (there are some pretty messed us diseases in Thailand) so Dr. Rit cheered us up with some goodies

With Ajarn Rumpai

Garrett and I with Ajarn Wipada

The guys

We had an inspiring traditional Thai ceremony (I forgot what it was called...I'll find out) where we were blessed by our Ajarns in an elegant candle procession of sorts

Part of the blessing was the tying of a white piece of string on our wrists with some words of encouragement. It was very touching. I shed a tear...well not really...but it was touching.