Nirvana: Smells like Thai Spirit

March 4-5

So I just survived my first semester of teaching in Thailand...what a feeling. I can't believe it's gone so fast and, despite the trouble they give me from time to time, I think I'm gonna miss having my little rugrats around everyday.

Katie, Michelle, Emily Josie and I (both Ryans bailed on me at the last minute) woke up nice and early to catch the wan Thursday morning-talk about a great way to spend the first day of summer- to head to Wat Bangchalaong for a 2 day meditation retreat with the Thai teachers. Now, as the retreat approached we definitely became more and more skeptical of what were getting ourselves into aka the teachers thought we were INSANE for wanting to join (they said we had to get up really early and didn't get food, etc etc) When in Thailand though right? I mean how often do you get to do a meditation retreat, let alone in Thailand, let alone with Thai people? Despite having to sleep on grass mats on carpet-covered concrete floor next to a Buddha shrine, I'm so glad we went, cuz it turned out to be one of the best experiences overall I think I've had over here.

I guess I could break it down into 4 parts to make it less of a day by day blog:

Part 1: The Thai Teachers
So over the semester we've gotten to know the teachers somewhat, but this retreat really helped me to get to know some of them really well along with understanding a lot more about Thai culture and how they all interact with eachother. A lot of times it's seemed like the teachers don't really want to get to know us despite Dr. A and Oil telling us they do, but at the retreat I came to find that they really do--Thai people are just very shy, esp. when it comes to speaking English. So, they were actually just nervous to try to talk to me, but at the end of the weekend we were all laughing and joking and trying to learn Thai/English. Pe (a word of respect you say before someone older than you's name) Den kind of took me under his wing and we spent a lot of time hanging out and he, along with Pe Ohn (the school nurse) and her friend, spent about 2 hours just talking with me and teaching me new Thai phrases. I think it means a lot to them to have people who want to learn Thai and communicate with them, b/c in the past it seems that some of the foreign teachers didn't make the biggest effort. At night it was a little awkward cuz I was the only non-Thai in the guys' room, but after a while they started asking me questions and me, Pe Den, Pe Golf and Pe Lohng talked until about 2 am.

The teachers laugh and joke a lot and I'm pretty sure the maturity level of the female teachers is about Hannah Montana :) They are so giggly and shy and apparently some of them like me too (as Oil told me they've asked for my number) so when I smile at them or say something that I didn't think was that funny they burst out laughing and blush and giggle like my Jacob fans. Man, life is good! So yea, I'm really looking forward to next semester when we can communicate more and not feel like such farang!

Parts 2/3: Meditation and Buddhism
I came away learning a lot more than I thought I would have from this retreat. It consisted of a few lectures during the day and then different meditation sessions and some GREAT food (which we weren't expecting). We got to miss most of the lectures as they were in Thai, however it was pretty funny b/c the parts we went to as the 2 days wore on we could see a decline in interest from the teachers. At one point all of the back row was sleeping and even Dr. Aree was passed out in the front! I guess that happens when you wake up for 5am meditation! Anyway, while the Thai teachers were at those we went to a private room with Dr. A and Oil where we would have meditation practice with some different staff members or just spend time learning/asking questions about Buddhism.

Part 2: Meditation
There are 4 kinds of meditation: standing, reclining, walking and sitting (we learned the latter 2) and the purpose is not to control your mind per se, but to work with your mind and free it from the burdens of overthinking. It's a really hard concept for Westerners to grasp (we learned) as we have the "think, therefore I am" mentality and really never let our minds have a chance to stop and recharge and just be. I think I believe that theory cuz when they had us try to focus our minds the first time I felt like I had a small ADD child bouncing around my cranium. There are 5 spots to focus your energy and, after choosing the spot you want, you repeat a word of your choice that means something to you over and over in your head while focusing your mind on the energy spot. The word acts sort of as a rope that pulls your mind back into place when you find yourself thinking about other things and helps keep you at peace. Throughout the day we would practice both kinds of meditation--usually walking first and then sitting as the walking is less intense and helps sort out some of the extra thoughts before the greater focus of sitting. It definitely has a calming affect, however you have to learn how to deal with pain fast cuz the full lotus position can feel like your legs are being slowly torn away from your body. After the intial practicing (and learning to focus away the pain in my legs) I think it's something that I will try to incorporate into my daily routine--for beginners you only need to do like 5 min at a time for 3x a day and for experts only 30 min a day! So, not really a lot of comittment for some mental R&R.

Part 3: Buddhism
So another fascinating part of the retreat was learning more about Buddhism; it's something that really makes a lot of sense. The purpose of the retreat wasn't to convert us or anything, but it was so cool to learn about something that is such a big part of the culture we are apart of now. It really is a religion that preaches the necessity of being a giving and well-intentioned person. Basically you work towards these different merits in this life to ensure your reincarnation as something better in the next life and so on and so on until you reach Nirvana when you are completely enlightened and your soul is freed from this world. I think people could all take a little away from Buddhist theory in that being in Thailand has shown me how much affect it has on creating a peaceful and giving environment; Thais always drop coins to beggars and are the first to share or give up something of theirs to you and just embrace a very welcoming and accepting atmosphere in daily life. Being a human is the highest form you can be reincarnated as, so Buddhists work at doing things good in this life so in their next life they will come back as an even better human.

Part 4: Pramaha Uthai
There was a monk who was there as a special guest, Pramaha Uthai, who I got to know really well over the 2 days. He ran one of our sessions and then we went to his lecture (even though we really couldn't understand). He called me up front towards the end of the lecture to help him look for some stuff online and then when he was finished he and I talked for about an hour while everyone was getting ready for bed. He left home after 6th grade to become a novice monk, became a real monk at age 21 and is now 31. I think he was pretty excited to have someone to practice his English with (as he said most people who come to his temple are Thai) and was equally excited that I was so interested in Buddhism/what he had to say. It was just one of those things where you look back at it and are like wow, did that really happen? How did I get to spend time learning/receiving insight from this amazingly interesting man? So, he ended up giving me his contact info and invited me to come to his temple in BKK which I will definitely take him up on when the summer break is over.

At the end of the retreat there was a little 'grad ceremony' where we got certificates and said some final words. I was 'asked' to say a few things as they wanted our opinions on the retreat and it's easier for a guy to do it cuz the monks aren't allowed to touch women, so I'm less of a risk. So, Dr. A translated for me as I said a big thanks to everyone for letting us come with them and for including us and making it a really cool experience...I made not have reached nirvana, but at least I have a certificate to prove I tried!

The Merit of Tambon Bangchalaong

3 March, 2553 (buddhist calendar year)

From time to time Absy (Dr. Absorn) brings us obscure documents she receives that she has translated from Thai and wants us to further correct and Engli-fy; today happened to be one of those days. First it started with a letter from the governor of the district that she asked Michelle and Ryan to take a crack at, so we thought the rest of us were safe. Little did I know she had another document stashed away: The Merit of Tambon Bangchalaong (pr. bong-sha-lohng) aka the motto of the district of Samut Prakan province in which we live sent to her by the Director of Education for the province. She presented Irma (a filipino teacher) and me with this 9 sentence wonder and immediately Irm-dogg smiles at me through her multi-colored braces saying, 'oh natan i teenk you do dis. you better engrish me.' Well I couldn't really argue with her, although seeing as she had Emily correct the final draft of her English final I think it would have been great to see what she came up with.

So, I brought in the original Merit to Dr. A and asked her what she wanted to me to do exactly. She goes, 'something like this' and proceeds to read me the document in Thai. 'You see how the vowels carry over from one to another' Well, I guess..? 'Okay you do that in English. Make this English poem." I kind of stared at her for a second unsure how I was going to take these sentences and form something from them, but alas I didn't have any classes left to teach so I gave it a shot. Below I have transcribed what I was given and what I turned it into. Enjoy :)

Merit of Bangchaloang Tambon
Join Por Luang Shrine Festival
Adorn holy places
Witness Suwannabhum Airport
Glorify Thai culture
Beautiful Wat Bangchaloang
Preserve local experts
One Tambon two religions
Visit snake farm
Scenic view of canals both roadsides

by Mrs.Thanaporn Khlajring

So you can see how I had a little trouble with some of the sentences like "visit snake farm" and "scenic view of canals both roadsides," etc. However, in the end I think it turned out okay and Dr. Absorn sent it off the to the Director of Education the same afternoon I turned it in asking her to give me credit for the poem and using it as the English version; that'd be pretty cool if you ask me! Here's my version:

The Beauty of Tambon Bang Chaloang

Blend culture and religion rich and fine
Witness the festival at Por Luang Shrine
Surrender to the Beauty of Wat Bang Chaloang
Chase the canals as freely they roam
Enrich your mind with wisdom vast
A preservation of Thailand, now and past
Expert craftmen, bustling streets
A farm of snakes and exotic beasts
A religious acceptance, two-not one
As planes from Suvannabhum soar past the sun
Bangchaloang Tambon with head held high
A celebration of all things Thai

Final Translation by Nathan Fuller

Goodbyes and Islands

Feb. 26-Mar. 1

Friday the 26th marked the farewell gathering in BKK for the 1st semester of CIEE--can you believe the 1st semester is nearly over? I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a different post, but it's definitely eye-opening how fast time goes. We met up with our crew in the evening after sitting in an absurd amount of traffic-an all too familiar Friday happening in Thailand. After an evening of reminiscing, laughing and RCA we said our farewells to many of the people we had shared the last few months with. Weird.

We woke up and decided to see a movie (aka it was so hot that A/C sounded incredible!) A bunch of us went to see the Book of Eli which turned out to be a really awesome flick. I'm not the hugest Denzel fan, but I thought the overall concept/twist of the movie turned out to be pretty cool. Josie, Emily and I said our final goodbyes to the Sunflowers (some of our friends who taught at the Sunflower School) which was kinda surreal. It's slowly but surely sinking in that some of the faces we look forward to seeing most on our weekend excursions are heading back to get settled into the future.

Sunday found us heading out to Ko Si Chang as we had Monday off for Maka Bucha--not really sure what this holiday is, but we don't need anymore motivation to snag an excuse for an island excursion. Learning from the last time Josie and I went we paid an extra 20 baht for the bus landing us in Sri Racha in under 2 hrs (last time it took almost 4!). It's so nice to be able to learn from our mistakes and no that with the amount of time we have left we can really utilize all the shortcuts/experiences we've found. We sat on the roof of the ferry as the cabin was full and took in the salty (and sometimes fishy) sea air as we headed to our little paradise away from home. We decided when we docked to walk and get snacks before heading to the beach and along the way we ran into our tuk tuk driver from our first time on the island. He approached us and was so happy to see us! We were in awe that he remembered us (I think it goes to show how few westerners know about this island) and so excited to have a personal driver for the weekend!

Shoe (or Shu, not sure about the spelling) brought us to where we stayed last time, but as it was a holiday it was full, so he brought us to one of the few places on the island that had available rooms: the Sawatdee Si Chang Resort. It is a beautiful country home looking place nestled in the hills with a wonderful view of the water. We thought it was going to be really expensive, but it turned out to only be 950 baht for the 3 of us (it was supposed to be more, but through the little thai we understand we overheard Shoe telling the owners to make it rot dai--cheaper--for us!) How awesome is that?! The ladies working at the resort were also unbelievably friendly and welcoming- Pe Jom was really the only of the 3 that could speak some English, but was sure that we had absolutely everything we needed, showed us around, etc. The owner of the place speaks no English, but was all smiles and jabbering away in Thai, laughing all the while when we were able to respond to something she said! The only downside about the resort is that it's not on the beach (there's only 1 beach on the island and the place we tried to stay is the only place that's on the beach), but with Shoe being as nice as he is, he waited for us to unpack and change and was there to drive us to the otherside of the island.

We gorged ourselves on some seafood pad see eew (thick noodles) before heading to our spots near the clear blue waters to soak up some rays and play in the waves. The water was almost like a bath it was so wonderfully warm; the perfect companion while staring at the sand and hills of the island. We got a midday snack of Som Tom (thai papaya salad) that turned out to be one of the spiciest things we've eaten--it still boggles my mind how hot some of the food is! Shoe was right on time to get us back to our place where we showered and read our books while watching the sunset over the water. A bunch of Thais were all outside enjoying the view and were whipping out fish and squid left and right to cook on these little charcoal grills the resort provides--pretty cool!

For dinner we went to Pan & David's, the island's famous restaurant, as Josie and I have been craving the sweet and sour chicken since the last time we were there. We met David, the owner, an American expat who owns the restaurant with his wife Pan, one of the cooks. We also ordered garlic/pepper squid (Si Chang is known for it's squid and I can't describe how good and tender it is), a shrimp soup w/ black pepper and mixed vegetables (including pumpkin which we actually eat a lot of here) and spicy wing bean salad. My mouth is watering thinking about how good it is...Getting to sleep was a little hard as the a/c sort of quit on us, but after some healthy sweating I finally drifted off realizing in the morning that it turned itself back on somehow during the night! We had some coffee on our deck for breakfast and returned to the beach--you guess it Shoe came through once again. After another squid dish we got some more sun and headed back to the ferry. Shoe was sad to say bye, but after exchanging phone numbers and a tip for his amazing services he was overjoyed. 'My friend my friend! okay see you again! i see you soon! okay my friend you carr me!' and carr you we shall.