Happy New year ... again!

Thai people manage to celebrate New Year's 3 times every year. The first is Jan 1 with the west. The second is Chinese New year, which is not officially a holiday but it is practically. The third is the most fun and the most Thai. This is Songkran: Thai New Year. This is a perhaps more reverent Thai description.

In my time in Thailand, I have had the honor of experiencing the old style and new style Songkran celebrations. On the whole, I prefer the old style though the fun of the new style is not something to be missed. The new style water throwing celebrations could never happen in a western country. They would most certainly turn into a riot.

The first time I went to celebrate Songkran on Khaosan Road in Bangkok I was totally amazed. It was sooooo crowded that I am sure that you could have been literally carried by the crowd. Everyone was throwing water and marking everyone's faces with talc paste. I was wearing a very, VERY cheap pair of pierced earrings that I often wore when teaching kindergarten so that if a child pulled on them, they just opened and came off. Someone in the crowd marked me and caught my earring with a finger and in the crowd just got carried away. That man managed to fight the crowd and turn around and find me and return my earring! A bit later, I got some talc in my eye by accident and I couldn't see. People I didn't know helped me and bought clean water to wash my eye out with. Khao San Rd. is a narrow place with open fronted shops on either side. With all of the water being thrown, not a single drop went in to any of those stores! Songkran is a 3 day wet t-shirt contest!

I am quite sure that Thais buy more squirt guns, water pistols and water bazookas in the week before Songkran than are sold in a year in the US.

Last year (what would have been my first Songran in Ubon) I spent Songkran in Bangkok. I decided this year that I needed to get some work done over Songkran so decided to stay in Ubon. The end of the week, I started preparing for the long holiday. I knew that in all likelihood, I would be the only person on campus except for the security guards. I knew that after Friday evening there would be no songtows (see below - this is my major mode of transportation) until Wed. morning when the university opened again.

Max, one of the PhD students in my program and also the faculty administrator for the graduate program, came to me on Friday and said that her family had all gone to the south of Thailand for the holidays and she wanted to know if I wanted to come and stay with her for the 4 days. It would make me feel not so isolated and it would give her an opportunity to practice her English non-stop for 4 days! I jumped at the opportunity.

So, yesterday morning she picked me up and I came to her lovely home. We have been going out for meals and since she has a washing machine, I have been using the opportunity to so some laundry (NOT BY HAND!!!!).

When I was in Tak province, I bought a piece of fabric to use as a shawl in the winter. The original use for the cloth is as a carrying cloth for babies. The fabric had never been washed and was as hard as a board. I brought it so that I can wash it and use some softener on it.

(I have never seen so many people who smoke as the Karen.)

It will be a pretty tame New Year I think. This afternoon Max and I are going to watch "Phantom of the Opera" in English. She is working on her thesis and I am working on my literature review. I had hoped to get the rest of my economics course for the new semester in June up on the wiki but Friday evening the university website went down and I am sure that no one at the university will know until Wed. Not a thing that is important over Songkran!