SONGKHRAN!!!

We just made it through our first ever Songkran, the Thai New Year festival. It is 3 days long, and is one of the most unique festivals in the world. It mainly consists of throwing water at each other and rubbing mud on each other's faces. We had heard many stories, but we still weren't prepared for the maylem when we rode our bikes to church on sunday morning in our "church" clothes.

The church celebrated Songkhran as well. The older people of the church sat in a semi-circle while the younger members went around and prayed for each member and blessed them by pouring a little water on the hands of the member and wiping a little paste on the cheeks. It was a moving and fun ceremony. Apparently, this is how the ceremony began, by young people returning home and blessing/thanking their parents and elders for teaching them. But, this is what it has turned into. It is now the MARDI GRAS of Thailand.

When we left church in our nice "church" clothes, people had already started playing hard. In a 1/2 km ride home we got soaked with warm and COLD water and covered with mud.

We changed into some old clothes and rode our bikes through the mob of people to a friend's house in the heart of action. They were armed with buckets of water, loud music, lots of snacks, and a continuously running water hose. We stayed at the house from 1-5:30 for two days, throwing water on anyone we could. People walking by would wipe mud on our face, and we would return with a bucket of water. People often stopped traffic to do a little dance in the street or to attack a friend with some mud.

Our friends even bought about 100 pounds of ice at one point to give the water a little better effect on passers by. People expecting to get a little warm water, instead got soaked with freezing cold water. It was definitely a fun atmosphere, and most of it is in good fun, although the wiping mud on someone's face often turns into a good excuse for guys to try to grope any girl passing by. The festival breaks so many cultural "rules" that it turns out to be a big release for people. In Thailand it is culturally offensive to:

1. touch the head of anyone over 5 years old

2. have any physical contact with the opposite sex in public

3. do anything to someone older than you

4. throw things to anyone

All of these "known" rules are set aside for these three days, and basically anything goes. Thankfully, the thai's are all very cool headed and do not let anything bother them. We did not see any fights or major accidents, although we saw several close calls. Check out the video below (you'll see Ashley throwing water people in the truck) and our songkhran pictures on picasa as well.

More at home in Lopburi

A lot has happened since we wrote last. We celebrated our 2 yr. Anniversary, found a home in Lopburi and moved in, started studying Thai, and made some new friends. You can see more pictures of it all here.

We Found a Home

After 10 months without a home, we were ready to unpack our stuff and settle down a little. After looking at the options, we decided to stay at the top floor (4th Floor) of the Lopburi Youth House. The main floor is a community place for students to come hang out, eat, or study. There is a kitchen, laundry area, computer, and plenty of room for people to relax. The 2nd floor has a TV and couch and has room for students to sleep on the floor occasionally. Off and Pheung (the leaders of the Youth) live on the 3rd Floor. They are our age, have been married 2 years, and speak good English.

We get the whole 4th Floor. We have a nice big bedroom with 2 little nightstands, 2 dressers, and most importantly, an AIR CONDITIONER and 2 Fans. Sometimes at night we turn the air-con down to 84degrees F, but then we start to feel cold. We have a litte bathroom and a nice open landing with a desk and some space to dry out clothes. We have wireless internet at the house as well. We have really enjoyed having a home for the last week.

2 Year Anniversary

Jonathan surprised Ashley on our anniversary by leaving the house, reserving a hotel room, and planning the day for her. Ashley went and sipped some coffee, got a nice massage, shopped a little and then we had a nice relaxing evening at the hotel. For dinner we went to the Lopburi SteakHouse and were pleasantly surprised.

Learning Thai

Fiat (yes, she was named after the car) is teaching us Thai for 2 hours a day Tuesday through Saturday. We are both finding it very helpful to have her tell us when we're pronouncing things wrong and to motivate us to study on our own. She is teaching us with the same curriculum that OMF missionaries have used for the last 30+ years, so there is a lot of wisdom in the methods. Some days it feels like we're doing gymnastics with our mouths, trying to make it move in ways it hasn't moved before. We also go home each day and practice more with the CD they give us. Then, we try to practice as much as possible at the market, basketball court, and restaurants. It's hard work to learn Thai, but it's fun also. Luckily, Thai people are extremely gracious when we don't know the word for something or say the wrong thing. Almost every interaction ends with both them and us laughing;)

New Friends

We've been going to a park downtown about every other day. Jonathan plays basketball and Ashley does dance/aerobics. Their are normally 20-25 basketball players, some of whom are pretty good and tall. Ashley dances with about 50 thai ladies.

We made friends with Dton and Goff. Dton plays basketball and Goff does Aerobics everyday. They have invited us to go eat afterwards and introduced us to lots of their other friends. They are very nice to us. They speak really slowly for us and, between their english and our thai, we can have some fun conversations.