Hugs and Tears

"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."
-Ursula K Le Guin

Our last day in Thailand has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Class this morning was insightful and interesting, and then we spent some time as a class practicing music. We ate at the Canteen for the last time and said goodbye to the Thai students, which was REALLY hard. Getting to know them and hanging out together has been so fun! I will miss them all dearly.

At 3:00 we gathered to return to the College of Music Spirit House and made an offering. It was the perfect full circle ending. We went to the spirit house on our first day, and returned on the last.

Afterwards we took the van to Princess Ajanmam Dusadee's house. The most adorable ninety-one year old woman greeted us at her beautiful home. We sat down for dinner and she asked us many questions about our last few weeks in Thailand and we were able to reminisce on all the wonderful memories we created here. Princess Ajanmam also told us stories, about her life and her teaching career. She greatly appreciates music and also dance.

When we had finished dinner, we gathered to sing for the princess. First, we sang "What a Wonderful World," and Kolby played the guitar. Christine and Jamie signed the song in American Sign Language and Ajanmam was very pleased. Then, I accompanied the group singing "Colors of the Wind." That was my favorite part of the night, because when I was playing the guitar I was able to look Princess Ajanmam in the eyes while singing. She teared up during that song, and you could see the power of the music on her face.

The 12 of us had only prepared the two songs, but she eagerly requested we also sing a Thai song! So, obviously, we went with "Gep Tawan." It didn't sound that great, but when we finished the princess smiled the cutest squintiest smile. Being able to have dinner with her, and just be in her presence and hear her stories was amazing.

Karn helped us get taxis after dinner to go to Vertigo, the roof top bar. We went to the 59th floor, and then climbed up a few flights of stairs in order to get to the beautiful view!

I finally got my virgin Pina Colada 

Late into the night we divided up and took taxis back to Bundit. We got together in the hallway and wrote notes in each others journals and hung out for one last time. Slowly but surely however, people started to go to bed. Since my flight is at 4:00 AM tomorrow this would be the last time I see all these wonderful Kansas people for who knows when. There were lots of hugs and some tears (mostly from Kara). I am going to miss my new friends and our adventures in Thailand. It has been such a blessing to be here and learn together. 

Lost in Bangkok

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."   -William Feather

On Saturday we got lost in Bangkok.

At first, Alyssa, Becca, Haley, Lilly and I took a taxi to the BTS, which we then rode to the stop closest to the mysterious crepe place Dr. Register had told us about. We wandered around some pretty sketchy alleyways and got many strange look from some Thais before we found the most adorable French crepe restaurant just in time for brunch!

Afterwards we continued our walk. Haley led us with the map, I provided the compass, and Alyssa herded us all like we were children. Altogether we managed to find Platinum, a huge mall that is really more like a multi story indoor market. The prices were great! We were able to find some extra luggage for the flight back to the states and some cute shoes! Becca bought a huge suitcase, which was able to fit all of the other things we bought that day. It was quite humorous, Becca lugging around a ginormous suitcase in Bangkok. After we finished shopping we went to yet another mall just across the street to see a movie.

I convinced everyone to see Ant Man even though they had no idea what it was about, and we got some seats in the back. The chairs recline A LOT, and are very comfortable. It is definitely a popular date activity here in Thailand. Before the movie started, there was a tribute to the King and everyone stood up, showing their respect. The movie itself was AWESOME, and everyone else was glad they saw it too.

 Ice rink in the mall! 

Bangkok traffic

Next, we tried to find the BTS station from the mall. Five farang running through a huge mall, one with a big suitcase in order to make it to dinner on time must have been quite a sight. We probably asked about twenty people where the BTS station was and each pointed in a direction that we followed until we asked another person. We probably went in a few circles, but the mall is so massive that I don't actually think we did. Eventually, we found the station and forced are way onto the packed skytrain. We got off at the stop closest to the restaurant we were supposed to meet everyone at, and began hailing taxis. No taxi drivers seemed to know where Tawandang German Brewery is, or they didn't know what we were saying, because none would take us until finally a young man said yes. We had written the address down in English, and the taxi driver seemed to have an idea where that was, but our Thai is not great, and he knew little English. Haley struggled to communicate with him while we drove around Bangkok for a while. He started to call friends asking if they knew what we were talking about, and then we suggested he call Hui.

Hui didn't answer her phone.

The driver seemed to think we were looking for a hotel, and didn't know what Tawandang was. We were all getting kind of worried, when Hui called back and was able to give the man directions.

"Oh! Beer!" He said.

That was the one word we had to say in order for him to know where we were trying to go. It was maybe two minutes later and we were at the brewery eating food with all the others who weren't late.

Tawandang German Brewery was a pretty cool place. There were live performances the entire time we were there and the food was delicious. Kind of a unique mixture between German and Thai food.

 Rayna being Rayna. 

Our last dinner with Pat and Hui was a great but sad end to the night. I am going to miss those two crazy Thais! 

Buddhist Lent

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger."   -Buddha

Class was amazing Thursday morning. First we did a workshop of a music therapy session with the Thai students and then was able to talk about the things we learned. We also talked in detail about music therapy with babies in the NICU, which I have always been interested in. Learning from Dr. Register in just the last few weeks has been amazing and I feel like I have grown so much and absorbed a ton of great information and insight! I am definitely going to miss class with her.

After our class we went with Karn to the Buddhist temple where he worships to celebrate the Buddhist version of Lent. The kindest lady, Usa, showed us around and even arranged for us to have a dharma talk with a monk!

The monk was very kind and answered all of our questions. He talked a lot about mediation and focusing on the present. Also, we talked about happiness and how one of the purposes of life is to help others to be happy. So much of these things were relevant to what we just learned in class!

After that we did a walking meditation around the temple, in the rain. Me and Alyssa used her scarf as cover.

After spending plenty of time at the temple we all went to the Central Salaya mall for dinner and shopped for a few things that we wanted to take back to the States. Luckily, we were able to get back to the apartment early to get some sleep!