A Blonde With a Backpack

This past weekend I attended the Lopburi Monkey Festival! Lopburi is a town very close to mine that has basically let wild monkeys take over part of the town. When I say take over, I truly mean take over. The monkeys are everywhere in this part of town. Walking down the street, climbing on apartment buildings, running by 7/11; everywhere! Typically, the monkeys congregate at an old temple/ rotary in the city center, because many tourists feed them there. It's obvious that the temple was very beautiful during it's heyday, but it was ransacked by the Burmese many years ago and all of the Buddha statues in the temple are now head-less, unfortunately. Each year, Lopburi holds a huge feeding frenzy festival to thank the monkeys for bringing tourists. The mayor comes and blesses the monkeys and "VIP" attendees sit under a tent and watch the festivities. Meanwhile, monkeys are running around everywhere, jumping on people. I saw one monkey jump on a tiny g...

This past weekend, a teacher at my school got married. Kruu (Thai for teacher) Ae invited all of the English teachers to her wedding with beautiful invitations! I felt SO welcome and I sincerely appreciated the invitation. We were told to wear blue, as every Thai wedding has a theme that everyone has to dress to. So, I put on my blue dress and headed for the wedding in the van she graciously provided for the teachers; I was prepared, or so I thought! However, I had NO concept of the concert,show, carnival, and just all around festival I was about to attend.  Doesn't this look like a HUGE festival?? Not a wedding, but it was amazing! This was the photo area that was set up right when you arrive to the wedding. The couple stands here and takes photos with friends and family for hours. We took pictures, however I unfortunately don't have a copy of any. Performers completed many dances, people sang, and the entertainers told jokes. We had a table at...

Hey guys! Many of you saw my pictures from Loy Krathong, so I wanted to take a minute to write a blog post all about what we did. Loy Krathong (pronounced cra-tong) is a festival that takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar; hence, the exact date of the festival changes every year. In the Western calendar this usually falls in the month of November. This year, it was November 14th! Krathongs are made out of banana leaves, flowers, cauliflower, carrots, and even cucumbers! Incense and a candle are put on the top of the krathongs.  The krathongs are released into the river for many different reasons, depending on who you ask. They are released to thank the river goddess for giving the people water and to apologize for polluting her waters. They are also released to carry your past troubles and heartaches, and also your hopes and wishes for the year ahead. At school, krathong making is a BIG deal! My students spent...