Alright, so mom just threatened me that she wouldn’t send me coffee until I typed up something and posted it for the blog.
So this I am doing.
Yep, she knows JUST how to bribe me, doesn’t she?
I considered เขียนทุกอย่างนี่ที่ภาษาไทยแต่ฉันใจดี so I decided not to.
Anyways, last Sunday was my sister Ann’s birthday. One of the really cool things we did this day was go visit a monk.
Another cool think I did that day was eat my own body weight in sashimi.
But back to the monk.
So we drove to this adorable little temple nestled into the side of an idyllic little hill (I still refuse to call them mountains) in the Thai countryside (i.e. maybe 45 minutes from Chiang Mai).
Instead of going into the main temple area, we went into the adjacent house. Inside the breezy main room was a monk.
And a whole lot of Buddhas.
And a statue of Rama V.
But anyways, the monk was the really important part (for this story, at least).
First of all we brought the food we’d brought (think along the lines of what you would give to the soup kitchen) on trays and gave it to the monk.
And then he blessed us. While kneeling in front of this monk, listening to the blessing which I had no hope in hell of understanding because monks pray in a language other than Thai – I don’t actually know what language they use, as my sister refers to it as “monk language” but I understand less of it than I do of Thai – I noticed Ann was leaning forward, so her head was close to her knees. Being a good Rotary Exchange Student, I did the same. And boy am I glad I did! Because soon after the monk dipped some branches in a tub of water and flung/sprayed it all over us.
Then we each got blessed individually. The monk couldn’t touch us, so he kept his hand on my Por’s arm while Por did the actual actions of the blessing.
The pictures above are of me getting blessed.
The gold on my forehead is for good thoughts/intelligence. On the cheeks is so people will love me. And on the chin is so that everyone will listen when I speak.
So really, he could have skipped the whole blessing my face part. Not like any of THAT was needed :p.
But the blessing on my hands was so I would get money. So let’s hope that comes true and I get that 10, 000$ RBC scholarship, eh? (Dad, that was a JOKE). Kind of.
So yep.
That’s pretty much it.
Except did you know that the Thai Buddhists also worship Ganesh? Yeah, they call him Phra Phikanet. Weird, right?
I thought it was kinda interesting.
Oh! And I've switched families laeo but this is still with fam #1 cause they stole me away for Ann's B-day :) (The people in the pics are me, the monk, my Por, and my Mae).
I love you all.
MOMMY SEND ME COFFEE PLEASE!!!!!!
♥
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