Thursday

Today was nice. No class so after breakfast of noodles and veggies I headed to the Payap chapel where the was a spiritual play going on. Thais are notoriously late so the performance started 20 minutes late. I misunderstood the word spiritual for meaning something other than religious but this was just that: a Christian play. I was fine with it. I knew it would be interesting either way. It was all in Thai but I had a translator which kind of worked. I could hear her periodically over the sound of the Thai voices on the speaker system. These were professionals and it was a good dance/play/musical performance. It was a love story but I couldn't quite follow. I know there was relationship violence and a rape scene. There was also a watch doctor and spirits. The main character was healed through prayer and god. It was pretty intense at times but they did a good job of depicting the horrors of violence and rape while keeping it non-graphic and artfully expressive. There was then what seemed to be a sermon after wards where I'm pretty sure he asked people moved by god to come up because people were crying and coming to the stage. It was something I had never experienced before and very touching. The crowd was mostly students and it was all female students who came up. It was all quite a lot but I had a good enough understanding to comprehend the impact of the play and the words on the audience. Really powerful stuff. Really glad I went. 

The rest of the day was a little different. Got the bus to two and then climbed and read for four hours. Loved it! Then home and pad Thai and friends and reading. I like the routine I have here. Sleep, eat, class, climb, study. It's the same things I do at Smcm. Makes me feel at home :) almost our whole group is going to the town of pai tomorrow. It's two hours west of here and it's suppose to be a really relaxed but fun and beautiful town. Hope they have wifi! Staying in a hostel. Should be fun. I'm trying to keep the total cost of the trip under 1000 B but we'll se how that goes. Leaving tomorrow after class. Can't wait!