Banana Boats and Ice Cream

Come Sunday the Thai's will celebrate Loy Krathong festival. After several minutes of broken english including the words "tree banana" and some drawings, my students were able to tell me what the festival was all about. People gather banana tree leaves to build these floating boats that they decorate in all sorts of ways. Its really very cool how intricate they are when each group of students only gets like 2 hours to build it all. Then they put a candle on top, light it, and send it into the river to float down. My favorite part was that the school created this make shift river in the middle of the school and that was where the students would float their boats.

A harshly angled aerial view of the makeshift river

I wish it was there forever

The 2nd place winner let me send off their boat

Beautifully and intricately woven

Float on!

Hey guys look its me with terrible posture and the boats!

Just hanging with the Vice Principal lady and a Director

I'm a big deal… just kidding... obviously

My student made the 1st place winning boat, so proud!

I've discovered the coolest part of Thailand! At least in my opinion. Some crazies may not agree, but they're obviously crazy based off their title. I found out the shop right next to the entrance to my apartment sells ice cream! It's absolutely delicious and the ice cream chick really hooks it up with the scoops. Anyone who knows anything knows that the scoop size is really very crucial for enjoyment. Theres no disappointment like receiving a small scoop*. So anyway its this little hole in the wall (not literally though… when I was young and people said that phrase I thought they meant literally) and tons of students go there after school because get this… its 15 baht for 2 scoops or 20 baht for 3! Thats like 45 or 60 cents for a good amount of divine ice cream guys. If I thought I was going to get fat before, now I know I will. However, I'm not complaining. Bring it on!!

Little does she know she is my new best friend

I have no idea who this girl is, but she had a waffle with green tea ice cream on top

I have got to figure out how to order that

In addition I finally got a photo of the lady who makes my dinner each night. She's the coolest and makes the best food ever for a real steep price of 30 baht (90 cents) per dish. I don't know what I'm going to do when I return to the states and have to pay $10 for a thai dish, well I'll probably become poor fairly quickly. They baked some beetles the other night and Jonathan and I tried one and they were actually pretty good. I was terribly grossed out, but I made myself eat it. I know you guys don't believe me without a picture because anyone can say they've eaten baked beetles, so fear not I will get a photo of it! The only bad thing about the dinner place is mosquitos feast on your feet the whole time, but I figure they're just going out to dinner too. I'll take the company I can get, unless of course its creepy older drunk Thai guys who ask if they can show me around Bang Bon.

Sadly I can't remember her name so we'll call her best friend #1

BF #1 and her daughter and the assistant in the back

*Post Script: I would like to attribute the realization of the importance of scoop size to Jesse Gouveia