There and Back Again

Hey everyone. Well it's been very crazy couple of days. Last weekend was Loi Krathong which is where they pay respects to the river and they but these boats made out of banana leaves in with little candles. That day I went out with Bea, a friend who I met in Bodh Gaya and now is here in Bangkok, yeah it's a small world, to a concert at cool little section of one of the shopping malls. The guy was half American and half Thai and a DJ and a acuoustic musician. He started by playing the guitar and sang songs from Death Cab for Cutie and tons of other American band which was really surreal. There is are so many American things here. Not only are 7/11 at every cornor but all sorts of American chains. The new Celine Dion song plays at all the bus stops and most theaters show more Hollywood movies then Thai. It's kind of sad. However it is Bangkok and once you get out of the city it is a little better. Well the guy at the concert was good and we got a signed CD and now I have some funky Thai music. His Cd is a mix of his two passions which is every bit as wonderously strange as it sounds. Anyway afterwards we got some cheese and crackers and we were just going to have picnic when we stumbled upon a beauty pagent. The ushered us in because we were Western and we were treated to feed food and drinks while we watched the most bizarre beauty pagent I have ever seen. It was intresting though. After that it was getting late so we went to a interesting resturaunt in our area and then to bed. I woke up nice and early to go back to Ven. Dhammanada's monestary which was very nice. I got to have some good discussions with her and with the other bikkhunis, samerinis, and maechi. I only spent one day though because I stopped there enroute to Petchaburi this province to the south of Bangkok known for it's temples. I arrived there late and met a German girl who was also looking for a room. So we spent a couple days there and I did see a lot of people there but translators were hard to come by and I only met 2 monks who spoke English. If I do decide to come back and do research in Thailand I am most certainly learning Thai. I feel so awkward not knowing the language. Anyway it was fun, I met some other travellers and it was a nice little vacation from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. It was not a good couple of days for my project but I'm ahead of schedule anyway. So it's one of the people I'm travelling with's birthday today so I think I will go out and celebrate with him and then tommorow I will get back into the project. Actually I'm really excited for Sunday because I'm going to go on alms rounds with the nuns at Ven. Dhammanada's monestary which should be a very intresting experience. Intrestingly enough even though I spent the last months surrounded by monastics I haven't actually seen any go on alms round so that should be very interesting. Well that's it, sorry I had to be a little short and sweet, I'm trying to finish up my paper by Tuesday so I can spend the King's Birthday without worrying so I want to get a little typing in today.