Saturday and Sunday consisted of swimming, yoga, writing my 15-page paper (due Wednesday night), journaling, reading, researching and … shopping!! Because our week is sandwich-packed with lecture after lecture, group exercises, discussions, reflections and more readings, it is wonderful to have physical, mental and spiritual exercise on the weekend!Here is the pool, which is fantastic! This week, I’ve gone into the hot tub once and steam room several times. The latter, perhaps, is my favorite – especially after half-hour of swimming the back-stroke (the only stroke I do well) and switching off with my styrofoam swimming board. At some point Sam (short for Samantha) from Australia, is suppose to give me “proper swimming lessons;” she swims almost every morning before class. After spending three months at a Buddhist temple, I will be curious to see how patient she’ll be as my personal swimming instructor … :o)
Saturday evening I ate at SASA International House, which is a hotel next door from my dormitory. The spicy papaya salad and bowl of fresh vegetable soup (carrots, cabbage, and broccoli) was delicious and healthy. Since I haven’t adjusted well to food from the canteen (where all of the students eat), I’ve been having most of my dinners here. Almost always, I’m alone and take “time” to journal, read or blog. After dinner, I wrote my paper, read, researched and skyped with a couple of people … skyping is always a nice break.Sunday, I had breakfast (fresh cut papaya, pineapple and yogurt) in my room, worked on my paper and then … SHOPPING at Chatuchuck Market!! It was absolutely crazy!!! People, as you can see, are EVERYWHERE!!
We took a couple of breaks and had fresh juice shake and then coconut ice cream, with pieces of coconut in a coconut shell. Here is a picture of Nadda (one of the administrative assistants from school) holding my ice cream!
I mainly bought souvenirs, a couple of dresses and tried looking for “togs,” (which is what they call bathing suits in Australia). I managed NOT to buy any shoes, if you can believe it!!! Here we are after 6 hours of shopping, taking the sky train back home!!!! From left to right, Aarti, Erinma & Nadda (whom you've already met), Inday (Philippines) and me!!!
The weekend was great as it included exercise for the body, mind, soul and spirit!! It was a great way to gear up for the following week of lectures and also in preparing us to fly to northern Thailand (Chang Mai and Mae Hong Sorn), on Saturday morning, where we’ll visit refugee camps and talk to people who are involved in the prevention of human trafficking. The briefing last Friday, which consisted of ground rules and what to expect, was eye-opening and disturbing … I can’t imagine what it will be like to see, learn, talk to people … simply experience it all …
