For the next month I am required to go into work, sign in, sit around, and then head home around 1 or 2 pm. The rest of the teachers at Anuban Khon Kaen School will be writing lesson plans and getting ready for the up and coming school year. However, since I will not be returning next year I have a lot of free time on my hands. I have decided to make a scrap book of my time spent at Anuban Khon Kaen School complete with pictures, notes, and of course a few digits I picked up on my last day of teaching. In a panic, a lot of my students gave me a piece of paper with their phone number on it. They weren't ready to get rid of me just yet. I also have job searching and life planning to take up my time, but that is all too much to handle at the moment so I'll get to that later.
Bananoffee
Monday was the first day spent at school with nothing to do. Preaw told me about a coffee shop that one of my [former] student's parents own. After about two and a half hours at school, we took an early lunch and headed to Khon Kaen University for some coffee, lunch, and bananoffee. No that was not a misspelling. Bananoffee is banana coffee cake and it is delicious. Good thing the coffee shop is inaccessible without a motorbike! We headed back to school for just an hour before Amanda, Ari and I took a trip to Big C. I had taken the number 3 Song Tae all the way to Big C in an attempt to find a new way to school so I knew how to get there. Amanda and Ari needed some items for the rest of their stay in Thailand and I needed to get away from school so we all went together. Big C is the Super Target of Thailand. You can find anything you need there. Ari and Amanda bought bed sheets and cleaning supplies and I bought some paper for my hearsay scrap-booking. Later, I took a trip to the night market for a fresh fruit smoothie and some chicken skewers to wrap up a successful Monday.
Motorbikes
On Tuesday I spent about two hours cutting out paper for my scrapbook and then went out to a new noodle place with Preaw and Oil. When we finished with lunch we headed to the Ozone center for a coffee. I stumbled upon the Ozone center while walking home from school in my newly discovered way. It is a shopping complex that could very easily be placed in Sugarhouse, Utah or off of Patterson in Grand Junction. It even has a legitimate parking lot with diagonal parking spaces. I was excited when I first found it and even more excited when Preaw drove Oil, Amanda and I there for some after lunch coffee.
After coffee we went to a used motorbike dealership and Amanda bought a motorbike! It was quick, easy, and very exciting. Amanda had been searching for a motorbike at a reasonable price since the first day she got here. She is now fully equipped with a Honda Click and two pink helmets making her a real person living in Thailand!
Khon Kaen Games
Every year Thailand has a national game week. These national games consist of everything from boat racing to ballroom dancing. Preaw and Tang Moe had been talking about going to a basketball game and Tuesday night was the night to do it. We watched the girls team from Khon Kaen play the girls team from Krabi (we won) and then we watched the boys team from Khon Kaen play the boys team from Yala (we won again). Basketball seems to be a universal sport, however there were a few Thai accents to the game we watched. Before the game started the two teams wai-ed each other, when the ref blew the whistle, the team players argued with a huge smile on their face, and the average height and build of the players was at least two feet shorter than those, even unprofessional, in America. It was a great game and the boys team was full of attractive Thai men that have clearly been hiding from me for the past ten months. 
After the game we went to Chocolate for the first of many quiz nights. Ari, Amanda and I formed a team with a solo English man. It was due to his worldly knowledge that we won!! We split 2500 baht four ways which covered our bus ticket to Chiang Mai for the weekend. I can't wait for next week's quiz night!
Peacocks
Wednesday was the Buddhist Holiday Makha Bucha Day. It is a Buddhist holiday more commonly celebrated in Thailand than other Buddhist countries. On this day, it is said that four separate events occurred.
"1. There were 1,250 Sangha followers, that came to see the Buddha that evening without any schedule.
2. All of them were "Arhantas', the Enlightened One, and all of them were ordained by the Buddha himself.
3. The Buddha gave those Arhantas the principles of the Buddhism, called "The Ovadhapatimokha". Those principles are: - To cease from all evil, - To do what is good, - To cleanse one's mind;
4. It was the full moon day.
On the same day, 44 years later, the last year of the Buddha's life, he decided to 'Parinibbhana', nirvana, leave the mind from the body or die."
We had the day off from school in recognition of this holiday. We had planned the day before to head up to Chang Khan, the little town in the provence of Leoi that I visited with T. Sao, Meghean, and Cait when I first came to Khon Kaen. Our plans changed when Tang Moe, who was going to be driving us, told us she needed to spend the holiday with her father. We decided to stick around Khon Kaen and see what strange wonders the city held.
We had heard about a peacock farm hiding somewhere in the middle of the city so we decided this would be a nice day to go see what we could find. We didn't have to search very hard since Preaw knew exactly what and where it was. She took us to a beautiful park not far from school. The park was full of sculptures made from metal and stone. It was nice to get out of the big city and have some fresh, calm air.
After we went to the park Preaw went to the Chinese temple to make merit. Then we headed over to Mister Lee's ice cream, an ice cream shop owned by another one of my student's father. The ice cream was just what we needed after walking around in the 45*C heat.
Temples
In the evening, devotees gather in temple complexes to form a procession. Buddhists carry flowers, lighted candles and joss sticks during this procession of Makha Bucha Festival. These people walk around a Chedi at the temple three times under the full moon.
After walking around the outside of the temple and taking a few pictures while enjoying the absolute wonder of the procession, we headed to my favorite som tam, sticky rice, and grilled chicken shack, right next to the temple, for dinner.
Hula Hoops, Henna, and Tarot Cards
Later, we trekked around the lake to Chocolate for some hula hooping, tarot card reading, and henna tattooing. Benjo, one of Jay's friends, comes to Chocolate every Wednesday to share her talents. There was also another talent among Chocolate friends last night. Jodie, a Thai native from Bangkok, is a beautiful Belly Dancer. Together Benjo and Jodie put on an informal show and I got a mini Belly Dancing lesson.
Alas, I am sick
Last week I came down with a nasty cold. I thought I had fought it off, but it has returned, and this time it is worse than before. I decided to stay home from school today, Thursday, in hopes that resting all day would cure me in time for our big trip to Chiang Mai this weekend! Preaw, Ari, Amanda and I are heading to Chiang Mai for the weekend to see pandas, markets, and temples.
Dentist
With the help of Oil, I have made an appointment to see the dentist tomorrow. I have one cavity that I know of that needs to be filled and I figured since it's cheep I might as well get a teeth cleaning while I'm at it. So tomorrow, I have an appointment at 1:00 to see a dentist. As if seeing a dentist isn't scary enough, now I'm seeing one in Thailand. It is not the most ideal ending to a great week, but it will do! I hope the rest of the month holds some more great adventures around my Thai city town of Khon Kaen.
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