Farewell

At 3:30, we loaded the kids into the vans for their ride to the airport.  It's always a sad day when you have to say goodbye to the Land of Smiles.  Ajarn Wayne is accompanying them home, whereas I'm staying back for six days to conduct research in Kaeng Ka Chan National Park near the Burmese border.  I'll be on the same flights to Chicago and STL on Saturday.

What a fantastic group of young people.... every single one of them.  It's not often I can say that after spending three weeks with young adults overseas.  You parents should be extremely proud of your kids.  It was our pleasure to have them in the Thailand study abroad program this year.

We met in the hotel lobby at 3:30 a.m. after only a couple hours of sleep.

Loaded up in the vans and preparing to head to the airport, the students are very sad to be leaving Thailand.

So sad...

...although a few managed to work up a smile for the camera.  They should be home in around 36 hours.

Meeting with Thai students

This is the fourth consecutive year that our students have met with Thai undergraduate students from Kasetsart University.  The Thai students had several activities that they spent weeks planning.  We made a traditional Thai desert, we made kites and had kite contests, the Thai students performed four traditional Thai dances from different regions of the country, we colored customized cloth bags, and had lunch.  The Thai people are the warmest, happiest, and most welcoming people on the planet.  The apprehension about the language barrier dissipated right away.  Their English skills were only slightly better than our Thai skills, but it didn't matter.  The spirit of friendship and happiness carried the day.  Count the smiles in the photos...

It's really late and the students are leaving in a few hours, so I'm not going to include much narration... just photos.

First the Thai students showed us how to make a desert called bua loi, which means floating lotus flower.  The our students tried their hands at it.

The next activity was to make kites.  Again, the Thai students helped our student with construction of the tissue paper kites.

After the kites were made, we had a contest for the best looking kite, with action modeling.  Each student took their turn.  Here's Alex.

Moose.

Colin made a few spin moves, but it wasn't enough...

The Thai students were the judges.

Alex won this prestigious event.

Next, we went out to the parking lot in front of the building.  Another contest to see whose kite would fly the highest.  Luke took two turns to lose.

Katie.

Franny.

The winner was Alyssa.

Here's group photo of everybody.

The Thai students gave traditional Thai dance performances, one from each region of the country.

Finally, the Thai students made cloth bags with a MU-KU scene.  Here our students colored the design.

The time went by quickly.  The Thai students and Ajarn Aea were wonderful hosts and I dare say our students got much more out of this cultural exchange than did the Thai students.  We tend to think that our ways in America are the best, but our students are now realizing that there just might be a better, more wholesome culture out there.

It's tradition in Thailand that you give a small gift after an interaction like this.