ICU Karen Wedding

On Friday, Misa and I went with Claire and her husband to a Christian Karen wedding in Chiang Rai. We left Friday afternoon and spent the night in a village outside of the city of Chiang Rai. We ate a delicious Karen dinner before going into the city to explore the night bizarre, which was overall disappointing and nothing comparable to the markets of Chiang Mai. We went to bed early that night so we could wake up early to eat breakfast and attend the wedding ceremony.
That morning we got up and went to a family friend’s house for breakfast. He made us ‘half farang half Karen’ food which turned out to be toast and omelet. We ate and talked while the boys became enveloped with a small group of owls in a tree next to the house. A young boy walked up to the house with a BB gun and they all took shots at the owls. They finally hit one between the eyes and it fell down dead. They said they were going to eat it but when they plucked it the bird was so small it didn't seem worth it. They kept shooting at the other owls in the tree until they hit another. They brought it over and it wasn't quite dead yet. They messed around with it for a little before pinching its throat shut. It struggled and took a long time to die.
We left soon after to return to the house and dress for the ceremony. When we got there we took our seats in a back pew. The wedding was like a typical Christian wedding. There were flower girls, and groomsmen. The bride wore the clothing of a married Karen woman with a veil. The ceremony was in both Karen and Thai. It was explained to me that the groom did not speak Karen and that the family hade taught him how to say ‘I do’ and nudged him at the appropriate time to say it. There was lots of singing, various friends and family seemed to have prepared songs and music especially for the ceremony.
After it was over we were invited back to the bride’s home to eat. We had more delicious Karen food, took some pictures, and then left for the long drive home to Chiang Rai. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad to have been able to have the cultural experience.

ICU Thoughts on Returning

The semester has come to an end too quickly. I feel that there are so many things that I have not done in Chiang Mai and now I am too swamped with work to go out and do them. When I first got here it seemed like I had an infinite amount of time to enjoy what Chiang Mai has to offer. Not only have I not seen and done many things, but now I’m too swamped with work and stressed out to efficiently plan my summer.

I have vague yet amazing plans for the summer after the Thai Studies program ends. I intend to fly to Nepal and travel through Northern India before returning to Thailand and beginning my travels through Southeast Asia. I have yet to plan, budget, and pick a return date. I feel an overwhelming amount of personal responsibility and I feel ready. Over the past year I have arranged visas, booked plane tickets, traveled solo, filed insurance claims, budgeted money, and nearly completed two successful semesters at universities in incredibly foreign environments. I have undoubtedly grown an immense amount and I feel like a new and more capable person. After all this I feel like returning home will be so simple.

But it seems strange that I will return with such a radically different outtake on life and the world. The world seems larger to me now, and I’m worried about relating to people back home in the same way. By the time I see my friends and family I will have done and seen so much I can’t even imagine I’ll be able to articulate it.