Rediscovering Lampang

This weekend has been my first proper weekend back in Lampang. I've been traveling so much that i haven't had a chance to catch up with all the Lampang folks. Friday, I was forced into going to a khantoke dinner sponsored by my school. Khantoke is a traditional northern thai-style dinner followed by a performance. i would have been interested in this performance had it not been madatory and super-expensive. the ticket was 300 baht which is a lot to pay for a meal that i couldn't eat. it was interesting to see the park decorated and to watch my students act. the play was about the history of the lanna kingdom but i couldn't really glean that much of the plot (my thai is not THAT good). we sat for 2 1/2 hours shivering as it got colder and desperately trying to understand what was happening onstage. i left a bit early cause i wanted to go back to my warm bed and drink tea.

saturday morning, hilary and i embarked on a mission to redecorate our house or at least give it some more character. we bought some lovely plants and cacti...we decided that we will each buy a plant every time we go to the supermarket. since we don't have a yard (it's concrete) we have to buy potted plants but it's still an improvement. we've also decided to make the little area under the stairs into a nap hut/casbah/ art area. we're going to make little curtains and fill the space up with cushions, put art on the walls. i actually enjoy home improvements.

in the afternoon, we met up with friends at the park. i brought the hula hoop and this rattan ball (which you use like a hackey-sack). we watched the people doing tai-chi with red fans and we tried to remember how to hack. we did not look cool. but it was fun and we had snacks and waited for the sun to go down. i forgot how much i missed everyone so it was good to catch up.

today, we bought a plethora of herbal teas (they're so good and cheap) and are planning to watch a ridiculous amount of movies. also, it's now officially mango season so there will be mango with sticky rice and coconut milk often. arroy mak mak!