'my monks', and my first passenger!

Hello! Wow... so many good thoughts on my last blog.

I just got a wonderful e-mail from one of my best friends. Thank you God for friends. Seriously. Amazing invention.

This week I've started to teach at CLC- a Community Learning Centre on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. It's at the Centre here as well. My students are 6 Buddhist monks aged 16-22. It's interesting... I keep forgetting the rules :S. Monks are not allowed to touch girls in any way- even in passing, in sitting beside someone on a jostling bus, etc. I cannot even pass something directly to them. When I come beside them they move far away so they won't touch me; when I pass them a marker, they motion for me to put it on the table for them to pick up. The first time this happened I was slightly offended for a couple seconds before I reasoned with myself. I don't think it is because I am unworthy of passing something to them; I think they are intentionally avoiding any circumstances at all that would provide temptation. I respect that. That's cool. I do like making them laugh though :). Last night I had 'my monks' listening to 'Daddio'- my Neice's favourite song- on my ipod speakers, filling in the blanks of the lyrics I had them copy. Oh, I had to try hard not to laugh! If you've never heard the monk-rendition of 'Daddio'... it's worth a listen to :). I don't know where you would find one though...

A friend is also visiting me this week! One of the guys I tree-planted with in Thunder Bay is travelling SE Asia, and he's staying with us in Mae Sai for almost a week! It's so nice to have an other friend :). The first day he got here I 'picked him up' at Tesco on.... heck yes. My Tandem bicycle. Which is not actually tandem. We rigged up this sweet system of fitting his big backpack upside down in my front basket, he peddled, and I hung on on the back seat. After a test drive through the parking lot we tried it on the three-lane highway. I was so impressed! After we dumped his stuff off at my house we explored the town on our bike, taking turns peddling. Ah. My first ever passenger! :).

Cheers everybody! :)