This morning Jenny and I walked down to the market at the end of our soi for coconut rice and fresh mango for breakfast (as well as some excellent spring rolls). The food was great but the coconut rice was especially sweet, it's a good thing I don't eat this meal too often. After breakfast Jenny got ready for her guitar lesson and I got ready to go to Yu's house for a merit making ceremony preformed by the monks. Yu is a Baha'i youth in our community.

Mantana (the twelve year old girl who lives in my building) showed up at my place and we hung out and listened to some music before I had to go meet Vaughan. I went over to meet Vaughan at ten in the morning and we left to go over to Yu's place. We went on Vaughan's motorcycle which was interesting because I was wearing a skirt and had to ride "side-saddle". The girls here ride the motorcycle taxis in this way all the time but I was nervous to because it looked like something I would be awkward doing but when I rode in that way today I did fine (maybe I'll be more brave and actually take a motorcycle taxi somewhere in the future). When we arrived at Yu's there were about fifteen people in attendance. It didn't take long for the monks to arrive and then the ceremony began. The monks sat themselves in order from oldest to youngest and we all sat in front of them and the ceremony began. They unravelled a white string with one end attached to the alter (nearly every house has one it contains pictures of the King and statues of the Buddha as well as offerings to the Buddha) and each monk held on to the piece of string (I have made a picture of this public on my flickr account so you can look on the photo stream and see other pictures of the monks and the merit making ceremony). The monks chanted a prayer which gave thanks for the Buddha, his teachings, and the order of the monks. After this chant is over the monks are presented with food by the host and others in attendance. The monks ate and then we all reassembled to for another chant and a water ceremony. For the water ceremony the people who were in attendance poured a glass of water into a bowl (and if you didn't have a glass of water and a bowl you touched the arm of a person who did, as I had to). This was all performed as the monks chanted. After the water was poured the most senior monk took a large bowl of water and a leafy branch and the monks sang a chant to bless the house and everyone who was there while the senior monk splashed us all with water using the leafy branch. After the ceremony was completed the monks left and everyone else ate lunch. I left at this point to meet Jenny because her guitar lesson was over and we were supposed to meet in order to have an adventure in the afternoon.

In the afternoon there was a rain storm but it passed pretty quickly and Jenny and I bravely took the bus to Victory Monument and the sky train to Phrom Phong station to the Emporium shopping mall. This mall was pretty huge and had a lot of expensive (expensive for Thailand) fashion stores, but it was also the site of the english book store which was the purpose of our adventure. We each found a few books and then we ate some "north american" food (ie: brownies and fast food) which made me feel sick. After the food we debated going to the movies but they weren't showing anything really great and we would have had to wait around for anything to start. We successfully took the sky train and the bus back home and I had a really frustrating and clumsy half an hour. After that Jenny and I just hung out at home. I'm feeling some what cranky this evening, hopefully I'll be less irritable tomorrow.

Today's picture is of the youngest monk at the ceremony (this is my favorite picture). There were five monks in total and I sat in front of this monk.