Songkran

The Songkran Festival is the Thai New Year which lasts for about 4 days. It's a very important holiday in Thailand, not to mention one of the biggest international festivals in the world. The tradition is to pour water over other people to wash away their sins for the new year. This tradition has escalated into the biggest water fight you will ever see (or not see if you never go to Thailand in April ;)) the entire country celebrates and the bigger festivals happen in the bigger cities, especially the ones where there are a lot of tourists.

Ok, now that you know the background, we can get to the good stuff! This was by far, the most fun I have had since being a little kid! Really!! I don't think I have seen so many smiles on one street in my entire life. They say Disney World is the happiest place on earth? Well Disney needs a 3 day water fight...then it will be the happiest place on earth!!

Now if you aren't interested in getting into the middle of the water fight, you can stand on the platform to the sky train. This was not my plan. I couldn't wait to get into the middle of this water fight. I had a big group of friends and we were well prepared with our water guns, swim suits, water proof bags, and the desire to shoot lots of water at people!

The minute we got off the train, you could here the happy squeals of people getting water thrown at them. It was a crazy sight and we had to just stand there to take it all in for a minute. That minute didnt last very long because I couldn't wait to get down there! We got there pretty early, it was about 1:30pm, and although it seemed crowded at the time, by the end of the night you couldn't even move on the street because too many people were blocking your way. Walking down the street was tons of fun, shooting your water guns at random people and of course they always tried to get you back! Our numbers went from 3 people (Allison, myself, and our French friend Julien) to 6 people (our Australian friend Birgitta and a couple from Holland, Marloes and Goof), to 8 people ( another couple from Holland), to 15 people in our group by the end of the night! We ended up on a side street called Soi 11 and just stayed there for about 7 hours throughout the festival. At first it was really tame. There were maybe 5 groups standing on the street throwing water at people. By around 6pm, there were people lining the sides of the street having an all out war!! Our group would find someone and totally surprise attack them just for fun! It was great! Then they would get us back and we would recruit them to help us get someone else! My teachers in high school would call me an instigator...I guess it's still true!!

I really can't believe what an incredible time this festival was!! We left around 9 or 10pm, completely drenched from head to toe, and ready for some dinner! It feels really good to have a group of friends here. I am a very social person and its never easy to find people you connect with in a new city. I struggled with that in Chicago too. It's different here though. Most expats (or what Thais call Farangs) are out there looking for friends too. At least the ones who are in the same boat as I am. Having that group helps me to feel more at home. I'm excited to see how these friendships grow and I hope to stay in touch with them, even after leaving Bangkok.

I will never forget Songkran and all the joy it brought my life. It was like being a kid in your back yard. Except for the fact that there are thousands of strangers there too of course!! It was a much needed de-stressor for me. This past week was really hard for me emotionally and I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel like I can keep going and not worry as much about my job. But that's for another day of writing!