Une vie trop belle: Buddha's Birthday and a Trip into Civilization

Last night after dinner, we went into Chiang Rai for Buddha's birthday. We went to one of the temples in the area where everyone was lighting incense to hold with a flower, then they would walk 3 times around the temple, meditating on Buddha's teachings. It was cool to see the reverence they have--children included. There were definitely some darling kids walking around. The temple was beautiful inside--we couldn't actually walk in because there were so many people participating in the monks' chants. But we got to the entrance area and it was beautiful with red and gold, and then obviously a big, large golden Buddha right in the center.
Anyway, we walked around the temple to see everything--it was funny to see the novice, teen monks and to hear them laughing just like your average teenage boys. After that, we walked around with Jess and Jake (the couple from Minnesota who're traveling the world). We saw the Chiangrai Train Library (whatever that is lol), and then we sorta wandered until heading back to the car. It was full moon last night, and it was so light outside--it was bizarre.
This morning after our regular meeting with all the interns and volunteers, I didn't have anything going until lunchtime. After lunch, we indoor peeps made resources for teaching. That was fun--the creating part. We also tried to plan for a teaching we're doing Friday. I'm not a fan of planning in a group like that. People were throwing out ideas, others were shooting them down. It just got kinda strained and slightly contentious. We've got some people with very specific ideas about what shouldn't be done, but as far as what to do, not so helpful.
After that, we had a little meeting about eBannok. It's the project Zoe's working on--she helps some of the hill tribe women make things like clothes, bags, crafts that they can sell online and to the volunteers who come through. They really need help getting word out about it. It's pretty cool because these hill tribe women make it and customize it according to what you want.
Then we had a Thai lesson from one of the Thai girls. Thai is dang hard. We learned how to say a few phrases, and how to count. The tones really throw me off, but it was cool to learn a bit.
Not gonna lie, dinner was nasty. It was some kind of seafood dish, and then a really hot one as well. We decided we'd go into town in Chiang Rai. We took a song tao (kind of like a truck with a bunch of seats in the back). It was craaaazy to go back into civilization lol. We went to Central Plaza which is a big, nice mall in Chiang Rai. Really nice. It was weird to go from bucket flush toilets and thatched-roof huts to such a nice mall. We used the restroom in town, and I used double TP just cuz I could lol.
We ate at McDonald's. Yeah, judge us. We didn't want spicey food. And the Ovaltine is delicious. After that, we went to Big C--kinda like Wal Mart. We got some sweets and such.
Next we tried to find a tuk-tuk. Kinda scary since we have no idea how to say Mirror Foundation in Thai, and definitely don't know the address. We lucked out BIGTIME in finding a tuk-tuk driver who actually knew (or so he said) what Mirror Foundation was. He was nice to drive us all that way. It's like a 40 minute drive. I was surprised we actually arrived here. Anyway, tomorrow we're doing outdoor work. Should be interesting. And hot. I'll post some pictures from last night and today.