Art and Entertainment

Hello everyone! I thought I'd update you all really quick before jetting off yet again . . . this time to the old Thai capital of Sukhothai and the current capital of Bangkok. It's a class excursion (like the Golden Triangle trip) so it will be filled with plenty of interesting learning opportunities. In addition to visiting the Historical Park in Sukhothai, we will be touring important political places in Bangkok such as the Parliament, Grand Palace, and UN. Should be fun and informative!

In the meantime, I have been keeping busy with all my classes (as a student and a teacher) but making time to relax and have fun with friends as well. I love my art class and so excited that my professor is coming with us to Bangkok to show us the arts and cultural centers. We've been doing some pretty cool projects lately, too. The week after break we turned in our "Food and Art" projects depicting how we might associate food with emotions, memories, experiences, etc. The aspect of food I chose to represent was a combination of memories from the many road trips my family took as I was growing up. We would often stop at rest areas along whatever highway we were driving on (we've been all over the US and even ventured into Canada!) and break out a picnic lunch, keeping it simple and homey with the extra touch of a tablecloth.

I constructed this scaled-down version of a picnic lunch using popsicle sticks (bought at a craft store, I didn't have to eat a bunch of popsicles all by myself!). They are inscribed with the names of the places we stopped, songs we listened to, books we read, conversations we had, or inside jokes that came up. I used a plastic bag, napkins, paint, clay, and even pencil shavings to make the rest of the spread. I have no idea how (or if) I can transport it back home somehow but it was fun to make either way.

This last week our art class took a field trip to the workshop of Ajahn Tor, a textile artist. Skilled in fashion design, dying, and all techniques of weaving, he graciously showed us around his home and work space, showing us samples of his work and then prepared dyes so we could try it out ourselves! He specializes in natural dyes, which is a very involved and labor intensive process but well worth the results. This is the smaller of the two pieces I made, the other being solid indigo with a very faint pattern that I didn't think would photograph well.

So the indigo dye is on the far right, a watered down version of the blue is in the middle, and the green on the left is made from the holy basil plant. The stripes were made from using a dye-resistant plastic string to tie up the cloth before I dyed it. It was so much fun and has kindled my interest in the fiber arts and encouraged me to consider pursuing it as a hobby back in the United States.

I've been keeping busy and having fun outside of class as well. As you all know, October 31st was Halloween, which is a novel and Western concept to this part of the world. I didn't have any plans until roughly 24 hours before Halloween when my friends and I decided to throw together some last-minute costumes and go out to one of the many Halloween parties happening all over town. I take Halloween costumes very seriously and had to brainstorm for a long time before deciding on . . . a hipster. With borrowed leggings and a bear and reindeer bro-tank, I donned a giant pair of glasses and grabbed a can with a homemade PBR label. An ironic mustache finger tattoo and another of a Perks of Being a Wallflower quote completed the look. 

Then this last Thursday two of my friends and I headed over to the Central Mall movie theater to see the latest superhero flick Thor: The Dark World. No, we did not have to see it in Thai; they had some showings in English with Thai subtitles. It was fun to walk around the mall for a while and grab some snacks before heading into the theater.

The whole hall was decorated to look like Hollywood and yes, that is a cardboard Billy Crystal looking down cheerfully at all of us. It wasn't crowded at all for opening day, and we scored some pretty sweet seats to enjoy the movie magic. I admit, I had only seen the first Thor movie once a couple years ago and really didn't remember all of it, but the sequel proved to be completely entertaining and totally worth seeing. Plenty of action with a surprising amount of humor thrown in (not to mention eye candy), it was a nice follow-up to the Avengers.

But let's be real, the true reason I went to go see it was Loki. Not even kidding. It takes someone special to upstage Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddleston pulls it off. 

Okay, so I better wrap this up so I can pack for Bangkok, get ready to register for next semester's classes, and attend CMU's sports day which is supposedly a big, fun event full of school spirit. I'll update you all again next week with plenty of new tales!