Happy New Year! again...

Thats right, this is now the 3rd new year i have celebrated this year... does that make sense? i don't think it does but anyway this week it is Songkhran which is Thai New Year. It is a week long public holiday, and it definitley highlights the differences in thai culture and western culture. If english people were given a whole week off work to celebrate new year, we would sit around eating and drinking, maybe go out for a day to do something which doesnt require much effort, see some friends, but generally just be lazy. Here, they are given a whole week off work and they choose to run about the streets throwing flour and water on eachother.. for 5 days solid. Therefore it is near impossible to make any kind of journey anywhere in bangkok without being forced into participating. Just now as i walked the 3 minute walk from the house to the internet cafe, a grown man sprayed water down my back with a watergun. I was not impressed, and showed him by using a glare i have perfected over the past week when i have been involuntarily soaked or had flour rubbed into my face. He looked shocked... these people cannot comprehend why anyone would not want to join in. But its safe to say i'm done with Songkhran now, one day would have been enough for me. I am all for waterfights, they are good fun but for me a waterfight should consist of people with waterguns or waterbombs running around trying to soak eachother and dodge the water themselves. Here, you just walk down the street and people will come up to you with a bucket of ice water and immerse you in it, with absolutely no haste at all. Then they will get a bucket of flour/water paste and dip their hands in it and rub it all over your face, whilst saying sorry over and over again. Last night we went out to a bar and i was determined not to get flour on my face, so i had to block them king fu style which unfortunately led to a small girl getting hit in the face. (sorry small girl)
Anyway, today is supposedly the last day of songkhran although it can sometimes go on for weeks, brilliant! We were thinking of heading down to Pattaya tomorrow which is the nearest beach. I wouldnt mind it so much if there were waterfights there as at least i would be in swimwear and have the sea at my disposal to wash of all the flour-gunk. Will have to wait and see i guess!
Whilst the new year celebrations are going on, the redshirts are still out in their swarms and things have started to get nasty now. For people like me who are not directly involved (except for the day when i accidentally wore a red shirt... my bad), the whole thing is just a big inconvenience because roads are being blocked and train lines are being closed and so it is easy to get stranded, which happened to me the other day. But i am not in any danger at all, don't worry about me. The protestors are now taking things further because the armed forces got involved which caused a big commotion. There were 15 killings this week, including a japanese journalist. As if that wasnt enough, they are now displaying the corpses at the end of khaosan road, i suppose as a way to show that they mean business. The armed forces have withdrawn and things seem to have settled a bit for now. But i will be glad to get out of Bangkok on Monday! I am heading off to my teaching project which i am really excited about. It will be nice to get stuck in to a project and i am spending 6 weeks there so it will be good to really get to know the school and the kids. I will find out later today where i am being placed, i have a feeling it will be rural so in that case internet access might be tricky. But either way i'm sure i will have an opportunity at some point to get on and do another update. Until then, take care, keep the emails coming, miss you all loads. lots of love xxx