To finish up the semester all Thai teachers were required to attend a two day meditation retreat. Being the curious Americans we are, five of us decided to tag along. The Thai teachers were shocked we wanted to go and tried to tell us politely that we should just stay home, but we were told we would learn from English speakers and hey, it was free. As we somewhat expected their was a breakdown in communication somewhere and the center had not prepared English lectures or speakers for us. When there was someone available to speak to us we did enjoy learning the practice of meditation and about the Buddhist religion. We learned how to do walking and sitting meditation, but are far from experts on the ability to clear our minds while practicing. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind of all thoughts, but I often found myself thinking about the most obscure things.
This retreat was a great way to spend more time getting to know the Thai's. They are often scared to speak with us because they are afraid their English is not up to par, but they really tried this weekend. Of course the language barrier leads to some fairly awkward conversations, but we have learned laughing and smiling can cure those. I think the funniest part of the retreat was the obsession the Thai women took in when the Americans were going to shower. Every Thai women showered before dinner and they could not figure out why we were not doing the same while we couldn't figure out why they didn't wait until before bed. "Teacher, when you shower," soon became the top question and conversation we had the rest of the night. It made for some good laughs.
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