Candle Festival in Thailand

Every year in July, the people of Thailand throws a candle festival to celebrate. The festival's meaning is to give Buddist monks light to read. Sculptures made out of wax candles carved with AMAZING details are paraded along the streets. It's to let monks stay in the temple for three more months. Young boys from Buddist families can also go and enter monkhood for those three months. My cousin went to camp just to learn about monks. One thing you should know about monks, if you're a female, you can't go near them. Only men can. You can learn more at http://www.thailandgrandfestival.com/festival.asp?festID=331.

(Click to magnify)

This person is putting wax on molds and rolling a bottle across it so that it will make a pattern in the wax.

After he's taken the mold from the tray, he will start trimming off the edges.

This monk is trimming the candle into tiny bits. He did not JUST trim the edges, but the inside as well.

This is an example of one of the finished patterns that will be attached the the big candle. They make very many patterns of wax to be attached on the candles.

This is another example of a finished candle. It's attached with patterned wax bits carved with AMAZING details.

This is a finished float made ENTIRELY out of wax and candle!

This is a wax sculpture of a mythical creature in Thai fairytales.

This is another wax sculpture of an angel.

New School

I've been going to Killearn Lakes Elementary School (KLES) for more than four weeks. I have a new teacher, new classmates, and a new schedule. I've got a few friends now. We play four squares every morning. Playing four squares before class starts is the only thing I look forward to in the mornings. Unfortunately, it's Bike Week in PE, so we have to help the teachers unload the bikes out of the trailers every morning. So that wastes a few minutes of our morning free time.

Bike Week is the week when students get to ride bikes on campus. During PE for the past week, we've been riding bikes on the basketball court. We were partnered up with another person about the same height. They have helmets for rent when people didn't bring their own. We also have green caps, similiar to the ones lunch ladies wear. It's for people who didn't bring a helmet to school. It helps to prevent headlice.

I believe that in about 2 weeks, if we can follow directions and ride safely on school grounds, we can even ride OFF school campus!