Stories, Experiences, Etc...

---

Hi everyone -

This time, we're featuring a letter that describes a not-too-typical Thingyan experience in America. Thingyan is a few months behind now, but who gets enough fun at Thingyan and why not feel that gushing water all over you once again? Below, Ei Ei Nyane (2004) talks about her experience at University of Virginia where her two older sisters organized Thingyan (2003) with other Thai and Cambodian friends at their school. It was still a bit cold on the east coast of America then, but that day (04/13/03) was a nice day for most southern states in the US. Ma Wynn refers to Wynn Lei Lei Nyane(1995-96, 96-97) and Ma Aye refers to Aye Thida Nyane(1999-00, 2000-01) in her letter. They all went to Sanchaung (2) when they were in Yangon.

Enjoy.
Co-ordinators.

Feature Letter from America

Hello!!!

Just a little blip about yesterday(04/13/03). IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! Everyone had a great time. We had sa-nwin-ma-kinn, tapioca with coconut milk (many different kinds), agar-agar (many different kinds of Kyauk-kyaw), shwe-hta-min, sticky rice, and thai fried noodles (cuz it was a combination of Burmese and Thai water festival), Thai tea, and grassjelly drink. Everyone liked the food.

It was from 2-5pm and the food came out at different times so it was like we played for a while, then, rest while we ate. Ma Aye and I got completely drenched. I was soaked for 3 whole hours and by the time it was done, I was shiverng! But it was so much fun so I didn't want to stop. There were about 10 guys with actual water guns and they were in one group. Ma Aye and I were on the other side with little buckets. We had a little mini pool so that was where we had our water. We would go back and forth carrying little buckets of water and threw at people from the other group. We were having a war! Someone would yell, "ATTACK" and we would all be like, "Charge!" and run towards the guys and chase them around. Haha. It was so much fun. Wish u were there, too, to enjoy it.

There was a guy named Daniel, Ma Wynn's friend. He was the one who had driven Ma Aye and Ma Wynn back home on Saturday. And he had stayed for lunch and we all got to know him pretty well. He is so funny and he was on the other side with a water gun. And we were chasing him around with little buckets and he would be spraying us down with his gun and it was hilarious. At one point, a guy from our side was wrestling with him to dunk him in the pool. But since Daniel was on our side of the lawn, we all pushed him in. I was behind him and I pushed him right into the pool. LOL. It was so funny!!! He didn't know who had pushed him in. And by the time he was out of the pool, we had all run pretty far from him and the only person that was left was Ma Aye. She was about 6 feet away from him. He picked her up and they wrestled for a while. And it was so funny. Ma Aye is strong so he couldn't throw her in. And she kept filling her bucket and pouring the water on his head. I was pretty far away at that time and I was laughing. Finally, he gave up.

We also had water balloons. They couldn't find water balloons so they just filled up regular balloons with water. They wouldn't break, of course not! The rubber is thick so they wouldn't break. I dropped one on the ground accidentally and it rolled on the ground. Haha. But they still hurt pretty badly. I was "swar-swar-lay" so the guys ganged up on me. At one point, one balloon hit me on the chest and I was still in shock and another hit me on the arm and someone yelled, "Incoming." So, I looked up and another one was coming right at me so I had to duck. They didn't break on my body but the one that hit the arm hurt so much!! They bounced off of me and broke on the ground. And another time, I was trapped in the corner and there were, I think, 3 guys with guns hosing me down. I had to crouch behind the bushes. Luckily, David, another friend of Ma Wynn, was there and he was covering me. Thanks to him, I didn't get hurt! Whew!

Well, that's about it, I guess. There are some pictures but they don't include Ma Aye and me. There are pictures of jiejie (Wynn) and mom and dad but not us. Wahh!! But here's the link. http://www.people.virginia.edu/~llh3j/H20festival.html

Well, bye for now.
Ei Ei (2004).

Aye, Ei Ei, and Wynn with their mom at Niagara Falls, NY, USA. (left)
Ei(left), Wynn (next to Ei), and Aye (sitting, left) with their friends at University of Virginia, USA.(right)