Sunday we all took a tour of the attractions of Bangkok, courtesy of Rotary. It was another very hot day. We first went tithe Grand Palace. It is hard to put its beauty into words, it was a truly magnificent sight; the scale and the detail in the buildings were fascinating. I took so many pictures to try and capture the beauty but the photos just don't do it justice. I will try and post a few here; however I took 440pictures on Sunday. One of the highlights of the Grand Palace was getting to see the Emerald Buddha (although it's actually made if jade) the temple was packed but worth getting a glimpse of the Buddha.

We then went to Wat Pho which is home to. The Reclining Buddha and the origins of Thai massage. The Reclining Buddha is a massive gold Buddha and impressive. When walking around this Buddha I was surprise do see that this Buddha has footprints. After Wat Pho we had lunch at the pier and had some very good coconut pancakes! We then got on a smaller boat and took a cruise of the Chao Phraya River where we got another view of the Grand Palace. We also went to another temple called Wat Arun (temple of dawn). We were able to climb this temple and get some great views; however many of us were running out of steam from the heat of the day.

Friday was my last post...it has been a very busy weekend with homework, soccer game and city tour; not to mention the heat took its toll on me.

On Saturday was a big soccer game between my university Chulalongkorn and the rivals Thammasat University. A group of us met at noon to attend...not really knowing what time the game starts...but we were advised to go early to get seats and to watch all the pre game events....well this plan may have been alright if it wasn't 40 degrees out, by the time we walked to the stadium in the crowds we were all dying in the heat, then we find out the stadium is not yet open. Our group dispersed into MBK (the giant mall) for air conditioning. We then reconvened at 4 and went to the game. The cheer leading was very different then our typical cheer leading and includes both male and female and a lot of cross dressing. Because we didn't end up there until after 4 now, the shaded seats were sold out so we got the nice hot concrete seats. I didn't last till the end of the game...although I'm told Chula won 1 to 0. Leaving the game was an interesting experience for me...the gate I came in was now locked...as was every other gate I went to in the vicinity...so now I'm facing the Thammasat side a sea of red and yellow....I'm wearing Chula pink. I am told (in broken English) that the only gate open is on the far end of the Thammasat side. So I venture off, the only pink dot in the sea of red and yellow...fighting my way through the crowd, which felt like forever as I'm getting heckled (well I think I am I really don't know what they are saying) I think it was the most I ever felt like an outsider both in nationality and the colour of my shirt. Finally I reached the gate and escaped the chaos and headed home for homework which involved several readings on conducting conflict analysis, promoting peace and security and a strategic conflict analysis of Afghanistan.

Good morning all! My plan was to go take a some photos around campus this morning as it is really quite impressive. It is a huge campus and there are free pink buses running to get around (yes pink buses) the school colour is pink as pink is the royal colour and the university was formed by one of the past kings. You find a lot of pink throughout the city too with the majority of taxis I have seen being hot pink! Anyway, my morning campus tour has to be delayed as I thought I better catch up on the blog and yesterday at the end of class we were given a huge stack of readings to have completed for Monday...so campus pics will come at a later date. I am planning on attending a university soccer game this afternoon at the national stadium. It's a huge event Chula vs Thammasat, it's rival university! Then tomorrow our class has a city toured booked. So I better get some homework done now!

This week in class was a huge learning curve and so much information to absorb but I am loving every minute of it. An interesting topic was the Global Peace Index, there is a website...www.visionof humanity.org for those interested; it maps out how each country ranks on the peace scale and happily Canada ranks in the top 10 but obviously other countries don't fair so well. We also looked at the peace process and gender issues in the peace process. Unfortunately many peace agreements around the world fail and among many reasons why they fails is a common one of not dealing with gender issues within the peace agreements. I found this interesting as I guess I have never really thought about it until now, but in order to resolve conflict those involved in the conflict need to be a part of the process and typically females have not been included despite representing half the population.

We also study the works of Elise Boulding who's major ideas are: peace as a daily process, 'peaceableness' ( a learned skill), personal & interpersonal promotion of peace, peace culture welcomes differences- recognizing them as a potential source of conflict, but also a starting point for progress.

I have also had the opportunity to discuss domestic violence issues with some of my classmates from India and Kenya, and how different or similar we are with dealing with these issues. As police we really need to be aware of how we handle DV coming from other cultures while still following our Canadian Protocols and legislation.

I wanted to share this link as well

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&reload=3&rdm=4ppwh3jy9#/watch?v=17S084bCzPY

If it doesn't work go to YouTube and search England U20 Soccer team in Colombia

It really is a small world...I was seeking with my Professor from England about the use of sport in conflict resolution...we got talking about Colombia and he told me about the warm welcome the England soccer team received from the Colombian Police when they arrived in Colombia and told me to YouTube it...it is a great video to watch as the Colombian Police welcome the team with dance and music. He had told me that the team was a little nervous traveling to Colombia but after this welcome it set the tone and they had a great time. Now my distance connection to this story is my friend Diego, a police officer in Colombia was assigned to the England team for their duration of their time in Colombia and Diego had filled me in on working with the team and he had a great time. Anyway, watch the video if you can...this is the Colombia I have been lucky to know.

Today at break we had a plate full of this odd looking fruit...It is a plant native to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and goes by various names of wax apple, love apple, java apple, royal apple, bellfruit, Jamaican apple, water apple, mountain apple, cloud apple, wax jambu, rose apple, and bell fruit.

Here they call it Rose Apple, it was delicious...tastes similar to a pear, but juicier like a watermelon...hard to explain other than very good!