Ronald McDonald sighted in Chiang Mai

Today I caved...after going to the Gem Store (again...) with some of the girls (and two guys, but the one is the fiancee of one of the girls and the other is the boyfriend of one of the girls) we all went back to the city area and decided to get some lunch. We found a cute little "western cafe". YES! American food that does not include rice. The menu had everything! Grilled Cheese, Bagels with cream cheese, pizza, sandwiches...all things I'd been craving since I got here. And best of all it wasn't RICE! or Rice Noodles! How amazing is that. So after much contemplation I decided on the personal pizza. I said no to the bagel because I knew it wouldn't be anything like a NJ bagel as even other places in the U.S cannot make them good. And no to the grilled cheese because I was starving and wasn't too sure about how the cheese would taste. Our food arrived and mine was these little pizzas made on pieces of french bread. Oh my goodness was it delicious! It was so good I personally thanked the cook! I was so happy with my lunch purchase!
After eating, 3 other girls and I decided to go over to "walking street" which is the HUGE market on Sunday nights. It was so fun. I got a pair of flip flops, a purse, a few bracelets, some postcards and some other wonderfully cheap amazing things....Oh and two DVD's (17 Again and Bride Wars) for just a few dollars! AMAZING!
After we were done shopping....we were hungry again. And then I saw it! MCDONALD'S! I had to have a burger. I just had to. So we crossed the street and entered the establishment. Wow! Things weren't too pricey either. I had a "Cheeseburger Set". Which is a cheeseburger combo in American terms. This included fries and a drink. It tasted just like at home. Only it was more wonderful than ever! The burger had cheese on it! Something I hadn't tasted in way too long! And the fries were delicious. I was so thrilled to be eating something that wasn't rice or noodles or anything with a spice in it.
So today I caved and had American food. Yesterday when I had the McFlurry at the mall...that doesn't really count as caving because it wasn't a whole meal. It was just ice cream!
I am proud that I made it this long with a taste of American food. And then two American meals in 1 day! Today I successfully avoided rice for the whole day! And that is something to be proud of.
And to top it all off, Ronald McDonald was standing outside (a statue of course)...and he was doing the traditional Thai bow....a wai! You know you're in Thailand when Ronald McDonald is wai-ing people as they enter the restaurant!

Random Ramblings

Here is a random mix of things that I have learned so far in my time in Thailand:
1. If you cannot find a parking space, park behind someone else's car. It's not a problem. Just leave your car in neutral and the person will push it out of the way when they want to move their car. This creates quite a tight situation in a parking garage, but people do it anyway.
2. McDonald's and DQ sizes are not the same as they are in the U.S. Tonight I splurged and ordered my first thing at McDonald's since being here. I just had to have a little treat. I ordered a McFlurry. An Oreo McFlurry to be exact. And it was about as big as a sample size. No joke. I also noticed that at Dairy Queen the Blizzards were the same size. TINY! In America, that would be a free sample size. I guess that explains why America has an obesity problem.
3. Thai people do not have anything to drink with their meals. Everytime we had dinner or lunch we have nothing to drink. Or we have very very little. The other night I was dying of thirst so I asked my host parents if I could have some water. We were out at a restaurant (well, street side cafe) and the waiter had put cups on the table and there was water, but no one poured any. They said I could have some. So I poured a cup and handed it to my Khun Pa and he said "no, not now". So I drank it with my meal and they all drank their water after. Very strange.
4. Thai people do not drink directly out of a bottle. They just a straw for everything. In America, we would just drink straight from the bottle of water, but nope, they use a straw here.
5. There are some really cool stores in the mall. I have an addiction to the Export Stores....there are a few of them. Tonight at the mall I had to limit myself to not going in all of them. I knew I would find something I liked and it would be cheap and I'd be tempted to get it. So I didn't go in them. In addition to some super sweet export stores, they had this one interesting store. It was called the "Great American Body". I thought the name of it was just hilarious. Inside it had polo shirts with popped collars and plaid shorts. It was funny because I guess that what they think of when they think "American clothing".
6. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here. When crossing the street make sure no cars are coming towards you and then RUN and hope for the best! haha
7. Do not flush toilet paper... and when traveling, even to CMU, bring your own toilet paper or tissues if you should desire to use some. Otherwise, good luck trying to use the butt washer hose.
8. Always befriend an art student to have help with your art projects.
9. Always travel with Aj Mike in the car he rides in or on temple tours. He either buys you oranges on the side of the road or gives you a personalized tour!
10. Do not wash your underwear or socks with the rest of your clothes. You must wash them outside in a wash sink seperate from everything else. Even if you send your laundry away to be done, do not send your underpants or socks...this is considered very rude.
11. Never point your feet at another person. This is kinda like the equivalent of giving someone the finger in the U.S. So rude.
Finally 12. Always, always, always remove your shoes before entering a house or a temple, or a computer lab, or anything other random building. Do not forget!

I am in 1st grade again...

First off, for those of you who are wondering I did very well on my Thai Exam! I got an A! Which is a wonderful thing! All that's left for that class is a Final Exam....and a bunch for classes, but only one more major thing. The language class is probably even half over already...or just about. Classes will end in the beginning of March and then we will take a field trip to all the exciting spots in Thailand and end up in Bangkok...then it's spring break! When I will head to the beach for a week then we come back and go to the villages for a few weeks and then the trip is over! How crazy is that!
Next thing... Art class. We did some hard core art classes this week. After we had our exam on Tuesday we didn't have any more language class the rest of the week. So it was replaced with a few art classes. We didn't have lectures, we did Art. Like real Thai art. The first day I spent a few hours drawing lotus flowers. Correction...I had a few art students draw my lotus flowers. The trick to passing this class is to become friends with the art helpers. One would help me for a little while, then he would leave and I would call over the next one. My lotus turned out pretty well! haha. It's a good trick. Then they assigned us homework....but I completed it and did a pretty good job if I say so myself...and I did it all by MYSELF!
At the end of drawing class the teacher said that tomorrow we would be doing stenciling! And I was so excited because I thought all I'd have to do was paint over a stencil.... oh boy was I wrong. I came into class the next day and we were making our own stencils....as in taking a knife and cutting out a stencil. I made a few little mistakes but the art students were there to save my project. This took a few hours to do too, because after we'd make one, they'd tell us we had to make more! I made 3 flower stencils that day.
Then the next day things go even cooler!! We used the stencils we made to do "gold leafing". This is what is seen on the walls in all the temples we go to. First we paint this sticky paint stuff using the stencil onto a red piece of wood. The after it dries a bit, we use the gold leafing. It's these tiny pieces of real 100% gold and we cover the painted area. And it doesn't stick to the not painted part. It looked so cool. I was convinced this was one of the coolest art projects I'd done yet. Then we used gold paint to do another one using the stencil and mine turned out horrible! But so did everyones. It kinda didn't like using the boundaries of the stencil and spread all over the wood. I looked at mine with an art student and the look on his face was "oh my gosh...how did she make it look so bad". So I said oh my gosh it's so ugly! And he turned to his art friend and said something in Thai....and then they both turned back to me and said "mai pen rai"....which means, it's all good, whatever, it's ok. And I just laughed. That's the Thai answer for EVERYTHING! Everything is ok.
Then we had another art class that same day after lunch. And this project was even cooler! Though I didn't think it was so cool when I was doing it. First we go a picture of a fish. We were given tracing paper and put it over top where we then proceeded to make pin holes on EVERY line in this picture. So that when we used this "stencil" we could put powder on it and see the lines. This pin pushing hole making part took about 1 hour! And it was so exhausting. Then they powdered it on this black lacquered piece of wood and then we had to paint all the lines. We were given some strange paint glue again and a paint brush. This took another hour. And then we painted the entire background of the fish...so we painted all the "negative space"...whatever that means. Maybe some artsy person is reading this and understanding that term. But anyway after it dried we lacquered it again and then powdered it. And then we put gold leaf on the fish. And after all this we washed it all off and the fish was GOLD! I'll post pictures on dropshots because it's so hard to explain. But we all were in the bathroom washing our wood and then the fish just appears! It was the coolest thing ever! This is by far one of the coolest things I've ever made! It looks just so cool. And it's made of real gold! So cool...and boy oh boy do I have an appreciation for these temples now that have all this on the inside...that would have taken FOREVER!
Art class makes me feel like I'm a little kid again doing crafts. After each step I would call over the art student to make sure I was doing it right....I was the really annoying kid in 1st grade that wouldn't shut up in art class. But it was ok. In total on both days we only had two girls cry. Yes, two girls broke out in tears because their art projects weren't working. It was really sad. It wasn't me though. I just laughed and kept asking for help.
My internship has been going really well. In total this week we taught 8 English classes. It was a really neat experience. And after school we would stay and play with the kids. The one day I was sitting on the playground just watching kids play and I noticed this one kid beating up on some littler kids. And I was just not going to stand for that. So I matched right over there and showed them the proper way to use a basketball....one that does not involve kicking it at other little kids. So we played a game of basketball. It was super fun. The next day, the minute I got off the rot-dang the kids I played with the day before were standing at the fence saying "basketball later?". They were so excited to play again that day. So today we divided into teams...I am terrible at basketball. But I guess I'll be getting better. haha. They asked if we could play again on Monday too. It was really fun!

Direct Quote from pg 106 of Thai Textbook

Each lesson in our Thai textbook has either some funny picture or strange dialogue. One particular section of it deals with describing a person. And within those descriptions are words to describe if you are married or single or divorced....etc. The dialogue is so funny in this chapter that I just had to post it here for you all to read.... And I quote translated from Thai to English for your reading pleasure:
"He is an American. He is 40 years old. He's already divorced and wants to marry a Thai."
And that is what we learn how to say in Thailand.

Teaching English...day 1 and 2

Yesterday we started our internship at Agape Home. They want us to teach English in the school that the children go to. We thought we'd have the same class each day, but when we got to the school we found out that we would have a different class each day. So that is 8 classes a week. 2 a day. This makes lesson planning easy, because we only need 1 lesson per week. But it was a little different than we had expected. But we are excited. We are working on saying "What is your name?" and "My name is...". We gave each of them English names and they made name tags with the English name and their Thai name on the other side. They enjoyed it. But it is difficult to communicate with them because most do not speak much English. With each class we teach it gets better though. We have a variety of ages from first grade to 6th grade. It's a lot of fun though and it seems that the kids are starting to understand. Today we stayed after school to hang out until the Agape Bus comes to pick up the kids. We talked to a bunch of kids...I practiced my Thai and then some of the boys tried to teach us to play a mix between soccer and volleyball. It was a lot of fun, but difficult in a skirt. But we were all laughing, which is all that really matters. We all squished onto the bus and went back to Agape Home and said goodbye and then it was time to leave for our homes.
On Tuesday my Khun Ma can't pick me up at the market I get dropped off at until 6pm. I get there around 4:45pm...but on Tuesdays the market is big! So I shopped around for a bit...got some super cute dressy sandals and a new belt! Always good things to have! And when they are a little over $1 each...how can one refuse! Then I took a walk through the western grocery store...ah! Just like home! I reminded me A LOT of Kings! First I walked through the cheese aisle. Of course cheese will never taste the same in another country, but it was worth a try. They had little single packages so I got two. Eh...not the best cheese I've ever had, but still better than no cheese at all. It tasted very preserved. Then I took a walk through the rest of the aisles....and guess what I found?!? GOLDFISH! Earlier today I had been talking about how much I wanted some...and I found them. I had to get them. With a quick check to the expiration date, and with the knowledge that they looked normal and were not expired and that I could read the package in ENGLISH....I made my first purchase of American food. Such a great moment. I haven't opened them yet...I am saving them for the moment I can not resist any longer. That moment will come soon I know. Rice is only good the first 100 times you eat it. Then it gets a bit old. However, when I eat the goldfish I will miss my roommate and our many goldfish and friends nights. But those will happen again soon! :)

Thunder during the dry season? What's this!!

Last night we had an intense thunder storm. Keep in mind it is the dry season. It started to rain and I had no idea what was happening. It was sooo sooo windy and raining really hard. But then I thought it was just windy and some was watering their plants, because it's the dry season and NEVER rains! But then it kept going and thundered and I knew it was storming. Then the lightening came and the power went out. This was freaky. My family had gone to bed and it's only me on the first floor. Not gonna lie, I was a little bit scared. The wind was rattling the windows and then my curtains were moving...only slightly but any movement was more than enough. And to top it all off, my bed is right between two windows. It finally quieted down after about 30-45 min and I was able to go to sleep. I hope it doesn't storm too many times during the "dry" season. I have a feeling it will again tonight though... :/

Thai Exam

Today we had our first Thai exam. We were to speak for 4 minutes straight and have no notes! That's a long time for a language that you have only been taking for 2 1/2 weeks! But I wrote my whole speech out with the help of my Khun Ma. She sat down at the table with me and offered to help me. (It was such an encouragement...and an answer to all those prayers!!) So we worked on my speech for a while the other night. Then again on Monday night I practiced it over and over again. At first they told us it had to be memorized and we could not use our notes, but then I think they felt bad for us and decided we could use our notes, but not stare at them the whole time. This was a huge relief. I sat at the dinner table while my Khun Pa ate (because he works late, he eats late) and read my speech. I said how are you in the beginning and he burst our laughing really hard. I though that maybe I said it wrong. But then my Khun Ma translated that he said I shouldn't say that because I am not a rock star. It was like I was saying "Hello America!! How are you tonight!?!" like they do at the beginning of concerts. So I cut that part out of my speech. There was really no problem with me saying it, but they thought it was hilarious. The exam was this morning and we had to go one by one into a classroom with two professors. I chose the room with the professor I have had a few times to Thai class. Aj. Jaroon, and Aj Ranette, who is our writing teacher. It was quite intimidating. And at the end of my speech they asked a few questions. In Thai and I had to figure out how to answer them. But I did, and I think I did pretty well. Well, I'm sure I passed. And the good news is that there is no more Thai language class for the rest of the week. We get a break!
After the test we had a bunch of time before our next class so I decided I would go to the coffee shop with a few other students and get some coffee as a reward for doing my test. The coffee shop I have been to a few times was closed so we went to another one. It was a bakery and coffee place. The girl before ordered an ice coffee so I tried some of hers. They put sweetened condensed milk in it. It made it super sweet. So I ordered mine without that and without any sugar. I figured I could always add sugar later if it wasn't good. Well...this coffee was terrible. It was so sweet. It was like drinking sugar with a slight coffee taste...I compared it to drinking coffee syrup. So gross.... I was not happy, but it was only 50 cents... But still not a happy treat. We wandered around for a little while and then the coffee shop that is good opened and we went there. I got an iced cappuccino. That was very cool. Much better than the coffee syrup that I tried earlier and ended up throwing away.
Lesson learned....Do not order coffee from the bakery shop near the faculty of humanities! Only order from a legit coffee shop!

Would you like rice with that fish head??

Ok...where did I leave off last time. Oh yes, Tiger Kingdom!
My Khun Ma took my brothers and I to lunch at the Tiger Kingdom. This place is cool! It's like zoo for tigers. You eat lunch right next to their cage. And I use the word cage lightly...it's more of just a chain link fence between you and the tigers. I watched the tigers splash in the water and play with each other. It was really awesome. Each time I see new animals they move up my favorite animals list. On top, it's a tie between giraffes and elephants. Feeding the elephant a few weeks ago was probably one of the coolest things ever...and riding it too! But seeing giraffes run wild through the African plains was pretty cool too. But now, watching tigers dive into pools is coming towards the top. Tigers are awesome and very pretty. For some extra money I could have gone in the cage with them and touched them, but that wasn't on the schedule for my Khun Ma...maybe one my extra week in Thailand I'll go back and play with some tigers. :) haha. For lunch I had the greatest (well maybe not the greatest, but anything will be great when you eat rice everyday for 3 meals) spaghetti with chicken and tomato sauce. It was delectable (haha, that's a big word)! Right in the middle of my eating it, my youngest host brother decided it look so good and had to try some, so he reached his fork over and picked up a piece of chicken. He liked it, though he didn't go back for seconds.
After Tiger Kingdom we went to get the boys haircut...it was 60 baht for both of them...that comes to a little less than $2! I'd say that's a pretty good deal. This barber was pretty funny too. He had one single chair that looked exactly like Floyd's barbershop chair from Andy Griffith Show. It didn't look like the chair was fully functional...meaning the head part was kinda falling off, but it served it's purpose.
My youngest brother had a piano recital that evening. He is just a beginner piano player but does very well. He practiced his song so many times I could probably play it in my sleep with my toes. I woke up Sunday morning to him practicing it. The piano is right outside my room. The speaking part of the recital was in Thai, so I couldn't follow any of it, but piano music is international so that was good. Some of the students were so young and soo good. Wow was all I could think. I had a front row seat for the performance. At the end my Khun Ma wanted to get a picture of my host brother and me near the piano. It was pretty special.
On our way home from the recital we stopped at the book store. They had a little collection of dead insects on display...I walked in and stopped dead in my tracks...the size of some of those bugs was gigantic. I hope I never see anything that big...EVER! I asked my Khun Ma if she had ever seen any of them and she said no, so that was a big relief. The book store had a small English section and a few magazines I recognized...so I read that for a little while. But they were so expensive. An English magazine that would cost about $2 in the US cost nearly $10 here. Needless to say I did not make any magazine purchases.
After the book store things got interesting. We stopped at a little cafe for dinner on the way home. I looked at the menu. The one side only had fish. So I flipped it over thinking the other side would have non-seafood items...I was very wrong. The menu was only seafood. And the seafood was not your average seafood, like salmon, catfish, etc. It was fish HEAD, fish SKIN, fish stomach, and the list went on. Oh and there was shrimp on the menu. If you know me, I would almost rather eat fish head then shrimp. I just can't eat shrimp...can't do the texture of it. Ewww! In my head I was trying to figure out the least painful item to order. Boiled rice with fish head, fried rice with fish skin, spicy soup with fish stomach... I couldn't figure out which item would do the least damage to my stomach. Then my Khun Ma says "ut oh! no muu (pork), no kay (chicken)....is this ok?" I laughed...it had to be ok. There was no other choice. We couldn't just switch restaurants all the sudden. I frantically searched the menu again hoping that I had missed something. Anything! Even tofu would have been better than fish head. And then I found it....Fried Morning Glory! That was it! It was better than anything else I saw. So I asked my Khun Ma about it, and she ordered it. No options given, she just ordered it. I guess whatever it was going to taste like I had to eat it...it was my dinner. At home (in NJ) we used to grow Morning Glories up the front light post. All I could think was I am going to eat the flower we grow at home. Weird. The plate arrived and oh boy was it spicy! AH! Not only that but it had the flower part still on it. It was like the chopped it out of the ground and fried it up with spices. We just happened to be eating family style that night with various plates in the middle of the table. They all ordered seafood so I figured my only hope was to try to eat around the fish. That failed and my Khun Ma told me to try the fish. It didn't look too bad, so I picked it up with my chop sticks..oh yeah did I mention I had to eat this whole meal with chop sticks. I haven't mastered that art yet...at all! Dinner is very difficult when eating with chop sticks. So I picked up the fish, put it in my mouth and told my self to swallow quickly. And it actually wasn't too bad. I had a few more pieces because I couldn't eat the spicy morning glory and I was starving. I asked my Khun Ma what kind of fish it was so next time there was nothing else on the menu I could consider ordering that...she told me it was "fish from the sea". haha. I will never know exactly what it was. Though it might be best that way.

Videos and pictures on dropshots.com/mkinthailand2 This was me after I climbed the mountain last weekend!!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

a night out on the town!

Last night, (Friday Night) I asked my Khun Ma and Khun Pa if I could stay in the city for dinner with some friends, and they said yes! So after classes were over a group of 8 of us (Myself, Kelsey, Molly, Natalie, Madison, Ian, Josh and Alison) decided to look around for some dinner. We were walking along the Front Gate of CMU when we spotted Aj Mike and Aj Ann eating dinner. So we figured it must be a good restaurant. So we went over to talk to them, and Aj Mike offered to order us some dinner. We tried some of his food (he's just like a grandfather...not like a professor) and all sat down at a table. We divided into a "spicy food" table and a "non-spicy food" table. It worked out to be 4 and 4. He ordered us an aray of food and we had it family style. It was fun. And a good time to get to know some of the people on the trip. The food was excellent and we got to try a bunch of new stuff. Dinner cost around 50 baht...which is pretty good. After dinner we walked down the street to a night market and shopped around a bit, and decided it was time for dessert. Madison had been to a really good dessert place earlier in the week so we went there. It happened to be just down the street. It was called the Milk Garden and was such a cute coffee shop. We ordered a few desserts for the table and all shared...again family style. We got some really good Indian Yogurt...called Lasi. I know what you are thinking Mom, I do not eat Yogurt but this was like a milkshake...it was GOOD! We got some cookies and creme gelato which I was so excited about so the group let me have the first taste! We also ordered a very strange thing that some people really liked. It was like a frozen hot chocolate with bread at the bottom. So weird to me. I just couldn't get over how strange it was. It was dessert with soggie bread in....too weird. And one of the guys got a coffee that I tasted and it was really good. So dessert cost about 20 baht for each of us. Again, really cheap. Then we had to get a rot-dang across town to where Madison's Khun Ma was going to pick a few of us up. So we signaled for a rot-dang, told him where we wanted to go in Thai and bargained the price down from 20 baht to 15 baht... all in Thai. We were so proud of ourselves. Usually our Thai buddies do that for us but we did it all on our own. So we rode almost all the way across town for about 50 cents. So that total for the evening was 50 + 20 + 15 = 85 baht....that is a grand total of $2.59!! If we were to do the same thing in NYC that would have been at least $100! It was such a fun night! I wish things all over the world were that cheap!

1st week with the new family...

Wow, I can't believe it's been another week. 2 weeks complete in Thailand and only 13 left to go. It seems like some much longer than 2 weeks. I think it's because we cram so much into just one day that each day would be the equivalent to 1 week. For example, we went on a field trip on Friday afternoon...we went to 4 different temples, walked around them and had tours, AND went to a traditional mock village...meaning it was just a set up of what a traditional village looked like. This was all just in a few hours in the afternoon. It was pretty cool though. I've learned that if you stick near Aj Mike it's like getting a guided tour. He knows EVERYTHING about the places we go. We had a few extremely boring lectures this past week. They all kind of blended together. It was mainly the history of Thailand but it was so confusing that the teacher might as well have been speaking in Thai. No one could follow it and it was 2 hours long. The one professor we had showed us slides...on an old school slide projector, oh and with the lights out so it was the perfect time for a nap. But I stayed awake.
I have rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and tonight I also had it for dessert. It's EVERYWHERE! And I'm starting to get a little sick of it. Oh how I just want a slice of pizza. There is a pizza hut in the mall...so tempting to go there. But so far I haven't given in and gotten any American food.
The other day it was graduation at CMU. It's a HUGE event! I'll post pictures sometime soon. It was really cool. Our internship hasn't started yet so we've had the afternoons off so we went walking around campus on graduation day. It's a whole week event, but we walked around on the day of the ceremony. The Princess came to town for it, but we didn't see her. It was almost like a fair or something it was so crowded. Since it was so crowded and there was so much traffic my Khun Ma asked me to meet her at the mall after school so she could pick me up there. Me and two other friends got a rot-dang all by ourselves and proceeded to the mall. We parted ways and I looked around the mall. It's an awesome place. My new favorite store is the "Grand Export Sale". This place has all the brand names from the US (forever 21, old navy, gap....etc) in one store for CHEAP! I'm talking a Gap Sweatshirt for like $5. I got two shirts and only spent like $4 total. It was great! I just love a bargain! And then I found the movie store. I'm pretty sure these are not "real" copies of the movies, but I got the Proposal (the movie I wanted to buy in the US but didn't want to spend $20) for just $3! And it's in ENGLISH! Which is amazing! I tried it out when I got home and it works and looks legit! Which is good because it seemed a little sketchy.
Living with a Thai family hasn't been the easiest thing of my life. The beginning of the week when I first moved in was actually kinda tough. They speak English so they don't want to speak to me in Thai. And that is not helping me improve in my Thai skills at all. And it seems that they like to talk among themselves a lot, which makes it difficult to feel welcome in the conversation and in the house. It was kinda discouraging to hear about everyones great families who talk to them a lot and teach them Thai all the time. But I came to the conclusion about half way through the week that this family is going to be what I make it. If I want it to be a good situation, I have to make it that way. They may not, but I have to put all the effort I can into making it work well. This means, I have to sit awkwardly at the table and just sit there and smile when they don't talk to me. And ask stupid questions to start a conversation. Or sit in the living room and read a book until they go to bed instead of sitting in my room with the door open. And sitting at the kitchen table with my Thai book making endless numbers of flash cards just to be sitting somewhere where they can see me. It hasn't been easy, but I think we are all getting more comfortable with each other and things seem to be improving. I know a lot of you have been praying for me, especially this week and that means a lot to me. God is good and is revealing Himself even more to me throughout this. It is making me appreciate the little things. Thursday night my Khun Ma sat at the table after dinner with me for a little while and we just chatted. It felt really nice. And today she invited me to watch TV with her. We watched CSI Miami...she is addicted to that show. She likes one of the guys in it...I can't remember who though. We watched 4 or 5 episodes. I felt nice to be included in that. So things are getting better.
Tonight we went out to the Central Airport Plaza...another mall, not the same mall as the other day. This mall was MASSIVE! Like the equivalent to the Garden State Plaza or something. It was huge. We had dinner there. I was hopeful that we would eat at Pizza Hut or McDonalds, but we walked right past those American places to the Thai food section. It was ok though because we had chocolate milkshakes! Never before has a chocolate milkshake tasted so good to me. It was wonderful! We split up to look around for a little while and I found some more export stores. :) I got a target zip-up sweatshirt for around $5....the original price tag was still on it and it was like $17! What a deal!! And another shirt for like $2. It's just so great! I also got a really cute pair of black and white flats for just over $3. After the mall we went to another mall to pick up my Khun Pa from work. He works at the K Bank. So we hung out in the bank for a little while while he finished up things there. I met some of his co-workers. He made me introduce myself and I'm pretty sure I said "thank you" instead of "hello". It was funny.
It was a pretty fun evening. Tomorrow is Jaaaat (not sure how to spell his name...but he is the youngest brother), his piano recital. So that should be fun. And we are going to tiger kingdom for lunch! I'm excited about that. You get to play with baby tigers there. I'm not sure if we are just going to fun or to play with the tigers too, but it will be fun either way.

Burned Toast

This morning my Khun Ma and Khun Pa had to go up north for a funeral so they were unable to take me to school. One of families that lives close to me picked me up. This meant a few things. 1. I got to sleep an extra 1 hour! Instead of leaving at 6:45am we left at 7:45am! It was wonderful. 2. I got to eat what I wanted for breakfast. Meaning NO CHICKEN AND RICE!! Last night my Khun Ma (pronounced kun maaa [like baa in the sheep, but with an m])... showed me where the bread was so I could have toast. She showed me a variety of jams, one that she made. It was made of green eggs and banana leaves...I passed on that one. In fact I passed on all the jams. I just wanted a simple piece of toast. So this morning I got up and got ready and went to the kitchen to make toast. I was so happy to not have to eat chicken and rice for breakfast and be able to eat a more normal breakfast. The bread doesn't have crust and is very fluffy. It tastes normal and so good after eating rice. haha. Anyway I plugged in the the toaster and stuck two pieces in. I do not like my toast burnt. I just like it a little toasted and warm. So I turned down the toaster to like setting 3 or 4. I figured that would probably be to light but I could push it down a second time. I went to my room to get my backpack and came back and my toast was up. But it was burned to a crisp. Black on both sides. It was terrible. And the kicker is that there is no garbage can in the house. Or outside the house. I wanted to throw it away and make new toast because I couldn't eat that burned stuff. But I couldn't find the garbage can. They don't have a can because they don't want bugs. So I looked outside. Nope...no can there either. I can't figure out what they do with their garbage. I have no clue. So I wrapped the two burned slices in toilet paper.... oh yeah, toilet paper here is multi-purpose. It serves as tissues and napkins. So I warped the toast up in the toilet paper and stuck it in my back pack and took it all the way to school and then found a garbage can. It was hilarious...and I now know put the toaster on setting 1 and don't ever have a need for a garbage can in this house.... haha!

More Pictures!

Pi Stacy (an assistant to Aj Mike and Aj Ann who came on the program before...we call her Pi which means older sister) has been taking pictures and will continue to load them on a website. Here is the link if you're interested! Click Here!

Fequently Asked Questions

I am going to do my best to answer some questions that you might be wondering. If you have other questions leave them on the comments page and I'll try to answer them!
What is my room at my host family like?
Well, it's about the size of a train compartment. I can almost stand with my arms out and touch both walls at the same time. It is quite small. I have a little table which will count as my desk, and a cabient that has room for my clothes. My bed is like sleeping on cement but I'm starting to get used to it. And there is just enough room to fit my suitcases under the bed, which is a relief because if they didn't fit there I would have no clue what to do with them.
What about the bathroom?
The bathroom is pretty modern. It has a toilet with toilet paper..and of course, the traditional but spraying hose. (They are everywhere and some places only have that as opposed to having toilet paper....I have yet to try this thing out. I think I'd end up soaked). I am not supposed to flush the toilet paper...but the first time I used the bathroom when I moved in I put it in there by mistake. So I fished it out for fear I would break their toilet within 15 min of moving in. The shower has a hot water box. Basically it heats the water up and makes hot water. But I am not sure how it works. The one in the hotel just worked but I can't get hot water out of this one. So I think it might be broken. Needless to say...showers are not fun when it is freezing cold water. I just hang my head over and only get my hair wet and then do a quick rinse off at the end. I'll have to ask about hot water.
What kind of car does my family drive?
They drive a Toyota SUV. It's very nice. And Khun Pa drives a car that looks just like the old white toyota camery...without a dented door.
Internship??
I just realized I never wrote about the internship I decided on. I choose to work at Agape Home. You can look it up online at www.nikkisplace.org It's a really neat ministry and I'm excited to get invovled with it. I'm also excited to get to know two of the ladies who work there. They seem so excitied to have us and so encouaring. And they speak English. So it'll be fun to get to know them. We will be teaching English 4 days a week in the school that the children go to. There are five girls who choose to do their internship there. There are two classes from 1-2pm, which we will split up a teach. And then there is one class from 3-4pm. So we will all teach that together. We're working on lesson plans and coming up with fun creative stuff. It's hard to come up with some good ideas but they're coming to us. On Saturdays we will have the oppurtunity to go to Agape Home and hang out with the kids in the morning. We will make bead necklaces with them and jump rope and teach them to make pancakes and fun stuff like that. So it should be exciting!

I'm trying to think about other questions...I can't think of any right now. But if any of you have questions...ask away!

Hike, Massage, B-day Party, Move in Day.... wow! that's a lot!!

Wow there has been so much happening over these past few days. Our days in Thailand are always packed to the fullest.
I'll start with the 14k hike up the mountain on saturday. Yes, I said 14k. That's something like 8.68 miles. (I used a converter...wow! it was more than I thought). 8.68 MILES!! How insane is that. We woke up early to leave at 7am to start hiking up to the temple at the top of the mountain. It is a very famous temple in Chiang Mai. You can see it from all over the city because it is on top of the mountain. And each time I look at it, I think...wow! I climbed up to that. I am not a hiker...nor will I ever be. We started out easy. It was on a cement road. And by the time we got to the gate to the trail I figured we had to have been like 1/2 way there. But no...it was just the start. Then we made it about 1/3 or less of the way up to a temple on the way. It was nice. We had a little break and looked around. Then we were off to hiking again. Here I could have chosen to ride to the top or hike it. But I wanted to hike it to be able to say that I hiked it. (At CMU all freshman hike the mountain as sort of an initiation...so I figured I could too). Well... a little while into this part of the hike I figured we must be almost there. So I asked one of the Thai buddies I was with and he said we were only about 10% into it. I was not very happy with his response. So after a while longer I asked him again. And this time his response made me very happy. He said we were just about 1/2 way. I was thrilled. We had been hiking for a long time now and it was so hot and sweaty. So 1/2 way was an amazing thing to hear. We made a few pit stops along the way to rest for a few minutes. I ended up in the back of the pack with some of the Thai buddies who were also not hikers and I ended up being the last American to make it up the mountain. Just a few minutes behind everyone else. When we were almost there, Bird, the guy who kept telling me how much further we had to go said we were almost there. I was even happier about this than the 1/2 comment. I finally got to the top about 3 hours later. It was such a great feeling to have climbed this mountain. Oh, I didn't mention what I mean by climb....this was no stroll through the woods. This was probably the most physically challenging thing I have ever done...in my LIFE! It was a hike up over logs, near waterfalls and straight up the side of the mountain. We were forging through the jungle! For real..no joke! So I felt wonderful to have accomplished this. At the top we had another 306 stairs to climb to the actual temple, but they were a piece of cake after the hike. The temple was very interesting. It's the first temple I've been to since being here in Thailand. It was very touristy though. Buddha was everywhere. Insense and flowers were burning all around. People bowing down. All very strange and foreign to me. Aj. Add (our Thai professor) explained it all to us and gave us a tour. We had to take our shoes off and store them in free lockers. After it was all over we took a "rot dang" (red truck that we take everywhere) back down the mountain. It was a very curvey drive back down.
After the hike it was off to our two hour Thai massage. This was nice. There were 6 of us in this room with mattresses on the floor. We all got "jammies" to wear. And they gave us blankets and gave us a full body massage. They started with our feet and went all the way up to our head. It was nice....most of it. Some of it didn't feel to great. But just being able to lay down and relax and have someone rub your feet was nice. The funny part was...there were guys in the room next to us. Apparently they didn't understand the tranquility of the massage and they talked the ENTIRE time. We heard there full converstation. They were asked the ladies how to say Thai words and practicing their Thai. It was hilarious...but at the same time, not that funny. Because they talked for 2 hours straight. At the end we told them about it and they felt bad, but we all laughed about it. Who talked during a massage?? haha
Then we went to Aj Mike and Aj Ann's house for Aj Mike's birthday. We had good food and BIRTHDAY CAKE! The cake was wonderful. A slight taste of America. We just hung out at his house for a while and then left because we were all tired and had to pack because Sunday (the next day) we were moving in with our families.
Our families came to meet us at CMU on Sunday morning. Only my Khun Ma (host mom) came to get me. I have two younger brothers. One is 13 (i think) and named Jaak (?) and the other is 7 or 8 and named Jaas....? It's a bit confusing to me. But they are nice. The younger one does more things with me. He took me on a bike ride and has played Uno a few times with me. He liked that game. And he is really good at it. The older one is at that stage when he doesn't really want to do anything with me. He studies a lot and probably wonders why in the world would his parents take in this random white girl. The family has had students for many many years. So I think I'm like student 13 or 14 to live with them from this program. So it is good that they are experienced in the hosting...but I hope they still take me to see the traditional host family things around the city. Like the zoo and stuff like that. But they've probably been there a billion times. My Khun Pa was at work on Sunday. So I met him Sunday night right before I went to bed. He works at a bank. He's nice too. The mother was an English teacher and actually taught Aj. Mike and Aj Ann Thai when they first came to Thailand. So they are good friends and she should be able to help me with my Thai. The family speaks English quite well. So we speak English when we need to communicate. It's good because some families don't speak any English. That would be very hard.
Each day we eat breakfast out. We eat where the boys go to school in the cafe. They have many different places to buy food. But it's all rice and something. So I've had chicken and rice for the past few days...I'm not a big breakfast eater to begin with so to have to eat chicken and rice is hard. But I guess I'll get used to it. Breakfast is the meal we eat as a family. Khun Pa gets home late so he doesn't eat dinner with us.
Apparently my Khun Ma likes to cook spicy food. So hopefully she doesn't make it too hot for me. Aj Mike told me he can't even eat her cooking because it's too spicy. I told her I don't like spicy food. haha. We'll see if that changes.
Well...I think this post is long enough. And it's getting later. I go to bed early here. So 10:28pm is late for me! I get up to leave for school at 6:45am....it's early! So goodnight for now!
oh... I saw the moon tonight for the first time! it was wonderful! it's the same moon that all of you see wherever you are in the world! Night night!

So much to tell...

I have so many stories to share... First of all I climbed a mountain... and this was no small hill.. it was a 14k hike. And by hike, I mean over logs, and straight up the side of this mountain. Then I had a two hour Thai massage. Then I went to Aj. Mike's for his birthday. Then of course there is my Thai family. They do speak English which is a relief. And first day of culture class and internships and so many stories. But for now, I am going to bed. Stories to come soon. I have loaded pictures though! Enjoy!

Language intensive is OVER!

I have officially finished my first week of Thai language and from here on out we will not be having 5 hours of language a day. Only 2! So this is such a reason to celebrate! And as of a few hours ago I will have been in Thailand 1 week! It's kinda crazy to think about that. We've done so much in just this one week and it seems like we've been here for a month. I have a feeling that the next 4 months is going to fly by! Today I went and looked at the other internship I am considering. It is called BanPawsawn (not the correct spelling... but I can't spell). It's a boarding house for slum kids or orphans that do not have proper paperwork to get schooling. So this place works to get the proper paper work and put them in school. It was an awesome place. A place that really needs English teachers. The missionaries who work there seem like really sweet people. They've been there for something like 16 years. It's unbelievable. If I were to choose this internship I'd be teaching English in the school that is down the road that the children go to. I would share a classroom with one other person on the program and we'd give English lessons 4 days a week. It seems crazy to me as I am not a teacher at all, but apparently they just want native english speakers in their classrooms. It's a difficult decision to make whether to work here or at Agape Home. The need is very clear at BanPawsawn but I really feel that God may be calling me to Agape Home. The internships are very similar in nature as I would be teaching English in a school at Agape too. But there is something pulling me towards Agape. We'll see in a few days. I start on Monday so I need to decide soon!
Tomorrow we are hiking up a mountain (that I can see from my room... there are mountains all around the city and they are so pretty) to a temple at the top. It should be fun. I think we can hike half way and then take the rotdang (car thingy) up the rest of the way. And then there is something like 400 stairs to the actual temple. I might be taking the rotdang half the way. I'm not a big hiker. haha. But after we come down the mountain, Aj Mike is paying for a two hour massage for all of us! Should be wonderful! And then we are headed to his house for a party. It's his birthday and they invited us all over and are having good food. So it should be a packed full day, but definitely a good one!
Sunday the real fun starts...we move in with our Thai families. I'm not sure what to expect about this. Aj Mike's saying is "no expectations no disappointments". So I am not expecting any English but am secretly hoping that my family speaks at least enough English for me to say "not spicy" and "no squid". haha. But we'll see. I will probably be living on the outskirts of the city closer to my internship. Both BanPawsan and Agape home are outside the city. Apparently the houses outside the city are quite nice. They are generally in new developments so we'll see what my house looks like. But again... "no expectations".
Well, I'm off to dinner now at the front gate of CMU (commonly called "front gate") with some Thai buddies! Happy Birthday Tyler! It's crazy to think that your birthday is just beginning because the 15th is just starting over on that side of the world. The day is almost over here!

Learning the hard way...

Tonight we wanted to go someplace to sit down for dinner instead of finding food and taking it back to the hotel to eat. So we went to this PadThai place. We thought it'd be a nice simple safe (meaning no new things) meal. So we decided to order PadThai with veggies and a few ordered it with chicken. Our food arrived. The chicken looked good and then the veggies plate came. I asked the waiter which one it was, whether it was chicken or veggies and he started to dig through the plate. (I was sitting on the end so he was showing me) All the sudden he uncovered a squid tentacle. It was purple and had the little suction cups on it. And it was HUGE. I gasped and had a little freak out. He walked away from the table to bring more. He brought over 5 plates of "squid PadThai"... not Veggie PadThai. Most of us were horrified and I couldn't even look at it. I had to cover it over with the noodles. It just grossed me out so bad. Just the look of this purplely suction cup thing staring back at me really freaked me out. I kinda lost my appetite a! fter that and someone gave me their chicken one. But the squid still sat there and looked at me. Ewwwww.... AH! So lesson learned here.... learn the difference between the word for veggies and squid in Thai...and MEMORIZE it correctly! It was a learning experience for us all and quite hilarious. A meal we shall never forget! And never order again!

Kantook Dinner

Last night we went to a traditional northern Thai style meal called a Kantook. We went shopping to the day market the day before and with help from our Thai buddies bought traditional Thai outfits! For females it was a wrap skirt and a shirt. It's pretty cool. It was a bit of a challenge to find a shirt that fit because the Thai people are tiny tiny. Each shirt I looked at the shop keeper would look at it and at me and say no, too small. But I found a nice white one. And a beautiful red skirt with gold elephants on. I liked it. Our Thai buddies came over and helped us get ready and did our hair. They put pretty flowers in our hair... I think they were orchids. Orchids are everywhere here. I love it! At the dinner we sat on the ground which is difficult in a skirt and with nothing to lean on. Oh yeah, and through in that you can't point your feet at anyone....try it. It's a challenge! The dinner was good. I had my first real experience with sticky rice and I loved it. It was so good! They put large platters on the ground and we all ate off of them putting the food on our plates. In Thailand you eat with the spoon and use the fork to help load the spoon. It's quite a clever way to eat. Very helpful. But again a challenge to do so on the ground. They had traditional Thai dancers that preformed during the dinner. It was basically a dinner show for tourists. There were lots of white people there. And instead of a coat check they had a shoe check because you can't wear your shoes anywhere. I like it! It's also a very good idea to sit near a Thai buddy and learn how to do all this. Otherwise you will be lost. I sat across from one of the girls and she told us all about the dancing and the food and how to do things properly. It was fun!
It was a good ending to a day with 5 hours to Thai language class. Yes I did say 5 hours! It's insane. Everyday this past week we've been having intense intense intense language study. There is so much to learn and it is so different that it is all the more challenging. We've learned like 60 pages of our book in 4 days. Each page has something new on. It's insane. I have a lot of memorizing to do. It'll be good when I can practice more with my Thai family. When I go to the canteen (the cafe) to get lunch I try ordering in Thai and they just look at me like I'm crazy and I end up speaking English... but someday I'll get it.
Yesterday I went to visit the first internship. It's called Agape Home. It's an orphanage for HIV kids and this place was probably one of the coolest ministries I've seen. It had a great facility and the people who worked there were so lovely. I might intern there. It was founded by a lady who adopted a girl named Niki who they thought was going to die but she took her in and she is still alive and is now 18 years old. It's amazing. There are about 80 kids there. They all have bed rooms that are painted awesome (not their own room, but they share it). They have a clinic in the building and it doesn't look like an orphanage at all. If I intern there I'd be teaching English in the school. It also has a facility for HIV mothers who are able to stay with their kids and are rejected by the rest of their families. It seemed like a very awesome ministry. Another aspect that I found really inviting was the staff that worked there. There was an Australian women, a Canadian and a lady from Boston. They seemed like great people to work along side and get to know. They were so sweet. I'm going to look at one other place tomorrow. Its a simliar type of place but it's in a school with slum children or really poor kids. I'd be teaching English there too. Both would be a challenge as I have never taught English before but I'd learn. :) I'll let you all know what I choose!
I think that's all the news from the past few days. I uploaded some pics from Kantook dinner to the new dropshots site.... http://www.dropshots.com/mkinthailand2 because the other one is full on videos. I'll be adding more pics to the first one too. So check both from time to time!

Thai gone wrong...

Today at lunch I tried to order my food using the Thai that we learned today in class... Well we learned to say "spicy" and "not spicy" and "very spicy". If you know me, I have a pretty low tolerance for spicy food. So I asked the lady if the food was spicy or not. She said not spicy and I asked a few times to make sure we were communicating correctly. And she shook her head for not spicy. So I figured this would be a safe meal. Well I got to my seat took a bite and I thought there a fire inside my mouth. It was HOT! Very spicy! So I am not sure she understood me and I did not understand her...Lesson learned here...practice your Thai! As a treat to my self for my not so good lunch I finished it off with an ice cream cone! My favorite! :)

New Dropshots

So my first dropshots account filled up on videos... I think I can add more pictures to it. But it's too late at night to figure out now. So I've created another one for more videos. It's dropshots.com/mkinthailand2 and there is a link on the side of my old one. But continue to check both!

First Day of Thai Class

Hello Everyone from the CMU Humanities Computer Lab!
It is about noon here, right after lunch. I had Pad Thai today and then some green mango. Pretty good. The green mango is not like regular mango... a little more tangy. But it was good. We had our first Thai lesson... wow.... this is a tough language. It is very based on tones... and if you know anything about me, I am rather tone deaf. This might be a slight problem. But we have another Thai lesson in 1/2 hour so hopefully with more practice I will improve. Our class was on the 8th floor of the this building and never again will I complain about being on the 4th floor of Boyer. This was a hike! And we walked. All the Thai students take the elevator so I'm sure they were laughing at us when they saw us walking. Thai people don't like to walk anywhere. And for that reason there aren't too many sidewalks. (there are some though, so don't worry I'm not walking in the middle of the street). Class was 2 hours long. The next class will only be an hour. So I'm looking forward to that. After class we go to the consalate to hear a little welcome speak and see where to go if we get lost of loose our passport. Then it's off to more shopping! We are going to the day market to get traditional northern Thai outfits for a big dinner we are going to tomorrow night. It's a traditions northern Thai dinner where we will sit on the floor and be served on a huge plate! I'm excited about the outfit!
This computer lab is pretty interesting...First I had to remove my shoes and put on a pair of sandles. Now if you know me, going barefoot doesn't bother me that much. Except in certain places... like the Marshall's and Macy's dressing room. That really bugs me. And a new thing that kinda weirds me out is putting on a random pair of communal flip flops... but apparently we had to to come in here. Oh well. Then it was challenging to turn on the comptuer. I had to find the tech and ask him to help me. But he spoke limited english. Luckily there was a proff sitting next to me that helped translate. Then after about 5 min of waiting it turned on. I typed an email to my advisor asking if I could take the challenging art class pass/fail (because they grade based on skill not effort) and then my typing language switched to Chinese... and I had to learn how to switch it back. I did. And finally got loged on here. It was quite the adventure in the computer lab!
Well I'm off to Thai class now!

Shopping as a class!

The part where I log in to my blog is set in the Thai language and I don't know how to change it or read it, so each time I log in, it's a guessing game of pushing buttons, and luckily I can log in. Anyway, that was just a random side note...
Yesterday we went to church. Since Thailand is 99% Buddist, there are not many churches in Chiang Mai. We went to a catholic mass which was interesting. Since none of us are catholic, it was a bad choice to sit in the front row. haha. We didn't know when to sit, stand or kneel, or which hymn we were on until it was almost over. Towards the end we got more of a hang of it, but we should have sat in the back. We took our shoes off when we entered because it is extremely rude to go into a house or a church or a temple with shoes on. The service was in English which was nice.
After church we went to the Empress Hotel. Look it up. It's LOVELY! Such a great place with delicious food. It was buffet style so I tried some stuff and ate some more normal stuff... including ice cream and a wonderful crepe. Melissa and I (a girl from Westmont) got crepes 3 min before we left so we stuffed them in our mouths and ran to catch up with the group. But it was well worth it.
After lunch we went to the Gem Store. WOW! This is the worlds biggest Gem store. A girls dream location! First we watch a short film on how they make gems and then walked through the factory where they were making rings and things. (haha it rhymes). Then we headed to the store part. WOW! This place was HUGE! seriously a girl could go crazy in there. They had everything (expect pink gold... sorry mom. I checked). After doing a lot of contemplation I purchased a lovely blue sapphire ring. It is really pretty. It's quite simple, but it was the one I liked the best. It was between that or a blue topaz.. which was so pretty too. But because the find blue sapphire in Thailand I figured I should get that one while I'm here. And I might have to go back for another. They are cheap there. Word to all women, come to Thailand for good gem stones!
After the Gem store, we went to the umbrella factory where we could have anything painted on anything. I had elephants painted on my backpack and elephants painted on my journal. It cost like $2 for both. Good deal. And the guy did it so fast. We learned how they made paper umbrellas. Then we went to the silk factory and learned how they made silk and watched them make it. Very interesting. I have some videos I'll try to post on dropshots.
Then it was back to the hotel where we were on our own for the rest of the evening. Our Thai Buddies took us to the "walking street". This is the coolest thing ever. If you were to ever visit Chiang Mai you HAVE to go to this. It's the greatest night bizzar ever. HUGE and has everything for cheap. Not a good place for someone with a purse and dress shopping addiction. We had dinner there... I had Pad Thai. And as I was about half done I looked down into my plate and I realized there were tiny WHOLE shrimp in it... with EYES! CREEPY! I do not like shrimp. I do not eat it. So I picked it out kinda and ate around it. Kinda weird. I got my first pair of "elephant pants" which are supposed to be incredibly comfortable! They are what the elephant riders wear. They are one size fits all and wrap and tie. They are cute. And I got a number of other cheap things! I love cheap things! :)
Today... was the first day of classes. Quite intimidating. This university is like the Harvard of Thailand. And has about 30,000 students and something like 9,000 faculty. Something like that. The faculty of humanities alone is bigger than Messiah with 3,000 students. We met the Dean, Vice President of the School, had some orientation and took a campus tour. The campus is very nice. But HUGE! Lunch was interesting. Picture it being your first day in high school freshman year and having moved there from another country and not speaking English and walking into the cafe looking for some place to eat. Yep... that was it. We walked in and everyone stopped and stared at us. We went to look for something to eat. None of us knew what to order so we tried Aj. Ann's food and asked for suggestions. I got chicken and rice and sweet basil... but it was SPICEY! And then I had some orange juice drink. It was good. It was 25 baht which is less than 1 dollar. So it was a good deal. (This is quite interesting... a "he-she" served me my food... that is a man who dresses and looks like a woman. It's actually hard to tell the difference... quite a popular thing here in Thailand... sorta weird).
We walked around some of the campus stores... .I think I'll get a bumper sticker for my car that says Chiang Mai University. And perhaps a pin for my shirt. Apparently the thing to wear is a belt with your skirt, and they all have matching belt buckles, that say CMU. So perhaps I'll get one of them to look like a real student. haha.
For dinner we were on our own again and we were on our own to find our way back to the hotel... we got on the campus trolley but got off at the wrong stop, so we had to figure out what way to walk. But we made it back and then went to dinner with some Thai Buddies. We went to a little cute restaurant called "Take a Seat". I had Chicken Terriaki because I was not feeling in an adventurous mode. It was a total of 60 baht... which is $2. And that is more on the pricey side. If we had just got out to the street and gone to a little restaurant dinner would have been less than $1.
Now I'm ready for bed again.. It was a long day both mentally and physically. Tomorrow we start our Thai language class! And apparently when we can speak Thai prices will drop drastically! So I'm all for learning to speak Thai! Tomorrow we go to visit the concalite (big government guy I think... the spellings not right... haha) and to the day market! Yay for more shopping. Aj Mike told us that shopping is class! So this is great!

Elephants have hair?? Who knew?

Oh the things I learned today....
#1. Elephants are really hairy. I rode one (more about that later) and they have so much hair!
#2. Elephants are ridiculously smart. They can do so much stuff. Including paint a wonderful picture. Probably better at painting than me too.
#3. I learned the definition of lazy river.
#4. Thai hats are a must when "poleing a bamboo raft down a river".
#5. Verizon Wireless needs to take a lesson from the Thai cell phone companies. They helped about 20 of us get cell phones and set them up and put minutes on them all in about 15 min. And there was only 2 workers... America, it is time to switch to "CitiPhone".
#6. Always always bring toilet paper.

Wow... it's been an intense day. And it's only 5 o'clock at night!
First let me start with my trip over here. Our first flight was delayed out of JFK. Don't know why, but it was. We sat on the plane for like an hour and a half. Just sitting. And China Airlines boarding process is quite hilarious. They first started with first class, then moved on to rows 47 and higher. They did that for quite a while, and then all the sudden they say "everyone else can board". Talk about a mad rush for the gate. It was insane. All the sudden people just started rushing at the ticket guy. This was huge plane to. 3, then 4, then 3 again. I was next to two other people on this trip. So that was nice. And then I basically slept the entire way to Thailand. It was a nice LONG nap. We met up with the rest of the group in Taipei. Boarded in the same strange way. 47 and higher, and then EVERYONE! Another large plane. We went through customs in Bangkok and got on yet another LARGE plane. I thought it would be small since it was only a 55 min flight, but it was 2, 4 then 2 again. The seats were all multi-color. I slept again on that flight. We made it to Chiang Mai finally and were greeted with leis of jasper and some "Thai Buddies". They are the CMU students that will help us and show us around. We went to the Sinthana Resort and checked in. Then we were given a calender for the entire 4 months that we will be here and an envelop filled with 1000 baht (that's the Thai money). Later we went to a Western Buffet for dinner. Though we all wanted Thai food. We had french fries (still very weird to me that like everywhere we go they have french fries), beef, chicken or pork, lettace and veggies and fruit. We were all exhausted though and I went to bed at the wonderful hour of 8:00pm!

Now onto today... We ate breakfast (which the Thai people don't really have breakfast food, so it was rice, warm pasta salad, spicey soup and fruits) at 6:00am. It was an early morning, but I had been asleep for a long time. I woke up several times in the night because I had no idea what time it really was. I actually woke up at 9:30pm and thought it should be morning. Anyway... after breakfast we get in "sedka" (which is a pickup truck with seats in the back...see dropshots for pics) and rode up to the mountians to the Elephant Camp. We walked across this crazy rope bridge and then had our first experiences in a Thai bathroom (aside from the hotel). No toilet paper... just a water sprayer to spray yourself off. I don't see how that could possibly help... it just makes you more wet. Luckily (since I still have a bit of a cold) I had tissues... but shhh... no one knew that. Haha.
Then we boarded the elephants. They walked up to this platform we were on and we just got on. Two people per elephant. We rode them for about an hour. Which was insane. I couldn't even get over the fact that I was sitting on top of an elephant. We rode them through the water. It was just so cool. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. And when we got off, I bought some bananas to feed to them. It was crazy. It just sucked them right out of my hand. There's a video of that too. Then they put on a show for us and they did all kinds of cool tricks. And one of the most exciting parts was when the baby elephants help onto each others tails. I have always wanted to see that in real life. So cool.
Then we rode the bamboo rafts down a river. We were given awesome hats to wear. And I even got to try "poleing" the raft. Very cool. It was extremely tranquil and peaceful. We did that for about an hour too.
We went to lunch at the Orchid Garden. So beautiful. A lot of westerners there too. Lunch was buffet style with traditional Thai food, and of course, French Fries. We were able to look around the Orchid Gardens for a little while to.
We then came back to the resort and got our Sim Cards so we could go buy cell phones. (Quick story about the Sim Card. When we arrived in Chiang Mai we were greeted by this lady who had a "free gift from Chiang Mai government". We didn't know what that was, but it was a Sim card so we could put it in a phone and call phone. It's basically our cell phone number and some free minutes. We all thought there were strings attached, but there weren't. It was simply happy new year from Chiang Mai). We went to the mall with our Thai Buddies. The mall was awesome. Definitely a place that will feed my shoe shopping addiction. Such cheap deals and so many stores. I'll have to go back there sometime. We all got the exact same phone for 750 baht. Which is about 25 dollars. Good deal. And then I bought 250 minutes for it. So I paid 1000 baht for it. But it's a good deal. And they will buy it back from me at the end of the trip.
Now I'm back at the hotel and we are going to dinner and uniform shopping this evening at the "front gate". Not sure what that is, but I'll learn soon. I'm uploading pics to dropshots.com/mkinthailand so check that!

Greetings from Thailand!

Hello Everyone!
I am in THAILAND! We arrived this afternoon (it's Friday here). It was a long few flights. First up to Alaska, the on to Taipei, then to Bangkok and then finally onto Chiang Mai. But we're here now. And I figured out how to use the wireless internet in this fancy hotel we're staying at. I'll let you know the name of it in my next post. (I can't remember the name of it and I'm sitting in my bed, and too tired to get up and look at the name on the door). The trip was uneventful. A few delays. But we always made the connection. Apparently the trip from JFK to Taipei was supposed to take 19 1/2 hours, but we made it in 17 1/2... the pilot really booked it fast to make it there in time. We were delayed at JFK. A few funny stories to tell another time about some of this traveling. We arrived in Chiang Mai and were greeted by some CMU (Chiang Mai University) Students who gave us lays of jasper flowers! It was awesome.
I'm headed to bed now... at 8:15pm!! :) I'm exhausted. But tomorrow is elephant trekking and bamboo raft riding. Should be an adventurous day... and it's all starting at 5:30am!! AH! Good night world!!

The view out the plane from ALASKA!

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Good old China Airlines is definitely a special plane...its a huge one, and a long flight, so one would think that it would have pretty decent amenities. Well one would be wrong then...this would be the definition of economy class. I think i was spoiled on Emerits when i flew to Uganda. This plane has no tvs in the seats and has a few music channels to listen to. But i think they are chinese stations. The tv screen is in the front center of each section. I'm hoping they have screens that pop down from the ceiling because the screen is impossible for anyone to see. But knowing me i'll just sleep the whole way so it won't really matter. I'm actually surprised i'm not asleep yet. Our flight was delayed for who knows what reason (they said it in chinese), and i'm not sure when we actually are going to take off. But they did provide us with a blanket and pillow. Not too bad. And the seats
recline pretty nicely. Well time for a twenty hour nap! (what a life!) :) i'm off to thailand!

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Its an awesome double decker plane! One i've always wanted to ride on! :)

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Goodbye America! Hello Asia! I'm at the airport waiting for my flight on China Airlines. First we fly to Anchorage, Alaska! Pretty cool. Then on to Taipei, then to Bangkok and finally to Chiang Mai! Gonna be a long few flights. I'll try to give an update when i get set up in thailand! :)

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"Why Thailand??"

I'm leaving this coming Wednesday! I can't even believe it's this week. I signed up for this program last fall, so it's been a while in the making. Everyone asks "Why Thailand?", so I'm sure some of you are wondering the same thing. I chose Thailand because the program seemed very unique. It seemed like a once in a life time experience. It's not your typical go to Europe and study in a university. (Which there is nothing wrong with at all... to those of my friends who are going to Europe... I actually always saw myself studying abroad in Europe somewhere). This program spends some time at Chiang Mai University but it also spends time in a village. I'll be living in a tradition Thai village in Northern Thailand for the last month that I'm there. That part of the program really excited me. It's also a smallish group, which will be nice. There are about 30 of us, all coming from various Christian colleges around the country. Another reason I wanted to go to Thailand was because when else would I go there. It seems like one of those experiences to do in college with a group. It's probably not a place that my family would vacation to. The program takes a lot of field trips and by the end I'll have seen most of Thailand. And another plus, for spring break, I'll be on the Thai Beaches! Which are apparently amazingly gorgeous! And I'll get to swim in the Indian Ocean! All very exciting things and wonderful reasons to study there!