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!