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!