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.