Weeks 3 and 4

So the traveler's diarrhea lasted about 9 days in total and finally stopped to my great relief. It was a real pain the but (literally), but I'm doing better now--physically and mentally. Per usual its been a whirlwind of a week. (Has it been one or two since I last wrote?) We picked up the pace in Thai class and spoke faster and learned more words and phrases with less practice. We started to dig in to the material in Foundations class and this week we learned about social organization of Thai society, citizenship rights and issues, sustainability, types of NGOs and land rights/issues. We've had two guest speakers from different NGOs talk about environmental and social justice issues and sustainable development and it's been really interesting. Thai society has a lot of superficial similarities to the US, but when you dig a bit deeper things are very different. For example, on the surface it seems that Thai people wear the same clothing as in the US, but there are different meanings for different clothing. Clothing in the US is for self-expression, but in Thailand clothing is a means of signaling one's position in the world and is a matter of respect for others.

I can give many other examples of this. A really easy one is pizza. In Thailand, pizza has hotdogs stuffed with cheese in the crust and some toppings we don't have in the US. Definitely not the same.

This past weekend (Friday, Sept 13th) we also went on our ISDSI retreat to Mok Fa Waterfall in Doi Suthep-Pui National Park. The retreat was an opportunity to test out gear, team-build, relax and do some more orientation as our first EFC (experiential field course) is coming up in two weeks. During free time we also got to go to the 60m BEAUTIFUL waterfall and swim around in the chest deep water. It was the first time since coming to Thailand that I actually felt cold.

Me playing at the base of the fall

My friends in front of the waterfall, you can't even see the whole thing in this pic. 

We also had PB&Js and that was super exciting.

On our way to the park we stopped at a lake area for our swimming assessment. We had to swim 300m without taking grabbing on to anything to rest and then tread water for 15 minutes. Then, we ate lunch on these amazing grass hut buildings right on the water.

During lunch one of the Pis (instructors) came around with a small container. Inside the container was basil, onions, peppers and very small jumping shrimp. Apparently, its a traditional northern Thailand food. A quick google search brings you to this blog which does a decent job explaining what jumping shrimp are. Essentially, they are tiny translucent shrimp and you eat them, live. Yes, live. I wasn't peer pressured into eating one, but I certainly wouldn't have considered trying one had all of my friends not been passing around the dish. I closed my eyes, held my nose, opened my mouth and asked my friend Sophie to throw it in my mouth. It ACTUALLY was pretty tasty, the only flavors were the peppers and basil. One was enough though. Food is definitely a mental thing for me, that's an entirely other blog post though.

Tomorrow, is the next field trip of Foundations. We are going to a fish farm, to wade chest deep in tilapia ponds setting up hatchery nets and handling live tilapia with the Chiang Mai Development Farm, a local NGO. When I read about this part of the trip months ago, I was super excited, but last week I remembered that fish freak me out. Every time I go swimming in a lake I always move around and kick a lot so the fish don't come near me. They are just slimy and weird. So that's gonna be interesting. I'm still really excited though and I think it's gonna be really cool once I get over myself. Similar to the new foods, its all mental and its about adjustment to new ways. Also, we eat fish for lunch there which will be DELICIOUS. :)