di chan chu Mankoot!
I can't help but worry that I'm on the up and up of culture shock and I wish crash sometime soon, but that's the way of it. You have your ups and downs. :)
*sigh*
I have so much I want to write that I don't even know where to begin.
The weekend was super fun and relaxing. Dew and my parents (Mae and Paw, lit. Mother, Father) took me around Chiang Mai. We went to open air markets, a lantern festival, Wats, rice fields and to see family. I've also been to two Thai Malls which is *really* weird because they are pretty much identical to American malls, except they have a few more Tech stores. Samsung seems pretty big here and Dew and I have almost the same smart phone.
Also, I knew before coming about Thai censorship laws, but I only found out today that Thailand has one of the most extensive internet surveillance programs in the world, so I'm certain my blog has already been flagged.
Monday, school began. I wake up at 6 am, promptly make my bed and take a shower. In Thailand, cleanliness is extremely important and its common to take 2-3 showers a day. I thought it would be a drag, but I LOVE it. It is so hot here and showers feel so good, plus, its a great time to relax and recoop. I am going to write a whole post on Thai bathrooms here since they are different from the US, but one thing at a time. After getting dressed I eat a quick breakfast, a fried egg that Paw makes for me and some toast then head to school. A-roi! (delicious)
To get to school I take a form of public transportation called the Song Tao (lit: two benches). It is a giant truck with two benches in the back of it that about 10 people can comfortably fit in facing each other. I say comfortably 10 because people pack in to them and sometimes there are probably up to 20 people on a Song Tao and off the back of it. My stop is about a 2 minute walk from home. WAY more entertaining then a subway or bus and you get to chatting with the people around you (or at least I would, if I could speak more Thai, but soon enough). There are tons of song taos, one goes by almost every 5 minutes, so if one is full, nbd, get on the next. Each district has its own song tao that is a different color and that follows a specified route.I take the yellow trucks for Maerim district. The Red trucks are similar to taxis and take you anywhere. I take the truck several stops and then get off and walk about 15 minutes to school. There are 2 other girls that live nearby me and we walk home together from school and if we are lucky get on the same one on the way there too, but its not a guarantee. Oh, also. Round trip to school and back, 30 baht ($1USD) #SAY WHAT?
Thai students all wear a school uniform of a white collared shirt and black or blue skirt. Wearing the uniform has definitely impacted how people treat us. When they see us in the uniform they know that even though we are foreigners, we are students. The people on the Song Tao treat us very well and are certainly amused by us. Yesterday, Hannah, Emily and I were all nervous about getting off on the right stop. Actually, I think Emily was nervous, Hannah seemed cool as a cucumber, I was flat out panicking. Mae nuan had given me a piece of paper with my stop written in Thai to give to a fellow passenger, but I wanted to try and find my place on my own. She also sent me to school with an umbrella. Everyone in the taxi could tell we were nervous and there were also black clouds on the horizon. Emily gets off first and the whole taxi cheers. Next stop is me, and I am not doing so well. I think I see my stop, and then the taxi stops and I realize it isn't. It starts sprinkling. I wait a bit longer, but give in to my pride and give my neighbor the piece of paper, the whole taxi is interested to see where my stop is, then one woman says, HERE! It's HERE about a second after I give the paper up. I hit the buzzer and it starts POURING RAIN. The whole taxi yells at me to open my umbrella, but I'm just trying to get out and pay and I'm laughing. So I get out of the truck and pay the guy with a huge smile on my face as the rain comes down and I've never been so happy in my life for rain and to be alive and in the right spot at the right time. So I run over to what I think is cover and its not, and struggle to open my umbrella and I can't get it open and out of the corner of my eye I see another umbrella, I look up, IT'S PAW! I was soo happy to see him, but he doesn't speak much English so all I could say was, PAW! PAW! PAW! He gave me his umbrella and opened mine up and we began the walk through 3 inch puddles of water to his car, and then to home. It rains almost every afternoon in Thailand (in this season, the rainy one) but the rain is warm.
Today's trip went much better and I hit the buzzer at the right spot with no help. :D #soproud. (and yes I'm using hashtags, because that's the mood I'm in) The other girls and I have a lot of fun together on the walks from school and today we found a small milk tea shop that we are gonna stop at every day.
Back to school. From 8-12 at school we have Thai language class. Right now, they are mixing and matching students and teachers, but tomorrow they are going to assign us classes. 12-1 is lunch and then 1-4 will be Thai culture class, also known as Foundations, but right now we are doing orientation stuff. Going over rules, learning more about culture and such. I'm super impressed with the program and the level of support the students get here. Ajan Mark (Ajan=teacher, Mark is the director of the program) has dealt with a lot of mishaps and issues over the years and has lived in Thailand 20+ years and has connections to all sorts of people in Thailand who can help in all sorts of different situations. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we do cross fit. More on that later. I don't get home each night until about 5:30 or 6:30 and then dinner, I wash the dishes, and relax till I fall asleep.
OMG! I just looked up from the computer and my host family is watching re-runs of AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR. GOTTA GO!
No comments:
Post a Comment