I'm a Schoolgirl Now


Dis week= first week of classes.  Whammalammadingdong woot? There’s really not much to tell about it.  I am taking 3 courses during this first part of the semester (now till mid-October), and I will be taking 3 courses in the second part (November till mid-December).  Thai 101 is super fun.  Ajan Gai is the kookiest thing, he’s baan (crazy), but we love him.  His nuttiness is entertaining and it makes class go by quickly.  The only thing is that Thai is a tonal language: the same syllable with a different tone could mean several different things.  And then, there are certain sounds that I am having difficulty pronouncing- like the difference between “b” and “bp”, or “d” and “td”.  You try it.  I dare you.  But! On Friday we started learning how to write and read- which is my favorite part.  Who needs to actually have a spoken conversation with people?  Well…eh speaking is actually super useful.

 

Anyway, I love his informative tangents.  Apparently Thais have long complicated names now, but they are given nicknames which come from some crazy story or characteristic from when they were little.  “Gai” means “chicken (or rooster, he claims)”- I won’t give the entire story, but he was placed on top of a pheasant cage when he was little because of lots of words.  The Thai word for pheasant is “chicken of the sky”, but it is too feminine, so they shortened it to gai, for chicken.  Awesome, right?!  He also gave us a history of the Thai king and his family- apparently the king was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  Small world!

 

Then there’s Social and Cultural History with Ajan Ratanaporn, and Globalization with Ajan Paul Chambers.  I’m excited to write a 20-page paper for globalization, which is weird.  I would say more about these classes, but I’m peeved at how many pages of boring reading I did and have yet to do for these classes.  For Social and Cultural, we did go on a field trip to Wat Chammadevi, the Hariphunchai National Museum, and the Wat Prat...I need to go figure out how to spell this one...but the field trip part was fun and informational.

 

Bloop bloop bleep blop.  So, I totally forgot what I did this past week- last Monday seems forever ago.  Time to consult my daily journal!

 

Monday night, Laura the Lovely Australian took us to a jazz bar called North Gate.  I loved it.  There weren’t many people, the atmosphere was chill, there was a dude doing pop and locks in the corner next to the old rocking bunny child’s plaything, and they played a couple of songs I could sing along to (“Girl from Impanema” and “Just the Two of Us”). 

 

Tuesday morning, Laura the Soft-Spoken and I went to a Presbyterian service spoken in all Thai.  They had a Christian rock band playing, then a minister spoke for about forty minutes about Matthew 1-4.  Fortunately, the head of the ministry at Payap, Esther, was there to translate the Thai for us.  It was super! I’ve never been to a Presbyterian service- it seemed so chill, and all of the young people were really into it.  The minister was more advisory than “preachy” I think, so the atmosphere was really comfortable and lax.  By no means am I gonna become a Christian, but I enjoyed the service, and seeing how things are done in a different church in a different country.  This church on campus is super awesome by the way.  Its architecture has a mix of Buddhist and Christian influence to make a statement about the harmonization of religion and that it does not matter where you worship, but that you are doing worship.  It’s just beautiful.  It looks like a Christian church due to the large cross on top, but the roof is in the shape of the Buddhist lotus.  It was also built over water- rad right?

 

So let’s see.  Bike shopping- I don’t think I’m gonna get a bike.  I suck at riding a bike, and the roads here are not friendly for bikes and pedestrians.  The sidewalk is a concept that barely exists- if it does, there are very large obstructions such as trees, cars, or a nonsensical end- and the roads are not the most even.  Also, traffic can be scary- I haven’t seen very many crosswalks, and even if you have the little walking man sign, some people still won’t stop.

 

Monkey Club on Wednesday night- I didn’t feel like doing homework.  My friend, Pek, wanted to take us out to this nice club to see a popular Thai band, Tattoo Color play.  Dude, we were very much underdressed.  Thai girls like to dress up- even at school, there are so many girls wearing heels with their uniforms.  Oh well- I forgot my booty skirts at home.  I liked the live bands, especially the one that kept playing American pop songs.  American pop+Thai accent is adorable.  But Tattoo Color was definitely the highlight of my night- they are really good and entertaining, AND they played songs I know by Electric Neon Lamp and POLYCAT, and Two Door Cinema Club! AWWWWW YEAAAA! The atmosphere was interesting though.  The Thai people didn’t really dance unless they were close to us American folk who were dancing like crazy baffoons.  Ya gotta feel the music and move it, Thailand.  Leg’go.  It was a good time until my groove got ruined by people wanted to get through the crowd (STAY IN ONE PLACE AND DANCE!), and tiny tables with drinks poking my bum.  Not a good feel.

Tattoo Color at Monkey Club
 

Vair interesting politics talk that I went to voluntarily…MEDITATION! With the Green Papaya Sangha at the Yoga Tree Studio.  It was beautiful.  We did sitting and walking meditation in the style of Zen Buddhism.  I highly recommend meditation to people- just do it.  It will make you calmer, and more self-aware, and very intriguing thoughts will come to you.

 

Friday- watched The Bourne Legacy at a theater.  Buying tickets was such a hassle.  We had to choose our seats on this touch screen because you must have assigned seats, and then…idk it was a hassle.  Inside the theater, they played 30 minutes of advertisements (my fave is for Fisho chips), then everyone stood up for the playing of the King’s Song.  The people’s loyalty and love for their king is just amazing.  They play the King’s Song I think every day, and during that time, people stop and stand attentively.  It’s amazing.  I’ve never seen so many people do something in unison.  The movie was okay.  But like, what does it have to do with the Bourne trilogy?

 

Saturday, I returned to the Yoga Tree Studio for an introduction to the Hakomi method of self-discovery with Adam How.  I won’t talk about it too much because this post is already so long, and I have SO MUCH MORE TO TELL! I think the most surprising aspect of this experience was that we had to have interesting interactions with others in order to understand how we carry ourselves or perceive ourselves in the world.  In the first experiment, each of us had to sit in front of one other person in silence, and just observe them and “connect” with them.  Twas a slightly uncomfortable and intriguing experience.  Some people didn’t like it, but others did.  I could go on for pages about this, but I am not sure that I could truly express everything that I thought and felt and experienced in two hours.  Ask me about it some other time.

 

Then, Mexican food in Thailand.  We went to this place called El Toro…I don’t want to say it was bad, but like it wasn’t good.  I was totally thrown for a loop because there were Asian versions of everything.  Alex had vanilla yogurt instead of sour cream with her taco, and my refried beans were made out of black beans instead of pinto beans.  The most mind-boggling was the fact that Thai was being spoken at a Mexican restaurant.  Instead of “muchas gracias,” I had to say “kob kun kha”.  Talk about culture faux pas.  After that, we walked around, I bought some books at a used book store, then we sat down in a random bar.  This bar was super cute.  The servers were transvestites, they made the straws curve near the top so that they looked like hearts, and then they pulled out Connect 4 and this weird dice game for us to play.  I loved everything about it except for the lemon juice I ordered.

 

Next day! Twas a food day.  For dinner, Alex and I accompanied Allen, Goi, and Seven (our Payap friends that studied at SMCM last semester) to Duke’s for good ol’ American food.  I almost cried at the amount of cheese I had on my plate.  I LOVE CHEESE.  It’s almost the only thing I miss about America.  It was lovely to see my friends again, but the highlight of the day was going to the Free Bird Café.  I urge everyone to please click on the link and read about this place.  Tis why I won’t write about it here- please- it’ll be worth it. And if you are too lazy, I will write about it again soon.

 

All right.  Week #1 of school… I survived. Sorry for the lack of pictures- my camera is acting up.

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Village People


Ard.  I am back from having fun in the village in the Phrao District!  I am overwhelmed by how much there is to say- in short: it was such a great experience filled with way too much good food, and hard work, some boredom, and communication difficulties galore.  If you are not interested in the details, stop reading here; if you want rambled details…read on ya hambanger!

So, on Wednesday, all 34 people in our group crammed into this large truck with three benches.  Each bench was about 3 inches wide, so the ratio of bum size to bench width was off for everyone whether our pants size is 0 or 10.  Egalité! Woo!  Then, it was an interesting 1.5 hour drive to the village.  We unpacked ourselves, awkwardly congregating near the village moms.  P’Neung and Ajarn Gai (our leaders) paired two students with one family each; Nikki and I were dragged home by Mama Peauw (I have no idea how to spell anyone’s name- you say it “pee-ow”).
A glimpse into the pig truck.

Our house was basically a cement rectangle with aluminum roofing, and six rooms: the main room where we ate on the floor, our parents’ room, another secret room for Goo and her husband, a tiny kitchen, a bathroom, and Gee’s room where Nikki, Gee and I slept.  The architecture was interesting because none of the walls went all the way up to the ceiling which really helped because light from the kitchen flooded into the bathroom over the walls- peeing in the dark is not fun.


Our parents don’t speak English- and I don’t even know the name of my dad because I thought he hated us the first couple of days. He was super cute because he was a crooked old man with tattoos and a Playboy belt buckle.  I’m sad because we didn’t get a picture of him, but he disappeared before we could say goodbye on the last day.  Gee and Goo are our fifteen-year old fraternal twin sisters with knowledge of a tiny bit of English (most of us were able to communicate to our parents through the children if we were COMPLETELY CONFUZZLED about what they were trying to tell us).  Yes, Gee is married- to a twenty-year old- I think it was pre-arranged, but they are cute and seem happy.  Goo is unmarried and the typical teen- the entire time she was glued to her phone, and she liked all of the guys in our group way more than she liked us.  Typical. 
With Goo and Mom.

Nikki and I with Goo





Our mom is a sweetheart.  Most of our conversations with her were about food:
Mom: *point at a food* “kin mai? (do you eat?” or “chawb mai? (do you like?)”
Us: *nod* “kin.” Or “chawb”
Mom: *positive grunt*…then she’d grab it or make it the next day as an addition to anything we had just eaten.  Dude- our stomachs are dying, and we have food babies and don’t want to eat for the next five days.  Everything she made us was SO GOOD. For some reason, they have the best mango I have ever tasted.  Let me give you examples of meals she made us to give you an idea about how much food we had in a day
1.      Breakfast: a bowl of rice, a bowl of mango, 2 pieces of fried chicken drumsticks, and a stew with octopus, shrimp (the heads too! I helped Goo peel these the day before), and some other unknown food items.
2.      Snacks. Banana chips or steam buns or these rice candie things or longans.
3.      Lunch: a bowl of rice, a bowl of noodles. This is a normal-sized meal.
4.      Snacks.
5.      Dinner: a bowl of rice, hot dogs, pork meatball things, pad thai.  Each meal, they would try to feed us even more.  Woo- it’s a workout for my tummy.  I’m not complainin- I didn’t go hungry, and everything was delicious.

Let’s see.  Things we did- a lot of visiting other houses.  It was interesting to see how differently everyone lives in terms of decoration and quality of things.  I won’t go too much into detail here.  We also helped pick longans (a fruit similar to lychee) amongst the gossipy moms who liked to discuss (in Thai of course) what meals they cooked for us and whether or not we liked it.  The village is run by the moms- it’s super cool.  The chief will make announcements on this loud speaker to gather the moms, and then they’ll just yell out at each other to make sure everyone is around.  One night, after dinner and a bath, everyone was dragged out to this little town meeting where the moms were discussing who knows what.

We went on a field trip to the Buatong Waterfall (Sticky Waterfall)! Which is this waterfall that you can walk up without slipping because the calcium deposits are so thick. It’s so awesome.  We also went to a temple (Wat  Prathat Doi Wiang Chai Mongkol)- and it was SO BEAUTIFUL! I need to know more about Theravada Buddhism.
Attempting to sound the large gong (you rub it, not hit) at the temple.  I couldn't make this one make music, but I could do the smaller one.
One day, we helped the village build a chick dam.  We formed an assembly line to pass buckets of sand and pebbles through the jungle so that they could build the dam.  If they don’t build the dam, then the water runs throughout the village and it’s bad.  It felt really awesome to do something good and helpful (the moms would barely ever let us help which was really sweet), even though our bodies were a little sore the next day.

On the last night, we celebrated what I think was the kathina ceremony where the village offers a money tree, a new robe, and other practical items to the monk.  Earlier in the day, we got to help make decorations out of plants, and put money on the money tree.  Later, everyone got dressed in their Saturday’s best, then gathered outside of one of the stores.  We started dancing, then it started raining! So we gathered inside the store, and continued dancing! They had a drum, gong, and cymbals playing the music- it was basically the same song over and over with few variations, but we loved it.
Congregating moms making this beautiful thing out of banana leaves.

Procession through the rain (they stuck us in a covered truck) to the beautiful temple.  Prayers and chants, welcoming, history on why this is done (if anyone is interested I will tell), then all the parents tied white strings on our wrists to help call our spirits back into our bodies.  We offered all the goodies to the monk, then went outside where the  moms did a special dance for us (super cute).  Then, each family got to send a paper lantern set with fireworks into the sky.  It was funny because ours almost didn’t make it into the sky.  It was so cute, and it made me the teeniest bit homesick because it reminded me of my last night in Maryland. And to end the night…MORE DANCING! My mom laughed at my dance moves.  Apparently, the lawn-mower, my infamous hand and shoulder dances, the monkey, and that silly knee dance do not exist in Thailand.
Up, up and awaaaaay!

Next morning was goodbyes.  Twas a beautiful and sad thing. Some moms cried, ours did not.  But she still seemed a little down.  Gee was taking pictures of all the boys, but Goo will miss us fer sure.  Thank goodness for Facebook.  As promised, this post is longer than the last, but it is time to end.

I will end by saying that my village experience was one of the greatest- it was a great push into becoming confident about learning Thai, and it was nice to be around very resourceful and unspoiled people.  I loved it so much.  Also, when we got back to Chiang Mai and went to market, I bought three pairs of pants.  I love pants. 

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Finally Here!


Sa wat dee kha (hello)!!! So I have officially been in Thailand for three days, and it feels like I left home about three weeks ago.  The flight was an excruciating too many hours- from Dulles to Seoul, Korea, and then to Chiang Mai.  22+ hours of travel, several back and neck aches, and minor body odor: totally a great time.
Alex and I exchanged our U.S. money ($1= 30.5 baht, roundabouts) and then were greeted by a really nice driver named P’Jew.  The main mode of transportation for foreigners, or those who don’t have motorbikes or cars, seems to be the songthaew (spelling is probably not correct- but my internet is barely working, so I cannot check) which is a red truck.  They are relatively cheap, especially if you cram twenty people into it.
On our way to Payap from the airport! In a red truck thing!

Anyway, we arrived at school- Payap- around midnight, and were taken to a guest room in Alpha House, which is the girls’ dormitory here.  We were confused about our placement because normally, students have stayed at the International House…but oh well! We do not have to worry about paying utilities, which is just lovely!  Erm, yea.  So, we will be moving into our real room in Alpha on Sunday- our Thai roommate has been away, and tomorrow we are going to a village in the Phrao district for four days, so we continue to live out of our suitcases,

I am really tired.  But I must push through and try to write this!  By the way- no pictures yet.  This internet is very slow and I do not have the patience to try uploading photos.
Anyways, so yea.  Life on this campus is pretty nice.  Some of the scenery and the fact that the city is a short travel away remind me of SMCM- so it’s kinda homey.  But, this place is definitely not as lax- no girls in boy dorm halls (and vice versa), no changing in front of your roommate (modesty and conservatism are key), walking around barefoot is unseen, walking in general is disliked, we must shower at least twice a day (Thais are very sensitive to smell- I am so self-conscious about my perspiration now), and the uniforms.  At first, it seemed a great idea…and then the all-too-complicated shirt button system was introduced.  I will deal, and it will probably get easier…but come on maaaaan!
Look at how pretty! Payap has water on campus tooooooooo :)

Blah.  More exciting things.  We met a bunch of people from the SEIAGS group on Saturday.  About fourteen of them had travelled together and toured Bangkok for four days, so they knew each other quite well.  We had some bonding to catch up on.  Pretty much everyone in the group is cool.  A lot of us are from America, but there are three Japanese students, an Australian, and a Gambian (CHERNO! YOUR GF IS COOOOL!).  I’m really enjoying the diversity of our group in terms of background, travel experience, majors, and personalities.  It’s been fun.

Our SEIAGS group and some Thai students have gone to a couple of bars and dance places.  Thais go hard- go party early and then come back home early in the morning.  OMG.  It’s entertaining for sure, but like whoa.  I can barely stand from tired legs and some buzziness around 1 a.m.  Sheesh.  They like their mixed drinks- there is this one drink that the Thai students ordered for us that they call a “special drink”.  It consists of rum, lemonade, Coke, and Red Bull.  Some people have been getting them in small buckets and sip out of that all night…or in twenty minutes if they are ambitious, or have help.

My favorite thing that we’ve done as a group is to go to this really pretty lake- and I can’t remember the name of it now, but I will eventually rediscover it.  Along the side of the lake were these bamboo huts where everyone gathers around a table, and they can order food and drinks, or buy it from a walking salesperson.  JJ, one of the Thai students, had us all try live shrimp.  Yes, I ate a live shrimp, and it was delicious.  It just tastes like squishy shrimp, and they put it with a bunch of yummy spices. 
Live shrimp eatins!

The scenery at this place is just gorgeous- the mountains are so enticing, the atmosphere is friendly, the trees look so luscious.  The water was very warm despite the short burst of rain, but it was refreshing in the heat.  We were practically the only people in bikinis, most of the Thai people dove in fully-clothed, so it felt odd to be half-nekked.  Modesty is super big here- shoulders in many places must not be bared, and sometimes I am self-conscious about the length of my shorts.  A lot of girls in Chiang Mai dress as we do in America though (probably because it is a city), so it’s not as conservative as I had previously thought it to be. 

Oh- we did go to a bazaar.  I plan on exploring more later.  The most exciting thing that happened was a torrential downpour (we are currently experiencing the monsoon season).  We waited for maybe 20-30 minutes for the rain to stop so that we could go back to Payap, but the skies would not give up their water bombs to the ground. So, we ran through the bazaar and got completely soaked.  For those of you who have seen me squeal with exuberance through the rain, the image of me shivering and being quiet through this natural waterpark would be a foreign image.  My lack of excitement came from the fact that I couldn’t see through my glasses.  Why am I wearing glasses? This infernal pink eye won’t leave me be!!!!! AAAAHHH.  I had the misfortune of having pink eye for two weeks before departure to Thailand.  I got rid of it, and it came back.  What an asshole my eye is being.

Dees lil piggies went to market...and den deeeeees lil piggies got stuck in da rain.
Um, anyway. I feel as if I could go on FOREVER! I didn’t realize how much we’d actually done and learned (there’s way more than this), or that I would have so much to say after three days.  This blogging thing is vair difficult. 

I will conclude by saying that today was our orientation.  Soon, classes will begin, Thai language will be learned, and papers will be written.  I’m really excited though! We had a pre-test on what we know about Thailand and Southeast Asia.  I got 26 points out of 100.  Tis fortunate for my pride that I am not the only failure.  Bloop.  This post is way too long already.   Get ready for an even longer one after these next four days are over.  We are doing a homestay with families that barely speak English.  I am excited to use the four (maybe more) phrases that we have learned.  Wish me luck!

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So...Bye

Tis the eve of my departure...and I am an anxious pot of stale Mountain Dew- totally nervous, and out of my pants excited.  This imagery probably makes no sense, but I am tired and I care not.  I thought I was gonna go on about how the excitement of this trip has been blanketed by a Saran wrap layer of sadness and fear, but I don't think I will do that.  Instead, I should probably point out where exactly I am going.


See that red tab?  That's the city of Chiang Mai- where I will be landing in less than two days.  Some dude named P'Jew is gonna pick up me and Alex from the airport and take us to the purple tab, to Payap University where we will be attending school.  Alex is my SMCM buddy!  We are the only two from our school going to Thailand this semester, which is a lil sad (mostly because they cancelled our Vietnam trip over fall break due to a small group), but it's whatever man, because we'll make LOTS of friends over there. 

Schwell, I have little that is exciting to say.  Blogging will hopefully get easier as the semester goes on.  OH! My family was super adorable tonight.  After a family dinner at my grandparents' house, we went home and set off a paper lantern as a cute sendoff for me and Zach.  Zach is leaving the house on Friday for his first day of college.  Mum's eyeballs are gonna flood like...mmm comparisons escape me...Adventure Time is on.  Anyway, it was awesome- the grents could see the floating lantern from their house and watched it till it burned out.

I keep getting distracted, so this boring post is over.  I'M GONNA MISS MY LOVIES! (friends, fam, and misc.).  Laaeo phohp gan mai, my peeps! (dat means see ya later in Thai, by the ways) :)

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