Okay, so the second half of my school week finished superbly with my back-to-back Thai classes on Thursday and Buddhism on Friday. I finally got to start writing in Thai, and though I am sure my handwriting looks like a 5-year-old, I think I am picking up on it. Funny story about the doodle in the top right corner, it is my embellishment on the "g" letter "gaw gai." It's a bird because the noun associated with the letter is a rooster, and if you add the "aa" letter that looks like a shepherd's crook it means "crow" ("gaa").
On Thursday night we went on a quest for non-rice based dinner (certainly a challenge in Thailand!) and took a red truck to the Old City. The truck driver stopped near a moat so we could get a picture of us with a giant lantern that looked like Big Ben. When he let us out, we were in the middle of what I later learned was the International Lantern Festival. Different that the other lantern festival in November, this seemed to be a tourist hotspot with live entertainment and lanterns that looked like dragons, the Sydney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty, etc. We navigated around the people and found an Italian restaurant that served pasta and pizza with CHEESE. The Thais generally eat a dairy-free diet, so finding cheese is a big deal, and I hadn't realized how much I missed it until I took that first bite of margarita pizza.
Then on Friday night I got an email from my program director saying that I am going with another girl to an organization that helps Burmese refugees study for the GED tests so they can attend Thai universities. The organization is interested in having me teach a chemistry class, if all goes well during our meeting on Monday! I'll let you all know if that pans out. I am excited but super nervous.
On Saturday a girl in my art class and I went on an intense adventure to find that art supply store again and finish buying what we needed for class. Well. We only had a small map on the back of a business card to help us get there, and so when the red truck dropped us off somewhere in the vicinity we had to navigate the less-than-pedestrian-friendly streets for maybe a good hour and a half before we miraculously found the store. Each experience here is an opportunity to learn and get more acquainted with the city. I never felt lost and it was broad daylight so it was a good kind of adventure with a very happy ending. Here is the rest of my art supply haul (on a freshly made bed, I might add!).
Tonight I think we are headed back to the walking market since it is so much fun and I think we are going to introduce some other people to the wonders of international foods (CHEESE). Then I dive back into a week of classes at Chiang Mai University! Oh, and I also thought I'd include a picture of the view from our tiny balcony. We live in a building exactly like the one across the way, and in the distance you can see the mountains/hills which are home to the famous temple Doi Suthep.
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