Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Around the City

Hello everyone! Sa bai dee mai (how are you)? I am definitely settling into a nice routine here in Chiang Mai.The reality is definitely setting in that I am going to be here for fourth months, which sometimes sounds like a very long time and sometimes sounds like hardly any time at all!

On Sunday we returned to the walking street market and International Lantern Festival. This time a whole big group of us went and possibly set a record for how many people could fit in a song tao (red truck taxi)! We all arrived safe and sound and then naturally split up into smaller groups to explore the now-familiar market. My friends and I stumbled upon this monument a little ways off the main strip of the market, then checked out a smaller side market.


And yes, that new shirt is a market find, wouldn't you say it's FANTASTIC? At the end of the street the International Lantern Festival was still going on, and this time I had my camera with me to capture the awesome sights! I think this lantern of the Sydney Opera House was just a hoot and may or may not have made me go into a terrible Australia accent after seeing it.


The school week started off with an exciting visit to BEAM (Bridging Education Among Migrants), the initiative I mentioned that helps migrants (a lot of the time from Burma) study and sit for the GED so they are recognized as qualified to enter a Thai university. My friend who will be an English tutor and I met with the director and other teachers and it sounds like they are very glad to have us on board! I will be teaching two one-hour a week classes every Friday (they offer classes in both the mornings and evenings to accommodate work schedules) and then an "extra" class in the afternoon where we can do activities, cover materials not necessarily on the GED, and even a few laboratory exercises.

They pointed out a couple boxes of equipment I could use, and I can't wait to check it out and see what's there! When Skyping with my family earlier my dad already had lots of tips and suggestions for activities and lesson plans. Their semester doesn't start until the 9th and my first class isn't until the 13th so I have plenty of time to come up with a syllabus and a couple initial lesson plans. I am still very excited and nervous to meet my class and get started, but I have an incredible support system here and back in the States so I know I can do this!

It's too bad I'm not teaching biology because I came across this (not so) little guy when walking down my street yesterday.



Sometimes my peers and I, especially when faced with a particularly tricky cultural challenge of some sort, lament and say, "Why didn't we just someplace where they speak English or have less of a culture shock like everyone else who studies abroad?" I know everywhere has its challenges, but sometimes in a region with some pretty different culture ideas and a major language barrier it seems like our problems are more immediate and more difficult to overcome. Then we remind ourselves that each day's struggles are totally worth each day's little surprises and adventures, like meeting new crazy caterpillar friends!

The important thing I have to remember is to keep my eyes out for those things that surprise and delight me, and make me so grateful for this opportunity in the first place.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The Latest on Life in Chiang Mai

Hi there! Miss me? I think since things are becoming less novel/more busy for me, I will try to update twice a week, or more often if there's something super exciting in my life! Hold me to it. Seriously.

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.


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Lazy Wednesday

Hello everyone! I have received a lot of great feedback on my blog (special thanks to my uncle for being the very first comment!) so now I feel motivated to keep it updated. Chiang Mai University doesn't schedule classes on Wednesday, so it is like a mini weekend right in the middle of the week! This might change once I start doing service work, but until I get my placement I am definitely appreciating the downtime and easing into my school schedule.

Yesterday I started my other two classes, Buddhism and Art. I think both are going to be immensely interesting in very different ways. First, the full class name for Buddhism is Buddhism in Thai Society, so I have already learned about how Theravada Buddhism is practiced in Thailand (as opposed to the sect practiced in say, Tibet) and that each Buddhist country has its own sets of religious leaders for the national community, and a head monk that is more or less "the king of monks" with an advising council. We are going to be visiting many, many temples and examining several aspects of Thai Buddhism. Way cool.

I am so excited for my art class already! We only meet once a week for three hours but yesterday during class we managed to fit in a field trip to an art supply store and the local market. My professor, Ajan Chacha (remember her from making merit?), is so much fun and is encouraging of artists of all skill levels (phew!). I have yet to get my hands on an official copy of the supply list, but I already brought in quite the haul from the art store.


The main purpose of the sketch book is to serve as an artistic dream journal, as Ajan wants us to draw our dreams as soon as we wake up in the morning. She said it could be as little as a line, but it should reflect some aspect of the dream (emotion, imagery, etc.). I guess my subconsciousness knew I would have to draw in the morning because I had five different dreams last night! Maybe by the end of the semester I won't be so self-conscious of my (lack of) art skills and I'll post some of my work. Right now it's just fun to use the pencils and oil pastels and get used to making art.

Like I said, we also visited a huge market with lots of fabrics, beads, and other craft supplies. The whole point is to be creative and use whatever media we are most comfortable with. We visited the hill tribe section of the market for inspiration, too. The weave fabrics with such vibrant colors and patterns to make into clothes and bags; I have a few art ideas already!

The day was also a big success because I finally found my way to the campus shop with two friends to buy my CMU belt buckle. I was so proud I had to model it for you! The pants aren't part of the uniform, by the way, they are my newest acquisition from the walking street market. They are so comfy, and lightweight in the humid heat. Elephants are a HUGE (semi-pun intended!) deal here in Thailand, everything seems to have an elephant theme.


That's all for now, folks! I have one more picture for, my favorite from Thailand so far. This is a group of my friends right before our very first class, enjoying treats from the coffee stand at our campus building. We'll see if we are still as enthusiastic when the homework starts to pile up!


Monday, August 19, 2013

First Day of School

Today was my first day of classes! I only had two of the four today: Thai 1, which is speaking, and Thai 2, which is reading and writing. Although we are advised to “shop around” for classes until the add/drop deadline on the 30th, I have pretty much made up my mind on the four classes I want to take. It will be a full course load with an online seminar component and the service learning discussion course in addition to 10-15 hours of service a week. I guess I should enjoy my down time while it lasts!

Last night, as our last hurrah before the school year started, Brooke, Nikki, Emily, and I took a red truck down to the Walking Street Market in the old city area of Chiang Mai. It happens every Sunday and is supposedly less tourist-y than other attractions in Chiang Mai, but it was still crowded with city dwellers and visitors alike! It is an overwhelming atmosphere of so many booths selling so many different things, musicians and other street entertainers, and the smell of street food cooking.

To celebrate, I got a crepe wrapped around a banana and topped with chocolate sauce for dinner. Ah, to be an independent college student and to make my own choices on what is a proper dinner (If my nutrition teacher mom is reading, I promise I won’t eat like that all the time!). I regretted filling my tummy with a yummy crepe when I came across these bad boys, though.


Squid on a stick: all the tastiness of squid with the convenience of a stick! Who could resist. I also had heard tell that Thailand is in a part of the world that dines on insects, and I finally spotted the truth for myself when I saw at least two booths selling 20-baht bags of fried crickets, water bugs, or bamboo worms. Maybe an adventure for another day!

One cool thing about the old city is that it is home to thirty-seven Buddhist temples, a couple of which we stumbled upon last night. I’m sure I’ll get my fill of temples once I start my Buddhism course, but I still think each one is unique and beautiful. Almost every other religion imaginable is present in Chiang Mai, with Buddhism being the most popular, so maybe that’s why I have yet to see any other kind of worship place. Maybe I need to look harder.


This morning I had plenty of time to get ready in my uniform and walk down to the political science building. All the courses are taught in the same classroom, which is really convenient for people like me who are just figuring out how to navigate campus! I like how each class only meets for 3 hours a week, and it worked out nicely that mine happen to be scheduled one after another so I only have to make the long trip to campus once a day.

We stopped for a cold morning drink before class, and I scored a green tea with milk that a friend didn’t like. It was also a good opportunity to take the obligatory first day of school picture!


So far I like taking both Thai classes because they complement each other and are both taught by Ajan Gai, who is both fun and effective as a teacher. I will let you know how my second day of school goes since it will be totally different classes, so sawat dee ka for now!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Villager for a Week: Part 3

Phew! I think this is the last installment of my village homestay saga. Thanks for sticking with me. Okay, so for our last full day in Baan Mae Bon (the village - I finally looked up the name!) I woke up to the smell of frying bananas. If you've never had them, get yourself to a state fair ASAP because they are so dang tasty. I needed the energy too because in the morning we headed back out to the rice fields to plant. The bundles from Wednesday were tossed into each waterlogged paddy and then we waded in to separate each bundle into several smaller bunches to stick in the mud. I ended up going barefoot into the paddy because the thick mud would otherwise suck up my flip flops, but many others were sporting some kind of nifty water-resistant knee socks!

We were super grateful for the overcast weather because it made the work a little easier and I would have most definitely gotten sunburned otherwise. To show his gratitude, the landowner provided a variety of rice-based snacks afterwards. After lunch I took an afternoon nap (as was my habit in the village, then we hung around in the main temple area until we could hitch a ride to the nearby Friday market. Although not nearly as extensive as the markets in Chiang Mai, this market featured a beloved treat: doughnuts. All the doughnut-deprived Americans descended upon the booth like ravenous wolves and snapped up the 5-baht treats like they were the last deep-fried pastries in the world (I include myself in this group - never before has cream filling tasted so good!).

Unfortunately, our market excursion was cut short by sudden (although not surprising) rainstorm. We took shelter in a booth selling a variety of simple household goods until the storm let up enough to pile back into the pickup and head for the village. At six o'clock the group met up at Carmen's and my house to do a money tree parade down to the temple. The money tree is exactly what it sounds like: a small tree was ornamented with offerings and another tree-like object was constructed tucked with 20-baht notes and topped with a 20-baht sprouting parasol.


I love this picture because it includes a candid shot of my host mom in the foreground, who had just finished an impromptu dance with Ajan Gai to music provided by a drum, small gong, and cymbals (my host dad played in this small band, too!). We processed down to the temple along the main road, causing a bit of a traffic jam with the passing trucks full of people returning home from the rice fields. Once we arrived at the temple, we paused outside the main entry and five young girls (including my host sister) dressed in traditional long black skirts and white wrap tops did a beautiful Thai dance. We circled the temple once with the money tree before entering for the offering prayers.

Next came a ceremony where all of the visitors sat in an oval (we were too many for a circle) and a man sang while the villagers tied white strings around our wrists. It was a blessing for safe travels and a good life, and indicated that we were now neighbors of the village and welcome back anytime. It was a little sad because although we would only be returning to Chiang Mai, I wasn't sure if we would ever get the chance to return to the village. I certainly hope so.

The atmosphere quickly turned to one of celebration, though, when we were called outside to see another more modern dance by the girls, now wearing orange skirts and t-shirts. I was surprised when we were invited to sit back down on the temple floor and enjoy a special party treat (and breakfast food?), french fries and ketchup!


The grand finale of the evening was literally a dream come true: we got to light the floating lanterns and release them into the night sky! Although they were not as numerous as they will be at the lantern festival in November, it was still an unbelievable sight to behold. I thought that the lanterns would be small, but each one took three to four people to hold and light, so it was a great way to have a final bonding activity with the host families. Once a trail of lanterns had been released there was no way that photographs could do it justice, so here are a couple moments I managed to capture, one of which features my totally adorable host sister Mai. 


We headed back to the house for a late dinner and one more surprise: the arrival of my older host brother, Mac. I remember Mey saying something about him coming home from college in Chiang Mai for the weekend, but I was still mildly alarmed to see an unfamiliar face emerging from the bathroom on my way to the kitchen!

The next morning we went back down to the temple to load up the vans and say a final goodbye. I was sad to leave my awesome host family and the beautiful village of Baan Mae Bon, but I know that my place is at the university and there are many more amazing adventures to be had. Wish me luck on my first day of classes tomorrow! I am so excited to start my studies and my service work for the next few months.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Villager for a Week: Part 2

The next morning, Mey fixed fried eggs and french fries for breakfast. She placed a bottle of red sauce on the table and I asked her, "Ped?" ("Spicy?"), to which she indicated, "No." I turned the bottle and realized it was just ketchup! We met at the wat at 8:30 am to start construction on a room that the villagers could go to read newspapers. At first this struck me as an oddly specific purpose for a public building, until someone explained to me that the community doesn't typically entertain in their private homes and were in need for a place to gather and socialize that wasn't the small tables at the store fronts or the Buddhist wat.

We poured concrete under an already erected tin roof, then raised four more concrete pillars next to it. When I went to go check to see how the concrete was drying later, I noticed that the meticulously smoothed surface was now trailed with footprints from three-toed chicken feet! I doubted the community would get terribly upset over this, as the attitude in Thailand is one of calmness and oftentimes finding humor in the situation.


Our group leader P'Neung announced that in the afternoon we would received the special gift of visiting another temple up on a hill and then going to a "sticky" waterfall. I was excited to see the temple but unsure about this waterfall business, as some other friends had hiked to a waterfall that was four miles away and in the end not that spectacular, and because of the humidity "sticky" wasn't exactly an endearing term. We piled in the back of pickups yet again and began the drive across the valley and up the hill to the temple. As with all Buddhist temples, the entrance is guarded by at least one dragon.


It turned out to be a major temple complex that was absolutely gorgeous. The temple itself wasn't that big, but it was lavishly decorated and surrounded by smaller shrines honoring Buddha in a courtyard area. A novice monk offered to open up the small museum for us, where there were many interesting artifacts from Thai and Buddhist history. A girl named Fai translated for me when the monk told her about a special corded belt that when worn in battle would prevent the soldier from getting wounded.

Another great thing about the temple was a balcony area overlooking the valley. The view was absolutely stunning and we spent a long time taking group photos in front of the incredible landscape! Our village was too far away to spot from this vantage point, but we could definitely see the road we came up on down below.


Next we moved on to the waterfall, which was apparently different than the one some other people had hiked to earlier. It was located on a nature reserve, and was just a short walk from the parking lot. We were advised to leave our shoes and bags at the top of the path down to the falls with P'Neung, and to wear shorts and dark t-shirts as the climb back up to the top would certainly be wet.

Climb? Once I neared the bottom of the falls it all made sense. The water cascaded down a path of rounded limestone, which because of its sandy texture offered great traction for bare feet even with a steeper slope and water constantly running over it. It was referred to as the "sticky" waterfall because climbers seemed to stick to it without slipping off.

Being the Colorado adventurer I am and occasional rock climber, I eagerly followed my friends up the waterfall, finding the climb relatively easy and immensely enjoyable. It was the best fun I had had in Thailand so far, and as my mountain-goat like professor Ajan Gai said as he scampered up and down the falls encouraging his students, "Today, we be kids again." Here I am at the top, having conquered the waterfall climb, right before I followed Ajan Gai back down to make the ascent again.


On the truck ride back home, we couldn't help but imagine that if this attraction was back in the States, there would be a parental supervision stipulation, waivers to sign, and probably climbing guides tugging helmeted tourists up on safety ropes. Here, the only cautionary signs were against littering on the reserve and there were just a couple knotted nylon ropes anchored to trees to assist with the steeper areas. To me, this is just one example of the laid-back vibe that I get from Thailand, that no one is hyper-paranoid of lawsuits and that the real gems of the land are not crowded with tourists but rather tucked away in unlikely places and that you have to keep your eyes open and never turn down any of the countless gifts this place has to offer.

Villager for a Week: Part 1

Sawat dii kha! I am back in Chiang Mai from a four-night village homestay in the Phrao district. I made so many special memories that it is difficult to know where to begin . . .

Well, as Julie Andrews would say (or sing), let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). We arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the village wat (temple) where we were matched up with our host families. Carmen and I were staying together as we are both vegetarian and it would be easier on the families to only worry about one "vegetarian house." Our host dad "Pa" brought us to the house in the back of his white pickup, where our host mom "Mey" greeted us and showed us the room with twin beds and a TV (!) where we would be staying. She caught on to our names pretty quickly and had no problem calling us ("Car-meen! Jess-ee-kha!") when it was time to gin khao (literally "eat rice" - the phrase used when any meal is served) or aap naam (take a shower).

We ate some watermelon and talked about where we were from and what we studied in school. I was so, so glad for investing in a pocket Thai dictionary before coming because otherwise conversing would have probably been impossible. Then Carmen and I took a walk around the village to see what there was to see. We took a lot of pictures of the local animal life, including cows, dogs, chickens, and two kittens where Grace and Nicole were staying. An older lady called us over and we sat with her in the shade for a little while. She didn't speak any English so the conversation mostly consisted of her asking us things in Thai, then laughing good-naturedly while we shrugged our shoulders.

A little history on the Chiang Mai area: it used to be called Lanna, the land of a million rice paddies, and it certainly lives up to its name. The two main forms of agriculture that we could see were orchards of lychee-like fruits (of which I now have a huge bag of sitting in my fridge as a parting gift) and rice. It's definitely a rice-centric culture - I honestly think we had some sort of rice-based dish for every meal. The fields are beautiful, though, nestled in the valley between the thickly forested hills.


The next day started early as we were to go to the temple with offerings for Buddha before the day began. I was woken up by a rooster - but not the kind in storybooks where it cock-a-doodle-doos right as the sun breaks over the horizon. No, the rooster outside our window crowed about every thirty seconds since two in the morning, and just when I thought he would stop the neighboring roosters would start to crow which would set him off again. Nevertheless, at eight o'clock we were back from the temple and off to the rice fields to help bundle the plants to place in the flooded paddies. It was a hot day, so many of our coworkers insisted we pai baan (go home) before we got sick from the heat.

I walked to the neighboring village temple with Laurel, Nikki, Neung, and Bee before lunch, then spent a lazy afternoon hanging out at the house with the kittens. In the evening, we made sure to aap naam before hopping in a pickup to go to a temple two villages over. Apparently, a famous monk was visiting and we stayed for about an hour visiting, drinking a beverage that I referred to as "hot corn juice" (tasted like creamed corn in totally liquid form), and praying.

I feel like this is enough for my initial post on the village homestay, so I'll sign off for now but be sure to update really soon!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Making Merit

Yesterday I landed in Chiang Mai, the city in northern Thailand that is going to be my home for the next four months. It is a beautiful city, situated at the foot of the mountains in a decidedly tropical region, although we are far from the ocean. Rainy season makes it humid, humid, humid although so far it has just rained at night and in the morning and gets hot but still overcast in the afternoon.

I somehow managed to overcome my jet lag and general exhaustion (I had to stay up all night in the Bangkok Airport) and join in with the orientation groups. There are around 15 students studying at Chiang Mai University this semester - some are on IPSL like me but others are on a program called TEAN. After orientation, we went out and bought our uniforms (undergrads have to wear them) - white shirts and black skirts for the girls, black slacks for the guys. I'll be sure to get a picture of me in it, looking fly and Thai!

I also bought a cell phone, a small Nokia brick (for those who know me well enough, this sounds familiar) that may have international calling (?). We shall see. Then it was time for the orientation with our director Adam, who along with Ajan (Professor) Gai gave us some dos and don'ts of Thai culture (DO: take off your shoes before entering a room or home. DON'T: point the soles of your feet at a statue of Buddha while sitting in a temple). Adam also asked each of the IPSL students what their interests were for study abroad, and when he found out that I was a science major he got excited about possibly placing me as a teacher. I told him chemistry (with some help from my father!) and biology would be OK, but I wouldn't touch physics with a ten foot pole! The placement all depends on what is needed where, so there's a chance that the teacher thing won't work out, but boy would it be cool.

Anyway, the story for today is the awesome opportunity three other girls and I got to go and make merit in the Buddhist tradition. In Thailand, being a constitutional monarchy, Mother's Day falls on the queen's birthday. So Happy Thai Mother's Day, everyone! One activity Buddhist people can partake in today, besides paying respect to Mom, is doing good works for the monks. They prepare a meal and serve it to the monks in the local temple.


The four of us took a red truck (inexpensive taxi) to this hilltop wat (temple) and met up with art teacher Ajan (Professor) Chacha. Her given name in Thai is long, so she and other Thais all go by nicknames. She was there preparing food with her family and friends as she has done on this day for the past six years. We jumped right in with the cooking, first making fish fritters from Ajan Chacha's mother's recipe.


We got plenty of samples, and the fish fritters were actually really delicious and a little spicy, as much Thai food is. Then we moved on to a station placing sticky rice noodles in bowls and topping it with vegetables and chicken curry, and finally fixing the common Thai dessert of shaved ice with flavored syrups and some interesting mix-ins like red beans, bread cubes, and flavored gelatin squares (don't knock it 'til you try it!). We participated in the pre-meal prayers (without sticking our feet out at Buddha, of course), and then had some lunch along with 500 monks. 


It was such an incredible way to start my stay here in Thailand, a great way to connect with other people and get a taste (literally!) of culture and religion. So, so glad I did it. I may not have another post for a while, as tomorrow I leave for a four-night homestay in a rural village. Until then, sawat dii ka (a polite goodbye)!

Friday, August 9, 2013

Sitting in D.I.A. or An Adventure Begins

Hello friends!

I can hardly believe I am sitting here now. Mostly because up until two weeks ago today, I and everyone around me thought that I would be in Kolkata, India right now, starting my semester abroad through service-learning organization IPSL.

Not the case. On that fateful Friday, two weeks ago, in an airport not so very different from this one (Newark), I received an email stating that due to circumstances of a personal and emergent nature, the director in Kolkata would be unable to lead the fall program.

I had been dreaming of going to India for years and thought that fall of my junior year in college would be the perfect time to go. I contemplated several India programs before deciding on IPSL, cleared out my semester, applied for the visa, etc. Naturally, upon receiving the ill news I was utterly disappointed. My dream momentarily crushed, my sixteen-year-old sister, with the wisdom and perspective only a middle child could offer, told me to buck up. "Now you can find a new dream!" she paraphrased from the Disney movie Tangled. Indeed, she was right, as IPSL offered to put me on a different program of my choosing. I had roughly 48 hours to decide.

Her cinematic insight turned out to be a premonition, as the thing that swayed me in the direction of Chiang Mai, Thailand was influenced by Tangled. For those who are not familiar, a key element of the re-imagined Rapunzel story is the releasing of thousands of floating paper lanterns into the night sky once a year. As only Disney computer animation can deliver, the lantern scene in the movie is spectacular to behold, practically unbelievable.

Imagine my surprise and delight then, when researching Chiang Mai, to find that the lantern festival is real and takes place in the Northern Thailand city in November (during a potential fall abroad!). No literature on my program made any mention of the lantern festival, so there is a chance that I may not be directly involved with it. But from what I've seen, this event can't be missed (both in the sense that it is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of happening and that it would be pretty hard to miss thousands of lanterns in the sky over the city where one lives and goes to school).

So that's my tell-it-at-parties version of how I ended up choosing Thailand. There are a whole bunch of other reasons, too, of course, such as interest in the country in general, being a university student, service work opportunities, etc. I'm sure that all those will fully come to light in later posts, so stay tuned!

For now, here I sit waiting to board a plane that will take me from my beloved Colorado to San Francisco, where I will board another plane that takes me to Bangkok with a stop in Tokyo, then spend the night in the Bangkok airport with a four-hour stay in some kind of in-airport hotel as my only diversion, and finally take yet another plant to Chiang Mai where apparently I will hit the ground running with university orientations and the like.

Due to quickly made travel plans and my difficulty with picking up major language skills, I cannot leave you will any kind of Thai farewell at this time. Allow me instead to  bid you a good morning (it's 5:20 am) and implore you to keep reading this blog as I imagine things to get far more interesting for me!