Falling in love with the ocean

Ah! Here I am, on the day that my semester is ending! Let me tell you about the past few weeks in the ocean. The first week was spent in Ban Jao Mai, a Muslim village in southern Thailand; we spent two days in Koh Lipe, one of the islands of the Adang Archipelago; and spent the next week camping in Koh Rawi, another of the 22 islands that the archipelago has. If anyone is doing math on how many days I was gone: this course was the longest (20 days), but three of those days were traveling days. Here’s how it all went.

Getting to Trang (the province where Ban Jao Mai is found)

            On the first day, our whole group of 17 students (James, an Australian boy who has grown up in Chiang Mai joined us for this trip, and he was in my group) took taxis to the train station in Chiang Mai and eventually got on the night train to Bangkok. This train ride lasted 16 hours, in which I got to see incredible things just outside my window, hang out with the group, have a three-course meal, and sleep. The sleeping was my favorite. You sit face-to-face with another person, with just enough room for your feet in between; at around seven or eight, after dinner, someone comes and kicks you out of your seat to make your beds. The two seats become the lower bed, and a compartment on the top is opened to make up the second bed. I had the pleasure of sleeping on the bottom bunk, with the not-so-gentle rocking of the train but a fresh breeze coming in through the huge window. It was awesome. Don’t worry, they gave you sheets, a blanket, and curtains for privacyJ.

We arrived in Bangkok at around eight a.m. the next morning, took the metro to Chatuchack Market (widely known as JJ market), where the amount of people and things was quite overwhelming, as were the amount of animals being sold everywhere: puppies, cats, rabbits, hedgehogs, reptiles, birds, and fish. The whole point of going there was to explore the fish section so we could see what kind of reef fish were being sold, illegally, in the market. We found what we were looking for. It was in the market that we bid adieu to Group B, who had an earlier train to the Adang Archipelago (their trip started where ours ended and ended where ours started), and I was left with Jonah, Silas, James, Hannah B, Nicole L, Nicole B, and Emily, my group for this expedition. We left the market and hung out at JJ Park, where we relaxed, ate snacks, and spotted a cool monitor lizard, our first one yet! We walked around Bangkok for a while after hanging out, and got to cross a huge highway on foot and see all the cool-colored taxis.

Later we returned to the train station to take our second night train to Trang. This one was 14 hours and not much different from the last one, except for we had half as many people.

And just like that, we arrived in Trang, were picked up at the train station, ate breakfast, and drove for I don’t know how many hours to Ban Jao Mai. Something about this trip made it feel like a vacation…  

Ban Jao Mai

            As soon as we arrived, we met up with our instructors (did I mention we had been traveling alone?), and made our way to the beach. I caught my first crab that day. Yes, it was about one centimeter wide, but still I was proud and excited. We took a longtail boat to see the mangroves that the village is near and talked to Ma Teh, who basically runs the village and owns the one cool restaurant where we hung out every day, and Bang Het, her brother. They were both very knowledgeable about the mangroves, so we got to ask them tons of questions. Oh, yeah, down at this village they use “Ma” for the women instead of “Mae” and “Bang” for the men (Bang is more of an “uncle” term than a “dad” term). We longtailed it back to the village, got ready, and met our host families. We had dinner at Ma Teh’s restaurant, each with our own family. My mom’s name was Mai, just like me. That’s still a cool thing today. My dad was Bang Iat, Ma Teh’s son and whose longtail would be taking us everywhere. Nong Lin and Nong Chok were my host brothers, nine and 12, respectively.

            In Ban Jao Mai, I would sit with Ma Mai on the floor for dinner and we shared pictures, stories, and watched Thai TV. Ma Mai and I would cook dinner together often, and that was our bonding time. Bang Iat, who a couple days later told me I should call him Pa Iat, let me drive the longtail once, and that was fun. They spoiled me, to say the least.

One of our activities in Ban Jao Mai was a mangrove transect, in which we kayaked around the mangroves and stopped at given points to observe trees, fish species, invertebrate species, and substrate. Swimming around the mangroves was strange; scary, actually, because it’s hard to see the bottom, and the roots of the trees poke you everywhere. I learned there, though, that sea kayaking is fun.

Ma Mai and Pa Iat’s house was only one minute from the beach, so I made my way down there to watch the sunset many nights. Many nights P’Jonas and P’Am (my instructors) would join our family for dinner, and P’Jonas constantly gave me ecology lessons on the crabs, slugs, squid, or fish they were eating and P’Am updated me on everyone-in-Thailand’s favorite soap opera. Many nights I also fell asleep to Ma Mai singing along to songs in English when she thought I couldn’t hear (Westlife’s “My love” was my favorite).

Breakfast in Ban Jao Mai was called knom-chao; that’s like calling it “snacks” instead of “breakfast.” And it was. I would drive over to a little shop with my parents every morning, eat donuts (made seconds before I ate them), and drink kohpee, the strongest coffee I had ever had (I later learned that the coffee beans are roasted with sugar, then processed, hence the incredibly strong molasses taste). Needless to say, I’m sure I gained a few pounds—truth, but I’m not ashamed.

One day we explored a mudflat near Ban Jao Mai, where I found lots of hermit crabs, mudskippers, a sea anemone, soldier crabs, and so much more. We had the afternoon free on that day, so we had a beach day with the group. Beach days are my favorite days. Another day we explored a sea grass area, where dugongs feed…we didn’t get to see the dugongs, though. I got to observe shrimp and gobies in their little houses, and that was pretty cool. This was also the first time I snorkeled (outside of the giant pool in which we practiced before we left for the course). On this day, P’Jonas taught me to body-surf. I can’t wait to try that out on Lake Michigan this summer!

We swam through a cave to get to a really awesome beach, seemingly untouched (although too many tourists go there each day). It was such a peaceful place. On the same day we visited a rubber plantation and learned about shrimp farms. Oh, and I can’t forget about the fact that in Ban Jao Mai I got to help roast, break open, and eat cashew nuts. So good!

Our last full day in Ban Jao Mai was spent cooking and preparing for our party on that night. We helped cut up a lot of the vegetables, make knom, and watched the slaughtering of the goat they had been fattening up for us. I was a little emotionally attached to the goat, not going to lie, as she lived in my garden and hung out with me as I lay in the hammock in my house. They slaughter and butcher the goat in very humane ways, so that made it easier. We also got to play Muslim Barbie. The moms dressed us up in Muslim garments, put a lot of makeup on our faces, and a veil on our heads. I was just happy to be able to provide some entertainment for them. Our party at night was so much fun; we took pictures at the beach, had a delicious meal at Ma Teh’s restaurant, got to publicly say to our parents just how much we appreciated them, and had a dance party with our families. It was a great way to end our homestay.

Leaving the next day was hard. All the students and their families met up for breakfast in the shop, where we thought we’d say goodbye to our families. But they came in the vans with us on our three-hour ride to the port in Pakbara, where we’d be taking off for the archipelago. They bought us snacks at a 7-11 during a bathroom stop (regular Thais) and fed us before we boarded the ferry. My host mom didn’t make it all the way there with us because she had a maternity check-up on that day (did I mention she is pregnant?), but my dad and both of my siblings made it, and they stayed until we could no longer see them as we drove away on the ferry.

Koh Lipe

            Two days in a tropical paradise island for our midcourse seminar were pretty incredible. We met up with the other group for a little over half a day, and it was wonderful to see our friends and share this island with them. I spent the afternoon working on my essay at the resort’s restaurant and we had a meeting with the Urak Lawoi, the locals who live in Lipe, and learned about their life style and how tourism had affected it. I later found a coffee shop to continue working on my essay, but ended up singing “Wonderful tonight” and playing maracas for multiple songs with one of the owners and some workers. I made some friends that nightJ.

            Needless to say, I had to get up early to finish my essay, since the previous night wasn’t as productive as I hoped. I went to watch the sunrise on the beach and that was just the perfect way to start my day. It was just so beautiful!

            In Lipe, we got to walk around and shop and ask owners whatever we wanted to know about the island; we had many interesting conversations. Our group got to spend a lot of time together, especially at meals in town. We also met with the owner of Mountain Resort, where we were staying, who was one of the first investors to come to Lipe and works closely with the Urak Lawoi; interesting as well.

            We got rained in on our departure day; luckily, we were only crossing the channel to the next island to hang out at the Adang Archipelago National Park for one night.

Camping in Koh Rawi

            We were fortunate enough to have an incredibly beautiful camping spot in an island near Lipe, Rawi. We camped just a few feet off the water at high tide, had a neat place to set up our kitchen, a fresh-water stream just off the trail from the campsite, and an incredible coral reef off our beach. We couldn’t have asked for more.

            We had completed many of the activities for the course, so our week in the island was mainly dominated by what we wanted to do—which is not at all how the rest of our courses have worked. It was, after all, spring break, right?

            One of our activities was to go into the reef off our beach (which we all referred to as “our reef”) and count the many different species of organisms that we saw. Hard work, right? So we put on our masks, snorkels, rash-guard, and fins and headed out to count amazing fish. No big deal. This was the first time I saw a false clownfish (a Nemo, if you will). I found the anemone and swam to it. The thing with clownfish, is that they swim toward you, and not away from you. So there I was, in a coral reef off the amazing Koh Rawi, face to face with a clownfish. I cannot tell you how many times I repeated this scenario in the following week.

            If I were to mention all the different organisms I saw each time I snorkeled in a reef, the list would be endless and you’d get bored; so I will refrain. But snorkeling in a coral reef is something that I never thought I would find myself doing, so every time it was an incredible experience.

            We kayaked a few times to different reefs to do specific studies, but we also spent a lot of our time hanging out and eating at our campsite. Most nights I slept either right on the beach (yes, crabs did crawl on me at night), on a hammock overlooking the ocean, or in a tent that also overlooked the ocean. I don’t know how any successive camping experiences will be able to compare to this one!

           I know it seems like this was all fun and games, but I really learned so much on this course! We learned about the many challenges that tourism brings to pristine places such as the Andaman Archipelago. For example, 90 percent of the coral reefs in the archipelago are bleached (or dead, so to speak), which means that, throughout the years, many species have ceased to exist because their habitats are destroyed. We also witnessed trawlers just miles from the beaches, catching as many fish as they could in the dark hours of the night; we learned of the conflicts that the national park has when it comes to stopping illegal fishing (trawlers) and how much power to do so they actually have; heard the two sides to the conflicts between the national park and the Urak Lawoi; and witnessed just how terrible the problem of trash in the ocean is--among many other things. 

           

            Although there are many more things to tell when it comes to this course, I will save those for later, when I see you, perhaps? I have many details and stories left to share :) 

Thanks for reading. As usual, all my love.

             

Songkran festival: explained

Hello, all!
   Today i find myself in the comfort of my apartment, the air conditioning running while the world outside melts. Okay, not exactly. Although if we want to talk about global warming, we might say it is. Anyway, the point is that it is really hot in Thailand right now; go figure, it's dry season.
   Last week, at the hottest time of the year, the Songkran festival took place all over Thailand. Chiang Mai is apparently the place to be for many people from Southeast Asia. Needless to say, traffic was as heavy as it's ever been and the amount of people in the city was evident wherever you went.
   Songkran began with a small water ceremony to pay respect to one's elders. The younger people would collect water that had been poured on the Buddha at the temple and gently pour it on the elders' shoulder. Now, many many years later, Songkran is a fun water war. Here is what i witnessed.

Water guns: almost everyone has one, the sizes varying from a tiny one with about a 10cm reach to a super-soaker that reaches across three lanes of traffic. If you were carrying around a water gun, no matter the size, you would get wet (actually, if you stepped outside your apartment you would get wet). Every type of water gun you can imagine, we had them. A water gun with a convenient umbrella for protection? Have it. A minnie mouse water gun? Have it. A batman super-soaker? Yes. A water gun attached to a water BACKPACK? Oh, yes.

Buckets: sometimes, water guns don't fully get people wet; thank goodness for buckets. Every size you can imagine, but the most common were the one- to 1.5-litter buckets, which conveniently came with a small rope tied to it so you could throw it in the mote to refill it any time you pleased.

Concerts: stages (of course, with fire-department like water hoses) were set up at every central location in Chiang Mai (at each of the four gates, the mall, etcetera) and loud music played, or bands, or people got to go up and dance to the music. As i hear, many of my friends were in that third group of people. To each his own, i suppose.

The mote: Chiang Mai, which literally means "new city," has an area that is called the Old City. Many historical facts can go here, but i can tell you those in person as they are irrelevant for my Songkran story. The Old City is a perfect square with four main gates, each with their own name and cool plaza. The mote surrounds the Old City with beautiful trees on it sides. I don't know where the water comes from, probably from the Ping River, but there's always water in it. A few days before Songkran, however, the mote was getting higher and higher in water content in preparation for the festival. Yes, that was the water we were being thrown--let's not address the health concerns just now. The cool thing to do if you have a pick-up truck is to go around the mote with buckets of water in your car and throw water at the people walking, or at other cars driving by you :)

From the back of a truck: The coolest part about being in the back of a truck is throwing water at the people on motorcycles. I'm laughing just remembering it. Danielle and I rode in the back of her family's truck for a whole day of Songkran. We started in Doi Saket, our village, and had to be on the super highway in order to get to the Old City. Little did Dee and i know that people would already be at the side of the road waiting for people like us. The thing with the people who sit and wait of the side of the road is that they have incredible aim when throwing a bucket of water at a moving vehicle...and they're strong. So by the time we made it to the Old City, we were drenched and hurt. Water really hurts. Later in the day, i would discover just how much more cold water hurts. We were driving at a decent speed, i was facing the front of the truck, standing up, and other cars where going the opposite direction on the lane next to us. All of a sudden, something really hard hit my face and i felt the pain and the coldness simultaneously. I had just been hit with a cold splash of water, so hard that i couldn't open my right eye for 20 seconds and immediately the right side of my face turned red and began to swell. Some of you know how sensitive my skin is... The cool thing was that you could see exactly how the water hit my face, and that was fun. I survived, clearly, and the swelling went down eventually (although my eye was still swollen the next morning).

Cold water: the last paragraph might have made you wonder about the cold water. The water from the mote was pretty okay, kind of cold, but it actually felt refreshing since the heat was so extreme (Songkran happens to take place in one of the hottest weeks of the dry season). But some people, actually, most, wanted to be nice and really refresh you. So, in many places around the city, you could purchase HUGE blocks of ice (i'm talking as-big-as-a-pillow size here), which people would place in your water container. Needless to say, it really made the water cold.

Staying dry: impossible. My underwear was my swimming suit for three whole days, no big deal. On the day that i went out to take pictures, which was the first official day of Songkran (people got carried away and began drenching people one day before), i carried my fancy camera in three dry-bags and my phone and wallet in another two. Surely risky. But don't worry, my camera survived and only got wet once!

     And that is all that i can remember about Songkran. I hope this painted a good picture for you. But if it didn't, try pairing it up with the pictures on facebook :)

As for everything else that isn't Songkran, here are the two main things i'd like to share.

Meeting my host sister. During the time that i lived with Mae Nhi and Paw Noi, i would hear stories about my host sister and how she lives in New Zealand and works there and has been there for six years. We'd talk about her sometimes, especially whenever she called Mae Nhi and i was there. She was just stories to me until this past week. Because Songkran is such a big deal, my sister Pan and her boyfriend Luke came to Chiang Mai. Just one day after their arrival in the city, Mae Nhi called me, eager to have us meet. We went out to dinner and it as wonderful. She is so energetic and funny and wanted to know everything about me (as i wanted to know everything about  her). She's 29, but actually looks 22. No kidding. She is also one of the most physically beautiful people i have ever met. She's kind and very playful. By the end of the night, she was spanking my butt and teasing me. She was quite impressed with my Thai, which showed in very welcomed compliments. A couple of nights later, Danielle and I went out with Pan and Luke and two of Pan's friends from college. We went to a nice vegetarian restaurant and shared lots of food and stories and good conversations. It was incredibly refreshing to hang out with new faces and OLDER faces. We had a beautiful night with them and they really treated us like their friends. Pan and i really bonded, so it was a weird experience to say goodbye to her at the end of the night (she left the next day) because i am quite certain the odds are that i'll never see her again. But i really like her! Anyway, let's not let this wonderful event turn into a sob-story.

Leaving for Oceans! Today, in about 1.5 hours, i leave to go learn everything i can about the oceans. We are going to the south of Thailand and studying the Andaman Sea; we are learning about islands, reefs, and mangroves and will be studying each one in detail (by snorkeling each!). We'll also be staying with a Muslim village, which is incredibly exciting for me. The things that are different from our last courses and that i am concerned about are: 1) we stay in homestays alone, no doubling up; this means i have to be on top of my game when it comes to my Thai language--yikes; and 2) there is a lot more science involved, and we all know how bad at science i am. We are also dividing in two groups again, which i know makes sense but is also a weird way to end our program (because my semester ends one day after i return from this trip).
   On the other hand, i am incredibly excited to be going to the ocean in Thailand and kayaking it (did i mention we'll be sea-kayaking for days?) and learning by being IN it. I can't wait.
 
    Well, the time to leave is getting closer and closer and, although i have finished packing, i need to get some lunch and clean my room--maybe even pack for real!
    I will communicate with you all once i am back from this course.
Thank you for all your thoughts and support--i can feel the love over here!

Receive MY love, too :)
~ Lourdes

The return from the forest

Hello again, everyone!

I am back in Chiang Mai after my second three-week expedition course, Political Ecology of Forests: Upland People and Natural Resources—which is a mouthful, so we call it the Forests course J

            So much happened in what seems like so little time, but I am going to do my best to relay the most important details to you all. We visited six villages in northern Thailand, so I will tell you about each village (and the hike to get to it), instead of telling you week-by-week like I did for my last course. First, I’m going to give you some general definitions/disclaimers/helpful pointers.

- We traveled on foot, so we hiked to all but the first village—yes, I learned the real meaning of packing lightly. We started at the top, in Huay Tong Kaw, and hiked our way down (down on the map, at least) back to Maehongson.

- We had village meetings at each village, where we got to ask them everything we wanted to know about their village J

- All six villages are Karen villages; the Karen are an upland ethnic group in Thailand. They also speak their own language (Bakagnaw), and Thai as a second language. We learned some Bakagnaw before leaving and on the field as we spent time with our families.  

- We had a family day in most villages, where we did whatever our family wanted or had planned for that day. For me, this meant working on the rai, going to church, going to a waterfall and a cave, and weaving (each in a different village)

- The Karen practice swidden agriculture, which most people know as “slash-and-burn.” Swidden, in the Karen culture, is the technique of cultivating on a plot of land by burning it, cutting down most trees in it, and then using that to grow the crops for a year. Once the year is over, they move to a second plot and do the same; and then again and again. The Karen eventually (depending on the number of plots they own) return to that first plot of land and begin the cycle again.

- Rai: the plot of land they use

- Fallow: the time that a rai has to regrow into a forest while the villagers use a different rai

- Most families, although very welcoming, served us (the guests) our meals first, left us to eat alone, and ate in the same place as we did once we were done; they often ate whatever it was that we didn’t finish.

- The Karen eat mountain rice (different, and perhaps more filling, than city rice)…and they eat a lot of it.

- Instead of “mae” and “paw” used in most of Thailand, the Karen use “Muga” and “Pati,” which are endearing terms for “aunt” and “uncle” or something along those lines…so that’s what we called them.  

- I will have less and less to say about each village because the time we spent in each was less and less as we progressed (four nights in the first two, two nights in the next two, and one night in the last two).

Ready for the rest? Here goes.

Maehongson

            This is a town—more like a small city—in northwestern Thailand, very close to the border with Burma. I guess it’s a pretty popular spot in northern Thailand for tourists to travel into the mountains to visit hill tribes—let’s not get started on that whole business. We took eight-hour buses on a very windy road to Maehongson and spent our first night there. The next day we met with the Royal Forestry Department (RFD), which was set up, among many other reasons, to conserve forests in Thailand. Later in the afternoon we met with the administrator for the Maehongson district. Both of these meetings are pretty high up there (power-wise) in comparison with our following meetings. It was interesting to learn from them and then go live in the villages they were talking about.

Village one: Huay Tong Kaw

            I stayed with Jean in a family of six: grandma, mom, dad, brother (15), sister (12), and little cuddly brother (7). Our first afternoon and night with them was pretty uneventful, but our next day was an adventure. We headed up to our family’s rai with Muga and met up with Pati Prasuu, grandma, and about eight other people. The rai was owned by five different families, and representatives of each were present to cut down the trees. It had been burned the day before, so Jean and I had the honor of being present on the day they began clearing. We got to build a fence around the rai from the trees we cut down. To put it simply: we got dirty at work. Everything was black in the rai—duh, it was burned—and by the end of the day, everything on our bodies was black as well. It was really meaningful to be part of a regular day in the dry season. We got the chance to go back two days later and do the same type of work. Their rai is, however, on the side of a hill, which makes dragging logs to the top very challenging.

            In Huay Tong Kaw, I learned about traditional Tahs (Karen melodies) and in what occasions they are usually sang, and learned to sing one of them, which was very beautiful. I learned to weave a basket out of bamboo and weaved my own basket, which made it all the way through the rest of my trip and now sits happily in my room. We visited a blacksmith and helped him make a knife. And we learned about traditional herbal medicine from the one and only medicine man in the village—he claims to be the best in any village, which I believe just by watching him. We also had a gender meeting (so the boys met with the men and the girls met with the women in the village), which was incredibly funny and insightful. On our last night, we had a culture exchange, in which we went back and forth sharing things that were part of our culture—transcending language barriers! The villagers showed us sword dances, which are incredible, and sang some traditional songs. The list of things we did is endless, so I will not go there. But it was fun to share with the villagers.

Village two: Huay Hee

            The hike was incredible, one of the most difficult ones of the trip. We had a long descent into a river valley, crossed the river three or four times, and made our way back up into the mountains. It lasted about seven or eight hours, and it was tiring!

            In Huay Hee we conducted studies on rai that had been fallow for two, four, ten, and twenty years. We looked at 10m by 10m plots within each rai and took an inventory of the trees species present as seedlings, saplings, and trees. It took an incredibly long time, but it was well worth it. We also took a day to hike to Doi Pui, which is the highest point in the Maehongson area. That means that the trail to Doi Pui was always uphill—that was quite a challenge! We spent the morning and afternoon (hiking there and back, and) reviewing what we had done up to this point—because it was already the middle of our field course—and talking about the issues we had learned about thus far.

            Huay Hee was a predominantly-Christian village—a huge change from our previous predominantly-Buddhist Huay Tong Kaw—so we got to go to church with them. On Sundays, they have church five different times; so it’s a whole-day celebration. They also spoke more English than we expected (which was none, so obviously we were surprised) because they have lots of tourists come through to hike to Doi Pui and visit the orchid conservation—which we got to see on our hike and it was beautiful. We also had a culture exchange with this village. It was fun to bond with them through church hymns that they sang in their language and us in ours.

Village three: Nam Hoo

            The hike was easier than the last because the long ascent (really, it lasted a long part of the day) was more gradual as well as the descent, and there were no river crossings this time. On this hike we conducted a forest transect, which consisted of stopping every 200 meters (in elevation, which, when you’re going up a mountain are not as often as you’d think) and taking note of the temperature, wind speed, humidity level, dominant tree species, dominant bird calls, insects, forest type, percentage of each forest level (emergent, canopy, understory, shrub layer, herb layer, and forest floor), and soil analysis. Once our course was over, we created a map using all the data we collected.

            In Nam Hoo we learned about the whole weaving process. We learned how to make cotton into string, how to dye the string (and what plants they use and how for what colors!), how to set the loom, and how to weave! After our morning was spent doing this, Nicole (who I was rooming with in this village) went to a small waterfall with our two host sisters. They were Nong Mai (a different tone than my “Mai”) and Nong Mieu and they were 11 and 10. The waterfall was small (small enough to jump off of it, but I guess you’ll never know if I did it or not, huh?) and yet so incredibly beautiful. We took a little hike to the top of it, which was a beautiful little pool under another little waterfall. Nicole and I our host sisters just had the best time there—I really love these two girls, we all really bonded! After a few hours at the waterfall we went to a bat cave, which was also incredible. On the second half of the day (the waterfall and the cave), I did not have my camera, so you all will have to ask me for the details of this day if you want to know just how beautiful it was J

            It was in the village that I had the most fun family photo-shoot, which we think allowed for the family to feel comfortable having a meal with us! Really, this was a huge deal…and it was awesome! It was also in this village that, since minutes after arriving, I met a one-eyed white dog, the skinniest of them all. I petted her and told her she was beautiful—and Nicole and I sang her “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera every time we saw her—which brought her back to life. She’s the most loving dog I’ve met in Thailand—and I’ve met a lot of dogs!

Village four: Hua Nam Maehongson

            The hike was the second hardest hike, where it seemed that we’d never stop going uphill. We walked by a forest fire this time, and it was just incredible how fast it spreads through the forest. Also, the white dog I met in the last village, which everyone eventually named Sally, followed us on this hike.

            Our group learned about the foods that they grow/raise in the village in each month and season and how much they buy from the city in each month and season. By this point in our trip, we were close enough to the city that the villagers had more access to packaged goods and such. We met with small groups with the intent of creating a food calendar for vegetables, meats, fruits, and packaged goods. It was a success, and at the end of the field course we created a food calendar and discussed the implications of being close to the city.

Village five: Pakalo

            This hike was the most incredible one. It had a lot of ascents and descents, but much shorter than the other hikes. But the coolest part was that we crossed the river 30 times. Your eyes don’t lie and that is not a typo: we crossed the river 30 times. The trail was so sneaky that, in order to stay on it, we had to go back in forth through the river. We saw lots of huge rocks and trees growing at the top of them or around them. Incredibly tall trees, too! Sally came, too.

            This village is only five kilometers from Maehongson (about 20 minutes), so it had lots of cemented roads, cement houses, stores (with ice cream!), electricity (as opposed to solar panels, like the other villages), cars, less agriculture, more city commuters, and lots of people. This wvuas a definite change from the feeling of disconnectedness to technology and the city that we had been feeling in the rest of the villages—and it felt very strange.

Village six: Hua Nam MaeSaGud

            This was our shortest hike, lasting only four or five hours, and it was also our last one of the course. It was a breeze compared to the previous ones! Oh, and Sally is still with us at this point.

            We had a whole afternoon to be with our host families on this day, but we only had a host mom that was in her sixties and preferred to have us relax. Danielle, Nicole, and I were told to simply lay down and rest while our host mom, Muga Epaw brought us snacks, cold drinks, and a very strange yet delicious mixture of tea and coffee. When we asked her if it was good, she said “Delicious? I don’t know!” We all burst out laughing at how experienced she looked mixing from different cups (seriously, she was like a scientist) and yet had never tried it before. Of course, she didn’t even actually try it, since she only prepared three cups. She brought us strange snacks all day and fed us strange drinks and that was that. She was super fun—and we couldn’t even understand her for most of the time. This day is tied with my day with Nicole and the girls in Nam Hoo as the most meaningful days of the trip—maybe even of my whole semester.

Back to Maehongson

            Sally stayed in the last village, where someone will (hopefully) take her back to Nam Hoo. It was a sad goodbye in the morning.

            We enjoyed a nice group dinner in a fancy restaurant (although maybe it wasn’t as fancy, we just hadn’t been in one in three weeks) and were treated to a smoothie, as much food as we wanted, and ice cream, by our P’s and ajaan. We dined like queens and kings that night!

            We made our way down the windy road the next morning and returned to Chiang Mai.     

Conclusions after the field course:

- I can’t learn a fourth language yet.

- I have mastered bucket showers.

- I have mastered the squatty potty.

- Spiders and I learned to get along—they like houses as much as I do.

- I have forgotten what it is like to be in a river with no shoes on and with only a bathing suit.

- If you come to northern Thailand and quiz me on it, I can tell you the type of forest we’re in!

Now I am back in Chiang Mai for two weeks. This next week is our spring break. The Sonkrang celebration is happening in Chiang Mai at the end of the week: days and days of getting wet wherever you go in the city. Really, this is the ultimate water-fest. People celebrate the Thai New Year by splashing water on each other wherever they go. Also, the water they use is that one of the mote around the old city, which is nasty. But we have showers, so it’s doable J I cannot say much more now because I haven’t lived it yet. But you will know about it soon.

Thanks for reading! And thank you for keeping me in your thoughts! I hope this finds you well wherever you may be! All my love J

Three weeks later...

          I sit here in my balcony in Chiang Mai. I have been back for roughly 48 hours, and it’s crazy over here. I got so used to…not being in the city. But I only have to make it through this coming week and then I’ll be gone on my Forests course!

First, let me tell you about my Rivers course (I’ll keep it short, I promise!). The name of our course was Human Rights and the Environment: Rivers, Dams, and Local Struggles. I will explain now how I learned about all those things.

Week 1

After being split up in two smaller groups, my group started in the village of Don Chai. We were paired up and placed into host families for the week. During that week, we visited the Kaeng Sua Ten National Park, which is the site for a proposed dam project and is not far from Don Chai. We learned about the relationship the national park has with the villagers, which is a good one, since they fight against the dam project together. Don Chai is one of the many villages that would be displaced if the dam was built. We got to swim at the national park after our meeting, on the Yom River. We also met with some members of the village headmasters, who told us general information about the village and answered many of our questions. We met with one of the leaders of the youth group in Don Chai, who told us about their efforts to bring back young people who go to university in the city and instill in them a love for the village, agriculture, and the desire to fight against the dam. We learned, quite quickly, that the Don Chai village is a whiskey village, which means that many of the people are involved in the making, packaging, and selling of lao-cao or lao-gluay (whiskey from rice or whiskey from banana). Not going to lie, it’s pretty good.

It was also in Don Chai where I got food poisoning for the first time in my life. After Emily, who I was staying in the house with, fell sick on our first night in Don Chai and was bedridden for the whole next day, I fell sick the day after. So, our second day in Don Chai I spent it in bed. Emily and I bonded over throwing up and laying energy-less in bed. What a great thing to bond over, right?!

We paddled the Yom River two days during that week, and camped out on its bank one night. This was such a beautiful experience. Watching the forests, gardens, agriculture, and fishing on the banks of the Yom was fascinating. Two Paws from Don Chai came with us on this trip and taught us about fish (the ones they caught for our final meal together) and what they knew about the river.

At the end of the week, we drove to Laos to meet up with the other half of our group.

Week 2

            Vientiane, Laos, just across the river from Si Chaing Mai, Thailand (although I didn’t know this until the last week). Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, a country with 6 million people (compared to Thailand’s 66 million). The city was tiny, especially having been in Chiang Mai for so long. It was also strangely comfortable: full of farangs, English, bakeries, guesthouses, and farang food. After being so outside of my comfort zone for so long, Vientiane was a weird adjustment. Luckily, we were kept quite busy.

            We were in a fancy hotel for a day doing mid-course debriefing with our ajaan. That was alright. We had a presentation about hydropower by a fancy Englishman and his accent. I didn’t particularly enjoy that talk, mostly because I didn’t really understand much of it. We also visited the Mekong River Commission, which is an inter-governmental organization composed of representatives of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, all countries through which the Mekong runs. It also runs through China and Burma before it hits any of these four countries, but they are not part of the MRC and we’re not going to get into that right now. The MRC is kind of a think-tank to decide which country has the right to do what on the Mekong—essentially, the MRC’s purpose is to make sure that the development that countries plan for the Mekong is sustainable. It’s a pretty complicated situation, and would require a long conversation to explain. It was also in Laos that we visited the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Company. We visited their dam site, met with some dam workers, learned about the dam project, and the dam resettlement and relocation that had to be done when the dam was built. It’s so fun to use “dam” before another noun. Anyhow, we learned about their relocation and resettlement program (relocation is when people have to be moved but still have their fields somewhere; resettlement is when people have to be moved along with their fields). Again, this is a long conversation, but we basically got to learn about their program, visited one relocation and one resettlement village, and see the dam. We spent a night at the resort at the dam site. Yes, it has one.

           

Week 3

            We separated again from group B and made our way to Chiang Khan, back in Thailand. To put it simply, I left my heart in Chiang Khan. It’s another touristy town, except for all the tourists there are Thai! We were only there for one afternoon/night, so we made it the best we could. Well, I did. We walked about two blocks from our guesthouse and found a cozy restaurant to have a late lunch. The owner, Mae Teng, took us under her wing right away. She stayed by our table and chatted with us the whole time we were there. I really liked here. When we were leaving, we asked her where a nice coffee shop was and she proceeded to walk us right across the street to Pi Duan’s coffee shop, which was also a nifty little store. She stayed around for a while, left, and came back to pick me up on her motorcycle to take me to 7-11 to buy snacks. She kindly paid for bread and jam for our group and told everyone we saw that I was her new daughter. I returned to the coffee shop, where I was peacefully doing homework, being taken care of by Pi Duan. Not much later, N’praewa, Pi Duan’s five-and-a-half-year-old daughter woke up from her nap, came to sit by me, and stole my heart. She sat in front of me watched me work for about two seconds before she began to talk non-stop. Few things are more humbling that being corrected by a five-year-old. Oh, well, gotta learn somehow.

            N’praewa and I proceeded to play house for about two hours. We took family pictures, drank milk, and shared snacks. Then I went to dinner with the peeps, did some shopping, and quickly made it back to the coffee shop. N’praewa and I played for a good long two hours again. When I told her I was going back to Chiang Mai, N’praewa cried and clung to me and told me not to go. My heart broke.

            The next morning we set off to paddle the Mekong for four days, eight hours a day. Yes. Nutella, peanut butter, banana chips, beef jerky, and crackers were the banquet we were given for lunch every day. Yes. We had to stay close to the right side of the river because if we went too far to the left side, we’d be in Laos (the part of the Mekong that we paddled was all the border of Thailand and Laos). It was interesting, to say the least, to see the differences between each side of the river and as we made our way downstream.

            We stayed in a village called Kok Wao for two nights and learned about it through a town meeting and a village survey, like in Don Chai. This was another village that would be flooded if a different dam was built on the Mekong (they were only one kilometer upstream from the proposed 82-square kilometer reservoir). It was interesting to see the differences between what Kok Wao was doing against the dam project and what Don Chai was doing.

            Heidi and I got quite attached to our host family here. It was comprised of three sisters who lived with their parents. They were 36, 34, and 27. Mae Nok has a 15 and an 11-year-old daughter, and Mae Da has a 4 year old daughter. Pi Nit works for customs on the border of Thailand and Laos, just upstream of their village. Being in a house full of women (and a very sweet man) was quite fun…not to mention empowering. They loved us a lot and we loved them. The night before we left, I made us all matching bracelets from two of my bandanas, and they all loved it. Now I wear a bracelet that is the same as my family in Kok Wao J.

            We stayed in guesthouses on the river bank the other nights, enjoying some time with each other and debriefing about our experience in the river and in the families.

            Now I am back in Chiang Mai, getting readjusted to the city life. The traffic, the noise, the people, the pollution, everything is such a change from three weeks on the move, in peaceful rivers. But I’m doing well. Friday was our first full free day. I explored places of Chiang Mai that I hadn’t seen yet, took lots of pictures, dressed like the farang I am. I owned my farangness, and it was an incredible day. I walked everywhere with a map, a big camera, a huge water bottle, and my backpack. Farang!

            Anyhow.

            And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the short version of my adventures. There is so much more to say about each thing I did but, to be honest, my heart and my brain are so full and I am still processing much of it. I do, however, look forward to having conversations about this once I’m back. For now, brief versions and pictures of my travels will have to do J

            Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. I’m keeping you in mine. 

Leaving on a jet plane...or a canoe.

In less than 30 minutes, I will be on my way to canoe the Mekong in Laos and along the border of Thailand-Vietnam and Thailand-Cambodia. No big deal.
   This trip lasts three weeks and is the first of my field courses (titled Rivers: Human Rights and the Environment). We were separated into two groups (one of eight and one of nine) and will be starting the course on different sites, meeting during the second week (which will be spent in Laos), and finishing at different sites. My group starts this week with a homestay in a village, not sure where, to be honest. We'll also be staying in guest houses and other villages during the duration of the trip. I am not very sure on all the things that we will be doing, but I am sure it will be fun :)
   I just wanted to update everyone on what will be happening while I disappear from the internet and the phone communication for three weeks.
   I am beyond excited to go on this adventure! I am also slightly excited to come back and tell the stories :)

Thank you for reading and thinking of me. I'm feeling the love all the way here! Keep sending me good vibes and love as I embark on this glorious journey!

Time's a-flying!

Here I am again. And here is what I have been doing.

Last week we had elders from the Lanna community (an ethnic minority group in Thailand) come teach us to make their traditional arts and crafts. We sat with them in our classroom and asked them lots of questions about themselves and their communities before we divided up and went to learn in smaller groups. My group went first to work with the guy from the Lanna community, who taught us how to make a “tung,” which is hung above doors to give a blessing to those who go under it each time. He worked so fast that it was hard to keep up, and our finished products look quite messy compared to his—but he’s been doing this for a while, so I think we did a good job overall. After about thirty minutes, we moved to a different classroom to learn from the two Lanna ladies, who showed us how to make some traditional toys. This was a lot of fun. I was particularly fond of one of the ladies, who sat next to me and helped me for a long time, even when I wanted to keep making little fish and had already made two. She made me a flower before we left, and gave me an extra frog, fish, and bird to take with me. She spoiled me!

            On Friday we went to Doi Suthep, which is on the Southwestern part of Chiang Mai, and hiked to the temple at the top. We began our hike at around nine and stopped at 11 about halfway through to check out a different temple and have some time to explore. We had stopped before for 15 minutes of quiet-alone time in the forests to observe nature (and take notes, mind you). Sitting there, in the forest and away from people, was so peaceful. For a while I just laid back, closed my eyes, and listened to the sounds of the forest. I could hear water at a distance, the leaves falling near (and on) me, and many different types of birds chirping. What a wonderful world!

            At the temple halfway up the mountain, I found a spot on the rocks of the waterfall and looked toward the horizon. It was such a good spot to listen to the water and relax. Little by little, I was joined by about half of the group, and we all sat there and talked about how this, what we were doing, was our class. Experiential learning is such a beautiful thing.

            We made our way to a different waterfall for lunch, where we got to relax for a while before resuming our hike. Near the waterfall, we witnessed the scouts (boys and girls) on a camping trip, which included them lying flat on their bellies and climbing up some steps after a while. It was fun to watch how intense the instructors were and how much fun the kids were having. Jean and I made our way closer to the waterfall and played in the water. On a hot day like Friday, playing in the cold water felt incredibly great (although we weren’t allowed to swim).

            We continued on our hike and stopped twice to practice identifying plants and trees and such. For some, this was fun. For me, it was tough. I have never had to do that before, nor have I really expressed any interest in it, so it was something completely new to me. It was interesting and slightly fun nonetheless. For the last thirty minutes of our hike, we were told to walk by ourselves quietly, so we paced ourselves in a way that would allow us to see the person in front of us but not be close enough to talk. This was such a good idea. I really appreciated the quiet hike through an unknown area!

            When we finally made it to the temple, I was melting under my clothes—the weather was so hot and humid! We quickly changed into formal clothes to enter the temple and were on our way. Although the temple was beautiful, it is such a tourist attraction that I didn’t really enjoy it. There wasn’t the usual peacefulness when you enter a smaller temple; instead there were stores, flower shops, people yapping away and taking countless pictures inside. I wasn’t impressed. I was disappointed that something that tends to be a peaceful experience, such as visiting a temple, could be ruined by tourism.

            On Saturday I went with Danielle’s family to the Chiang Mai flower festival. This consisted of people wearing traditional Thai clothing followed by floats made by each town or school in Chiang Mai (and other places like the botanical garden I visited). This was a lot of fun to watch—the clothes were so beautiful! We were there for a few hours, then Dee’s family went back home and we stayed in town to do some homework. We found a neat restaurant near Cad Luang (the market we go to every day on our way to and from school), had lunch, and then found a cute coffee shop to do some work in. As expected, our afternoon was spent working on Thai homework, reading, or talking; and it was a very relaxing afternoon—much needed after a long week.

            When we got home, we went for a bike ride around our village, which turned out to be an excellent idea. After riding around for a while, we found ourselves following a long road to who-knew-where. At some point on this road, there was nothing but very green rice fields on both sides, and it was beautiful to see. As we rode by the fields, I could feel the coolness of the water on my legs, although the rest of the atmosphere was quite worm—such a weird experience, yet an amazing one. Suddenly Dee and I found ourselves in one of the most beautiful spots yet: on our left side, we could see the moon getting slightly brighter and higher and, on our right side, the sun was setting. We had white on the left, orange on the right; each making the rice fields look just as beautiful as the other. It was incredible. We stayed there for quite a while, soaking it all in and loving nature—I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really witnessing that!

            On Sunday I, once again, went with Dee’s family for the day. We went shopping for traditional Lanna clothing for Dee and I for our party on Tuesday. I hope I don’t make it sound as such, but this was quite an ordeal. Finding a skirt was easy. Finding shirts to match them…not so much. My skirt is purple and has orange/white/brownish flowers on it and Dee’s is black with red lines and silver flowers. Dee’s mom and sister had different ideas of what would match our skirts than we did, so it was hard to agree on shirts that matched each of our skirts. After trying quite a few shirts on, we finally decided on some. It was about an hour and a half of shopping. As many of you know, shopping is not exactly my favorite activity.

            When I thought we were on our way back home, we arrived at Dee’s aunt’s house, which is where we went on our first weekend in Thailand. Also, this was our last weekend with our host families (which I will talk about in a bit), so going to this place was funny/ironic for two reasons. First, this was the first place Dee and I went together and learned to stick together as soon as we figured out we were living by each other. There’s something about that house and our bonding experience. Second, this was the place, where, if you remember, I ate chicken blood for the first time. It turns out that the exact same meal was being given to us this Sunday. Dee and I were given our plates, looked at each other, tried to imagine something worse, succeeded, and decided we were doing this together again. So there we were, the two farangs eating a spicy meal with chicken blood. The blood cubes weren’t as bad this time (although still just as gross in my head if I allowed myself to really think about it). When Dee wasn’t looking, I put some of my tomatoes on her bowl and, as punishment for not eating my tomatoes, took some of her blood cubes. Yum. Needless to say, we, once again, made it through the meal! We are such troupers.

            But really, if there is anyone here who is a trouper, that’s Dee. She’s been a vegetarian for 11 years and a vegan for two, so eating lots of meat and blood cubes has probably been harder for her than for anyone else on the trip. Yet we haven’t heard her complain. I’m just saying…if that was me, the world would know and my blog would probably only talk about that. Now, that’s inspiring!

            Anyhow, when we returned home, Dee and I went on another bike ride in search of the same spot we had found the day before. We made it there and it was just as beautiful. It is so peaceful, too.

            On Monday we went to Chiang Mai University during our foundations class to interview some students for our group projects due on Friday (which is when Foundations ends!). My group interviewed two girls who were studying animation, another girl who was studying sociology and anthropology, and a professor who teaches sustainability. It was so much fun! We used some of our Thai, but the fact that our interviewees spoke a little English was helpful.

            On Tuesday night we had our farewell party for our host families—for reasons not worth explaining our party was earlier than expected and we said goodbye to our host families four days before we actually left them. For this dinner we all wore traditional Lanna clothing, which is very beautiful as you will see in my pictures soon enough. Everyone looked so good: the girls looked beautiful and the boys looked handsome. This night was when (almost) everyone prepared an act with their families and we had a talent show. We had also been learning a goodbye song in Thai with our Thai teachers. All the acts were really good—it was nice to see the group enjoying themselves outside of school. Our song as a group, however, was pretty bad. We started off on about five different keys, which made almost the whole thing sound atrocious. No big deal, though, because all the families were smiling from ear to ear anyway. It was a cute and thoughtful song, I won’t lie. We just might have murdered it. The whole night, I had Silas’ little brother follow me around. He’s almost four, and he is such a cute and happy kid. He’s like a little energizer bunny: runs, laughs, and jumps non-stop. At the end of the night, when we were saying goodbye, he gave me a hug, a kiss, and said “I want you in my house” as an invitation to come visit him throughout the remainder of the semester. He was the cutest thing.

            On Wednesday we went canoeing at the same lake where we had our swim test. We were divided into two groups, got a partner, and began learning to steer a canoe. There have been so many instances in these past five weeks where I have felt so inept. Canoeing was one of those. For the life of me, I could not get the canoe to go on a straight line on the lake. However, it was hard to be frustrated because of two reasons. One, I wasn’t the only one struggling. Two, it was such a beautiful place, that being upset amidst such beauty would be wrong.

            We did a few exercises to help us practice canoeing, which became a little easier toward the end of the day. Whenever we got to one end of the exercise, we had to switch with our partners so that the other one of us would be steering the canoe. This was really interesting and funny—switching places with someone on an inflatable canoe is quite a challenge! We later had to jump off our canoes into the lake and swim to another one to switch partners—this was super fun as well! The last thing we did that day was learn what to do when our canoe flips. We, once again, were in a canoe with a partner and were told to flip our canoe. This, of course, required us to both rock from side to side until we fell off. Once we fell off, we lifted our canoe off the water onto a second canoe, where the other two people flipped it and sent it back into the water for us. Once that was done, we had to get into the canoe. This whole thing seems like an ordeal, but it was helpful to know how to do it; not to mention the fact that it was incredibly fun as well.

            Dee and I did some shopping after school and ended our night by buying dinner and eating it by the river Ping near Cad Luang. As we sat there at around seven, we saw a huge orange circle in the distance and asked ourselves if it was the moon. We both didn’t think so at first because it was so close and so orange and so incredibly beautiful. But eventually we noticed that it was moving up and right, which led us to believe that we weren’t hallucinating before. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen here—so beautiful. The next morning the sun was just as orange, and this was also incredible. We had some time in Cad Luang, so Dee and I went on the crosswalk and watched the sun rise over the river. Thailand is such a beautiful place—I constantly have to convince myself that I am really here.

            Friday was our last day of Foundations—there’s so much joy in my heart. This means we’ve been in Thailand for five weeks already! The whole day consisted of finishing up our presentations and giving them to the class and some of the Pis. I was quite proud of my group (Breanna, Jean, and Laura). We did our presentation on ethnic minority groups in Thailand, which we all had a personal interest in. Our presentation turned out pretty good, and it ended our Foundations class with a bang, to say the least.

            After class, we went shopping again. Our time with our host families has come to an end, so Dee and I have been buying goodbye and thank you gifts for them because Friday was our last night with them. When I got home, Mae Nhi told me that her friend had died and we were going to the funeral after dinner. She was worried because it was my last night with them, and they didn’t want me to have to go to a funeral with them, so she offered to have me stay at Dee’s while they went. But I told her that I wanted to spend my time with them and not anywhere else. This made Mae Nhi, who had already told me countless times that she didn’t want Saturday to come, run to hug me and cry. “I no want you go.” I promised her I would come back whenever I could, but this doesn’t take away her sadness. After the goodbye dinner on Tuesday, I asked her if they’d be having another student next semester. In beautiful Thai-glish, she told me that I’m very funny and made the family very happy, so she doesn’t know if she wants another student because she doesn’t know if she’ll be like me. I was so touched! Mae Nhi and Paw Noi have really given me everything, and I cannot imagine having a different family than them here. I wish, contrary to my fellow classmates, that I could stay for longer with them.

            For my goodbye gift, I bought them a basket and filled it with fruit and a little chime for the front of the house. When I gave it to Mae Nhi, she once again started crying. She told me that I had made her very happy and that she would miss me. I told her that I loved her. In between sobs, she told me she loves me too. We’ve had lots of moments like that since then.

            Mae and Paw gave me a beautiful bracelet and a marble elephant. They are just the best parents (after my own beautiful parents at home, of course). They have spoiled me rotten and treated me like a princes, and I’m sure it will be hard to be without them—I had gotten so used to coming home to them and having a long dinner, washing the dishes, doing homework, washing or ironing my uniform, all surrounded by them every night. I will surely miss them immensely. The good thing is that I will only be one saewng-tao ride away for the next week, which I’ll take advantage of J

We moved into our new homes—an apartment complex next to the mall—on Saturday. It has been, to say the least, really refreshing to have a new little home, although it’s hard not to be with the family. But I’m adjusting. Dee and I are sharing our apartment, and it has felt homey since we moved in, so it’s nice to come back after school to such a cool place.

I also started the Rivers course on Monday. This course contains lots of information, a great amount of it new to me, so it’s been a definite switch from Foundations. Not much has happened since we moved, so I will be writing soon before I leave.

All my love, as usual J

Food baby: story of my Thai life

Warning: super long post ahead. Proceed if you so wish, but don’t be mad at me later for being so detail-oriented!

I hope you have already made your way to facebook to check out my pictures! They might make more sense when you read this post J

Thursday, January 19^th

Today was rough. I think I got up on the wrong side of the bed, although it’s the same one I have been getting up on for the past two weeks. Thai class was stressful in every possible way. My classmates and teacher took about 15 minutes to explain one word to me. There is no literal translation for it, so I just understood where it belonged in a sentence but couldn’t grasp what it meant. After about 6 minutes, my brain closed off and all the words being said to me simply made me more frustrated—at everyone else for actually understanding it, and at myself for being so inept. For a little while after that, I refused to participate in class because I was just so upset. Yeah, I understand that it was wrong. And there’s no excuse.

During our 15-minute break, I went outside and sat by myself under the sun. It felt so good. Then someone else joined me, having a frustrating day, too. It’s funny how, when I really need to be alone to recharge my batteries, I don’t get to…and when all I want is someone to sit by me, I end up alone. I shall, in the future, use these as learning moments. Learning to be with people despite my low energy level; learning to be alone despite my desire for company.

Then came the second half of Thai class. I still felt underprepared and behind. I would be proven right just minutes later. Ajaan Wilasanee gave us a worksheet, all in Thai. One side had five separate pictures and the other five different boxes with sentences in them. We were to read the boxes on the right and match them accordingly to the pictures on the left. We were given ten minutes. By the time everyone else had finished, I was still on box number two. I read so slowly in Thai! I was right; I am behind in my class. This, although it wasn’t a surprise, was very upsetting. The rest of my classmates read out-loud together while I tried to read with them. After two boxes, I gave up. My level of frustration was at an all-time high. I was told that being bilingual would work to my advantage when learning Thai. Right now, I feel like it doesn’t make a difference.

Lunch was a little better. After eating, I quickly went to sit under the sun again and, little by little, I found myself surrounded by over half of the group. I hadn’t shared anything about the previous four hours with anyone, so they didn’t know that coming to sit by me was disturbing my alone time. Having them all around me, though, turned out to be exactly what I needed. Talking and laughing with everyone was helpful, and I found myself to be less frustrated.

It was suddenly time for Foundations—time flies when you’re having fun, or so they say. The whole class period was spent discussing cultural things: impressions, observations, dramatizations of key cultural clashes, and questions and answers about host family situations. It wasn’t a bad class period, it just felt like it dragged on for a while.

Then came CrossFit. Just the thought of that made me tired. We did a crazy 500m run as part of our warm-up. We were divided in two groups of eight, had a 16 lbs. weight-ball per group, and were instructed to run the 500m passing the ball backward in the line. This was funny, but not fun. After another laid-back warm-up, we began rowing. Each person rowed around 1000m in intervals of 200. This was actually fun—my favorite workout thus far. Today was the first day that I felt good after working out!

While waiting for Dee so we could leave, I decided to review Thai. I quizzed myself on some letters, and barely got any right. That was quite upsetting and it just brought me right back to where I had been in the morning. Bad move, I know. We ended up taking the taxi with other students, which usually would be nice. Today, I just couldn’t handle it. When I’m frustrated, I remove myself from any situation which might cause me to be a brat to anyone else. I couldn’t do that in the taxi, so I just pulled my book out and read while everyone else chatted it up—I felt bad, but good that I wasn’t hurting anyone by being a brat. Once we got to the market, everyone wanted to hang out for a while. I took this opportunity to dash and have a quiet taxi ride by myself.

So I found a taxi and left the market. As we were leaving the city, more and more people kept piling up into the taxi—it was crazy! In the middle of the two benches on each side of the car, there’s usually a little stool or chair for kids to sit at when needed. There was a tiny blue chair in this one. A lady and her daughter got into the car, making it 20 people riding at the same time. The lady sat on her daughter’s lap as everyone crammed together into the bench. If that lady had been my mom, I would have wanted someone to give her their seat; so I gave her mine and moved to the little kiddie chair. She smiled so widely at me, that I felt undeserving of such gratitude. So, there I was, the only farong in the taxi, sitting in the kiddie chair listening to angry music and reading “The spirit catches you and you fall down,” crammed to the max between people, and still frustrated. Then I saw what a chance this was. I took my headphones out, closed my book away, and allowed myself to just sit there and listen. There were so many conversations going on at once, that I began to love the noise and the sounds and just being surrounded by so many people. I could only understand a few words out of the hundreds being spoken, but I felt good anyway.

            A few people got out of the taxi, and I was able to move to the bench again—I was so glad; that kiddie chair was uncomfortable. This was short lived. Less than five minutes later, an older lady got in, and everyone pointed her in the direction of the kiddie chair. The same feeling I got the first time overcame me and I quickly moved back to the blue chair to give her my spot. She went past the spot I had left open, put her hand on my knee, and said “Thank you…so much” in practically perfect English. At that point in the ride, I felt like everyone on the taxi had my back. Everyone was smiling at me. I was, about 15 minutes later, able to move back onto the bench; everyone made room for me and kept smiling. What a ride! I was being loved by strangers!

            I made it to the entrance of my village without consequence. I was listening to a song that made me miss home, and after holding the tears in for the whole day for the sake of others, they finally came rushing down. There went the farong, listening to music and crying through the streets of Luang Tai. I’m the reason Thai people think farongs are crazy. I made it to a point that Dee and I always stop at to watch the sunrise over the rice fields. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn’t help but do it anyway. I was not wearing my uniform to begin with, which automatically makes me a farong and not a student; I was wearing Chacos; I was listening to my ipod—I was being the perfect target. I knew this. I knew I shouldn’t be putting myself in more danger than I already was. But I didn’t care. In fact, I liked feeling dangerous!

            I stopped at the rice fields and started walking to the edge of them. Like I said, I was wearing sandals; it was dark, I didn’t know where I was stepping, and I knew I shouldn’t have. But I was playing a dangerous game, I was winning, and I wasn’t about to quit. So I kept walking until I got to the edge of the fields. At this point, if you must know, I was crying like a baby and could barely see. I walked over to the edge, barely being careful yet daring, half expecting a snake to wake up from below the leaves and half planning what I would do if that happened. I sat by the edge and let the tears flow without taking my headphones out. I sat there in the dark and looked at the sky and the rice fields for about 20 minutes.

By the time I finally made it home, I was about an hour later than usual, and my eyes were puffy and my nose was red and runny. Mae Nhi saw me and asked me “Are you happy?” I couldn’t decide if I was upset that she would ask me such a thing, or if I was glad that she had noticed I had been crying. I said “nit noy,” which means “a little bit.” She asked me if Danielle had walked with me, and I explained that she had stayed at the market with some friends. At this point, I didn’t know what she would read my response as, so I just let it be and told her I was okay. She came over and held me tight. “You beautiful. You strong,” where the words Mae Nhi said next. Thais are not touchy people; in fact, displays of affection, although not entirely uncommon, are considered very intimate. Yet somehow Mae Nhi did and said exactly what I needed. “You’re a good mom,” I said. “You a good daughter,” she responded. She sent me to shower before dinner, and I gladly did.

Dinner went by just like other days, with me being a clown for them, asking what things were, and telling them what I had learned (although, in this case, not learned) today. I went to Dee’s house after dinner, only to find that Dee had been worried about me because she heard I had been crying. It turns out that Mae Nhi had alerted Mae Noi that Dee and I had probably had a fight and that’s why I was crying. After I explained to Dee what happened, and after Nong Viu (Dee’s sister) explained to Mae Noi, Mae Nhi picked me up from Dee’s house and, upon seeing me, asked “You Dee happy now?” I couldn’t help but laugh. Because explaining was useless, I smiled and said yes.

After thinking about it for a few hours, here’s what I have come up with. Thai class constantly brings me back to that feeling of being lost and utterly confused during my first few months of high school. I felt so behind then, so constricted, so tired all the time, so frustrated, and at the same time so unwilling to give up. I feel the same in Thai class. All these things pull me in different directions, and allowing myself to go in the wrong direction is so much easier. But, well, I know that if I don’t learn Thai, this whole semester would be a complete drag, which I’m not willing to let happen.

Friday through Sunday, January 20^th through 22^nd

            I woke up in a better mood today, since I knew that our retreat began instead of Thai class! My parents took Dee and I to Silas’ house, whose mom would be giving us a ride to school later. Hanging out at Silas’ was pretty cool. He has two brothers, Nong Trunk and Nong Nin, who are four and nine respectively. While we waited for Silas to get ready, we hung out with them. Trunk is a little earthquake, and Dee loved playing with him. Nin, on the other hand, is much calmer and quieter. Trunk showed us some sweet dance moves while Nin sang along to his songs. It was a fun morning and a good way to start the weekend—a much needed fresh start for me. Silas’ mom gave Dee and I a hand-made elephant keychain, which is now hanging from my backpack. It is so cute. (People in Thailand give gifts to their visitors so that, when the visitor leaves and whenever he or she sees the gift, he or she remembers who it comes from—clever).

            We got to school and were soon off to our retreat. But not before we did our swim test. I had been dreading this all along. We were to swim 300 meters and then thread water for 15 minutes. What a drag. We could only have two people at a time in the lake (because we only had two kayaks with lifeguards), so most of us were out of the water for most of the time. Waiting for our turn to swim was cool—hanging out with people on the beach, listening to Tanner play the guitar, and chatting it up with everyone. Then came my turn to swim; I was so scared! The halfway point looked so far (we swam 150 meters, then back, and then threaded water) that I was sure I wasn’t going to make it. And well, why lie, it was a struggle. It was the hardest thing I’ve done here, and the only one where I felt I really wasn’t going to make it. First of all, I can’t swim in a straight line, which means I had to reroute myself more than ten times during the whole thing. Second of all, although I can swim, I can’t swim for that long. More than once, all I wanted was a break, and then I was sure I could keep going. Third of all, I swallowed water like crazy…which means for the way back I was burping lake water—yum. Fourth of all, I have weak arms; so although my legs can kick for a while, my arms have never gotten this much exercise. I swam a lot on my back (keep in mind I can’t swim in a straight line) and eventually made it to our threading water area. I have never threaded water before. In fact, I didn’t even know what threading water meant until I got to that little area. Nicole, one of the girls on the trip, told me what to do…and I did it, but it was hard. I was out of breath when I got there, but simply floating isn’t threading water, so I didn’t have a chance to catch my breath. So there I was, bringing my arms “out…and…in…” and kicking my legs “like scissors” for 15 minutes. I thought I was going to drown. But I didn’t (clearly).

            Then the worst part of this trip was done and I was able to enjoy lunch with everyone else. We were served in small tables for four under this huge hut. Each table had three dishes and a soup. I was told I had a specific table to sit at because of my food allergy. At my table, there were the two other students who have food allergies: Josh, who is allergic to soy, and Cristin, who is allergic to lots of things that I can’t remember. Because many meals are made with soy and fish oil, Josh, Cristin, and I had our meals made separately and carefully. And because, combined, we are allergic to pretty much anything Thai people use for cooking, our food was made with just salt. That’s when our food-allergy adventure began.

            After lunch we left to go to our retreat site. Arriving there, I felt like the perfect break had just begun. We walked toward our “campsite” (although I will be referring to this weekend as “camping,” it wasn’t even close to that) and were all in awe of our surroundings. On one side of the creek we had our sala, which we used for our meetings and sessions on safety and for our meals (basically, whenever we all came together), in front of it we had our fire pit, which was huge. On the other side of the creek we had our cabins. They were simply a big open area with a bunch of beds next to each other (and lots of windows, which is always a plus). Although they weren’t comfortable at all, I was glad to have beds all next to each other—aided in the bonding process.

            Once we settled in, we had a little pow-wow and then were set free for a few hours. A bunch of us decided to go check out the waterfall. I was in awe since I saw it from far away. What a work of art! It is just so incredible to be standing there so close to something so powerful and so beautiful. We all made our way to see it more closely, and then, all simultaneously noticed Jean, a girl in our trip, already splashing and dancing and loving the waterfall. This, no lie, was one of the most memorable moments of the weekend. To see someone so free and so happily enjoying creation for what it is was truly inspiring. It made me so happy to see Jean happy. I have no words for what I saw, but it filled me with joy.

            We returned to camp to have another little meeting, then were given free time while the Pis made us dinner. There was a soccer ball, a bunch of badminton rackets, a slack line, a hacky sack, and everyone ran out to the field to play. It, once again, made me really happy to see our whole group enjoying themselves so much. You’ll probably think this is weird, but it doesn’t matter because you weren’t there: I sat on the bridge and took videos and pictures of everyone playing games—and this, oddly enough, filled me with so much joy that whether I was involved in the games or not didn’t matter; all that mattered was that everyone was happy.

            We had a delicious meal for dinner—again, Josh, Cristin, and my meal was made only with salt—and it was a good time to talk with some people. This meal was when I noticed how much care the Pis were putting into making our food. They had to cook for over 20 people, but they didn’t mind making some food separately so Josh, Cristin, and I wouldn’t get sick from it. They watched over us so well, and I was so thankful to have them around. We had a campfire after dinner, where we played a beautiful song game (where someone says a word and each team has to come up with as many songs as possible with that word in it). We were immersed in our game when all of a sudden, there’s all this commotion around the fire and everyone and pointing at the sky. I looked up and saw the longest-lasting and longest-tail “shooting star” I have ever seen! It was so so so beautiful! It flew across the whole sky, and we all got to see it, and it lasted so long. The tail was so bright and so long. I didn’t think it was real. We watched it move across the sky until it disappear behind the trees. When will I ever experience that again?! I really am not doing it justice by writing about it—I wish I could. Everyone was in awe, and this is now one of the most memorable parts of our trip.

            When everyone went to bed, I went and laid on the hammock outside our cabin and looked up at the stars and thought about creation and its beauty and how blessed I am to be here with all these beautiful people. Jonah joined me for a while and we talked while looking up at the stars. Nicole and Dee were still up, it turns out, so they joined me after Jonah left and together we waited until midnight: Dee’s 21^st birthday! J We pretty much booked it to bed right after because we were all so tired.

            After breakfast the next morning, we talked about safety for a while. Then we did a questionnaire to figure out our different personalities (or part of them, anyway) and were then divided into whatever group we fell into. Four groups where formed: drivers, analytical, expressive, and amiable. We were asked to put on two skits of “the good and the bad” of our respective personalities. There is no point in explaining the skit for my group (I am amiable, in case you had any doubt), but I am just going to go ahead and say that we were really funny and made everyone laugh.

            We had lunch and were set free until dinner again. Some of us went to the waterfall again. But being there again was not enough. Dee, the incredibly spontaneous free spirit, decided that she wanted to make it to the top. Well, how could I say no when I wanted the same thing as well?  So a bunch of us made the hike to the top. It took about 20 minutes, and it was so steep all the way there. But it was so worth it. Watching the water fall from the top and seeing things from so high up was such a beautiful experience. Again, watching everyone enjoy it so much was just as beautiful for me. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the sunshine and each other.

            After going to the waterfall, I was so tired that I needed a nap. Laura was on the same boat, so we took a nap together. So comfy J When we woke up, I still had free time, so I took advantage of the rest of the time to take a walk and spend some time by myself. Although I love to be surrounded by everyone, this was much needed and so wonderful. I read, wrote on my journal, listened to the birds chirping, the air blowing, the bugs buzz, and people talk and play. For a long time I just allowed myself to float in all the beauty and just be. What a refreshing experience.

            It suddenly was dinner time and we were all once again gathered for a meal. After dinner we had our fire again, and it was yet again a wonderful time. I talked with Emily, Nicole, Heidi, and Laura about so many things—we got to know each other really well. As I sat there, I watched around the fire and everyone was involved in a conversation. Breanna, Hannah, Josh, and Nicole sat over one side of the fire involved in what seemed like a very laid-back conversation. Tanner and Silas next to us talking music. Hanna, Jonah, and Dee sharing stories. Dean and Jean having a serious conversation next to everyone else. It made me smile so bright to see everyone talking and getting to know each other.

            There was no shooting star this night, but that’s okay. We headed to bed, but I headed for the hammock again. Nothing like some peace and quiet time before more peace and quiet time.

            As I sit here and write this, I realize that I’ve messed up on the chronology of the events of the weekend. Something happened that I am not quite certain when it happened—this whole weekend blends together for me. So, since I am lazy and don’t feel like rewriting anything, I’m going to politely ask you to forget the chronology of the events I have told you about this weekend and continue reading. Yeah, I would be super upset if I were you.

We learned to build a stretcher from materials that would be normally available to us during an expedition out in the field in case anyone got injured. We divided into two groups and made our own. My group’s stretcher worked so well at the first try—we were quite proud of it. Side note: for the whole weekend, groups of two to four people were given “leadership positions” to practice for our field expeditions, where we will be given individual leadership days in which we are in control of important decisions regarding the group and plans. Sunday was my day to lead with Hannah and Cristin—who was actually sick that day, so she didn’t go on this hike that I will tell you about. Hannah was in charge of a group and I was in charge of another (we split into two different groups again). My group made it about a quarter of a mile up a tricky trail when Dee’s appendix burst—don’t worry, it wasn’t real! Dee had been approached by Pi Jonas and told that her appendix would burst at a certain point during the hike. It was the way that our group got to practice making a stretcher on our own and to deal with an emergency. Dee fell to the ground and screamed in pain and everyone froze for about one second then quickly recovered and turned on their emergency mode—no one knew Dee would fake a burst appendix, so she caught us all by surprise. When something like this happens, we were told that someone had to stay with the injured person at all times. Because I was right behind Dee when it happened, I was the one who stayed with her while everyone built the stretcher. Eventually we carried Dee down the trail (which was super difficult) and across the stream (they wanted us to go all out, so we couldn’t use the bridge) to a safe place. This whole exercise was very helpful, but I hope we never have to deal with something like this while we are out on an expedition (or at all this semester!).

We also went on an “academic hike” around the campground, which was really interesting because we learned about lots of different plants. It was really impressive to me to hear the guides talk about each plant as having its own medicinal use—who needs pills when you can have traditional medicine?!

We returned to ISDSI on Sunday to be picked up by Dee’s parents. I got home at six and was supposed to go to dinner at Dee’s for her birthday at seven. However, Mae Nhi wanted me to shower and wash all the clothes I had brought home from the weekend. It was a lot, by the way. So, there I sat, wet from my shower, outside, surrounded by too many mosquitos to kill any of them, washing my clothes. It took me about 45 minutes, and eventually I made to Dee’s to celebrate with her family. It was so beautiful to see Dee’s family making her a celebratory dinner, bringing her gifts and cake, and singing a beautiful rendition of “Happy Birthday” to her. They love her so much and I was just happy to witness it all J What a night!

Monday through Thursday, January 23^rd through 26^th

            I have mushed this week together because, most times, as you will remember from above, it is hard to know what happened when. This week was pretty uneventful, but here are the things that I can remember.

            Thai class has been alright. I feel like I learn while I am in class, but once I get home I get so nervous that I blank out. This is what happens during exams, but someone I tend to do well. Maybe it will be the same with Thai: I will learn eventually. Mae Nhi continues to be excited whenever I get a whole sentence out, which gives me lots of hope. I have been studying a whole lot more after school, too, even if I’m tired. I feel like I’m learning, I just get nervous when it comes to actually having to speak to people.

            In Foundations, this week we learned a little about Thai people and media, Buddhism in Thailand, and Lanna and Chiang Mai history. On Tuesday, we went to Wat Fai Hin (wat = temple) and talked to a monk who shared his ideas on Buddhism and how he connects it to physics. I am definitely not smart enough to relay all the information to you about it, but I will say that it was really interesting. We were given a book that he wrote about karma, which I will be reading soon. Maybe then I’ll be more able to share what I learned J

            On Wednesday we took a trip to the Lanna and Chiang Mai history museum, which was really interesting. The Lanna are an ethnic group in Thailand and some of the first settlers of Chiang Mai. We learned about the beginning of Chiang Mai, how the people picked the place, and part of the culture. It was really interesting. As usual in museums, there is too much to learn, so it was overwhelming. But I’m planning on returning to the museum to read more in detail certain things that were too much for the time we had. Close to the end of our museum experience, we found a room with a lady weaving—this was where we spent the largest amount of time. We watched her for a while, and she gladly taught us how to weave on the machine (or structure, more like) next to hers. She was making such a beautifully intricate design! I spent a lot of time in that room watching everyone learn and enjoy themselves. I especially enjoyed watching Jean try over and over to get the making of thread right. She was so determined—I definitely learned from her that day!

            On Thursday, nothing super exciting happened in school. The best of the week happened after school. I had arranged to meet my friend Bo at the mall after school. Bo was an exchange student from Thailand in my school in Guatemala when I was 14, and I hadn’t seen her since then—almost eight years! (Bo lives in Bangkok and flew to Chiang Mai just to see me!) Seeing her again was so surreal! We saw each other and ran and hugged each other so tightly and I even cried a little. It was so beautiful. We talked about anything and everything, especially how much in common there is with her experience in Guatemala and my experience here in Thailand. We talked in Thai “nit noy” (a little bit), in Spanish nit noy, too, and in
English the most. I really enjoyed speaking Spanish in Thailand (who would have thought that wouldh happen, right?!). Needless to say, my time with her was too short. I had to be home at a decent time—Thai parents worry a lot! After promising myself I’d see Bo again while I’m in Thailand, I made my way home.

           

Friday, January 27^th

            Our ISDSI group took a trip to the Mae Tha community (south of Chiang Mai) to learn about sustainable farms there. We were divided into two groups and went to two different family farms to learn from them and help them with some of the work that needed to be done. My group went to a farm whose workers consisted of Mae, Paw, and their son, Pi An. For three people, the farm was huge. They showed us around the farm, telling us the name of vegetables in Thai (while we guessed some that we hadn’t learned yet).

            We got to ask lots of questions and learn about their daily work, rewards, and struggles. It was so beautiful to just be there with them and learn from them.

            After talking for a while, we got to work: weeding the chives beds. The group talked with each other while we worked under the sun. I might have gotten some of my color back! Once we finished our work, we helped to make lunch and had a delicious meal.

            After lunch we made our way to another farm, where a seed bank was located. We learned from Pi Pui about the seed bank, where the idea came from, and the rewards and struggles that came with living sustainably. Pi Pui, before starting the seed bank, was in college but felt called to live sustainably, so she returned to the Mae Tha community to continue farming. She was really an inspiration to be around. She showed us her garden, which contained about anything you’d need so you don’t have to buy from anywhere else—you can grow anything anywhere if you try!

            When we returned to ISDSI, Dee’s parents picked us up and took us to dinner at a market. Again, Thai people overfed us, which has come to be of no surprise by now (but still really hard)!

Saturday, January 28^th

            I woke up at five forty-five a.m. to take a trip with Mae and Paw. After breakfast, we took off to the Maesa elephant camp. Paw waited outside of the camp because he had already been there four times with other exchange students (so had Mae Nhi, but still she went with me!). We made it there just in time for the eight a.m show.

While waiting for the show to start, a woman shorter than myself walked by me and said “I am so excited to see this, I hear it’s a beautiful thing!” I had to respond, obviously. She had an accent in English, so I kind of figured she was Thai. Shortly after we had begun talking, she said, “I’m so glad you speak English! Everyone keeps thinking I speak Thai and talking to me really fast and I don’t know anything!” I asked her where she was from. She said Venezuela! I immediately responded in Spanish and that sparked a whole new conversation about where I was from and what the heck I am doing in Thailand, so far from home. She was surprised my mom would let me come this far—you know, those Latino families! The show started and we continued talking while watching and commenting on how impressive elephants are. She told me she was there with her friend, who she was visiting for a little bit.

Eventually she asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I said no (not a lie, in case you were all wondering). After talking a little bit about that, I asked her if she was married (she’s in her early 40s, I believe). She hesitated for a second, and then said, “my husband and my daughter were killed in a car accident two years ago.” My heart sunk and all I could say was, “I am so sorry.” So sorry that I asked. So sorry that this happened to her. So sorry that “I am so sorry” was all I could say. So sorry that things like this happen. So sorry that she was hurting. How do you respond when someone says “I am so sorry”? “Thank you” was her response. I was hurting for her and wished there was something I should do. I thought she wouldn’t want to talk to a 21-year-old about something so deep, but she did. The rest of her story isn’t mine to share, but the reason I am writing about this is because it really impacted me.

It never ceases to amaze me that, wherever I go, wherever I am, I can help anyone by simply listening; that having a friendly face might sometimes give someone the chance to unload a little bit of the baggage they carry; that allowing others’ pain to be mine doesn’t hurt me nearly as much as it hurts them; that carrying someone’s burdens is part of life and therefore inevitable; that taking the time to reply to little comments might lead to incredible, life-changing conversations; and that my purpose in this life is not to live for myself, but for others.

My life had been changed and it was only eight thirty in the morning.

For the actual elephant show, my pictures on facebook would probably be more informative. Watching the elephants was a beautiful thing, although I don’t remember much of it because I was talking to my new friend for most of the show. Watching her enjoy herself when the elephants came to hug her was my little hint of hope: hope that although life is tough, smiling is possible; and although complete healing might be impossible, enjoying little things helps.

After the elephant show, we met up with Paw outside. We stared to drive away and I asked “Where are we going?” I should know by now not to ask anymore, because this is what they always respond and what they responded this time: “pae-tiao,” which means “to go out for fun” (or something along those lines). This, as usual, told me nothing. Well, if anything, this semester I’m learning to not know everything and be okay with it.

Eventually we made it to Queen Sikirit Botanical Garden. What a beautiful place that was! My words would not do justice to everything I saw, so I am going to let my pictures on facebok speak for themselves. Paw had his camera with him, which means that he now has lots of awkward pictures of me posing in front or next to very beautiful flowers. Every flower that he liked (which happened to be lots of them), he said my name and signaled for me to stand by it for a picture. Mae Nhi, on the other hand, was the one who wanted to get her picture taken. Whenever she found a beautiful flower or a good place to pose, she said my name and looked at me expectantly. I had no choice but to point my camera at her and capture her own beauty. Seriously, she is just the best. She’s so beautiful and so funny! I loved having my own personal model for pictures J.

Being surrounded by beautiful flowers everywhere, I couldn’t help but think of Mamita Vila and my mom and their love for flowers and plants—every picture was taken thinking of both of them.

Needless to say, Mae and Paw spoiled me on Saturday. Being an only child is so tough ;)

Once I came back home, I did my laundry and went to Dee’s for a couple of hours. We talked about our day and such. Every day I am more and more thankful to have Dee so close—I seriously don’t know what I’d do without her!

Sunday, January 29^th

            Dee and I were both granted a “free day” to go into the city by ourselves. We left our house at nine thirty and made our way to the Thapae Gate area, which is quite touristy but full of really neat places to spend time in. after walking on a very tiny street for a while, we saw a place and immediately fell in love with it. It was a tiny inn with tables outside under beautiful trees and a little hut with comfy couches, which was surrounded by water. We knew we had to go in, so we did. This turned out to be a great choice. We ordered some coffee, made ourselves at home, and read and wrote in one of the most peaceful places I’ve been to. It was so freeing to be with just Dee outside of our village, outside of school, outside of any sort of commitment. Although being in school and with our families is awesome, we both needed a break from both.

            We ate a delicious breakfast-almost-lunch and caught up on the things that we don’t have much time to do regularly. After many hours of relaxation at this beautiful place, we felt that it was time to walk around and explore. There were three things we wanted to do next: visit a beautiful bookstore, get a Thai massage, and get a smoothie, all three of which we had seen on our way to the inn earlier that morning. It was about three p.m. when we left the inn, so we made our way to the bookstore first—actually, we had no plan, we just let our hearts lead! We spent a good amount of time looking for used books and, yes, we bought some. As many of you know, I love bookstores…so this was a beautiful experience for me. Dee loves bookstores, too, so going to a bookstore together means we will lose track of time searching for all kinds of books. That’s what happened today.

            When we had both found what we wanted, we walked around again and our hearts lead us to a Thai massage place. We went in, changed our clothes to very silly-looking ones, and were given a massage for an hour—only three dollars, by the way. For those of you who don’t know, a Thai massage is a full-body massage, which, considering everything we’re doing, was very relaxing. Dee and I both had been incredibly sore from CrossFit and tense from all the stress, so the Thai massage was a beautiful thing that happened at the right time. By the time the massage was over, my legs weren’t in constant pain (walking suddenly didn’t hurt), the knots on my back were gone (carrying my backpack wasn’t a pain anymore), and my right shoulder was healed (it had been hurting since I got here, probably from slightly dislocating it this summer). Needless to say, I felt like new afterward.

            After getting a delicious smoothie from a street vendor, we took a saewng-tao to Cad Luang and then another one home. I was so happy to have spent the whole day relaxing with Dee—she’s seriously great company, in case you can’t tell by how much I write about her.

            I had dinner with Mae and Paw, which is always enjoyable even when they made me eat a ton of food that I don’t want in my stomach. As is customary by now, I asked them what it was called in English when your belly expands so much after eating. Tonight, though, I put an interesting spin on it: the first one of them to say “food baby” earned him or herself 20 points. Tonight it was Paw. We’ll see if Mae can catch up tomorrow J.

            Well, that was quite a bit to write. I have been working on this a little bit every day. I’m sorry that I can’t give you short updates every once in a while but instead give you huge ones every eight days or so—also, sorry that it’s been longer this time. I am typing this on a word document and, just in case you were wondering, this is the ninth page. I hope you read everything. There will be quizzes when I return in May.

            As always, my love is being sent through the universe…all the way from Chiang Mai to wherever you are. Thank you for reading and for your prayers—please keep them up!