Our group spent this weekend in a village in the mountains near Chiangrai, with the Lahu people. Picture West Virginia, Thai style. Okay, bad comparison. My point is that there are no Wal-Marts nearby, ugh. Alright, probably that's also a bad way to describe it. Main ideas: beautiful mountains, as well as palm and banana trees, surrounded us, modern-day plumbing did not, we slept on hard wood floors for three nights in a row. Addendum to the main ideas: I was sick (pukey, squirty, and fevery) the first full (Fri)day there, so I actually got to spend three nights and one full day lying on the hard floor. I had been really looking forward to the weekend as a chance to be on an adventure with friends and to have slumber parties under palm trees and bright stars, but I may have set my expectations too high (though those things did, kind of, happen).
I'm not one for homesickness, but I haven't been that ill in over four years, so at 5am Thursday morning I sobbed on Kaitlin's shoulder because of my belly ache and heartache for a bed and a mama. The worst part about Friday was being ostracized from what ended up being the highlights of everyone else's weekends: the fishing and the hike through jungle-ish territory. Not to worry though, each time loneliness made me start to feel sicker, Kaitlin and/or Evelyn would come to check on me and update me on any new important events that I missed. Friday evening, Gavin, Alex, Ev, and Kait brought me some rice in a banana leaf and sat with me while I ate and giggled with excitement at seeing four beloved friendly faces that I had missed so dearly all day long.
The weekend did not prove to be life-changing for me as we were told it would be, but it sure was nice to have time to think, and I know my mom will be happy to know I actively missed her. How's that for optimism?
Tonight we returned to campus around 4pm, and some friends braved the "asking host parents' permission to go out" realm. All went quite smoothly, and Gav, Kait, Ev, and I made it with little difficulty to the "Walking Street," a large Sundays-only-market-type-place that offers all kinds of foods and clothes and bags and jewelry and trinkets for very cheap. Many of the merchants seem to target farang (=foreigners) with more primitive-looking merchandise, while several others clearly attempt to appeal to the Thai people by providing more Western (yes, meowch) paraphanalia. Last Sunday I went with my host sister, May, and I noticed that we were each attracted to opposite kinds of things: she to shiny clutch purses; me to earth-toned shoulder bags sold by an individual claiming in the few English words she knows that her products are hand-made, hand-made, so she will settle for a price no less than 260 baht.
Thanks for the comments and response emails, it's nice to know people are reading and enjoying. Send any comments/questions/suggestions to the mailing address below. Be on the lookout for my upcoming articles published in TIME magazine, their annual "visit a third-world country asap because it's hip" issue.
LYLASABADAMAGAFABFF. No more getting carried away, I promise. Oh eight.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Hoss Fom Ali
Meow! I'm in an internet cafe and cannot access my email, so you blog-readers-only get lucky today.
Today I met my host family and moved into their home. I have a 20-year-old host sister who likes to do fun things that I like to do, and an 11-year-old sister who laughs every time she sees me. I live in the city and can walk or at least catch a red truck (=taxi) to places that seem important, even though I don't know my way around yet. We do not have a maid (which the students had been told was pretty likely); the family seems to be of lower class than most of the host families. I don't want a maid, that's weird anyway, but a lack of a maid is no excuse for a lack of a clean house in my opinion. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to offer to help clean, but if they could understand me when I spoke, I might consider it. None of the family speaks English. 20-year-old sis understands me, kind of, but can't respond very well. We're working on it. We laugh a lot at the misunderstanding, I hope the laughing lasts. My room is an 8x8 cell with no dresser and a window that is six inches away from the next building. Mai pen rai! Mom runs a beauty salon and it is part of our downstairs. Dad has a ponytail and is larger than any Thai men I have seen (perhaps he's not?) and sleeps, watches tv, and has not said a word to me. Parents evidently do not care what we do.
I think these are all exactly what I would have preferred over the realistic alternatives, so I am feeling positive about the situation. I actively miss my friends who are in various homes around the city as I type. Fortunately we will be reunited in school tomorrow morning. Perhaps this week I will look more forward to Thai language class, for multiple reasons.
Today I met my host family and moved into their home. I have a 20-year-old host sister who likes to do fun things that I like to do, and an 11-year-old sister who laughs every time she sees me. I live in the city and can walk or at least catch a red truck (=taxi) to places that seem important, even though I don't know my way around yet. We do not have a maid (which the students had been told was pretty likely); the family seems to be of lower class than most of the host families. I don't want a maid, that's weird anyway, but a lack of a maid is no excuse for a lack of a clean house in my opinion. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to offer to help clean, but if they could understand me when I spoke, I might consider it. None of the family speaks English. 20-year-old sis understands me, kind of, but can't respond very well. We're working on it. We laugh a lot at the misunderstanding, I hope the laughing lasts. My room is an 8x8 cell with no dresser and a window that is six inches away from the next building. Mai pen rai! Mom runs a beauty salon and it is part of our downstairs. Dad has a ponytail and is larger than any Thai men I have seen (perhaps he's not?) and sleeps, watches tv, and has not said a word to me. Parents evidently do not care what we do.
I think these are all exactly what I would have preferred over the realistic alternatives, so I am feeling positive about the situation. I actively miss my friends who are in various homes around the city as I type. Fortunately we will be reunited in school tomorrow morning. Perhaps this week I will look more forward to Thai language class, for multiple reasons.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Pics
Here is the web address for where the director of our program posts pictures of our trip. It takes a long time to upload pictures to the interweb, so maybe there are some good ones on this site (I haven't really looked yet). Enjoy.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/562113740pkpUqS
http://travel.webshots.com/album/562113740pkpUqS
Saturday, January 12, 2008
On Top/Bottom of the World
I have arrived safely in Chiang Mai. My traveling process took almost 48 hours in total, due to the delay of our initial flight out of JFK by about 3 hours, and lots of rearrangements that had to follow as a result. We are currently staying in a hostel on the campus of the university. It has a nice environment; the staff is very friendly and all of the students in the program I'm in are on the third floor together.
I am enjoying the process of getting to know other people in the program. About half of the group is from The West Coast (ever heard of it?), which has perhaps provided me with more culture shock than Thai culture could ever hand me. Nonetheless, I'm overcoming some of my own reservations and getting to know people about whom I have (mostly accurate) stereotypes. Overall the kids in the group are more hip and fun and attractive than I might have expected. We'll leave it at that for now--after all, I just met them.
One thing that you all at home are probably concerned about is my sense of humor and the translation thereof. Well, fear not. People (even the West Coasters) have begun to adapt and even appreciate it. In Thailand, apparently, a general motto and way of life is "mai pen rai" (= literally, "it does not matter," or, basically "don't worry be happy"). I mostly listen passively to this concept as it is taught to us and then try to see how it plays out in my interactions with people who don't understand what I'm saying. This is a process that has only just begun. However, a guy from Pepperdine University (California) came up to me after an orientation session yesterday and told me he thought of me in hearing about this element of their culture, because it's a motto similar to "Live your life," or something of that sort. I was impressed; I had just met him the day before. Sometimes my irony is too extreme and it throws people off. But a handful in this crew are keeping up so far.
Today I rode an elephant and a bamboo raft. From the location of those activities we went to a buffet lunch at a restaurant in the midst an orchid garden. Also saw a waterfall and a collection of enormous greenhouses on top of a mountain. Today was also enhanced by the fact that my most important piece of luggage arrived this morning. It was the last piece of luggage for all 32 of us to arrive. I was grateful. Ecstatic, even. I finally feel like myself because I'm wearing my own underwear, and clothes.
I took likely hundreds of pictures today, but I don't know how to go about getting them onto the internet, so we'll see about that. Don't worry I won't post all of them that would be boring. I assume you could google images of "riding elephants in Thailand" and find pictures better than my own.
Guess that's all for now.
I am enjoying the process of getting to know other people in the program. About half of the group is from The West Coast (ever heard of it?), which has perhaps provided me with more culture shock than Thai culture could ever hand me. Nonetheless, I'm overcoming some of my own reservations and getting to know people about whom I have (mostly accurate) stereotypes. Overall the kids in the group are more hip and fun and attractive than I might have expected. We'll leave it at that for now--after all, I just met them.
One thing that you all at home are probably concerned about is my sense of humor and the translation thereof. Well, fear not. People (even the West Coasters) have begun to adapt and even appreciate it. In Thailand, apparently, a general motto and way of life is "mai pen rai" (= literally, "it does not matter," or, basically "don't worry be happy"). I mostly listen passively to this concept as it is taught to us and then try to see how it plays out in my interactions with people who don't understand what I'm saying. This is a process that has only just begun. However, a guy from Pepperdine University (California) came up to me after an orientation session yesterday and told me he thought of me in hearing about this element of their culture, because it's a motto similar to "Live your life," or something of that sort. I was impressed; I had just met him the day before. Sometimes my irony is too extreme and it throws people off. But a handful in this crew are keeping up so far.
Today I rode an elephant and a bamboo raft. From the location of those activities we went to a buffet lunch at a restaurant in the midst an orchid garden. Also saw a waterfall and a collection of enormous greenhouses on top of a mountain. Today was also enhanced by the fact that my most important piece of luggage arrived this morning. It was the last piece of luggage for all 32 of us to arrive. I was grateful. Ecstatic, even. I finally feel like myself because I'm wearing my own underwear, and clothes.
I took likely hundreds of pictures today, but I don't know how to go about getting them onto the internet, so we'll see about that. Don't worry I won't post all of them that would be boring. I assume you could google images of "riding elephants in Thailand" and find pictures better than my own.
Guess that's all for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)