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.