She'd do anything for a Klondike

Sorry for the lack of updates. Nothing super-exciting has been going on, and I don't want to update about boring or annoying things, lest I lead my dear readers to conclude I am not enjoying my time here; I am. I have settled into a routine of class and internship every day, and some various other activities when I have time, but the novelty has worn off, so I forget that others might be interested.

However, that routine is about to change. Tuesday is my last day at my internship at the temple. Next week our classes will wrap up (presumably after tests and other assignments, but I prefer to avoid thinking about those kinds of things... I need a minimum GPA of 1.0 this semester in order to keep my scholarship at Messiah... I came to Thailand for mangoes and sticky rice, not academic evaluation). This time of year is when the Thai school year ends, so it kind of feels like late May/early June does at home. It is, in fact, the beginning of "summer," so, it's getting hotter by the day, at least I think so.

March came in like a lamb, as I assume it does every year in Chiang Mai. It is an exciting month for us here, because in less than two weeks, we will end our stays with our host families (if I thought my host family could read this, I might change the wording of that sentence). Then, next Thursday, our group will begin a week of traveling, to about four different cities. We will travel by bus and stay at various FOUR STAR HOTELS all week. I assume this means I will enjoy air conditioning and cleanliness (!!!), and I know for a fact that all of the hotels will have swimming pools. It's kind of like we're a group of children only settling for hotels that have pools.

I've become addicted to solitaire, or "Klondike" on my iPod lately. I play in class (it helps me pay attention as a matter of fact), and as I fall asleep every night, and any other time I might find myself bored. I write in my journalZ (plural) occasionally. I also have been reading Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, and a journal of short fiction that I borrowed from a friend. I recently finished The Time Traveler's Wife, and highly recommend it, more than this blog.

Pun Pun and Other Fun

I suppose I should share a little about my internship. Four days each week, I spend the afternoon at a Buddhist temple called Wat Suan Dok, where college-age monks attend university courses. I help to teach English by reading and answering comprehension questions with them. This part of the afternoon normally wears me out, because it's a lot of enunciating and speaking slowly and loudly. Fortunately, after this, we normally get a break that varies in time from five minutes to two hours, depending on the day. After the break, we sit and chat with monks, whomever of them chooses to join us.

There is a (forgive me) organic vegetarian restaurant called Pun Pun (Thai pronunciation "bun bun") on the premises, where I usually go and grab a bite during the break. There are about twelve tables, each under rugged-looking country club-goes-tropical umbrellas, surrounding a tree whose trunk is about six feet wide. The food is delicious, and the environment pleasant as a result of the sunlight that trickles through in between the large leaves of said tree.

I walk home from the temple every day around 5:00. On my way, I pass by all of the restaurants and vendors setting up shop for din-din. I hate most of the smells (fish, trash, sewage... I live in the city) and sights (whole cooked chickens, minus the heads, hanging in glass cases under heat lights), but I love it that by walking each day I save 10 baht that I would spend to catch a sii laaw. It helps me to feel justified in eating the overpriced, farang-targeted food at Pun Pun.