05/11/12 - 05/12/12

05/11/12 – 05/12/12

Traveled for hours and hours on planes and arrived at the Chiang Rai airport on the night of 05/10/12. Then a big group of us piled in a van and drove for an hour to the house we will be living at for the summer. It’s funny because with the traveling, it’s like we skipped a day.

So we’re staying at a house in Chiang Mai Providence. It’s made up of a couple of rooms with doors that open into a patio upstairs and downstairs. We need to make sure we keep our doors closed; Otherwise our rooms will be filled with bugs. The first night I had to adjust to the bathroom/shower situation. The shower is in the same room as the toilet and we just have a lightly running shower head that puts out cold water. The drain doesn’t work so well either, so you usually have to go to the restroom with a puddle of water under your feet. I also figure that each evening will include killing at least two bugs in the shower… and the spiders jump sometimes and they don’t die with the water. Anyway, it’s really not a big deal. I don’t mind.

We live along a river and there are beautiful mountains all around us. The town we live at is pretty small. I love it though. On the first day we were here, our plans were changed, so we were free to explore a bit and get used to a new place. We hiked up a mountain to a temple and saw a few other temples and huge Buddha statues along the way. They were so beautiful. It was cool.

Today, we helped out at an elementary school.

Yesterday I got really timid about saying any phases in Thai, but today I decided to do better. It’s usually the tones that go with the phrases that I worry I will get wrong. Anyway though, there was a woman I met named Lucy who taught me some things and she practiced a few English words with me. It’s funny because (talking with some of our team members) we realized that the group of people that we worked around today all knew a bit of English but none of them were really comfortable with speaking it to us. It’s just silly because we are all a little shy about using each other’s language. Anyway, Lucy told me about a bit about the new school which we were helping out at today. Then we figured out how to say, “Saturday”, “Sunday” and “See you Monday” in Thai and English (at least I think that’s what we talked about). She also taught me about proper bowing… I’m still a little confused about the etiquette for that. I’m sure I’ll get it down. (Below is a picture with Lucy)

So, like I was kind of saying, we helped out at a school today. They built a new part to it and we moved supplies around to help get ready for school which starts on Monday. We thought it was a little funny how the people that were helping to run the school were apparently not that concerned about the school not being ready for the kids to come Monday… Or they were just planning on using our group to help… Just a different culture J We also helped to paint up a kindergarten playground and a basketball court. I’m hoping to go back with some of our team and help clean up a few classrooms too. Anyway, it was fun and I think we did a good job. We were working outside in the humid heat for eight hours or so though, so we’re all excited to get to sleep for the night. PS – I promise I’m trying to stay hydrated mom and dad!

Tonight, there was also a festival in town. I think for celebrating monks or something like that. We just went to see some of the booths set up. We were going to stay for a show that they do, but we weren’t really sure when it would start because the timing of things here isn’t too strict. I can hear all of the music from here on our patio now though. I like it J