Another Month Has Flown By

Well another month has flown by. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting behind the keys of my computer, attempting to find a way to make blogging a little bit less like a huge chronological blurb about the days that have flown by. Its insane to think that it has already been three months. An entire quarter of a year, crazy how time flies when you are living in Asia.

before leaving on exchange I read a bunch of other exchange students blogs, and I remember always thinking why do these exchange students not post more on there blogs? Well I finally get it. The first two or three months are crazy jam packed of all of this new and exciting stuff, and then shortly after those months things all of the sudden just start to feel normal. Also suddenly you just randomly feel like your English is extremely inadequate and people should not read your poorly written blog. I guess thats kind of what exchange is all about though. Adapting, changing and growing to fit into a brand new culture. Things are finally just starting to seem normal. After saying all of that, I would also like to point out that even though things are pretty normal over here, I am still experiencing some incredible things that I would never be able to do in Canada.

Recap Of The Past Month

Tuesday, October 7th

Finally got the chance to reunited with, Ploy, a YE who came to Canada last year on her exchange. We baked brownies and decorated cakes. After we finished baking we went out for lunch, and I attempted to eat a chickens foot... (lets just say I'm not doing that again)

Wednesday, October 8th

Me and some other YE students, and some rebound students went to a waterfall in Chiangmai, I am going to say it is Hauy Kaew Waterfall, It was beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I didn't bring my phone or camera with me. After the water fall we went out to eat Roti, and we finished our day by enjoying some delicious garlic bread and BLT's at a restaurant in the old city.

Saturday, October 11th

I am pretty sure that saturday was what they called Monk Day. Its the day when people surround all the temples with these little festival like activities in order to raise money for the start of a new monk term (every three months the monks switch temples). After eating some incredible food at the temple, Olivia and I spent some time with my next host mom. We went to see her house, meet her dog, and then we went out for coffee. After that we were off to visit a national park near Chiangmai with Olivia's host dad, and another rotarian. 

Sunday, October 12th

I was awoken to the surprise that I was heading to Lampang with my host parents to visit the biggest coal mine in Thailand. It seemed like strange thing to visit, but it had some beautiful views after you got over the fact that they were destroying the earth...

October 24th

Went out for an amazing dinner with my counsellor and her daughters!

October 25th

Went to Mok Fa Waterfall, with my counsellor and her daughters (It was gorgeous). After playing at the waterfall for a few hours we went out for Japanese food. I tried some really strange stuff, such as snails, raw oysters (never doing that again), and some squid.

October 31st

Well they don't celebrate Halloween in Thailand. So I was pretty home sick all day, but I did manage to renew my visa!

November 2nd

Helped out a friend of a friend with there university project by being there model. Who ever things modelling is easy, you are wrong. It is intimating, and nerve-racking. 

Quotes, Lists and Pics

So you are probably wondering why it has been taking me so long to make a new blog post. Well the answer is simple, one I felt like if I waited something really cool and worthy of blogging about would happen, two I hate making chronological posts about every day of my life, three this time I wanted to edit my pictures, and finally for me writing a blog post takes hours, and i just haven't found the time to sit down and type it all out. Also I feel like reading giant dragging on paragraphs about my life is pretty boring, so I am going to change it up this time.

Top Five Quotes To Describe How I Felt The Past Few Week

1. "The Purpose of life is not always to be happy, but rather it is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and you have lived well" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

YE Robby, volunteering to teach english

2. "Taking naps sounds so childish. I prefer to call them horizontal life pauses"

3. "Just be kind and brave, that is all you will ever need"

Elephant keeper and a baby elephant

4. "The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be"

5. "We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us"- E.M Forster

I want to say these bells have some sort of special meaning, but I am not sure what that meaning is.

Top Ten Things I have Done

1. Rode an Elephant

Elephant bath time

2. Bamboo Rafting

3. Taught English

5. Volunteered with autistic children

6. Crashed a Thai wedding

7. Birthday party at Night Market with other exchange students

8. Road trip with Olivia

Made it to Pai Safely

Hot Chocolate at Cat Cafe in Chiangrai 

9. Visit to pai

My Pictures could not caption the true beauty of Pai

10. Visit to Chiangrai

The White Temple

Five Least Favourite Things I Have Done

1. Napped (A LOT)

2. Sat at school for eight hours

3. Got sick

4. Sat in the hospital with Olivia for countless hours (She fine by the way, just some Dengue fever, sounds serious but she is recovering well from it)

5. Paid my phone bill 

Most Beautiful Things I Have Seen Since My Last Update

1. Pai 

2. The white temple

3. The Chiang Rai University

Random Things That Do Not Fit In Any Of the Above Categories

1. Made some traditional Thai pottery

2. Made a traditional Thai lantern

3. Read If I Stay In 4 hours

4. Went to see Maze Runner

5. Had a lovely breakfast at a restaurant near my parents store

6. Visit a School/Temple where homeless children from hill tribes live... (this was incredible visit, and be able to donate some money to them, but it also broke my heart)

7. Visited an orchid farm

8. Visited a bug zoo

9. Went to a agricultural centre

10. Visited a girl scout camp at one of the schools I taught at

First Two Weeks

"A tourist sees what he or she has come to see. A traveler sees what he or she sees"

I'm sorry to everyone who I told this would be posted a lot earlier, I have barely had time to breathe, let alone sit down and write about all the wonderful adventures I have been on since arriving in Thailand. Also sorry for how long this is, its super hard to summarize two amazing and super busy weeks. It has been just over two weeks since I arrived in Thailand and man is it ever different from what I expected. I cant say that I'm disappointed, but I can say I have had to make adjustments for my expectations for my year abroad. To summarize my experiences here so far I would say that its been a lot of early wake up calls, falling asleep at 7pm, eating rice, nodding my head, smiling and pretending to understand what is going on.

On Saturday morning, my day started fairly early in the morning. Luckily the sleep I got on the airplane helped to keep my jet lag to a minimum. My day felt pretty average, in the morning I went to work with my parents. They own a business that sells and installs car accessories and sound systems. After a few hours of being in the store, we went for lunch I had Pad Thai (which was super delicious), then my parents drove my brother, third, and me to the city center. We walked around for a bit and visited a museum.  

My dads first car

Sunday was a jam-packed day. We drove up a mountain to visit Bhubing palace, which is in the middle of Doi Suthep national park. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery and has a beautiful rose garden. The palace is the winter residence for the Thai Royal Family, as well as where they host many prominent state visitors. Just down the mountain from the place is Wat Prathart Doi Suthep an extremely beautiful and very touristy Buddhist temple. People believe that you have not truly arrived in Chiangmai until you have visited this temple. So I guess I actually arrived in Chiangmai on the tenth. After visiting the national park we went to the famous Chiangmai night market where I met my first YE student since being in Thailand. Unfortunately it started to rain so we were not there for very long.

A beautiful view from the mountain

Rose Garden

A little girl from a hill tribe in Doi Suthep

Doi Suthep National park

Wat Prathart Doi Suthep

Monday happens to be one of my favourite days since I have been in Thailand. I spent the day with my brothers and his friends. We went to the royal park where we made a movie about the use of technology today and how it can make us distant from each other. After that we went to three different cafes. The first one was just a random café that happened to be close. The second was on the bank of a river. We sat and drank iced coffees at a table in the river. The third was a coffee shop that won 6^th place in the world for there late art.  I also got to go to my first Thai movie. Thai movie theatres are sooooo cheap. We saw this really messed up horror movie about a guy who gets his best friends girlfriend pregnant, and she is so ashamed that she commits suicide. After she commits suicide some how the baby ends up in the boys stomach… I'm not really sure how it ended because we had to leave half way through in order to attend a party with my rotary club. We celebrated Thai mothers day, by singing, dancing, eating and giving our mothers flower garlands. My host mom cried when we presented her with her flowers. It was adorable.

Cafe in the river

Latte Art 

Tuesday was real Thai mothers day. We went to a temple where a monk passed away a year ago and has not started to decay. They believe that there was something special about him, and that he was for some reason chosen to remain the same even after his death. It was the first temple I had been in that did not have an abundance of tourist in it. After the temple we spent the rest of the day at the mall.

The monk who has not decayed

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday where pretty boring and simple. I got my school uniforms, I went to work with my parents, I went to school and made garlands all day. I got my first Thai massage, I had cooking class, I walked around with an English teacher at my school and I went to a birthday party with my brother.

Saturday was my first orientation. I met all of the lovely exchange students in my area, and again reviewed the rules and regulations of the exchange program. In the evening we went to the walking street night market. Sunday was just like every Sunday, we spent the day as a family and then went to dinner at my host grandparent’s house.

On Monday I started Thai dance school. Thai dance is unbelievably hard, and your wrists and fingers have to be super super flexible. Tuesday I went to school, came home and slept. Wednesday I was sick and spent the day in bed. Thursday I went to school and got of super early so me and the other exchange students in my school went for a walk, hung out and did some studying. Friday was boring I went to school and then to yoga class.

And last but not least today I went to the school from 8am-4pm to help teach at an English camp. At times it was frustrating attempting to teach a second language, but I loved every second of it because it gave me the chance to interact with other students in my school well passing on my knowledge. After language camp some other exchange students and I went to the movie theatre to watch 22 Jump Street. And now I am sitting in my room writing this blog post half asleep. So I think it is time to get some rest, because tomorrow I am going to have a long day of RIDING ELEPHANTS!!!