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!!!