Exciting things from the past week:
1. Host family farewell party.
Everyone was all dressed up in their traditional Lanna (Northern Thai) outfits. It was really entertaining and there was the whole spectrum of dressiness. For example, a few girls' families took them to get their hair and make up done and their clothes were super shiny and metalic. Loved it. Then there were people like me, who came straight from school and had a pretty basic outfits on. Definitely the ugly step sisters of the night. Also, to make matters even better, I had a Lanna headwrap of sorts on which made me look like I had a serious head injury. But I just let Mae do her thing. So we both looked like we had just been in a serious accident. We had a talent show with lots of dancing by ISDSI students with their little host siblings, and a few song performances. Overall, a very fun night.
2. Moved into the dorms!
I have three roommates: Jamie (from Kalamazoo), Mckenzie, and Kelsey (both from CC) and we have been having a wonderful time. After gathering some supplies this weekend (specifically a lot of fruit), our home is complete. Saturday night we wandered around the city for a while and ended up at a funny club/bar. Naturally, we proceeded to dance wildly and scare off all the thais. Oops. But very worth it.
The week has been fun but super busy. I'm so conflicted- there's a whole city to explore, errands to run, and tons o' reading, and an essay to write. But I'm attempting to fit it all in. The other night we found a market near by, got dinner for 15 baht (50 cents), super sweet and delicious rotee, and took a tuk tuk home. It was great fun. And on the way, we passed the Chiang Mai University Alumni Center which hosts aerobic dance every night! So we are definitely checking it out tonight. Last night, a few of us hit up some karaoke, which proved very entertaining. The eight of us had our own room- different than an American karaoke bar, but still a great time.
Now, it's time for some post-class yoga, and then off to the market!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Let the cymbals ring!
Oh my heavens. I survived what was at the time a very painful experience. In retrospect, it was hilarious, too bad I couldn't appreciate it as it happened.
It all started last night as I was practicing writing the names of fruit in thai with my host mom. Innocent enough, right? Then we progressed to practicing our song for the "Farwell Banquet" (the thank-you party for the host families tomorrow night). We ran through it a few times, Mom and I, and then I decided that I would go to sleep- I was getting pretty tired.
No sooner did I start to stand up did my host dad come in with his guitar, sit down, and with a smile on his face, count off for another run through. So we did it a few more times. Harmless really. Then things got wild.
Paw left for a second and came back with finger cymbals and a tambourine. Awesome. We were quickly becoming a regular Thai VonTrapp family. After nagging my host sister to play the tambourine, she finally agreed to half-participate by keeping her headphones on and playing her facebook 'cafe life' game while grimacing and keeping a beat on the tambo. Great news is, Mom got to play the cymbals. But boy do they have an ear piercing pitch and she was sitting right next to me.
It's really too bad that I was not in the mood to appreciate the ridiculousness of this event, because it just kept getting better, but I just wanted to pass out.
We sang the song probs 6 more times, with variations on the cymbals and tambourine, even bringing in the cousin for some guest guitar playing. I thought I was finally off the hook, but then Paw printed out the lyrics and chords to a new thai song. Oy.
By this point, by brain was not functioning, and Paw was under the impression that I could read thai. That's just false. So I tried to follow along, and they made me repeat this one line over and over again, laughing every time I said it. Holy moly. I was about to keel over. Finally, I said I needed to go to sleep.
What a hoot of a night.
It all started last night as I was practicing writing the names of fruit in thai with my host mom. Innocent enough, right? Then we progressed to practicing our song for the "Farwell Banquet" (the thank-you party for the host families tomorrow night). We ran through it a few times, Mom and I, and then I decided that I would go to sleep- I was getting pretty tired.
No sooner did I start to stand up did my host dad come in with his guitar, sit down, and with a smile on his face, count off for another run through. So we did it a few more times. Harmless really. Then things got wild.
Paw left for a second and came back with finger cymbals and a tambourine. Awesome. We were quickly becoming a regular Thai VonTrapp family. After nagging my host sister to play the tambourine, she finally agreed to half-participate by keeping her headphones on and playing her facebook 'cafe life' game while grimacing and keeping a beat on the tambo. Great news is, Mom got to play the cymbals. But boy do they have an ear piercing pitch and she was sitting right next to me.
It's really too bad that I was not in the mood to appreciate the ridiculousness of this event, because it just kept getting better, but I just wanted to pass out.
We sang the song probs 6 more times, with variations on the cymbals and tambourine, even bringing in the cousin for some guest guitar playing. I thought I was finally off the hook, but then Paw printed out the lyrics and chords to a new thai song. Oy.
By this point, by brain was not functioning, and Paw was under the impression that I could read thai. That's just false. So I tried to follow along, and they made me repeat this one line over and over again, laughing every time I said it. Holy moly. I was about to keel over. Finally, I said I needed to go to sleep.
What a hoot of a night.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Baba Bobo
My new favorite Thai vocab word: "baba bobo," which means crazy.
I have been slacking big time- my apologies.
But to catch up on the events of late, I will start with a brief synopsis of the past week:
Last Friday we went to Crazy Horse climbing area- about a half hour out of Chiang Mai. It was beautiful! We broke into small groups and then headed off for adventures. My group started out spelunking in big time caves. Apparently the whole mountain is limestone and essentially hollow because of all of the caves inside. We took a "tyrolean Traverse" across the biggest cave. It was like a zip line only ropes, not cables, and we pulled ourselves across the cave about 40 m in the air. Then we switched lines and repelled down to the base of the cave- it was SO fun. The afternoon was full of climbing and checking out the views from the top of the routes- lots of scenic mountains.
Saturday, my host mom, sister, and Alex (neighbor ISDSI student) and I took the bus to Chiang Rai at 6 am. It's about 3 hours away. I didn't really know what was going on, but apparently we were going to stay with a friend. Turns out the friend owns a resortish place a ways out of the city, so they picked us up and drove us to this beautiful and very fancy little hotel. We stayed in our own little adobe hut and the friend drove us around to a bunch of tourist hot spots. The weekend consisted of driving A LOT and taking tons of pictures. It was a lot like sightseeing with Grandma- they just love taking the individual pictures in front of everything. But it was fun overall- esp. the ridiculous quantity of pineapple! We say 31 road-side stands in less than a twenty minute drive. What a wonderful place.
Other highlights of the week:
-It's been pretty rainy= cooler weather
-There was a frog in the shower with me
-Paw is teaching me a thai song on the banjolele
Today, we are headed to hike up Doi Suthep, a nearby mountain/national park. We're doing an intro to ecological field studies and apparently the mountain itself has over 1200 species of trees! Pretty exciting. Should be a fun day!
Thai Thai for Now!
Hannah
P.S. I put some pictures up on the fb. I will try to post some here if I figure it out...
I have been slacking big time- my apologies.
But to catch up on the events of late, I will start with a brief synopsis of the past week:
Last Friday we went to Crazy Horse climbing area- about a half hour out of Chiang Mai. It was beautiful! We broke into small groups and then headed off for adventures. My group started out spelunking in big time caves. Apparently the whole mountain is limestone and essentially hollow because of all of the caves inside. We took a "tyrolean Traverse" across the biggest cave. It was like a zip line only ropes, not cables, and we pulled ourselves across the cave about 40 m in the air. Then we switched lines and repelled down to the base of the cave- it was SO fun. The afternoon was full of climbing and checking out the views from the top of the routes- lots of scenic mountains.
Saturday, my host mom, sister, and Alex (neighbor ISDSI student) and I took the bus to Chiang Rai at 6 am. It's about 3 hours away. I didn't really know what was going on, but apparently we were going to stay with a friend. Turns out the friend owns a resortish place a ways out of the city, so they picked us up and drove us to this beautiful and very fancy little hotel. We stayed in our own little adobe hut and the friend drove us around to a bunch of tourist hot spots. The weekend consisted of driving A LOT and taking tons of pictures. It was a lot like sightseeing with Grandma- they just love taking the individual pictures in front of everything. But it was fun overall- esp. the ridiculous quantity of pineapple! We say 31 road-side stands in less than a twenty minute drive. What a wonderful place.
Other highlights of the week:
-It's been pretty rainy= cooler weather
-There was a frog in the shower with me
-Paw is teaching me a thai song on the banjolele
Today, we are headed to hike up Doi Suthep, a nearby mountain/national park. We're doing an intro to ecological field studies and apparently the mountain itself has over 1200 species of trees! Pretty exciting. Should be a fun day!
Thai Thai for Now!
Hannah
P.S. I put some pictures up on the fb. I will try to post some here if I figure it out...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
A Weekend at Mok Fah
What a wonderful weekend we had!
We left Friday for a local reservoir for a swim test/time to swim and kayak around the lake (very brown and very warm, but still very refreshing). We ate lunch at these little thatch huts along the lake- so scenic!
Next, we took our ritzy buses to Mok Fa, part of Doi Suthep National Park, where we stayed in big bunk houses/cabins for the weekend. All of ISDSI staff came too, and we spent the weekend learning about wilderness safety and rescues and exploring the park. Less than five minutes walk was a beautiful waterfall where we spent a lot of time swimming. Waterfalls are top notch and it was definitely a key component to the weekend. Between mini lectures, badminton, extreme ring ball (a game like capture the flag), hiking, and swimming in the waterfall, the weekend was definitely fun-filled and a wonderful getaway.
Now back to classes- this week focusing on Thai politics and culture.
Thai Thai for now!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Kahnom Gluay
Yesterday was a delightful day:
Instead of regular language class, we split up into 6 groups, went to the market with a grocery list, and came back to cook a dish for lunch. It was quite the feast! 5 different savory dishes and one dessert- kahnom gluay, which I helped make. It was like a banana pudding/bread that we steamed in individual banana leaf cones. I will post pictures when I figure out how to do that. But is was so fun and the most delicious meal so far- so much variety!
Last night we celebrated my Mae's birthday. Paw is in Malaysia for 10 days with work (he is a prosthetics technician) and so Nong and I bought a little cake to celebrate. It was very fun, although I bought the candles that relight on accident which turned out to be a hilarious fire hazard. All in good fun.
Tomorrow we are off to a camping retreat for the weekend. Should be a rainy one, but fun nonetheless.
Thai Thai for now!
Hannah
Instead of regular language class, we split up into 6 groups, went to the market with a grocery list, and came back to cook a dish for lunch. It was quite the feast! 5 different savory dishes and one dessert- kahnom gluay, which I helped make. It was like a banana pudding/bread that we steamed in individual banana leaf cones. I will post pictures when I figure out how to do that. But is was so fun and the most delicious meal so far- so much variety!
Last night we celebrated my Mae's birthday. Paw is in Malaysia for 10 days with work (he is a prosthetics technician) and so Nong and I bought a little cake to celebrate. It was very fun, although I bought the candles that relight on accident which turned out to be a hilarious fire hazard. All in good fun.
Tomorrow we are off to a camping retreat for the weekend. Should be a rainy one, but fun nonetheless.
Thai Thai for now!
Hannah
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