Chiang Mai!

First off, let me apologize to you all for my despicable neglect to this blog o' mine. There is no decent excuse except that blog upkeep is tedious. But like I said, that's not a decent excuse.

I will try to be more diligent about it in the future, and I have a lot of updating to do because,well, a lot has happened.

Oh and to clarify on the dates of these blogs. Several people have noticed that the dates posted are illogical. Haha no I am not just trying to mess with your heads, the dates on my posts are when I started writing them, not when I posted the finished product. Haha this just shows you how long they have been moldering in my drafts box.

Anyhoo, Chiang Mai..... : D

About a month ago, my parents asked me if I would be interested in going up to Chaing Mai for the weekend. It wasn't really a trip for pleasure, they had to go up and pick up my host-grandma, Yah, but they thought maybe I would be interested.

Would I?

Out of all the places in Thailand, (yes, even Bangkok) Chiang Mai was where I wanted to go the most. For several reasons, the main one being that this is where I first thought I was going to live. Consequently I did some research on the place and found it to be amazing. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, is int he middle of a beautiful mountain range and has all sorts of interesting cultural variations due to it's proximity to the Myanmar border. This place has everything....elephant sanctuaries, beautiful waterfalls, over 300 temples, cooler temperatures, hidden mountain tribes, one of the best night bazaars around.. the list goes on for a while. The only problem was that it coincided with an open house my school was having. I felt guilty for about 30 seconds and then started packing.

Chiang Mai is a drive from P'lok (as I've lovingly started calling it) about 4 or 5 hours. But the trip isn't so bad because there are some lovely stops along the way...
Such as this beautiful temple.
I would tell the name but I forgot it as it is over 7 syllables long.. sorry guys.

But it's beautiful!! and one of my favorite and that's what matters.... right?

The main entrance to the temple.

On either side of the snarling serpents are these huge guard dog like things that were very impressive.

There was also a ginormous reclining Buddha on the left side. None of these fir into the picture (excluding some of Buddha's toes)

Pee Pang on the other hand fits quite nicely

. : )

This is one of the guard dogs I was talking about. My favorite detail is the monk calmly meditating... in his mouth.

And that was just the entrance! Here are some shots from the inside.

We stopped at a second wat closer to Chaing Mai. This was less ornamented but had it's own unique beauty. Unfortunately we didn't get to walk around much because we had arrived right at closing time, but I did manage to get a few pictures in.

We stayed with my host-aunt and uncle who live right outside the city. They own a cement factory so there was a constant bustle going on right outside the windows. And even when the work day was finished (yes, cement factories run on weekends) the noise was replaced by their pack of wild dogs. Yes, you read correctly.... pack of wild dogs. There are homeless ones all over the place here and I'm used to seeing them, but my aunt and uncle adopted some. 15 of them to be exact. Excellent security system though.

That night we went to the Chaing Mai walking street, which is the most fantastic walking street imaginable. It's a little expensive but haggling is part of the fun. :)

I got some gifts for people and then we headed back to the house.

The next day Pa asked me what I would like to do. One of the first things that he mentioned was a cave. This, of course, instantly tickled my fancy. I love caves and have only been in one or two in my entire life. So off we went to the cave of Chaing Mai!! Well actually its right outside Chiang Mai..but that is just a detail.

OK, like I said I haven't been to that many caves. In fact I think the only "official" cave tour I have ever attended was Howe caverns. From what I collected from that experience is that when you go on a cave tour it is beautiful and scientific. Everything is lit up so you can see exactly how the limestone formations were formed, and hopefully there is a guide who is also scientifically informed.

Let's just say that cave tours in Thailand are more like... adventures.

This was our tour.

This was our guide.

This was our light.

Her commentary about the actual cave consisted of stopping at an oddly shaped rock and saying

"This one looks like a 3 headed elephant." "This one looks like a chicken"

....and indeed it did.

Did I mention that Pa is scared of caves? yeah. he doesn't like bats.

So it was just me and Pee Pang, and the lamp lady of course.

This isn't the most attractive picture in the world but it's the only one of me and Pee Pang together, so oh well.

There were plenty of dark caverns and elephant shaped stalagmites but there were a few places where we actually had to crawl on our hands and knees to get to the next chamber. Thank god I'm not claustrophobic.

Pee Pang crawling through the rabbit hole.

After the cave we went to the umbrella factory, which was really interesting. It is the largest handmade umbrella manufacturer in Thailand. They were beautiful but I was really interested in how they actually made the umbrellas.

Did I mention the scenery is absolutely gorgeous.

I love the mountains here.

But yes the voyage to pick up Grandma was a success, and now she is living with us.

So far my favorite Grandma moment was when I asked her if she wanted some crackers for a snack. I, of course had to yell it (she's rather deaf, poor thing) in botched Thai. She muttered something and after a few moment of mental translation this is what I got.

Me: Grandma, are you hungry? Do you want a snack?

Grandma: What?

Me: ARE YOU HUNGRY? DO YOU WANT A SNACK?

Grandma: Oh yes, but I left my teeth in the bathroom.

A quote for the ages.

English Camp

For the first time in my life I was a teacher this past weekend at English Camp.

The funny thing is, this sort of happened by accident.

There is a Language School that is literally on my way home and one morning I was (literally) grabbed off the street by this (surprisingly strong) elderly woman and asked if I would be interesting in helping to teach.

The next thing I know, I have an invitation to a weekend at the Wanathra Resort in Wang Tong at an English Camp. Even though I didn't know what to expect, the Rotary tells us to say yes, so I did.

Shoshana, the (only) other exchange student from school, went as well. She is hilarious and we laugh quite a bit when we are together. She's German but is fluent in English with only a slight accent. In fact, between speaking slowly with kon Thai, (Thai people) and Sho(shana), I've developed some bizarre accent myself.


Anyway, we were going to be the assistants to three other teachers that taught at the language school: David, the cynical Australian with a laugh like a 4th grade girl; Chow, the cute, funny, Filipino; and Li, also Filipino with the demeanor and patience of a kindergarten teacher.


So the 5 of us (plus Ajahn Lumpoon, the big cheese) piled into the van headed towards Wang Tong.

As I said before, I wasn't certain how this would play out. I didn't know if the students had been studying for years, if it was going to be very formal, etc.

My worst fear was having a grammatical error pointed out by one of them. As you have probably noticed, my grammar (or spelling!) isn't that fantastic and I'm always concerned about making a stupid mistake in situations like this because I'm a native speaker. And native speakers don't make mistakes.


There were about 40 or so students at the camp. They had come from all over the country and all were enrolled in the Public Health programs in their universities. All were at least 3 years older than me, which I didn't mind, so are some of my friends at home. The weird part was the way they treated me. I was an Ajahn (teacher) now. This meant calling me Ajahn Nikki, bending their heads down every time they passed me, wai-ing me every time they saw me (outside of the classroom.


This is even more remarkable because the first night was a disaster. We had plans for Saturday and Sunday, but Friday night was open to...interpretation.

We ended up asking everyone their names and playing a little game with that. Then they asked us where we were from and random questions (one boy had the guts to ask: "What's your ideal boyfriend?") But this is where all dignity and grace left the building, to be replaced by shameless silliness.

We did the shake your booty game (with college students!!) and taught them a song that started with "All the bananas in the world unite!!".....
We were kind of short of ideas after a while though. I mean you can only shake your booty so many times before it gets old. (Hard to believe isn't it?)
Somehow we managed to entertain them for another 1/2 hour and then it was time for some rice soup and then bed.

It took Sho and I a while to figure out our rooming situation. We were rooming with Li in a room made for two. No biggie, they just rolled in a bed on wheels and voila! problem solved. Well, until we sat on it. After that it had a name (WARNING: Profanity Ahead!!) ... the shitty bed.

We decided to take a look around, after all we were staying at a resort.We ended up taking a very scary walk in the dark (and the rain)on some abandoned path.
This took us to where all the students were staying. We did what we always do; we spoke in broken Thai, they spoke in broken English.

Saturday went smoother. Mainly because we actually had a plan. We made them write news stories, played word games, tongue twisters and other interesting English stuff.
Mixed with just a bit of banana dancing.
It was interesting playing the teacher role, but it was a lot of fun. Especially when they had to write their own news program.
You see, in Thai articles, plurals, verb conjugations, and all the other little grammatical tidbits don't exist. This combined with the fact that a subject is not always necessary made some interesting English sentences.

Saturday night Sho and I went over to visit the kids again, though we didn't talk as much. Instead we translated..or dubbed over... a Thai soap opera... its amazing how much plot you can understand without the script.
That night we also watched Moulin Rouge... in Thai of course. It was bizarre, I found out they censor out a lot more things here than they do in the states, cigarettes, any alcohol, cleavage, and underwear. There is one sex scene in the movie, (well truth be told it's more like a sex frame, it last for about 3 seconds) but it was hilarious because the entire screen was blurred out.

Sunday was a little more serious, but we only had until lunch to get in all the practice we could. We split them into two teams and had them debate each other. The debate topics were silly and scary at the same time: Who is smarter? Men vs. Women, Who would win in a fight? Batman vs. Spiderman, and Which is better? An ugly rich man? or A poor handsome one.
The last topic was especially eye-opening.

OK I have to run.
Next weeks entry: Escape to Chiang Mai!!!

What's the Point of a Book without Pictures?!!?

Orientation II:
Revenge of the Language Barrier

Here are some more pictures from this past weekend in Lampang.

...22 wacky kids from around the globe in one hotel for 4 days.

I smell a reality show.

This is Tim.

Tim is from Taiwan.
In Taiwan they speak Chinese.
Out of 21 exchange students, not a single person spoke Chinese.

Poor Tim.

Despite this, Tim manages to keep a HUGE (I'm talkin Fuccillo huge here..) smile on his face. (pictured left)

We loved Tim.

BEFORE FAT WORMS

This is from our market escapade on the first day. The great thing about the markets here is that they let you taste pretty much anything before you buy it...including the fried insects.

We decided that if we were going to partake in the insect eating, we might as well do it together and in a pose for a picture.

AFTER FAT WORMS

This is not a very attractive picture...

But eating a fat worm isn't a very attractive concept either.

This is (almost all of) us posing with Mr. Coal in the Coal Museum.

There were all these videos that featured Mr. Coal where he told us about how coal was made millions of years ago in broken English.

Let it also be known that Mr. Coal has the voice of a asthmatic 2 yr old with a sinus infection.

After the museum, we went grass sledding on large pieces of plastic.

The hill was pretty intense, however it would have been more exhilarating if it had been covered in snow.

Face Painting!

Not just for kids anymore, it works on exchange students too!

Pictured here: Camilo from Columbia (Mexican forehead, American eye, and Columbian cheeks), some random chick (Brazillian left eye, Alaskan cheek, Mexican chin, and German nose), and Sarah from Germany (Columbian forehead and America all over the place).

"Oh I don't know some flowers, a fresh coat of paint, a couple of throw pillows...." *

*Awesome-points and a thai lesson go to the person who recognizes this quote.

Two german girls.

See the one on the left? Yeah the one with her mouth open.

That's my roommate.

Lampang is pretty!!!!

Elephants....

... are awesome.

I promise to write something substantial next time. Hope you liked the pics!!