weekend #2

Another interesting weekend in Thailand...
On Friday we went rock climbing and caving with school. It rained, and I got all muddy and my host mom was NOT happy when I got home. She made me wash alllll the mud off my shoes till they were squeaky clean. The climbing was really fun, though! I took some pictures that I will post once I figure out how...I'm a little slow and confused with this whole blogging thing. The caving part was cool, but SO terrifying, I think I may now have an ulcer from all the stress. We had to zipline about 75 feet across to a stalactite that was about 150 or 175 feet in the air and then slide down on a rope. We were harnessed in and it was very safe, but it was still terrifying. I lived through it though, and it was fun!
On Saturday, Franchi and I had to go to a 7 hour meeting with our host families. We still don't know what the meeting was for, and just sat there and talked the whole time because it was so mind numbingly boring. There was some Thai dancing involved, and 3 entire meals were served. I wish I had brought some reading to do, but I wasn't aware that it was going to be 7 hours long. Oh well...now I know to bring a book with me wherever I go.
On Sunday, my host mom showed me how to go to school using public transportation...which is basically a pickup truck with benches in the back and a roof-type thing over the top. It costs 30 baht round trip, which is equal to less than a dollar. Got to love Thailand :). After that, we met up with Angela and Franchi's families and went to a snake show (SO scary), then the botanical gardens. After that I ironed my clothes, ate a little dinner, and went to bed early.
(Last week when my host mom was helping me iron my school uniform, I was doing it so poorly that she asked if we had irons in America...woops. MOM--you really dropped the ball on that one!)
Thai class is going alright, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the slow class. I think after 15 years of French, I'm a little over learning new languages. It's getting frustrating though because my host mom keeps yelling at me to speak Thai, but I don't know how yet!! Oh well, everyday I learn a little more.
This coming weekend, we're going on a retreat up in the mountains with school. I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but we'll see I guess! The weekend after that, I think my host family is taking me to see the baby panda at the Chiang Mai zoo which should be fun!
The funniest part about the homestays so far, is hearing 20 and 21 year olds talking about how they have to ask their moms if they can do something, or saying that their moms are going to be so mad at them for some small little thing. Parents in Thailand are veryyyy involved in their kids' lives, and tend to be very controlling. For instance, my mom usually picks out my clothes for me. Also, usually Franchi and I have no idea where we're going but our moms push us where we should go, or make us get in the car to go whenever they want us to and take us wherever they want us to go. We generally feel very helpless because we're being told what to do and how to do it almost all the time. I'm already kind of irritated with that, and I'm guessing it's only going to get worse as the weeks go on. I'm excited for this homestay to be over, I think we'll have a lot more freedom then and get to explore what we want to explore, and go where we want to go. Until this homestay is over, we've been told not to go off on our own or go against what our host parents tell us to do. It's not "Riep Roy" which is the Thai word for respectful, acceptable, and kind. I'm trying to make the best of it, though. Hopefully it will get better as I learn more and more of the language.
I'll write again soon--Hannah

i ate a bug!!!

We went to the market today, and I was peer pressured into eating a bamboo worm. It was fried and crunchy, but the pieces of it stuck to the inside of my mouth when I bit it. I made one of my friends bite the head off for me, which was nice of him. I'm proud though! Last night Franchi and I told Angela's host mom that we were afraid of the crickets and frogs she was trying to feed us. This is a big step. Today: bamboo worms...tomorrow: frogs???

the first few days

This has been my first chance to write because the internet is slow at school and I haven't had a chance to get to an internet cafe. So far, Thailand has been amazing. I'm living with a host family in Chiang Mai for the next 5 weeks...I originally thought it was 3, clearly I should have paid more attention when they told me about this program. After the home stay, we'll do a 3 week unit in the forests, then 3 weeks in some different villages, and then 3 weeks in the islands in the South. I'm looking forward to the islands the most. 

My host family is great, but it takes a lot of energy and effort to try to communicate with them. Thai is a hard language to speak because each vowel has 5 different tones and each tone means something different. So for example the word "kai" can mean 5 different things depending on the tone of the vowel (rising, low tone, high tone, mid tone, or falling). My main concern so far has been the food, which hasn't been horrible. I accidentally ate octopus the other day, which was iffy. It was more octopus jerky than anything, and it wasn't horrible. I haven't been eating much here though because most things I see make me lose my appetite. My host mom has been worried, and got me a loaf of bread to eat. This morning for breakfast, I had a jelly sandwich. It was pineapple jelly, which was kind of strange, but it was tastier than the leftover dinner from last night that is left out on the table over night. Thai people tend to ignore fridges, even though they all own them. I live two houses down from another girl from DU on the program (Franchi, pronounced Frenchie) and a street over from another girl on the program (Angela). Tonight, we're all going to aerobics with our host moms after school which should be fun!

The trip to Thailand wasn't as bad as it could have been. It took 36 hours to arrive, including flights and layovers. The flight from Chicago to Tokyo was the longest (13 hours), but I slept for over 10 hours of it so it wasn't bad. The second longest was 7 hours from Tokyo to Bangkok which I also slept through. The day we arrived in Chiang Mai, we were picked up from the airport by people that work at the program and dropped off at the guest house/hotel that we stayed at for the night. We had the day to walk around the city as a group and then sleep. 

So far, so good! So grandma, don't worry! I'm alive and well :) All my love to the US! and those special DU friends studying abroad all over the world. I'll write again when I have something more interesting to say! MUAHHH!