weekend #3

Helloooo to those special few who are actually reading all this random stuff that I blabber on about. This weekend was really fun, but it was supposed to be relaxing and I now find myself even more exhausted than before. On Friday, we went to a reservoir right outside the city and were asked to swim 300 meters and tread water for 15 minutes as our swim evaluation. Then we drove about an hour and a half outside Chiang Mai to a national park where we stayed for the weekend. We slept in bunk houses basically, that weren't rustic but weren't exactly glamourous by any means. There were about 15 "mattresses" on the ground in each bunk house, and there were ants crawling all around. We had a lot of free time on Friday, which I used as nap/reading time. On Saturday, we woke up early for breakfast and listened to a talk about risky situations in the wilderness. We broke up into 4 groups, and then each group had to rescue one of the other students that had been "injured". I can't figure out how to explain this easily...I think it's from the lack of sleep...but basically each group was given a map and we had to walk out into the park and find the "injured" student and then evacuate them back to where we started. My group had to evacuate a guy named Leo who weighs 200 lbs and is 6'4". That was interesting. The point of the activity was to teach us the basics of evacuation and medical care in case anything were to happen later on during the field studies. After that, we had free time so we all went to the waterfall which is in the national park. That was the coolest part of my time in Thailand so far. I have to figure out how to post pictures, because we all got to swim in the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall. It rained earlier, so the water was moving really quickly. During that time, it finally hit me that I'm actually in Thailand. On Sunday, we woke up and went for a hike in the jungle. It was really beautiful, but kind of muddy because it's the rainy season. I didn't bring my camera with, but we saw all sorts of cool plants and also ended up at a beautiful spot overlooking the waterfall. We saw a eucalyptus tree which was beautiful...try and find one on google images or something, because it looks like a camouflage tree. After the hike, we got all cleaned up and drove back to the city. Angela, Franchi and I went to watch my host mom play soccer, which was really fun and goofy. Angela and Franchi both played a little bit, but I decided not to because I was tired and hot and just not really in the mood.

I've been trying to get as much sleep as possible, because my body is starting to react to the exhaustion I think. So, I apologize if my blog posts are spacey and misspelled or don't make sense. My head isn't all there, especially before 9 am which is usually when I have a chance to update my blog. Other than being tired, things are going well! I'm excited to get out of the city, and out into the hills once the field studies start. The city is kind of dreary and incredibly polluted. It's crazy to think that my homestay is almost half way over though. Time is flying.