Heading out

So tomorrow morning, bright and early, we head out for our first field expedition! This has been a busy yet relaxing weekend getting ready. Busy because it was our last weekend in the city so there were things to get, packing to do, and people to talk to one last time. But relaxing because we didn't really have any work to do (first free days in a while!), had time to enjoy nice meals together, and I got to skype both my family and Grace on Saturday.

It's odd because I've been looking forward to the field expeditions for quite some time now-- they're the reason I applied to this program-- but now that it's time to leave I have more nervousness and apprehension than I ever would have expected.

The news at a glance

I was struck today by the amount of news articles pertaining to or connected to what I'm studying here, and thought I'd share a few! They're worth the read/skim, I promise.

Sometimes you gotta rang a pleng! (sing a song)

Last night was our farewell party with the host families (before moving into the apartments Saturday morning!) We all wore traditional Lanna (nothern Thai) clothing. All the students sang a song in Thai together, but there was also an open talent show. This wasn't your typical talent show where people who think they're talented put on a show, but rather our host families' opportunity to teach us something they want us to perform and be pleased and happy while they watched.

Meh had been teaching me this nice, long legitimate song throughout my stay. I didn't realize there was a talent show until a few weeks ago, but I still didn't know if she wanted me to perform the song or whether it was just something nice to sing together. Even the morning of the party, since I didn't have music for the song, I didn't think I would be performing.

It wasn't until I arrived at the party and we saw that another girl's host brother had brought a guitar did Meh make clear that she wanted me to sing. I'd brought my paper with the lyrics in case... but for those of you who know me well, I don't enjoy singing, much less in front of groups.

But, this was for Meh. And then she suggested that my sisters sing along with me (because evidently they just know the entire song?). I figured if we did it together, I could do this! It ended up being really fun. Surprisingly enough, though I've never considered myself to be a good singer, I got a lot of really genuine compliments afterwards. (I'll let you judge for yourself!) The entire night was really amazing... a great culmination of our month together. I'll put up more pictures later!

PS: in case you're wondering what the song says, its about a girl who is beautiful but all the boys in Chiang Mai and the surrounding cities just mess with her heart and won't marry her. So she decides to just go live in the mountains, where she believes she'll find a good man. At least that's the translation I got from Meh in Thai!

Daily Life

I realized I'd been posting mostly pictures of "special" occasions and not places from my daily life. I set out to photograph the places I thought were most representative of my day-to-day schedule this first month with my family... and realized afterwards that these pictures don't do justice to how beautiful or exciting many of these places are. Nonetheless, I think many of the little aspects will still be interesting to you all.

Last weekend with the family

It dawned on me this weekend that I'm living in Thailand for the next five months. That sounds really obvious, but the reality actually set in. When I thought about it more, the timing makes sense. I've been in Chiang Mai for a month now, and before this, the longest I'd ever been out of the country was a month. After a month in Calcutta, I felt like I'd gotten the feel for Indian culture but was okay leaving the difficult aspects: heat, lack of air conditioning, squatty potties, etc. Traveling for only a month, you can experience a country/culture enough to understand it pretty well but leave soon enough that you don't have to fully integrate and adjust to everything.

Just wingin' it!

While my last post might indicate otherwise, the last week definitely hasn’t just been one hurdle after another. There have been a lot of wonderful moments too, especially with my family.

The title of this blog post is a pun on the Thai word for running: wing.  The family knows that I work out at ISDSI, and this week Paw asked if I could come home and run with him some days. I was able to communicate that some days I have to work out with everyone at school (wooo  Crossfit) but other days I’m just running on my own. But, it didn’t work out that we could do so this week between everyone’s schedules. So, Saturday night I asked if Paw wanted to run in the morning, and we planned a 7:30 run. Our hour workout ended up being one of the best bonding times we’ve had.

Breaking down my comfort zone

The past week was an interesting one. A number of things that we did stretched me mentally and emotionally, but also put my “struggles” in context.

Retreat-ing into the jungle

Last weekend (September 2nd- 4th) we had a retreat for ISDSI students and staff at Doi Seket National Park. It was framed as a weekend of relaxation and camaraderie-building, but ended up being much more than I expected. 

Day to day: classes at ISDSI

With the busyness of our schedule, I haven’t had a chance to describe what we’ve been doing the most—going to class! While in Thailand, I’m not attending a regular university, though Chiang Mai University is one of the best in the country. I’m here through the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute (ISDSI), which runs an experiential program based on month-long field programs and intensive Thai language study.

Top ten a week and a half in

It’s hard to capture some of my daily thoughts in blog posts, especially when I don’t post every day. While we were driving around on Saturday, I was thinking of some of my favorite things/most interesting experiences so far, so I thought I’d make a top ten list to share some of them with you. It started out at less than ten, and then I thought of more, so it’s actually a 10+ list... but we’ll just go with it.

Rock climbing with Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures

On Friday, instead of class ISDSI took us up to the mountains outside Chiang Mai to the Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures (CMXRCA). In the morning we learned to repel, and then climbed inside a cave to do a zip line and repel down. The heights were a little unnerving at first, but once I got going it was beautiful. Being on the floor of the cave was amazing. There were spots where water was dripping down, and if you stood underneath you could see each individual water droplet like they were snowflakes. So cool! After lunch we went rock climbing (on the cliff face below), and the view from the top was spectacular. You could see for miles: all the fields, vegetation, and mountain peaks. It was only the second time I've rock climbed outside, but it actually wasn't that hard. And, just being outside and not in the classroom was a well-needed break!

First week

Wow, I’ve not even been in Thailand a week, and oh how things have changed already! I’ve gone from the initial excitement of arrival and then meeting my host family, to some frustration at how slowly it seemed like I was adapting and learning, to quickly expanding my Thai vocabulary and knowledge of the city as I’ve settled into my daily class schedule. I definitely wouldn’t say that I feel at home yet, or that I feel like I’ve found “my place” in Thailand, but feel great about how quickly I’m learning and my relationship with my host family.

Going to school (rong rian) on the taxis (rot deng) and bus (rot luang)

Mountains of Chiang Mai as our view every morning and afternoon

Ti ban (at home)

Sunday: visiting wats and ta non kon duun (walking street/market)

Last day in the US

I leave Springfield in a few hours and fly out to Thailand at noon tomorrow! Spent the day wrapping up SEEDS work, doing final errands, and having a wonderful last skype with Grace and Jess. While I was planning on maybe making a longer post, the latest Project HOME newsletter has a quote from MLK that really sums up the feelings in my heart of hearts right now. So, parting words until my next update from Thailand:

"As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy... I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation (or economic system, I would add) can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent."  -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In case you didn't get the Network reference...

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechnetwork2.html

One week!

It's amazing how many ways you can make a countdown. First, it was 16 days from August 1st. Yesterday was one week til I leave the US. Today is one week til I arrive in Chiang Mai. Today my mom asked me if I'd started packing and figuring out what suitcase I am taking. Yesterday my brother asked to eat at a certain restaurant for our family lunch on Sunday, but mom responded that it'll be my choice because it'll be "my last meal out." These are the little things that make leaving really start to set in!

Summer's almost gone

As I get ready to leave soon, I’ve been thinking back over the summer, trying to figure out what I actually accomplished (especially because I know a few people that had stellar summers, with roadtrips, internships, music festivals and the like.) While I didn’t really do anything concrete, I’m happy with how I spent my summer.

What did I do?