new experiences

The past couple of days have been so busy. On Saturday we went to ISDSI for family orientation and learned all the dos and don’ts for living with a thai family (i.e. proper way of eating with a spoon and a fork, don’t touch people’s head, always take off shoes before entering a house). It was pretty intense, so when my family showed up around 12:30, I was so cautious not to do something wrong. Sure enough I screwed up as soon as we got our lunch; I put the fork in my right hand and the spoon in my left… my Mae (mom, pronounced Maaa) actually held my hands and showed me how to eat… I felt like a two year old. But I guess I am lucky because some other students have yet to be taught proper eating habits by their host parents. While we were at the mall, my parents helped me pick out a cell phone, which was a success. But shortly after, I failed in communicating what I wanted for breakfast. So I ended up with pizza the next morning, haha. My Mae’s goal is to fatten me up; she always talks about how I like to eat fruits and how they don’t have any fat in them. It is interesting how Thai people view body image. It is not a bad thing to be called fat because they think it is healthy. Keep in mind that you can be called fat when you are in excellent shape and not overweight at all.

Sunday was market day. Thais work Monday-Saturday and Sunday is similar to the Sabbath. No one works, everyone goes to the market. My Mae and I went into the city of Chiang Mai (we live in Doi Saket, which is right outside of the city) and ran a bunch of errands. I bought some more shirts for my uniform and was basically clueless about where I was or what we were doing the majority of the time in the city. We stopped for lunch at POP AM, which is a restaurant with Disney pictures everywhere (Jenna V would have loved this place). I got green curry w/ rice and chicken. My Mae and her friend were so surprised that I got that because they were worried about a weak farang’s (foreigner) stomach. But no worries I haven’t had any problems with the food…yet. Later that night, I went to the Walking Street with Johnathan and his host brothers. There are pictures of us on his blog: mangrovefest09.blogspot.com if you want to check some out. Walking street is a market that only takes place on Sunday nights and it has lots of food, lots of music, and a lot of cool stuff. It doesn’t have nick-nack junk… instead it has some awesome stuff that I would love to decorate my apartment with, if it was easier to ship.

My Paw (Dad) picked me up along side the road and while he was driving home, I realized that I didn’t have my wallet. I started to freak out and tried to explain to my parents (who speak very little English) what had happened. Not knowing any Thai made it a challenge, but after a little bit they understood. We drove back to where he picked me up and there it was laying right next to the road with all of the money still in it. It is amazing how language barriers can be overcome with gestures. When we finally got home, a past ISDSI student was there visiting. Mackenzie was their host son last semester and he is now staying in Thailand until July teaching students English and math. I am a little jealous of his opportunity. He was so helpful translating between my parents and me. It was also very helpful to talk with him about the program and answer other questions that I had. And it was very reassuring to see him converse with my parents because he too started off not knowing any Thai, and now he is able to translate! I am stoked to be able to get that far. Right now my goal is to be able to carry on a full conversation with my Paw because he can only say a few random things in English.

The past two days have been very similar. We start school at 8:00 am and learn Thai until noon, we then break for lunch until 1:30 pm, which is when we do orientation until 5ish. It is all very exciting. I love the Thai classes. My instructors are phenomenal! I already know every number up to 1 million. I also know enough to barter and introduce myself. It is crazy how after 2 days I already know so much! We started the alphabet today, which is difficult because it is nothing like English. Our homework was to learn how to write our name. I figured it out! It took me awhile and a lot of pronunciation help from my mother. She is so wonderful and always willing to help me with Thai. She speaks slowly and repeats things often. Thai has 5 tones and like 50+ letters in the alphabet. It is tough! One of the vowels I seem to have a lot of trouble (I think a lot of farangs have trouble with it because it is not a normal sound we make in English). So every now and again, my parents will giggle quietly to themselves when I butcher the pronunciation of a letter or word.

I am really excited about getting to know the other people in the course. Everyone seems to be equally as excited about what we are going to learn as I am and everyone seems pretty awesome. Thank you for all of your continual support and love!

ally j