Day 2
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Day 2 is still in progress but I figured I'd write a quick update while I had the chance. Today, we got assigned partners for a personal interview project. I will be working wit a girl named Puy who's incredibly nice (though who in Thailand isn't?) We signed questions and answers and did pictograms to help one another ask questions. She has four dogs! Milo, Soda, Geen, and Inka. Talk about lucky... that's like half a sled dog team...
Anyways, today was once again unbelievably hot but we spent most of it inside and in the AC. Classes are very boring so far, much to my disappointment and its hard having to sit and wait through things being translated back and forth. Still, this whole experience so far has been well worth it simply for the good times we have had with the Thai students.
Today for lunch I went out with Puy, Tik, Peng, Ning, Daan, Thom, and Julie to a resturuant that only serves pad-thai and had quite the meal for less than a $1 USD. The pad thai had prawns in it and having never really eaten prawns I was kind of weirded out by the tentacles leaking out of their face and, in the end, chopped the head off with my spoon and just pretended it was shrimp. I'm not sure if this was correct but I'm also not sure I care!
Then we worked on our group projects except most of my group left after lunch so that it was only Michael, Anne, Nat, and me. I felt bad that Nat was the only Thai student with us and we had a hard time communicating but in the end we finished our presentation and did will in both languages though I was a little frusterated because our professor wasn't even patying attention while we were working. Not cool.
At break today, we were given all sorts of Thai fruit. We had mangos which were out of this world and then a really delicious fruit called mangosee (sp?). To eat it you pressed the fruit as if it were a stress ball and it magically opened up revealing about six small white pieces that sort of resembled garlic clothes but tasted unbelievably sweet. I must have had about 6 or 7 of these little fruits. The produce here is awesome and all of it is so different than what we have in the States. Sure, there is cross-over, but there are also a bunch of weird, almost alien-looking, items.
Anyways I have to get ready to go out for dinner now but my updates should be fairly regular. Rachel has a computer and we have internet in our room. Feel free to post / email comments.
I will try to edit this post later on to include dinner, but no promises.
***
Ok update is here. For dinner, we went out to a market run by some street vendors. Everyone tells you not to eat there but word on the street is its legit and so far all the Thai students and our professors have recommended it so we gave it a shot. Got Pad Thai. Again.
It's hard ordering food when you don't know the language...the last thing you want to end up with is pig intestines, or worse, dog. After dinner we walked into Old Chiang Mai City (~700 years old) and went to this place renowned for its bars. But rather than drinking my friend Shar and I got Thai Massages 100 Baht per hour or about $3 USD. Not a bad deal and it was very relaxing. Then we joined up with the rest of the group who was playing pool and listening to some Thai singers.
I know its probably politically incorrect to say, but listening to native Thai speakers sing Jason Mraz and Sublime is definitely pretty hilarious. P.s. their love affair with Mraz is pretty intense... So is their love for seven eleven there is literally one on every block.
After a drink I decided to head back to the hotel -- long day and Rachel and I stayed up til 2:00 am talking last night. Turns out her favorite drink is Gin and Tonic too. The similarities are starting to get spooky...
On another note, my classmates and I still don't like our teachers. They are pretty rude and arrogant and its been frusterating trying to deal with it. We don't know if we should say something or not -- I nearly did today. It's hard too, being couped up in the classroom all day. It's like highschool all over but worse because we're in a new and exciting place and the only thing we really want to do is explore and absorb every ounce of Thai culture possible.
Ok well that's it for now.
Anyways, today was once again unbelievably hot but we spent most of it inside and in the AC. Classes are very boring so far, much to my disappointment and its hard having to sit and wait through things being translated back and forth. Still, this whole experience so far has been well worth it simply for the good times we have had with the Thai students.
Today for lunch I went out with Puy, Tik, Peng, Ning, Daan, Thom, and Julie to a resturuant that only serves pad-thai and had quite the meal for less than a $1 USD. The pad thai had prawns in it and having never really eaten prawns I was kind of weirded out by the tentacles leaking out of their face and, in the end, chopped the head off with my spoon and just pretended it was shrimp. I'm not sure if this was correct but I'm also not sure I care!
Then we worked on our group projects except most of my group left after lunch so that it was only Michael, Anne, Nat, and me. I felt bad that Nat was the only Thai student with us and we had a hard time communicating but in the end we finished our presentation and did will in both languages though I was a little frusterated because our professor wasn't even patying attention while we were working. Not cool.
At break today, we were given all sorts of Thai fruit. We had mangos which were out of this world and then a really delicious fruit called mangosee (sp?). To eat it you pressed the fruit as if it were a stress ball and it magically opened up revealing about six small white pieces that sort of resembled garlic clothes but tasted unbelievably sweet. I must have had about 6 or 7 of these little fruits. The produce here is awesome and all of it is so different than what we have in the States. Sure, there is cross-over, but there are also a bunch of weird, almost alien-looking, items.
Anyways I have to get ready to go out for dinner now but my updates should be fairly regular. Rachel has a computer and we have internet in our room. Feel free to post / email comments.
I will try to edit this post later on to include dinner, but no promises.
***
Ok update is here. For dinner, we went out to a market run by some street vendors. Everyone tells you not to eat there but word on the street is its legit and so far all the Thai students and our professors have recommended it so we gave it a shot. Got Pad Thai. Again.
It's hard ordering food when you don't know the language...the last thing you want to end up with is pig intestines, or worse, dog. After dinner we walked into Old Chiang Mai City (~700 years old) and went to this place renowned for its bars. But rather than drinking my friend Shar and I got Thai Massages 100 Baht per hour or about $3 USD. Not a bad deal and it was very relaxing. Then we joined up with the rest of the group who was playing pool and listening to some Thai singers.
I know its probably politically incorrect to say, but listening to native Thai speakers sing Jason Mraz and Sublime is definitely pretty hilarious. P.s. their love affair with Mraz is pretty intense... So is their love for seven eleven there is literally one on every block.
After a drink I decided to head back to the hotel -- long day and Rachel and I stayed up til 2:00 am talking last night. Turns out her favorite drink is Gin and Tonic too. The similarities are starting to get spooky...
On another note, my classmates and I still don't like our teachers. They are pretty rude and arrogant and its been frusterating trying to deal with it. We don't know if we should say something or not -- I nearly did today. It's hard too, being couped up in the classroom all day. It's like highschool all over but worse because we're in a new and exciting place and the only thing we really want to do is explore and absorb every ounce of Thai culture possible.
Ok well that's it for now.
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