Adventure!

I don't really know even where to start. It already seems like I've been here far longer than I have -- but in a good way, in a way that makes this place sort of feel like home. Thailand is unlike anything else I've ever experienced and I don't know how to compare it at all to something back home.

The flight here (all 36 hours) was rather enjoyable. I enjoyed flying over the Artic circle and all the sea ice which was breaking up. Huge cracks split the endless white. Eventually, the sea ice turned into a more solid land as we passed over Siberia which simply seemed to go on forever. The area was beauitful and divided by thin straight white lines which I thought, perhaps, were gas lines though I cannot be certain.

I didn't get to stare out the window as much as I would have liked. Our flight attendants were angry and refused to let us keep the windows open. While it bothered me, I can understand why. It was extraordinarly bright and everyone's internal clock was off.

I got to see a bit of Mongolia and China as we flew over parts of there as well and marveled at all the farm land. It wasn't like US farming as there were many hill and the land looked rather like skin graphs around pimples or moles.

But enough about the endless flight... here is some on Chiang Mai, Thailand


The streets are wild with motorbikes and dogs. People are everywhere and everyone is unbelievably friendly. We got up yesterday morning and hurried out to a quick breakfast which cost about $1 and was one of the best meals I have ever had. The food here is unbelievably good. Take the best Thai food you've ever had and simply imagine it being ten times better. It is mother-wateringly good and lip-scorchingly spicy.

Class started promptly at 8:30 am at the nearby university where we were introduced to our Thai partners who spoke good albiet limited English. We were hopeless in Thai but managed to learn a few words due to their pateince and kindness.

The morning was spent learning about Global Pact and what we will try to accomplish during our time here. While I am not fond of our professor or our "chaperone" (neither one is a particularly good group leader and I found our professor surprisingly class-less) I love the Thai students and I think that we will have a great experience working together.

We broke for lunch and our Thai friends helped us order lunch. I ordered some sort of delicious spicy noodle soup which, despite the sweltering heat, was unbelievably good.

We were then broken into 6 groups. My group consists of me, a boy named Michael, a girl named Anne and three Thai students: Nok (girl), Nat (girl), and Game (boy) who are unbelievably kind and had broken conversations in English and hand signals and it was all rather fun...

Then we got taken to go buy our school uniforms. I don't think I have ever dressed up this much (but I'm not really one to dress up). Black skirt knee-length and short white sleeve button up as well as black shoes. The whole she-bang (three outfits and a pair of shoes) cost about $10 so at least it wasn't an expansive affair (though I definitely would have packed differently if I'd known about the uniforms). Trying them on was the worst as we were in these small cramped stores with the heat absolutely blazing... I was dripping in sweat and my Thai friends looked rather concerned, ran off, bought a folding fan, and started fanning me. I felt rather odd about the whole ordeal.

Buying shoes was a pain as no one really carries my size (I don't have large feet either. A size 9) and had to settle for rather uncomfortable open-toed shoes.


I have quickly made friends with a lot of people from both the USA and from Thailand. My roommate, Rachel, is pretty much my carbon-copy and we have a hard time actually going to sleep at night because all we do is talk talk talk. Her family is in the hog business (random, right?). Our first night there we were both reading and trying to figure out when the other wanted to put their book down and it was rather comical.

"Do you want to stop reading?"
"Not really."
"Good me either."

So we read for about a half hour before finally turning in on our first night...

Last night, our Thai friends took us to the night bizarre, which is sort of like a big (but rather classy) flea-market. I hesitate calling it a flea market but unless you have been to a bizarre I'm not really sure how to describe it except the shops seem to go on forever.

Unlike other places I have been to, no one tries to force you to buy anything but everyone wants you to look. I wandered around with my friend Julie and met a bunch of different shop keepers who were more than thrilled we were from Boston and one man proceded to pull out an entire photo album and tell us about his daughter who just graduated from UConn. It was rather adorable.

Then on the way home (we took these bus taxis called tuk tuks) we lost one of our members and everyone started freaking out, which was annoying and the last thing people should have done, I tried to calm everyone down but it didn't really work. The worst was that it only freaked the Thai students who had gone out with us even more.

Anyways, I am sitting waiting to go to school in my new uniform in an air conditioned room and am not really looking forward to having to go out into the sweltering heat but am excited about the oppurtunities and adventures today will bring.

I love Thailand!