Emma Remembers She Has a Blog and Forests

So I haven't posted anything in a while. Woops.

Things have been pretty busy and kind of crazy since we left for Forests way back when. So I guess I'll briefly talk about forests and then we'll just go from there.

I LOVED Forests. So so much. In terms of academics, it was probably the course that best fit in which my poli sci major-ing which was super cool. My group was also a lot of fun and hiking was a blast as always.

The proper title for the course is “Political Ecology of Forests” which sounds complicated (and is) but basically boils down to studying how people and people systems and nature and natural systems all interact and make culture and livelihoods and shape ecosystems and resources and how power structures (governments ect.) affect those systems. So ya, complicated but super interesting.

We lived in homestays in small Karen villages in the Mae Hong Son area, northwest of Chiang Mai. The Karen are a hilltribe group that have lived in Northern Thailand for several generations. They gather food from the forests and plant rice in both rai (upland fields) and nah (paddy fields) if they have the land for it. Rai agriculture involves a swidden-fallow rotational system. This mean that each village has around a bunch of different chunks of land that are each planted at different times. So field A will be planted and harvested one year and then allowed to go fallow and be reclaimed by the forest while the community moves on and plants on field B, C, D ect in consecutive years. 8-12 years later, the villagers return to field A, build fire breaks, cut down big trees and then burn the new forest growth so they can replant. And the whole thing stars over again.

The whole process is a little tricky to understand (I’m not sure I explained it that clearly) and this causes some problems for the Karen. It’s an incredibly sustainable process and rai fields on a long rotation can be used almost indefinitely because the system allows soil to regenerate and not become depleted. Big trees are cut down at chest height so new growth can form and a planted rai consists of a polyculture of rice and many different vegetables in order to conserve soil nutrients. However, not everyone sees this or understands it. As a result, the Karen have come under a lot of pressure from the government to change their traditional practices. The villages we talked to told us that this is less common now but there are still those in places of power that want to Karen to give up their way of life and move to the cities.

This is all further complicated by the fact that the Karen live on National Park land. While they are permitted to live there, the agriculture they practice is technically illegal, as are certain hunting and gathering practices in National Park forest including cutting trees for firewood. This is a big challenge for the Karen in the future. The hold they have on their land is tenuous at best and their current truce with the government could be changed at the next election. This made learning about all of this both super important and endlessly interesting. And I love talking about it so ask me questions and I can try to answer them if you like though I'm pretty sure I have no idea what I'm talking about. Regardless, it will be a fun discussion. 

So that was a SUPER abbreviated summary of SOME of the things we learned in Forests. Now for the random bits and moments that I feel like sharing.

1. Meeting the Oldest Woman in the World- She was 130 according to my host dad and spent the entire day working with us in the fields harvesting rice. What a badass.
2. Adopting a Dog- Scarface, as he was named, was Aaron's host dog in Huay Hee, the second village we stayed in. He ended up following us all the way to Pakalo at the end of the trip where we had to leave him, fording rivers and slippery rocks like a pro. 
3. Geaow Kaow- Also known as harvesting rice. Sarah and I spent a day harvesting rice together with our host family. It was a lot of fun though lots of work and keeping your balance on a VERY steep upland rice field takes some skill. It was really cool though to see all the work that goes into a harvest when you have to do it all by hand. Bunches of rice are cut with a scythe and then bundled together and laid to dry. Then the bundles are collected and the rice separated from the stalks and then the husks. It's a really intensive and time consuming process and the whole community helps out (including us students).
4. Cycads- They're awesome. Ask me about them sometime.
5. Going to Church- So I went to church! For the first time ever. In a tiny village in Thailand. Who would have thunk??? We were in a village called Huay Hee on a Sunday and my host family took us. Huay Hee is one of several Christian Karen villages we visited but it was the only one we stayed at on a Sunday. We went early with the women's group and it was a pretty cool experience involving lots of standing up, sitting back down and singing. The entire service was in the Karen language so we didn't understand any of it but the singing was BEAUTIFUL and I really enjoyed the whole thing. Towards the end the host mothers all pushed up to the front of the room and told us to sing. The only song the 4 or 5 of us all knew was "This Little Lights of Mine" which was not nearly as beautiful as the songs the villagers sang but they clapped for us anyway and one of the mothers told us they have the same song in Karen.
6. Blacksmithing- My host dad in Huay Tong Ko, the first village we visited was one of the community's blacksmiths. Huay Tong ko is one of the few villages that still does traditional blacksmithing in the area. It was super fun to learn about and try one afternoon and at the end of our stay I bought a knife from that my host dad had made. It's super cool.

Anyway, thanks for reading this VERY belated post. It ended up being a LOT longer than expected, probably because Forest was so great. For realz. And we're on break now so hopefully I'll get around to talking about Oceans soon.

Happy Holidays to you, wherever you are!!!

Blacksmithing!!!

Rai (upland) field during harvest time.

We woke up every morning to roosters, and chickens, and ducks, and pigs, and sometimes even water buffalos making an unholy racket. But they were so funny to watch during the day and provide a huge source of food and income for the villagers.

Huay Hee!

Liz carrying Scarface (our mascot) over some
crazy river crossings.

Hiking! Note the cycad to the right.

All the nak suh saa on top of Doi Pui!

Me on top of Doi Pui. Thanks for this one Kari Paine!

Food, Sustainability, Excitement, and Warm Feelings!

Hello BlogLAND!

Sorry for my recent hiatus. I was attacked by a ferocious black bear while braving floods and forest fires in the upland jungles of Northern Thailand and all of the fingers of my right hand were ripped off. The road to recovery has been long and hard but I have recovered enough to write this post.

Not really. In fact, none of that (except the Northern Thailand part) is at all true.

GOTCHA!

Anywho here are some highlights just for YOU:
The Pig Harvest-
The first week of expedition was spent at UHDP, an NGO that works on sustainable agriculture with hilltribes in northern Thailand. While there we participated in the infamous Pig "Harvest." Read: We killed and ate a pig. This was definitely something that I have both looked forward to and feared since applying to ISDSI. I feel like it's one of the more well known things about the study abroad in Thailand on campus. "Oh, you're going to Thailand? Isn't that the program where you kill a pig?" There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding it which probably explains some of the nerves. In all honesty though it definitely wasn't nearly as traumatic as expected. The actual killing involved one the the students hitting the pig in the forehead with a huge stick/log after which Pi Apadt (one of the local instructors) slit it's throat to bleed it out. Afterwards, the pig was shaved, cut into smaller pieces, carried up to the kitchen and then butchered and cooked. And then we ate the most delicious pork meal of my entire life.

Seeing the entire process from living animal (which we had fed that morning) to dinner was definitely an interesting one and brought out a lot of different thoughts and opinions among the students. For me, the entire thing served to reinforce just how much work goes into raising and then slaughtering meat. As a result, I definitely started thinking more seriously about my own food choices. I eat a fair amount of meat at home and while I've vaguely toyed with the idea of becoming a vegetarian I've never really given it serious thought until now. Now that I've seen firsthand all that goes into meat production (albeit on a small, non industrial scale), I feel like it's just plain silly to eat a pepperoni pizza when I would be perfectly happy with plain cheese. (Yes, I know all the excessive labor and bad things that go into the production of dairy and eggs but I haven't quite worked out the whole meat thing yet, so bear with me)

Anywho, my timing couldn't be worse to think about these things because we're not allowed to be veggies in Thailand Not to mention it can be kind of tricky if you don't want to eat at Salad Concept every night. On the bright side I now have something to ponder in my rare moments of philosophical-ness and inner quiet. YAY!

Villages-
After UHDP we moved on to a 4 day journey around several of the villages surrounding the town/city of Chiang Dao including Ban Dang Nauk, Ban Dang Nai, and Ban Huay Pong. This was probably one of my favorite parts of expedition while also being one of the most challenging. In Chiang Mai, I can generally blend in with the hordes of farang tourists. In rural hilltribe villages, we all stuck out like the wealthy, predominantly white, and privileged westerners that we are. It was probably the most "touristy" I've felt thus far in Thailand and gave our short stays an interesting dynamic. I also feel a little wrong thinking/writing/complaining(?) about this because there is definitely a privilege/power dynamic there. We came to the village on our own terms. We (in the general) decided how long to stay ect. This is all very confused in my head so I'm sorry if it's coming out wrong but my lovely friend Charlotte told me it was ok to share so I am.

In the villages we also learned a lot about some of the legal and policy issues facing many of the hilltribe groups in Thailand today. The villages were Dara Ang (Pahlong) and Lahu, two of the most recently immigrated tribes into Thailand. Many of the villagers we stayed with did not have full ownership of their land. This is because of many different factors including a lack of citizenship and those rights associated with it. By contrast, the two biggest villages we visited Mae Tah and Mae Meh were both kohn muang, ethnically northern Thai, and did not face the same issues, or at least not to the same extent. This was super interesting to me (SIP potential???) and I'm excited to find out more while in Thailand. Yay for nerding out.

Mae Tah-
The last part of expedition was spent in a village called Mae Tah. Mae Tah is super cool for a number of reasons, including the fact that they have an incredibly successful cooperative of organic farmers. We stayed in Mae Tah for 5 days in host families with another student. I lived with Dorraine and our family was so wonderful and great. Our Pi's were both fairly young and had only been organic farming for a few years. Helping them out in the garden on Family Day was definitely a highlight of our stay. We also learned how to make some Thai kanom (dessert) and played with our 1year-8month-old Nong Pahkat who was initially scared of me until we bonded over our mutual fascination with insects and tukes (giant geckos).

I didn't have any giant epiphanies in Mae Tah but the stay was a lot of fun and really informative. It was also great to see an organic system that works. While Mae Tah has the same problems of any rural/farming community, it is generally very self sustaining and successful and it was nice to end expedition on a note of optimism and warm feelings.

The whole of expedition was an amazing experience, full of so much fun, and learning, and interesting things. I've never really been in a position to devote myself entirely to experiencing new things and just learning, learning, learning all day erryday and I am so so SO ridiculously happy that I get to do that here. I'm SUPER excited for Political Ecology of Forests (our next course, we leave tomorrow, AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!) and all of the things we will see and do there. At the same time I am feeling a little rushed here. It's the end of October (we celebrated Halloween farang style with chocolate last night) and I've been here in Thailand for over two months. The time has just FLOWN by and that makes me nervous. I just want to see EVERYTHING and I feel like there simply isn't enough time. At the same time, I'm here until February which is a LONG way off. Kind of. 

Loves!

Washing and shaving the pig.

Hike to an agroforestry plot in Ban Dang Nai

Watershed Hike in Mae Tah (before we were attacked by leeches...)

My host family's farm/garden in Mae Tah

Ban Dang Nai

Me and Dorraine with Non Pahkat!

So precious!

The oldest tree on Doi Suthep. Strangling figs are super cool!

Learning new music at Ajaan Mark's house.

Cassie and I dressed as each other for Halloween.  Can you tell?

Armed with a huge bag of delicious GORP for Forests! Wish me luck!

Wan Saow

Things that happened Today:

• I went to Spelling Bee for Thai high school students. In the morning, this consisted of me spell checking lists of words for the Thai ajaans as they clustered around a tiny TV straining to hear what was being said in the examination room. This was not easy feat as my spelling is abysmal and I haven't done any serious writing in English in about a month.
• After the first round of the spelling bee, I went to Kad Suwan Keaw (a giant shopping center) with my Mae because the English department at her school was receiving an award. I meant to stay with here for the ceremony but Mae Noy (Clare's host mom) insisted I would be bored and sent me off to explore the mall. For 3 hours. For some background, Kad Suwan Keaw is potentially the most poorly/confusingly designed building I have ever had the (mis)fortune to enter. I also had almost no money on me and zero interest in shopping so essentially I spent 3 hours people watching and being accosted by shop owners because I am clearly a farang, while simultaneously getting ridiculously lost again and again. Good times. Jing jing.
• In the afternoon we went back to the spelling bee because one of Mae Toi's students had made it to the final round. This time, the students had 60 seconds to spell as many words from a fixed list as possible. I have never before in my life heard anyone spell anything so quickly and I am sure that the Thai students would have sent me packing in about 2 seconds. It was ridiculous. But what do I know? I'm just a silly farang eating humble pie morning, noon, and night.
• After the spelling bee was over we met up with Nong Im and went back to Kad Suwan Keaw for ice cream and eventually dinner. This was my first time eating ice cream in Thailand and it was just as a-roi as it is in the US I am happy to say. (Fun Fact: Thais don't sweeten their whipped cream which is odd because they add ridiculous amounts of sugar to nearly everything else.) I had a really great time joking with Nong Im and telling her about all the different fruits she has to try when she comes to visit me in the US and warning her not to come to Michigan in the winter.

Ice cream and dinner were both really fun and heart warming experiences. All ISDSI students move into apartment at the end of the week so my family does not have a lot of time left together and the past month has absolutely flown by. At the ice cream parlor, Mae Toi told me "You have to come visit us all the time!" and that she and Paw Jade wish I could stay with them longer.  This was really touching to me as I generally very concerned about being too much of a burden and I worry about giving back to this family what they have given me. It also made me realize that I wish I could stay with them longer too.

Pi Aim, Nong Im, Mae Toi, Paw Jade and I post enormous dinner.

But, alas it is not to be. I have really enjoyed getting to know the family in the past month. They are the most wonderful, generous, considerate, kind, and caring people, and a very fun and vibrant family to be a part of. It's strange to think that a month ago, these people where total strangers, when now they are my second family and I feel like I really belonged with them here in Chiang Mai. I am so sad that this is my last week with them but I am going to make the most of it and I know that we have a connection that will last a lifetime.

Cheesy endings aside, I love my Thai family maak luey.

Geen Kaow Tuk Wan!

Attention!
I would just like to take a moment of your precious time and talk about rice. Rice (or kaow in pasaa Thai) is simply the best and nai brataed Thai, chan geen kaow tuk wan (in Thailand I eat rice everyday). And I am SO HAPPY about this because rice is the ultimate comfort food in every way.

I have also been eating many different things that are not comfort food but are delicious none the less. Here is a list of my favorites:

Pad Seeyu made by some lovely ISDSI students.

• Som Tdam- Spicy, salty, sour, green papaya salad. Spicy but delicious.
• Pad Seeyu- Like Pad Thai but better. So much better.
• Goi Tiao Rua- Translates to boat noodles. Delicious noodles, pork, assorted greens, crispy pork rinds, and fish cakes swimming in the most heart-warming and tasty broth you can imagine. Potentially my favorite dish so far. Really any kind of noodles. NOODLES.
• Kaow Neeaow Mah Muang- Mango Sticky Rice. Sticky rice and mango with condensed milk poured on top. Why does this not exist in America???
• Kaow Tohm- Rice porridge usually with egg, mushroom, and ginger, eaten at breakfast
• Cha Yin- Thai Iced Tea. Best drink ever. Cuts the spicy oh so well.
• Kung Ten- Dancing Shrimp. Not my favorite dish but still delicious and definitely the most interesting thing I've eaten thus far. Shrimp with lime and chiles, but the shrimp are still kind of... alive.
• Pom lah mai- Fruit. All day, every day. SO. MUCH. FRUIT. My favorites include: man kut (mangosteen), saparoh (pineapple), ngo (rambutan), persimmon (not sure what it's called in Thai), nam farang (guava juice-not really a fruit...), and of course, MANGOS

Goi Tiao Rua with Nam Farang in the background.
So perfect. I have no words. 

Som Tdam made by yours truly, Eli, Rita, Liz and Ajaan Budsakorn as part of Thai class last week.

Hopefully the pics help you to imagine all this delici-ality. Have fun waiting for your next meal!

Dancing shrimp. I got this pic just before they all decided to jump out of the dish and onto the table...

Other things that have happened recently:

Visit to Wat Suan Dok which houses a university for monks, one of whom talked to us about Thai Buddhism. Super interesting and, dare I say, enlightening. We also got to practice meditating for a while which I have decided is one of those things that I will never ever be good at. 

We journeyed to Mok Fa Waterfall in Doi Suthep National park for a student and staff retreat. The waterfall was so beautiful and swimming at its base was a wonderfully cathartic experience. The whole weekend was spent bonding, team building, leadership training, talking about health and safety, and just hanging out with some really cool people in a beautiful place.

Learning to drum at a Lanna (Northern Thai) Village that we visited this past week. The man in blue is the village headman and he was showing us how to drum properly. It was very different from Taiko but super fun all the same.
Yay for experiential education!

I got a haircut! It's was sudden and unexpected but Mae Toi was getting her haircut and I went along for the ride.  I asked for a trim and got this. A somewhat frightening experience.

Field trip to Crazy Horse Buttress last Friday- Taken from 40 meters up while hanging from a zipline. So much fun climbing and rapelling!

View from the bottom of the cave! Sanook, Sabai, Suay!

All in all it's been a wonderful week. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Doi Suthep-in' It UP!

On Friday we took a break form our normal routine to hike up Doi Suthep and see the famous Wat at the top. It was a lot of fun to hike with all the other students and the Wat itself is BEAUTIFUL. Words won't do it justice so here are some pics instead.

HUGE spider we saw on the hike up

About halfway up we stopped for lunch at Wat Pahla.
Yes I got to eat lunch at a ancient Buddhist temple in the middle
of the jungles of Thailand. Be jealous.

Wat Pahla

Suay! So beautiful!

So much green!

Almost to the top! Only 300 steps to go!

Muang Chiang Mai!

A monk performing a blessing. 

Wat Prah That Doi Suthep in all it's glory!

I'm now realizing that these pictures don't really do it justice either. You'll just have to swing by Chiang Mai and see for yourself!

Cha Cha in Chiang Mai

Aloha blog readers!

So many things have happened since I last wrote. And it's only been a week! Crazy stuff.

Welcome to ISDSI!

This past week was our first foray into the "study" part of study abroad. We have class at ISDSI from 8am to 4 or 5 pm with the morning devoted to Thai language and the afternoon spent talking about Thai culture.

Rot Dengs are the best!

Getting to ISDSI in the morning is a bit of  chore. I currently live in Maejo, a suburb northeast of Chang Mai which means that I have to take the bus (rot deng/keeow). I was very nervous about this at first but Mae Toi kindly provided me with a map and instructions in Thai to show the driver. I also have the immense fortune of commuting with my lovely friend Clare who lives nearby. After a rough start (we were late the first two days of class) we now have the system wired. However, the entire process is made infinitely slower by rush hour traffic which means that I get up around 5:30am in order to leave the house by 6:30, meet Clare at her house so we can catch the 6:45 bus, and get to language class by 8am.

Language class, incidentally, is supes intense. We have very little time to learn as much as our Ajaans (teachers) can cram into our heads so class runs from 8 in the morning until lunch at noon. Four hours of pasaah Thai (Thai language) generally leaves my head feeling like a stewed pumpkin but I have been noticing a huge difference in my proficiency. I can now follow a basic conversation, tell someone where I'm from,  and recognize a few basic Thai characters (however this is somewhat moot as I don't have the vocabulary to read anything yet...). I can also count to 99,999 (take that little boy in the restaurant!)

At the same time I regularly get anxious and frustrated with how little I know. It's not so much a necessity, as Mae Toi speaks excellent English and I rarely have trouble explaining what I want, but I would love to be able to communicate in properly Thai. It would save me making a lot of blank looks whenever a rot deng driver, cashier, or my Kun Yah (grandmother) says anything beyond my extremely limited vocabulary. At the same time I have gotten several reminders from other students and my good friend Ellen (a former ISDSI kid and an awesome, badass friend) that we've only really been at this a week, which is sort of unbelievable to me and something that I have trouble remembering.

After Thai language class we have lunch which is ALWAY a-roi maaaaaak (delicious) and then go into Thai culture class. Then after class on Tuesday and Thursday we have Cross Fit, which is... interesting. I've heard Cross Fit compared to P90X but not being in tune with the latest in fitness slang, I have no idea what that is. Suffice it to say that Cross Fit is hard, especially for someone as out of shape as I am. The point is to get us in shape for the field component of the semester which it is doing a marvelous job of. For you crew people out there, some of the workouts include erging, something I was really excited about up until about the 5th stroke of our first piece at which point I think a piece of my soul died.

A super intense game of Spoons. All the Thai Ajaans thought this was hilarious.

This past weekend was also full of interesting experiences. I spent most of Saturday with my Mae at the school were she teaches helping with English Camp. This consisted of myself, Mae Toi, Clare, and two other ISDSI-ers, Reid and Jenny, teaching groups of Thai high schoolers the Cha Cha Slide. For 8 hours. It ended up being hilarious, tiring, very strange, awkward, confusing, dorkalicious, surreal, rewarding in an odd way, and very, VERY sweaty. But it was loads of fun and after teaching it to 7 different groups of students I think I can say with confidence that I can dance the Cha Cha Slide as well as DJ Casper himself.

All the Thai girls swarmed Reid after class to get a picture with him.
This earned him the nickname, "Ladykiller." Happy Birthday Reid!

The Thai nak suk sah (students) were sooo nice to us farangs and several of them asked to take our (or just Reid's) picture. Two girls also gave me the paper fans that they made at one of the other activity stations. It was very touching and I'm sad I didn't have the words to express my thanks besides a simple krap kun ka (thank you). Hopefully all the students enjoyed themselves, maybe learned some more English (though they speak my language much much better than I speak theirs), and have a newfound appreciation for an American classic.

One of the classes after 40 minutes of intense Cha Cha Slide-ing.

Anywho, its been a lovely first week or so, full of excitement, intrigue, and bad 90s dance music. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Toodles!

Dazed and Confused. Standard.

Sawadee Ka!!!

I made it to Thailand! After a very, VERY long journey I am finally here!

Not much can be said of the flight such except that it was very exhausting and Korean Air is by far the shwanky-est airline to ever sail the skies.

Moving on. We got in around 11pm local time (10am our time) on Thursday night (day?). When I say "we" I mean me and 27 other students from K and other schools who will be studying at ISDSI this term.  Really a lovely bunch of people. I'm excited to spend more time getting to know them. The next day we woke up bright and early (So. Much. Jet Lag.) for a short orientation and then left with our various host families that afternoon.

My host family is WONDERFUL. Mae Toi (my Thai host mom) is very warm and friendly. She is a teacher at a local high school and speaks very good English but is always encouraging me to practice my Thai (which is completely and utterly abysmal). Paw Jade (my host dad) is very nice too and is trying to improve his English by practicing with me. We do a lot of exchanging words, mostly during meal times, so my running list of Thai looks more like a menu than anything else. I also have two host siblings. Pi (older brother) Aim, who reminds me a lot of a certain twin of mine, and Nawng (younger sister) Im, who I bonded with over Pokemon this morning.

The past two days have been very confusing, mixed in with a healthy dose of excitement, fun, jet lag, exhaustion, spicy food, Orientation, disorientation, and reorienation. Foreigners are called "farang" here and I get the feeling that it's used kind of like "gringo". Basically it means that no one thinks that I know what I'm doing. (The sad thing is they're right.)

Here are some examples of my cultural faux pas for your amusement:

• Yesterday I went with Mae to her school because she had to give her students an English proficiency test. While they spent 2 hours working on reading comprehension, grammar and advanced vocabulary, I struggled with learning to count to 10 in Thai. 
• At lunch later that day, while I was showing off my mad counting skillz to my host parents, a little boy who looked to be about 5 sitting at the table next to us decided to practice counting as well. He could count higher than I can.
• Today Mae Toi asked me to help her peel garlic for breakfast. Simple, right? Well it's a little trickier when the cloves are each about the size of your fingernail and you really could never use a knife properly to begin with. It took a good 15 minutes of struggle before she noticed and came over to rescue me. Both she and Kun Yah (host grandmother) thought that was very funny.
• Every time we go out somewhere, I try to get into the wrong side of the car and/or am almost flattened because I look the wrong way before trying to cross the street. (Thais drive on the left side of the road and the driver's seat is on the right side of the car.) Mae has started holding my hand whenever we cross the street so I don't get run over.
• Since my first meal in Thailand (during which I drank at least a liter of water) I've been handling the spicy pretty well (so I thought). However, it turns out Mae Toi has been ordering my food "mai, mai, MAI pet." (Mai=no/not/don't, pet=spicy) I found out this morning and it was quite disheartening. I also learned that this is the way dek deks (little children) eat their food.
• EVERY time I learn a new Thai word it has to be repeated multiple times for me to remember it. Trying to learn a language that is made up of completely different sounds is very hard and very confusing. I regularly misremember, mispronounce, mix up, or completely forget words that I was taught no more than 10 minutes prior. Everything Mae Toi tells me goes in one ear and out the other. Fortunately, she is a very patient teacher and I DID eventually learn to count to 10. Small victories.

In short, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. However, I am having loads of fun doing it and thats really more of the point, yes? :0)

To end, I leave you with some photos of all the new and exciting things I have encountered. 

The mountain is called Doi Suthep and there is a famous Buddhist temple there that we get to see next week. I don't know whether the temple or the mountain or both is/are Doi Suthep. So much excitement and intrigue! This was taken down the road from my house.

Mah muang (mango) trees in the front yard!!!

So beautiful! Unfortunately I don't remember the name...

Mae Toi's favorite. Mangosteen is a-roi mah (delicious)! 

Rambutan- The strangest looking fruit I have ever seen. Also a-roi. I think we should petition Lady Gaga to wear a rambutan skin dress to the MTV Awards this year. Who's with me?

Another temple, again the name went in one ear and out the other. 

Must. Learn. Thai.

Walking Streets Market, held every Sunday night. Bigger than Ann Arbor Art Fair. Ran into a few fellow ISDSI-ers there!

Wow, this ended up taking longer than expected. I need to sleep. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW!

Ra dee sa wat ka! Good Night!