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!