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!