My 34th Post...the last and final one.

Wow I can't believe that this is my final post. To get you up to speed when we got back to Chiang Mai we played Songkran which is the world's largest water fight with all the SST kids, and then my mom came! We took her and Jaimie and Marit's parents around to all the fun places in Chiang Mai which was elephant riding, to meet our host parents, to walking street, to the night bazzaar, good restaurants, many temples and to meet various monks. We then headed to Phuket to do some final R and R with them. We stayed at this amazing hotel on the beach and took a boat trip to and around Koh PiPi which is famous for the movie "The Beach". We snorkeled etc. and ate as much wonderful seafood as we could handle and then we left our parents to complete Scuba school.
We flew to Koh Tao to do this and went to the most well known dive resort by lonely planet books...we actually didn't know this until we arrived. We also got placed with the head of the Scuba program to teach us open water diving. The max we can go is about 18 meters which is about 60 feet...sounds like a long way but you can barely tell haha. Marit had some issues in the beginning with being comfy underwater but by the end we were both mermaids swimming with the fish all over the island. Plus I learned a lot about scuba and all the prep that goes into it...even how to get around a reef being on the bottom. Good geography skill haha.
We left there today and took a boat to Koh Pangnan which is only an hour or so away by speed boat. We checked into our hotel where we will be meeting my dad and chris tomorrow! I am so excited to see them both and I am excited to spend my last week here with them. The resort is on the quiet side of the island and it is really peaceful here. I think Marit and I want to work up a show-off tan so I think this is a good spot to do this at.
Thank you all for reading my blog. I hope it wasn't boring and I hope you got enough information out of it for your personal enjoyment. I am looking forward to being back in the US soon and if you want to come visit or see me...please call and I will show you some more pictures of my adventure in Amazing Thailand.
Peace,
Aubs

Sorry about the delay...

So a lot has happened since my last post so I thought I would fill everyone in with some of the details but putting all of them in here would be too much...you have no idea.
Last you heard from me I was on spring break in Koh Chang or elephant island enjoying my time and the beach...eating seafood and baking in the sun. We went on a great snorkel trip where I saw the most incredible fish I have ever seen. We had some good nights on the beach walking and talking with other SST students about various things. I learned a lot.
After that we spent a day in Bangkok walking around waiting for our flight back to Chiang Mai. Don't worry we stayed away from the "red shirts" and we just met some Thai friends and saw the largest reclining Buddha. We were going to go to the floating market but it was way too far away for just a day trip so we got foot massages on the street instead.
We got back to Chaing Mai late at night and then some random Thai person on our flight offered to give us a ride to our hotel....what a sweetheart. So a free taxi to the hotel.
We left for the Lahu village the next morning and it took us about 4 hours to get there. It was a dirt road the whole way and full of red dust. When we got there we were greeted with a buch of wild kids. We stayed there for a week and here are some of the highlighst:
1. Painting a orphanage's walls and singing loudly as a group...before the walls were dark and not cheery. The next day we went back and the kids from the orphanage gave us a cultural show...it was great.
2. Playing soccer in the dirt every night with about 50 villiage kids.
3. Taking the kids to the river to have huge water fights and all of the little boys that stripped completely down to nothing and jumped off the rocks....so funny.
4. Staying with my host family in their living room of the house on the wooden floor and a blanket.
5. Finally being able to wear the "warmer" clothes I brought.
6. Killing a pig and having a big pork roast feast!
After that we went to the Karen Village 7 hours away for two weeks. Along the way we stopped at a huge waterfall and swam for a little bit. The road to the Karen village was really really twisty and turny and many people threw up...not me. Here are my highlights from that:
1. Sleeping in the Cougars Den...or that is what we called the house we stayed in.
2. Setting up huge purple mosquito nets over our beds and somehow we still ended up with huge red welts everynight.
3. Culture shows all the time with tradition Karen clothes and music. The kids were a big part of this.
4. We came together much more as a group here.
5. Going to the lake everyday and swimming across as a big group and taking our showers...that is right...no showers there haha.
6. Bonfires and marshmallows
7. Going to the drug and alcohol hilltribe center and spending the night there talking to the people. Marit and I are going to sponsor one of the graduates for two years of Bible school for him so he can be a pastor and leader of his village. It is only 200 dollars for two years!
8. Reading a lot and relaxing. Also learning guitar more from my friend Ian who is amazing and I learned a lot.
9. Interviewing people of the village about the new development happening in the area and how the village needs to ban together to keep our prostitution and drugs.
10. Riding on top of the trucks though the hills of Thailand or in the back of pickups on dirt roads overlooking huge cliffs and rice fields....amazing views....
Now we are back in Chiang Mai and excited to be here because our parents are coming!!!!!!! In fact I am waiting to see my mom right now!!!!! :) Again if you have questions about the details just ask....

Aubs

Catching up...

So much has happened in the past few weeks I can't believe I am almost at the end of my time at this island! I am in Koh Chang right now which is an island in the southern and eastern part of Thailand. Amazingly we might be the only Americans here. There are a lot of european and australian tourists and some thai. It is so fun to amaze the thai people here with our use of the language and our understanding and they love us for it! We are having a great time!
In Bangkok we went on a river cruise looking at the great hospital, where the king is, the floating market, and general life for the people along the river. It is a great way to see the city and it makes for an inexpensive cab ride as well. We went to grand palace for a while and it was the most incredible place I have seen thus far in Thailand. It is beautiful and also taken care of very nicely. It is also home to the emerald buddha which is beautiful but kind of small. After that we took a cab to the bus station, a five hour bus to trat ferry station, a cab to the ferry, a ferry to the island and another cab to our hotel. We were so glad to be off any sort of mode of transportation. We stayed at this hotel for two nights that wasn't on the beach or near one so we switched to the one we are at now. Yesterday we went snorkeling all day on this big tour boat and the guys loved us so much because we spoke thai that they let us jump off the top of the boat into the ocean all the time! It was so fun and the water was so clear and blue. Today because of the incredible burns on my back from snorkeling...we are staying in the shade, maybe kayaking, maybe hiking to a waterfall. We will see what happens i guess. Tomorrow we are going back to bangkok to see the wat of the reclining buddha which is the largest in the world and a better tour of the floating market and possibly the flower market which is world renoun. Then we fly back to chiang mai on thrusday night and leave friday morning for the village for three weeks....I know busy right? If you have any questions ask because I am not sure how in detail to write because i can't pick and choose what to write about.
Loving Thailand everyday more,
Aubs

Hopefully a quick one because I am paying for this by the minute

SOOOOOO much has gone on since we last met here in cyber space. I have been traveling for the past three days and it has been wonderful! We left at 8am sunday and this is the first time I have had to sit since then. We have been sitting on the bus but it has been watching movies talking or getting to know each other more in the group which I can tell you is really good. I had a lot of first impressions of these people that have been blown away and I am getting to know myself more by learning more about these people. It is always a learning expereince.
We went to a bunch of temples and very interesting museums as well which has been fun. The first day we were in sukkothai and woke up the next morning to bike around the ancient ruins of the city. We went to a Chetti in Pitsanulok as well and stayed there last night. The hotels we stay at are super nice and as soon as we get into the hotel every day we get into our swimsuits and jump right into the pool! It is so nice and refeshing. I have taken a lot of pictures and hopefully I can share them with you all too. We are now in loppuri (i spelled that wrong I am sure) and it is a city renoun for its infestation of monkeys. We went to a chetti today and the monkeys climbed all over us and tried to eat bugs out of our hair. A weird expereience that I labeled "a once in a lifetime experience that I will pass on if I have to do it again". The monkeys were dirty and that is the reason why I would pass haha. Tomorrow we go to the ancient capital of Siam called Auyttaya which is supposed to be fun and we are taking a boat cruise with karaoke and crazy dancing all night long. I am excited for the days to come. After that we head to Bangkok and then to Koh Chang for spring break. I am not sure how often I can update this so don't be alarmed if you don't hear much....
Aubs

My 30th post!!!!

Everyone should be celebrating my 30th post on here. If you have been following...great work, if not then 30 may seem like too many posts but trust me they are out there somewhere.
Well here are some updates on the past week:
Monday was our last day of art class. We had a celebration by giving jasmine necklaces to the professors and they each tied string around our wrists and gave us a blessing to learn more and continue studying. Apparently this is a common practice of a leaving ceremony. The monks did this as well but there was a lot more string to be handed out haha. It was so cool to see all the art professors care about us so much and give us such warm blessings.
We went to Ban Patsuwan on Monday which is a group home for kids in the slums and an internship for some people in our group. It was so fun to hang out with the kids, eat ice cream and play games outside.
Tuesday we went to the Prision which is another internship for people and it is mostly teenagers in for stealing, drugs, prostitution and assult. We did a talent show and hung out with the kids. It was a very interesting place.
Today is our last day of class. We had Thai writing already this morning and now we have culture class later. After that we are planning on studying for the test tomorrow by the pool. I don't know how far we will actually get studying :)
I have started packing up my things and separating it all for the big field trip and for spring break. I am really wishing I had enough money to buy a big box and send my stuff home rather than take it home in my suitcase. There is not that much room haha.
Saturday we are going to the hotsprings with our family and then going out to dinner. Then Sunday early we are leaving for Sukkothai, one of the ancient capitals of Siam. It should be a fun trip!
Aubs

Update

So sorry for those avid readers of my blog (hi mom and dad)...but I have been really busy and my internet time has been devoted to facebook and email only haha. I have a few updates to fill you in on life here in Thailand:

1. My internship is officialy over but that does not mean the end of fun monk time. on monday we toured the zoo with them all afternoon in the swealtering heat and walked for easily six miles. This could have been the best day on the trip so far. The monks are so funny because they take pictures of EVERYTHING. Today we went to the Chiang Mai cultural museum which sounds boring but it was hilarious taking pictures of everything and everyone. We joke and say that the monks could make a flip book of the time we spend together because there are constant pictures being taken.

2. Wendesday we paid to get into a hotel pool in the afternoon and got some sun and went swimming. Not only that but our group has taken to finding good street food to eat for lunch before our adventures and I have never eaten such great food in my life...for one dollar! Today we had pork sautee which is curried pork on a stick with peanut sauce and clear soup...so arroy (which means delicious).

3. This past weekend I went to Marit's internship which is at an AIDS orphanage and we had ice cream and played with jump ropes, footballs, facepaints and balloons. It was really fun and it was good to see what Marit does for her internship too.

4. We had to say goodbye to our good friend Buoi on saturday because she is in Florida which was sad, but we also bought her plane ticket to Minnesota in May so I am very excited for that! We are planning on a really amazing time!

5. Sunday we had a Thai cooking class and let me tell you...you can hire me any time to make authenitc thai food and I will do it for you! We made green curry coconut coup (one of my favorites) and pad thai and fried bananas. I was so full after all of that! But it was really fun!

6. Classes have been good. We don't have language class anymore because we had our final in that already, but we still have thai writing, thai culture, and thai art left. Tomorrow is our last art class and next week is a four day week so I want to plan a trip maybe to doi intanon, the highest point in Thailand for some good hiking and fun!

7. I am getting homesick more often. Not terribly but it would be nice to have everything easy and normal again sometimes. Most times I forget I am even here but I think because we are leaving our host families soon I am going to feel a little homeless. O well...every day is a new day!

Aubs

Temp Monk

I am no monk...But for the past while I have been feeling like I want to become one even though that is not possible. I wanted to tell all of you in more detail about the monks and what I do at the Buddhist University with them for four hours a day four times a week. In the process I hope to answer your questions about the lives of the monks...or at least try. If you have any more let me know.

Buddhist monks can become monks at the age of 20. They can be a novice from the age of twelve until they become monks. They can choose not to be a monk ever and just live by the less amount of precepts that a novice follows. Most of the monks at the University are monks. There are a few novices but they are past monk age and just want their experience to be more relaxed than a monk.

The University and all monk education is free. Many of the monks come from very poor families in Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, and Laos. Most cannot afford education and most are the first to get any sort of education in their village. I have heard so many stories like this.

The monks follow 272 precepts which is another term for a rule. The five main one that everyone follows are no killing, adultry, stealing, lying, and drinking. The other ones are very minor about their behavior in terms of what they wear, what they can and cannot do, but most of them are vague and considered to be of the past sort of.

The monks are allowed to have whatever they want; computers, mp3 players, phones, etc. They are not supposed to show lay people but that is being more relaxed these days. Mostly this is because it makes the mind cloudy and unfocused on the truth. I can understand this but most use it to call home and to just be normal 20 year olds.

You can become a monk and leave monkhood whenever you want. There is no time minnimum but most boys become monks for at least 3 months at some point in thier lives. It is very favorable to a family to have their son in law be a monk at one point in his life.

The monks cannot play games, in terms of sports but they can lift weights. Some monks play soccer but not very many because the temple frowns upon it.

At the University we help the monks get more comfordable with speaking enlgish. It is really fun! We sit in on three different classes during the week either grading presentations, helping pronounciation or just talking about important places in Thailand in enlgish. It is so amazing to hear about all the temples, waterfalls, caves, cities and all the places we really SHOULD go to while we are here. Too bad I have no time to do any of that with this schedule haha. If we are not in class we sit at this long table and welcome monks to talk to us. We interview them about their lives, ask them about buddhism, or just chat about what we did that day or about anything they ask. They love talking to us and getting to know more about America. They speak english well but they love speaking in Thai or in Lao to challenge us to understand. Lao is similar to Thai but since Thai is hard...Lao is harder haha.

Women cannot be monks in Thailand. In other counties they have allowed it but not Thailand. There are a few female monks but they are not accepted or recognized by the country. There is a long history behind this but it is hard to explain. I can understand why though.

Tomorrow is our last day at the University and I am very sad. I am sad that we will be leaving all of this fun monk friends behind and we may never see them again. We have written in friendship books for them and they have each written us notes too. They are so wonderful and they have made a large imprint on my life and in my heart.

Any questions more just ask. Sorry I haven't written for a while but I was failing on thinking about things to write about.

Aubs

Happy Birthday Marit

Well today is Marit's Birthday and it has been an enjoyable week! We had a family dinner with more food than Thanksgiving last night with singing and laughing with both mine and Marit's family. We got pizza and an ice cream cake which was just the american birthday Marit always wanted, haha. Today we had a Funfetti cake with pink frosting (what Marit has every year) and the whole group sang and ate together. It was wonderful.
Tomorrow we are going to go to the pool to get a tan and then head to get dinner at our favorite mexican place in Thailand (odd concept, right). After that we are going to the rooftop bar with kids from our group to hang out and celebrate Marit's birthday a little bit more. They never need an excuse here for a party!
We had art class today which was really fun. We did an animal painting with watercoloring and then we did one of people that was supposed to be a replica from an ancient temple drawing. They all turned out different, but I have never in my life been graded for art based on quality so harshly. I consider myself to be decently artistic and have always gotten As in art class. NO ONE gets As in this class. You are lucky if you get above a C+. Some kids take it hard, but I maintain and B+ average so that is good. Marit is an incredible watercolorer and has taken classes at school and she got a B+ on her last watercolor...they sure are strict.
I am excited to move out of painting and into silverware and casting...that should be messy but fun also.
Next week is our last official week of internship and I am getting really sad about it. I really have made some great monk friends and I want to keep in touch with them for a long time. They offered us teaching positions for the future and I am definetly considering it. I love working with the monks and I would love to live in Thailand for a while, especially Chiang Mai.
What is new in the US? We don't get to watch the Olympics and I am bummed but they are worse things I guess. I am too busy to sit at any TV anyways at home so I guess there is not much of a difference.
Aubs

Wat Stay

This weekend we stayed in a temple the whole weekend and had meditation session and practices. We went there on Saturday and on the way we stopped at three temples. The first is one of the oldest temples in Thailand over 700 years old. The next was on top of a mountian and it had stairs built all the way up to the temple...I did not climb them though haha. This temple had incredible views of the Thai landscape. Last we went to a temple in a huge cave that we hiked up to see. It was super cold in there but it felt amazing after the hike. Part of it was very dark and you could hear bats everywhere which freaked me out but it was a good experience. Parts of the cave you could not see anything and only four people had flashlights so that got interesting but really funny at the same time.
Eventually we made it to the forest temple to have our meditation class and dinner. We had dinner and then we did a sitting meditation for an hour and a walking meditation for an hour and then the monks presented a slide show about the robe making ceremony that they had had there about 7 weeks prior to our arrival. The sitting meditation was VERY painful. It is hard to sit like that for such a long time and not move. We moved our hands in a series of 15 positions that were very small but it was something to concentrate on to clear our minds.
The walking meditation was one of my favorite parts...Even though it was hard to stand up after an hour of sitting. We had to focus on our feet the whole time and focus on our steps. I could tell that my mind was very unfocused and it was hard to concentrate but it was very calming and something that you can easily practice everyday.
The temple we were at was huge and had a huge overlook to the rice and longan fields of Thailand. It was beautiful to look on the small towns and greenness around us while being in such a calming place. I know that if I practice this meditation I can be a lot calmer and probably a happier person overall. Hopefully I will not forget this experience.
We had quiet time and bed after that because we got up at 5 am to walk with the monks to the town to recieve alms. We bought food and gave alms to the monks in abundance. We knew we were eating after them so we got things we liked and wanted to eat for breakfast. Little did we know that these monks could feed a small town with all the food that they get through alms. It was incredible to see the people give all they had to these monks and watch them as they were blessed by a chant and thanked by the monks. We ate the most incredible breakfast so far on the trip full of fruits, rice, pumpkin, chicken, pork, and everything under the sun wrapped in bamboo leaves.
We then had another meditation session of both sitting and walking and then free time until we left. It was a memorable experience and I suggest it highly to anyone who would want to feel at peace..no matter what religion...this was one of the best things I know I will ever do in my life.
Back to the buddhist university tomorrow...I have missed my monk friends :)
Aubs

"Cut yourself some slack. Remember in 100 Years, all new people"

Today was a really fun day! In the morning we had a temple tour called "Mike's favorite wat tour". We were supposed to go to about 4 wats but because we apparently had already seen two of them we went to the other two. One was a huge chedi surrounded by little temples and ordination halls. The chedi is really old (about 700 years old) and they are just starting to renovate it. It is amazing because the renovations look really good and you can tell where the new things are but also how it used to be. Apparently they have no idea what this chedi looked like because it there are no writings about it or pictures from that time. It is called Wat Cheti Luang which means big Chedi. For those of you who don't know what a chedi is it is a place that at one point held the remains or bones of either part of Buddha or of a special monk.
The next temple we went to was a forest temple that had these caves that were made especially to try and get this Sri Lankan monk to try and live in Chiang Mai. This wat was even older than the first! It was really a cool place to walk around and there was a lot to see. All the trees had sayings on them for instance "Today is better than two tomorrows". I took a bunch of picures of these and hopefully I can do something with them. Apparently a lot of foreigners go there to take medidation retreats like the one we are going on this weekend.
Marit and I bought more elephant pants to wear for the retreat this weekend. They are so comfordable and we look so Thai wearing them...except no Thai's wear them in Chiang Mai because they are not too hip.
After the Wat tour the Buddhist university group went out for lunch at the front gate of the university. It was so delicious and a wonderful place to grab a bite to eat outside the university walls. Then we headed to a temple to visit one of our monk students that lives there. We realized that my house was not too far away from this temple so everyone walked with me to my house to visit with my family. On the way there I took them through a fantastic food market that is only visited by Thai's and us walking around there looked very odd, but it was fun! The whole group enjoyed it a lot. When we got to my house I introduced them to my family and then we went to Marit's house too to see them. The grandma here loved having all the people here and especially those students that are student leaders and know much more thai than marit or I.
I took the whole group to the flower market close to our house then and they also loved that. I can't wait until you get here Mom so you can see this market! You will LOVE it. It is like a five block radius filled with tropical flowers and beautiful trees and plants. I would have to say mostly wonderful!
We had dinner with Marit's family tonight as well and it was good to practice a little more Thai with people who speak no english at all. I wish that my family would do that more. I know they enjoy speaking english though too.
Tomorrow we have an art field trip at a pottery place and a laquerware place as well I think. It should be interesting though I hope it is part in the shade. In the afternoons we have been going to temples for art class and we get lectured at in the sun and I can tell you now that I am buring calories sweating out all the wonderful food I have been eating there.
This weekend is the medidation retreat and I am sure I will have a lot to say about that! Look forward to hearing about it soon! I hopefully will have time on sunday to post something. Until then...
Aubs

Interesting week with no internship...

I am sure the Monks will miss us and wat suan dok this week or maybe not. They do not have class so therefore we do not have an internship. I am not really sure what we are supposed to be doing but yesterday we went to a temple of a monk friend and chatted for a while and he showed us his room and we just hung out. Today we went to the library to get some books on buddhism and then headed to the pool and read buddhist teachings while getting some sun. It is really a hard life here let me tell you...
Tomorrow I think I am going with my host father to a fashion show for the faculty of humanities which probably includes many lady boys apparently. Sounds like a drag show to me so I am excited. Apparently my host father is the Emcee so that will be fun to watch.
We had a speaker in our culture class today that talked about social benefits of buddhism and how he started a program using monks and lay people to spread HIV/AIDS education and prevention. He also talked about using meditation to calm the mind and help accept death in a better way. He was so cool and actually the first white monk (from australia) that I have met so far. Or at least he was a monk at one point. Very cool. I talked to him about interning with him in the future..he sounded interested. He travels everywhere teaching so that would be a great thing to get involved with.
I am having a hard time learning Thai these days. It seems like Marit is picking everything up and I just can't remember anything. I wish there was a tea around here for concentration. I would drink it. She is very good with language but I am much better with visuals and maps I have learned. Funny how it has taken me this long to figure it out.
I am trying to get a Thai friend of mine here to fly to Minnesota and visit in May. She is already going to be in Florida and I want her to see Minnesota. Marit and I might split the cost of her flight to Minnesota because she can't afford it. She is one of the coolest people I know here and I am sure that she will love Minnesota. If she comes I can impress everyone with my Thai as well which would be cool.
I might put a picture of the pagent up...that way all of you can see how funny we all look as Thai beauty queens.
Aubs

MISS FLOWER CHIANG MAI 2010

Those of you who know me very well know that it is really unlike me to be in any sort of beauty pagent. On this trip however, I have decided to do anything and try everything. So when the director of my trip asked if I wanted to compete in a beauty competition for the city of Chiang Mai I said yes along with twelve other girls from my group. We had NO idea what we were getting into.
We started off on friday leaving class early to go get ready at 3pm. We got to this hotel and they had all these people waiting to get us dressed in traditional thai outfits and put makeup on us and do our hair. There were 22 total women in the international section of the competition. So after getting all ready, having dinner and working on some sort of a talent we were ready to leave at 6:30pm. We then got in taxis and went to the festival. There is this street full of flowers and people selling food and we had to line up in twos and were police escorted through this market area to the stage. While we walked we had to say hello to everyone and wave. Can you imagine me doing this? Hammed that up for sure.
Then we got to the stage and we had to wait until the Ms. Thai pagent got over which took forever to start and didn't finish until 10:30pm. Then we had our competition where we had to say something about ourselves in Thai and then do a little talent. My talent was to name all the US states in alphabetical order in a song. It was fun but I was very nervous in front of all those people. We didn't finish the pagent until almost 12:30pm.
Both Marit and I had all of our families there to cheer us on. They stayed the whole time until they escorted us home. It was great to have them there. They gave us flowers and cheered us on loudly which is anti thai norm.
Overall it was a ton of fun! I was really tired at the end but I will definately remember this for the rest of my life. I am glad that I did it but I can tell you now...never again.
One of the girls got third from our group but the first and second place positions were sort of rigged. The first place girl was chineese and lives in Thailand so therefore knows Thai fluently. The second place girl's dad was part of the tourist police so she knew everyone from the competition.
Today we went back to the flower festival to walk around and hang out with the group to watch the parade. We had fun but it was really hot and we got sunburned. Luckily the rest of the weekend is for relaxing and maybe going swimming? Tomorrow night we are going to hang out with a good Thai friend and do some more shopping!
Marit might put up pictures of the festival on facebook so either look at those or I will try and put on on this page.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Aubs

The blog you have all been waiting for...

Actually probably no one reads this on a daily basis or even monthly but I like to humor myself. Today I had the most interesting lecture again about buddhism from the 82 year old man today. His name is Ajan Saeng. If you get a chance and are extemely bored you can look him up and see that he was a crucial part of the Buddhist university that I am interning at. He wanted to connect the lay people and also those who weren't Buddhist with the Buddhist lifestyle. He created something called monk chat which is what most of the farang (foreigners) go to when they visit this temple.
This man is incredible. Initially you think "wow this is going to be the most boring hour and a half of my life" and when you look at the clock again you wish that he had four more hours to tell stories and just teach us about buddhism. He knows so much and can relate everything to Christianity for those people in the class who only know and seem to only want to know Christianity. He knows more about the Bible that I ever knew which is not a lot I guess. You can see his loving kindness and compassion right there in front of you. I am very sad that today was the last lecture for us to have him as a professor.
Anyways here are some tib bits of info you might be interested in about Thai culture:
1. Take off your shoes. Sometimes in the oddest places but take them off...if you don't it is major disrespect especially in a temple. You can put on slippers at home though to warm your feet...not sure why they would be cold in 90 degree weather but ok.
2. The Wai. This is the term for when the hands are together at lip level and you bow slightly to say hello and goodbye. You are supposed to do this to anyone older than you especially a professor (more of a bow) and even more a monk (extreme bowing). Never do this to a taxi cab driver, a younger sibling, or someone with less status. It is considered rude.
3. The thai nature is very unique. Yes means no most times. Your family might say yes yes but really mean no no. For instance if they don't want you to do something they won't say anything about it so you would never know but if you ask they would still "lie" to you. It is a very pleasing society trying to please everyone even if what they are saying may not be true. This is the first hard part in living with a Thai family.
4. Don't touch anyone's head or feet. Just don't do it.
5. The cars have the right of way and if you get hit it is most likely your fault.
6. At the street vendors normally you can get half price for everything in their inital sale. For instance I bought some fake raybans first it was two for 500 baht then I said nothing higher than 300 baht and started to walk away. Every step I took the man lowered the price until it hit 300 baht for two pairs. Aka two pairs for about ten dollars. If you speak in thai you also get a lower inital price.
7. Time is irrelevant. Arriving 20 minutes late for a lecture is fine. Also the Thai students that have class at 8 always walk by us at about 8:10 with no hop in their step. Aka time is no big thing.
8. You must pronounce thai correctly or else it means something completely different or they cannot figure out what you are trying to say. It is odd because most times you can figure out english no matter how sloppy. Apparently you can not do this in Thai.
9. Dogs are everywhere. They do not have homes and most times are fed by random scraps people leave. They are not friendly dogs and you do not pet them or feed them or even like them much. But they are EVERYWHERE. Today I counted about 11 walking from the buddhist university back gate to the front gate which is the length roughly of a football field. They must feed them there.
10. If you get up early enough you can give the monks food in alms. It is quite the experience and sort of enjoyable. Do not touch a monk if you are a woman so don't hand the monk something put it in his basket. Monks cannot touch women.
11. There are ladyboys everywhere in thailand. They are called catoys which is not how you say it but it is one of those things that can't be spelled in english. They are legit lady boys as well and you would have never guess them to be men. Some are monks too and there is one class full of them. I have yet to meet one yet but I am planning on it. Sexuality is much more fluid here than in the US. People talk about homosexuality very openly and also about crossdressing. It is very comforting to know that some people out there do not judge based on sexual preferences. This is a lesson for the US to follow.

Well those are a few good things I have learned from the family and the University which I really appreciate. We learned today that every person no matter who they are is a teacher and every moment in life is a lesson. I hope to take that along with me on my journey through Thailand.
Aubs

Faa cye (Beautiful Sky)

So I offically have gotten myself a Thai nickname. It has been a while since someone has given me one and a monk decided to give me one today. I love it so much I am going to tattoo it on my forehead so everyone will know it. False. But I do love it. It means beautiful sky and it is the most meaningful gift that anyone has given me on this trip so far. The monk who gave it to me kept saying "beautiful, beautiful sky...it is good".
As you can tell it was another good day at the buddhist university. It was just farang chat again so we had time to ask our random questions to the monks and to have them tell us about their lives..very interesting. I learned more about the robes that they wear and one guy even showed us how you wear it and also how you can wear it in other styles. I also learned some more Thai language and also some Laos language which they have a slang term for but we call it just Laos. My favorite monk is from Laos and he would only give up his monkhood so he could make more money for his family back home.
I am so surprised that I am having such a fun time at the university. I for sure thought I would get bored at some point but that is not the case at all. I am wanting to listen in on all the conversations instead of just mine and I get lost when my ears dart around the room. All the monks noticed I was gone for three days and each of them came up to me and asked why I wasn't there and if I was feeling better. Apparently word gets around fast there.
Tomorrow we have writing class again in which no one pays attention because all the letters look the same and all sound the same to us...really fun. I hope one day I can recite the alphabet but seeing as they have 44 consanants and 20something vowels looks like that might be more of a feat than I am capable of.
Not much went on today I guess other than that. I did get an A on my Thai language oral test so pat on the back for me. Marit beat me by one point and Mike kept saying I have to call her Pii Marit now because of the one point. Very funny. I am still older. I do call her Pii Malee at home though because everyone does here. Maybe I can get a monk to give her a Thai nickname too.
I have an idea for a good post tomorrow so look forward to reading that!
Faa cye (Aubs)

A blast of a weekend!

Well yesterday we went to this incredible restaurant that was the size of a football field outdoors and you pick up little plates and get raw meat and seafood and veggies and grill them on hot coal grills at your table. We went with a bunch of SST students and it was really a great experience. I was nervous about getting sick a little but then I realized that I got sick out of no fault to my own and tons of people eat this and are fine. So I went for it and let me tell you...it was quite the experience...so DELICIOUS!!!
Today we got up and I had time to read a book and relax a little bit before we went out to KFC with our host family for lunch. Not our idea at all, the little girls in my family wanted to go. We met some more SST students and went to this enormous jewlery store again to return rings and buy more useless things. I got some good stuff though in all reality. We then met up with our good Thai friend Buoi pronouced Boy.
She is a student at the university and has more connections than anyone I know! She knows this guy who can get us into this private hotel/spa/pool place for free. So we went and this pool is incredible, quiet and so fun! Marit, Kelsey(another girl from our program), Buoi and another Thai friend of ours all went for a few hours and swam and hung out for a couple of hours. Then we headed to a Mexican restaurant for dinner which was incredible (and a favorite of Buoi's).
All and all i did not eat a single thing of Thai food today but at the same time I don't mind. Weekends here are apparently for experiencing everything touristy and non Thai that we can before we head back to reality on Monday morning.
I had a great day today and I am really looking forward for the weekends to come!
Aubs

Thai Art

So apparently this was major art week. I am bummed I missed two sessions but if I had to miss class this would be the best time for it. We had art class all week but the art class is learning how they do the art in most of the temples and we do it ourselves on blocks of wood etc. We do it the old way that they have done it in the past and then we do it with gold paint or other materials.
We have drawn lotus flowers, used stencils and gold leaf, painted, and did this weird black fish design that took forever to make and ended up only presenting a gold fish at the end...but it was incredibly cool to do the whole procedure. I would much rather have art class than 4 hours of Thai language class. O well next week will be back to the ol grind again with more Thai language and culture class.
Yesterday we also had a class on Buddhism taught to us by a 85+ year old man that needed to be escorted into class and out. He was an incredible teacher though that used stories to help us understand Buddhist philosophy. We also got a copy of two of his books on Buddhism and I am excited to read them for class! We are learning the original Buddhism religion (called Folk Buddhism) not the Buddhism mostly practiced in Thailand which is a mix of Animism and Buddhism.
Last night my host father took marit and I to a steak house for dinner and it was really good! Most likely we will go there again I hate to admit. Very american food but sometimes my stomach needs a rest from the exotica that is Thai food.
I am planning on putting up some other little pictures thus far on the side so check them out, if they aren't there...I got lazy.
Tonight we are going out to dinner with some people from our group and some Thai buddies. Marit invited her host sister so she is coming and she is excited. Should be a good time. Tomorrow we are going to hang with the girls from the trip and have a girl day with a shopping trip and possibly lunch or maybe even another Thai massage? who knows. I would be down for a pedicure too if possible.
I am looking forward to going to class on Monday again and actually being able to attend. The next couple weekends are going to get really busy with the Chiang Mai flower festival, the temple stay weekend, and Marit's birthday the next so keep reading for more excitement to come!
You stay classy United States,
Aubs

You will never guess what happened to the past three days of my life..

So, you know how I was nervous to take my test well apparently my stomach was upset for more reasons than that. I got really weak before my test and actually I am embarrased to say that I barely remember speaking in Thai because I felt so sick. So my host father brought me home and I slept all day and all night and got up and still felt terrible. The head of my program told me to see a doctor so I went in and so did marit becasue she was having stomach issues too. We went in and went through a bunch of doors of people taking temperatures and blood pressure etc (not at all like the mayo clinic) and arrived in a room especially for me that had a couch and a TV and a bed etc. Very nice. Anyways they hooked me up to an IV...I had a stool sample collected, a blood test, and was told to rest. Marit went down to antibiotics and see another doctor.
Well turns out I had an infection or I guess still have one in my intestine. Probably from food or from bad water. Who knows. But apparently I had just had bad issues that made me dehydrated and so I needed fluids (3 bags) and rest. I left today at 4 but it took me a while to figure out how to leave there. The whole visit only cost me 340 dollars which is nothing compared to what I would have paid in the US.
Truthfully I think it was a good experience for me to figure out how to deal with medical stuff on my own and realize that things do happen when you travel and you have to be prepared. I am feeling much better now but I can only have liquids for a while, or at least that is what the doctor said.
I am sorry for not posting faster or more often since monday but as you can tell I have had no internet access. Long and the short...no one freak out I will be fine and healthy withina few days time. And hopefully catch up on the class I have missed haha!
Aubs

For example g as in chicken and g as in elephant...

You must be wondering...WHAT is she talking about. Well long story short we had our first day of Thai writing today and the teacher said that exactly. You may not understand because it is actually the thai words for chicken which is gaye and elephant which is chang. Anyways he said it in english in our class and Marit and I couldn't stop laughing...sort of a funny story to start an interesting day.
TOMORROW is going to be the true test of my thai language knowledge. I have to speak thai for four minutes straight about myself. Try talking about yourself in English for four minutes and then tell me that it isn't hard. Point taken. Anyways today in oral thai class we had to present our speach in front of the class to practice. Most people were not prepared but I was because I have been working on it all weekend (mostly because my host father is one of the professors grading the speeches). I am not sure I can remember anything that I have prepared but at this point I want to say screw it and move on.
Well then we headed to the Buddhist university after lunch. Most times the monks are scared and won't come to chat with us but this time there was a monk for every person there (6). We each got to interview them for a period of time. My monk was very interesting and we ended up talking about buddhism for three hours. Needless to say I am going to become a buddhist. The things he said were so incredible. I thought I knew a lot about Buddhism but there is so much more that I didn't know. I could write a book about this monk. He wants to be a monk his whole life and has been one since he was 15. He almost speaks english perfectly and can describe his religion in english which is a feat because I couldn't describe my anything in english.
he talked about having freedom in Buddhism and how that draws him into the religion, but also that he believes in a God but his god doesn't act for him (which I tend to agree with). He says that what is within your mind and body is what coutns and acting with loving kindness is the most important part of living buddhism. He TOLD me I was already buddhist and that living in the way of the buddha is to not idolize him but learn from the great teacher. He said Buddha is not a god, he is someone to look up to and model our lives after him but mostly have self realization within our own hearts. A lot of this rings true in Christianity and he said you can be any religion and be buddhist.
I want you all to experience what I experienced today. Which in fact was true loving kindness and the absence of judgement. As a foreigner this man opened up to me in a way that comes straight from his heart. That was probably the most truth I have heard in a long time. I know I can't be perfect and there is suffering but there is also understanding and that is the most important part to understanding life.
It is so great that I have this opportunity to talk with these people because they admit that there are questions out there but don't look outside to solve them because the answer lies within yourself. The power is within you.
Anyways it was a good day and I can't wait to chat some more tomorrow!!!
Aubs

THE WEEKEND

Finally we thought we got to rest and hang out...false. Marit and I went and went all day. It was really fun but I am really tired and today hopefully we get to rest a bit.
Yesterday we got up and I worked on my oral Thai midterm before we got in the car to head to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom is such a touristy place but it really nice. We had lunch on the patio eating fresh fruit watching the tigers play with the people in the water. These tigers are bred in captivity so they are very tame and love humans. They act almost like dogs and are taken care of very well. They each get a pond to play in and they are constantly being given attention by all the workers who play with them.
We didn't go in the cage with them because it was pretty pricey but we got some great pictures of the big beasts and the little ones too. Many white people were in the cages taking funny pictures with the tigers. They wanted to lay on the tigers and take pictures like that. Marit and I were laughing the whole time watching this happen. It was almost more fun to watch the farang (foreigners).
We then got to see some snakes at this snake zoo and some monkeys at a monkey zoo. The snakes were creepy because they bit soome of the guides but it was fun to see the cobra snakes. The monkeys were not as fun because they are pretty crazed. Also because monkeys are not my favorite animals.
We got to study a little bit before dinner and then my host mom took us to one of the walking street as they call them here. It is like one skinny street with vendors on each side and people shuffling in between them looking at the goods. The market was mostly Thai people which is much different then the other walking street that we are supposedly going to tonight. We found some great gifts for people, mostly for friends.
Marit and I are super tired and both very nervous for this Thai oral test. We have to speak Thai for four whole minutes to a group of four professors. They look for pronounciation and fluidity. I am in the process of calling all my Thai buddies and requesting their services haha.
This morning when we were working on some homework my kun mee (host mom) was washing her little kids hair and wanted to wash ours. She has a whole beauty salon set up with lounge chair and all. She washed our hair and gave us both head massages...it was so relaxing. Hopefully there will be more of these to come or maybe a sunday routine?
I am not sure what we will end up doing the rest of the day but hopefully I can ask them (in Thai) to wait to go to the hot springs until next weekend when we can spend the whole day there...sounds fun! Marit and I want to go to the Airport Plaza which is the mall here but really unlike most malls in the US. Hard to explain why but it just is. We both need some basics like tank tops to wear under our uniforms so hopefully we can find them there.
Thanks for replying to my last post...keep the questions coming and I will answer!!!!
Aubs

Busy Busy Day

Well it has been another busy day in Chiang Mai! We had language class this morning and then we had an art lecture. After lunch we went on a three hour field trip around the city to look at different architecture.
The Lan Na people who are the people of Northern Thailand, had distinct architecture that has stayed with the people here and can be seen even in today's buildings. I really enjoyed seeing the temples and examples of Northern Thailand houses that had this type of architecture but truthfully it was a little too hot to be standing in the sun while being lectured.
I really enjoyed seeing the first cheti set up in chaing mai before the city of chiang mai was even in existence. Mung Rai was the king that set up the city of Chiang Mai when he traveled from the City of Chiang Rai. This cheti was super old but in great shape with wonderful images of the buddha and also a special shrine for Mung Rai.
We learned a lot about the matrilineal society of Thailand and how it is much different from the patrilineal society of most other asian countries and even most countries over all. I wish I could dive into more detail but people might get bored over this history. Anyways the long and the short of it is that men in this society are not valued as much as women because it is the women who do the work. I can't wait until we learn more about gender and women studies which I was assured we will have classes on later!
We had dinner with our family and then headed to the market to walk around before we headed home to relax which is what we are doing now.
Tomorrow we go to Tiger kingdom which is exciting and I am sure I will have a ton to write about later!
Anything new in the US? Truthfully I love this country and this city and I am not missing the US much so that is good!
Aubs

Sick

Well looks like I recieved my first day of sickness today. Probably because of the water or something but let me tell you..it was not pretty. I came home early and slept for three hours though and I am feeling much better now. Apparently getting sick in Thailand is a right of passage so looks like I have achieved permanent status here...good.
Today was graduation at Chiang Mai university and it was wonderful. They have 5,000 (yes five thousand) people that graduate every year. Can you imagine the size of this school now? Everyone was so dressed up and the faculty that they came from was all there to support them. They do this thing called a boom and each faculty and organization gets in a circle around the graduates to yell and chant about their major or club. It is really cool to watch all the circles of students chanting and marit and I want to start this up at Gustavus...
Traffic is so intense during this whole week because the Princess of Thailand hands out the graduation certificates to all the students. It took us an hour and fifteen mintues to get home from the university which would normally take us fifteen minutes total. It is amazing to see all the people that come for graduation and celebrate with the students.
I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring. On fridays for class we take field trips in art class for the whole afternoon to look at Thai art and go into wats. I am sure there will be incredible pictures to take!
peace,
Aubs

I am in between classes...

Well as the title describes I have a fifteen minute break bewteen classes during the day. Today is my first art class and I am very excited. On fridays we take field trips to different art centers and wats to learn about the art of thailand and it's history.
Last night was sort of a situation to contend with. The thai people are very generous and I know that but sometimes it is over the top. My host father brought us to the mall and bought us snacks and also bought a bunch of movies for us that I can tell you were not cheap. We wanted to go to buy movies and snacks for ourselves but it ended up being the whole family. I am glad to have the snacks and movies but I feel guilty about them buying it all. I guess in Thailand gift giving happens all the time and so Marit and I need to reciprocate by taking them to dinner or buy them a great gift. I am not sure what yet...we will see.
I am very happy overall with my host family and my host mother is beginning to open up more to me and talk more in english. It is nice for her to speak more english but I really want to practice my Thai as well.
This weekend I think we are going to Tiger Kingdom which is a place where you can hang out with tigers and hold the babies etc. Should be a really fun experience. Hopefully we can head to the mall this weekend too because it would be nice to get some cheap clothes that I can go out with friends in. I failed to bring anything but uniform and wilderness attire. O well...a shopping we will go!
Aubrey

I Love Lacey Squier

Well this title has nothing to do with the actual post but enjoy anyways...
Today was a frusterating day. Things were not working in my favor at all. I realize there are more and better days to come. This morning's class was hard because it was mostly review and we have gone over 6 chapters of Thai language in about 3 days, which I can tell you now is a LOT. So I was lost a lot of the time and so was everyone else. Then the professor, which happens to be my host father, went on to a new chapter...here we go again. Looks like I will need to speak more at home, aka practice.
Then we had our first culture class which was VERY boring. The professor studies the types of tribes of Thailand and the list of them is incredibly long and painful. I am excited to see what other topics lie ahead for this class. But this professor was monotone and not very fun.
My internship today was also frusterating because we did absolutely nothing. We sat around and talked and waited for the monks to come have "monk chat", but they were afraid of us and no one came. Tomorrow we are teaching English in the classroom so that will be better and once the monks see us sitting and waiting...I know they will come to chat. I want to learn so much about Buddhism not at the technical level if you know what I mean...but at the principle level, the history and actual practice of buddhism.
The day ended and I walked all the way from the Buddhist university back to Chiang Mai university to meet Marit and Ajan Rien who is my host father so we could go back home. We changed into workout attire and headed to the Lotus market for aerobic dance in the parking lot with Marit's Kunn Maa, which is her host mom. This is a free program to keep the people of Thailand in shape. It was fun, not too hard, but interesting. The guy at the front changed his mind on the moves we did a lot and it was hard to keep up as noobs (short for newbies).
We got back to Marit's house and had dinner with her host sister and her grandma and it was incredible. It made up for a difficult day for sure. We tried to speak as much Thai as possible even though it was hard. It showed me that I am learning but slowly and I can communicate but it just takes time. Hopefully I can get over this speed bump. I wish I could wake up and just know the Thai language.
Tomorrow is another day....
Aubs

HOST FAMILY

I know all of you have been anticipating the big move to my host family so here are the deets...
We woke up this morning, moved out of our hotel and went to the University. We had individual tables that we sat at waiting for our host families to arrive. Mine was the last family. A small adorable girl came up to me and said "hello sarah my name is noel, how are you?". Her dad later told me that she is learning from a book and they use the name sarah in it, haha. We then talked and had tea for a while. I am staying with one of the professors at the university which makes transportaion to school a breeze. He taught us Thai earlier last week but he actually teaches french. Marit's family is his brother and he lives next door to my family. It seems like they move back and forth quite a bit so that makes a perfect living situation.
I don't have internet at my family, but Marit does. I have a TV in my room for movies, Mairt doesn't. It works well though because we can share...
There are two young girls in my family. One is seven named Noel the other is two and has a chineese name. They are so adorable and they love Marit and I already. They call us pee Aub-ee and pee Mal-ee for our names because they are more Thai. Pee means older than you and so anyone older you call pee unless they are teachers.
My host mom knows a little english but not too much. Marit's family doesn't know that much English but I think it will be good for us to learn more Thai. We already went to the mall to have pizza and ice cream for a welcome lunch which was the most I have eaten thus far in Thailand. It was very american but very good. We can walk to the Lotus mall from our houses and to the flower market which is incredible and beautiful! I am so happy about this living situation!
Ok well I am sure there will be more to come about this so continue to check back.

Aubs

Good Morning Thailand

Don't worry friends, family, fans etc. there is no war here in Thailand. But I do have to say that I wake up every morning glad to be here. Not once have I said things like "aww, another day in Thailand", "shoot warm weather", or "not another day of learning". All these things I wake up in the morning to and carry them throughout my day. Yes, only child syndrome does come up and I want to have my alone time...but when in Thailand...miss nothing.
Today was an incredible day. We woke up early and went to the university to start one of the hardest hikes I have even done. We went straight up hill to the top of this mountian next to Chiang Mai to a temple at the top. It took us about two and a half hours to get to the top and then we had to climb 306 steps to the temple.
Everyone was super tired but it was an incredible view and it was a great place to spend the afternoon. So many people from Chiang Mai go up there (mostly by taxi) to walk around and pray and meditate. It is kind of touristy but great at the same time. The temple itself is incredible. It has so much history and it is the biggest and most beautiful in all of Chiang Mai.
After that we had lunch then headed to a place in the city that gives traditional Thai massages. I have never had a more interesting, relaxing and incredible massage. This tiny Thai woman moved me in all directions for two hours. Everyone said we couldn't believe that two hours had flown by so fast. It was so relaxing and wonderful. If anyone comes here I will tell you where to go and also where to avoid. Someplaces give more than massages.
Then we went to Mike, our group leader's, house for dinner. It was his birthday so we had cake and a wonderful meal. I am excited to see what new things head my way in the next couple days.
Tomorrow we move out of our hotel and move in with our families. We finally start our internship and culture class in Monday. There is so much to look forward to!
I am thinking of all of you :)
Aubs

Welcome to Thailand...shrimp for breakfast...corn and chocolate crepes for dessert

Well as you can see in the title of this post...Thailand is exotic! Every day I see a food I have never seen before and everyday I am impressed by the combinations of odd things that I can tell you would never have crossed my mind. For instance we eat breakfast every day at the hotel and usually there is rice (sometimes two kinds) and meat usually covered in curry, some sort of seafood, two different soups with meat, and eggs. VERY different than what I am used to but good too. I am impressed with the people here and their daringness to try anything...
Another thing that I appreciate in the US now is chocolate, peanut butter and especially cheese. Pizza here has barely any cheese and if it does, most thai's order it without. I can't think of one American dish that has no cheese in it anywhere. Chocolate is really funky here too, it comes with an odd after taste. Peanut butter is here but in very small quantities in the 7-11 that cost about five dollars and for thailand that is WAY TOO much.
I wish that I could have all three of these things in large quantities right now but I know that I should just shovel in some more rice and come to terms with the fact that I am in Thailand and should be eating hot chilis every hour of the day.
I also have come to appreciate space. Thailand is crowded. I do love every minute of it but sometimes it can get awkward with a close neighbor in a taxi or squishing into a little elevator. I love the hustle and bustle of the city mostly because within the city walls there is a sense of calm everywhere. Buddhism lives and breathes fresh air (or semi polluted) here every day. I walk into the buddhist university and where you would think the sound of the city would crush the calm, it does not. Peace is everywhere here, yelling does not happen, throwing things is non existant and no one needs to blab about their feelings or complain on a daily basis. People deal with their shit here (excuse my french) because they have the means to. They have a religion that just lets humans be human beings instead of human doings.
Last night we just hung out and I got to talk to a friend about Buddhism that goes to the University here. She is incredible. She is not a strict buddhist but you can tell that although she wants to be more "american" she has a sense of calm to her that takes time to create.
I am nervous to move in with my family. At this point all I see are the things that I can do wrong to screw up and make them hate me. I know that if they do dislike me they won't say it and I won't be able to tell...but that is their culture. I need to be like the buddhists and be more attentive to body language and respect the elderly and hierarchy in place.
I am thankful for this trip in so many ways...

Namaste,
Aubs

Traffic

Well here I am again. Surprisingly I don't have much to say tonight. Today was pretty much the same as yesterday with four hours of Thai class and then free time in the afternoon in which I watched tv and made flashcards for Thai vocabulary. So uneventful. Anyways I decided that I had to blog about something that people want to hear about. Something fun. Traffic.
In America there is common courtesy. Pedestrians feel safe crossing the street. Cars watch out for them and slow down in their presence. Here in Thailand there is a hierarchy of domination of the roads. First come big buses. Even down the smallest street that can barely fit one car, a large tour bus just rolls rift through. Maybe even two in a row, like today. Next comes roat dangs which is Thai for red cars which is a taxi. I have seen these things see furlong or foreigners and turn around on a two way street stopping traffic in both directions. Next cars, then scooters. I have never seen so many scooters in my life. They are allowed to weave between cars and drive on the medians. They park on the sidewalk, in the street, or at the university even on the grass. If there is space, a scooter will be there. Lastly come pedestrians. If I don't get hit by some sort of vehicle it will be a miracle... Ok I exaggerated. But really people are not priorities. At all. There are also no cross walks. If you don't pay attention when you are walking... Good luck in Thailand.
It is really fun to watch the cars. But it feels much safer to take a taxi then to rent anything to use to get around. Especially because you move much higher on the food chain. I am learning more and more Thai but truthfully I am excited tomorrow is Friday. I need to find some place to wash my underwear and socks because they don't wash them in the laundry service.
Ok I am tired and I have another four hours of Thai tomorrow so I need to rest my brain.
I hope you all enjoyed!
Aubs

My name Aubrey last name Austin

Thai has a different sentance structure than most languages. The subject comes first and pretty much everything afterwards. No need to conjugate verbs etc. This makes the language seem much easier at first glance...false. I am here to inform you that Thai is not easy. Five tones leads to what is a much more difficult learning experience than expected. I had a four hour Thai class today... You did not miss read that statment. Four hours. Yes we had a break one for tea and one for lung but at the end of the day I didn't want to learn any more vocab words or pronounce anything more. I guess I need to prepare for four more hours tomorrow.
We got an outfit for our kantook dinner tonight last night and so we just got back from the dinner. It was traditional northen Thai food of sticky rice and community bowls of sauces and meats to dip things in. It was so delicious. It mich have been the best meal yet except it was hard to sit on the ground with a long silk skirt on. During the dinner there was dancing with hands and swords. It was cool especially because we got on stage to dance with the women at one point.
We are getting to be better friends with the Thai buddies and that is so fun. I have a friend named boui who is really friendly and awesome and she said she would take us to some good hang out spots. Which will help me with my Thai hopefully. Maybe the ton of flashcards will help too.
Another thing we did today was visit our potential internship spots. I visited the Buddhist university today with ten other sst students. We talked to some professors and toured some classrooms. To top it off we visited the wat on campus which is temple in Thai. It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. This is definately the place I will choose. Mostly because I want to learn more about Buddhism. I hope that doesn't freak the über Christians out on this trip. There is a lot to learn.
I am looking forward to a more relaxed day tomorrow because I need to do laundry somewhere and I can't send underwear and socks to the laundromat because they are seen as the dirtiest things on the planet and not to be touched by others.
I miss you all at home! I wish you could see some of the things I was talking about..sometimes they are hard to explain.
Aubs

First real day of class.

Thai is not an easy language to learn that is for sure. Everyone keeps telling us it is easy but no Thai words are similar to English words. Even though all of this is true, Thai is really fun to learn the the professors are awesome! We are learning conversational Thai and we are also learning the most practical form and dialect. There are five tones meaning that one word said five different ways means five different things or nothing. The Thai buddies are a great help because learning tones is like unlearning tones when they learned English. They are such great friends already.
We also got a long list of dos and don'ts in Thai culture today. The culture is very conservative and there are many new things I learned. You cannot show the bottom of your feet ever that is a big one. People don't touch in public at all. Not even to hold hands. Never do the traditional American sign for come here because that means something really dirty. And the list continues on and on and on.
We visited the us consulate today too which was the worst part of the trip this far. Basically they had no idea who we are and it took twice as long to go through security then to walk around the grounds, which is all we did there.I think the point of it was so we knew where to go if we had an emergency. Doubt that will happen because the crime rate in Thailand is the lowest of all the Asian countries. Impressive.
We then went to pick out traditional Thai outfits to wear to our formal dinner tomorrow night. I got a long silk skirt and a linen top tradtional of northern Thailand. It is really pretty but I doubt I will wear it outside Thailand. Maybe I will get a display case for it because it is beautiful.
We met a Thai buddy up for dinner up the road from our hotel. It was a new experience because a drunk woman came up to our buddy and yelled at her for speaking in English. I just she does not like furlong or foreigners.
I am loving every minute here and it seems I am learning something new every minute. I hope life in the us is great for all of you and I wish you could visit this country with me. If not with me then eventually with someone else. It is officially one of my favorite places in the world.
Love
Aubs

Another incredible day...

Wow! Today was another great day in the land of Thailand. We started off the day with long meetings about rules and regulations and registration at the university. Then the dean of students came and we had tea with him while he welcomed us to the university. We had more introduction things and then we took a tour of the campus on an electric train that runs around campus. After that we had lunch at the canteen which is sort of like a private street market. The food is amazing. I got a huge bowl of some sort of soup with Thai meatballs and chili, it was very delicious.
We walked to meet the vice president of the university of chiang mai in his office area. I had no idea how official this was going to be. Apparently this university has a lot of prestige in the country and in all of Asia. Mike our program director, or we call him Ajan mike, told us that this university is like a harvard or yale in all of Asia. It is also nationally ranked. Meeting the vice president was really interesting. We had to stand in his presence and wai him. Wai is a sign of respect when greeting an elder, teacher or someone of great respect where you bow your head to your hands coming together at your face. Get it? They served us fancy juices out of chiang mai glasses and we asked questions to this man.
We had our first lecture mostly about Thai customs in general. We learned about the internships that we will be at and which ones we will all visit and some point. The one that I want is at the Buddhist university teaching the monks English. I really want to be friends with some monks because I hear you learn a lot more from them than they learn from you haha.
We then went back to the hotel to lounge before dinner. My roommate waverly has her best friend here too and the four of us get along super well! The four of us decided that we wanted to break away from the big group to see if we could survive and get dinner. We walked down the main street near our hotel and nothing looked good so we wanted to head back to the university canteen. The university is the largest campus I have ever been on. It is crazy huge! We used our good memory to walk a half hour through the university to see that the canteen was closed. We then wanted to head back to the main street to eat but we tried to use some of the Thai we have learned to talk to this girl at the team stop. She told us to go to tv university market. We decided to go with her. The food at the university market was really good and even though no one spoke English we still got what we asked for. We then got some fruits a vendor in the city to try and headed back to the long maw which is the back gate of the university in Thai. We got back to the hotel no problem even with this being the first day of using Thai language.
It was a really fun experience trying to use the little Thai that we know to get around and do our thing as university students. All four of us had a blast and learned a lot about patience and the helpfulness of the Thai people. They really as a country full of smiling happy people. I can tell that although our classes are only during the day, we will be learning well into the night. I am so excited to see what tomorrow will bring!
From the wonderful university of chiang mai
Aubs

Another busy day...

Today was another busy day here in chiang mai. We went to a huge buffet brunch at this fancy hotel and then headed to the largest gem shop in all of Asia. I decided when I have to buy a wedding ring this for sure is the place. All the rings etc are handmade and set and they are super cheap. A silver ring with a sapphire in it costs about 30 dollars with a lifetime garuntee. I tried on a bunch of rings but everything was a little too flashy for me. I bought a silver ring with a cool design for really cheap though...next we went to a paper umbrella factory and saw how they made the classic bamboo umbrellas. They hand paint them there too and also they will do little paintings on whatever you bring in.
We then headed to a huge silk making place where they make silk and sell it. All of the things are really nice and fair priced for being such high quality silk. That trip took most of the whole day but it was fun. We are going to the night bazzaar tonight with our Thai friends to have dinner and walk around. A friend of ours nicknamed bird who goes to the university is having a folk music competition in his dorm tonight as well so that might be fun too...
We meet with the dean tomorrow and take our university pictures in our new uniforms! That should be interesting.
I don't have much of jet lag anymore so that will be good for starting classes. I am looking forward to learning more words in Thai other than hello goodbye and thank you.
Hopefully we get some free time tomorrow because I want to go to the market close to the hotel and pick up some delicious fresh fruit!!! They have so much wonderful produce here some that I have never seen before!
Kaa kum kaa which is Thai for thank you!
aubs

Hello officially from Thailand!!!

Hello everyone! We have arrived safely after a long flight from minnesota. The hardest part was the fourteen hour flight from LA to Taiwan in which everyone ankles swelled to balloons. We are now in Chiang Mai Thailand which is north of Bangkok about an hour by jet. Yesterday was so exciting and fun. We got up early, and took an hour taxi cab ride into the mountians to an elephant training ground. There we rode elephants, watched a demonstration of elephants logging tea trees and fed the elephants with fresh bunches of bananas. After that we took an hour bamboo raft ride down the ping river wearing straw hats and led by men with huge poles pushing us along.
We then drove to an orchid farm outside or Chiang Mai to have lunch. The food here is wonderful! Easy for me because they have rice at every meal! We walked around the orchid grounds and took pictures...it was beautiful.
We have what we call Thai buddies that help us when we have free time and hang out with us. They are very helpful. They took us to the street vendors and ordered for us last night and helped us buy uniforms for school. The uniforms and most everything made in Thailand here is dirt cheap. I bought two uniform shirts and a skirt for under fifteen dollars.
Today we will go to the American side of the city and act like normal tourists for a day. The people here are incredibly friendly and it is most definately a country full of constant smiles. I love this country! We start classes on Tuesday and have orientation on Monday. We move in with host families on Saturday which should be interesting...I am nervous but very excited to meet them as well.
Thank you all for the wonderful posts! If you have any questions ask and I will try and answer them in my next post.
Sawadee kaa! Or hello and goodbye in Thai
Aubs

About leaving

I figured I should start my blogging before I left because I can try and get something on this empty page. I am super excited to leave but I am nervous. Marit, my roommate, is thankfully going to be on the trip with me though and although we won't be living with the same family, I know she is not too far away.

I encourage all Family, Friends, etc. to post here and tell me everything and anything. I plan on learning a lot from this experience and hopefully grow as a woman. Does anyone have any advice or words of wisdom for me?