500 miles

Last night was a very fun and very farang-filled night. Farang is the Thai word for a white person. Although Thais don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day, it seemed that every farang in Chiang Mai was out celebrating, and most could be found at the Irish pub, called U.N. Irish. We spent the night there chatting with other foreigners and dancing to the live Irish band. The band was great and they played the longest version of "I Would Walk 500 Miles" that I've ever heard. Everyone was singing along and a great time was had by all.

Kimberly, Tara, Caroline, Emily and me

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I had quite the weekend in Chiang Dao, and will be posting more about the trip soon. Right now a group of us are heading out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with dinner and then to an Irish pub in Chiang Mai. Hope everyone has a great day filled with rainbows and leprechauns!

Last Few Days

Last Friday for our Thai language class we were brought into the city and had to walk around and find several different places, all by asking directions from people on the street. We spoke to them in Thai and recorded our conversations that were later submitted to our professors. It was a fun experience to talk to some locals. Our little scavenger hunt ended at Wat Chedi Luang, that contains a temple originally built in the 14th century.

Saturday afternoon a few other students and I joined out Thai friend Prince to his home on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. It was so nice to relax in his house for a while before heading out for the nightly activities. I hadn't realized how much I missed sitting on a couch until I got to his house. The town his house was located in was celebrating the construction of a new temple, and so each house in the town had a party. We spent the night hopping from house to house and were offered a great deal of delicious food at each stop. Most houses had karaoke set up, and we sang a few songs at almost every house. It was so fun to talk with the locals who were so friendly and happy to see us. One person nicknamed me "cha-yen," which means iced tea in English, since it sounds like Charlotte. 

We returned to Prince's house pretty late and enjoyed a nice sleep. Sunday morning we got up and made a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, onions and peppers along with toast and yogurt. We spent the day relaxing around the house and Jack and I did some exploring in the back yard. There was a small stream in the backyard that we walked through and even did some arts and crafts. We were surrounded by beautiful green flora and rice fields. For lunch we made salmon, pasta and garlic bread. For dinner we had chicken and haddock. I left his house feeling very full and satisfied with American-style homemade meals. 

Buddhist prayer on a tree at Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Chedi Luang

Buddha statue at Wat Chedi Luang

Tammy and me sharing a mango smoothie....it's mango season in Thailand!

baby bananas!

rice fields

Jack having fun in the stream

flower petal elephant: made by Jack and me!

the temple at night

Fun Fact Friday #4

Well today is Tuesday, and clearly I'm a little behind on my blog posting but here is a fun fact I learned this past week:

First off, Thailand doesn't recognize Daylight Savings, which made Monday morning a bit confusing when my phone said one time and my computer said differently. Luckily Google helped me out and told me the correct time and I made it to class.

Secondly, telling time in spoken Thai is extremely different than how we would tell time in the US. When telling the time, the hours are divided into 5 main groups, not including noon and midnight. Below are the divisions and their names:

Midnight-12:59 am: tiiang-kheun

1:00 am-5:59 am: tii

6:00 am-11:59 am: mohng chao

Noon-12:59 pm: tiiang-wan

1:00 pm-3:59 pm: bye

4:00 pm-6:59 pm: mohng yehn

7:00 pm-11:59 pm: toom

The names of this different groups are used either before or after the number, and indicate the time of day. So it would be similar to us saying "4:45 in the afternoon." In Thai, this would be said "4 mohng yehn 45."

The most confusing part about telling time in Thai is that once you reach 7:00 pm, you start counting from 1 again until midnight. So 9:00 pm would be said "3 toom."

I hope this explanation is somewhat clear, but I'm pretty sure it's not. I definitely have confused myself more trying to explain it. Wish me luck with my Thai I final tomorrow afternoon!

Thai Dance

This week our Thai Dance class has finally started. The class will last for half a semester and includes a dance performance in April in front of the new president of the university. Thai dance is much trickier than it looks. So far we have learned a few of the basic hand positions as well as a few seated positions which make me feel a bit like a contortionist. Our second day of classes we went even further and incorporated some walking and circling with partners into the dance. I have really enjoyed the first two classes and I am especially fond of the pants we get to wear. Our first day we were given a large piece of fabric, and were instructed how to wrap the fabric around our waists and between our legs in order to make loose pants. They aren't the most flattering, but they are super comfortable and are definitely a look that I'm going to introduce to the St. Lawrence campus.

Making our pants for dancing.

Learning some of the basic moves.

Monk Farewell Party

Today a few of us returned to Wat Suan Dok to attend a farewell party for our monk friends who are graduating from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University. We could only stay for about an hour since we had classes today, but we were able to attend part of a ceremony and ate lunch with our monk friends. During the ceremony there was chanting and the calling of spirits. In some of the photos you can see the white string that is wrapped around one's wrist or lying over one's shoulder during the ceremony. This string can be seen in many Buddhist ceremonies and represents the goods spirits that are called back that grant good luck and good health for the future. After the ceremony for the graduates we took a lot of pictures. We took a few with our closest monk friend, Lat, but also were asked to pose in photos with many other monks, many who we had never spoken to before. You might notice that we are standing away from the monks in the photos, and that is because females are not allowed to touch the monks. After the paparazzi finished taking our photos, we had a quick lunch before saying goodbye. We had to say goodbye to a few of our monk friends, but Lat will be in Chiang Mai for a few more weeks so hopefully we will be seeing him again. 

A dog joins for the ceremony as well.

Farewell ceremony.

Lat

me with Lat and Tammy

Tying the "quan" (white string) on the wrist.

Feeling the Love

Despite Valentine's Day already passing, I definitely felt a lot of love this weekend from friends and family back in the states. Not only did I receive two care packages, I also received multiple letters all of which put a big smile on my face. Many thanks to those sending their love from the other side of the planet. I hope that some of my cheesy postcards have already arrived in the USA.

I got to Skype with family this weekend, and got to laugh a bit with my big brother who I will have only spent 10 days with out of 9 months. (Harry was abroad in Greece in the fall and our time home overlapped for 10 days over winter break) I'm very much looking forward to a summer back with my silly brother. A much needed Skype session also happened with my two favorite Californians. I'm a lucky girl to have such great friends living all over the place, and extra lucky that they all flock to Lake George for summertime fun.

Here's a puzzle for anyone looking for a good challenge: I saw this shirt at a market last night and can't seem to figure out what it's supposed to mean. You've gotta love Thai-English translation!