ฉันมาถึงบ้าน- I am home?

I have arrived..

My last few days in Udon Thani were spent packing, enjoying family, and most of all squeezing all I could out of the short time frame I did have left. It seems like a strange thought to be going back to "my home" when in alot of ways I had made Thailand my home. Being brought the airport seemed surreal and unimaginable. I was greeted at the airport by a large group of my friends from school whom were all bearing gifts, and cards to give me. We shared hugs, pictures, and our final goodbye's before the female announcer came on to announce the flight to Bangkok was ready for boarding.
As a walked through the gate I still found myself waving to my friends through the dirty windows. Something about seeing them through glass now seemed to make me realize that I wont be seeing them tomorrow in Biology, or after school on the bus. Was this really over? A year of memories coming to an end? The flight to Bangkok went quickly as I read some of my goodbye cards from friends and snacked on the salty snack they served complimentary on the flight.Ended up spending the night in Bangkok and leaving the next morning for Vancouver International airport. I said my final goodbye's to my host dad who had came to Bangkok and was on my way the west side of the globe.

I remember distincally feeling awkward around all of these white people sitting around me. Remember thinking to myself, "how should I act?". It was almost as if I didn't know how to go about having a conversation with someone in english. The flight attendant had asked me if I needed a pillow snd I found myself studdering to find the words in english. Arrived in the Vancouver airport and was able to meander my way over to my next gate for the flight to Calgary. Close to 2 hours passed and I had arrived back on albertan soil, strange thought. As I walked toward baggage claim I saw the first glimpse of my mom. She was holding a bouquet of flowers and wearing a familiar smile. I have never been so happy to see my mom. After I grabbed my luggage I headed outside to start the jouney back to the bridge.

My impression now.
I find coming back is more of an adjustment that Thailand was. I have been able to get a fresh view of things and am looking at our culture with new eyes. I see the route of our society being run around the idea of materialism and the pressure to buy more than you need. The excess makes me cringe and is hard to seewhy we have chosen a path such as this. Something that angers me most is the amount of waste we produce. Because we see everything as limitless we do not stop to cherish what we do have when we have it. Instead we toss that and go for the next best thing. Why? My questions have yet to be answered and I have been doing some searching myself.

Going away has allowed me to see our culture in another light. I am sure within a few days I will have come to realize alot of the positive things in our society but I will leave it at this for now.

Going away to Thailand was such an eye opening experience. I want to thank Rotary for giving me this amazing opportunity to go away. I realize that not all of us can get this opportunity and for that I will be forever thankful. Thank you to everyone who helped me get to Thailand and for all of you who supported my decision to go.

Oh the places you go.

I orginally intended this blog to be a part journal/informative place for me to express my ideas and share my experiences with friends and family. Although I have done a poor job at keeping up with it, I will do my best to give you a run down of my most recent activity.

Library outside of town:

I had mentioned in my previous blog about my opportunity to volunteer building mud houses in the central part of Thailand. Having gotten experience building I decided I wanted to find a way to do a mini project involving a mud house. I got this very oppurtunity when my host dad mentioned their was a school nearby that was lacking the funding to build a library. Rotary said they would be willing to find the project if I did the other end of things. Super excited to help, I agreed imediatly and the process began. When I first arrived at the school their was nothing more than an old cement platform, cracked but useable. Speaking with the teachers at the school I soon realized that this project to build a library was very much possible if I, as well as the students were willing to put the time in. My work started immediatly and I began making plans on when we could begin making the bricks, building the foundation, building the walls, applying a top coat, and finally installing a roof. After a few weeks of planning, organising and frequent visits to the school we were able to come up with a date to test the dirt. I originally wanted to use an all natural method which involves nothing more than clay, rice husks, and water but heard mixed opinions about the method and decided to stick to the method I learned volunteering. This method involved adding cement, dirt, and rice husks.

Bricks:

First day of brick building was hot but many students, teachers, and vounteers came to help. The plan was to complete 1800 bricks in two days. Clearly I was a little too ambitious at first, but it came together. The number of students got smaller everyday but after 5 long days of filling moulds we got the number we needed.

Building:

I had called in some volunteers I knew from Bangkok who were able to come last minute and am so thankful they could come and help. We were able to finish the building process in the two days expected too leaving time to begin the top coat on the walls.

Applying a top coat:

This process is still in the making and is only half complete. The students and I will hopefully be able to finish this before the roof is installed.

The library so far:

To be continued...

Voluntering abroad

Recently I have gotten involved with a group in Thailand that build houses out of mud. Thety are cheaper than a regular house and anyone can make one. I learnt my first time in Sageow ith my friend Kheb. We stayed for 3 days and learnt the basic steps to building one. I was surprised by how easy it was and the ingredients were so easy to find. This is a picture of the almost finished home for a monk. There were about 20 volunteers that came. I have been to build 2 others and it feels so good to be helping others!

That's all the time I have... so catch you later.

Just wanted to say congratulations to Canada for their amazing performance at the 2010 winter olympics. When I heard I felt so extremelly proud! Wooo

DecJanFeb - Time is flying

Well hello, so nice to be back on this blog of mine. I have been procrastinating writing this blog for a while now.

A very Merry Christmas
My Christmas and New years away from Canada was very relaxing. I have to admit I did the miss the delicious food, the time with family, but I was happy to feel no stress about gift buying, gift receiving, christmas plans... ect. I think I learnt that the most important thing about christmas is not about the gifts, food or snow. Its about family, and good food! haha I was thinking how neat it is to travel around christmas time. I wonder where next year will take me. New Years was great because I climbed up to the top floor in my new house and watched the fireworks from the roof. I did the countdown alone and had a really awesome time! I love knowing that no matter where you are you have a friend.. yourself! :)

A village visit
A friendly teacher at school gave me a call a few days after new years and invited me to meet her family at her village. I took the chance and got to go travelling! It was great to get out of the city again. We arrived on the 1st and in Thailand this is a special day to donate money. This village in particular were donating money to the local school but you could choose to donate it to the temple as well. It was amazing because it seeemed everyone in the village was digging in their pockets to find money. Whether it was 20, 50, 100 or even 1000. All the money was pinned to a triangle shaped obejct which was carried in a parade to the school. The parade was already fairly large when I arrived and most of they had already had their new years celebration drinks so the crowd was a little rowdier than usual. They were dancing, laughing and having a great time! After the excitement died down a bit we walked over the school where I was introduced to what seemed like the whole village and then invited to eat lunch. After eating we headed to a temple which was very small. There was only one monk! I was so interested to see that because I have only seen a minimum of 30 or 50 in Udon! We got a tour afterwards of the surrounding area by a very cute thai boy who is studying engineering in bangkok. He was teaching us how to cut open the rubber trees, and cut down sugar cane. I enjoyed a nice nature walk as well. We spent the night at the village and went back to Udon the next day because my teacher had to teach. It was short but a nice trip!

Well I am now with my third host family. They are a family of 4. Their two daughter are away at school. One on exchange in USAand one is now in Bangkok working. The home I am in now is a tall building and is currently right in front of a cafe. I have probablygotten my fair share of "cappucino ron". A 1$ a cup its hard to resist. My last 2 months here have gone so quick its almost unreal.At times it feels I am not even foreign anymore. I understand the Thai culture and its so exciting.

In about 3 weeks we will be out of scI went to a restaurant withb ny host dad when I got back. I had said how much I loved sushi and he suggested we go. When we got there my host dad ordered and when the order came my mouth began to water. It looked as if the sashimi was alive it was so fresh. I drank a delicious green tea to "clear my tastebuds". All I could say the whole meal was mmmmmm, mmmmmmm ,mmmmmm!! Too bad it wasn't so expensive or I would be there every other day!

School's almost out for the summer.
Although they will be the scorching hot months I will be sure to stay busy and do my best to travel around. I have been involved with a group of people who volunteer building mud houses ~ban deen~ for the poor. I have now been to 2 seminars and am amazed at how easy it is. This type of building could be of use to anyone because it is sturdy, warm in the winter (Thai winter), and cool in the hot months. At the seminar we learnt how to make homes out of mud, cement, and water. Also we were introduced to a new technique this past weekend which uses regular hay, dirt, animal poop, and sand. It was such a greatidea to create such a natural home. I have been speaking with my host dad and their is a school nearby Udon that does not have enough classrooms for their students. He sent me a picture of their cafeteria and it consists of 4 wooden poles and a blue tarp to protect the students from rain. I felt that with this new skill I could build the proper room or rooms they would need to have a better time at school. Its been great so far because I have realized how easy it can be to help others. You do not need to be an expert to at something to help.
A Good friend

While I have been here in Udon I feel very lucky because I have met alot of great people. Thai, and foreign. There is one girl in particularwho I have become close friends with. She lives nearby the central park so I often drop in for a cup of tea and a good talk. She has been my thai tudor ever since I came, a friend suggested I call her. She speaks english very well so usually we speak a mixed language of english and thai "tinglish". She is a huge fan of tennis but because of a hip problem she is no longer able to play. We both like to watch Nedal play on TV. She usually has some sort of delicious baked pastry ready from the oven to taste too! Aroi dee.

Haiti
The horrible events in Haiti have shaken not only their country but the world. It was incredible to me how many countries have come together to help with the events of the earthquake. I remember a few days after it happened I looked at a clip on CBC and I had never seen anything like that. I began to cry, and realized how lucky I am. I feel sad that so many people's lives have been taken from these events and my prayersgo their families, and friends that are still managing to survive. I feel as if I want to go there and help but know right now is not my time. While the world shines light on Haiti.

... My current host family has no internet so this is a working process! I will be back soon to complete my blog entry!

A Blurry December

I have not updates since my trip to the Village and I have been out and about so I thought I had better write.

Trip to Chiang Mai with Host family
Was so excited to hear that my host mom was going to be visiting her family in Chiang Rai one week before I changed families. We would go for 5 days and tour around the area. My host mom grew up in a small village outside of Chiang Rai and hadn't been back to visit for a while. I remember the day before we left I went into her room to find one the largest bags I have ever seen in my life. I look inside and it is stuffed with clothes. I knock on my mother's walk in closet door and she answers. Inside that room their was another bag half full with all sorts of clothes the ground as well. She said she would bring the clothes for the people in the village who cannot afford clothes. It really made me happy to think that she was so giving and considerate. It was amazing to see how one person could have so many clothes too. We left at 5:00 in the morning from my house and there were only 4 of us going. It was momma, my host brother, Lauren; the exchange student from USA, and me. We had rented a van that would drive us there and back so my mom wouldn't have to drive. We arrived in my host mom's village in the evening and were able to get introduced to everyone and do a bit of exploring. The moment I saw it, the moment I loved it. It was so natural and wonderful. Noone was concerned about where they had to be or where they were going. They were just relaxed and easy going. Sometimes it's easy to lose that in the city. We met my mom's 84 year old dad who is going deaf. He does not speak much but is an amazing man. Everyday he goes around the village on a little bike that requires no peddling just the pulling of a handle. Then he gardens for another part of his day in their backyard. They have pineapple, vegetables, apples... and more. He was such a cute old man and I wish I could have hung out with him a bit more. I was also very lucky to meet my host mom's sister who is.. well a replica of her sister. They are very much alike which made for a hillarious dinner time. The next morning my host mom and I had woken up before the rest of the family so we decided to walk over to her sister's house to say hello and possibly raid her cupboards for a caffenated beverage. Her house was just down the road and had the best view in the village. I drank a lovely cup of natural Thai tea that had steeped over an open fire and watched the sun come up. I had never felt so at ease. After breakfast her sister went quickly to work in the fields to farm rice. I was able to try for a bit and was surprised by how difficult it was. Doing that all day would be quite the workout. Later on that day we headed to a large national park. It was so beautiful and I was excited because we would get to go hiking! My host mom payed a little hill tribe girl to give us the guided tour up the mountain. It was very tall and was wasn't surprised to see the top was closed off with wire to keep people from jumping off the cliff. At the top Lauren and I met a couple from Australia who had been travelling all around Asia for about 8 months now. They were heading home the next day and thought they had better do this hike before they did. Glad to have met them. There were camping spots at the base of the hike to and if I ever come back I will definantly camp there. Anybody interested?
Day 2- Today we headed up to the golden triangle. It was great to go and visit but it has become a huge tourist trap now. I guess the country benefits in some ways from that. There were lots of boat tours going around to show you Myanmar and Laos. I wasn't expecting to go until my host mom handed me a ticket and said it leaves in 5 minutes. All of us hopped aboard and before I knew it we were sailing down the Mekong with Myanmar to my left, Laos to my right, and Thailand behind us. Our driver ended up stopping in Laos before our trip was over too. It was a small island filled with different vendors selling all sorts of things for low prices. It was getting late after our boat trip and ended up staying with some family friends in that town.
Day3: Woke up early to go for a run down the Mekong River which was very close to our house. It was so nice to run beside it. In the day we made a long trip to Chaing Mai then ariving at our hotel in the afternoon. Went to the night bizaar for dinner and then headed in for an early night.
Day4: We went to a lovely flower garden. It was new and well taken care of. The tickets were not cheap but the huge bus full of foreigners that came in probably brought in a good chunk of money. As Lauren and I started exploring the more it reminded me of Granny Audrey's backyard in Mt. Tremblant. I used to run down the little stone steps to get to the lake and I remember the smells, the flowers, the grass, and even the stones that you would have to remember to jump over so you didn't fall. There was a similar atmosphere in this garden and it made me feel like I was back at Granny's house. Love the childhood flashbacks. Lauren and I were very busy exploring actually and hadn't even realized we had roamed into an out of bounds area. It took us some time to find our way back to the trail but had quite the adventure along the way.
Day 5: Woke up early in the morning to enjoy a nice continental breakfast with Lauren after hauling her out of bed. Today was the day I had been waiting for. We were going to go see the long neck tribes. When we arrived to the area there was a small village that was selling bags, and accessories and I didn't see any members of the long neck tribes. After walking a bit longer up the road we came across a sign and explained that this particular area was residence to 15 long neck tribe members who had been recruited from their tribes to come work for wages making handicraft items. As we walked up this steep hill I was able to see my first hill tribe person. She was stunning. She ws probably the same age as me, 18-19. She was sitting down and looked at me as I reached for my picture. I asked for permission and she nodded seemingly unbothered by my interest. The more we walked the more I noticed that the number had clearly grown from 15 members because we had spotted close to 25-30. The rings around their neck were so fascinating but having not seen them before made me feel a bit quesy. The childrens collar bones had been bruised from the pressure of the heavy rings around their necks. I soon learned that they will be add new rings every 2 years. It was such an amazing experience to see something so different. After speaking with one of the members I really understood that they were just normal people with a different definition of beauty within their own society. I bought a small something at her shop and thought about how lucky I was to be in Thailand and seeing this first hand. We headed back to the city to see the large flower festival that happens every year in Chaing Mai and was impressed by their new faicility. They had built a new temple in the center of the gardens where there was performances going on. We walked alot and were beat so headed back for our final night in Chiang Mai.
Day 6: Bye bye Chiang Mai, Hello Gravol!

The Changing of host families and the adoption of another sister.
Well packing was my first obstacle in the changing of host families because I had left it to after I came back from my trip to Chiang Mai. Who knew you collected so much while away? It was sad to say my goodbyes to my host family but knew it was time for another change. Now I would be in the city more and not be able to enjoy the quiet area of Nongsamrong but know that this new home would be great. Also I recently learned that I would be adopting a new sister for the next 4 months too. She is the exchange student from Mexico. She is super nice and was gave me a warm welcome as arrived after her. I know I will learn alot from this experience and will learn how to live with someone else.

Funny story: Before I left for my second host family my mom wanted to take us all for dinner so we tried starting the car but the battery dead. She had to call a friend of her's to give a boost. After about 30 minutes he arrived and started the car. It was great, the car was on and we were all celebrating outside the car. When I try to get in though the car appears to be locked. I guess my host mom had forgotten to unlock the doors. So the doors were locked and the keys were in the ignition. We had to call my host dad whoas away and get him to come in. It was a great night because we laughed about the whole experience over a delicious dinner of sushi.

English Camp:
Well even though I have just arrived to my second host family I will be heading off again. This time to an english camp in the south of Thailand. Nakonayook with the gifted english students in my school. I was looking forward to it because it was being payed for by the generous teachers in the english department. There is me and Jazz at Udon Pitt and she came along as well. We left the school at 10:00pm and got onto a large chartered bus which would take us to our destination. It was an estimated 10 hour drive to get there so the students had brought their singing voices so they could play kareoke into the night. It was good fun to hear them sing along to the subtitles but by 1:00am it was getting a little old and Jazz and I began to protest anymore. In order for me to stay sane I would have to venture downstairs into the VIP section where some of the guys were playing poker just to drown out the sound. Other than the music the drive wasn't too bad. At 8:00am we were all awoken by the loud welcome of a camp leader. He was intructing us to get off the bus to start camp. Noone seemed very excited but we all managed to get off. The first day was mostly orientation. We met the leaders, there were 2 foreigners. One from Ireland and another from the States. I insisted on the camp leaders give me a name tag and a workbook so I could feel a little more involved. The girl from Ireland handed me my name tag and it said poo. Looking at Jazz's I realized it said Pee. I guess I have a new nickname!

Here comes the sun

Interests: I have been discovering some interests of mine while away which is great. Nutrition is something that has always been interesting to me. Seeing what foods are good for you, what foods give you the most energy, and what kind of exercise your body needs to maintain a healthy body. In Udon Thani there is a surprisingly large population of large kids who are eating foods with little or no nutrient. There is an increasingly growing number of 7/eleven's in Udon thus making it very easy to buy that food. It would be great to be able to come in and educate kids over here on how to intake food that will benefit your body, your mind, and your attitude for that matter. Another thing that has been drawing me in is teaching. I recently went to a small village for a week and taught english to students around the ages of 12-16 It was so fun to teach them things they were interested in. I tried to create a fun learning environment so it was easier to stay focusd on the lesson. It was so satisfying to finish a class knowing I taught something worthwhile.

I am living my life
Yes, I am living my life! Recently we started school again after a break of about 3 weeks. I decided to follow one class around and see how I liked it. In my previous schedule I was taking classes with all sorts of people thus making it hard to make connection but whilea following around this 5/6 (grade 11) class I had a great time. Finally feeling connection between some of the people in my school. Great breakthru!

Biking has been something I have done while in Nongsamrong as well. My host dad and I had spoken about biking one day and I mentioned to him that I really enjoyed it. The next week he brought me home a bike which he borrowed from a friend. I was so happy. The next morning I woke up at 7:00 and went biking around my neighbourhood. Finally able to do some exploration! On my way home I stopped by the temple to look around and was ended up getting invited in to their morning service. The morning service is when people come into the temple to give offerings to the monks. Once the monks have enough food they send the food out amonst the people and everyone gets to enjoy a delicious breakfast with the monks. As I introduced myself in Thai I soon came to realize that this was such a unique experience. The women in the blue dress spooned me up some rice and before I knew it I was eating a thai breakfast with monks. After our food was finished and I felt I had spilled every Thai word I had ever known we washed the dishes. The wonderful group od ladies there wanted me to join them at their homes for a tour of the neighbourhood but thought I had better get back to 55/5. I said my wadeeka's and bowed to the Buddha image in the corner.
On the way back home I thought about connecting with some Thai friends today and ended up going to a movie with a group of people. The movie was at the large cinema in town and was 120baht. About 4 dollars! Expensive... We watched the sarrogate which was alright. It was all in Thai so I was a little confused but got the jyst of the story. It is actually an interesting movie because it made me think about how our human race does try to be perceived as perfect sometimes. We are not perfect! We have to see the beauty in that or we will be unhappy forever.

Orphanage trip
While here in Thailand I want to see a different way of life, and learn about a new culture but I also want to expeirence the less glamorous side to the country as well. Look at Thailand as a whole, scars and all. I had spoken with a Rotary member about going to an orphange here in Udon and he found the time to bring us a while back. When we got there I could sense anticipation in the air. As we stepped out of the vehicle we were greated by 100 orphaned girls, ages 3-17. They were all called in at the blow of a whistle. We handed out snacks and began to socialize with these adorable girls. I was introduced o the older girls in the group. I was interested to how this 16 year old was handling having grown up without her mom or dad around. As we began to walk I was so impressed by her motivation to leave the orphange. She had dreamed of being a chef for a long time now. I could see in her eyes that her drive would take her to be succesful. It was an incredibly sight to see a 16 year old far more mature than a grown 30 year old. When we went into the children's play area she took on the role of mommy. Stopping fights, hugging crying children, and speaking with some compassion. It was incredible to see the strength she had within. This particular orphanage was government funded so the kids had access to school, medical care, and special interests. After spending close to an hour touring the building we sat with them to eat where I was witness to a beautiful family of 100 girls sharing stories, laughing, and eating together. The human spirit is so delicate alone but when put with others it is stronger than anything. It was a great trip and definantly worth visiting.

Off to the Village
Our Rotary club recently sent the exchange students in Udon to a nearby village called Nayoong. We would be staying there for 8 days attending school, and home staying with teachers. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time now. Our trip was full of laughter, hiking, and teaching and was the most fun I have had in Thailand!
Day 1: We arrived at the high school at around 3:00pm where we were shown where we would stay. Our home was very nice and we would be bunking up two per room. After taking a quick walk around I already felt more relaxed. No sounds of cars, or people. Just the quiet sound of the wind in the trees and the whooshing sound of the grass. After we had settled into our new pads, we were introduced to the teachers at that school. They were very friendly and I immediatly befriended Kru Kei. She spoke some english but I tried my best to maintain the conversation in thai. She invited to eat som tam with some of the other teacher and I was delighted when I got to ride on the moped through the scenic area of Nayoong. There were rice fields at every corner, with mountains/hills in the horizon. After eating a large meal of extremelly spicy papaya salad I brought up the topic of hiking. Asking them if they knew of anywhere. Just a simple question ledf me to the foot of a steep climb! I was excited to be hiking again. I felt the adrenaline fill my veins as a began my ascent. We hiked for about 20 minutes before reaching the top where there was a beautiful waterfall awaiting to be swam in. Lauren and I didn't hesitate and jumped right in. Headed back in the evening and had an alright sleep on the floor.
Day 2: We woke up early and headed to the temple. We brought offerings to the monks and ate breakfast there as well. After breakfast we headed to another temple. Very beautiful! At dinner time we went to eat a place on the mekong river. We looked over and saw the country of Laos. It was incredible because Laos didn't have any lights on where as Thailand had so many. It amazing how one countries way of life can bring them things like that more quickly than others. It reminded me of my cabin in Ontario not seeing any lights, just trees.

Day3: Took one of many cold showers which never seemed to get any warmer! That day we introduced ourselves to the other students and were sent off to teach english for the morning. I had a blast teaching the kids english. At lunch I tried to convince my friend Kru. Kuy that we should go hiking again at the waterfall. She finally caved and three people went back. This time we went another route though. Much more steep. By the top my calves were burning with pain. The view was so worth the hike though. It was spectacular! Words cannot describe the view!! Also found out that this particular route is still used by monks on their vision quests. It reminded me of Chief Mountain! It was great to be able hike Chief and now hike another similar mountain all the way in Thailand. Very interesting. At dinner we were served sticky rice and chicken. My cheeks are now feeling the extra starch I intook for sure! Was pretty tired at night and was out like a light.

Day 4: This day was very fun because we headed to a cave. This cave is very old and used to used as temple. Some 1000 years ago, with thousands of people living in it. It was very large but I still had to croutch down very low to get thru. It was neat because we still needed to take off our shoes and their were statues of buddha still intact. A very neat experience. It was creepy to think that people actually lived there because it was so muggy. Afterwards we went to see a monk who gave us each a staff.
Day 5: This was a fun day too because we went to go farm rice, it was very fun to see how they do it.We also watched how they created fried bananas. They are so delicious! mmm mmm good.
Day 6: We headed back to Udon Thani.
Day 1:

A trip to North, Halloween in Thailand and one amazing festival!

My Trip Up North

Day 1: Well my adventure up North began on October 22nd when my host mom told me over dinner that I would be leaving in about an hour to go to Chiang Mai. I was very excited but very hungry so I quickly gobbled up as much as my cheeks could carry and headed home to pack. When I got home my host dad said the car was here so the pressure was on. I went upstairs and just ended throwing alot of stuff into my bag. My host mom would come in ever minute or so just to suggest things to bring. I dont think I have ever packed that fast in my life. I didn't know much about where we were going, who we were going with, all I knew was that I was going somewhere which I have had my sights on for a while now. I soon found out that it would be Indira's (Mexican) host family taking all 5 of us to the North. We slept in Udon that night and without getting much sleep awoke at 4:00 to hear Indira host grandmother banging at the door. Before we knew it we were in the van heading to our new location. The drive was beautiful and in between naps, and watching movies we got out to see some of it. We stopped at one beautiful national park where I was seriously considering leaving the group and just going hiking in the nearby hills but having received only 3 hours of sleep I thought sleep was pretty important right now. We arrived in Chiang Rai at around 7:00pm after a 10 hour drive and everyone was beat. We stayed in a nice hotel for the night and I slept like a baby.

Day 2:The next morning we spent alot of our time in the van. We drove the Northest part of Thailand which I now believe was apart of the golden triangle. The city was called Mae Sai and it was beautiful. Our driver brought us up a small hill and we climbed a large set of stairs to see the surrounding scenery. The air was so fresh up there. I loved it. My friend Lauren from the States were picking out which house we would live in. Would we chose the Thailand side or the Burma (Myanmar) side? I was excited to be out of the car again and took the advantage to stretch my legs. I deicided to run down the large staircase to the bottom of the hill. Running down them kind of lost the desired effect but was still nice to breathe in the fresh breeze. We walkeda round the market for a while and then piled into the car for one more topsy tourny journey. We stopped at a beautiful resort on our way up the mountain. There was a lovely garden which overlooked what seemed like 9 valleys. You could see small hilltribe communities and it was an amazing spot. We ate lunch here and enjoyed enjoyed the view. That night we arrived in Chiang Mai late but still went to the "night market" where we all did some looking around. Amazing how many foreigners there are! I counted 30 just in one area. Popular place I guess. Our driver brought us back to our hotel and I had picked up a map of Chiang Mai just to get a feel for things. I saw an advetisement for a climbing place in town. It immediatly caught my eye and I called then almost immediatly. The man who answered was an American and he was fleunt in both Thai and English. I asked him if climbing was popular around here and he said because this is such a touristy place a lot of people come here to climb. I wanted to go to their shop because they have a small bouldering wall but the next day their ended up to be no time. Instead I just got his email address and whenever I am in the area I can give him a shout. Rock climbing is something I have been missing while being away for sure!

Day 3: Everybody woke at 6:00 and we ate at the hotel at around 7:00. At 8:00 we headed out to see a monkey school where they train monkeys. It was closed but they did have a little monkey outside on a leash wearing makeup and a tutu to draw tourists in. I had a hard time watching him just because it seemed so wrong. I was glad when we left soon after getting there. After not seeing the monkeys I guess it was only "right" to go see an elephant camp. It was interesting to see where they lived and what they ate but still had that inner voice inside telling me to set to them free. They are such smart animals. Much smarter than humans and why are they not allowed to roam free anymore? I thought I would lighten my mood with a nice cappucino from the nearby cafe and try not to think about those poor animals.

Next stop was a hill tribe. Now this is something I have been wanting to go to the North for. Hearing so much about them makes me really excited. Going there I was feeling extremely car sick because the roads are crazy windy. Indira's host mother gave me some medicine but I had to move to front in order for it to work. The hill tribe was not what I expected because it was so modern. There were alot of tourists and very little hill people. I asked the driver this and he said that most of the hill tribes today have integrated themselves with the modern world so some do not wear their tradiational clothes anymore. I spoke to a few of the children in the village. 3 of the girls I spoke with were selling tickets to a museum. The tickets were 10baht so I purchased one. The museum ended up to be free so I chuckled to myself looking down at the ticket I just bought. I actually ended up seperating myself from thr group because they went to go rent hill tribe dresses and get pictures taken. This is something I am seeing more and more in Thai culture. Pictures, pictures and more pictures. I snuck away and enjoyed a nice adventure thru the village with myself. While I was walking around one little boy dressed in hill tirbe costume approached me and asked if I wanted a picture with him? Sure, I said with much enthusism. 5 baht he said. So i got a good picture with a nice Hill tribe boy for 5 baht!

On our way back from the hill tribe we stopped at the Chiang Mai zoo. This was the home of the famous Mee Panda. It was awesome to see a panda for the first time. I would have loved to hug the guy though. So it was about 5:30 when we were done there and I finally found out that we were heading back to Udon tonight! So our drivers stopped at 7/11 before we started and stalked up on cafeine filled drinks. I couldn't imagine driving for 10 hours into the night. After a roughride in the car and many stops along the way we finally made it back to Udon. I was walking in the door as my brother was walking out to school and decided it might be best if I caught up on some sleep. Overall it was a good trip. I think it was a good taste of what I would like to see more of!

Happy Halloween!
October 31st was an exciting day. I got to sleep in and at 4:00 went to a halloween party that an english school in toen was putting on. The teachers running the school were from Britain, and America so tried to make it as close as they could. There was pumpkin carving, apple dunking, lots of candy, scary movies, great costumes! I just brought my housecoat and said I was sleepy. I ended up leaving the festivities early and went to my friend Deb's house where she had invited some of her friends over and made pasta and bread. I was already stuffed of candy but miraculously made room for more and enjoyed every bite of her homemade bread and delicious pasta. There were two girls from the states there who were 22, and 19. They were hillarious and I will definantly be in touch with them while I am in Udon.

Loigratong festival!

Now this has got to be the coolest festival I have ever been too. They make little rafts out of banana leaves and put candles on them. This is a symbol of fogiveness to the water to apologize for the way we treat it, they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha. We got to make one and send it out into the water. Making a wish as it floats away. There were also a different design of grotong. You could buy something that looks similar to a lantern and then light the bottom of it of fire. This them allows the white fabric to fill with hot air and rise similar as a hot air balloon. It was so beautiful to see them all! There must have been hundreds in the sky.