Week Two in Chiang Rai

Hey everybody!

It's been two weeks in Chiang Rai, so far, and I think I'm finally starting to get settled in. It takes quite a while to get adjusted – longer than I ever thought it would. There are some days that I just get in a bad mood for no reason at all, but all that's finally starting to pass.

I'm not picking up much Thai. There's not much of an opportunity, to tell the truth. Most people at the school speak to me in English. My Thai is pretty bad to begin with, so there's only so far I can go communicating in Thai. I have to say, though, that I can listen and understand Thai far better than I can remember my vocabulary and actually construct sentences myself.

I can't remember if I've already written about this, but my house is pretty great. I have a Western toilet, so no squatting for me. The shower has a water heater, so I don't freeze at all. I am really hooked up, as far as meals and things go, as Khun Yai (my new grandma/landlady) makes me great dinners during the week and all three meals over the weekends. I'm not sure how much this service costs, yet, but it's nice to have. I don't have internet at the house, but the school has a decent connection. If you've been wondering why I'm never on Skype or online, that's why. I teach while everyone back home is asleep, so I don’t have much of a chance to talk. If anyone is interested in talking, I normally have a chance at what would be 5:00am at home. Let me know if you want to try! The worst thing so far about the house is this really annoying peacock that lives on the grounds with me. The bird's favorite spot to perch is on top of my roof or on the banister of my porch. I didn't know this before, but peacocks make god-awful sounds, and this particular peacock makes this sound all night long! When it's on the roof, it sounds like it's sitting in bed with me – so loud!!

I got to eat a really fancy dinner last Friday with the Fulbright Board in Thailand. Luckily for me, they decided to have their board meeting in Chiang Rai this year, so some of them stopped by my school to watch me teach. I went to their really ritzy hotel later on, met Paige, and stuffed myself with tons of food. They had potatoes, which are apparently hard to come by in Thailand, so I went to town. I also made a pretty good dent in the dessert bar – they had a chocolate fountain! Couldn't help myself.

This weekend has been a lazy one for me. Saturday my host teacher came to pick me up at 4:00 for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I have to say that authentic, closer to the source Chinese food is way better than what we have in the US. We also got to walk along a street market that's only open on Saturdays. They had tons of stuff, and while we looked for a traditional Thai shirt for me to wear on the upcoming holiday of Loi Khratong, we never found one big enough. (I'll write about Loi Khratong a little later.) One sweet older teacher from my school, Ajarn Wanpen (Mrs. "Fullmoon"), sells her paintings at this street market, and she was really excited to see me there! She's convinced that I would help her sell more paintings if I sat with her on Saturdays. I'm sure it would be a good time, so maybe before my time's up I'll go back.

I've been trying to use my Sunday to catch up on things – writing in my journal, writing lessons and blog posts, jotting down a few postcard messages to send home. Somehow studying Thai is always the last thing I get to. Seems like that should be a higher priority, doesn't it….