This is what happens when you ask a random Thai person to take your picture at a tourist attraction...it turns into a full on photo shoot :)It's been a bit since I last posted! Life has been very full of adventures lately which hasn't left much time for blogging. Two weeks ago my school suddenly had midterms which meant I was free to travel to Chiang Mai to meet up with my Pitzer homie, Miss Misa Kabashima who was visiting from Korea. We had some lovely r and r and ate like queens including bomb Mexican food and giant fresh salads with pick your own toppings. We also went swimming which was glorious. After that, I was back in Chiang Saen for a hectic week of recovering from one trip, getting ready for Sean's arrival/English camp, and trying to teach 540 teenagers about body parts. The body parts lesson was highly entertaining especially because I'm pretty sure I may have flashed my students while trying to point to my heel and the inevitable giggling when we named breasts. One class came up with nipples on their own...usually they would just all shout out MILK! which is a direct translation from the Thai word for breasts. Pretty soon it was Friday and time to pick Sean up from the airport.
Misa (a friend from Pitzer) and Kanako (Misa's friend from study abroad) in Chiang Mai
Sean at a temple on the top of Doi Mae Salong
Beautiful Mae Salong, a town about 45 km from Chiang Saen (up in the hills) full of tea plantations and Chinese who fled the Cultural Revolution. After an incredibly curvy drive in a song taew (a pick up truck with benches in the back) where our driver may have had aspirations of being a formula one racer, we made it!
Wat Ran Kun or the White Temple (one of the most famous tourist attractions in Chiang Rai. This wat is being built by an artist and is startlingly different than any other wat. There are skeletal hands and skulls reaching up from under the walkway as you enter, the whole thing is perfectly white and decorated with tiny mirrors that make it sparkle, and on the inside there is a mural in progress with political commentary (about oil, twin towers, etc) and some random appearances of superheroes.
Sorry Mom. This one was just too funny not to include...I promise it doesn't represent the truth! This was at the temple on Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai.
The beautiful wat on top of Doi Suthep. Overlooks Chiang Mai City and has quite the golden Chedi. Sean and I cast fortune sticks (there are a bunch of numbered sticks in a cup and you shake it until one falls out. The number corresponds to your fortune. Mine was so-so and basically said not to start new projects and that I would have to wait for love...hmmm. Sean's said to marry a widow...so I guess we'll be taking those with a grain of salt, but fun all the same.
There is a Buddha image for each day of the week...of course mine is laying down which doesn't help with all the "lacey/lazy" jokes that the Thai teachers love so much...
This pretty much sums up my life philosophy...Live Life Chocolately!!!All in all, it was so great to have Sean here and be able to take a week off to adventure around. Only about four more weeks left in the semester so I am trying to squeeze in a final project. There is also a rumor of a boy scout camping trip next week that I may be going on...
If all goes as planned, in March, I will be living in Chiang Mai and interning as a research assistant with someone doing forest regeneration research. Gotta run to school! Miss you all and happy Kansas Day (a couple days late!).
No comments:
Post a Comment