Wednesday
Today I realized that somehow upon arriving in this country I magically became an expert at using chop sticks. No joke. Thailand loves me.
Also today was the Third day of classes. Language is really intense and to be honest hurts my brain…a lot. But it’s amazing how much I’m learning so quickly and I love the teachers. I can't imagine how much will power it takes them not to laugh at my feeble attempts to pronounce words that feel just.. so wrong to my American trained mouth. Despite our butchering of their native language they are really encouraging, which is fortunate because every time I think I'm catching on to one thing we move on to something new and again I'm drowning in syllables and tones, wanting to give up and go cry to my host mom and eat my feelings with a big bowl of sticky rice.
We are taught completely in Thai, we aren’t supposed to use ANY English. Nada. Whoops wrong language.. we still ask quite a few questions in English because we don’t know enough to ask in Thai yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to be strict about it as soon as we know enough to get by. So I have that to look forward to. Terrifying.
Because it’s the first week things are pretty unstable, we’ve been doing a lot of orientation and today we went on a city tour to the art museum, a "rahn yahan" (restaurant) and a big market (Kat-Luang)to do a scavenger hunt. It was pretty much awesome.
The market was HUGE. There were so many things to look at, so many smells (The good ones;amazing. The bad ones...foul.foul.foul), and of course, so much to taste. Our scavenger hunt was written in Thai so we had no idea what we were looking for. We went around to whoever looked like they weren't busy...pointed to the word...and said "Arai ka? Arai ka?" Basically we were the epitome of a foreigner, primitively pointing and grunting.."what what?" Luckily Thai people are the most amazing, helpful people I've ever met and everyone just pointed us the right direction until finally we were standing in front of a booth holding at least a dozen colorful things that I was hesitant to label as fruit because they looked more like children’s toys. But 3 seconds later I was shown that yes indeed it was edible: clear, sweet, smooth, delicious.
Today I realized that somehow upon arriving in this country I magically became an expert at using chop sticks. No joke. Thailand loves me.
Also today was the Third day of classes. Language is really intense and to be honest hurts my brain…a lot. But it’s amazing how much I’m learning so quickly and I love the teachers. I can't imagine how much will power it takes them not to laugh at my feeble attempts to pronounce words that feel just.. so wrong to my American trained mouth. Despite our butchering of their native language they are really encouraging, which is fortunate because every time I think I'm catching on to one thing we move on to something new and again I'm drowning in syllables and tones, wanting to give up and go cry to my host mom and eat my feelings with a big bowl of sticky rice.
We are taught completely in Thai, we aren’t supposed to use ANY English. Nada. Whoops wrong language.. we still ask quite a few questions in English because we don’t know enough to ask in Thai yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to be strict about it as soon as we know enough to get by. So I have that to look forward to. Terrifying.
Because it’s the first week things are pretty unstable, we’ve been doing a lot of orientation and today we went on a city tour to the art museum, a "rahn yahan" (restaurant) and a big market (Kat-Luang)to do a scavenger hunt. It was pretty much awesome.
The market was HUGE. There were so many things to look at, so many smells (The good ones;amazing. The bad ones...foul.foul.foul), and of course, so much to taste. Our scavenger hunt was written in Thai so we had no idea what we were looking for. We went around to whoever looked like they weren't busy...pointed to the word...and said "Arai ka? Arai ka?" Basically we were the epitome of a foreigner, primitively pointing and grunting.."what what?" Luckily Thai people are the most amazing, helpful people I've ever met and everyone just pointed us the right direction until finally we were standing in front of a booth holding at least a dozen colorful things that I was hesitant to label as fruit because they looked more like children’s toys. But 3 seconds later I was shown that yes indeed it was edible: clear, sweet, smooth, delicious.
Some little old lady even walked around with us showing us where things were, it was adorable I wanted to take her home with me...I don't have a host grandma yet, if I knew enough Thai I would have asked her if she wanted to .
Most of the items on the list were foods which we bought and sampled. This included fried worms. Apparently the most expensive ones you can get in Chiang Mai because they live in some tree and never touch the ground? Who knew... Apparently at night there are several fried bugs for sale and they're supposed to be delicious. Two orders Crispy Caterpillar, Roasted Rolly polly and a side of French Fried Flees please.
Afterwards we all met up and our Ajaans and we talked about the things we tried and then I made the mistake of trying to be helpful in a country where I know absolutely nothing. About anything. Why? I don’t know. I really…don’t know. I called my host sister and told her she could just pick me up at the market. Because I thought it was closer than my school. Because I didn’t think about the traffic. Because I didn’t think about the fact that I would have to stay in one place until she came to me. Because I am a stupid stupid farang (foreigner). It wasn’t that bad but the fumes were awful and I was exhausted from running around the market all day so my feet hurt and there was no where to sit. But I am not one to dwell on my stupidity so I made the most of it and bought a coconut ice cream (&#*(^&@)(* YUM and people watched.
OH, how could I forget…we also have started cross fitness training. It's so soothing after a day of learning to get some fresh air, stretch out our limbs, breath in (Or should I say swallow? chew?)the thick, humid, air and embark on the torture tour that is Kru Jon's workout. Those of you who have experienced or been told tales of the abundance of my sweat can’t even imagine the rivers pouring from every pore. I’ll let you ponder that lovely image in your heads.
No comments:
Post a Comment