Pringles! Thai Style: not pictured- soft shell crab and seaweed

Veiw of Chiang Mai from the hike: zoom a few thousand times and you'll find ISDSI

At the forest temple: Sabai Sabai...relaxed, harmonious with life, all is well

Some of the group in front of the Wat Doi Suthep stairs: (notice the Yesterdog shirt.Reppin)
Pure surprise: Farang and Chang bff for life
One of my favorite fruits: impossible to pronounce/write...Nghaugh? It's all in the throat

Yesterday my host family brought me to Duke's. It's an Italian restaurant, Farang style: individual ordered meals rather than shared Thai style of mix and match dishes and hodge podge grabbing, Menu written strictly in English and naturally overpriced. "I bring you here so you feel like you in you're Michigan." Awww, thanks Kun Mae. At first I was kind of bummed, I love Thai food and don't like them spending unnecessary large sums of money on me... but once the food came it was nice to eat some things I haven't seen in a month. I have been craving pizza and mashed potatoes both of which were welcomed by my taste buds, happy to be reunited with their long lost friends cheese and potato.

Before the food came out my Mae pulled out four Tupperware containers. Fruit! She must have known that she wasn't going to like the salad dressing I would choose (I don't think they would have liked any of the choices actually, they like something similar to mayo smothered on their salads...) and of course once the food came we simply ate Thai style anyway: all plates in the middle, a flurry of knives, forks, hands...and ketchup. Ketchup by the bottle. I kid you not we went through 2 whole medium sized, glass Heinz ketchup bottles. They may not have been completely full but we had to grab a third bottle from another table, so I stick by my estimate of TWO complete bottles. My family loves the stuff especially my little brother who had to swim through the pool of red on his plate to find the crust of his pizza at the bottom. "Would you like any pizza with your ketchup?"

After lunch we went shopping for my dinner party. It's my last weekend :( because next Saturday we move into dorms. Therefore, it's the time to do it big. We made Suki! Basically we have these tables at our house that have 4 hot plates built in, one in front of each seat. We had a bowl of boiling water, into which we added whatever we desired. A cornucopia of vegetables, a plethora of thinly stripped meat, seafood aplenty: shrimp, fresh fish, crab meat. And a rainbow of unidentified processed thingamabobs. Star shaped, cat shaped, fish shaped doohikeys...pink and white in color (My best guess: fish "balls") circles, squares, the occasional dumbell shaped shmooshma, usually tan in color on the outside, sometimes flecks of unnatural green, red, orange, neon yellow on the inside...I think you get the picture. I was braving the unknown. No worries, I love adventure. On second thought, I don't think I explained the full extent of options I was given. There was also eggs, jelly noodles, several tofu options, green sauce, red sauce, cilantro, garlic, crispy pork wafers, chili paste....I actually really didn't know what to do with myself when I first saw it all. I kind of waited around until my Kun Mae started to plop things into my bowl and then just watched and learned. Sanook Sanook Sanook (fun). Rroan rroan rroan (HOT) Soon my broth got a little saltier as I began to sweat profusely due to spiciness and excessive steam. A few trips to the kitchen for some ice and all was well.

Writing this is making me realize how much I'm going to miss my family, they are so much fun and have made my home stay experience better than I could have ever expected. I was actually pretty nervous and was prepared to feel awkward and crave contact with my American friends for 5 weeks. I was proved wrong in all respects and feel more connected to my new home than I thought was possible to feel after such a short amount of time. It's nice to know that I have a safe and welcoming place on two opposite sides of the world. My Mae has already told me I have to go out to eat with her for the festival in November and told me next year to come back with my mother and "No need for hotel, you stay with me." This Thursday is the host family dinner party hosted by ISDSI, I hope I don't cry.

OHHHHH Duuuh. I mean Doi. I forget to write about Doi Suthep hike on Friday. Holy Holy cow. I mean Holy Wat. I mean holy temple. After hiking 1 mile straight up a mountain...Not exaggerating it took 2 hours and was full of exciting obstacles such as fallen trees, streams, rocks, vines, the occasional passed out student (j/k)...we reached Wat Doi Suthep. The second most famous Wat in all of Chiang Mai. We changed out of our sweaty hiking clothes and into our culturally appropriate wat-wear and proceded to walk up 300 stairs with beautiful undulating dragons escorting us on either side. Just what our legs needed. Ha. It was pretty touristy and pretty pretty. There was an amazing view which quenched my thirst for wide open space and beautiful carvings and Buddhas aplenty.

The hike itself was a chance to realize the extent of the diversity of wildlife sustained by a tropical climate. We hiked through 4 different types of forests the names of which I promptly forgot and saw literally thousands of different plants. A monkey was spotted, I saw a big grandpa turtle, so many beautiful butterflies (of course, my spirit animal follows me even in Thailand) dragonflies, and huge bugs I would rather stay away from. Several waterfalls, a lunch packed in banana leaves, a long, thoughtful stroll through a smaller forest temple halfway up the mountain...Just another day at school.

:)

I can't believe it's already been a month. Time is flying and I love every second.

I'll leave you with a great Thai joke I heard.
Preface: another word that makes more sense to me in Thai than English. The word for a bad smell is men. Stinky men. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I can remember than one and thank goodness no weird faces, tones, or tongue tricks accompany it.

"Which bathroom smells worse men's or women's?"
"Women's because there is Woooo-men" (imagine with someone emphasizing the wooo and fanning their nose, maybe it’s a hard one to get across via the internet. Remind me to tell you sometime…

Oof. Fail.

Until next time...
Sabai Sabai