My Weekend

Sorry it took me so long, pictures take forever to load and the internet has been faulty. This is what i was up to last weekend.

one of the many wats we saw on our wandering

found a familiar face

Dionthe and I during our ride in the tuktuk (i will take a picture of one, they are awesome)

another random wat ....and guess who was in front??

i'm not sure what it means

genie pants: they are everywhere! and I love them!

Overall, a pretty awesome weekend. 8 days till Cambodia!!

Things I am getting used to in Thailand:

-chilies in everything….even sweet or sour things. They like it on everything. We had mango sticky rice today (sticky rice with coconut milk and sugar…..DE-licious!) and yep they doused it with chili sauce. Even though I often cry through my meals, I think my tolerance for spiciness is increasing.

-bugs all night long….i have to fall asleep fast or else they keep me up all night. I know they crawl all over me when I sleep but I just try not to think about it….

-walking barefoot everywhere. They take off their shoes for every room. Even the kitchen which is pretty gross because it is outside. I have even been in squatter bathrooms where you are supposed to take off your shoes. (Megan, you would hate it here)

- brick hard pillows. Seriously give me a log of wood and it would be just as comfortable.

-bug bites everyday (see above point) and in new places everyday.

-weird noises all the time. I live in a house of deaf boys so they don’t know what sounds they are making

-schedule? No such thing. They make one and give it to you but never ever follow it.

-lizards that sound like birds or monkeys

-cold showers….not too bad when its hot but when its not…

-waking up at 5:30 every morning to roosters, dogs, and deaf children noises

-being a mom to children I don’t understand and don’t understand me

-carrying a bottle of water with me everywhere

-no sheets, no blankets, and not much of a pillow (see above)

-sketchy internet….not a big deal, I am grateful to have it but it cuts out all the time

-green mangos? The kids pick them when they are still green and love them but they are super sour

-no privacy

These all sound like negative things. I like to think that they are just building my character (right dad?). I am becoming more flexible and honestly I really am getting used to these things and they do not bother me much anymore. Which isn’t to say I won’t be super grateful for a clean, quiet, bugless bed with sheets and lots of pillows.

I had to

Okay so I realize that I have only been here not quite three weeks but I missed this so bad so I had to. It has been my little after dinner snack and it has been my salvation! I really do like the food here but it is two things everyday every meal: rice and spicy. Always rice and always differing degrees of spiciness. So I splurged and bought good ol' American Skippy crunchy peanut butter. Not rice and not spicy. And yes, we used Dionthe's student id as a knife.

Announcement!

This is for you, Mom:

I Emily Anne Thorley like bananas.....in Thailand. Here is proof:

Wat U-mong

Here are some pictures from the Wat that I visited last Sunday. It is over 600 years old and it really was beautiful. It was interesting to see such a different religion and how this religion has shaped Thai culture. Buddhism in Thailand is Theravada Buddhism, different from the Mahayana Buddhism of the Chinese. It literally means "the lesser vehicle" and is a stricter religion than the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism. It was a spiritual experience for me to visit their place of worship right after I had done my own religious worship at the branch in Chiang Mai and see the way other people have found truth and meaning in life.

House Arrest

We got a notice this evening from our student facilitator telling us to make sure we stay put with our host families for the next few days. I think his instructions are more applicable to the students living in the city. We really don't have any place to go up here on the farm. Apparently all the unrest in Bangkok is coming to a head. After a rebel red-shirt general was shot last weekend, the riots have escalated and the military has come down really hard. It really has had no effect on us up north. I honestly forgot that there was anything going on in Bangkok. However, BYU is taking things seriously as are our professor and student facilitator. There is a chance that I could come home. We should know in the next few days. I really hope that I get to stay. I feel like I have just had a taste of what I am in for and it would be really hard to go home now after seeing what good I could do and what I could learn. I don't want any of you to worry about me. The violence is really far away and has absolutely nothing to do with me. Plus, I am living up in the mountains away from anything remotely political. I feel 100% safe in the hands of my professor and BYU. They know what they are doing and if they feel the situation is too dangerous, they will pull us out. In the mean time, I intend to do what I can, learn what I can, and enjoy this experience while it lasts.

stop and smell the roses.....or lotus blossoms

So today we pretty much sat around and relaxed all day. Things are pretty chill here in Thailand. No plan, no schedule, just go with the flow. This evening I sat in this bamboo hut looking out at the lotus pond as the sun set through the banana trees. It had finally cooled down enough to where it was pleasant to be outside. I had nothing to do and nothing particular on my mind. I was just sitting there…being. It was wonderful. It really was. People keep telling me “just relax and realize that Thai people work differently than Westerners. They don’t plan, they don’t care if things don’t go how they anticipated. They go at their own pace and it works for them. They get it all done.” Clearly they don’t know me very well yet. I knew I was drawn to this place for a reason! It is very different from the fast pace of life back home. I told Brittany last semester, “Don’t you ever wish that you could just pause life, take a break and breathe, step out, look at what you are doing and get a clearer perspective?” That is what I feel like I am doing here. No amazing insights yet but the chance to breathe has already been sustaining.

So this weekend we got to get off the farm and go down to Chiang Mai. We got to go to a Sikh temple where we participated in their services. I am not really sure what it meant or what we were doing. I think we were worshiping the "word" of the gurus. They had a big shrine built for the "holy word." When we went in we had to cover our heads and the girls sat on one side of the room and the boys sat on the other. The priest sang in Punjabi and then they passed out this nasty oily dough stuff, kinda like the sacrament, I think. We ate breakfast with them and then they talked to us about Sikhism. It was really interesting to learn about their religion. I'll be honest though, even though they were speaking English, I didn't really understand what they were saying. From what I did understand, they emphasized how all men were created equal. All religions should respect each other, men and women should respect each other, etc. They seemed really pleased that we were there learning more about their religion and they were happy to talk to us.

Deluxe Resort

This is Dionthe and I in the truck on our first day on the way to the orphanage.

This was our orignal living quarters, we have since been upgraded.

This is the room we are staying in now.

This is the bathroom we were orignally using. Complete with shower and toilet!

It is amazing how grateful I am now for a toilet with no toilet paper directly underneath the showerhead!

Sawattikha!

Hello!!

Wow, so i am finally where I am going to be for the next few months. I am actually going to be staying at an orphanage for deaf kids in the mountains above Chiang Mai. It is about a half hour outside the city. The website for it is http://www.childrens-shelter.com/ if you want to look it up. I am staying here with one other girl, Dionthe. I think we are going to get along great. This place is so cool! We are up in the hills so it is really green and a lot more rural...and apparently it is the dry season as well, so it will only get greener. There is no AC and it is sweltering! Like ridiculously hot. Everybody shuts down in the afternoon cause it is too hot. So we will work in the morning and evenings. As far as what I am going to do here, I am not sure yet. I think that we will help teach the kids English and math and different things like that. Dionthe signs, so that is an easy jump across the communication barrier for her because everybody signs here, whether you are deaf or not. Apparently Thai sign language is pretty similar to ASL. So I am going to have a lot to learn but I am really excited. I love the kids already. I played jacks and badminton with them. They love badminton so booyah for all you who made fun of me for taking that class...obviously I was inspired:) The kids have already given me a nickname in sign language....but, I'm not sure what it means yet:) Dionthe and I have bikes that we are going to be able to ride around. Man, I am way excited. I kinda feel bad for the other students who are living in the city. We have the ideal spot. There is one other American here. Her name is Audra and we will be kinda working with her. She is really cool and really nice. She has been working here for a couple of years. I am way impressed with her. i am a little overwhelmed trying to take everything in. Everything is so different here, from the tastes, to the smells and trees and fruit...everything! I realized that I couldn't be going anywhere more foreign to me....I think even Chinese-Asian culture would be more comfortable to me than Thai culture. I already love it though. The Thai people are so friendly and accepting so even if i make dumb falang (white people) mistakes, they are forgiving.

Well, there you go for my first blog entry. I will try to be good about posting stuff and pictures, but I'm still new to this game and so it won't be anything fancy. So there you go, that was day one of my Thailand adventure.