repeling, eggs, and friends!

Weekends are generally a good thing, but for some reason I had an absolutely spectacular weekend. It started with our group from ISDSI (17 students and 3 instructors) heading out to a site outside of Chiang Mai called “Crazy Horse”. Crazy Horse is a site for a series of caves and cliffs. We spent the morning exploring a couple different caves and learning about the different features of caves. We then zip-lined across one cave to a stalactite and repelled down 150 feet! It was pretty thrilling. We had lunch and then spent the afternoon rock-climbing the cliffs outside of the cave. I’m not the best climber, but I was surprised to find that I was very capable of climbing the different rock faces. I spent Friday night with my host family, and singing chereokee with Nong Yeem (my younger sister).

Saturday came and for the first time in about a week I got to sleep in! (til 9! haha…) I ate breakfast and did some homework, and then my Paw said that I needed to relax from my long day of climbing….so….our family went to the hot springs outside of the city! My afternoon was pretty harsh….taking a hot mineral bath (pretty much like a hot tub) and ending the day with a Thai massage. The hot springs are a popular picnic area, and when people eat at the hot springs, they boil eggs in the hot spring! haha it’s pretty sweet! My Paw asked me if I wanted an egg, and I said yes, so he popped an egg into the hot spring bath for about 3 minutes and bam! soft boiled egg!

On Sunday my Mae took me to church, which was mostly in Thai, but very relieving to be in communion with all kinds of people worshiping God (I love it when my definition of church is changed and expanded because of experiences like these). Then I ran errands with my Mae for the next couple hours, and while we were in the heart of the city, I actually had the opportunity to see a very good friend from Calvin (I know, crazy, huh?). She had been gone this past fall semester serving abroad with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). Needless to say, the long-awaited reunion was definitely exciting! Please pray for her as she continues her work with YWAM in the states this spring (her name is Emma by the way).

Annnd, after all of the excitement this weekend, I have to say that this week has been pretty amazing thus far. We just started our Foundations course, which deals with the history, geology, and culture of Thailand. We are learning super interesting and useful things in this course! It’s very different from taking some classes back in the U.S. where the information you learn may or may not be applicable to your everyday life. I think it’s safe to say that I use just about everything I learn in both my Foundations class and my Thai language class-it’s a very satisfying feeling! Thai culture is very interesting, there’s so much to learn. I feel like I’m learning so much all the time (to be honest sometimes I feel like a toddler). But, it’s very good, and I am loving it so far! More to come soon. Hopefully pictures too if I can figure out how to post them…

lovelovelove,

Bets

greetings from the land of smiles!

Wow, what a week it’s been! Today marked our last day of Thai classes for the week (we just started to learn characters!) and tomorrow our group from ISDSI (there are 17 of us all together) is going rock climbing. This week has been very intense but good. Mostly we have been learning basic Thai words and phrases this week. I have learned things like..”Di-chan cheuu Betsy ka” (My name is Betsy). There are some phrases which have become quite helpful, such as “eeem mao” (I’m full) for when my Mae tries to keep putting more “chao” (rice) on my plate. I also have most recently been nicknamed “Sao-Nuah” (young girl from the north) by some of my neighbors. Haha, I love it, because all I can do is laugh. ISDSI tells you alot of things to prepare you for living here, but one thing they did not warn me about was how beautiful this country would be. The weather is perfect, not too hot, not too cold. And the sun is always shining! My Mae and Paw keep asking me how much snow Michigan has, and when I tell them they both laugh and say “too cold”. I have some time off this afternoon so me and some other students might walk to Ajaan Danai’s (professor Danai-one of our Thai instructors) coffee shop in the city and relax–sounds perfect! Until I post again, Sawadee-ka!

Oh, I almost forgot. I read on the cover of the Bangkok Post this morning about the earthquake in Haiti…Wow, how devastating. I think there is an interim trip in Jamaica right now? I hope that they are all safe and sound. Please, pray for the survivors, for the dead, the wounded, and the country of Haiti in general. Blessings!

Sawadee-ka

So. I am here, and it’s been a long journey! I just got through with my first day of Thai language classes, and it was intense to say the least. I am very excited though, because it can get frustrating to live with my family and not be able to communicate with their native language. Oh, I’m sorry, I never introduced my Thai family. I have my Mae (mom) and Paw (dad) and also my sister Nong Yeem (Nong means someone younger). Living with them is excellent, they take me in as if I was literally born into their family. In return, I try to spend lots of time at home, and helping out with chores (yes mom, that’s right!). Last night I got the opportunity to explore the city of Chiang Mai a bit with a couple of students who were on this same study abroad program last semester. It was soo helpful to learn about the city from these students (they hail from Kalamazoo College by the way:) and just learn little things about this new culture I’ve been immersed in. We explored a market called Got-Luang and also one called “the Walking Street”. The Walking street is a large series of streets all closed off for vendors and what not. It’s perfect for shopping and getting a cheap meal (a plate full of pad thai is 20 baht-or 75 cents). This is special too, because it is a market that only takes place on Sundays. After leaving the market, I returned home to my host family’s house in the small town on Doy-se-ket and I ironed my school uniform with my Mae. I have so much more to share with you, but there are also many other students who need to use the computers, so I must get going. I will post again as soon as I can!

lovelovelove,

Bets

Half way there…

So, there is a group of five Calvin students (including myself) who are flying together out to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Yesterday we left Chicago O’Hare and departed for Seoul, South Korea. This plan flight was about 14 hours long…not tooo bad…And it made it easier that I met a women who was a native of Thailand and had heard of Calvin College (I know, crazy. right?). So our group is currently settled in a small hotel near the airport in Seoul, and our flight to Bangkok leaves tomorrow night around 8 p.m. (it’s about 10 p.m. here right now).

Earlier tonight me and two other students I’m traveling with decided we were hungry….and wanted to try the local cuisine. We took our camera, our American dollars, and our appetites to the neighborhood Korean restaurant. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We quickly realized that none of us knew ANY Korean. We were a little nervous about ordering food, simply because we did not know what we were ordering. A Korean man at the table next to us noticed we were American, and so tried out his English speaking skills. He was very helpful and kind, even if the only word he knew was “rice”. Our waitress was very thoughtful, and quickly brought us out a picture menu! We pointed at something that looked edible and continued sitting with legs crossed on the heated floor (yeah, that’s right, no chairs). Well it was very flattering, because although we had not really ordered very much food (or so we thought) we ended up getting just about every Korean dish you could ask for! I tried every dish that was brought out to us (except for oysters, sorry mom) and for the most part, they were all very delicious…and spicy. So, after attempting to eat all that we possible could, we paid and walked back to the hotel-just a side note-Korea just got a massive snow storm recently, and they have lots and lots of snow (yup, more than Michigan). So when we were walking back to our hotel, it almost felt like we were in a small ski town. Anyway, enough adventures for one night, my next post will hopefully come from Thailand! Blessings

lovelovelove

Betsy