Landfills, slums, and old friends.

So last unit, we learned where all of our food comes from. This unit, we learned where our food goes when we're done with it.

First in the urban unit, the group visited Kham Bon landfill right here in Khon Kaen. Many of our Thai friends don't even know where the landfill is, as it's tucked away off of a highway in the middle of seemingly nowhere. But here we were, standing on, quite literally, mountains of trash.

As soon as I got out of the van, the stench of rotting food and something I can only describe as just yucky attacked my nostrils. I looked up and towering over me was tons upon tons of waste. After putting on some fisherman's boots, the villagers said that we would have to walk down the road to get to the entrance of the landfill. But apparently, the dumptrucks got lazy one day and just dumped all their trash in the road. So we would have to walk on a road of trash to get to the mountains of trash. Great.

About 3 minutes into the trek, my friend walking in front of me stepped on something and half-rotted tomato and some questionable vomit-looking substance spewed on my left leg. That made for quite an interesting walk around the landfill for the rest of the day for sure. We ended up climbing a mountain of trash, and I stood on top of it feeling like the king of the mountain. You know, that game that we played as elementary school kids. Remember? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. As I looked down on my kingdom of trash, I saw a green field which was... a field of sugarcane and cassava, it seemed. I'm sure the rainwater mixed with the most likely toxic and, again, yucky substances doesn't do those plants justice. Or so I thought until our tour guide decided to pick up a Thai melon off its vine on the ground. He said the melon grew thanks to the water right beside the landfill.

Oh. Okay. Makes total sense.

We then went back to the entrance to the landfill to look at the incinerator which looked pretty dangerous... You know, not to mention the blood vials that were haphazardly strewn around it.

Picture thanks to one of our program facilitators. I was too creeped out to take one.

Then, the villagers explained that lots of hospital waste was dumped there, too. As we walked along the trail, we couldn't help but notice all the catheters that were either visible under the flimsy piece of red plastic that the villagers used to mark the hospital waste or obviously poking out of the ground. We climbed a smaller mountain of trash when my right boot got caught in a boot trap. Yes, that meant that my boot fell off into the trash, and I took one careless step in the pile of... well, I don't know what. That was also extremely uncomfortable, to say the least.

We finally got to our host families' houses. There, the smell of the landfill was gone! Living arrangements weren't bad either. And Sam, my roommate for the urban unit, is a vegetarian like me, so we had super delicious food there, surprisingly, including the best som tum I've ever had. Other students got to eat some grasshoppers and veggies that the families found in the landfill.

Oh, didn't I mention that? Our families were all scavengers, meaning they rake through ALL of the trash that comes into the landfill looking for plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bags, copper wire, and whatever else can be sold to be recycled. So the next day, we all helped our families scavenge. Sam was absolutely incredible at tearing the bags open to find even the smallest bits of plastic as well as adept at using the two-pronged rake-looking thing to easily move away food waste, dirty diapers, and other things that were just distractions to finding the good stuff. I, on the other hand, worked for about two out of the 5 total hours and spent the last 3 hours gagging and trying not to vomit. I know, I'm weaksauce. But during the time that I did work, I felt like I was really straining myself. Whenever a new garbage truck came by, tens of villagers flocked behind it and crazily raked through the fresh grossness. Some of the students found huge red, poisonous centipedes, and others of us just found dirty diapers and maggots everywhere. I fell into the latter category. Even enduring the sweltering heat and unbearable smell all day and night, these villagers take shifts; some scavenge during the day, and some do the deed at night. And to think that these people do this every day? I couldn't even imagine.

Sadly, we only spent 2.5 days with this community. I really wanted to stay longer, I really did. But my stomach was telling me otherwise. So we moved on and spent the other half of the day exchanging with the villagers in the Nong Waeng Slum community. Slums can be defined by the fact that the residents don't technically own the land but reside on the premises. In this particular community, no one owned the land, and it was built around railroad tracks. Now, the railway company "needs" to build a high-speed railway, so they are evicting the residents, who couldn't get a lease on the land. Though the government is helping them find new land, many are bitter that they have to leave the place that they've always called home. Here are some pictaurz.

Last, we spent 2 days and a night in the slum community close-by called Theparak-1. Though I'm not sure why it's a slum because many of the residents owned the land. I stayed with a woman who singlehandedly supports a family of 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter through cooking and selling at a local market. Oh, yeah, and she's also a public health representative who goes around her community to see if children need any immunizations or if the elderly need any special medicines. Then, she delivers super detailed reports to the government. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that she only has a 4th grade education? Basically, homegirl was a badass. Freaking. Badass.

Sam and I got to help her at the market. And guess who else came? Our homestay kids from Suan Sanuk school! YEAAAAH. It was certainly nice to have them around! They helped out a lot with the families, too, even though they didn't have to. Love the kids. More pictures!

The slum community.

Host mom doin' her thang. Took these for a photo essay assignment.

Crazy kids. Pictures belong to Brett and Sam respectively.

Next unit is human rights. IN BANGKOK. Sadly, I won't have much free time in the city, but it should be fun nonetheless!

Urban livelihoods and... massages?

Right now, I'm in Khon Kaen and will be staying here for the next week.

Yesterday was my first personal day in about two weeks. One thing about our program is that they really, really keep us busy. They don't give us weekends off, and they randomly give about 2 personal days every two weeks. But even in those days, I feel like I've had to work at least a little bit to keep on top of my assignments and such. I finished half of the work I had to do, so I decided to capitalize on the free 2-hour Thai massage that the program allowed us to have.

In order to find a picture of this, I had to google "thai massage." For future reference, don't do that. So here's a nice picture of Khon Kaen city shrine that walked by today when I participated in a protest. Will get to that later.

So I get to this place, and I immediately had my feet washed and had to put on a loose-fitting white cotton shirt and huge brown, loose-fitting linen fisherman pants. The woman that was preparing to do the massage asked if I was Korean, as usual. Seriously, I don't even get Chinese anymore. It's either Korean or Japanese. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

I laid down on a super comfortable mattress-ish pad and pillow, which was quire a relief from the floor that I've grown accustomed to sleeping on. The massage started at the feet and legs and went all the way up to the head. At the feet/leg and arm/hand stage, they would be massaged and then put into odd yoga positions and then lotioned with some mint/lavender mix. For the back, she also massaged it and lotioned it. And, oh yeah, there was an outside-the-clothes butt massage. I mean, it was fine but.. I was super caught off guard, mostly because I had been falling asleep until that point. And honestly, the head massage was kind of weird because it was like a scalp massage that turned into rubbing my temples and neck. Also fine, but kind of strange.

After the whole ordeal, I was treated to a cup of tea that tasted kind of like the herbal tea that the herbalist in Yasothon gave us during one of the exchanges, except this one had an extra kick of vanilla. Overall an awesome experience, I would have to say.

Our next unit is about urban livelihoods, which includes a homestay at a landfill as well as exchanges with the members of the Khon Kaen Slum Network. We're also going to visit a community of people who live beside the railroad and have a market over those railroad tracks. Whenever a train comes, they quickly close up their things and... Well, just take a look at this one in Bangkok.

So today, at 8 AM, some of the members of my group and I went to a march for World Habitat Day, where members of the Slum Network as well as other organizations that are similar came out and marched around downtown Khon Kaen. They were fighting for more money devoted to the slum community as well as other rights. They appealed to the mayor at the municipal office, and theyw ere promised that the upper levels of the provincial government would also look at their demands. Then we listened to a few speakers who went into more detail about the issues at hand. It was super hot, but I was really happy to see so many people coming out and participating on a Friday morning. Can't wait to learn more about it! :D

When, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" became a legitimate question

Okay, so I've failed at updating this. But to be fair, I lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere for a week. So. Yeah.

Last week, we all took a trip to Yasothon and Roi Et provinces to do our study of agriculture. WOO.

The first village we went to was called Baan Dong Dip in Roi Et province. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this place because, you know, I often forget to do these sorts of things. But imagine a village with dirt roads and shacks made of wood, and you've got it. The majority of the villagers are organic farmers who make their own natural fertilizer from the animals (don't think about this one too hard) as well as natural pesticides and herbicides. In addition, they are contract farmers, which means that the cash crops that they grow go straight to the company. This creates a guaranteed market, but if their food goes to the company, is the village truly self-sustainable? Well, yes, it seems so. But from the formal teachings that we got from readings and lectures, it seemed that contract farming was the devil because of transnational, evil companies or giant conglomerates. I suppose this particular village was just super duper.

Anyway, we took a tour of the villagers' land where they primarily grow sugar cane, cassava, rice, and banana. We even got to try some fresh sugar cane, cut down about 3 minutes before we ate it. Apparently, sugar cane contains some chemical that whitens your teeth! But it also rots your teeth at the same time because, well, it's sugar cane.

If I had taken a picture, this is what mine would have looked like.

We had an exchange with the villagers there that night and then went to our mini-homestays for a night. We got paired off for these homestays, so my bbgirl Abby (henceforth, Babz) stayed with me! Our family in this village consisted of a paw (dad) and mae (mom), and they apparently had 2 older daughters that are currently working in Bangkok right now. And this is a trend I'll get to later, so just trust me. It's relevant.

The father showed us the back of his shack, where he kept 4 pigs and 5 piglets as well as an in-ground pond full of baby catfish and frogs. He explained that the community center area also had a community garden, several more pigs, cows, and water buffalo, as well as an abundance of rare mushrooms in their mushroom-growing hut. Because that's totally something you see everyday. The next day, we hung out with mae and the rest of their neighborhood in their backyard. Their house really had the "front-porch mentality" where everyone just kind of gathers. It was certainly delightful to see, as most of those front porches are slowly disappearing from our suburban and rural areas in the US.

After a 3 hour van ride, we got to Yasothon! Babz and I were able to meet our family that night in a village called Gut-choom (or so it sounded like), and boy, did we have a family. It consisted of a paw, a mae, an older sister, an aunt, two girl cousins, a yai (grandmother), and a tha (grandfather). They are organic rice farmers, as all of the villagers are. They are also members of the Green Market (an organic market in the area run by the villagers) and AAN (Alternative Agriculture Network). They had cows, a water buffalo, 3 dogs, chickens, ducks, and pigs as well. Their farm was divided into 6 areas: the building with the bedroom areas, the building with two bathrooms, the building for the kitchen, the building for the cows and water buffalo, the building for the pigs, ducks, and chickens, and the field. And in the neighboring area, dogs and chickens just walk around freely. So like, our van had to stop for dogs sleeping in the road as well as for chickens who decided that they really, really liked the other side of the road.

Oh. Quick note about yais. I REALLY WANT TO BE A YAI WHEN I GROW UP. It's legitimately a life goal. Why? Because yais can do whatever the hell they want. They can sleep wherever and whenever. They can talk/yell any time, especially in a conversation which doesn't involve the yai herself. They can criticize you. They can talk to themselves. They can work if they want to. Or not. And our family's yai was no different. I would say that all yais are legitimately my heroes.

So, Babz and I ate some awesome cabbage + eggs with a local variety of red sticky rice that our paw and mae grew themselves. Little did we know that we would have this same exact meal for 4 days at every mealtime. I mean, occasionally Babz would be able to partake in a skewer of meat, and we would also get som tum, a spicy salad made of local tomatoes and green papaya. But the cabbage (which, don't get me wrong, it was delicious) and sticky rice was pretty much it.

So here's the bathroom situation. Babz and I went to the bathroom which consisted of a squat toilet and two huge vats of water with a bucket inside each for bathing. So the biggest problem with this is setup is that I can't defecate into squat toilets. Like, I'm literally physically unable to do it. Also, when bathing, the idea is to throw water on yourself using the buckets and the two big vats of water. But wait. The water is icy cold. Yeah. I'm pretty sure the first time I took a shower, I yelped in shock when I had to throw the water on my back. And I'm pretty sure the family thought I had, like, drowned or something. Also, later that week, Babz and I were going to shower, no big deal. And then we realized that there were two gigantic toads in both of the bathrooms. So after screaming in fear and getting our 6 year old cousin to help chase it away, all was well... Until the next day when we tried to get a chicken out of the squat toilet-area through light kicking by Babz, who was brave enough to do so. And then we found giganic spiders hanging from the rafters. That was nice.

Anyway, that first night, we slept on the floor beside our older 26 year old sister's room, who I kind of bonded with when she asked me to translate a song by Mariah Carey into Thai for her. And I dislike Mariah. But she's cool; she's a science teacher at a local school and expressed that the only thing she wants to do is stay in the village and educate the children while taking care of the land. And like I mentioned before, not many kids do that; most go to Bangkok or find work in other urban settings. So mad, mad props for her.

The next day, we awoke to our cabbage and sticky rice, and we were able to help our paw cut down some of the tall grasses in order to feed the cows and pigs for that day. That was fine, but feeding the pigs was sort of disastrous. Mostly because pigs are aggressive when they're hungry. And the cows were freaking tricksters. One of them in particular liked to step on and move the rope which attached her collar to a fencepost as we walked by, thus tripping us up every time. Anyway, after that, we planted about 50 tamarind trees in little bags to sell later at a green market. In terms of work, though, we didn't do too much; the next day, we had to sort white from red rice to sell later at the market. The kids helped a lot, so that was fun.

We basically bonded with the other family members for the rest of the week. And it was really nice to be able to speak and understand Thai.. It definitely made the process a lot easier. I feel like if I ever came back to Isaan, I would definitely visit that family again and try to help out more with their harvesting or whatnot.

Other stories from the other kids in the group: two girls had to eat lizard that the family dog had brought in. Two girls as well as two other guys had to deal with ridiculously violent and out of control children. Two guys had to construct a wall-like structure using rice bags and mud.

So, yeah, after a series of exchanges with the villagers, we had to come back to Khon Kaen. Here are some pictures!

The group + all of our maes at the Green market! Jacked this from facebook, so credit to whoever had this picture.

The kid's nickname is Im. And that's Babz being the most adorable living thing that has ever existed ever.

Im being ridiculous with her older sister, Oom. Excuse the rank-looking bangs. I blame the bucket baths. I think I took this picture from Babz, so credit to her.

The rice paddy at sunset. Yeah.

I feel like I really learned a lot about the benefits of organic farming, where our food comes from, and how farming is so, so important. I'm still struggling to figure out the stigma behind the farming occupation as well as how we've let all this corruption in the food industry go on. Everyone, just watch Food Inc. if you want to know more. Woo.

1 month check-in~

I've been here for a month.

...Wow.

It has really felt like a year. Usually, people say that time flies when you're on a program like this. Not so with me. Not that the experience hasn't been awesome, 'cause it has. But the curriculum is filled with times for ~reflection and ~group-led facilitation. So that takes a lot of time, and it really feels like I'm in a business-oriented, corporate meeting whenever we have lectures and briefings about what we're learning about.

These past two-ish weeks have been filled with background lectures on some of the issues that are relevant now (Thai history and politics) and some that we're covering later (human rights, urbanization, globalization). We also found out which units that we're facilitating! I'm doing the units on human rights (in which we will get to go to Bangkok to an all-Southeast Asian conference on the subject) and mining (which I know nothing about)! Yay!

But our very first unit has to do with AGRICULTURE. And farming! And organic farming vs. farming with GMOs/chemical fertilizers! Yeah! They kind of kept us in the dark as to where we're actually going to be going, but I know that we're going to a village as well as the city of Yasothon at some point. To my knowledge, we're going even further East towards Laos. So that's kinda cool.

That's kind of it. Oh, another fun thing: my computer absolutely died. Like, hard drive was dead. So I took it to some random laptop repair shop, and they replaced my hard drive AND gave me Windows 7, Photoshop CS3, and the Microsoft Suite for 1550 Baht, which is about $52ish. So I got a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, now everything's in Thai. I guess that'll be useful in practicing my Thai... Hah.. hah.

Anyway, see you all in a week! :D

Newsletter 1

So as a homework assignment, we're supposed to write an article about, you know, anything that has stricken (?) our fancy so far in Thailand. All of our articles will be compiled into a newsletter that will be sent to our home universities, families, and study abroad offices all over the nation. Here's my first contribution! Yeah!

What is a Farang?

One Thai American's experience with identity

“What's wrong, nong?”

“Nothing... It's just that... I was expecting to host a farang.”

“But I am a farang!”

“... No you're not.”

“... Oh.”

Roughly translated, this was one of the first exchanges I had with my 14-year old host sister who attends Suan Sanuk Municipal School here in Khon Kaen. In Thai, the word “farang” means “foreigner,” or more specifically, “Westerner.” And apparently, I'm not one.

Since arriving in Thailand, I have noticed that it has been nearly impossible to explain to people what being Thai American means. To give a little background, both of my parents were born in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to a suburb of Asheville, NC in their late 20s/early 30s. There, my older sister and I were born and raised; our parents spoke Thai to us throughout our lives, but we never learned how to speak, read, or write in any language other than English. However, we were both excellent at comprehending spoken Thai. In college, my sister studied Thai throughout her entire undergraduate career at Cornell University, and I informally learned the basics of reading and writing Thai through my fellow members of Northwestern University's Thai Club. Prior to this trip, I had returned to Thailand only once – and that was over ten years ago.

In my experience, this seems to be a pretty typical story shared by many second-generation Asian Americans. But it seems as though Thai people can't really wrap their heads around how my background relates to my poor skills in Thai and physical appearance. So far, I have experienced three different reactions from native Thai people I meet for the first time.

1. Khun du muen kohn gowlee/jean: You look Korean/Chinese. Perhaps it was all those years of sitting in my room playing Pokemon on my Game Boy Color, but apparently I'm far too pale to be perceived as Thai. Especially in Northeastern Thailand, where people tend to have darker skin tones, lighter skin tones with an Asian face are attributed to those from China, Korea, and Japan. So when I tell people that I am indeed Asian, they aren't surprised; however, they believe me to be simply kohn Asia, or an Asian, which is very different from a farang. Yet, if I tell them that I have Thai roots, they generally look shocked and then give me a quick look up-and-down, searching for any evidence of whitening cream-use.

And I only assume that this is the meaning behind their up-down because the next question I occasionally receive is, “What brand of whitening cream do you use?” On billboards, television commercials, and posters in 7-Elevens all over Thailand, whitening creams and powders are advertised. Pale, 20-something women with straight, black hair and huge, perfectly mascaraed eyes are pictured holding tubes of cream that promise to make you look like her; popular male Thai drama stars have their faces plastered on postcard-sized pieces of paper which hang off of shelves carrying the cream in convenience stores; and images and videos of top Korean pop idols performing their catchy songs and revealing as much pale skin as possible have completely saturated the Thai entertainment industry. All of these measures are reinforcements for the age-old concept of beauty for Asians, which I personally disagree with: lighter is better.

Evidently, these lighter skin tones are desirable especially among Thai youth. As part of our first homestay experience with the kids from Suan Sanuk, the group made several visits to the school and spent some quality time with the students there. And even during our first encounter, most of the female students squealed and flocked to the most pale members of our group, asking to take pictures with them. Even though they didn't know who we were or why we were there, they simply wanted photographic evidence that they had made contact with a real-life tall, white farang, or at least someone who seems to physically fit their conception of what a farang is.

2. Khun bpen kohn Thai jingjing: You are truly a Thai person. So, even though I have pale skin, people eventually accept that I have Thai ancestry. However, the American part of my identity seems to be problematic for many. In Thai, I asked many of the kids at Suan Sanuk the reasons why they liked the more pale-skinned members of our group. Many of the girls responded, giggling, that it was because a few members of the group looked like characters from Twilight. But for the most part, students of both genders responded that it was because they were farangs. In broken Thai, I told them that I, too, was a foreigner, a Westerner: I explained that I was born and raised in the US, and Thailand is still somewhat foreign for me. Quite conversely, though, many of the kids laughed at me and said, “No, you're not a farang. You're Thai. Just like us.” I thought that perhaps my language proficiency made me think of me as just Thai, but that brings me to the last reaction from people that I meet for the first time...

3. Tamai khun pood pahsaa Thai mai geng?: Why can't you speak Thai well? From what I gather, it's difficult for people to conceptualize a person who seems to be Thai but can't speak Thai very well. When eating at restaurants with the other people in my group, the waitstaff seemingly always speak to me first, and when I can't construct my responses quick enough, they ask me and confirm that I am, in fact, Thai and then walk away, confused. In this way, I might be seen as a farang. However, when I say that I understand Thai, I seem to have Thai-status again, yet many do not understand how that the ability to understand does not necessarily translate to the ability to speak. For example, my host aunt vocalized in Thai to my host sister that she was absolutely baffled as to why I never picked up how to speak Thai from my parents. However, when she realized that I knew exactly what she had said, she was even more surprised and slightly apologetic. Thus, she introduced me to her friend as, “a Thai from America that came back to study at the university,” which implies that she saw my coming to Thailand as a homecoming, and thus, did not see me as a farang, despite my poor speaking skills.

So, what truly goes into the definition of “farang” here in Thailand? There's more to it than having pale skin and poor language ability. And evidently, it has nothing to do with being Thai American.

The kids were presh.

Just herpin' my derp.

14 again: First homestay, part 2

At some point, we visited Wat Nong Wang, which is jokingly called the Eiffel Tower of Khon Kaen. I was able to take two pictures, so here they are!

The next day (Wednesday) was probably my favorite day this week.

N'Tha and I arrived at school via sawng tao as normal again, and we participated in a flag-raising ceremony that apparently happens every morning before school starts. All the kids gathered in the courtyard and did marching band/military-esque lineups, sang the Thai national anthem, and recited some stuff I couldn't understand. Then, we all had to stand in the front of the entire student body and introduce ourselves. There were some fun moments here, but I'll get to them later. So, the schedule said that we had, "Thai Fun Activity I" for 3 hours that morning. Hmm, suspicious.

I met with the rest of the group, and we were led up to a pretty large classroom within the, "Mini English Program," building at Suan Sanuk. About 50 kids filed in through the sliding glass doors, all in the same uniform, signifying that they were all in the same grade. All of our host brothers and sisters were there, as well as representatives from the Urban Youth Organization in Khon Kaen (3 really chipper 20somethings, 2 girls, 1 dude). We started out with some ridiculous hand-holding, get-in-touch-with-your-feelings activities, and we of course did some simple ice breakers. We also did some fun drawing activities in small groups of about 10 people (2 of us CIEE people and 8 kids) where we had to draw a picture of something that represented us. I was drawing some mountains and a lake representing Western NC and Lake Michigan respectively, and my friend's host brother, N'Dong, was drawing a river with, like, a green log on it or something. This kid literally had me rolling on the ground laughing the entire time; he told a bunch of jokes/puns that would only make sense in Thai all while making fun of how badly I speak Thai. Seriously, this kid was awesome.

We ended the session with building boats out of posterboard, a few sheets of paper, some string, some oil pastels, and pingpong balls. It was like OM all over again. Then, we had to name our boats in the form of a 6-syllable rhyme. I don't really remember what my group's was, but it had to do with food. And another group's had the phrase paht fuck in it, like, 3 times. The phrase means to cook or stir-fry a kind of bitter melon, but it obviously sounds, y'know, obscene. We then played a game where each of us said part of a sentence which, in English, goes like, "Sink a ship! Load the gunpowder! Pull the trigger! Bang! Boom! Bang! I want to sink the ship, 'Whatever the name of the opposing group's ship was.'" Out of five groups, my group made it to 3rd place because I messed up; my phrase was, "load the gunpowder!" but it's tongue-twister-y in Thai, so I let my team down. :( But afterwards, we reflected on everything, and these kids were so mature and said so many wise-sounding statements about our time together.

The whole time, I was just surprised at how well these 14-15 year olds accepted this alternative form of education. These activities were meant to teach us that there are other forms of communication other than language (okay, I obviously cheated on this one; I spoke in Thai with the kids the entire time...), though I felt that we were doing it in the most elementary ways possible; for example, when I was in the eighth grade, I don't think I would have wanted to draw and hold hands and share my feelings for 3 hours. Yet these kids stuck it out and really seemed to enjoy our presence and our companionship. Brought tears to my eyes, it did.

Afterwards, we had a 3 hour session with just the CIEE kids, and I went to the hospital. My feet were still swollen and bug bite-infested that I thought I should get it checked out. Thankfully, the doctor said that it was just an allergic reaction and that it might be slightly infected. So she gave me some ointment with antibiotics and steroids so all is well. Mosquitoes are still biting me like crazy, but I've learned to not itch things that itch and to instead slather on some Golden Cup balm or the ointment.

My lifesaver.

N'Tha and I then went to this lake called Bueng Kaen Nakhon and rode bikes. We actually met up with her sister (!!!) and her best friend. Her sister, er, my other host sister, is still my nong, so she went by N'Nam. So, that was weird. Here's a picture of the lake!

That night, nothing particularly exciting happened. The next day, the CIEE group had to attend an exchange with members of TNP+, a nonprofit organization that caters to individuals living with HIV through support and lobbying (for better access to medicine, etc.) efforts. It was a tear-jerking and extremely educational experience. Ask me if you would like to know more.

The next day, we had to leave our host families. :( At Suan Sanuk, there were kids crying and taking pictures and asking for email addresses. They really, really didn't want us to go, for reasons I'll go into later. Baww. :( At Thai that day, though, Ajaan Maliwan gave me some Vietnamese coffee, and it was literally the most delicious thing I've ever had. Ever. And some people in my group decided to go to Central again because one of the girls had to get some sea salt to clean out her new nose piercing that she had gotten at a night market. So I decided to finally get my ears pierced for like, $5. It was a deal, I tell you. A deal.

Today, we went to the Forest Temple for some meditation and group bonding. I know, I know, it's like the forest temple in the Legend of Zelda... But not. Here are some pictures!

So a few more things about Thailand.

You may have been familiar with motorcycles. Thus far, I've been on one with two other teenage girls, wearing a helmet. I've also been on one with my language ajaan, without a helmet. And lastly, I've been on one with 2 17 year old girls and 1 14 year old girl without a helmet. The whole time, I was absolutely terrified. In my mind, I kept picturing the headlines of a Thai newspaper or in my Google Reader, "4 girls die in tragic motorcycle accident, was their own fault."

Also, I mentioned the sawng tao before, the pickup truck that functions as a bus. Not only have I sat in one, but I have also stood on the edge of one before, with cars tailing the truck and almost touching my backside or backpack or what have you.

I've also been in a tuk-tuk going down the highway. Did I mention that the only traffic rules that I've seen has been 1) stop at red lights, and 2) drive on the left side of the road? Yeah. And taxis and most cars don't have seatbelts. D:

Additionally, five things that Thailand should adopt are:

1. Toilet paper,

2. Tissues/napkins

3. Trashcans

4. Easy-to-locate recycling areas

5. Normal toilets. Like, not squat-toilets, which are prevalent in homes around here. I don't want to feel like I'm going to slip and fall butt-first into the toilet if my feet or toilet seat are slightly moist, okay?

Last, if there's anything I've found that are similar about kids in Thailand, it's that they're just as hormonal and ridiculous as teenage girls in the US. At Suan Sanuk, girls were going absolutely CRAZY over my friend Alex, who apparently bears a slight resemblance to Robert Pattinson, but I don't get it. And they also went fangirl-style crazy over the other guys for similar reasons. For example, the first time we had to introduce ourselves during the flag ceremony, Alex goes, "Pom chuh Alex," which means, "My name is Alex," and literally every girl in the courtyard squealed. And they always rushed to take pictures with him and the other guys. Plus, the girls liked to pet one of the other girls on my program's hair, mostly because it was blonde. This is one of the only times where I'm GLAD to finally fit into a society; only some of the kids I was close to wanted pictures with me, and if you know me, I'm totally okay with that and only that. However, N'Dong, who I mentioned before, definitely asked me for my address in the US, my phone number in Thailand and the US, my email address, and... asked me if I had a boyfriend. Yes, a 15-16 year old boy asked me this. I kind of headdesk'd myself when that happened and told him that I wasn't going to pedo over him, but I didn't really communicate it well in Thai. Mostly because I don't know the word for pedo in Thai.

Anyway, tomorrow is filled with Thai class and other random classes. I MISS YOU ALLLLL.

14 again: First homestay, part 1.

Wow. Each week seems longer and longer... It's ridiculous.

Anyway, since I last wrote, I did a whole bunch of things. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries on the first day away from KKU, and I didn't bring my charger... So, I took, like, zero pictures. Sorry. :/ So on Monday, I finally took a tour of the city of Khon Kaen with the rest of my group. We then went to Suan Sanuk Municipal School right here in Khon Kaen to meet our first homestay families! The school, from what I gather, caters to kindergarten-age kids to 15-16 year olds.. I should probably look up the whole Thai education system at some point. Anyway, here's a few pictures provided by their website, since I failed at bringing my camera charger.

The front of the school!

Courtyard area where the kids have recess.

Classrooms, another view of the recess area.

So we awkwardly found our host brothers and sisters through a long process of introducing ourselves in Thai in front of a crowd of chattering children and having our respective family members come up to the front and introduce themselves to us in English. My little sister ended up being the most adorable girl EVER; her nickname was "Tha" which, I'm assuming, comes from the fact that her eyes are gigantic ("tha" is "eye" in Thai. Or grandfather. So yeah). She stood at a height of maybe 4'0", even though she told me that she was 14 years old. In fact, all of the host sisters looked way, way younger than their counterparts in the US, I think. We then took a van ride to their homes, which varied in distance from a short drive to a 1+ hour excursion into the forest. For example, my sister lived in a urban-y area that was a 15-ish minute drive away from the school, whereas the family of another guy in my group lived on a farm on the outskirts of town, and it took him about an hour and a half to get there.

My first night at N'Tha's house was... awkward, to say the least. She told me that she lived with her aunt, uncle, and older sister. For the rest of the afternoon, we watched some awesome Thai dramas and gameshows, and I found KBS World! So she and I watched the episode of "Invincible Youth" (SUBBED IN ENGLISH), while I attempted to summarize what was happening in my broken Thai. It was quite an adventure, to say the least. Then, we decided to do something easy for dinner and cook some ramen (I'm assuming at this point that her aunt and uncle worked late or something). Finally, after taking a shower (okay, it was kind of a shower and kind of a bucket bath, where I had to fill up a bucket full of cold water and pour it on myself. Yeesh), my host aunt and uncle come in. I greeted both of them with a wai and my friendliest "Sawatdee, ka!" and got... nothing. My aunt asked N'Tha who I was and the uncle just walked upstairs without a word. I awkwardly stood there, and then N'Tha told me that she had to do her homework upstairs. I followed her, and then while doing my Thai homework, she asked me to help me with her English homework. Her class was apparently working on superheroes, so I had to try to explain what "invisibility" and "walk through walls" was in Thai to her. But my crowning moment came when I had to explain "burst into flames." I asked if she knew what Pokemon was, to which she replied with an enthusiastic nod of her head. Then, I said, "Charmander. Flamethrower attack," and she went, "OHHHH," and proceeds to write the phrase, "burst into fire" in Thai beside the phrase "burst into flames."

After watching a particularly intense drama (it dealt with the gruesome murder of some ridiculously skinny, pretty woman in skimpy clothes and how her best friend was the one who murdered her. Or something), we decided to go to sleep. On the floor At 9 PM. And we woke up at 6 AM. Hm, I forgot what it was like to be a middle school student. Anyway, I woke up and saw a random girl sleeping in the bed while N'Tha and I slept on the floor. Apparently, this was random 17 year old older sister.

We took a sawng tao into school, which is basically a pickup truck with two rows of seats on either side of it. It functions as a bus here, and here's what one looks like.

Dangerous.

I promptly had to get into the CIEE van after arriving at the school because I had a Thai lesson with another professor, Ajaan Maliwan. She's the official Thai as a Second Language (TSL, f yeah!) professor at the university and usually works with students studying abroad from China. And she's probably the kindest, most warm-hearted people I've ever met. EVER. She told me not to worry about my broken Thai and to just speak, even if it's wrong... And I guess my biggest fear is speaking incorrectly, so in the past, I just never spoke Thai in order to save face. But she told me a story about when she was studying abroad in Australia (SUP BILLIE.) and accidentally asked like, 5 people in her dorm, "Excuse me, where is the chicken room?" when she meant to ask, "Excuse me, where is the kitchen?" You can see how that made me loosen up a little bit. Then, before we even began the lesson, she bought me some kanom, or treats! One was a sushi-shaped paste made out of taro and topped with some gelatinized coconut milk, all wrapped in strips of banana leaves. The other was some fried dough with some filling on the inside that I wasn't able to quite identify. It was absolutely delicious, though. She then told me that her lesson plan was based on listening and speaking, since those would be most practical; so for 3 hours, we spoke in Thai, and if I didn't know a word, she would write it up on the board in Thai, and I would copy it to study later. She even wrote up the karaoke spellings so I would know how to pronounce the words, too! :D

After the lesson, I went back to meet with the rest of the group and had a 5 hour meeting. We all then returned to our homestays, and I actually talked to my host aunt for a bit! That night, she explained that she worked at a nearby open-air market and thus woke up early and came home late at night. The uncle is some sort of businessman, but I didn't catch what exactly he did. Keep in mind that I still haven't met the 17 year old sister that supposedly lived there.

Anyway, this is getting super long. I'll continue it in another post!