Thailand so far

I have been here 8 days so far and am loving it. It feels like it has been much longer because every day is different and new. My host family is wonderful. I live with my Kun Mae (mother), Kun Paw (father), four host siblings, one cousin, and on the weekends, I'm pretty sure the grandma. They gave me my own room, which was incredibly nice; everyone else splits into two rooms. In Thailand education is very important and the kids go to school almost every day (many times including weekends). The parents are both math teachers at a private school, so with everyone's schedules combined, each week is pretty hectic. My Khun Paw and Pear (host sister) speak English very well. My other host siblings know a lot I think, but rarely speak it to me.

I eat rice and some type of meat at practically every meal, and we rarely have sweets. The fruit is delicious and inexpensive here. Eating in a national pasttime it seems, so there are food stalls on every street. There are 4 famous foods all faraang (tourists) eat when they come are: Som Tum (papaya salad), Gweh-dtiao (noodle soup), Laab (spicy pork thing), and although I just had the 4th for lunch today, I can't remember the name.

So far, I go to school (ISDSI) every weekday at 7 and get home between 6 and 8. In the morning I have 3.5 hours of intensive Thai language class with 4 other students and in the afternoon I have Thai culture class and sometimes crossfit workouts. We go on many field trips that have included going to one of the large markets, a museum, and a sustainable fish farm. The fish farm was a really cool experience because we didn't just go and look at it, instead all 34 of us waded in mud up to our knees and water up to our chests dragging nets across the bottom of the pond to capture the fish (mostly tilapia) and transfer them to a different pond with cleaner water. We also caught all the female fish and checked to see if they had eggs in their mouth, if so, we would get the eggs out so they could be put in the hatchery. This also allowed for the females to hatch eggs right away again. This therefore increased production.

The Thai language is primarily hard because of the five different tones. Words that are spelled the same, mean different things when said in a different tone. A couple nights ago, I went to my host parents' school. Some of the kids in the classroom wanted me to teach them English. One of the questions I asked them was "what is your favorite food," to which one girl replied Som Tum (famous papaya salad). I tried to repeat it, but apparently I said "Som" in the wrong tone and ended up saying "toilet" in Thai; all the girls erupted into laughter. Reading and writing Thai is also very hard and time consuming, although I did learn how to write my name. The Thai characters look like this: พพภาอราสดหกแ. Most of the computer keyboards can switch between Thai and English.
Internet time is hard to come by, so that's all for now.

I've made it!

After 32 hours of sleeping, reading and watching movies during my flights, I finally made it to Chiang Mai, Thailand! Although I wasn't tired when I got here, I'm exhausted now. I've met most of the other students: 3 from DU, 9 from CC, 14 from Kalamazoo, and a few others from different colleges. I was one of the first to get here, so the few of us who had already arrived, jumped in the pool at our hostel to cool off, took a shower, and headed about a mile down the road to the markets.

I always thought that in Thailand I would eat many unknow things (and I especially would not want to ask what they were). And yes on my first day I ambled through the market and ate many things with names I could not understand, but the first thing I ate on my trip, which I was unsure about its origin, was on the plane. The flight attendent came down my row and asked me if I wanted carrot cake which she said was all they had left. I was slightly confused because everyone else was getting breakfast food, but I said yes anyway and unfolded the tinfoil to find meat of some sort mixed in with a spongy textured substance that wasn't quite tofu. It sure was not carrot cake, but I figured I would have to start eating whatever was put in front of me eventually, so why not start now? It wasn't too bad, but it's looks definitely suggested otherwise.

Although it feels like I'm in an entirely different place, I haven't felt the culture shock yet. I'm guessing it'll hit me when my host family picks me up tomorrow morning. It's all very exciting and the next four months are going to be amazing and full of adventure, I can't wait!