It’s been a good few days here. One week of intensive Thai down! The weather is much nicer these days now that the rainy season is on. It does sometimes dump rain for ten to twenty minutes and going anywhere during this torrent is impossible. On the other hand, the weather has been cooler and there is often a layer of rolling clouds protecting my pasty white skin from the sun. It also makes for some good views. Sometimes it creeps me out a bit when it get super dark really quickly during the middle of the day from these thick clouds overhead. Are the deatheaters coming for me, or is it just about to rain?

There really is not much to do here at night. After dinner I usually head back to the room pretty early. I have made friends with some of the younger shopkeepers in the neighborhood, but we have only hung out a few times. On the other hand I have been meeting up with some of these cute little ladies. Luckily I haven’t had any inside my room yet, but I know it is only a matter of time.

A few nights ago I went out with a new friend I met on campus. She took me to an all you can eat barbeque place. Pretty awesome really! You pick up raw meat, vegetables, and noodles and grill them on your table. Also, on the way home I discovered a little street cart that makes a dessert with a sort of super thin wafer wrapped around marshmallows and raisins. They are great!

School has started, class is great, and homework is happening. There are five students in the class, and everyone seems really nice. There is a young man from Vietnam, an older teacher from Wales who has been teaching at private schools around Asia for the last twenty years, a language expert from Singapore, a young women who I think may be in seminary and here on exchange, and myself. Also, because we are special students, our class is held in the international/graduate student building which is brand new and really nice. This means air conditioning and no bugs. Also, it is an inside/outside building so it is sort of like a touch of home (in this case home being Sakamaki Hall at the University of Hawaii).

And as always, the food is great. I have now entered the “hubris stage” and am trying to eat anything and everything edible. Will this come back to haunt me? Only time will tell. I took a picture of the menu at my favorite eatery so that I could come home, translate it, and figure out what the foods were. This has been great. It has allowed me to order foods that I know are loaded with vegetables, or on the other hand, to order deep-fried balls of pork stuffed with chilies! My favorite go to is a really simple and lean long roasted pork with a sort of thin peanut sauce. It is pretty delicious. Also, I have gained a reputation as one of the only foreigners that anyone on my street has met who likes fruit. Thus people now regularly bring me fruit to make sure that I experience the real variety. Not too bad a reputation I guess.

Despite a concern that my classes maybe canceled, it turns out that my classes are on, the tuition is all paid, and I start Monday. One month of intense Thai language training to go.

I woke up pretty early this morning to the sound of chirping and flapping birdies. As it turns out, the mommy/daddy bird decided it was time to toss the baby birds out of the nest to make sure they learn to fly. I suppose it is vital that children are thrown out of the house to make sure they become adults, I mean you don’t want them living there forever, but man does it seem to make a lot of noise. Despite a couple of the birds hanging out on my balcony in the morning, I think they all made it through the ordeal.

Speaking of wildlife, I spotted my first one of these (not) so little cuties yesterday.  He ran away pretty quickly and I had no desire to chase after him. I mean, me and Hagrid our pretty tight, but still you never know how many friends he has.

I also had my first meal this time around that was genuinely too spicy for me. I felt a little like I might be sick after finishing it. Although it doesn’t look too hot, I have found it is really the salads that get you. I guess the idea is to burn off any bacteria, germs, etc…

On the other hand, I had an extremely pleasant and super cheap bag filled with mulberries as a dessert. These are really a sort of byproduct of the silk production industry – you need mulberry leaves to feed to silkworms – but they are dried and sold in hippy food stores in the United States as a “super food” so they must be good for me.

Moved into my apartment today! I am officially living in Thailand now. Unfortunately my apartment came furnished, but with none of the personal utilities such as sheets, towels, etc… So, I walked down to a giant supermarket/outlet store called Big C. I bought some cool stuff to get ready for the school term and make the apartment livable. Also, apparently bed sheets in Thailand are really expensive.

I bought some of the cheaper ones and they were still comparable with, if not higher than what you would pay in the US. I guess the idea is that they are pretty nice and I should hang on to them for life. I also bought a cup that reminds me of Laurel. Not necessarily in appearance, but in loving willingness to provide me with tea.

I also now find myself with a lot of time on my hands. I live a few miles from the city center and there are no tourist sites o places to go out here. There are about ten family restaurants that I think I will become very familiar with. I had some of their food today and it was really good and cheap. Also, I think the portions were bigger than in the tourist areas which seems strange to me, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Today was great. It was sort of my last day as a pure tourist before I have to move into my apartment and start thinking more about school, and books, and learning, and stuff. I started the day right with a huge plate of self-proclaimed “sour sausage” scrambled with eggs and tomatoes. It was pretty delicious. I only got a few bites that were genuinely sour.

The big thing today I guess was that I worked up the courage to go and get a Thai massage. Not only have I never gotten a massage in Thailand, I have never had a professional message at all. And before you worry I steered clear of any “massage” places. There is a huge spectrum here that ranges between massage parlors that advertise with scantily clad women at the tinted doors to old blind men who perform massage inside Buddhist temple compounds. In my case, I went to a fairly middle ground. It was pretty nice really. The woman who massaged me was in her late fifties, yet stronger than I am. They had me put on traditional thin Thai pants and shirt as the woman got ready to do her thing. Thai massage is a little different from the spa type American thing (at least the one I imagine and have seen pictures of).

Here they are really going after your tension and problems with gusto. I was literally folded into a number of possess to induce stretching, popping, and cracking. A few times I giggled thinking about how the woman could, if she were so inclined, potentially snap, crackle, and pop me to death. While there are no pictures of this event, these pictures from the door are actuate.

After the massage, the women realized I could speak Thai and this turned into about an hour-long Q and A session. It was pretty fun, and overall, a great day.

Managed to sleep in late today until the crack of 7:30. The first half of the day was pretty lazy answering e-mails, getting some books, and getting prepped up for school to start.

The real highlight was going to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. Right around sun down I headed over to this giant and expansive bazaar where shop owners line the streets in booths and whole blocks are sectioned of for food venders and street hawkers. It is really pretty amazing.

This area of Thailand was once a stop on the southern arm of the Silk Road and it shows in this giant marketplace.

Although one might be able to find anything imaginable at this market, the majority of items are clothing and handicrafts made locally and in the surrounding areas. I bought two shirts, but I have to take one back and swap the size.

Also the food was pretty good. In particular there is a special Halal Street that caters to the many Muslim residents of the city. These families have origins in southern China, Burma, and Malaysia and this incredible diversity is expressed in the many interesting and exciting food options.

Well, I found an apartment and visited Payap University today. This is where I will be spending the next bit of time studying Thai. Actually, it looks like a really nice little place. It is a small private Christian liberal arts school with a lot of greenery and waterways. The only major drawback is that the University is a few miles outside of the main town area and there is very little to do there at night and on the weekends. The apartment that I found is near the university, has air conditioning and its own bathroom, and even has air conditioning. Also, because the housing market is flooded here, especially in the summer, the rent is only about 85 dollars a month. I can’t complain about that.

After securing my apartment, I went back to my hotel in town where I will be staying for the next couple of days before I move into my new place. I then spent the afternoon and early evening walking around the old city looking at wats and eating food. I ate a bowl of meaty noodles with broth so thick it was actually opaque. I think tomorrow I might go to one of the many Thai massage parlors and see how that is. My friend Trude goes all the time and she

described it to me as feeling like doing yoga, only someone else does all the work for you. I guess we will see.