Elephants play soccer

and paint! We went to the elephant camp saturday and saw the elephant show, where they did tricks, played soccer, and painted pictures. It was really cool. I got to feed elephants too (sugar cane and bananas).


it was really pretty at the camp, which was built onto the side of a mountain. So here is a picture of me with nature.
The elephant handlers rolled the ball, and the elephants kicked it into the goal :)

ever hear of Burma? me neither

This is going to be completely out of order, so keep up :)
So we had two classes today of...essentially Thai culture. A super old guy (80 years old?) talked to us about Buddhism. He is apparently like a guru of Buddhism. That was interesting, but not very enlightening :)
I have my first monk chat today, which I think will just be a test chat to see how well their English is, and what kind of information I can get from them. The guy in charge of the HIV hospices comes to talk to us either this week or the next. Then, I'll hopefully be able to start setting more meetings up to gather info for my independent study.
We had our first class with Drexler on the patio last night from 7-9pm. We set our class time to be 7-9 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which made yesterday a really long day. We chanted nung sung saaam ci...(our numbers), in the morning, and learned about the rice goddess in the afternoon. Then we had a couple hours break before we dived into discussing old Northern Thai culture, or Isan culture. I have definitely missed class discussions with Drexler since he poses the most interesting questions. Afterward, Alex, Hailey and I went to Tesco Lotus in search of Ben and Jerry's (we would have even settled for Haagen Daz), but we had to settle for weird Nestle ice creamm or in Thai, i team(Thai desserts aren't as sweet...or chocolaty as in the U.S.)
Then, this afternoon Ajaan (Thai word for prof.) Pippa talked to us about her Burmese Relief Centre, and the situation in Burma. I was thinking back and my entire life has consisted of Burma being that iffy country. If it was mentioned, I knew that bad things were going on...but it wasn't that bad, cuz it wasn't in the newspaper and news that much.
Guess what? It's super sad. So Ajaan Pippa told us all about the crappy military regime that has been in control since the 60s, and all the protests and demonstrations that keep get squashed. Apparently Thailand has like 140,000 people on the border who are in refugee or illegal camps for the people who are fleeing.
The thing that really blew my mind was that Thailand has FOUR MILLION Burmese migrant workers, alot of them with work permits or illegally here. That's a lot of people from Burma (sorry, Myrammar).
Anyway, so there are all these pipelines in Burma that are owned by various countries. For example, China just started building an pipeline a few months ago. The U.S. company Chevron owns one, and Thailand owns a part of one, or all of one. Anyway, so all of these countries have investments in this crappy country.
Apparently, now there are rumors that North Korea is possibly helping them (Burmese military dudes) develop nuclear weapons.
The conclusion that I came to was that I hope they try, then countries will stop being greedy and help fix things. Which, obviously won't happen quickly, but Burma's been trying to get it together for a super long time now. I've grown up thinking it was in turmoil and not caring. So maybe if the military tries to get nuclear, things will get done.

pictures to keep you interested :)

the view from the top of the mt. in Chiang Mai. (Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep)
alex and I overlooking Chiang Mai
One of the buddha drawings and me
The elephant shrine as you enter Chiang Mai University- the elephant is their symbol
The view from one of the academic buildings at Mau Chau
first day of school, right before we leave
emilee in her bed on the night train, holding mojo
emily and I at the emerald buddha temple
Papa D (Drexler) on the night train holding mojo

let me catch you up

Since my last post, I can't remember what all happened. It feels like 2 days packed into one-every day. We experience so many new things in a day that we get tired a lot quicker than in the U.S. In Bangkok we went and saw the Emerald Buddha, which is super shiny and a very big deal.
Our trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was one of the most memorable things that has happened so far. It was an overnight train and very utilitarian. The bathrooms were super scary, but overall it was a great adventure. I'll post pictures of it later, because as usual, blogspot is being frustrating with pictures. But when we woke up around 6am, we could see the mountains and the train wound it's way through them, which proved to be a beautiful sightseeing opportunity.
Drexler bought Chang, or really cheap Thai beer, and everyone drank some. (It's really gross, so I stuck with my nom blouw, which is water :). We were picked up from the station by Chiang Mai University people (one of them was the head of the English department), and given necklaces of jasmine. Personally, I think Suwanne just knew we were going to smell after being on an overnight train :) but they were pretty.
We're staying at Mountainview guesthouse, which is by the Chang Pjuak gate. Chiang Mai had a wall around it a long time ago, complete with a moat. Thus, there are still "gates" in tact, and we live right by the white elephant gate. It proves useful for telling song tao (truck drivers, who are like cheap taxi/bus drivers) where we need to go, because they all know the Chang Pjuak gate.
We are now official students of Mau Chau (Slang for Chiang Mai University), and we are very obvious about it by our white blouses and black knee length uniforms :)
The university is beyond beautiful, as it is located on the side of a mountain. Emily, Emilee, Hailey, Alex and I do most of the adventuring together (Jacquie and James usually go off and do there own thing). We have found cool places to eat, shop, and hang out. Last night we ended up in a beer garden type place. By the time we sat down we realized we were the only girls in the entire place besides the waitresses. The cool part was that we thought it was a karaoke place, but it turns out they have bands there.
We were treated to a Thai band that played American covers. My favorite part of the night was when the adorable sweater vest wearing lead singer began singing "play that funky music white boy." His English was barely understandable, but we recognized alot of the songs and could sing along, overriding the fact that we couldn't understand his English vocals.
Another language clash was when a biker gang cat called us when we were walking to the fruit market yesterday. But Thai boys catcall American girls by saying "I LOVE YOUUUUU!" and making the call me sign....definitely something that will make you laugh.
I'll try and post pictures of our adventures later.

A temple we passed on the boat ride.



Appertizers and "Smooty"s were on the menu at one of our first Thai restaurants. A spirit house they build outside of houses to appease the "bad spirits." That tall thing? We climbed it. The first picture is looking down from the top :)

Mai gin tooowa (I don't eat peanuts)

We spent the day getting accustom to Thailand yesterday. Drexler had us meet for lunch at 1pm, and we all went to this restaurant down the street. The menu had "appertizers" and pictures of the food, so it was a good baby step into Thai food land :) I got some bland chicken and veggies thing that was peanut free and a lemon frosty, which is not to be confused with a lemon "smooty" :) but lime and lemon are the same word in Thai, and I don't think they really distinguish between the two. Thus, it was more of a lime frosty, but still refreshing. Papa Drex paid the bill, which was about 1500 baht, or 50 dollars, for 8 people. Emilee wants to call him Papa something, cuz he's like our dad in Thailand. We got on a boat to see a snake show and a temple, and spent about 6 hours boating around. Most of the boats' engines were converted car engines, and super intense. I was pondering the purpose of life as we road around in a boat on the canal type thing in Bangkok. We went to the city across the water to see snake shows and a temple, and goodness was it depressing. Before the snake show we walked around at a reject type zoo, which had a lot of animals that were questionably sick or dead. After the snake show was over, the announcer tried to coax the audience to give the snake trainer guys tips, and he said "they don't do this because they want to, because they have to" and it was sad. But, a guy did put a cobra in his mouth in just the right place so he couldn't get bitten. These people who hound tourists for a living and barely get by....they believe that racking up karma points will prove useful in the end.....I dunno, it's just empty.



The monkey doesn't like me :(

While on the boat, we were given the pleasure of seeing the stark contrast of living conditions in and around Bangkok. There were shacks that had been suspended above the water next to beautiful buildings with glass pane windows. We journeyed to a temple after that, which was super tall, and to climb the steps was terrifying. All I could think of while climbing the steep steps and clinging to the handrail was that my mother (who is afraid of heights) never could have climbed it. I didn't want to go all the way up, but some Australian tourist looked at me, and was like "let's go," so I was shamed into climbing all the way up with him.
Once at the top, I felt like I was on top of the Eiffel Tower....only in Thailand :) The view was beautiful. An English speaking couple who was possibly Indian watched us climb down first before they braved following.
After getting back to the street we're staying at, some of us bolted for our beds, and others were wanting food. I fell asleep around 8pm (I'll blame jet lag), and skipped the sketchy street food. Sorry about the lack of pictures. It's not uploading them very well.

Jesus Saves, even in BANGKOK

We had a 4 hour layover in Tokyo and I got about an hour nap in before the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok which was SIX hours. After an 11 hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo, none of us were excited about the 6 hour one. There were tons of Chinese and Japanese everywhere, and a little girl on a leash pulled her mom and dad (who took turns walking her) towards our group all the time. She seemed to take a liking to us Americans :)
Emily Cameron and I sat next to each other on the two super long flights. We were lucky since no one else on the trip got to sit together. So we got to know each other fairly well in 17 hours.
So we're at the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse. There is a Jesus Saves clock as you walk in. I still need to take a picture of it. But it was super cute at 4am. It's about 11am Friday here, and the group is meeting at 1pm to gather and do stuff. Alex and I are rooming together here. Last night, we were excited and trying to figure everything out. To turn on the lights in the room you have to put the key card in a slot by the light switch. And there is a water cooler with drinking water (since the tap water is sketch) in the lobby on every floor.
We went to go put the bottled water in the fridge, and fill up our cups with the drinking water, and when we walked back...the door was locked. :) Within an hour of being in Thailand, we had already gotten ourselves locked out of the room. So we had to go to the lobby and sheepishly converse with the hotel guys who spoke broken English, they were super nice though.
We woke up for breakfast around 8am here after getting a little less than 4 hours of sleep. The breakfast consisted of a sticky rice substance, yogurt, interesting cereals, toast, pear looking fruit that wasn't quite ripe ( I don't think ), and eggs that did not look like American boiled eggs. Alex was not pleased with them :) I stuck with things that couldn't possibly have peanuts in them, though they had egg dishes that looked pretty good. and they had TANG! Alex and I walked around outside for a few blocks after, and I realized I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I said excuse me to a lady and realized she had no idea what I just said.

HERE! (sort of)

So we arrive about an hour ago at the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse. It's 4am here, and I'm sleepy, and I'm paying for internet. So! I'll do a real update about the Tokyo airport and the huge planes and stuff when I can get free internet :)

the last supper

my sister back from Thailand! (and Micah)


My mom and dad (above), at supper last night.

My sister (Elizabeth) and Micah (her boyfriend) at Granite City. My mom, dad, sister, her boyfriend, Tyler (my boyfriend), and I all got together last night to eat before I left.
Liz just got back from Thailand where she worked with elephants. She was in the same city (Chiang Mai) as I'll be in for a lot of the trip. She gave me a guidebook and notes she took :).
We celebrated my Dad's birthday a month late since last night was the first time we were all together since our Florida vacation in November. The food was delicious and American, and was my last supper before going to ASIA :).
I'm writing this in the airport before our flight leaves for Chicago O'Hare airport. Our first flight was canceled and so we had an extra two hours to wait. I decided to practice blogging. Here are some more pictures from the last time we'll all be together for the next 4 months... (Liz and I, Tyler and I,
Oh! And going through checking bags and stuff went well in Cedar Rapids. I probably got away with a 55 pound bag (they didn't weigh it!). AND, my carry on made it through airport security perfectly, they didn't even care about all my Epi Pens and prescription drugs. :) A shot of the group hangin out at the airport at 6am

Prereq

It's me. And I'm leaving for THAILAND in less than 2 days. Keep up, it'll be a crazy expedition. I'll keep this blog updated with pictures and hopefully sweet stories :)