Chiang Mai to Issan

Hello friends and family!

Six weeks later and I am getting ready to leave Chiang Mai tomorrow morning for the next block course in the semester. I'll be going to the north eastern region of Thailand for a course focusing on the effects that large dams have had on both ecology and human rights in this country. We have already had one week of classroom lecture on this topic and now we'll go see it live.
I have to apologize to you who are actually checking this blog because I am going to give to a surface level recap of the past month here instead of good juicy details. I think some of my fellow nagsuksa (students) have been posting so if you just need more adventures from Thailand you can check out their blogs and pictures too.
I'm just going to tell you about one of the days of my homestay so you can get an idea of what our first course was like. There was really, at least for me, not really a "typical" day because Thai life is very fluid. Sometimes just when I thought I was about to go to bed a posse of family members would come collect me and the other student that lived nearby and we would head out and about, or in our case a family member unexpectedly died and we were involved with the whole neighborhood in the week long funeral ceremonies. My family was so gracious and it was kind of hard to move out at the end, though also nice to regain the young adult independence I am so used to as a college student. This week has been more exploration of the city with other students and transitioning to not going home to Thai life every day.
So, in the mornings I would wake up around six to the sound of stir frying vegetables and eggs as Mae (mom) Ree, who probably went to bed later than me and got up earlier, cooked breakfast. It is important to greet people when you first meet them in the morning or after school, and also when you are leaving. Mae will always ask "aroy, mai?" (literally: is this food delicious or not?) and I would answer "Aroy!" ( It is delicious!) or, if it was stir fried beans which I really love, "Aroy mak mak!" (It is very delicious!). Usually I swept the house and then met Kat, the other ISDSI student who lived in my neighborhood, to catch the rot luang (this is the public transportation which is kind of like a covered pick up truck/bus with two long benches in the back. It is possible to fit 27 people in one, we have discovered!) into Chiang Mai. At ISDSI, Thai class runs from 8 -12 in the morning. For lunch we head out to a local market or restaurant that Pi Pookie, a Thai staff member who helped plan the course, thought would be especially tasty.
In the afternoon, Ajaan (professor) Christina, an anthropologist who has lived in Thailand for 20ish years, would teach about Thai culture, history, politics, or religion. Friday afternoon are fieldtrip days and we visited places like a royal farm modelling self sufficient agriculture, a Buddhist wat (temple), and NGOs.
This is such a broad overview! Next month will be better! I will be keeping journals for class that I can post when I return in 3 weeks.
On the particular day I want to tell you about, Kat and I took some time after school to buy pancake ingredients and fruit, as we planned to make American breakfast for our families on the morning before we moved to the student apartments in Chiang Mai. "Family" here includes uncles, aunts, and cousins living nearby, my Yai (grandmother) Moon, and neighbors who may or may not be related, so we got a formidable amount of mix! After shopping we took the rot luang back to our village, Mae Rim, and I greeted Yai and Nong Poo, a neighbor boy she babysits, before being directed to take a cool shower. Thai people shower a lot and really emphasize being clean and tidy, so you can understand why the sight of the sweaty, dreadlocked, unkempt western backpackers who cruise around Chiang Mai raises eyebrows and embarrased giggles.
Mae came home around 6 and makes dinner for Yai and me, which probably involved pork, vegetables, spice, and always rice. Later I went to Kat's house and learned Faun Jan, a traditional northern Thai dance involving twirling umbrellas, from Pi Dao our amazing cousin. Somehow Kat and I later ended up performing this dance infront of all the host families, students, and staff at the farewell dinner for the host families. AHH! Though we were nervous, wearing bright pink, and made up like china dolls, it was really fun and I think we made Pi Dao proud:)
On this night, after practicing, I came home to find Pau (dad) Lin home and watching Thai soap operas. We talked a little bit about our days and what I learned in Thai class, but I was feeling really sleepy as it was around 10 and past my Thai bedtime:) My neighbor Pang, who is about my age, came over to say hi and we talked for a little while too. Later after bidding my parents good night with a wai (think praying hands with fingertips raised up to about mouth level), I finally rolled into bed and beautiful sleep. When you are taking in so much new information , flavors, sights, and sounds and learning to form a new language, it is surprisingly exhausting. I feel like I understand why babies sleep so much, and why sometimes in my English classroom in Buffalo last summer I would see a student, head down on folded arms, just passed out at their desk at the end of the day.
Like I said, there was no typical day and I will save the week of funeral experience for another post, but this is something of how we have been living for 5 weeks.
This next course is going to be a mix of human rights, political science, and river ecology as far as the academic content. We will also be in homestay for a week in eastern Thailand (Issan) in a community affected by the construction of a large dam, and then returning to northern Thailand to spend around a week paddling down a river that may soon be dammed and altered. An uneasy thought lingering in the back of our student minds is the food we will encounter in Issan. Larp, a dish of raw intestines, blood, and bile, is one local dish, as well as raw fermented fish. I guess I'll just smile and swallow as fast as I can if I ever find that on my plate.
Thanks for everyone who has written letters and e-mails and is keeping me in prayer - it means a lot! I am going to be making a decision about where to intern this summer soon here; right now I am not sure if I will intern with Wycliffe/SIL or pursue something else through ISDSI.
Ok, thanks for reading. You are all in my heart and mind a lot these days. Keep an eye out for many more pictures and stories in a few weeks.
With lots of love,
Melissa