Bow vs Sup

   I don't understand why Thai people aren't fat. I guess it's genetics or something. Living in America, watching how Americans eat and behave, I understand why some Americans are fat. Thai people are so tiny, and they eat a lot! It's not like they really eat all that healthy. I know that I eat healthier in America because here the healthier version of food just isn't available. Most meals include lots of simple starches, a deep fried meat, and a VERY sugary drink. They eat pretty frequently too. Now I understand that on a college campus I have a skewed perception and this is not how all Thai people eat. But they are still super skinny....and most of them eat like they are getting ready for hibernation. They don't really exercise that much either. Every Thai person I have talked to think it is ridiculous that I walk 1.5 miles to get to the hospital. I think part of it is that they don't want to get dark from being in the sun. In general they eat comparably to Americans and are active about as much as Americans, so why are Americans so much more fat? Beats me. 

      While in Thailand I have also experienced a pleasant increase in self confidence. You would think I would have been more self conscious being surrounded by super thin asians. However the whole stick figure thing quickly lost appeal in my eye and I have found myself more fully embracing my own body.  Now I can not take full credit for this increase in self acceptance. A fair amount of it could be due to the fact that many people here treat me like a small scale celebrity. It is kind of nice when people that you don't know are overtly friendly and polite. That doesn't really happen a lot to me in America. Here if a guy you don't know wants to get your attention he will wave, bow, tell you you're beautiful and move on. Occasionally they will ask for your name or where you are from, but they are still polite about it Note that I am not talking about college aged guys who pretty much never try to interact with me. This behavior is a pretty stark contrast from the "sups," head nods, winks, and cheap pick up lines that I have gotten used to America. I think that some people take strangers opinions of them more seriously than those of family and friends. Of course those who love you are going to love you and say you're pretty. What can I say when strangers treat you like a classy and pretty lady you start to feel that way. Boys back home need to take note. Bowing is the new "sup."

This was in the post office. I thought it was interesting how America was on the right side.

There are parking attendants like these in every parking lot to help people park their cars.
I don't think it would hurt America too much to invest in a few of these.

Sheep placenta anyone? 

My dinner with our Thai Language class

Midterms Are Over

     Hello everybody, thanks for sticking around through my midterm induced blog break! Hooraahh they are over! Now I can get back to exploring Thailand! I have been having a nice time at the hospital although the communication barrier is more glaring than ever now that I am almost exclusively in the pediatric OT department. Thai children don't speak any English and the people who work with the Thai children have no need for English so it has been a bit of a struggle. I do however have some pictures of the sensory room. All of the lights are on in the pictures so you can't get the full effect of the disco lights, fiber optic spray, color wheel, magic carpet, star projector, and firework simulator, but maybe if you stick around I will take a few pictures with the lights off one day. Ooooo something to look forward to!

So far I have had two sets of OT students want to take pictures with me in this castle.

more of the sensory room

      I don't know about you but I always feel incredibly awkward around couples where one or more members of the coupling looks like they would rather be trying to swallow a spider. The lobster hand is a tell tale sign of the "I would rather be trying to eat a live spider phenomenon."Although it is an elusive site in Thailand where PDA is extremely rare I managed to capture it for you guys. In the picture below you will see that the girls fingers are completely straight avoiding as much contact with the guy's hand as possible. I had the pleasure of walking behind these two for a block during which she attempted two to three escape attempts. Also the man purse is totally normal here and should not be considered a factor in the lady's satisfaction.

Lobster hand alert!!

A visual of my earlier comment about selling condoms and other weird stuff with candy at the checkout counter

Pretty cool tree on campus.

     Not too much else has happened since I last wrote. Last Friday we had a girls night and saw the new movie "Safe Haven" before going to eat at a Japanese restaurant. They had all of these really cool flavors of popcorn at the theater including cheddar cheese!!! Also kids only got kids tickets if they were under a certain height. So all the tall ones had to pay full price which I found very prejudiced of them! Poor tall kids having to pay full price! They already have to put up with too many jokes about the weather, they should at least get into movies on the cheap. Anyways that is my stance for the evening, I am about to go to a traditional Thai dinner with my Thai language and culture class. It should be yummy! I hope that you are about to eat some delicious food as well :)
 

Midterms

     It is midterm week here in Thailand. This is a much bigger deal than in America where I often don't have midterms. At MUIC the midterm exam is 40% of my grade! So the pressure is on! It doesn't really help that it is super hard to focus over here. All of the exchange students agree that it is much harder to get school work done here than at our home institutions. That being said I probably will not update the blog much for the next week since I will mostly be attempting to do research and studying. On a different note I am loving working with the kids at the hospital! Here are some pictures of the OT room I am in most of the time.






     There is even a sensory room just like the one at the camp I work at in America! I wasn't able to get any pictures of it yet because there were always patients in it. Although hospitals in Thailand do not have any rules regarding patient confidentiality the way America does it still seems wrong to post pictures of patients. The lack of regulation over here may be a disadvantage for the patients but it has helped to make this an amazing internship for me. I would not be able to do half of the stuff that I do in Thailand back home.
     Over a month into my stay here and there are still a few things that I have not gotten used to. Crossings guards for example confuse me. I always seen to do the opposite of what they want me to do, which is a pretty bad thing when crossing the street. They are rather intense and I don't understand their motions so I get stressed out and panic. One would think that the motion to come and go would be universal, it's not. Most of the time when they want me to come it looks like they are shooing me away.
     Everything I heard about Asian food in America made it out to be very different from the way it really is. Before coming here I was under the impression that Asians (Chinese, Japanese, and Thai) ate very healthy food. Meaning not a lot of sugar/fried food, and eating meat only a few times a week. From what I have seen so far that could not be less true. Ninety percent of food has meat, is fried, and is loaded with sugar. I have been to a few authentic Chinese restaurants and this has also been the case there. Another major cultural difference is the acceptance of gay people and cross dressers. One of my teachers said that Bangkok is so gay it makes San Francisco look like rural Texas. After spending some time here I would definitely agree with that statement. Cross dressing is the norm and "lady boys" are everywhere. I am just now learning to recognize them and am astonished to see how many of them I didn't notice previously. I am really interested in what dating culture is like here. The guys are so much more coy here than in America. There are no crude shout outs, "sup girls," or whistles to be spoken of. The most you might get is a car honk. Older guys (30's and up) sometimes try to start up a conversation or make comments about your beauty, but it never comes off as sleezy or creepy. There is also no PDA to be spoken of, with the exception of the occasional scandalous couple holding hands. Despite the fact that Thai college guys seem so shy and socially awkward compared to Americans Thailand has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the world. There is obviously more going on than meets the eye.
    I thought that with Thailand being an agricultural country it would be easy to find whole fresh food here. Wrong again, everything is chalked full of additives and preservatives. Even if I could read the Thai labels on food it is not required that manufacturers list their ingredients on the products, so most of them don't. Today I learned how to tell people in restaurants not to add MSG to my food (which is also in everything) so hopefully that will help with the negative reactions to much of the food.

Location:บรมราชชนนี,Phutthamonthon,Thailand

Chiang Rai

On the last day of our trip to northern Thailand we headed up to the golden triangle. This is a spot where the borders of Laos, Burma, and Thailand meet. The picture below is a statue of Buddha see on the Thai side of the river. Our group piled onto a sleek boat and glided down the river past the border of Laos. When we docked many little Laos children ran up to us repeating, "hello, five baht." This was their not so subtle way of asking for money. I might have given then some if they weren't so demanding! After shopping and exploring for a little bit we reloaded the boat and headed back to Thailand.



Below is a map of the golden triangle.


With the remainder of our time that day we visited the white temple. It was constructed by a famous artist and is unique from any other temple that I have ever seen. When a few of us were walking around the grounds and older man excitedly ran up to us proclaiming many greetings. He was the artist who designed and constructed the temple. I couldn't believe we were lucky enough to meet him! He took a few of us aside individually put us in certain poses and took several photos. He said that he was going to paint us inside the temple. I know this sounds hard to believe but the inside of the temple is very modern. It is filled with paintings of Spider-Man, angry birds, the twin towers, and other Hollywood scenes. So if you go to the white temple within the next year there is a chance you will see me on the wall pointing at something amazing!








I am having a great week here in Thailand! Everybody is so friendly! Although I still have trouble with a few things I am really happy here. I will leave you today with this lovely picture below. It is the latest find of my crocodile hunter adventures. I hope everybody has a delightful weekend!

Location:บรมราชชนนี,Phutthamonthon,Thailand

Elephant Park

Elephant park, elephant park, today we went to the elephant park! After another decadent breakfast at the hotel we headed up north of Chiang Mai until we were deep in the misty mountains. When we arrived at the park we climbed onto a bamboo raft and two natives floated us down the river. It was so peaceful and serene, I could have stayed on it all day! The river is usually crystal clear but the storm last night stirred up the river, so it is kind of murky in the pictures.






For the first part of the elephant ride a guy was sitting where I am in the picture below and steering the way. He is called a mahoot and known as an elephant caretaker. While on the elephant we were given sugar cane and banana to feed him. The elephant was so smart and understood the mahoot's directions when he spoke to him. Part way through the trip our mahoot gestured to me, said "switch driver," and hopped off. I was a little confused at first but eventually realized he wanted me to climb off the bench on our elephant's back and onto his head. It was an amazing experience to steer the elephant while riding through the land. He was so big that he swayed side to side while walking. This made it rather difficult to balance. I had nothing to hold onto so I squeezed my legs around him very hard to stay put.





Initially I was concerned for the elephants well being at the park. Are they happy, overworked, or neglected? However a picture that I found on my camera that the mahoot took put to ease my concerns. I know this might be inappropriate but I thought it was interesting. While looking through the pictures the mahoot took while I was steering the elephant I came across five rather strange ones. At first I wasn't sure what the pictures were of. Upon further examination (and consultation of our guide) I found out that what I was looking at was an erect elephant penis or shivaling. Apparently it only happens when they are really happy and is an extremely rare site in the wild. So my elephant, it would appear, was quite happy with his life. I don't think that it would be appropriate to post on my blog, but if you really want to see the picture just message me and I will send it to you.


In order to get to the elephants we had to cross the rickety bridge see below. On the way over I felt just like donkey from the movie Shrek when they were on a mission to rescue princess Fiona. Riding the elephant was my princess Fiona. Just like Shrek and donkey I was able to skip quickly across the bridge without fear once I had won my prize.


After eating lunch at the park we packed into the vans and headed for our next destination, the northern province of Chiang Rai.


Upon arriving at our hotel we explore the Royal Project in Chiang Rai. It consisted of many beautiful gardens and local shops. We finished the day with a yummy dinner before tucking in and preparing for a big day tomorrow.

Location:Thailand

Chiang Mai day 2

On Saturday our group woke up early and went down to the hotel cafe where we were treated to a grand American breakfast. It was my first real breakfast since I have been here! It felt like Christmas morning! We feasted on French toast, eggs, fruit salad, and toast. Normally Thai people eat some sort of rice dish for breakfast, which the hotel also served. I'll give America this much they sure know how to do breakfast right!

Once I was sufficiently stuffed it was time to go to a national park north of Chiang Mai. Our guide said that the trail we were going on provided the best views in Thailand! It took us a bit over three hours to make the steep trek up to the top but it was well worth it!


Above is the view from the top of the mountain and below is a rhododendron that was growing in the side of the cliff. While climbing to the top out guide calmly told us, "if you trip no trip to right, steep cliff, you will die." Luckily none of us tripped.



The mountain was so tall that we were surrounded by clouds at the top.






Below is a view of what the forest looked like on the inside, which is what we were walking through for most of our trek.


We even made a special trip to see this giant waterfall. Unfortunately I think it might have been a bad omen of what was to come later that evening.


While at the night market in Chiang Mai we were walking around, shopping for souvenirs, and eating yummy food. Out of nowhere the clouds opened up and it started raining buckets! We were soaked in now time and had to wait almost an hour for our group to get together so we could all leave. Even though the streets were flooding it was a lot of fun running through the rain and just goofing off. There was no drainage system on any of the streets that we encountered. The water was six inches up my calf and a Thai man joked with us that we could probably get there faster if we swam!

Location:Thailand

Chiang Mai

This morning our group woke up bright and early at four in the morning to make it to our seven o'clock flight. Before long we were on our way to the beautiful province of Chiang Mai! Once we arrived there we met up with a guide who taught us about the city's history while taking us up the mountainside. In the gardens at the mop of the mountain there were some people dressed in Thai costumes who some of us took pictures with. The funny thing is after we got our picture made they handed us their camera because they wanted pictures with us! There was even a little four year old girl dressed in costume who appeared to be targeting adult white males. After playing around with them and taking pictures she would stick out her hand and say what appeared to be the only word that she knew in English, money. Of course they happily handed her some and she would skip off to her next victim. I wonder who trained her to do this? How common is it? What kind of an effect does making money by manipulating people with your cuteness have on her psychosocial development?












Once we descended from the mountain we visited a temple. While there I found some really nice handmade postcards and local crafts. I am already spoiled by the cheap prices here and know that I will have a very hard time paying more than five dollars for clothes when I come home.








After the temple it was time to grab some lunch. We went to this amazing orchid farm that was also a restaurant. I wish that I could bring you all back an orchid! Sadly America does not allow such things.

After lunch we went to a silk and silver factory. It was really cool to see the whole process of making silk, and they had a really cute store full of things that were handmade at the factory. Real silk is so much more expensive than the fake stuff that they sell on the streets. Go figure huh?
Once we were done ogling over expensive we checked in at our hotel and rested up for a bit. Later that evening we had dinner at this amazing Thai restaurant that included a traditional dance/drums/martial arts show! While there we sat on seat cushions and ate endless platters of delicious food. Towards the end of the program one of then even pulled me up to dance with them! When everybody finished eating there were fireworks and we released some of those giant paper lanterns into the sky. This was by far my favorite activity of the day. Although I know it was different it made me remember when I was a kid who did karate and Chinese dance.












Don't they look so cool! I am about to go eat breakfast and hike a mountain with our group. I hope that everybody is having a nice day!

Location:ถนนลอยเคราะห์,Chang Khlan,Thailand