meow! life is good :)
I moved in with my host family last sunday. I'll be living here with them for the next two months. I love them already. the mom and the dad are great. they don't speak a lot of english, but it's good to have to practice my thai with them. they have two daughters and a son. the son is 16 and is studying/living at a boarding school in singapore until mid-march, about when I move out. which is good timing actually, since I'm sleeping in his room right now. meowch indeed.. the girls are wonderful. they both speak very good english, so that's helpful. the older daughter is 18 and is called pear, like the fruit. the younger one, pim, is 12. she is easily the most adorable little thai sister I could have asked for. the way that pear and pim interact is very similar to the way lyss and I relate to each other, so living with them feels very familiar. actually, the whole situation reminds me of my own family, circa 2002. I feel very comfortable here. :)
tomorrow the whole group is going to stay with the lahu village until sunday. when I told pim this, she said "oh.. I miss you!" she is so cute. anyway, this trip officially falls under the category "roughing it." but it's only four days, and if an old man like ajaan mike can do it, so can I. just so long as I have my hair-dryer with me, I'll be good to go.
also, I'd like to give a shout-out, carson daly style, to diana and announce publically that "meowch" made a dramatic debut in thailand about two weeks ago and is flourishing here, especially among the locals.
in short, I'm having the time of my life here. I definitely miss a select few at home, and a couple in england, (and one in france? jeez sarah, you make things so difficult,) but other than that, I can easily see myself spending a solid amount of time here in the future.
peace :)
1.23.2008
1.11.2008
I'm here :)
in thailand. hurray! it's now a real place.
preliminary thoughts/observations/reactions:
- everything's warm and green and pretty. it makes me miss nicaragua. all the little kids I've seen are adorable, which also makes me miss nicaragua. I know that thailand will be it's own thing, but right now nica is the closest thing I've got to relate it to, so I've been thinking about that some.
- chiang mai university is nice. we're staying in a "hostel" which is really more of a hotel, since we have maid service everyday.
- the thai people that we've met and interacted with so far have been wonderful. and the food has obviously been pretty great.
- I'm feeling great, in regards to jet-lag. every once in a while I feel a little off and can't figure out why, and then I remember: 24 hours of travel.
this was kind of choppy, but I'm at an internet cafe. my hour is almost up and I don't want to pay for another so I need to go. ha!
preliminary thoughts/observations/reactions:
- everything's warm and green and pretty. it makes me miss nicaragua. all the little kids I've seen are adorable, which also makes me miss nicaragua. I know that thailand will be it's own thing, but right now nica is the closest thing I've got to relate it to, so I've been thinking about that some.
- chiang mai university is nice. we're staying in a "hostel" which is really more of a hotel, since we have maid service everyday.
- the thai people that we've met and interacted with so far have been wonderful. and the food has obviously been pretty great.
- I'm feeling great, in regards to jet-lag. every once in a while I feel a little off and can't figure out why, and then I remember: 24 hours of travel.
this was kind of choppy, but I'm at an internet cafe. my hour is almost up and I don't want to pay for another so I need to go. ha!
12.31.2007
so this is the new year
well, almost. 28 minutes yet to go.
in four days I leave for LA to visit timmy and deb. four days after that I leave the west coast for thailand. I'll be there until may.. "adventure" is an understatement.
so this is my blog, the tool with which I'll be updating all of you, my beloved fans, on the twists and turns of my very exciting life. I may still send out a few mass emails just to make sure you're really keeping up with me. but whenever you're curious, just come on over and read about my life in "amazing" southeast asia.
what I know about my semester's itinerary thus far:
- first four weeks: learning thai. (pray for me.)
- the next month and a half: taking a course at chiang mai university on thai history and culture (I think?) and living with a host family.
- the three weeks after that: an internship. where? not sure. doing what? don't know. but it'll be great!
- the last month in thailand: living in the foothills of the himalayan mountains working with the karen tribe, a group of thai people who have not assimilated to modern thai culture. it's all very anthropological.
also, my address in thailand is as follows:
Kaitlin Wheeler
Spring Semester in Thailand
c/o Faculty of Humanities
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai, 50200
Thailand
and I read in my good friend erin's blog that it costs a mere 90 cents to send me a letter from the US, and she's usually pretty well-informed, so I'd trust those numbers.
and now the hour is fast approaching. only 13 minutes until it is officially 2008. which is, of course, the year in which all of this adventure is scheduled to happen, so here we go! happy new year everyone. I wish us all a truly amazing year.
in four days I leave for LA to visit timmy and deb. four days after that I leave the west coast for thailand. I'll be there until may.. "adventure" is an understatement.
so this is my blog, the tool with which I'll be updating all of you, my beloved fans, on the twists and turns of my very exciting life. I may still send out a few mass emails just to make sure you're really keeping up with me. but whenever you're curious, just come on over and read about my life in "amazing" southeast asia.
what I know about my semester's itinerary thus far:
- first four weeks: learning thai. (pray for me.)
- the next month and a half: taking a course at chiang mai university on thai history and culture (I think?) and living with a host family.
- the three weeks after that: an internship. where? not sure. doing what? don't know. but it'll be great!
- the last month in thailand: living in the foothills of the himalayan mountains working with the karen tribe, a group of thai people who have not assimilated to modern thai culture. it's all very anthropological.
also, my address in thailand is as follows:
Kaitlin Wheeler
Spring Semester in Thailand
c/o Faculty of Humanities
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai, 50200
Thailand
and I read in my good friend erin's blog that it costs a mere 90 cents to send me a letter from the US, and she's usually pretty well-informed, so I'd trust those numbers.
and now the hour is fast approaching. only 13 minutes until it is officially 2008. which is, of course, the year in which all of this adventure is scheduled to happen, so here we go! happy new year everyone. I wish us all a truly amazing year.
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