Aug 27

I met my Aunt yesterday! She was so fun! She came over and made sure I knew the names of all of my host family. She had me stand up and introduce myself and my family until I could do it very fluidly. I was congratulated exuberantly when I could do it. Her name is Bahh (Aunt) May Pen. And my dad is called Paw Wat. News flash! My dad does actually drive a chocolate truck for a living!! He came to the house with the truck yesterday! No wonder that’s what I thought he was saying when I asked. Lep put on music and suddenly Bahh May Pen and I were dancing. She motioned for me so dance from the hips, which I did, and she said I was ready for Chiang Mai.

The third day in a row Paw Wat asked me what day I was and I couldn’t remember any days of the week at all. (except Friday won su) But we sat down and wet throught them slowly, doing tones and exact spelling and suddenly it clicked and I could remember all of them!

In class yesterday we went to the market pon luang, and had a scavenger hunt of foods and items to find in the market. Marcia and I were partners, and we had a great, albeit embaressing time, sluring toneless guesses at how to pronounce the phonetic spelling of words on the list and being pointed and urshered around the super-mall market plaza. I had a deep fried caterpillar it was crunchy and very salty, and I felt very adventurous eating it, but also a little ill.

At first Thai class was very difficult for me today. I did a conversation scenario with Pong Soi and I had to try really hard not to cry. He was introducing a new word in the conversation and I couldn’t hang on to the sound, and since I was upset about making so many other mistakes I couldn’t think of several words. We had a break and did some review and our first attempts at spelling in Thai after that and I felt much much better. I would like if we went 20% slower, but I’m hanging on by my finger tips. Its cool to be among such smart kids. It’s also neet that everything is like a game, a riddle, that we have to figure out. Its very engaging. We are not told what “you tee” means we just have to guess from context it means something like “where is?”. Sometimes I think about how much we have to learn, and that days like this will just keep pilling up for five weeks and its really overwhelming, but if I think of it as a game I feel a bit better.

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Oh man! So many stories from today. We went to the mall after gear check and I was suppose to buy a swim suit, (ger should have asked what full coverage was, a bikini counts!) the first one I looked at was cool… until I found it it was 4,450 bhat!!! That’s like 70 bucks! I found one for a little under 20 but it had this skirt with it and I only liked the top so I didn’t get naything. I’ll have to get something in the next week, mer, I don’t like stressing about it.

The girls I was shopping with were delighted and enchanted by a tiny shoe store, they got some pretty cool shoes, which is saying a lot from me because usually I don’t really notice shoes. We got ice cream and I got cantaloupe that actually tasted like a real juicy fresh cantaloupe right in my mouth! We walked back to school along the road.

[[ and Emma asked me about Tor and I’s open relationship. ]]

Right in the middle of the city, there was a pasture full of cows.

Starbucks was in front of the mall, with the exact same lamps as in the US, only you could get jelly balls in your coffee.

I got picked up from school by Pi La, he said Pi Boon’s wife was sick and at the hospital so he couldn’t come because he was with her.  later that night he stopped by the house which a bunch of people were home but I didn’t get a chance to try to ask about her.

Pi La and I went to a market together to buy food for dinner. It was a giant warehouse looking building. Inside are rows upon rows of stalls. Fluorescent tube lights hang down in rows over pots and bowls and trays of sweets, meats, vegetables and fruits. Most booths had mechanical spinners, that swung inflated plastic bags in circles to keep the flies away. We bought fried shrimp cakes, (entire shrimps, packed together and deep fried, like the soft shell fried crab in suchi) and lots of curries, fried eggs, that were just hard boiled eggs fried on the outside, a curry with potatoes (yay). There was an entire pig head at one booth. Then we popped out of the market to a side booth, and Pi La bought what looked like a large extremely heavy flower pot. He asked me how to say in English, and I told him. When we got back to the car, he asked me to write it down. I drew a picture and wrote it down… it almost got left at that, but somehow we sensed something was amiss. I started pointing at flower pots outside the car, and trying to explain. It turns out it wasn’t a flower pot, it was a bar-b-q grill/oven!!!! Haha. We laughed a good lot about that.

When I got home Rew was sitting behind the water spount in the front yard with peace sign hands waiting. I heartally thanked Pi La for the ride, and good company, as Rew pulled me out of the car by the wrist. Yanked and urged into the front yard Rew points up at the roof and makes a flinging motion. Sure enough, there is the Aeobie. Securly lodged half way up the red clay tiles of the second story roof. He explains I should climb up and get it. (this is clearly impossible and thus quite cute). We try throwing a tennis ball at it. Pi La says hope for rain.

Rew and I go around back and look at the lower roof over the open kitchen/ back porch area. Then we go up to my room and crawl out the window. We have to tip toe over the tiles because there is a hive of bees hanging out one of the windows.

A whole bunch of people came over for dinner, my other aunt Pi (forgot her name although I successfully introduced myself) and her daughter (shy) Nawng em. Her mum Mae who was adorable and smiled very kindly at me, came over on the back of a motorcycle. Baah May Pen came and danced with me again… There was a dance show on TV…

Soon, Paw, Rew, Lep and I left for the airport to pick up Mae K. the ride was fun, with Paw and Rew trying to ask me about America and me not understanding the questions, and Rew continually unbuckling my seatbelt (no one seems to wear seat belts here except me and I assume the other students). We picked up Mae, she is so kind and beautiful! I was very proud to show her all the Thai I had learned since she left. She asked if I had taken Thai before I arrived and said I had very good thai. We drove to a little market, aka a few stands and plastics tables beside the super highway in front of a 7 Eleven. Although I affirmed I was both Mai Hue and Eem Lao “not hungry and full” they bought me a little bowl of creamy dessert. Mae told me to just try a little so I did and it was yummy. It was full of tapioca bubbles! And in the center a big white ball, which turned out to be a soft boiled egg.

Thai culture, and my family, are very concerned with making sure a person is happy and comfortable. They ask constantly if I am happy, full, good, ext. its very nice to know someone cares, here they show it be feeding you. Especially if they feed you such Arroy (delicious) things!

At home Mae opened a box from the plane and it was full of snacks and delicious goodies. We sat on the living room floor and ate a wonderful brown shelled white jelly filled fruit that looks like cloves of garlic on the inside of the shell. We had durian chips (carina, they are amazing!!!) and fish jerky! Rew pretened to be an anaconda. Paw taught me the colors in Thai. Upstairs rew put on my backpacking pack, It was so big on him, it hung to his knees and over his head. Wing Wing, he “run run”ed around the upstairs, hunched over, grinning, his bare feet slapping on the wood floor.

So tired, must sleep, love, gigi
loving my family, feeling blest (and beat),

p.s. My host mom works for/maybe runs a foundation for giving handicapped prosthetic limbs. We live at the foundation. There is a hospital? Building, housing for the patients, and think housing for the staff.) my back yard is about the size of a sports field and full of trees and a bit of standing water. It is fenced in with a giant fence(surrounds the whole compound). Can’t figure why. Backs up on jungle, I’d love to explore sometime.