First Day of School at International Sustainible Development

Hi All!

Yesterday was my first day at school. We started the day off with a group Thai lesson. The teaching style is very interesting. Thai is taught like it would be taught to kids, it is very interactive and involves lots of moving around, pictures, ext, as well as repeating and answering questions. No english is used at all. Class if very fast paced, and extremely intesnse. They told us we would probably want to cry, which was true. The first day we did numbers and for the first hour of our four hour lesson I felt like crying. However, it is quickly getting easier, and the teacher i had today used more picture and repeating and it was very easy~ As long as i can jot down a phonetic spelling in the begining (visual learner) its great! i can't believe how quickly i'm picking up Thai! I can already order all sorts of food, talk about where i'm from, introduce myself, ask how people are, do numbers to a million.... two days of class and four in the contry and its like i've been taking spanish in high school for a month!

We had lunch together on the veranda. The afternoon was the "scary stuff we should know" and the philosophy of the program. I already deeply respect Ajaan Mark, the director, he is funny, personable, and deeply understand env. issues and alternative education philosophy. The session was kind of like a re-cap of open school, kalamzoo colllege, Wilderness house, landsea, and basically my whole life in four hours. This program is clearly a great fit for my interests, and learning style beliefs.

My host mom is out of town till friday, she calls every morning and night to say hello and check in. It's lovley. Last night Paw helped me study and practice what i had learned in class that day. I met a friend of his and sucessfully introduced myself.

When i arrived i bought two purple shirts on the advice of a past participant, Kelsy, but i'm the only one here in a non-white shirt. It's a bit embaressing, but also kind of funny. All the Thai kids wear wpurple, but of course the other ISDSI students don't because no one told them they could.

Happy and wearing purple,
Gigi