Hello Again Thailand!

Well we've made it! We arrived here in Chiang Mai last thursday night. I haven't updated because nothing extremely interesting has happened yet, but I would just like to share a few photos I've taken so far.

Only once have we used a "tuk tuk" this year, but it is a great way to get around town.

 "Songtaew's" (meaning "two seats") are the means of transportation we use all the time because they are cheaper than tuk tuk's and taxis, and are very easy to catch a ride on.

Common stray dog

It's amazing how expertly these dogs cross busy streets!

These pretty flowers are called "Frangipanis"


Here are just some artsy pictures of this and that:

I hope to try and update at least once a week! Thank you for your prayers!

Miss Thailand

There is a nail academy on the 2nd floor of our hotel, and Miss Thailand (the runner up) was shooting a commercial there! Usually Thai people can speak a few words in English but she couldn't speak any, but it was still fun meeting her!

Teaching at Santisuk

The bus we ride to school everyday

Our students (Left to Right: Me, Tid, Pong, Muay, Noy, Mom, Wan)

My friend hope came to visit me form China!

Muay, Tid, Pong, Wan, Noy with the cat balloons I made them (: They loved them! haha

We have begun our teaching at Santisuk English School. My dad has his own classes, and my mom and I share a class. Every morning from Monday to Thursday we wake up at 5:30am and leave at 6:30am to get to our class which starts at 7:00am and goes till 9:00am. The hardest part about teaching is getting up so early! My dad has two classes, one from 7-9am and another from 10-12am. In me and my moms class we have 5 students, and my dad has 6 students in each of his classes. I really enjoy our class, all of our students are so friendly and they like to call me their little sister! The ages of our class range from 19-47 and they are all girls. Their names are Pong, Tid, Muay, and Wan. These are just their nicknames because their real names are way too hard to pronounce! One of our students named Yok had to quit the class because she came down with H1N1 and is in the hospital. Please pray for her! While my dad has his second class I do my schoolwork. Often our students like to show us around and take us different places, markets especially. We also like to play games with them: Phase 10, Dominos, Thai Monopoly, etc. I am trying to learn some Thai also in my lessons. Tid says she would like to be my Thai teacher and she tries to teach me some things in Thai.

Hopping around Thailand

Since we've been traveling around the past few days and have not have wifi, I haven't been able to update my blog, but now I can! 

Since  being in Chiangmai, we have traveled to Phuket and are now back in Bangkok.

In Phuket, we relaxed for 5 days enjoying the beaches and swimming in the ocean before we began working in Bangkok. We also met our mission team in Phuket, and with them we did a couple tourist things (canoeing, boat ride, monkey show,and an  elephant show and ride). 

We noticed in Phuket the prices were A LOT more expensive then any place we have been here in Thailand. We figured it was a tourist trap because no Thai person would ever pay the prices, and we tried to find places that locals ate at. The prices weren't high in American standards, but they are ridiculous here!

 Something bad happened while we were walking on the street. We had just begun crossing a road when my dad suddenly yelled, "OW OW OW OW!!" My mom who was ahead dashed back and I (from behind) was quickly by his side. I thought he had twisted his ankle when stepping of the curb, but he lifted his foot and there was a metal wire stocked through his shoe and into his foot! He pulled out the wire and blood oozed out of his shoe. A man in a shop nearby saw what happened and hurried over and pointed to a hose, and my dad hobbled over to it and rinsed his foot off. The man was determined to help and tried to help by getting a rag and holding it on his foot. I started freaking out as my dad wearily breathed, "I have to sit down I'm going to pass out." The man didn't understand and continued to hold his foot, but we finally got him to stop so my dad could lay on the sidewalk (next to a dead cockroach). The man ran back to his shop and got a bandaid for my dads foot as he lay on the sidewalk. Another man on a motorcycle stopped when he saw my dad and asked what was wrong. We told him and he went back to his apartment and got his phone so we could call our taxi to bring us back to our resort. My dads foot was sore the day after, but he is all better now. Thanking God!

Now we are in Bangkok and starting to learn about how to teach the Thai people English at Santisuk School, which we will be doing for the next month. I will be helping too! 

Elephant Camp

Yesterday we went to an elephant camp!! During the camp we got to ride a lot, feed, bathe, and play with the elephants! We took a truck for 1 hr and 45 min into the mountains of Chiangmai. When we got there we had a class on how to get on the elephant and tell the elephant to go forward, backward, right, left etc. (But the elephants only listened to the trainers anyway!) 

Bai: Forward

Toi: Backward

Qua: Right

Si: Left

Song: Lift up your leg so I can hop up

Melong: Lie down

Our group

The baby elephant is one year old, so cute! 

She kept trying to steal all my bananas! 

My mom and her friend were on an elephant and my dad and I were on another. Every time the elephant my mom was on got too close to the edge, she would yell "Help!!! Oh no what's he doing now? HELP! How do you say help in Thai?!" but none of the workers would pay attention because they knew she was fine (:

We rode to the river to give our elephants baths, which was about a 45 minute ride. "I thought the Thai massage was painful!" My dad exclaimed as he tried to walk after getting off the elephant.

They are so BIG!

While we ate lunch, tons of chicks and chickens ran around our feet squawking for food. We were eating chicken, so I felt kinda bad, but someone threw some chicken down and they ate it!! :P

No hands!

Walking through the river! As you can see our elephant liked to spray us with any moisture she could find, water, mud, her saliva, (ew) (:

 At the end our elephants gave us kisses goodbye (:

It was a VERY fun time!

_________________________________________________________________________________

On our way back from the elephant camp, riding in the truck, we noticed a bad smell for a long time that wasn't there when we first drove that way. We all covered our mouths with cloths for about 20 min until the driver finally pulled over. Suddenly, someone said "There is a fire!" so we quickly jumped out of the truck to see that the engine was smoking! Nothing blew up or anything, but we had to wait for 1 hr on the side of the road before another truck could come pick us up. While we were waiting we looked at our arms and saw that there was oil splattered everywhere and some even on my dad's face! Something went wrong with the engine and we all had these black spots all over us. With some soap and water we managed to get most of it off, and after that we got home safely. Thanking God it wasn't any worse than it could have been!!

Tiger Kingdom

 Today we went to Tiger Kingdom! Everyone we talked to and all the reviews said it was a must see if you were in Chiangmai, so we decided to go. 

Up close and personal!

 Mom was kinda freaked out about the whole thing, and when he started to open his mouth it did not help make her any less afraid!

Dad was kinda weary about it too, he didn't want to get too close because they specifically tell you to not go near their face or front paws. Also cats don't usually like my dad (;

I enjoyed the whole time with the tigers, it was really a once in a lifetime experience!

Cooking Class

Today my mom, her friend (Holli Rebney), and I went to a Thai cooking class to learn how to make authentic Thai food.

We were picked up at 8:30am by a songthau, who first drove us to a local market to get supplies. We explored the market learning and seeing all new things.

 Whole chicken...

Pig head...

"Help!" :(

Man cooking some bugs...yum? I did NOT try it!

One of the dishes we made was mangos and sticky rice (my favorite!!), so we got the supplies for it also.

Mangos are needed of course!

For sweet sauce on top of the mangos and sticky rice.

I learned that sticky rice is actually a totally different kind of rice! {Sticky: left, Regular: right}

Once we got everything we needed, we got back on the songthau and went to a farm where we cooked. 

When we first got to the farm we had to right away steam the rice in a bamboo pot since it takes a while. 

My mom and I switched off cooking, she started with making tom yum soup. She also made green chili, and I made cashew chicken, spring rolls, and the mangos and sticky rice.

Green chili ingredients before,

Green chili after.

Most of the things that went in the soup you couldn't eat, they were just for flavor.

While my mom cooked, I explored around the farm taking pictures, and I met a cute Chinese girl named Sophie who I played with when I wasn't cooking! (Her mom and her mom's friends were in the cooking class too.)

Starfruit tree

I took over cooking the green chili after my mom had made all the things to put into it (:

Making mangos and sticky rice

Some of the finished products!!

Can you guess what it is? (;

Tom Yum soup

I really enjoyed cooking and authentic Thai food and eating the finished products in this cooking class. They even gave us a booklet of recipes on what we made today, so I hope to be able to cook some of these things back in the states also!