The Best Year of My Life: Chiang Rai, etc.

Hello All, I know its been quite a long time, but this time I really have been busy. I'll try to cover everything up to now in this post, it won't be overly detailed, because some of it happened soooo long ago.

So, I'll start at the Chiang Rai Rotary Trip. We were all told we were going to Chiang Rai for a conference, and we did drive through Chiang Rai, stopping to visit the White Temple (really pretty) and eat at the Night Bazaar (our first American food in a long time), but then we kept going and ended up in Mae Sai. I suppose it was just a miscommunication as all of the exchange students thought we were going to Chiang Mai the city, but Mae Sai is still in Chiang Mai the province. Its on the border of Myanmar, way up north, so we enjoyed the cooler weather. There is very little to do in Mae Sai, you can shop, go to the caves or go to Myanmar. We did 1 1/2 of these things. We shopped and we walked to the Myanmar border, but we weren't allowed to cross. We did a lot of shopping though, we had three days there and none of the conference was pertinent to us (we just had to come because everyone else in our clubs was going). We also looked and prayed at a temple. It was a really pretty temple, at the top of an immensely large flight of stairs...it was fun though and the climb was worth it there were lots of cool statues and architecture up there, as well as great views. Its very mountainous in the North so some of the houses are built right into the mountain side, its really pretty. All the exchange students from my club (and DangTai, who rode down with us), got a cold, a terrible cold, because the air conditioning in the van was at a stupidly low level and the Thai people had jackets, so they weren't cold and so they wouldn't turn off the a/c for us when we asked, so we froze, I literally (and that's a literally that is used properly, I don't mean figuratively) couldn't feel my nose, it was like winter. That was a bit "rant-y" but it upset me because I was sick for like two weeks, and I hate being sick.

So that was Chaing Rai, despite the sickening end to the trip, it was still a good fun time to hang out with all the other exchange students.

That's the only big thing that happened in the last little while. Besides Chiang Rai, I switched host families and our Mexican, Jessica, had her birthday.

Switching host families, I didn't know how I was going to fit all of my stuff into my bags, its strange how you accumulate things so quickly. At first I didn't want to leave, I think it was that I had gotten comfortable in my first house (probably because they told us we wouldn't be switching this year, but there were complications). I love my new family though, there are more bugs and more lizards in this house, but there's also better food and good people. The three things you hear the most are gin reu yung (have you eaten), sabai sabai (its all good) and mai pen rai (no worries mate). Well fed and happy, all is well in this new household, I'm sad that I will be switching again in April. Also, their dog is adorable or creepy...I can't tell, I think adorable though. And it doesn't look like a dog...

Jessica's birthday was on the 14 of February so we all got together and Jessi made Mexican food for us all. I now love chilequiles and have to learn to cook Mexican food (as well as Thai food, Indian food, "Canadian" food and Italian food). Good times.

Foods that I miss include well-made sandwiches, potatoes and peaches. Going to Subway as soon as I get back.