Thailand: Week 8

Hey everyone,
So this was kind of uneventful. I went to work everyday and it was the usual. Played with the kids for 9 hours 5 days out of the week. They're all so adorable that I want to take them all home with me. My favorite part of work is definitely nap time. It's very hot, but the fans make it durable.
Although the week was ordinary, the weekend was not. On Friday night I came into the city to sleep over because we had to get up kind of early for our adventures on Saturday. We met up at the church Saturday morning and took a long nice drive in the back of Bird's (old branch president here) truck. Pretty typical here. An hour and a half later we get to this dirt road and Bird stops. He opens the car door, yells something in Thai, closes the door, and BAM. Pedal to the metal. We shoot up this dirt road and are all flying all over the bed of the truck. It was like the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland except we didn't have seat belts. In fact, we didn't have seats. When he stopped two minutes later we were all in tears from laughing so hard.
We then walk down to this cool waterfall and play in the freezing water for a while. Us girls had a nice time reenacting moments from The Little Mermaid. We also jumped off some scary rocks so that's fun.
When we were done, Bird tells us we're going on a hike. Now, Bird is crazy. That's the bottom line. He takes us on this hike with no path, straight up a flipping mountain, and through the rushing river. I most certainly ripped a HUGE hole in my Thai pants and got many cuts and bruises from the falls. To sum that up, I was pretty mad at the fact that we had to scale the side of a mountain, but overall it was fun.
We get back to the car literally covered in mud. Drive a little bit and then stop for lunch. After lunch we rode elephants!!! It was so fancy. I loved it. We even named the elephants! Fanny/Pamela, Ellie, and Watermelon was the baby elephant. They are such fun animals, really I'm considering buying one right now.
After that amazing experience we went to a river and rafted down on bamboo rafts. We had two rafts, so three people on each. You guys know me, I'm pretty competitive so of course we had to race down the river (we won). I felt like I fulfilled my dream of becoming a pirate when I was standing there with my stick,  dodging vines. It was so fun, but each time we hit a rock or the other raft, I would get thrown forward and most likely fall down. I came out of that with more bruises than that dumb hike.
Anyway, that's all! Sorry this is so long! 

Thailand: Week 7 (Birthday Week)

Hey ya'll,
Another week has gone by here in the land of mosquito bites and sweat. This week I got to help more with the children at school and although they don't really like me, I sure do like them! As you may know, my birthday was on Thursday. It was probably one of the best work days I've had yet. After watching the kids do their morning dancing we all headed out to a different building where the faculty usually has meetings. We had a little ceremony where the kids honored the teachers and the teachers blessed the children (or something). I got a blessing from my boss so that's cool. And then we had ice cream! Best birthday ever!!! 
Later that night the other girls surprised me and took me out to Mexican food. That was a nice birthday tradition continued. 
Friday we went to some floating cabins out on a reservoir. It was probably one of the coolest things ever. We stayed outside for the whole night. We slept out on the dock and woke up to the sunrise. Saturday morning we hiked up to a bat cave that monks watch over and talked to the monks for awhile. When we left the reservoir we went to a cool waterfall. It was cool because the rocks under the waterfall were rough and we could literally climb up the waterfall. We went up and down a few times and just spent some time getting nice and wet. It was a blast!
That night we went back to the city and got some good ice cream that Chris bought for me for my birthday. So pretty much the best birthday weekend ever! I love all of this nature. It's so so beautiful and I'm thinking I might actually miss it when I leave. 

Thailand: Week 6!!

Hello Family!!
This week here in Thailand was just another adventure. I went to work on Monday morning and guess what?? The school I'm supposed to work at finally started!! Hallelujah !! I got to go into the autistic class and help with their music and their lunch. It's super strange here. A lot of the kids aren't potty trained and don't wear diapers. So when they get their pants dirty they always have a few changes of clothes in their backpacks. The teachers just take them to the back, give them a bath, and put new clothes on. They also give haircuts at school I guess. They just shaved some kid's head... Haha. The rest of the week I just helped in that class or sat around and read. 
On Friday the director of the school invited me to go to a meeting with him in Lampang. I didn't want to go but it was pretty much decided for me. I had no idea that this city was so far away or that the meeting would be so long or that they would stop 2567544 times along the way. He told me we'd be back by 4:30 so I could go to town and meet up with my group. He lied. At 4:30 all of the directors from the area met up at a restaurant, got 3 bottles of whiskey, and partied for a good 2 hours. I got to hangout with a bunch of old drunk Asian men and to be honest it was not the most fun I've ever had.
At 8:30 I finally got back to Mae Rim (where I live) and my host mom drove me to Chiang Mai to meet up with the group. 
Saturday was an amazing day! We went to Sukhothai and got to explore the ruins while on bikes. I'm super great at riding bikes and I definitely crashed into one of the other girls and we both fell on the ground laughing our heads off. Best part of the day(; but seriously this place was amazing and I can't wait to show you pictures!
Okay that's all for now folks,
Mandy(:

Thailand: Week 5 (halfway there)

Dearest Family,
So you may know, but this week started out pretty darn bad. I waited all day Sunday for my host mom to pick me up, and at 10 pm she called and said she wasn't coming too Monday. Luckily, Monday was a holiday (Buddha's Birthday) and for this holiday the entire city of Chiang Mai walks up a mountain to this temple and circle it three times. It has something to do with a legend about an albino elephant walking up that mountain, walking in three circles, and falling down dead. Anyways, so some of the other girls doing internships wanted to go up so of course I had to do it. Who doesn't want to say they walked up a mountain in Thailand? 
The four of us started walking at about 11:00 pm and at 12:30 two of the girls decided to go back to the city. I was having a good time so I stuck it out and went to the top. After about 8 miles and three hours Torri and I got to the temple. Then of course there are the famous stairs. Sooo many stairs and sooo many people. It took us 45 minutes just to get up those dumb things.
After seeing the temple and deciding that 3:00 am was a good time for bed, we headed back down. It's hard to believe that there were more people on my way down than on my way up. There were guards directing traffic (both cars and pedestrians). About 1/4 of the way down the mountain Torri and I got separated. I thought we'd both walk around a truck and meet up, but I didn't see her. I waited for 5 minutes and decided that she had just kept going. Oh, I forgot to mention that both of our phones were out of minutes. Bad planning... 
After walking another 1/2 hour by myself and feeling like I was going to die at any moment, I said a silent prayer. Literally right when I was done a taxi pulled up and turned around in front of my. I immediately jumped on and took it to the bottom. I got down like an hour later and asked the driver to take me to the place I was staying. He said he had to go and drove back up the mountain to get more people. 
There are two kinds of taxis here. Rut Dangs and Tuk Tuks. Rut Dangs are cheap and Tuk Tuks are way expensive. So of course I wanted a rut dang, but they just kept going up and down the mountain, and weren't taking anyone into the city. I asked a Tuk Tuk how much it would be to take me back to the city and they said 350 baht (more than $10). I looked and to my dismay, I only had 140 baht left.
Long story long, Chris came and got me, we found Torri, and I'm safe. Really other than that, nothing else happened this week.
Until Next Time, 
Mandy (: