Goosebumps in Thailand?

Did not think this was possible considering I've done nothing but sweat since I got off the plane... but today proved me wrong.

I got goose bumps, and am now wearing sweats.

One of the students here is a cross country runner and wants to run, every morning, so of course I promised I would help him fulfill that need... really wish I would think before I speak sometimes.

Fortunately it was raining this morning, so I got the extra hour of sleep that I so deeply wanted. But the rain never stopped and I had the whole day to mentally prepare for a muddy, rainy run. I did a great job preparing and was really excited to go. This time the student bailed... but a new friend did not, and off we went.

Muddy is an understatement... wet is a good description. There were a couple stops we took to take in the beauty that we were surrounded by, and also to catch our breath.

Goose bumps and chills did not stop until I put on my sweats.

Another amazing run... another amazing day :)

Today was a good day

I finally got eight hours of sleep last night... My body is still trying to decide if that was a good thing or not. Funny how you can get more tired from resting...

We all lost four good friends today... Well two of them left yesterday to lead a trip and two left this morning to spend a weekend in Laos with some of the two weekers. The base and I will be very lonely without them. Even though my day was missing a good amount of laughing and pranks it was still an amazing day... I couldn't stop thinking about how blessed I am to be here, to be doing the things that I'm doing, meeting the people that I'm meeting and making the friends that I'm making.

The day started off by being left behind for the temple tour. Sounds bad, but it was a good thing in disguise. I got in some good alone time walking from the wrong temple to the right temple :)

The new students are super rad... smart, interested and there are twins!

Sarah (one of the counselors) had a great idea to get a coconut off one of the base trees. Initially we planned on climbing the tree ourselves, and after much thought we decided it would be better to let one of the locals do it. The idea turned into a coconut harvest (thanks to A's monkeyness)... After fishing 5 coconuts out of the pond we opened them up and filled two pitchers with coconut water and a plate full of meat... Zico's got nothing on these guys

The service project for village health today was awesome as well... We visited a clinic where the director put together a power point presentation for us. This could have easily been the most boring thing the students had ever suffered through but they stayed focused and asked really great questions. The nurses served us coffee, water and cookies.... Amazing hospitality

Then the director decided that we needed to visit a local organic farm... We didn't see any garden, but really enjoyed the pet birds. One in particular was all black with a yellow collar and a large yellow beak. It literally repeated everything we did... laughing, coughing, greeting us and singing to us... We spent at least 30 minutes hanging out with this guy.

Thai games was next, which is always a good time...

Fear factor... the kids eat gnarly stuff... crickets, worms, snake skin, dog, chicken fetus and fish paste... I'm very proud to say that the two girls that won are in my hong... Holla bamboo's!!

The night ended with a papaya face mask, an early bedtime and deep sleep... I'm not sure I ever want to leave...

thai time

Appropriately titled for two reasons... first, thai time does not follow an actual time line. It varies from thai to thai. One thai will be pretty close to the time frame promised, while another has absolutely no concept of time. Last week I experienced this multiple times... one incident in particular I will share because it was a serious lesson on patience. I'm a pretty punctual person, hate being late. I had things to do, and places to be one particular morning and needed to go shopping for project supplies. (I'm very important here)

Some friends plus one of the thai staff came along. No big deal. We took a student to the airport to catch her flight home, and the thai staff wanted to stop by her home to pay bills. This was totally ok since we all really wanted to see her home, and also because it was "right around the corner". Thai distance is similar to thai time. After a 30 minute car ride, we arrived. Her village was awesome with a huge pond/small lake in the middle. Her home was really cool too... we were only slightly stressed until she brought out 6 photo albums. Then we knew this was not going to be a quick trip...

To cut the story short... a 2 hour shopping trip turned into a 4 hour adventure. One of those adventures where you may just lose it, but look back and can't do anything but laugh.

Second... I planned on writing this about a week ago... thai time is wearing off on me

this one's for my mama

Happy Father's Day!! To all the amazing dads out there... your job is irreplaceable. Much much love to all of you and the amazing role you play in your kids life's.... Thank You!!

Ok... since we spoke last, we've planted rice, spent time at the orphanage (where I learned an awesome thai kids dance and got my hair did), gone to the statue garden (crazy fish feed), spent too much time at markets (mostly because I always forget to bring money) and I attempted another run.

Things are good... too good actually. I am experiencing so much more than I thought I would, learning a ton about life... really wish that I could bring the thai culture back to america...

This is a video from our training... a little glimpse into the amazingness

First attempt at running...

630 am wake up

humid but not too hot

full confidence in where we are going

awkward stares (they don't run here, it's a foreign concept)

15 minutes in and we're already lost in the middle of a giant ricefield (a wrong turn was taken somewhere)

thankful that "lassy" tagged along and scared off the local dogs

un-thankful that lassy also enjoyed sneak attacking from behind and pushing us into the ricefields

not worried about eventually finding our way back but worried about not getting back in time to wake up the students for breakfast

finally find the road

5 minute sprint to our new home

purple in the face and soaking wet

720am swim in the pool

success

Rice fields and smiling folks...

Soooo.... I love Thailand. The longer I'm here the more I want to stay here. The thai people never stop smiling, I've worn my shoes maybe 25% of the time, geckos are plastered all over the walls, the sky is insanely beautiful (you wouldn't believe what the clouds look like) and Americans can pretty much get away with anything.

I'm learning a few thai words, mostly so that I don't stick out like a giant sore thumb amongst the crowd of well traveled individuals that I work with... but also because the language is beautiful. It's good comic relief to listen to the "pharong" (foreigners) start to talk in short english... for example... You smile is good.... you like cricket?... it so hot... so when i go back to the states don't be surprised if you catch me talking like this.

The last week we've done team training... I think I mentioned it in the last blog... team training also included plenty of team bonding which in turn leads to sleepless nights and beyond exhausted days. I have no idea how i'm up functioning enough to write this blog right now... I can't justify napping though, not when I'm in such an amazing place with some of the most interesting people I've ever met.

The first group of teens got in today... the second group gets in tomorrow, From what I can gather a typical week goes something like this:

Thursday- arrival/departures

Friday-intro to Thai cultures

Sat-Wed- service/adventure things

I will be at the ricefields for 5 weeks. That's where I am now... I'm helping to lead the village health care program that is ran out of here. We go into local villages and the teens get hands on experience taking blood pressure, testing blood sugar and figuring out blood types. Then I will lead an Amazing Thailand trip for one week, followed by the Elephant conservation camp for a week, then head to Laos to lead the Mystical caves and shamans for a week and then back at the ricefields for 2 weeks before I head home.

We have been told too many times to count that things change at the drop of a dime here though so all I can do is pray and beg to keep my schedule the way it is...

alive and well :)

I made it to Thailand.... Udon Thani, Thailand to be exact. It's absolutely beautiful here and well worth the 22 hr+ trip.
I got in to the Ricefields yesterday sometime around noon along with 4 others (I'm staying in the garden room). A lot of the rustic pathways staff has been here since yesterday, and we were quickly embraced by them. I met them all in a matter of 30 minutes. Learning that many names + lack of sleep + terrible memory = having to ask them their names over and over again... but it's ok, we've all established that the general attention grabber "hey, hey you" will be used often in the upcoming days.
But I did get to remember my room mates names: Haley, Gaia, Shae. These girls all have really interesting stories and I'm inspired by them. Lucky to be rooming with them.
After lunch, and nice long meeting to go over our duties as a service leader (the responsibilities are a little overwhelming...) I was finally able to catch up on some much needed sleep. I could barely hold a conversation and decided that this was not the first impression that I'd like to leave people with.
Rested and ready, we all met up to take songthaews into town. This was the best 15 minute public transport ride I've ever been apart of... imagine bumping thai pop, 10 outgoing strangers and a impromptu dance off. I didn't want it to end.
Then we got to the market. Each group was given a list of items we needed to purchase, some being much easier than others. (the game was intended to teach us how to use receipts, recording items bought...). One of the items was a throwing star, which our group was the only one to find. We asked a lady where we could find one, and with a wave of her finger she quickly pulled out a black box from under her table and layed out a variety of some serious ninja weapons. It was very blackmarketish...
We got back around 11pm and I quickly retired to my room. My intentions for this trip is to be a yes girl... but a yes girl is no fun without a good nights rest... today I'll start :)
...forgot to mention the storm... first one on the first day and it was awesome. Lightning, thunder, pouring rain like I've never seen before and just like that... done... it did hinder the volleyball game that was in the works, but it's forgivable.