Bug Zapping is a sport

It's another hot, sweaty evening in Chiang Mai...perfect weather for mosquitos! Check out this snazzy little tennis racket that you swat the mosquitos with and they get fried. It's SO FUN! Who needs to watch Thai TV when you can zap bugs all night long!!

I'm so thankful that I have a mosquito net draping over my bed! I was just in my room and there were at least 20 lined up all the way around the net! I zapped every one that I could! I just hope that they stay on the outside as I sleep!! Yikes!

PS...another fun day of language class! So far, so good!

Pass me another cold one...

I drink alotta water! That gets old quick...so, for a refreshing beverage other than water, I reach for a cold Coke Light outta the midge fridge. Coke Light is the "Diet Coke" of Asia. I LOVE it!!! it tastes different than diet coke and man, is it good!!! Ahhhhhh!!

In other news...I had my 2nd language class yesterday! 2 hours of thai consanants, vowels, and tones!! I actually got to do numbers (I can count to a million!!) and I learned how to introduce myself and a friend. My teacher (Khun Khruu) is great! We have an awesome time and she even thinks that I'm doing pretty good! She's very encouraging and makes it fun! So, I really look forward to more lessons! She loaded me up with tons of homework before Monday. So, I've got quite a bit to do with it today. Well, I'm heading to Chiang Mai Community Church this afternoon. I've really enjoyed it there! It's cool to be around peeps from all over the world! Good times are had by all!

Well, I'd better get back to my language study! I've gotta work some more on my numbers--my teacher says I need to say everything faster. Thanks for stopping in and keeping up with me! Thanks for the comments too! It's always great to hear from y'all! I love y'all and appreciate your support! It really means the world to me!

Don't Drink the Water!

Today was a big day! After being here for 2 weeks, the water delivery guy finally came!!! I was so glad to hear his truck pull up to my gate! He could tell I was so excited to see him. No more going to the grocery store and carrying back 6 gallon jugs of water! It'll now be brought right to our front door! Anyways...he brought up 2 crates of water bottles that we can drink from. Bless his heart, he was trying to be very nice. He set down the 2nd crate and said, "Don't drink water!". "This water?" I asked. He nodded his head and said "ka" (kinda like saying yes). I wanted to clarify, so I asked him again..."Don't drink this water (I pointed to the water he brought) or don't drink that water (and I pointed to the kitchen)." He smiled real big and pointed to our nasty fish pond and finished his cute little joke on the foreigner, "That water!". He and my neighbor laughed their heads off! I finally laughed (not as hard as them) after I realized what he was doing! Our water guy is a comedian! Who knew?!

My First Language Class!

So...today I had my first Thai language class! It was great! My teacher, Gang, is super sweet and really funny! And she thinks I'm funny, so we sit and laugh at each other throughout the lesson. My lesson is 2 hours long. We went over how to pronounce all of the sounds of the vowels and the consonants. There's a lot of them! We hit 'em all today because she said I was doing very well with it. Who knew that my twang could ever be transformed into anything that a Thai person could understand? It's a miracle! Anyways...I also learned the 5 tones which seemed to make sense to me too. The Lord is definitely looking down on me! My teacher admitted that she thought I would be a difficult student but I was a good one. She said it will make her job easier. I was glad to hear that. So...this was a great day! I've got another lesson on Saturday afternoon. She gave me homework, so I'll practice counting to go over with her then.

I also went to a potluck dinner for some young peeps at my friends' house. It was nice to meet new 20-somethings that moved here from the states as well. We're all getting together to play capture the flag on Friday night. Should be fun! Well, I'm gonna hit the hay. I'm grateful for another awesome day here!

Flyin' Solo

So, Court is gone for a few weeks and that has left me with the opportunity get around town all by myself! Yesterday was my first day to get out on the town solo. The only Thai phrases that I know can get me a song tau to take me from my end of town to church or to work and back home for 20 baht. I also went to my fave place for som tum and sticky rice and I ordered that in Thai also! I've been on a roll! So, things are still going great! I have my first language class on Wednesday and I can't wait to start! This is a busy week for work, but that's a good feeling! I'm hoping to go kayaking this week with a new friend and I might be volunteering at an orphanage on Friday. Thanks for all your sweet emails and words of encouragement! The pollution seems to be improving some, but it's definitely getting hotter! The high today was almost 100!! Woohoo! Bring it on!!!

Cold sweet tea running down my throat

Alright, be prepared to drool...here's my lunch...fried okra, twice baked tater, and sweet tea (unlimited refills!!) and lots of ice! Be sure to stop in and let the folks at Sojo's restaurant take care of ya if you're ever in Chiang Mai!

Finally! Something to put ketchup on!!!

Then, for dessert on the walk home, we stopped at a stand for some golden, super sweet pineapple! It's comes in a little plastic bag with a bamboo skewer used to close it up, Then, you stab the fruit with the stick so that you don't have to eat with your dirty hands and you don't get sticky. I love this place!

It's still super hot outside and we're waiting on our maintenance man to come and put up a clothes line on the roof next to the washing machine. We'll need the line to hang our clothes on. There's no drying machines in our price range and most peeps here don't use them. This is all after a full morning of work meetings and general "make it happen" type tasks. Tonight, we're meeting with a Thai language teacher and will start lessons early next week. Yay! K...y'all have a good one! Things here are going smooth!

Click here for this week's visual story of life in Chiang Mai!

What's normal anyway?

Since when is it normal to...

• go outside on the roof to put laundry in a shorty washing machine


• scrub the black off my feet every night before I go to bed


• wear a doctor's mask around town


• ride to and from work in the back of a little red truck


• put a pad lock on our front door when we leave the house


• not drink the tap water


• use women's public restrooms with men dressed like women


• get eaten up by mosquitoes while watching a movie at the theater


• have geckos (lizards) running around on the walls of our house (we don't kill 'em because they eat mosquitoes!)


• sit around and watch Thai TV every night and swat bugs with an electric tennis racket looking thing that zaps 'em


• be woken up every morning by roosters, geckos, dogs barking, and a man on a bullhorn riding in a truck making some announcement about something political.
  

These are all things that are slowly becoming normal to me. Please don't think I'm complaining about any of these things...they're all things that I have laughed at in the past few days because I never could've guessed life could be so interesting! All these things will forever remind me of this really cool place! Welcome to Chiang Mai!!

**Please note in the image above: the 2 guys chillin' on top of all those boxes in the back of a truck, all the outta control power lines, and of course, a larger than life painting of the king overlooking traffic. What's normal anyway?