Day 27 prepared or unprepared 1/27/14

Today at school we were given as much time as needed to work on our lesson planning. In fact, Moz didn't do any instructing because he wanted us to be completely prepared for teaching. He told us that when we were done with our lessons, we would present them to each other, and be dismissed for the day. All of us had lessons prepared for us, on the topic we were assigned, by the teacher we were subbing for. The only thing was, we had the freedom to present the material in any way we wanted, as long as the students were able to complete the provided worksheet by the end of class. Nick did most of his lesson over the weekend, but still had some finishing touches to do. Ryan and I were just beginning to start ours, and Jeff claimed to have done his over the weekend as well. The first few hours of class Ryan and I spent, making flashcards, coming up with fun games, and creating props for learning tools. During this time Jeff huffed and puffed about us working on our lesson, and kept looking at his watch. He was so anxious to get out of there. He asked Moz if we could present our lessons, even though Ryan and I weren't finished. Moz asked us how we felt, and we said that we could present what we had planned, even though our materials were still in the process of being made. Nick presented first. He did a thorough job with covering the lesson, and came up with good interactive activities. Ryan went next, presenting his in depth, and I followed. Jeff went last.We were all shocked when he had nothing planned. Here he was pressuring all of us to finish our lessons, so he could leave school early, yet he didn't have anything completed.He read the vocab words he was going to teach , and said he had an activity to go with it. But when Moz asked him to elaborate, he couldn't. All of us had two different grade levels, and were given different lessons for each. When Jeff presented,  he presented his sixth grade lesson.  Moz asked him what he had planned for his third graders, and  he responded with, "basically the same lesson". The energy in the room changed, as everyone felt the expression of extreme annoyance on Moz's face. I couldnt believe he was rushing all of us to finish our lessons, when he had nothing done himself. Despite Jeff not being prepared, Moz let all of us go for the day. After school Ryan and I dedicated the rest of our day to practicing our lessons. We went to bed early to ensure a good nights sleep for our first full day of teaching tomorrow.

Day 26 Hackey sack Bball 1/26/14

Day 26 1/26/14
Today we did our typical lazy Sunday routine. We got green tea fraps from our local coffee place and then walked through the Sunday market. There were a few vendors selling white clothes,so we looked around to find pants. Some were way overpriced. We haggled them down a bit, and found a woman who gave us a good deal on some. We bought three pairs of pants, two for Ryan,and one for me. After our purchase we walked to the park on the other side of the old city. The park was packed with all different walks of life; couples laying on bamboo mats, people doing yoga, jugglers, overly tan people laying in the sun, Thai families, and many others. We hung out there for a couple of hours reading and writing. As we were getting ready to leave we noticed a group of thai men playing an interesting game. There were ten of them standing in a circle, kicking a ball high in the air, and trying to get it through a net. The net was a good twenty feet in the air, and hung from a  cord on a telephone pole The game looked like a combination of hackey sack and basketball, it was very interesting. After we left the park we went to grab dinner at Johns Place. We shared curry with rice, and indulged in an order of fries. On the walk back we passed a woman making "Rottee", a crepe style dessert. We ordered one with bananas and nutshell. It was amazing. Back at our apartment we relaxed and unwound with some changs before hitting the hay.

Day 25 lets get some shoes

Day 25 1/25/14

For it being a Saturday, today was pretty uneventful. We started off our morning watching the dubs game, which ended in a one point loss. Ah, the frustration! By the time the game was over it was lunch time. We went and grabbed Burmese curry noodle soup from restaurant number nine. It had been a while since we had been there; I forgot how delicious it was. After lunch we decided to look for dress shoes for teaching. We walked towards school, in search of a place that Nick told us he found shoes for a reasonable price. Our walk took us into a part of town that we had never been. It looked as though we stumbled across China town,Since most of the writing and decor were in Chinese. We walked into many different stores to compare prices and styles. The most difficult part was finding shoes that fit us. Most of the shoes we tried on were too small, or way over priced. All of the stores had one thing in common; cranky workers. I wasnt sure if they hated their job, didnt like white people,or were having a bad day, but none of them seemed happy. After the sixth shoe store,we were able to find a pair of black slip on flats for me, and slip on dress shoes for Ryan. Before we knew it, it was four o clock.We had plans to play with our basketball group at five, so we booked it home and changed into our gear. There were about 8 people who showed up, some old and some new. We played full court games for a couple of hours. Afterwards, we grabbed fried rice for dinner and then went home, where we spent the rest of our night researching islands to visit for our trip.

Day 24 hustlin prices 1/24/14

Day 24
Today we did laundry for the first time since we got here. We put all of our clothes  our backpacking backpacks and walked to washing station about a half a mile away. The washing station was one that we had walked passed many times on our way to the school supply store and to the rootz rock reggae bar. We had seen a few other washing stations but this one was the closest. Nick told us a place where you could drop your laundry off and pick it up the next day for 30 baht a kilo. We werent sure how much laundry we had, so we decided to do it ourselves to try and save some money. The laundry station we went to had a pretty interesting set up. There were 8 washing machines and two dryers. One load to wash was 20 baht, about 70 cents, and drying was 10 baht.The dryer sounded like a good deal, until we realized you needed about six cycles of drying to do the job.There was a woman who worked the station, she made sure the machines were working, provided change if needed, and looked after your clothes. While our clothes were washing we went to grab lunch. We got lunch at the vendor that we went to a few days ago, the one where the woman gave us too much change. We ordered chicken pad Thai, it was amazing. After lunch we went back to the washing station. There was still some time left on the machine. Ryan stayed with the clothes, and I walked to a used bookstore across the street. I was impressed with their selection. Most of the books were in English with a small selection in German, Chinese, French, and Spanish. I was happy to find the store since I only brought one book with me. When I returned to the washing station the clothes were done. We folded them and headed back to our apartment. It had been a while since we went to the night bazaar so we decided we would go and get dinner. We ate at the food court.We ordered Indian food, the portions were small for the price, but the food was good. While we were in the area we decided to look for meditation retreat clothes, since the retreat requires us  to wear all white clothing. I had a few white shirts  that I brought with me, but no pants, and Ryan doesnt own anything white.  We walked around for a good hour, asking for prices and negotiating with people. After being hustled by kids and little old women, we found a store that sold us thin long sleeve white shirts for a good price.We bought three.  After the night bazaar we decided to go back to the place we got lunch and get a smoothie as a dessert. When we got there,the woman was happy to see us. We ordered two banana smoothies to go. While we were sitting there,,a small group of tourists walked up to look at the menu.You could see that they were contemplating whether or not to eat there. Ryan turned around and said ,"its really good, you should eat here". The woman added in the fact that we had been twice in the same day. The  comment sold them, and they sat down and ordered food. A minute later the woman walked over to us and gave us some orange slices, as a token of gratitude.From here, we went back to our apartment and ended our night with reading and meditating.

Day 23 Little Angles 1/23/14

Today we went back to the kindergarten class to teach our lessons. Jeff and Nick got  the little rascals that Ryan and I had on Monday, and  Ryan and I got the class that they had. My lesson was the same as last time, with the exception of a relay race game I added in. The class was small in comparison to our last. My lesson went exceptionally well. The kids were well behaved and participated in all the activities. When I finished my lesson Ryan went in and taught his. The students were angels for him as well. I stood outside the class and peered in the other room to see how Jeff's lesson was going. It was mad chaos in there. The kids were running around the room screaming, while Jeff stood there with a dumbfound look and  his hands on his head. He walked over to Moz,who was in the room sitting by the door taking notes of Jeff's lesson. Jeff told Moz that the kids were ruining his lesson and that he wanted to leave. Moz told him to get a grip on the situation and do his best. I stood watching everything and laughing on the inside. Jeff rolled his eyes and went back to try and get the kids attention, but he was unsuccessful. After a few minutes of the kids going bonkers, Moz stood up, and very sternly told the kids to sit down and be quiet in Thai. The class went silent, and all of the kids sat down. Jeff was able to teach them a few vocabulary words during this short period of obedience, but that only lasted a minute before they were galloping around the room squawking like wild animals. After observing Jeff with the class, I had to give Ryan and I kudos for how much better our lessons went with the rascals. When we all finished our lessons we went back to school. At school we were given our second test, the subject being, the differences between Thai and English in its written form, and the complications that Thai students might have in the classroom. The test was a breeze. Afterwards we ate lunch at the boomerag. When we finished lunch we headed back to school where we were given our next teaching assignment. Moz told us that an all girls catholic school needed us to teach next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. He said that it would be split up; two would go Tuesday, and  two on Wednesday. Ryan and I volunteered to go first. I got two fourth grade classes and Ryan got two fifth grade classes. Our last class would be first graders,which we would teach together. He told us that the school was very strict on appearance and that we would need to wear dress shoes. Neither Ryan or I had dress shoes, so we made a note of buying some over the weekend. During our break at school, Nick told us that Jeff caused an accident on the road this morning. He said that Jeff was swerving in and out of traffic on his bike and cut a motorcyclist off, causing the man to crash.This was the second incident in which Jeff caused a crash. I guess the police showed up and took down his information. When Nick told us this it didn't surprise me, since he had already caused a car accident the week before last. The man is a serious menace to society. After school Ryan and I went back to our apartment. We didn't do much with the rest of our day since we were tired from the poor night sleep we got the night before. For dinner we ate at a place nearby and then retired to our room with movies for the rest of the night.

Day 22 Happy tummy, Happy Conscience 1/22/14

At school we had another interesting lesson. We learned about Thailand and the history of its language. In a nutshell Thailand has hundreds of  different dialects varying from different regions and hill tribes. So different in fact that a person in the south may not be able to communicate with someone in the east. Because of all the different dialects, the standard "Bangkok Thai" is taught in school in addition to the dialect of their region. We also learned about the different influences of Thailand's bordering countries and how they have influenced the language.With all of the fun information we learned, class went by quickly. Later that night we ate dinner at a place near our house. We ordered a delicious chicken curry noodle coup. The food was good but portions were small, so we decided to make a stop for something else. We went down a small narrow street filled with fruit vendors and food stalls. We saw one that was appetizing for the both of us, so we sat down. Ryan ordered shrimp pad thai and I got a banana shake. My smoothie was to die for; rich, creamy, and super filling. Our meal came to 70 baht so we handed the lady a 100 baht bill.We started to walk away when we realized she gave us 60 in change. We stopped for a minute and tried to think about how to communicate that she gave us to much. After going over the numbers in Thai, we turned around and showed her the money and told her the amount we were suppose to get back. She was very grateful, and thanked us with a bow, and gave us the correct change.With our stomachs and consciences happy, we walked back to the apartment. Back home we continued to do planning for our trip and for our lessons with the children for tomorrow.

Day 21 Bugalicious 1/21/14

School was very interesting today. Moz taught us about reading and writing in Thai. He wrote a sentence on the board  in Thai,and then had us transliterate it using a chart of over fifty Thai consonants and vowels.As a class we were to identify the symbols in the sentence, match it to the vowel or consonant on the chart, and write the phonetics of it under the Thai word. The activity was challenging and took a couple of hours, but was very valuable. We learned that when two consonants are written together, there is an inherent "o" or "a" that is added between the letters. Because of this, Thai's have trouble pronouncing English words. When they see two consonants together, they automatically put in extra letters, for example they would read the word "school" as "socahool". Another  interesting thing about Thai, is that when written, there are no spaces between words "soeverythinglookslikethis." This makes it very difficult for nonthai speakers to read Thai.because you need to know all the vocabulary in the sentence in order to know where one word starts, and one ends. Also when reading a word, you  pronounce the first consonant of the word before the vowel in front of it, for example, "egg" would be geg. Thai as a written language seems like a real challenge to learn as a foreigner, but there are some aspects to the spoken language that seems easier than English.For example, they don't conjugate verbs.In English we say "I eat, I ate, I will eat", they say "I eat, yesterday I eat, Tomorrow I eat". Learning about the Thai language was really fun, but also very useful in teaching Thai children. It allow us to see why Thai kids struggle with learning English,and provides us with  a better understanding of how to help them.After school Ryan and I went the Chiang Mai international school for the men's basketball night. There were about twelve guys that showed up, most of them in there mid thirties. I was happy that they didn't mind me joining. We played full court games for two hours. It was a great workout. On the way home we saw a stand selling an assortment of bugs. Nick had told us that they were tasty and that if we came across them we should try them, so we bought crickets, maggots, and larva. The woman threw in two large cockroach looking things for free. I must say I felt hesitated to try them, but after Ryan put one in his mouth and said they were good I found my courage. The crickets and maggots were yummy. They tasted like a buttery meaty popcorn. The larva was really interesting. It had a taste similar to cabbage. The only thing we didnt try was the large cockroach. I never would have thought that I would eat bugs before, but I'm glad I did because they are a seriously tasty healthy treat. After our bug grub, we decided to get some real dinner. We went to our favorite hole in the wall joint for chicken fried rice. Earlier that day we learned how to say chicken fried rice, pronounced "cow pot guy". We ordered it in Thai, feeling a sense of accomplishment when the woman understood our order. We ended our night with the movie" Ferngully", one of the best children's movies.

Day 20 Little Rascals 1/20/14

This morning we woke up bright and early to stream the niners game. Sadly it was the last one we would be watching for a while.After the game we went to school. We were suppose to be there  by 9:30 to allow us time to get to the elementary school, but we didnt end up leaving  until 9:50 because we were waiting on Jeff who was 20 minutes late.It was a short drive to the school. Moz rode his motorbike and met us there.At the school there were two classes, one of four year olds and one of five year olds. Nick went with the five year olds and I went with four year olds. I did my lesson from 10 to 10:30. Ryan stood nearby and watched.  Periodically Moz would poke his head in to see how I was doing. The kids were absolutely adorable.They greeted me with a bow and a huge smile. I taught them different parts of the body and had them dance to the song  head, shoulders, knees and toes. The next activity I had planned  was a poster game where they got in teams and pointed to the part of the body I called out. I never ended up doing this activity. After a minute of being with them I realized most of  them didnt know a single word of  English, and their attention span was that of a goldfish. Their Thai teacher remained in the room, but stayed in the corner the whole time, with her head immersed  in a stack of papers. The kids were rowdy. There were a few who would wander around the room and not participate, so I ended up improvising. My lesson consisted of thirty minutes of dancing, jumping, hopping, and yelling out the names of different parts of the body. When I finished my lesson Ryan entered the room and did his. After my time with them, their attention span grew even shorter, and some of them had behavior issues.If you have ever seen the movie kindergarten cop then you know what I'm talking about when I say it was a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger's first day of teaching. Ryan would  show the kids flashcards,and every time he put one down,a little boy would take the card and run around the room with it. He soon realized he needed to improvise since the children were wild, and the teacher wasn't offering any help. He taught the kids a motion to correlate to each animal on the note card. When he taught them "shark", he had all the kids put their hands on top of their heads to imitate a fin. The kids loved it, especially when Ryan did it,they would scream and run away in laughter. Next door  Jeff was doing his lesson, which  was going pretty well. Nick and Jeff got lucky with their group of kids. The older ones were more tamed, not to mention their Thai teacher was a lot more helpful. The teacher would intervene if there were behavior problems, and she would translate the directions of the activities for Jeff and Nick. When we were done we headed back to the school. Moz told us that we would go back on Thursday and switch classes; Ryan and I would have the older kids, and Jeff and Nick would get the younger ones. I was happy that Ryan and I got the more challenging group first. Moz dismissed us early from school, and Nick, Ryan, and I went to get lunch at the boomerang. We discussed how our lessons with the kids went, and gave each other advice for Thursday. At lunch, Nick updated us on the latest Jeff news. I guess over the weekend Jeff met with the police and the owner of the bar that ripped him off. He said that the owner told the police that Jeff was wasted and ordered many drinks. The owner even printed a picture that they had from the security camera of Jeff lying naked in the bar with his clothes next to him. In the end Jeff was not compensated for the money that was "lost". I didn't know what to think of the story. Whether it was true or not the situation didn't end the way he wanted it to. After lunch we headed home to read and relax. For dinner we decided to check out a new place. We were craving American food so we got a club sandwich with fries and a Hawaiian pizza. The food was good and cheap, two factors that are hard to come by when it comes to western food in Thailand. After dinner we went back to our apartment and did extensive planning for our month long island hopping excursion.

Day 19 Healthy routines 1/19/14

Nothing too exciting happened today. Now that we are in the routine of things, we fill our days with normal activities like reading, basketball, eating, and such. One of our goals for living in Thailand is to become healthier mentally and physically. Our mental health will come from meditation. Ryan and I have been  confirmed for a ten day meditation retreat for febuary 14-24 through the International Buddhist Center. The center has strict rules. You may not; touch anyone, use electronics, wear makeup, sleep in past five am, or speak outside designated times. In addition to our mental strengthening we want to become healthier physically. We started today by running to the school near the apartment. At the school we played basketball and did a few running and shooting drills. From the school we jogged back to our apartment where we read and watched movies for the rest of the night.

Day 18 "The Farangs are watching" 1/18/14

Today we had  our coed basketball meet up at 4:30. Ryan and I decided to head to the school early to shoot around. When we got there the place was packed. It looked as though the school was having a sports day. There were two groups playing volleyball, a purple team and a yellow team. The game was being reffed by an enthusiastic teacher on a ladder yelling through a megaphone. Next to the volley ball court was another group of kids playing an organized basketball game, being reffed by another spirited teacher.  On the side of the volleyball court was the school band. In front of the band were dance teams that were also in colors matching those playing basketball or volleyball. . The dance team  consisted of more boys than girls. Many of the dancers were dressed in flamboyant regalia, with glitter makeup , and full feather and lace head dress. Those who were not participating in an event sat around the border screaming and cheering. We weren't sure when the event was going to be over, or if the coordinator of the basketball group knew that it was going on, but we decided we would stay and watch. We went into the school and sat down on the bleachers. Watching all the events was really entertaining. After a while a few of the basketball folks arrived, one of them was Lotta, a German lady from the women's league. Around 4:15 the event seemed to be coming to an end. All of the kids gathered on the basketball court and sat in their colored groups. The teacher stood in front of them and gave them a speech on his megaphone. He said something in Thai and they all turned and looked at Ryan, Lotta, and I, and started to laugh. Lotta had been living in Chiang Mai for seven years and  knew Thai. She told us that the teacher said "Look even foreigners came to watch you perform."  I smiled and waved at the hundreds of Thai faces that stared at me. This was the first time we felt singled out as foreigners or "farangs",the thai slang for white person. It was a pretty comical moment. When the event ended, we began to shoot around. About eight people from the group showed up. We played full court games for a couple of hours and got a really good workout in. After basketball we went back to the apartment showered up and grabbed dinner. Since it was a Saturday  we decided to indulge in a little night life. We went to our favorite spot; Roots, Rock Reggae. Like last time there was a live band playing. We ordered a somsang bucket, which is a small plastic bucket of rum, coke, and red bull with two straws. The atmosphere was fun and laid back. The band played similar songs to their last performance, a mix of sublime, bob marley, and some ska. We danced and enjoyed our bucket of sugar. Around midnight, when the sugar high was wearing off  we made our walk back to the apartment to sleep.

Day 17 Lost in translation 1/17/14

Our adventurous day started at 9:30am. Nick, Ryan, and I stood in front of our apartment to flag down one of the many sangtaos that drive by. We flagged some down and bargained prices. After the third one,we were able to find a reasonable price. Nick talked to the woman and told her we wanted to go to the lake. She didn't know English,but she responded when she heard the name of the lake and offered us a ride for 600 baht, which was 400 cheaper than the other offerings, so we decided to take it. She drove for about 40 minutes through town and up a steep windy mountain road. The drive seemed to be taking longer than we had anticipated, and the ride was starting to make us feel queasy.She finally stopped in a parking lot of a small tourist congested mountain town. When we hopped out we didn't see a lake or any signs for one. We asked her where the lake was, and she just looked at us with confusion. She made a gesture signifying that she would wait there for us to be done. We walked off in search for the lake. The town was super small. There were a few food vendors and surplus of carts selling your typical tourist souvenirs. Nearby we found a map. The map showed that there were a few hiking trails to waterfalls but all of which were a few miles away.We walked around for a bit hoping to find a hiking trail nearby, but our search was useless,the town was a tourist trap. After aimlessly wandering for 45 minutes we walked back to the parking lot where we saw our driver. When we reached her we asked her about the lake. She still had no idea what we were talking about. A man buying chicken next to her, saw our translation mishap, and asked us where we wanted to go. We told him that we were looking for the lake where you could swim and we told him the name. He knew of the place, and told us that we were far from it. He said that the lake was at the bottom of the mountain closer to Chaing Mai. He translated for us, telling the woman we wanted to go there. She said she could take us for an additional 400 baht. We tried to bargain her down to 300, telling her that was where we wanted to go initially, but she refused to take us for anything less than 400. We felt stuck. We didn't want to stay in the stupid tourist town, but we were also annoyed that we agreed upon 600 baht for her to take us to the lake. We realized there wasn't much we could do, and we had to remind ourselves that things like this happen when there's a language barrier.So we agreed to pay the extra four hundred baht for her to take us to the lake. When we finally got the to lake we realized it was much closer to chiang mai than we thought. We each paid the 20 baht fee to enter the lake. Our driver told us that she was going to wait at the lake and when we were ready to leave we could find her. We thanked her and walked off in search for a place to relax. The lake was really big ,with beautiful mountains behind it.There were a  hundred bamboo huts bordering the banks of the lake. The place was quiet and peaceful. With the exception of a few huts we had the place to ourselves. We found a hut we liked near a concession stand.After we put our things down, we went to order food. There was a small a little girl maybe 6 years old working at the front who took our order. She didn't know any English besides the word big and small. Ryan and I ordered chicken fried rice, and Nick ordered rice and a plate of deep fried frog for all of us to share. The little girl asked if we wanted a small or big plate of rice, Ryan and I both went with big since we hadn't eaten all day. When the food arrived the rice portions were enormous. The plate wasn't big size,it was super size me portions. The deep fried frog wasn't too bad either, deep fried anything always taste good.After we ate we sat around and shared travel stories. Nick had some really good travel tips and stories to tell of his time the Philippines. He told us that many of the  homeless women we see in chiang mai holding their babies and begging for money, are really beggars who paid another woman to borrow her baby for the night so she could make more money on the street. I thought back to the time when Ryan and I gave a homeless woman holding her baby some money, and wondered if she was one of these women. We exchanged stories for a while, enjoying each others life lessons. The place was so quiet and peaceful we all ended up taking a little nap. Around 4pm we decided to head out. We grabbed a doggy bag for all the extra rice we had and then  found our driver. We got back to our apartment around 5 and felt completely tired. We decided to stay in for the rest of the night and watch movies.

Day 16 Bball heaven 1/16/14

Today at school we were given the entire day to work on our lessons. I didn't have much to work on since I did most of my planning the day before, so I spent sometime watching Ryan and helping him come up with ideas for his lesson. I had one too many cups of coffee and was extremely hyper, singing kid songs repeatedly. My enthusiasm was knocked out of me when I fell down the stairs at school. I was walking down for my second cup of coffee when I slipped and slid down a small flight of wooden stairs leaving a burn on the back of my leg and a bruise on my tail bone. It wasn't my brightest moment of the day. The stairs in Thailand can be super sketchy in most places,luckily I didn't hurt myself too seriously. Back upstairs everyone put the finishing touches on their lesson. Moz told us that when we finished wewere going to present it to the class so we could get practice. I volunteered to go first .We sang head, shoulders, knees and toes, played freeze dance, and learned vocabulary words. Ryan went second showing us flash cards of sea animals and playing games to quiz us on our knowledge. Lastly Nick went presenting his transportation vocabulary on flashcards, and playing a running game. Jeff said he wasn't ready to present his project; which we all knew was a result of him using his time writing stupid letters about his water heater. After we presented Moz let us go early. Before leaving school we talked to Nick about coming with us to the lake tomorrow for a hike and a swim. He liked the idea and said he would join us. From school Ryan and I went to grab lunch at restaurant "Number Nine", near our house. After lunch we walked to a nearby market that sold fruit and other goods. We bought mangoes, spicy peanuts, and dragon fruit for tomorrow's hike. We then headed back to the apartment where I got into my basketball gear.On Thursday nights at the Chiang Mai international school a group of women get together to play, so Ryan and I headed there early to shoot around at the school's outdoor courts. When we got there we were surprised by how many hoops there were. There were four outdoor hoops, and another full court outside under an awning. We shot around for a  until 5pm. At this time I went to the indoor gym where the girls were, and Ryan stayed outside shooting by himself. I recognized two of the girls from the Saturday coed group ,but the rest were all new to me. All of the girls were really nice; most of them in their 30's. Their skill level wasn't the greatest; causing turn overs every ten seconds, but it was fun and a great workout. One of the ladies also told me that the gym stays open until the last person leaves. She said that you could stay late into the night, as long as you turn off the lights, so the  security guards of the school, who work 24hrs, see that the lights are off, and can lock the gym. After I learned this I was sold on living in Chiang Mai. Playing basketball makes me feel at home, and the fact that we were able to find a place that has an indoor court open that late, is a miracle. After an exhausting 2 hours of playing ball,Ryan and I walked to get some frozen yogurt. The yogurt place we went to was the only one I had seen in Chiang Mai. It was delicious but too expensive. After our tasty treat we headed to the market to pick up a few things before heading back to the apartment where we spent the rest of our nights watching comedies.

Day 15 Pizza Pizza 1/15/14

Today we didn't have to be to class until 1 pm, so we took advantage of this time by sleeping  in and applying to a nearby tutoring center. When we walked in we were greeted by a Thai man in his late teens. We asked him about job openings but he didn't seem to understand English to well, which took me by surprise since we were in an English tutoring center. He caught the drift that we were looking for jobs, so he motioned us to sit down and handed us both applications. As we were filling out our applications Jeff walked into the center and went up to the man behind the counter and conversed with him briefly. When he turned around and saw us, his reaction was strange,he nodded,gave us a smirk, and walked out of the building. The application took us a while to fill out, as it required us to answer questions about our teaching style and what approaches we would use in the class. We turned in our applications and went to grab lunch. We ate at a hole in the wall joint nearby;chicken fried rice for a dollar, cant beat that. At school we were given the day to plan our lesson for Monday.We had free range on what we wanted to teach the kids, as long as it was a vocabulary lesson that lasted for thirty minutes. I decided to teach the different parts of the body, Ryan went with animals, and Nick went with mode of transportation. While the three of us planned our lesson, Jeff was in his own world writing a long letter to someone. When he left the room to go to the bathroom, Moz walked over to look at his paper, and read part of it out loud. His letter was saying how he got "fucked by some woman, was robbed at a bar, and had a broken water heater." Moz seemed annoyed by the fact that Jeff was coming to class and not participating, but at the same time he didn't really enforce his participation. At the end of the course you receive a letter grade; I cant imagine Jeff receiving anything higher than a D.After class Ryan, Nick, and I walked to a book store near our apartment to find supplies for our lesson. The book store was huge. There were three floors and had everything you could possibly need as a teacher. They had art supplies, posters, toys, instruments, and books. I bought two posters of the body, and Ryan bought a poster board and some white board markers. After tthe book store we parted ways with Nick, and Ryan and I got pizza at a restaurant near our house. They had a special, buy two get one free. The pizzas were individual size and were decent in quality. They weren't anything fancier than a djorno pizza, but in a foreign country you cant expect much. From here we went back to our place and streamed Hunger games 2 and called it a night.

Day 14 The drama continues 1/14/14

Today at school Jeff's drama continued. This time his story wasn't about his water heater, although he somehow found a way to blame it on that. He said that he checked his bank account and saw that he lost 20,000 baht. We asked him questions about it, trying to help him figure out how the incident could have occurred. He was frustrated and didn't want to talk about it, so he left class early to talk to the bank. When we returned from our lunch break I was surprised to see that Jeff was back in class. We asked him what he was able to find out from the bank, and he said all they could tell him was that a 20,000 baht charge from "Violin" was made on Wednesday night.They told him that he could make a police report and check on the status of his report in the meantime. When Moz heard this piece of information he researched violin, and saw that there were numerous reports on the thaivisa.org site about other tourists having a similar thing happen to them. Jeff says that the card was still in his possession, which indicates that he went there for drinks and paid with his card, and was then severely over charged. According to the reports, many people also contested that they had been overcharged on their cards. Jeff claims that he was too drunk and doesn't remember any of it. To no surprise he blamed being blacked out, as a result to his anger from the water heater incident. I have to admit it would suck getting 20,000 baht stolen, but a part of me thought; karma. The rest of the class period flew by. After our final lesson on  how to present vocabulary,we were dismissed from class. After class Ryan and I went back to our apartment to chill for a bit. While we were chilling we heard Nick's voice outside the door, so we opened our door to find him moving in to the apartment two doors down. We had a new neighbor. We were happy that he moved in. We jokingly told him not to tell Jeff where we lived. Later Ryan and I went to the Soja bar where I ordered my favorite kiwi smoothie, and Ryan got green curry. We stayed and chatted until the sun went down. From here we went back to our apartment where we spent our time reading and researching meditation retreats. The meditation retreat we found was a ten day retreat with strict rules of no eating after 12pm, no holding hands or touching anyone, no talking for most of the day, and no use of technology. We emailed the retreat asking if there was an opening for us after our class was up. The ten day retreat sounded like an extreme challenge, but was definitely something that we both wanted to try. After our research we ended the night with watching the hunger games.

Day 13 He's Back 1/13/14

We woke up this morning feeling tired and out of it from the lack of sleep from the night before. The good thing was Ryan was starting to feel  like he was recovering from his cold. Back at school we were relieved to find Jeff sitting in class. For a moment we let our imagination get the best of us thinking that he might have of  been in jail. When we asked him why he wasn't in class last week  he instantly started to tell his elaborate story of his water heater and the dispute he had with his landlord. He told us that he was so upset about the incident that he went out afterwards and got drunk and woke up the next morning realizing he had slept through most of class. His story amused me but I must say I was a little disappointed to find out that the conflict was only about his water heater. The start of class was spent presenting. We all did an excellent job giving our grammar presentations and providing the class with activities to go along with it. For lunch we went to our usual spot; the boomerang. When we got there we realized didn't bring much money with us. We were going to split something to save on the cost, but Nick offered to help out with the bill so we could each order something. Luckily we were only short about 15 baht. After lunch we went back to class where we learned the twelve tenses of English and worked on a few activities. When class was over Ryan and I made our way back to our apartment where I ended up passing out. After my hour cat nap we went to the store to buy a few groceries and then went to grab dinner. The rest of our night was pretty low key, calling it early so we could catch up on sleep.

Day 12 Sunday Market 1/12/14

Today was a very lazy Sunday. We slept in and didn't do much with the first half of our day except some lesson planning. Later in the afternoon we decided to mozy on down to the park. I brought the laptop to do some writing, and Ryan worked on a few things of his own. We rented a bamboo mat for 10 baht and sprawled out in the sun. At the park I had to use the bathroom, so I walked to find one. When I came across it I saw a sign that read "30 baht to use the bathroom". After reading the sign I turned away to get money. As I started to walk away an elderly  woman working at a vendor near me waved me over. I walked over not knowing what she wanted. she smiled at me and put thirty baht in my hand and said "for bathroom". The woman didn't look like she had a lot of money and I felt bad taking it from her, but I really had to use the bathroom. I smiled at her and thanked her many times, making sure I expressed my gratitude to the fullest.  I had planned on going to get money when I finished, to pay her back, but when I came out of the bathroom she was gone. Her act of generosity made my day. On the walk back from the park we came across an outdoor market with vendors selling food, crafts, clothes and other goods. We grabbed dinner at the market; pork rice, corn on the cob, and pineapple slices. After eating we decided we would walk around the rest of the market.What we thought was a small Sunday market ended up being a huge event. The market seemed to be endless. It stretched out all over town, down main streets, and smaller streets. Many of the vendors were the same from the night bazaar. Most of them selling similar things like; elephant pants, artwork,sandals, and food. The one thing that I enjoyed about the Sunday market was the live music. There were many street performers singing and  playing instruments. We meandered the streets for a couple of hours before making our way back to the apartment. Back at the apartment we streamed movies, browsed the internet, and trying to kill as much time as possible before 1 am, when the niners game started. I ended up passing out during third quarter but Ryan stayed up for the whole thing. Staying up until 3:30 am is true dedication to the game.

Day 11 Hippie Den 1/11/14

This morning I woke up to find a bottle of hair conditioner in bed. I laughed remembering that in the middle of the night I grabbed a bottle of lotion to rub on my bug bitten legs to help me fall asleep, turns out I rubbed my legs and feet with hair conditioner, not lotion. Ryan woke up still feeling sick, so we stayed inside the first half of the day streaming the warriors game and be being lazy. It was such a gorgeous day out and we wanted to enjoy the weather so we decided to search the web to see if we could find any city parks. We found two; one was a two mile walk, and the other was a bit further, so we went with the closer one. The park was exactly what we needed. There was a large grass area, a small pond, a walking path, and very small basketball hoop. Around the walking path were vendors selling coconuts and snacks. There were also people renting out bamboo mats for the grass. The park even had wifi! I worked on my journal and Ryan read a book. We didnt spend much time at the park since we got there a few hours before sunset. On the walk back we scoped out a few places to eat dinner, then dropped off our things at the apartment and walked to Loco Elvis to eat. The loco elvis had a mix of american and Mexican food. I know what your thinking, Mexican again! But we couldn't resist. We ordered two beers and fajitas. The food was good, and they had fresh guacamole which made everything better. After dinner we walked across the street to the THC rooftop bar.We checked it out once before but never stayed for a drink. When we got there, there were only a few other tables occupied. We grabbed two large chang beers and sat near the street.  The place was really cool. All of the tables were low to the ground and had an array of  pillows for sitting. There was a dj playing hits from the 70's. The walls had neon painted murals of peace signs and trees. It was the epitome of a hippie den, with its psychedelic paintings, pillow seats, lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and the jimi hendrix in the back ground.There was only one thing missing; ganja. I find it pretty funny that marijuana is so illegal in Thailand; were talking death penalty for being caught with a pound. Yet many of the bars are rasta theme, or have names like "THC Bar". The bar was relaxing. We enjoyed our beers over a good conversation. When we finished we went back to our place and got ready for bed. Before turning off the lights I made sure I was grabbing a bottle of lotion not conditioner, in case I needed it in the middle of the night.

Day 10 Sick Dawg 1/10/14

1/10/14
This morning Ryan woke up feeling like a sick dog. His nose was runny and congested, and he had a horrible headache. Since he was feeling under the weather we spent the majority of our day streaming movies and researching islands in Thialand that we wanted to visit. We decided that when our teaching course is up we will travel for a month or two exploring the islands of southern Thailand. In our search we came across some really cool uninhabited islands that you can volunteer and do scientific research on. We emailed a place asking about more information and did extensive research on camping through out the islands. All of our research got us extremely excited for our upcoming travel adventures. After hours of being cooped up in our small apartment we decided to go out for lunch. We ate at a place near our house. Although we have eaten there before the food was extra yummy. We ordered the best Burmese curry noodle soup and delicious smoothies. In fact the food was so damn good we decided to go back five hours later for dinner and order the same thing. Our lazy day was uneventful, but much needed for the sake of Ryan health and for our island planning.

Day 9 Rootz, Rock, Reggae 1/9/14

1/9/14
Today I woke up feeling well rested and ready to take on the day. We started our day off right by streaming the warriors game before class. When we got to class we were surprised to see that Nick was the only one in class. We sat there for about 15 minutes past the start of class when  Moz came in and informed us that we were waiting on Jeff. He told us that Jeff had trouble with his landlord yesterday. He said he had a confrontation with his landlord and an electrician who came to his room to fix his water heater. Moz wasn't sure if Jeff's absence from class was related to this  incident or from something else, but we were all a bit worried. He tried  calling him multiple times but he didn't answer. We started with a movie.The movie was an outdated  recording of a woman teaching a grammar lesson to a group of Thai students. After, we discussed the movie and wrote down the different steps to writing a lesson. Moz then gave us our next homework assignment, which was to create our own grammar lesson that we would present to the class on Monday. He dismissed us from class early. After class Ryan and I grabbed lunch from the Boomerang again. From here we went back to our apartment to grab the laptop and our lesson planning material,which we then brought to the bar that we went to on our first day; the one that played soja. The bartender remembered us and greeted us with a smile. I ordered myself a kiwi smoothie and Ryan got an iced latte. My smoothie was delicious. I think when I get tired of Thai food I will live off of smoothies, they are that good. We sat there enjoying our drinks, while I caught up on my blog writing and Ryan got started on  his lesson plans. After about an hour of writing we decided to packed up and find a place to get a massage.We came across one at the end of the street that offered a pedicure service, so we walked inside. I got an hour long pedicure with a foot massage and Ryan got an hour back massage. My service was provided by an older Thai woman and Ryan's was by an older Thai man. Our services were in the same room but separated by a curtain. The Thai massage Ryan received was a mixture of massage and chiropractor. I could here laughs coming from Ryan's side of the curtain as the man twisted and stretched his limbs. Occasionally the man would open the curtain and look at me with a smile and say " here your boyfriend". I wasn't sure if he was doing this because he thought it was funny, or if he thought I was scared he was going to rape him. Either way it was funny. After our massage services we made our way back towards our apartment. Along the way we saw another Mexican restaurant and decided to check it out to compare it to Miguels. We ordered a chicken burrito, which we split. The food was really good, not necessarily better than Miguel's, but comparable in quality and price. After dinner we went up to the apartment and relaxed a bit before skyping Sue and Dave. Around 10pm we showered and got ready to head out to grab some drinks. We decided on checking out the Babylon bar which was in the same vicinity as the soja bar.As we approached  the bar we could hear a montage of music blending in from all the bars,  and a sea of people making their way in the same direction. When we reached the music and the crowd I was surprised by how many people there really were. There were 8 different bars all surrounding an open cobblestone square area. Each bar had music playing; some with a dj and some with a live band. The square was crowded .There was a blend of Thai people,white tourists, prostitutes, and transvestites. The prostitutes and transvestites were mostly gathered in the bars that played loud electronic music and had strobe lights; the perfect place to find wasted tourists. Across from the Bass booming bars were a few chiller spots like our favorite soja playing bar, which I still don't know the actual name of. Next to this bar was the Babylon bar and the Roots, Rock, Reggae bar, which had a live band. Naturally we followed the music and went into the Roots. Rock, Reggae bar. The inside was dimly lit with a large bar offering a variety of cheap cocktails and beer. There were small tables to the left and a decent size dance floor to the right. The tables were all full; mostly with your typical dread lock, hemp wearing, tanned skin, Birkenstock wearing,  vagabond hippie, along with some local Thai people. We grabbed two beers and stood near the dance floor. The band was really good. They played a variety of hit songs, all the with a reggae style. They also played some of their own thai style reggae songs which were really fun to dance to. We danced and enjoyed the music, feeling completely happy and at home in our environment.Although we were having  a blast we ended the night early. Ryan was starting to feel sick; catching the bad cold that I had a few days prior, so we called it a night and agreed upon making that our usual night out spot to go out.

Day 8 1/8/14 Spice it up

Today we were told not to come into class until 1pm because Moz had another class to teach. With our  morning free we were able to catch up on sleep and stream the warriors game. Before class we went to eat at the "Boomerang", a delicious restaurant near the school.When we got to class Moz took a while to start teaching, which meant Jeff talked our ears off with his complaints about his water heater. Class went by quickly. We talked about what makes a good teacher, and the differences between teacher training, and teacher development. At the end of the day we were given our first exam, which  basically was us writing a recap of what we learned that day. After class we went back to our apartment. We were both feeling kind of tired and little sick, so we didn't do much besides stream some movies on our laptop. Around 9pm we got a second wind in us and decided to walk down the street to Miguel's; a little Mexican restaurant that surprisingly has good food. We both ordered chicken quesadillas, beer, and a margarita. Although Thai food is delicious, our meals were starting to feel a little repetitive; luckily our trip to Miguel's fulfilled our need for variety. After dinner we went back to the apartment and went to bed.

Day 7 1/7/14 Presenting

This morning Ryan and I enjoyed fresh mangoes and orange juice for breakfast. The mangoes were bought at the night market and were absolutely delicious; by far the best mangoes I've ever eaten. After breakfast we made our ten minute trek to class.The first two hours of class were spent listening to everyone's presentation. Ryan went first. He led the game two truths and a lie, as well as a discussion about everyone's first impressions of Thailand. Nick went second presenting on his passion for scuba diving and his experiences. I went third, teaching the group two games; one of them a drawing game, and the other a word game. Jeff's presentation was last, which was surprisingly informational about the country of South Korea. He told us that he taught English in Korea for five years; this bit of information about him took all of us by surprise. I would hate to be his student. By the time everyone finished their presentations it was lunch time. Nick, Ryan, and I left class and got lunch at a nearby restaurant. I ordered green curry and a kiwi smoothie; which was delicious. After lunch we went back to class where we leisurely sat around and talked while we waited for Moz to enter the room. Most of that downtime was spent listening to Jeff complain about the water heater in his apartment. When he talks he stutters and often makes big gestures with his hands. He will cock is head back and forth and speak really loud. He comes across as the type of person that always has something to complain about.When Moz returned to class he  gave us all a practice grammar quiz to see how much we knew about the English language. The test was surprisingly challenging; testing our knowledge on specific grammar terms. We went over the quiz as a group, and discussed the importance of knowing grammar for teaching ESL After class Ryan and I walked to the sporting good store in the mall to buy a basketball.The mall didn't annoy me as much this time around,;more stores seemed to be open and there were more people shopping. We bought our basketball for $7 usd; afterwards we went to a supermarket at the bottom of the mall. The supermarket was about the size of safeway and had a pretty good variety of food; mostly Thai food with some imported western goods. We bought yogurt, granola, and bananas to give ourselves a break from the chicken and rice breakfast we've been eating for the past week. After shopping we headed back to our apartment where we stayed for the rest of the night keeping it low key. We ate yogurt and granola for dinner and streamed the last few episodes of breaking bad before calling it a night.

Day 6 1/6/13 First Day of Class

This morning we woke up at 4:40 am to stream the niners game. What a game! It's pretty crazy how technology allows us to do things like watch sports from home half way around the world. We are spoiled in many ways. After watching our epic victory we packed out things and checked out of our hotel at 9:30 am. In front of our hotel a taxi driver waved us over to his car. We showed him the address of the school, but it meant nothing to him. He didn't speak English. He took out a map and had us point out the location of the school.His map didn't have many street names on it which made things a bit difficult..After about 10 minutes of him being patient with us we were able to find a hotel on the map that we knew was near the school. We negotiated taxi prices before getting in and agreed upon 100 baht. We weren't quite sure if the taxi driver knew where he was going or if we would be able to find the school, but we got in optimistically and knew it would all work out.After a surprisingly short drive, the taxi pulled over and let us out. We thanked him and began walking down the street with high hopes that we were in the right area. Two blocks down from where we were dropped off we saw a sign for the Text and Talk Academy. We looked at each other with an expression of relief. When we walked inside we were greeted by our teacher Moz, a middle aged chain smoking British man.The class was small, with only two other middle aged men.There was Nick, a British man who had no experience of teaching but had been to Thailand many times and had a desire to live here. And then there was Jeff, a whack job from the United States who is stranger than strange. At the table we casually introduced ourselves and made small talk while we filled out paperwork and flipped through our course material.We then received a homework assignment. We were to prepare a twenty minute lesson or activity to present to the class tomorrow on anything we wanted. After we were given our assignment we were dismissed early. From here Ryan and I went with one of the administrators from the class to look at apartments. She drove us to one apartment building that had one basic room available. The room had two twin beds pushed together, a small mini fridge, and a dresser for clothes. She informed us that it would be difficult to look for rooms because it was high season and many places would be full because of the holidays. We weren't very enthusiastic about the first place and asked her to take us to our next option. The second one she brought us to was a half a block from the hotel we stayed at; a neighborhood in which we were familiar. The building was smaller than the last and looked in better condition. The room that was available was the same size but this one had a full size bed and the furniture was newer. We decided on the second option. After and easy 15 minute process of photocopying our passports and paying rent plus a months deposit we were all moved in to our apartment. The place wasn't anything spectacular but for $140 american dollars a month in rent we couldn't complain. We decided we would stay here for a month or two. In march when its no longer high season we would move into a larger, nicer apartment.We unpacked our things and got settled in. After moving in we made our way to the night market for our favorite, pork noodle soup and coconuts.We kept our market trip short and came back to the apartment after dinner. Back at the hotel we watched breaking bad on our laptop for a few hours before bed time. At the end of the day it really sunk in that we are actually living in another country and not just visiting. I felt extremely blessed that everything about the trip so far had worked out better than expected. The hotel, the school, our apartment, acclimating to our environment, everything was working out for us, and for that I couldn't be happier.

Day 5 1/5/14 Jungle Adventure

Today was my favorite day by far. We made reservations for a white water rafting trip through the jungle. Our tour guide picked us up from our hotel  at 11:15. We were the last to be picked up in our group of 12. In the car I sat next to a girl about my age. Her and her brother moved from the US in October to teach English in Thailand. I spent most of the ride asking her questions about the school system, her experience, and any advice she had. Talking to her was really helpful. The other people in the group were also interesting. There was a guy from Australia, one from Israel, another from England, and a family of four from Australia as well. The family was the most entertaining because they had a teen age girl and two young boys who kept bickering and saying witty comments in a cute Australian accent. The car ride to the jungle only took about 45 minutes and was absolutely beautiful.The drive into the Jungle was stunning.There were so many different types of tress and plants.It was picturesque. Among the canopy's of the tree you could see the roof tops of  little village huts lining the mountain side and elephants bathing in their camps.After a bumpy ride through the jungle we arrived to a large bamboo covered shack where we sat at picnic tables and were served lunch. For lunch were served a plate of sweet red rice, a fried egg, a small hot dog, and a piece of overly fried chicken, none of which was very good. On the other hand the conversations around the table were great. One of my favorite things about meeting other travelers is asking questions about where they are from and where they have traveled. Some of the travelers had been to places like Nepal, Dominican Republic,Israel and Tanzania. Listening to everyone's stories made my sense of wanderlust grow even more. After lunch we rode a sangtao for about 30 minutes up the mountain and further through the jungle, until we arrived at another bamboo hut equipped with rafts, life jackets, and helmets.Here we divided into four different rafts, each raft with four people and an instructor. In our raft we had two guys who were from New York.They were friendly and shared stories of their travel experience through Thailand and South East Asia. The rafting trip lasted two hours and was a total blast. We went through some serious rapids and got stuck on boulders in the river.We got completely soaked. This was also our first excursion where we used the gopro which we caught some great footage on. Along the ride we saw small indigenous tribes living along the banks of the river. The ride itself was pretty funny. Our instructor who was a small Thai man with a thick accent would yell commands at us like "go to work", "get down", "left", or "right". At times it was hard to understand what he was saying over the roar of the rapids and his heavy accent. He would tell us  to "go to work", which meant paddle, and we would hear "get down", so we would all get on our knees in the raft and stop paddling. Our guide would then start yelling at us. It was pretty fun, this happened many times, which made our trip even more entertaining. At the end of our rafting trip we took a van ride deeper through the jungle to a small village. The villagers were immigrants from China who came to Thailand to create an opium farm. After recent government intervention the opium farm was shut down and turned into a regular farm.Visiting the village was really neat. There were children playing soccer, women weaving, and men gardening. We didnt get a chance to interact much with anyone from the village but we were able to get a tour of their living quarters. Their houses were primitive and their life style was simple but they still had a few luxury items like a satellite dish. I also noticed one man listening to his ipod as he gardened and another man looking at an iphone. It was kind of a strange sight and not something that I expected. Before leaving the village their was an old woman selling jewelry and I decided to buy a silver elephant bracelet from her as a fun memo of our visit. After the village tour we made our way back to the van and headed back to Chiang Mai. Back in the city Ryan and I did our usual walk to the night market to get dinner. We didn't have much energy to do anything else, so after dinner we went back to our hotel to relax and end our fun filled day.

Day 4 1/4/14 Ballin

Today we woke up at 10:30 am feeling groggy from one too many chang beers from the night before. We lazily started our day with eating brunch and at a restaurant near the hotel. After lunch we walked back to our room and hung out for a bit. Around 3 we walked to a near by school where we met up with a group of 20 people to play basketball. We found the group on facebook as the Chiang Mai international Basketball group. Everyone was really nice and friendly. There were people from Australia, Canada, Germany, Russia, and Thailand. There were even a few girls.One of them invited me to play in a women's league that meets every Thursday at the university.It was a challenge playing in the heat with the humidity, but it was well worth it. We played until the sun went down. After basketball we were wiped out so we went back to our hotel and had dinner there and went to bed early.

Day3 1/3/14 Fishy feet

Our morning began with the usual hotel breakfast followed by watching the warriors game. I was so excited that we were able to stream the game on our laptop, and even more excited that it was an excellent game to watch. We were screaming and cheering in our room. Whoever was in the hotel rooms next to us probably thought we were crazy. After the game we decided to explore a different part of the city. Along our walk we came across some really cool temples, one of them had a massive Siddhartha statue with tiny glass mosaics. Finding a temple in Thailand is like finding a Starbucks in California; they are everywhere! I would have to say one of my favorite things about walking in this city is watching the drivers. Cars drive on the opposite side of the street and the driver side of the car is the passenger side for us. Many times I will mistakenly look at a car and freak out when I see a woman on the driver side holding her baby on her lap and looking down, and then I remember that it is reversed here and she is actually the passenger. Mopeds and motorcycles are big here. Most people don't wear helmets, and some people ride with three people on one moped. The biggest shocker to me is when I see someone riding a moped with a small baby on their lap and neither of them have helmets. Along our walk we came across a mall with a sporting goods store inside. We went in to see if they had basketball shoes. Their selection was small consisting of two pairs. We walked around the rest of the mall which was really strange. It was four stories tall, but a third of the stores were closed or out of business. The place was in some serious need of tlc. At the top level of the mall there was a buffet. We were hungry and decided we would try it out. It ended up being a bad idea. The food was gross and it was our most expensive meal yet. We walked back to our hotel feeling sluggish from the gross food. Back at the hotel we rested a bit before headed back to the night bazaar.Around dinner time we made our walk to the night bazaar stopping for our favorite fruit smoothies along the way. When we got to the bazaar we decided to try out a fish feet treatment.The treatment was interesting. You begin by getting your feet washed, and then you sit on a bench and put your feet in a tank of small fish. The fish swim up to your feet and gently nibble on your skin. The feeling is strange. It is similar to the sensation of your feet waking up after they have been asleep. It tingled and tickled at the same time. I couldn't stop laughing. After our interesting fish feet experience we grabbed some dinner at one of the vendors. We ordered the most amazing thai pork noodle soup. Our dinner was so delicious and so inexpensive, it definitely made up for our lunch. From here we decided to go back and check out the rasta bar that we found the day before. We walked a few blocks and found the bar. The place was just as awesome as I'd hope it would be. The inside was dimly lit, with black light murals of bob marley and jimi hendrix. There was a small stage surrounded by tables. In the back was a lounge area with a couch. We ordered some beers, sat at one of the tables, and enjoyed the reggae music playing on the stereo. Soon after we ordered our beers a band came in to set up on stage. We ordered more beers and listened to them play sublime, red hot chili peppers, oasis, and other american hits. After four beers, lots of great music, and fun, we decided to trek back to our hotel and pass out.It was a great day!

Day 2 1/2/14 "Elephant Pants"

Today we woke up feeling well rested, hungry for breakfast, and adventure. We ate breakfast in our hotel which offered us the option of breakfast for an extra fifty cents a night. They had a buffet of mini pancakes,french toast, cereal, fruit, fried rice, chicken,veggies,french fries, salad, rice soup, coffee, and juice. Two plates of food and three cups of coffee later , we were more than satisfied and ready to start our day. Up at the room I called the phone number of the man I was suppose to contact for the school to organize a meeting to go apartment searching. He told us that it would be best to show up to class on Monday with our belongings and that our first day would be spent touring the city and looking for long term housing. He said that because it is right after the new year many places are choosing to rent out apartments to people for a nightly rate because they can make a better profit than renting to someone long term. This surprisingly worked out perfect for us since I booked our hotel until Monday. After getting off the phone with the coordinator Ryan and I got dressed and ready for our day. We took out our city map and looked for a place we wanted to explore. Chiang mai is famous for its night bazar so we decided we would check it out. The taxi driver at the hotel told us it would take us an hour to walk there, but we decided to do the walk anyways to familiarize ourselves with our surrounding and to allow more opportunities for spontaneous adventure. Our walk ended up being really fun. We stopped in at a little store that sold hippie clothes. I bought two pairs of cute hippie pants with elephants on them, one in black and one in red for $3. The pants were thin and perfect for the warm tropical climate of Chiang Mai. As we meandered through smaller side streets we came across a lot of houses that were also businesses. We came across a little hidden cove of trees with a wooden sign with an arrow pointing inside that read " food and drink". As we walked inside we questioned whether or not we were trespassing because it looked like someones back yard. There were a few small tables, a refrigerator with drinks, and a small menu with food. We weren't ready for lunch but we thought the experience of going in and ordering something would be fun. The woman greeted us with a smile and a bow. We bought a soda and a water for 40 cents. We sat under the shade of the canopy trees and enjoyed the experience. From here we continued our walk to the night bazaar. After about an hour of walking, we realized we took the long way around the city to get to the bazaar. Our long way around allowed us to discover a cool spot called the Rasta Bar. The Rasta Bar was closed when we came across it but it looked like a cool place. The walls had murals of Bob Marley and posters for reggae festivals in Chiang Mai. It was definitely a spot we would come back to. When we got to night bazaar area it was 3pm and the bazare didnt start until 6pm, so we decided we would get a massage. The place we walked in to was small and welcoming. The three women working there were all occupied massaging other people, so we sat down and waited.The ladies didnt speak English so communicating was a bit of a challenge. We sat there and waited  for about 15 minutes. I could see that the woman in charge seemed a little frantic about the lack of employees, and saw she was making phone calls, which I assumed were to her employees asking them to come in. Sure enough minutes later, two women came in and began our foot massage. The massage was heavenly and costed a whopping $4. After our massages we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to relax and kill sometime before the night bazaar. Back at the hotel we watched some tv and freshened up. I changed into my new elephant pants which I was so happy about buying. Around 6 we headed out to walk back to the bazaar. Along our walk I must have seen over a dozen people wearing the same elephant pants. I swear everyone and their mother owned a pair.It didn't bother me though, the pants were cute and comfy. When we arrived at the bazaar we were blown away. The market was huge! It started at the beginning of a main road with stores and street vendors selling everything from food, clothes, knives, art, jewelry, shoes, tapestries, and all kinds of gizmos and gadgets. When we got to the end of the street we decided we would walk back, this time on the other side of the street to see what we had missed. There were similar vendors on the other side as well as two huge open courtyard areas selling all kinds of goods including the elephant pants! The courtyard was lined with food vendors and restaurants. They even had massage stations, and little tanks where you rest your feet in water and  little fish eat the barnacles off your feet.So strange!The market was a happening place. We decided that before we go home to California we would definitely need to buy a huge suitcase and fill it with all sorts of treasures from the night bazaar.Half way through our night bazaar exploring we stopped to have dinner at a cute little restaurant. Ryan ordered chicken curry and  a beer. I got a chicken curry coconut noodle soup and a coconut. The food was to die for! After dinner we continued through the market. We came across a vendor selling thin sweaters that were cute. We wanted to know the price so we asked the woman in Thai " how much"? We were all happy and proud of ourselves for asking the question in Thai and even happier that she understood us. We then felt stupid when she responded and we realized we didnt know any numbers in Thai past the word ten. She could see that we didnt understand, so she grabbed a calculator and typed in the price. We thanked her and walked away, making a mental note to learn the numbers in Thai. After exploring the market for several hours we made our way back towards our hotel, but not before stopping in the bar next door for a drink. The bar was outside with a pool table and a small stage for kareoke. We sat down and ordered a beer. There were two paintings on the wall, one was a large mural with a woman dangling a cherry in her mouth, and the other was an animated painting of two people having sex and a man watching. We laughed at the strange pictures and Ryan joked that the place was probably where hookers worked. Within ten minutes of him saying that four small Thai girls came out of a side door from the back of the bar wearing super short dresses and stilettos. They walked around to a few tables and tried flirting with men, but  the girls weren't having any luck. We finished our beers and headed back to our hotel room where we finished our night with tv and sleep.

Day 1 1/1/14 "Street Exploring"

Wednesday 1/1/14

We made it to Thailand! After three flights, two layovers, and thirty hours of traveling we arrived at the International airport of Chiang Mai. I must say out of all my international traveling experiences this was by far the easiest. Everyone we spoke to in the airports spoke English, the flights were on time, and our baggage was timely. We couldn't have asked for a better flight.From the airport we caught a taxi to our hotel for a flat rate of 120 baht ($3.6 usd). After we checked in to our room and showered, we decided to explore our surroundings a bit. We walked down the street and came across a little outdoor restaurant. The menu had a wide variety of options, most of which was Thai and some american items like pizza, fries, and American style breakfast. We went with pork egg rolls, shrimp pad Thai, pineapple orange juice and a large beer. The meal was delicious, by far the best egg rolls and pad Thai I've ever had. As we sat there eating our meal we kept saying "I cant believe we are in Thailand". Although we were half way around the world from home things still felt a little familiar. I think  being in a foreign place with someone you love is a lot less scary than traveling alone, it provides a sense of security and comfort. Many things about Thailand reminded me of Brazil which brought a sense of nostalgia.One thing that was surprising to me was the large amount of white tourists in the city. There were many Europeans and a few other Americans. After our delicious meal which was about $8 usd we walked around town some more. We decided to walk off the beaten path and go  down a smaller side street. This ended up being a great decision. We stumbled across a really cool temple with beautiful architecture. There were three buildings all of which were surrounded by a walking path and garden. The buildings had statues of elephants and gold dragons. The temple was open  to walk through but because Ryan was wearing a tank top we couldn't go inside. We decided we would come back another day. After the spontaneous temple excursion we continued down the street where we walked pass a bar that was playing SOJA. The reggae music pulled us in and we decided to sit down at the bar and order a drink. We ordered Mai Thais and listened to SOJA. The bar was small and open with a fun vibe. The bartender started conversation with us for a bit, asking us where we were from and why we came to Thailand. He kept asking us about Miami and if we had ever been. After we finished our drinks we made our way back towards our hotel and stopped in at seven eleven to buy a bottle of water and some beer for the hotel room. We ended up not being able to buy beer. We learned that you cant buy beer at seven eleven before 5pm and it was 4:30, so we skipped the beer and stuck with the water. When we got back to the hotel room our jet lag kicked in and the adrenaline of excitement wore off. We turned on the tv and found the movie gladiator playing in English. We watched the movie and passed out around 7pm. Our First day in Thailand was a success! :)