Rain, rain, go away...don't come back another day--First full day!

Well today started out a bit rough because I didn’t sleep last night. It’s safe to say that I was up at every hour of the night, thanks to my new light-up timex watch. I think it was a mix of jet-lag and anxiety (good and bad). But the girls downstairs came up and knocked on our door at about 8:30 in the morning and I had finally fallen asleep. We woke up about a half hour later, dressed in cut off jeans and a t-shirt which I later realized was a mistake.

My major points of the day are RAIN, culture shock, language barrier, and dogs!! Well dogs aren't really a main point but they are everywhere! And they are all stray. I don't even know if people have pet dogs here. They are so adorable and it is all i can do to keep from petting/playing with them! Anyways...back to my main points...

We went down and I got scrambled eggs for breakfast. The other four girls waited for us and we decided we would go out and explore and try to find a bank to exchange money. Some smart soul suggested we bring a raincoat so we ran back up stairs to grab them and headed out with our group. While walking 3 girls from different places stopped us and asked if we would like to share a “taxi” to a temple on a mountain. We initially said yes but then the rain picked up. And when I say picked up, I mean it. It was a torrential downpour. A few of us decided we would rather just find the bank so we WALKED to a shopping center a ways down the road. We were completely drenched when we arrived. I think I was laughing the entire way, which was shocking because after my Big Sur experience, I swore that I HATED rain. However, this rain is different. The weather is so hot, the rain doesn’t really feel cold…it’s almost a relief. The uncomfort only came when we walked inside the shopping center.

Everyone was staring and some laughing at us. Thais don’t walk places…ever. So, we stood out. After exchanging money, we just left because we were still soaked…jeans don’t really dry. So we headed back to the guesthouse and decided to go out to see this temple that half of the group went to earlier. This was the second major event of the day…

We flag a taxi and after about 15 minutes of bartering we get in for 700 Baht…pretty cheap actually. We start heading up a curvy mountain when all of a sudden we stop at a little shack restaurant. The driver/partner get out and speak to the people in the restaurant. With motions, they tell us to get out and get into a pickup truck. Probably not the smartest, but we did…with Roz  and the drivers partner in the bed. The rest of us squeezed in the back seat. We continued the drive up this windy mountain road passing what looked like a temple and continuing to a large market. Neither the taxi driver nor his partner spoke any English so we spent a good 10 minutes asking where the temple was because it was not visible. The ‘partner’ originally pointed us in the direction of the street but as we started walking, we turned around and saw her pointing in the other direction…so we walked up towards the market. After lots of searching, asking, and some shopping, we came to the conclusion that we would not be finding this temple. Somewhat confused, we walked back down to the pickup truck. Much confusion about payment and a phone call later, we got back in the truck. This time, I rode in the bed…praying that the rain would hold off. Eventually we got back to the guesthouse after talking to a Vietnam War veteran who had hopped in our taxi at a red light. He had been located in Thailand during the war and has recently retired and moved to Chiang Mai. He told us what to expect with the language and a bit about the culture. He had all great things to say!

After we got back to the guesthouse we took off to find some food. There were tons of street stands that were selling meats/fish that I either couldn’t recognize or could recognize way too clearly…both of which were a bit disturbing to both me and Roz. So we decided to take the safe route and eat at the guesthouse because we didn’t want to risk being sick to meet our host families tomorrow!! And I wanted to learn some Thai before I committed myself to street food. About half the group followed our lead and headed back to eat and others brought street food back. We’ll see how their stomachs handled it in the morning! Much luck…haha

The rest of the night has been very relaxing…playing a card game to get to know each other and drinking some beer and whisky. I stuck to beer for tonight…

Tomorrow, we meet our host families and have a bit of orientation! I am definitely nervous but excited to have some grounding. Today has been pretty crazy, to say the least. Now, I'm going to take some melatonin so I can SLEEP!

More to come next time I have internet access :) 

And I realize that I didn't really edit myself again and should probably cut back a little...I'm learning!!!