Two weeks in

I did it! I finally created a blog so all of you lovely people at home can be updated on my adventures. The name Chief Bigstick was bestowed upon me by my fellow travel buddies because I have a propensity to find a big stick just about everywhere we go. Never underestimate the usefulness of a big stick when your hunting exotic animals in the jungle. Either I poke the snake with a stick or my finger... I opt for the stick.

The first two weeks have FLOWN bye! Nearly every day has been packed with sightseeing or some sort of adventure. To recount it all would take pages and pages. So I'll begin with this weekend. Friday we spent part of the day at a boys orphanage painting. We painted the walls of a courtyard area and also the entry way of the younger boys dorm area. All of the boys were in school so the orphanage was pretty empty making it easy for us to get some work done. On Saturday we came back in the morning to play games with the kids, have lunch, and paint a mural in the courtyard and the boys dorm. When we arrived the boys immediately wanted to play football (soccer). They had just finished cutting the grass on a big field and they were ready to go. It was so much fun playing with them... and exhausting! There was about 10 older kids playing and probably 25 of the orphans. They were everywhere. I got schooled by one kid about have my size. I challenged him and he dribbled the ball right past me and kicked it right into the middle setting up a shot. I need to practice before I play with Thai kids again. When we were done with football and thoroughly dripping with sweat (humidity and exercise are brutal) we went to eat lunch with the kids. After we ate the little 5 and 6 year old kids had a blast being thrown in the air and climbing on the guys. We were definitely their jungle gym. Then went to the little kids dorm area and painted a mural on their entry way. I painted a couple flowers and drew and airplane that looked kinda like a whale until one of the girls helped fix it up. Overall, it was an amazing day. The kids were so much fun and they loved having us there.

Sunday one of the Thai buddies took a couple of us to her grandma's home. I tried the most amazing mango I've ever eaten! It was soooooo good. They taught me all the Thai names for the fruit we were eating but I've forgetten already. After the delicious fruit we went to the nearby temple and there was some sort of a celebration going on. They had a parade led by a minature horse with a little kid decked out in all sorts of Thai regalia. They were beating on drums behind the horse and it hated it. I kept my distance cuz I was positive it was going to go into a kicking and bucking spree. Some of the people were dancing and we joined in and they absolutly loved us. The women were all older, like 50s ish, and they kept coming up and dancing with us. It was a lot of fun.

When we got back to the city we went to the legendary "Walking Street". It didn't dissapoint. The street goes on forever and it has shop after shop selling everything you can imagine: art, clothes, jewelry, food, etc. One of the stands was selling bugs... to EAT! I ate a little grub lookin guy and a silk worm. Not to bad tasting, they were cooked and seasoned so it was tollerable. I was in a pretty goofy mood the whole time we were there and everytime I heard music I would dance to it. The Thai people walking down the street all stared and laughed at me everytime. Apparently its not normal to dance in the street. I made one of the Thai buddies dance with me and she got so embarrassed. She told me she was to shy to dance. I think all the Thai buddies are gonna be a little more outgoing by the time us loud Americans leave.

Today was the first day of class. We are taking them with Thai teachers and alongside Thai students. Both the classes I had today are going to be interesting. We already have already been assigned some homework but its going to be very interesting because most of the stuff we have to do is group work and involves lots of excursions. Tomorrow we are going to the business center to learn the history of Thai business and how it has evolved. Very interesting stuff and its deffinitely information I would never be taught in the US. I'm excited for the next 9 weeks of class. Its gonna be fun!!