What a few days it has been!! Thailand continues to be beautiful and an adventure. We are starting to teach English next Monday, so this past Monday we went to the six schools where we’ll be going and visited them. This was a very fun day. The schools are all quite different but each one has the cutest kids you’ve ever seen. Stephen gets the opportunity to teach at a monk school with another guy in our group, Jonathan. (Girls aren’t allowed to teach there.) They went there yesterday to meet the principal and on the way back they got caught in a crazy rain storm. They had to pull over to the side of the road and move a huge tree out of the way so they could pass. The rain here is turns on and off like a light switch.



I’m going to be teaching at a school named Lion School, which is right up the road from our house. The kids absolutely love it when we come. They will play soccer with us for as long as they can and it is so much fun! They also love to teach us how to count in Thai, touch my blonde hair, and jump on us. Yesterday we were at a school painting another playground and a little boy named Long Lie was fascinated with my colorful watch. Sadly, it had broken earlier that day but he still loved it so I told him he could keep it. He was so excited and his smile was priceless.  









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A house in a village down the river



At all of these schools, dogs just roam around and chill where ever. This isn’t only common at the schools though, there are random dogs everywhere you go! I’ve only seen one or two that have looked really sick, but I still don’t dare touch any of them. Except for sometimes I’ll feed our house dog, Chico, some granola J A guy on our team named her that before we found out she was a girl, but it was too late, the name had already stuck. I feel so lucky to have such an awesome team. We all want to work hard and make a difference here in Thailand. We all have become really good friends too. From doing aerobics and yoga in the morning together (well, just the girls) to playing the guitar and singing at night, we have so much fun.



Chico



Ally, Nat, and I



Last night, Stephen and I and a few others had to go get out japanese encephalitis shots but when we got to the clinic it had already closed. On the way back we saw this outdoor market and went and checked it out! It was a big line on booths all connected together on both sides. There were so many different things to buy, and everything was so cheap! There was live music playing and fun lights surrounding the whole thing. Stephen and I passed a booth that smelled so good so we bought whatever it was. It turns out it was Thai cotton candy! Except for you roll it up taco style into a really thin hot crepe. It is so good. T-bone would absolutely love it. We need to figure out how to get it in the states for him.

This week we have started working with other partners to start up some really neat projects. A group of us today went to a village to teach personal finance and accounting. Most people here don’t keep track of how much money they spend and it is a big problem so we’ve started up classes to help out with that. Stephen also found out about an orphanage close by and is working with the lady in our village who runs it. Another organization we are starting to work with does a lot with women’s rights and also gardening and farming. So in the next week or two we are going to have a lot of really neat projects going and we are so excited!



Stephen's heaven



Our village bridge



Stephen's first time driving on the left side of the car and road...with all of us in the back







The kids playing on the playground we painted



It is Sunday afternoon, and Lizzy and I have been in Thailand for four days now. And we love it! While we thought we would be living in the city of Chaing Rai, we are actually staying about an hour outside the city in a small village, in a house on a big river. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous. Greener than I ever could have imagined, with trees and rolling hills every where. The house may appear deceivingly luxurious in the picture. We sleep on the floor, take showers with facets hooked into the wall over the toilet, and have become accustomed to eating and sleeping with bugs EVERYWHERE. That being said, it is a really great experience to be able to live out here in the village and get a sample of how these people live.

The Thai people are incredible. I think here in the village, foreigners are few and far between. So we stick out. They wave to us, smile, and laugh at our few Thai phrases (we have only really learned hello and thank you, but use them probably 200x a day. They all seem to be very happy, even though they would be considered poor by our standards.

The village in which we are staying has several Buddhist statues and temples. While visiting the temple, we saw one monk shaving another monk's head. While observing, the monk doing the shaving turned to me and said “you want?” Despite a brief consideration of being able to forever say that I was shaved by a Buddhist monk, I declined.

 

Our group in the back of a truck, coming home from the Buddhist temples.

We woke up early Saturday morning and walked to a local school where we were able to spend the day moving furniture, painting a playground, and repainting lines on the basketball and volleyball courts. While this may seem like fairly easy work, it was made ridiculously difficult by the heat and humidity. I knew it would be hot and humid here, but was not expecting this. I literally sweat all day and night. I walk down the street and my shirt is drenched. I don't think my body was made for this climate. The school administrators were very grateful for our work and fed us a traditional Thai lunch.

Lizzy and Taylor hard at work, moving at the school.

Eating lunch at the school. 

The heat was so stifling that Lizzy had to hold am umbrella for me while I painted.

Speaking of food... the food hear is incredible. I haven't had anything I don't like. From pad thai to all kinds of curry to the incredible produce, it is all delicious. And cheap. Most meals don't cost more than a dollar.

Being an hour outside the city, we would normally take a van to church. But this weekend, there is a festival going on, and, as a result, we couldn't find a van to take us into the city. So instead, we fulfilled one of Lizzy's lifelong dream—riding elephants! Small boats took us down the river about two hours to the elephants. The scenery was beautiful as we were winding between the hills and mountains. We rode on the elephants throughout a small village and even into the river. They are beautiful and majestic creatures. We were also able to feed them bananas (which Lizzy decided to do with her mouth instead of her hands). I think the whole experience was everything she ever dreamed it would be.

Thanks again for all of your support and for helping to get Lizzy and I here. We have had a lot of fun so far, but have also been able to help the amazing people of Thailand. We are going to be going in pairs to local schools tomorrow to teach English. We are excited for our first full week in Thailand and to be able to find opportunities to serve these people!

After some very long flights and fun layovers of sleeping on benches in airports, we have finally made it to Chaing Rai, Thailand! But just barely…

We arrived in Seoul, Korea after a 13 hour flight from Los Angeles. It was 2:30 am Salt Lake time, so needless to say, we were exhausted. We located our next gate, and seeing that we had a couple hours till boarding time, we decided to get some quick shut eye on the benches. I (Stephen) worried briefly that we wouldn’t wake up, but dismissed it after realizing the uncomfortable conditions in which we would be resting.

 

I woke up, and immediately knew we had slept too long. I looked at my watch which read 8:20. Our flight was scheduled to take off at exactly 8:20. I couldn’t believe it—we were going to miss our flight. With a small hope of getting on the plane, I ran to the gate agent. She asked me where I was going, and although initially telling me “sorry, too late”, she decided to try to get us on. I ran and woke up Lizzy [by hitting me quite hard on the head with his passport, I might add]. We threw our stuff together and ran into the airplane with a small Korean man following close behind repeating, “Please sir, hurry sir.”  

I couldn’t believe we made it on the plane. I have a newfound love for Korean people for their willingness to get us on our flight.

After flying from Seoul to Bangkok, we took our last plane to Chiang Rai. We landed, got our luggage (which surprisingly had made it there too), and along with four other volunteers in our group, found our “Country Directors”. We got in an awesome little van which had disco lights inside and drove to the YMCA. This is where we are staying for the day because it is close to the airport and other volunteers will be coming later tonight.

We have already made some great little Thai friends here at the YMCA by playing soccer with them and swimming in a 3-foot deep swimming pool. The kids are so friendly and full of energy. Even though we can’t understand each other’s languages, it is easy to communicate and have connections with them.

Me and three other volunteers, Hannah, Courtney, and Taylor

We also had our first Thai meal at the YMCA, which consisted of some very spicy (and delicious) red curry. Stephen is going to have to get used to the spiciness of the food though. He was sweating bullets because of the curry. Literally. Everyone in our group was laughing. We finished the meal by having ice cream that was delivered by a man in a motorcycle. It was chocolate, with blue rice and peanuts. SO GOOD.

We are excited to get to our house tonight and see where we will be living for the next two months. Tomorrow, we are planning on going to a local school to help relocate them to a new building.

The restaurant where we had lunch

A sign outside the YMCA. We thought of Mom and Dad who are currently in Paris.

One of the studs at the YMCA, playing games on the computer.