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Published: February 19th 2008
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Helloo!
….and I’ve managed to leave it nearly 2 weeks since my last blog installment! Amazing how time flies here! I have put some pictures in this blog (finally!) and there are also some now in the first blog if you havent seen them already.
Anyway so here’s the latest:
The Swedish girls left last Friday so we all went out for dinner on the Thursday night to say goodbye. Also Isaac left on the Saturday to head down South to the Islands (which he KEPT reminding us!! “Oooh I’m going to the beach! Guess where I’m going?!) So for his last night Aline, me and Isaac went out for the evening. We had a really nice meal then headed to ‘The Rooftop Bar’ (pronounced ‘The Looftop Bar’). This bar is right in the centre of Chiang Mai and overlooks the city (funnily enough it’s on a rooftop) and everyone sits on the floor around low tables - it’s a really chilled out place with very nice cocktails! Anyway we had a few drinks here and a really fun night. Isaac left us a bit early as he wasn’t feeling too great so Aline and I tried out
a few other places in the city and eventually got a tuk tuk home at 4am.
On the Sunday, Jen and I rented a couple of scooters and went up the mountain to Doi Suthep. The scooters were so much fun but the Thai drivers are quite scary! They don’t quite see the point of stopping for red lights, pedestrians, other cars etc so it was quite an experience!
Doi Suthep was beautiful - it is quite a climb up to the temple but the surroundings are amazing and there is so much to see up there. Only Farangs / foreigners have to pay to get in which seems to be a regular thing over here. After Doi Suthep we went up to the Royal Palace which was really beautiful too and also to a waterfall which we came across on the way down the mountain.
We have a couple of new volunteers who have joined us in the house now too - so we have a full house again! Rachel is from USA, Jonas from Germany who is teaching with me and Jen in our school and Sonia from Holland who will be at the school
with Rachel and Aline. We are all getting on well so far which is cool! I think Rachel and I might travel a bit together after Chiang Mai to Vietnam and Cambodia so it will be good to have someone to travel with! Have to start planning all that though!
Aline and I started our Thai Massage course on Tuesday which was great fun but hard work! We had 6 hours of the course after we finished school (so it was quite a long day!!). Have to practice though I think as there is SOO much to learn and remember! I have the second part of the course later on today so maybe I’ll be a massage pro after that!
Thursday was Valentines Day which is MASSIVE over here! They even have Valentines Day sales! Jen and I went to school on Thursday and everyone greeted us with ‘Sabai de ka’ (hello) and ‘Happy Valentines Day!’. We had a valentines day lunch in the school and all the kids gave us presents. We got covered in heart stickers when we left after getting sweets, flowers, bracelets etc - it was like we were celebrities! The taxi driver was
laughing at us when we got picked up (it may have been the stickers that had been stuck on our faces I’m not sure…) so we gave him some stickers too.
In the evening everyone from our house went out to the movies, which was just like any other cinema experience - apart from the bag checks on the way in, and standing up for the national anthem and short film about the King, in between the trailers and the film! The film was really funny but it’s strange when you come out of quite a western experience and suddenly realise where you are again!
I stayed in Chiang Mai this weekend and helped out with a school play at another school - Lanna International School, as they needed a prompter. They were putting on a production of ‘The Good Woman of Setzuan’ by Brecht, which was the first production they had ever put on. So I spent all of Saturday and Sunday at the Theatre helping them with their lines and doing dress rehearsals. All the kids are a bit older than the kids from my school - around 16 / 17 years old and they are
from all over the world. They were all so nice! They had lots of problems with lines over the weekend but their final performance was last night and they were so great! I have put some pics up on the blog too. Everyone got flowers at the end (all the cast and crew) and I got flowers and a bottle of wine (they all laughed at me when I was the only person to get alcohol!!) but it was really sweet.
Every Sunday a couple of streets down from us they have the Sunday market from 5pm til late where they sell everything you can think of. I really splashed out this week on loads of things and managed to spend around 250 baht (around 4 pounds). We have been eating quite a bit at the local food market too where you can buy some very interesting foods, which people warn you are very ‘pet’ (spicy!).
My school is closed today, tomorrow and Thursday as they have exams and also a day in the temple so Jen and I have a couple of free days. We are going to go climbing on Thursday so I will let you
know how that goes! A few of us are also off to Pai this weekend, which is a small town around 3 hours on a bus away from here, so am looking forward to that.
Anyway I will leave you now but hope everything is going well for everyone - can’t believe its been a month already - in some ways it has been quick and in others not so quick - but crazy all the same!
Take care,
Nicole
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