January 6th — Day One

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Today was our first full day in Chiang Mai. Though we were still tired from our long hours of traveling, we managed to shimmy our way down to breakfast. As we walked to breakfast, extremely humid air flooded into my face. I was already feeling tired and a little week so this did not help my case. I forgot how much of a wimp I was when it came to humid weather. I tried to suck it up and keep moving. This was not going to ruin my hope for a great experience. We scooped up purple sticky rice and pork on a stick wrapped up in a leaf. I loved the presentation, despite being unsure of eating such hardy foods for breakfast. I just want to say the pork was amazing and by far the best food I have had in Thailand so far, besides of course the mango sticky rice drizzled in warm coconut milk offered at lunch time alongside another favorite, Pad Thai.



The rest of our day consisted of shopping at markets for a traditional outfit for our dinner on Tuesday as well as souvenirs. Oddly enough, the overwhelming experience t the markets were actually rewarding. My body was yelling at me for putting it in such humid conditions, but I felt calm and comfortable crossing the busy streets between motorcycles and busses. It was better than what I had anticipated. My experiences abroad tend to be ones of crossing four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic with no driver taking caution for pedestrians crossing the road. In fact everything was better than I anticipated. My hard bed was actually very comfortable to sleep on last night. The shower water was warm and it came out of the wall versus being poured from a bucket. The Thai food is even better than that in the states. My Thai buddies are absolutely adorable. We mime and offer the few words we know in each other’s language. My thai is getting better, and I am making the effort to use the Thai I’ve learned more often and ask my buddies how to say more words. I practice them despite sounding silly because I have always admired other students willing to look absolutely ridiculous in order to fully involve themselves in the culture and people group in that country.



Well, i’m extremely tired. I’m a little nervous I'm going to pucker out real fast given all of our buys days, but I did suggest that I would offer one value in noticed in the Thai culture that I can transfer back to the United States. My devotionals today reminded me of this value: kindness. In Colossians 3:12 it reminds us to “clothe in compassion, KINDNESS, humility, gentleness, and patience.” My Thai buddies have shown me just that. I would like to finish these thoughts but the jet lag and heat are getting to me very quickly, so goodnight for now.

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