Christmas Comes to Chiang Mai

There’s a fancy, Western mall down the street from my house where I get my Starbucks fix. They decorated for Christmas!



And they had a beautiful 4-story tall tree. Not quite Rockefeller Center but still made me happy/homesick when I saw it.



I, however, will not be spending Christmas in Chiang Mai. This afternoon, I’m leaving for Pang Maphaa in Mae Hong Son, which is where my project is located. (This makes me realize that I’ve never said anything about the main project I work with on my blog. It’s called The Life Skills Quality Education Enhancement Project and you can read more about it here.) My PiA friend Mara and my coworker Ive are coming too. On Christmas Eve, Mara and I will be leading some of the local teachers in an active learning lesson on hygiene and hand washing. Then on Christmas day and for a couple of days afterward, we’ll be building a playground and painting classrooms at one of the schools the project works with.

Then we head to Ko Chang (tropical island paradise 6 hours from Bangkok) for a week to celebrate the New Year. So I will be out of contact for a little while but know that I am thinking of all of you and wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Life Essentials

So I spent last weekend back in Nan! There was a 3-day weekend for the King's birthday and I decided it would be nice to take a little trip. It looked the same, which was comforting. I visited the morning market and got the breakfast I got every day last year. I went to the night market to see my favorite tofu/peanut sauce lady and she still has the key chain I gave her. I even stayed at my old apartment because this year's PiA fellows live there and I crashed with them. I got to see some of my kids and the teachers for a bit on Saturday because they were leaving to go to a drama competition. My boys have deep voices and are tall and my girls have boyfriends. Ah, they grow up so fast.

The main reason I went to Nan though was to pick up a suitcase I left there last year. I had packed it in a frenzy when I was packing up my Thai life, trying to decide what would be essential for my second go-round. By now, I had honestly forgotten most of what I put in it. Apparently, I decided in April that my essential items for living in Thailand were my bootleg DVDs, a first aid kit, a couple of skirts, my cold-weather clothes (which seems kind of backwards when you think about it but I actually wear at least a sweater and a scarf to bike to work every morning now that it's the "cold" season and a chilly 60 degrees), a motorbike helmet, Steph's leftover sunscreen, hiking boots, and a copy of "The Time Traveler's Wife".

Oh yeah, and these:



Team Anti-Thesis. MHC Champions 2007.

Protests and Pandas and Hippos, Oh My

So, my current country of residence has been in the news quite a bit lately. DON’T WORRY. I’m fine, I promise. Most of the protests are in isolated areas of Bangkok, and Chiang Mai is fairly politically unified. So far, my daily life has remained unchanged. The few notable exceptions are that I can’t wear red or yellow, I can’t visit certain areas of Chiang Mai, and when I was walking around yesterday, I saw a group of pro-government supporters driving around with megaphones. Luckily, I don’t look good in either red or yellow, I wouldn’t go to those areas of Chiang Mai normally anyway, and the protesters were loud but peaceful. Please know that I am being careful and keeping on top of the news and that I, PiA, and my organization are all looking out for my best interests. So really, you should not be worried about me. Also, worst case scenario, the Chiang Mai airport is still open and operational.

In more exciting news, I went to the Chiang Mai Zoo last weekend. I was a little worried about what kind of condition the animals would be in, but apart from some inexplicably hairless ostriches, it was really a great zoo. There were signs in English and I'm pretty sure most everything was correctly labeled, though I still would like to know exactly what a "jungle cat" is. There were white tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes, camels, monkeys, penguins, and baby koalas. We paid the $3 extra to see the pandas and it was well worth it.



But the best part was THIS:



Yes, those are hippos. Yes, they're resting their chins on the edge of their cage. Yes, those are small children approximately 2 feet away from them. There's a lady who sells bananas right outside the hippo exhibit and YOU ARE ALLOWED TO FEED THE HIPPOS. Apparently, this now has them trained to wait around right where all the people stand so that you can throw bananas into their gaping mouths.

Manvale, what time should I meet you there?