Last night a smaller group of us rode a songthaw to this huge buffet for dinner. There was a ton of food, raw and cooked. You made little plates and brought them back to your table to cook (kind of like shabu-shabu) There was a ton of strange stuff I've never seen before, and I tried some of it. I think the fruits and veggies were my favorite part. Big surprise. I feel like I'm not being as adventurous by not eating a lot of meat, but I don't like to eat a lot of meat in the first place. Had my first street food yesterday though. (Pork) It was okay, but again, I don't like pork that much... I'll stick with seafood and veggies.... etc. This is turning into a food blog.
Then again I haven't even been to any temples or hikes yet, so I can't write about that. We did go to a night market last night. It was cool because it wasn't a touristy one. Another group of people went to that one and came back with a lot of cute stuff. I liked this one, but didn't buy much because all the clothes that the Thais want to wear are pretty American, and the clothes at the touristy market are more "Thai".
It's nice that Thais really like Americans. They are very friendly and want to please you. Apparently, maybe too much. They like Disney a lot here, and other American stuff.
Class was great yesterday! I had three. Gender studies, Thai Language 1, and Hill Tribes Studies.
Gender studies was a basic introduction, but the readings the rest of the class is based off of seem pretty interesting. One thing I've learned so far is that it wasn't until Thailand was westernized/modernized in 1939 that the gender binary system was introduced and women had to wear skirts and Wai (putting your hands together to greet someone) lower than the men.... We're going to talk about Kathoey's (lady boys) and a lot of gender in relation to language as one of the teachers in a linguist. (There are a few for this class).
I'm so excited for the language class! I feel like a dope not knowing much, and it's fun/ridiculously hard to try to speak Thai. I can now count to ten, introduce myself, and ask where the bathroom is. (I might have to practice that one more though). Also a stray dog came into our classroom and hung out the whole time. Also there are a few people who have been year for a semester, and one kid who lived here for a year in high school, plus Thai buddies to help us practice. Even random people at shops and restaurants have helped us with the language when we try.
Hill Tribes studies is going to be cool because of all the field trips we take. The Hill Tribe people aren't really liked and Thais don't know much about them. They are not native Thai people, they came from Burma, China, Laos... etc to flee the government and have only been here for 100 years or so. Also the tourism aspect of it is pretty controversial I suppose. They grow a lot of opium... (some) Some people think they cause a lot of environmental damage, or they are dirty. Out professor did a lot of work with a specific tribe and he said this is not true... Our Buddhist Philosophy teacher was so openly negative about them. It will be interesting to hear both perspectives. I'll write more once I learn more.
Not sure what we are going to do for the rest of the day. We want to go on outdoor adventures, but we need to figure some things out. Also there is a Tiger Kindom and places to see elephants here, but I've heard that they break the tigers jaw, declaw them, and dope them up on drugs so I (and a lot of other people) aren't sure about going to that. There is a nice elephant sanctuary that you can volunteer at for a day, but that requires more prior planning.
That's all for now. Miss you all!
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