... The last few days...
I'm thirsty to learn more! Before I came here I was not thinking too much about the classes I was going to take, and more about "the experience" -whatever that means. Maybe I didn't think too much about it at all.... But wow- college is almost over and I feel like I don't know anything!!! It's so easy to just get by..
But anyways.. being in a place where you can barely have a conversation with most people obviously makes you want to learn that language a lot more than how much I wanted to learn a language in high school.
And the language, despite being soo different, isn't ridiculously hard. There aren't any tenses! But the 5 tones are hard. (okay it's really hard). It's fun to just learn about something you knew nothing about before. This is why I like the language class, and Hill Tribes studies. Gender studies is kind of getting old... I might switch it for Sustainable Development.
Anyway... I want to learn as much as I can while I'm here and not act like I'm on a 5 month vacation, because honestly is wouldn't be that hard for some people to do that.
There is such a huge expat community here, and a ton of backpackers. This is all good, but it makes me thankful that I am still a student, and I live where the other Thai students live and go to school with them! We went out to dinner in a more touristy part of town, and I paid 3 dollars for a bland meal, instead of like 75 cents for yummy Thai street food. Big Mistake.
Trying to meet more Thai friends... Yay! If I didn't say this already, the Thai students are SUPER friendly! Not just saying that; they really are.
We went for a run the other day on campus and talked to a bunch of students in other departments (the art students were such hipsters! They were so funny! I think they were just trying to make us say taboo words to laugh at us) Okay, besides that they are friendly. Also it felt fantastic to finally go for a run. I felt more like myself, and I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I was so tired all the time for a long time!
Today was lovely. Ajan Christopher took us to a Buddhist temple and University in the city and some of the monks showed us around and talked with us for a few hours. They were from Thailand, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and they humbled me so much. One of the monks who I talked to for a while can speak 6 languages and knows way more about the bible than I do. He said something like, I can read the Bible in a month and be done, but I can always be reading more about Buddhism...
I can see myself getting more into Buddhism and meditation. We are planning on going back on multiple occasions for single or multi-day meditation retreats at this place. I really dig what I've been reading about Buddhism so far (The Four Noble Truths)
I don't know if anyone will actually look at this, but my professor's website has a lot of good pdf links to readings on it. https://sites.google.com/site/drcafisher/home
Most nights when I do a blog post I'm so tired and I never proofread, and in my mind my audience is really only a few people and my future self.... sooo sorry I'm not trying that hard at writing.
Also tonight I met a Thai kid who studies in Australia so he has a Thai/Australian accent - so cool.
AND - tonight we spontaneously decided to go to Pai tomorrow morning for a Reggae/Ska music festival! Woohooo! So I'm going there Sat-Sunday and then going back Wed-Fri(or Sun)...
Don't have too many plans so I'm just gonna play it by ear.
Stay tuned
Love you allll :)
Frisbee - Take care of those knees!
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