Elections

They're coming. Advance voting was last Sunday, and the official election is this Sunday, July 3rd.


Every day for the last week, I've been woken up by "election trucks"--I don't know what these are actually called, but they're basically political commercials that drive through the city all day. They have the same smiling faces on them that you see all over Chiang Mai on campaign posters--the current Prime Minister or Yingluck Shinawatra, mostly. Although there are a couple other people running, I think (it's hard to say when I can't read anything--a different issue I'll maybe talk about another time) these are the main two, the important ones everyone's talking about. The trucks have speakers on them, and they play continuously and VERY LOUDLY. You can hear them faintly in the distance, then gradually getting closer and closer and fading away as they drive off. They're kind of obnoxious, actually. I find myself praying one doesn't drive by during the after-school rush on Thunghotel Road. Monday afternoon one sat in traffic a block away for half an hour. It felt like half a year. If I were Thai, I wouldn't vote for that party, on principle. Payback.

If you would like...

...to write to me,
send me packages,
or otherwise get my attention via Thailand's postal service (which apparently is very reliable as long as you don't use a street address--notice the post office box below) sometime in the next six months,
send things here:


PO Box 64
Chiang Mai 5000
Thailand


(yup, that's it. I thought there should be a couple more lines, too, but apparently that's all it takes.)

Language and Listening

On my high school transcript, it says I have four years of foreign language. I took German (not a great choice, as far as hngr placement was concerned). German isn't a foreign language.

Thai is a foreign. language.

Sure, German had words I didn't know. And grammar was a little tricky, after the first year or two. But really...I mean, English is a Germanic language. Thai doesn't even use letters. The sentence structure is all different and a lot of things...well they really don't translate, not directly, anyway.

Chiang Mai!

The first few days here have been good and bad and overwhelming and exciting and frustrating. For the next month, while I'm studying Thai, I'm staying in a guest room at one of ECHO's offices (the building is a house in a lower-class residential neighborhood). This means that, while there will usually be a staff member around from about 9:30-5 on weekdays, other than that...it's just me. In the house, at least. Luckily, the neigborhood is pretty lively, and someone always seems to be around. I've met some of the neighbors, and they seem nice enough--Thai people in general are known for being especially friendly, and all of the neighbors have an open invitation to take what they want from the garden or the fish tanks here, so they're in and out all the time. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better as my Thai improves and we can communicate more. Some of them know English, so with those few it's easier. Hopefully that won't make me lazy with language learning, though I can definitely see that happening as the novelty wears off, and the reality of just how long it takes to learn a new language sets in.

Asia is far away.

Well, friends, I am in Thailand!
Finally.
I feel like I lived an entire little lifetime between the USA and Chiang Mai. It was a long trip--especially the seventeen hour flight from LosAngeles to Bangkok. You know how most of our maps have the Pacific Ocean split into two parts? I'm now convinced that when they split it up, they also cut a chunk out of the middle. Because let me tell you, it takes a LONG TIME to fly over it.


Luckily it was an exciting flight. And in some ways, a little hngr simulation, complete with:

Today is the day...

and it's surreal.
I've been "about to leave for hngr" for months, now, it feels like. I've said four waves of goodbyes, packed up all of my stuff three times,  and had so many things to take care of before I leave that, even with the craziness of the last few days, I feel only dimly aware of the reality that I leave TODAY for Asia and won't be back until Christmas.


Luckily (?), I have two days worth of plane rides and layovers to get used to that idea. I leave Knoxville around 3 pm today, and someone will (hopefully) meet me at the airport in Chiang Mai on Wednesday afternoon.


Prayers for safe and smooth travel, for adjusting to the time difference (12 hours ahead of Chicago), for beginning to learn Thai, and starting to build some of the relationships that will be important over the next six months are definitely appreciated!