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.

Chiang Mai is a great city, and I hope to be able to get out and see some more of it soon. Right now I'm pretty much house-bound, unless I'm with someone, because 1-my Thai is not good enough for me to be able to safely/successfully take public transportation from this neighborhood yet, and 2-I have been warned not to walk alone until I know the area, because the residential streets around here are SO CRAZY and convoluted that I could get lost forever and spend hours wandering around without a clue where I am and never be more than two blocks away the entire time (apparently that has actually happened to several previous interns/visitors). So. I'm frustrated by that, by my lack of independence and consequent lack of activity here, but I'm trying to be understanding, to work through and have patience with my limits. There's a lot to learn, just in not being in control of everything (anything?) and depending on others without resenting it or feeling guilty.

I feel like I sound frustrated, and right now I am, a little bit--but not really, because I know that this is all temporary. Its part of being new and adjusting to being in a place where everything is so different, where I really don't know what I'm doing yet. 

I'm hoping to use this month to get my bearings, to not only focus on language and culture learning, but to kind of get a big picture idea of what ECHO and UHDP are doing, why they exist, what they're responding to, how they're changing...and so on. Big ideas that are probably going to get completely thrown out on Monday when I realize how much work it's going to be to learn anything at all in Thai. Oi. Pray that I'll have grace and patience with myself. That I won't be afraid to laugh at myself. That I'll learn to love how ridiculous this makes me.

I'll hopefully post some pictures of the house/office and what I've seen of the city in another post soon! I gave up tonight--the internet is especially slow.