A day at school and a trip to Chiang Mai

Among primary school children here in Nong Chang I am the coolest thing since marshmellow tacos! Ohh Yeah.

Today was 'feed the monks day' at the school today and guess who the honored guests were? The monks of course. But 2 rows behind the major, there I was, talking with Mike as the various peoples of various unknown positions talked for waaay tooo longgg... It was alright though, the business man siting in front of me was on his cell the entire time. No body pays attention to speeches here.



The highlights of the day were many. Now I know what its like to be a Beatle, 2000 kids screaming and grabing at me as I walk along. Girls giggling, pushing and shoving every where just to shake my hand. First we waited in line for a monk to fling water from the end of a bamboo at us. Then we had the honor of feeding the monks! Oh, and we ate, boy did we eat. Homemade ice cream, marshmellow tacos, pad thai, I don't know what it is soup... Then there was the food I decided not to try, lets start and stop with the hot dog pancakes.

The school itself is really quite interesting. From class organization to to what is expected of the children, Thailand is different. Thai's either have an innate sense of self responsibility no sense of responsibility for others. Even if it were not for the four story construction project in the center of the grounds I would expect some sort of reign on the children. Children wander the classrooms unattended and run in the halls while the teachers pass around whiskey and sit in the shade. Today is a free day for the children so I have not seen the classes in action but there are a few key differences to note. For the sake of brevity I will skip most of them. Most strikingly it has been explaned to me that classes are arranged by grade and intelligence. Mike and Ano always talk of class 1/1 or 3/6 this means 1st grade/smart class, and 3rd grade/dumb class.

Around 1700 hrs Mike and I when down to the "resort" of a swim. We ended up seeing a swiss fellow who had just gotten married and invited us over for dinner and a drink. Mike was looking for a way out of the deal because he is basically lame but we both Mike and I enjoyed ourselves in the end.

Later...

I finaly made it to Chiang Mai. Upon arival I was wisked away on the back of a scooter to a random hotel I choose on the spot. They were full but with little effort I found a nice little spot for 150 bhat a night ($4.50). It was a nice night, I had the best massage yet and met my first friend here in Chiang Mai. It's incredible the number of farang here. I would guess the part of town I am in is 75% white.

Today it is off to ITM for orientation day. I am looking forward to that.