Saturday, March 9, 2013

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen Chiang Mai

    Last day of Thai officially. Really sad to be leaving Thailand behind and go someplace where we can't speak or read the language and neither can the Drexlers. We might be a tad bit screwed.
    Remember how I said last post our writing final was today?? I fibbed. Even though the schedule said we had one, we didn't because our teacher is too impressed with our learning curve. What was really nice was I got to see Pranut and Boudin. I took Pranut's picture. Donna thinks I'm creepy. What was not so nice were the lessons today. I feel like the odd one out since almost everyone else loved them but me. The lesson seemed really cool at first, we  were translating a story used to teach children how to read and write Thai. Then she started cramming a whole weeks worth of lessons into two class periods. The book uses new characters as it goes on and she had to teach us the ones we didn't know. Which were mainly vowels, but there were so many vowels. Compared to the other classes we've had with Tanyaporn, this one fell flat. On it's face.
    I have developed a bit of an slushie (slurpie or ICEE) addiction here. Today I had three. Two coke and one 'strawberry' that tasted more like bubble gum. Ran and got one before going to the mall. For another pair of flowy pants. I really will have to get some pictures of me in them so you all can see how ridiculously comfortable they look. And how ridiculous I look in them. One thing I'm going to miss when I go back is eating out all the time. Meals cost about a dollar or less, if you don't buy a drink, here. Good luck finding that kind of deal in the states.
    So the original plan was to go let fish eat the dead skin off my feet (yes, they do that here) but due to time constraints and you aren't supposed to do it if you have an open area on your leg. I have managed to itch my mosquito bites until I bled so that ruled fishes out. Instead I wandered around looking for a place to get a pedicure. I went to the the one with a cat in front of it. Seemed like a good idea. Not much different from a regular pedicure except I could understand parts of what the people there were saying.
    Tried to go out for ice cream afterwards. Instead wandered over to a music festival for about a minute until the guy on stage started singing. It sounded like an annoying noise a child would make to get attention. Went to get Donna and by the time we got back to the ice cream, which had been open on my way back to the guesthouse, it had closed. A half hour early. Tried the other one I had found earlier, but it was also closed. Ended up back at the bars with vanilla ice cream and Kahlua (for those who may not know, Kahlua is rum mixed with coffee). Perhaps not the best on an empty stomach, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Then I went and got my second coke slushie of the day and my first strawberry. The story here is that Donna is excellent at pouring the drinks into the cups so I asked her to do it. She always gets strawberry and automatically went for that. Then got me a coke one. So I ended up with both. They were delicious.
    Deanna was having trouble dealing with the fact that she's probably not going to see her students from the English school again (Deanna, do not start crying. You will see them again). So I walked back across the road with her on a bun run. She calmed down and hung out in my room for a bit. We got our first ever noise complaint from upstairs. The last night we are here, after putting up with weeks of noisy people upstairs stomping around and moving furniture late at night, someone tells us to quiet down. We thought it was weird they were trying to sleep at 11 on a Friday night in Chiang Mai. They must be new.
    Started packing for the next part of our journey. While in Burma, I purchased this pair of gaudy leggings. Donna hates it when people wander around wearing leggings as pants so the moment I relocated my leggings they were pants. I then proceeded to run over to Karen and Deanna's room with them on. It was a good way to end the night.
    So tomorrow we head to Vietnam for three weeks, Cambodia for about two weeks and Laos again for four days. It's unclear whether or not we are going to have internet at the hotel but check in over the next few days and I will try to find a way to update. Maybe go to an internet cafe.
Like I said, they do this here. In the night bazaar, in this little shopping area off the side of the road. Everywhere. 

Lizard Count: 23                They was one on the wall and then there wasn't.

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