Teaching the Monks

Sports day/sweatiest day of my life...

Once a year, the village cancels all classes for the day and hold what they call "sports day". I was really excited when I first learned that I would be here for this special day, but I was so wrong. 100+ degrees and standing and/or running the middle of an open field is as close to hell as I can possibly imagine. Not because it was not fun, but because I have never been so freaking hot in my life and I would never wish it upon anyone. I figured I would be good at a day devoted to sports considering my competitive nature and history playing so many sports but I couldn't have been more wrong. I was sweating just watching everyone run around for hours, and when it came my turn to play the 8 legged race....I about passed out. I have a whole new respect for the Thai culture and their ability to play soccer for hours and not drip one bead of sweat. I don't know how they do it..

On a lighter note, I was not completely useless today! My team was the PINK team so painted all of my fellow teammates faces this morning before the games began and I must say, they looked pretty damn good. Some of the boys dressed as ladyboys and the girls were dressed in every shade of pink imaginable. I have never been even the slightest bit fond of the color, but today it was my favorite. I went into town last night with a girl who works in the village and bought pink jingly pants, pink ray bans, a sparkly pink flower headband, and sparkly pink nail polish. Pink might just be my new favorite color...:)

NOT!

Anyways, time is flying by and every time I have something exciting to write in my blog, I let a few days go by and it because a story in the past. I seriously need to get better about writing this thing because I feel like a million crazy things have happened and nobody knows. For example, I crashed a Thai wedding reception last Friday night, fell off of a motor bike last Saturday,  got my fifth Thai massage Sunday, and got my sixth on Monday. Four new volunteers arrived on Monday evening and twenty five new volunteers arrive in two weeks. Tomorrow instead of teaching Saturday camp, we are going to a village to "house hop" for special holiday. I have yet to understand exactly what the holiday is but I think it's similar to Easter except they only dye the eggs red and basically drink all day and all night, and then do it again the next day. The "house hopping" portion of the day consists of myself and several of the volunteers and staff going from house to house in a village and drinking and eating at every single place. My body/mind is still recovering from last friday when we did the same thing, only to celebrate Sonkran. I have come to the conclusion that Thai people do not get hangovers, yet they can out drink any Farang under the table. I am making it my mission to find out tomorrow exactly how they do it. I will report back and tell you when I find out;)

After celebrating all day tomorrow, myself and the other volunteers are going into town for the weekend to celebrate another successful week at Mirror. I am SURE I will have stories when I return!!!

SONGKRAN!!

I have not been blogging because the last four days have been mayhem!! SongKran if the Thai new year and is basically a week long water fight. Water fight as in water war... as in I have a black lip and no clean clothes and have not showered in three days and am lovvinnn ittt! I may never come home, you will have to kidnap me and drag me out of here by my hair because Thailand is the coolest place on earth and I never want to leave. The food, the people, the work, the everything. Coming to to America is going to be the culture shock, after living in such simplicity and bliss. I never thought I would feel this comfortable in a foreign country but I could totally see myself living here. So could you all just move here and make things a lot easier and we can all live in peace and harmony together? Maybe I've been listening to a little to much Bob Marley but life is so good right now...I would seriously recommend booking the next flight to Thailand and visiting me:)

I will blog again as soon as I can but I must go hop on the back of a truck and continue this water war that is nowhere close to being over!!!!!

Hello Thunda!!

OH THANK YOU RAIN GODS! MY DANCE WORKED AND YOU DO EXIST! It's been raining all day and we just had a thunder and lightening storm. I am a happy camper, literally...:)

Rain rain come out to play!

Man oh man is it HOT! I can honestly say I did not believe anyone when they said how hot is gets in Thailand. I figured it rains so much in Portland, it will probably just follow me here! In my wildest dreams...

I am currently laying on my bed in a pool of sweat, dreaming about Alaska and making snow angels in a T-shirt and shorts. It is about 100 degrees and I don't see it letting up anytime soon. I am hoping that my body will adjust to the heat or run out of sweat but I have a feeling this is only the beginning of the 3 hottest months of my life.

These last two and a half weeks have flew by. It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting alone in a guesthouse, crying to my family and Jesse about how badly I wanted to come home. It makes me laugh now because although being here is very challenging and there are moments when I wish I was home, I am having the experience of a lifetime. I have explored a whole new side of myself that I didn't even know existed. It seems that you get what you give out of this situation, so I'm givin' it all I got!

As of yesterday, I was "promoted" to the new Indoor Leader. This means I am in charge of the new indoor volunteers (everyone else left this weekend), and making sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there. I was hesitant at first to take the role but given that I don't really have a choice AND can be a little bit...bossy...I feel the role is fitting:) Just yesterday three new female volunteers started at Mirror so this next week will definitely be the ultimate trial run. Today I went to teach at the hospital for the first time since I've been here. Since the kids are terminally ill, we spend two hours doing arts and crafts instead of teaching them English. It was one of the most touching experiences of my life and I definitely had to choke down tears at some points. We made picture frames out of popsicle sticks, and drew pictures to put inside. The kids were around 5 years old and didn't speak any English so we just listened to music and relaxed. As hard of a time as it is to look at these kids and know how sick they are, it was one of the most gratifying things I've ever done.

Everyday here seems to bring new obstacles but overcoming them is just part of the experience. It is crazy to think what I was like just weeks ago...wearing heels, curling my hair, complaining about everything under the sun. What a joy I was! Being here has made me realized that you don't need much to live, just great people and a positive attitude. I already have the great people now I just need to whip my attitude back into shape and I'll have everything I need!! I'm not saying it's not fun enjoying the silly things in life, but not looking in a mirror for over a week feels pretty damn good. I hardly recognized myself today when I finally caught a glimpse. Face naked with mosquito bites, legs bruised up to my knees, and hair that would make me deny every being a hair dresser. Life is good, and I am enjoying every second of it:)

There are ants in my pants..

..And mosquitos on my legs and beetles in my hair!! Somebody save me!!
I completely lied in the last post about getting used to the bugs. I will never be used to the bugs. The are big and black and hairy and they bite and make sounds and are everywhere! I would take pictures for proof but I refuse to get that close to them. The ants crawl out of the toilets and the mosquitos are ten times bigger than any I have ever seen in Portland. My legs look like something out of a horror film, especially when the bites turn into bruises the size of softballs!
On a happier note, I got my first massage in Thailand last night:) It was amazing and I think I will make it a weekly ritual. Why not? When in Thailand.....

And then I ate some more..

The first thing you hear when you speak of Thailand to someone is how good the food is. I had yet to experience that until this last weekend when the other nine volunteers and myself took a bus down to Chiang Mai for our weekend. We all stayed in a guesthouse close to downtown and had a amazing night dancing and exploring the towns night life. It is amazing how many people you come across from all over the world here in Thailand. So many people just hop on a plane and come here with no plan what so ever. It's crazy the amount of things there are to do here to fill your time if your just back packing. Sunday morning six of us got up really early and took a day long cooking class at a near by restaurant. We started out at a GIANT market to buy all the ingredients we would be needing for the day. It was absolutely insane the amount of fresh food (and maybe not so fresh food), we came across. Vegetables and fruit I have never even heard of, and meat from every animal under the sun. The smell of Durian fruit will forever haunt my nostrils.

After gathering all the ingredients, we spent the next five 6 or so hours cooking some of the most amazing and fresh food I have ever eaten. Vegetable fritters, spring rolls, green curry, panang curry, ginger chicken, sour coconut soup, vegetable stir fry, PAD THAI (so easy), and the most delicious coconut banana milk dessert you gave ever eaten. The dishes were surprisingly easy to make and most of the consisted of the same five or so ingredients. Salt, pepper, fish sauce, coconut milk, and chicken stock. I have a feeling my parents won't be asking me to move out anytime soon once I bust out my new cooking skills at home:)

Since we had been snacking on all the food as we cooked it, I could barely open my mouth for another bite once it came time to actually sit down and eat. Fortunately I took pictures of everything so I will be more than happy to cook for you all when I get back! After a much needed nap, we all headed out for one more night on the town. Since it was a Sunday night the bars and clubs we pretty much empty, but we somehow managed to accumulate a small army of dancaholics to join in the fun. My legs are still sore from dancing for hours on end!

By the time we all got back to the village, we were all ready for a good nights rest and to start this crazy routine all over again. I was planning on going on a home stay this week but decided I need another week of teaching to be comfortable before almost all other volunteers leave this weekend:( I have a feeling these next few weeks are going to be crazy busy since there is going to be such few volunteers so   I will try to blog as much as possible when I have time. I feel like I have a million funny stories to tell but by the time I sit down to blog I just draw a blank...

OH and I am slowly but surely uploading photos to photobucket so if you log onto the website and search for my album you should be able to find me. My user name is klmishler and let me know if there is any problems finding it. These pictures are too cute to miss:)