Adjusting

I had two goals for this trip:

1.       Don’t throw up

2.       Don’t cry

Both of those went down the drain on the first day here.

There are various stages of culture shock—I’ve heard they go something like honeymoon, horror, humor, and heaven. I think that you’re supposed to go through each stage in sequence, but in the past two days I have been through all of them multiple times.

So happy to be in Thailand!

When we first arrived at Meredith’s host dad’s house, I was doing fine. But after a few hours I started to feel sick from all the buffet food I’d had for lunch and probably the nasty plane food I’d been eating too. At dinner that night, I tried to eat a few grains of rice, but had to excuse myself from the table (not very gracefully) to go vomit outside. I was absolutely miserable. I hadn’t slept well since leaving LA, the smells were making me sick, I had no idea what anybody was saying, and I felt like my insides were boiling.

When my host family finally took me back to their house that night at 10ish, I was thinking to myself, “This is the worst decision I have ever made.” I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. So I cried and told myself that I was an idiot for ever thinking that I could do this.

I grabbed a pair of pants that I’d washed at my cousin’s house in California and smashed them to my face just to have a normal, familiar smell. Three pepto-bismol pills, one more vomit trip to the bathroom (these bathrooms—whooo! We’ll talk about those later) and 10 prayers later, I guess I fell asleep. I guess that was all the horror part.

I only woke up twice, and in the morning, I was feeling a little better, like I just might be able to do this. My host mom, Maani or Paanie (I'm not sure which one yet), made me eggs and toast for breakfast (nice and American) and then Brynna and Alex came and picked me up in a rot dang for our grand adventure/excursion of the day. 

We went to a Sikh temple to listen to a worship service first, which was pretty cool actually. Then the Sikh leader talked to us about Sikhism, and at one point I asked, "Do you believe that you see God when you die?" because they believe that God is not one being, but more of an idea (I think). Then the guy looked straight at me and said, "I see God in you." I loved that. I kind of even felt the Spirit at that point. Even though their religious views don't necessarily align with mine, there are still some similarities.

After the temple, we drove up the mountain to visit a Hmong village, and then came back down to visit a temple called Doi Suthep. While we were there we got blessed by some monks, who chanted something really fast in Thai and splashed us with water and tied a string around our wrists. 

Kids in the Hmong village, so good at posing for tourists. Sorry my camera sucks.

View of Chiang Mai from the top of Doi Suthep

Once we were back in the city, we went to a restaurant called Lemon Tree. I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach, so I didn't eat any thing...but they had really good lemon water (I'm not sure if it's the same as lemonade). Then we went to the mall to search for some necessities, and we walked in circles following signs for free wifi, which we never actually found. I think it was a trick to make pharangs (white people) look stupid. After the mall we walked down the street for a Thai massage, because we were all pretty beat. Oh my gosh...best three dollars I have EVER spent. For an hour I laid there while this cute little Thai lady rubbed the stress from my whole body. I felt so great afterward--it was heaven! Good thing too, because after that we went shopping at a street market and then took the rot dangs home. We left the market before 8 and I didn't get home until 10. But that massage worked wonders, and I wasn't even annoyed, I just thought it was funny (humor!). 

And so ended my first full day here. What a roller coaster ride.

More to come...