The Bangkok art trip was really fun. Even though it was the weekend before exams, it was worth it. Everyone had an awesome time. The hotel we stayed in was really artsy. Each room in the hotel was different and designed by a different artist. All of the rooms were cool. We went to about 10 different art galleries and two art gallery openings. 

I gotta go. This was a really short post, but whatever.

Next week on Friday is my birthday, and it happens to be that the Bangkok art trip is the same weekend. So I will be having my birthday in Bangkok. We are actually going to be on an overnight train on the way to Bangkok for my birthday, but I still think that's pretty cool. 

We have exams in two weeks and then I'll be back in Dallas in four weeks after exams. So six weeks in total. It's weird to think that these 6 months are winding down so quickly. Right now everyone in Dallas is taking the APs and it makes me feel like I should be taking them also. But not taking the APs was one of the sacrifices I made by going to an IB school this semester, so oh well. I'll probably end up taking an AP next year. Good luck to those who are taking them. 

It's getting pretty hot over here. Right now its 95 degrees and I think it's supposed to get hotter. Oh yeah, and I've also started playing basketball again. I've taken a long break from playing since basketball season ended here. But I've started playing again. I'm not quite as good as I was, but I'll improve.

Alright, I'm got to go. Check in with you guys later.

It has been over a month since I last posted, and I feel really bad about that. Since that last post, spring break has passed, and I have now been back in school for two weeks. I f eel so out of touch with this blog and I really don't like it. Not quite sure why I haven't updated, but anyways I'll go ahead update now.

Spring break was incredible. The whole family was here and we had a great time together. A lot of conversation regarded the looming college application process, which isn't the best topic but a nonetheless a necessary one. During spring break we took a trip to Luang Prabang, Laos. You generally would think of Laos as a scarcely populated, impoverished third world country, which is true but Luang Prabang is an exception. Luang Prabang was great. We spent four nights there and it was the most calming place ever. To appreciate how calm it was there you have to first understand where it's located. Luang Prabang is on the Mekong river, and the guest house that we stayed at was also on the Mekong. Luang Prabang has a lot of guest houses for visitors to stay in. There are no high rise hotels or chain restaurants in the city. The Mekong mixed with the charismatic Laoasians make Luang Prabang so relaxed. The setting alone is remarkable. UNESCO established Luang Prabang as a world heritage sight so everything is intact and not globalized. There are also an endless amount of Buddhist temples all throughout the city. At one of these temples there were two monks from the United States there. It was weird to see Western monks among all the Lao monks so we started talking to them. One of the monks told us that one of the biggest Buddhist centers in the United States is in Keller, Texas. Probably one of the more random facts I learned about Texas.

We took a two-day slow boat on the Mekong to reach Lung Prabang. The slow boat was filled with all these post college backpackers, most of the had quit there jobs and were taking a break to travel Southeast Asia (who wouldn't want to do that?). They were from all over the place and we didn't run into many Americans. The one American we met was half Israeli and from New York. He was a really cool guy, and it ends up that he had spent a semester abroad in Israel when he was in high school. I asked him if he went on EIE and he said no. A lot of the other backpackers were just looking for a party to go to, so they mainly socialized among themselves. But anyways, I'm getting side tracked. The slow boat on the Mekong was really great. Even though we were on the boat 8 hours a day it was still awesome. Everything in Laos was extremely inexpensive. The currency exchange rate was 8,500 kip to a dollar. So a meal was usually four dollars around 34,000 kip. All of the paper money had a lot of extra 0's on them. After being in Laos for so long it made Chiang Mai feel like New York. I wonder what Dallas is going to feel like when I get back.

Then, once we returned to Chiang Mai, it was Songkron, which is Thai new years, which means a citywide water fight for three days straight. In Chiang Mai this is a huge traditional celebration and everyone gets into it. It was exactly what it sounds like--a ginormous water fight. During Songkron everyone literally walks around with water guns or buckets of water and you immediately get soaked. There is no escaping it. Songkron epitomizes a great time, and Chiang Mai is the center of it. A lot of other places in Southeast Asia celebrate it but Chiang Mai celebrates it the most intensely. During Songkron you literally get soaked once you step outside. In the middle of Chiang Mai is the old Lanna city, which is surrounded by a moat. That moat is the source of a lot of the water used during Songkron. We met up with a lot of our friends and went around with them. It was really fun. In front of Central, which is one of the shopping centers, they set up live concerts which were also really fun. 

During the break in Chiang Mai went to an elephant reserve national park. This place is unmapped and virtually unknown unless you are told about it from someone. It is about two hours away from Prem. Unfortunately a lot of the elephants in Thailand are cruelly mistreated and taken advantage of. So this place rehabilitates those elephants and helps them recover from previous injuries and mistreatment. What people don't realize is that the elephant shows that attract so many tourists are really terribly cruel and disrespectful towards the elephants. But this elephant reservation place was amazing. The elephants roam freely in a huge open field and are happy together. When you visit this elephant camp you stay the whole day and learn about the life story of all the elephants and the kind of abuse they undertook. There were some incredibly sad stories. Unfortunately, some of the elephants have dramatic limps and other physical problems. You definitely think about the elephant shows differently after visiting leaving this reservation. Unfortunately, I went to one of the elephant shows where the elephants are treated badly. The elephants aren't treated badly during the show, but after the show, once all the tourists are gone, they aren't treated well. Anyway, at this elephant park you really get the feel for an elephants intelligence. All of the elephants known when their meal times are and they know there mahouts, which is Thai for their trainer. Each elephant has a separate trainer. We also got to bathe the elephants in a nearby river. 

School is definitely picking up this quarter. I have a lot of papers to write and homework is piling up giving me barely any free time, hence my not posting on my blog these past two weeks. But everything is great here and I miss everyone back home. I'll start posting more regularly, so there won't be a month between posts. 

It has been officially two weeks since I have updated my blog, and I feel bad about it. There is so much that is happened these past two weeks that I can't even remotely recall even ten percent of it. But I'll try. Maybe as I write things will slowly start coming back to me.

A week ago, my parents and Katie arrived! So, now, it's the Lerer family in Chiang Mai. They are going to be here for 4 weeks. It seems like it would be weird after having an email and phone relationship with them for so long, but it actually wasn't. It was great seeing them. AND they brought a lot of food that we had requested them to bring from Dallas with them including but not limited to bagels, macaroni and jolly ranchers. It's weird what you miss. It was pretty crazy when they opened the apartment door after not seeing them for so long, and greeted us with a grocery store.

In two weeks we get out for spring break, and we are going to travel to Luang Prabahng, Laos. The transportation to Laos is a logistical maze. But basically we are going to be staying there for three nights after many hours of bus and boat rides. I'm psyched for the trip. We have some friends who live in Vientiane and Luang Prabahng that we are going to meet up with. But this is in two weeks so more on that later.

As of these past two weeks, we have not been in boarding so it has been a drastic change. We are now day students and take a 45 minute bus to and from school each day. The bus ride is one of the greatest things ever though. It's kind of hard to explain but for some reason I really enjoy them. Today my parents and Katie visited Prem. My parents had a thirty minute meeting with each of our teachers. Classic move on their part. This past weekend we went back and visited Doi Suthep again.  Unfortunately the elephant wasn't there but it was still awesome. Oh yeah, and randomly my Dad decided to rent a car for 30 dollars a day even though everyone drives London-style here and he is not used to it. So we drove all the way up the hill to Doi Suthep with him driving which was quite an uncomfortable experience.

Well that's all for now. More to come later.  

Oh yeah and everyone should read The Onion News because it is a great thing.

Tonight I have no homework! So I decided to post. Sorry for not posting this past week. I've been pretty busy. 

Today is Purim and I am unfortunately not celebrating it. I really wish I were. I was on facebook today and I saw an album of my friends from Yavneh celebrating Purim. It really made me miss everyone at Yavneh, in Dallas, and Israel. Hope you guys had a good Purim.

In history I am writing a paper on Che and how he really isn't as great as everyone projects him to be. He is presented as a microcosm of counterculture, when he was really a massive killer. Not too sure if a massive killer is appropriate for a counterculture symbol, but I could be wrong. He was not nearly as bad as Stalin, Lenin, or Mao but he should definitely be listed with them. For some reason the Che-images on posters, t-shirts, ect. have overshadowed his real personality and developed given him misleading one. It just goes to show how ignorant or indifferent people can be (me included. I have two Che shirts). I'm not really sure where I am going to go with the paper but I am interested in finding more dirt about him.

I also joined Model United Nations. It has been pretty good so far. It is mostly focused around modern events. There are five people in the club (We are trying to boost more interest. But I like the small group because everyone is really interested and wants to be there. Our lessons take place after school on Friday so it takes real interest to show up every week). I was assigned Russia so I've been catching up on my country's current events, not something I know too much about.

I've also started studying US history by myself because I realized that I wanted to take the AP test next year. I am not too sure how self-studying is going to work out but I figure that it's better than nothing. My history teacher gave me some textbooks to help me study so that also helped a lot. 

Oh yeah and I recently bought some great music from itunes. So I've been listening to that a lot lately. 

That is all for now. Talk to you anonymous viewers later. Wait, that's not true... I know a few people who have been keeping up with my blog. That comment refers to the other viewers.

Chag Sameach!

View from Ban Jabo

A lot happened over these past five days in the hill tribes. I'm going to start from the beginning. The bus ride to Ban Jabo was about 7 hours long. We stopped on the outskirts of Pai on the Pai River and bamboo rafted to Pai. Bamboo raft was really fun. The river was really small but it was great relaxing on a bamboo raft with everyone. I was on a raft with Stan, Jin, and Ollie.

Bamboo rafting

 Then once we got to Pai we ate lunch. Pai is a really relaxed city about 3 hours by bus north of Chiang Mai. It is the reggae-town of Thailand. I was excited to go to Pai cause I hadn't been there yet and really to check it out. I think I'll return to Pai eventually because it's a pretty cool city. Then we departed from Pai and took the long and windy road (Beatles reference) over a mountain to Ban Jabo. It was about 4 hours. Supposedly there was 3,000 curves in total. But luckily I took a Tylenol PM so I was asleep.

Like I already said before, Ban Jabo is in the hills of northeastern Thailand right on the border with Burma. The border to Burma was walking distance from Ban Jabo, about 2 kilometers away.  The view was beautiful. The villagers were excited to have visitors and were very hospitable.

Once we arrived to Ban Jabo we met our host families and went to put our belongings in their house. The host families were great. They were a great part of the experience. Even though no one spoke Lahu, we communicated through sign language. It was actually pretty surprising how much you are able to relay through hang language. We had some pretty long conversations with out host families. Also our host mom spoke a little Thai and Thomas also spoke some Thai. Our host family's house was completely wooden with a bath house outside. The bathrooms  consisted of Asian toilets, and buckets of water that you use to shower with. This took the most adapting to.

Our house

We gave English lessons at the local school. Here's a picture of the kids:

Peace

Posin' like a gangsta' for us.

Jin, Stan, and I

 The lessons were great. We taught them fruit: apple, strawberry, banana, melon... and animals: rabbit, dog, cat. Then we played interactive games. It was actually really fun teaching them. They were energetic and lively once we got them interested. Unfortunately there is a sad story about the school. The government gives the school a annual salary to buy computers, books, and school supplies. But the principle of the school hoards the money and keeps it for himself. Apparently he drives a nice car to school everyday which is very unfair. It was too bad to learn about this. It made me sad for these kids.

There were a lot of wild animals in the area. You had roosters, pigs, dogs, cats, and cows. All the animals were stray and wondered around aimlessly all day.  The roosters promptly woke us up at 5 am every morning.

Every morning after being awakened by the roosters, instead of going back to sleep I got up and read on the porch of our house. Usually our host grandpa was on the porch cutting bamboo. He signaled to me that he didn't like reading and then started laughing. The noises of him slicing bamboo with his huge hatchet mixed with the sounds of the animals were definitely rememberable. He was a pretty crazy guy. I wish I had a picture of him because he was also cool looking. He was short and old and had a long gray goatee. The noises of him slicing bamboo with a huge hatchet mixed with the sounds of the animals were rememberable.

For some reason I expected the villagers to be tradition based but they were more community based. They had some tradition but they were more focused on the community. Meals were like a huge co-op in our host family's house. They had friends over to eat everyday.

We had a lot of relax time during the day. Pretty much after our main activity which usually ended around 5 we had free time for the rest of the night. Everyone didn't know what to do with all the chill time. Lilly and I were among the few who knew how to just hang out and relax without getting bored. Some of our friends couldn't freaking sit still for more than five minutes. 

The village was one road with houses on either side. It was extremely small. The lower village was a lot bigger. Our village had more of a community feel because of its small size. All the villagers were interwound in each others' lives. 

Old villager. This guy was 99 years old and still in perfect shape

From Left: Risa, Thomas, Lilly, and Stanley 

(I was taking the picture) 

   This was from our hike to Coffin Cave.

Now I'm going to get a little political. I believe that Bush gave a bad image to the United States. So this entry follows that premise. Take it or leave it:

The image of the United States that George Bush left behind after eight years in office has marred the world's view of our country. I think we can all agree with this statement to a certain degree. The Bush administration brought a frustrating image of the United States to the global level. Part of this image was alleviated with Barack Obama's election but the core of it remains. The image of the United States is not as strong as it used to be.

Being from Texas and at an international school, people here ask if I am a Bushie. At first, I always quickly responded saying that I wasn't, trying to distance myself from Bush. However, now, I find myself defending Bush's presidency. I think that when you are around international kids it's important to marginalize your personal opinion and stick up for your country definitely. Lilly, this intern James, who is half Japanese half American raised in New York, and I were discussing this and all agreed that defending the United States is necessary when in an international environment like Prem. What begins to happen if we don't back the United States is that other kids from different nationalities get the feeling that they are entitled to bash the United States because they see Americans doing it. To fully rid the United States of this reputation, I believe we must all support the United States even when supporting is unnatural. No one should fully disassociate themselves from Bush's eight years of presidency because dissociating further weakens our country's international image. I think that the United States has made it too apparent that Bush screwed up, which enabled the world to adapt the same negative thoughts. Only instead of applying these thoughts only towards Bush, they replaced 'Bush' with 'Americans'; giving all Americans a bad wrap.

On a less serious note:

Yesterday our art class went to Navin Rawanchaikul's house in Lamphun for his birthday and a special art exhibition. Lamphun is about an hour outside of Chiang Mai. The celebration took place outside and it was extremely hot and humid. 

His exhibition is called Fly With Me To Another World. It was a really interesting exhibit and I'm not one to find art exhibits particularly interesting. Thai people aren't very interested in contemporary art either and this exhibit was aimed to get more interest. 

After graduating college in Thailand in 1961, Inson Wongsam traveled all around the world on a Lambretta scooter. His ultimate destination was Florence, Italy. Everywhere he went he set up art exhibitions at the local art galleries. He inspired Navin who then started the Fly With Me To Another World collection.

That's all I really remember from the visit but if you want to learn more you can check it out online. 

Tomorrow we leave for the hill tribes so I won't be able to post until next week. Update you guys then.

Okay, so our grade is going to spend this next week in the Mae Hong Son province of Thailand, in northwest Thailand at its border with Burma. About 200 years ago, inhabitants of the Shan tribe of Burma came to this area along the Pai River to grow rice. Many of the Shans left this area after a while but some stayed. This was the beginning of the Mae Hong Son region that we are going to visit.  

'Mae' means river, 'Hong' is the narrow part of a river, and 'Son' means training. Mae Hong Son got this name because the former governor of Chiang Mai used to go to this area of Thailand to capture wild elephants for his army. When he got to this area he came across the village and left the elephants there to be trained.

Half of our grade is going to one village and the other half is going to another. The two villages are the Ja Bor Black Lahu Village and the Mae La Na Shan Village. Ja Bor is located on the mountain and has apparently has a beautiful mountain view of the area and Mae La is cradled in the valley of the mountains. Both villages have different lifestyles and traditions. I'm not quite sure what these differences are yet but will find out next week. I know that Ja Bor has a classic hill tribe feel and Mae La has a northern thai style village feel. 

While we are on the villages we home stay with the locals. I'm rooming with two of my good friends Kazi and Thomas. It should be a humbling and widening experience.

These shrines are seen all around Chiang Mai along with the pictures of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.  They are really fun to see as you walk around. For some reason I really like all these small shrines on the streets. Everyone else in Chiang Mai regards them as regular, but even after being in Chiang Mai for 5 weeks (I know I can't believe it either) I am still fascinated by them. As you can see from the picture, they are randomly placed on the sidewalks kind of like public statues some are more decorated than others.

Later today, after school, I'll write a little about the two specific hill tribe villages we are going to be staying at next week. Lilly already went into detail about the Mae Hong Son province so I won't reiterate what she said, but I will give some information I have about the two villages and maybe talk a little about the province because I also think it's interesting. As if right now, I have to go to school. This was just a quick morning post because I felt that my blog needed a new  picture. To be continued after school. Talk to you then.

Monks are everywhere around Chiang Mai and wonderful to see. They wear bright heavy clothes with their right shoulder revealed. Everything they do in the city is free of charge. They don't pay for anything. When you walk around Chiang Mai there are various gift shops where people can buy gifts for the monks. Monks are treated like loyalty in Thailand. The Royal family and the monks are the two most respected people of the country. Treating the monks with such respect is a great custom that Thai people have. It's wonderful to see the monks be treated so nicely. 

A monk's lifestyle is one of extreme commitment. Here are some facts that I've gathered about a typical Thailand monk's life:

Monks wake up at 4:00 AM and meditate for an hour. Then they get ready for their daily alms rounds, and by 6:10 AM they leave the monastery and are on the streets barefoot making their rounds. They walk around with their alms bowls for about an hour collecting food. As the monks are barefoot, it is a custom for the person offering the monk to take off his or her shoes and kneel down before offering the monk food. While the person offering food stoops before the monk, the monks recite a short prayer in Pali, an ancient language of India that is used in the earliest Buddhist scriptures. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see this happen yet but I hope I will be able to soon. After their alms rounds, they go back to the Temple and chant for a hour and eat a light meal at 11:30 AM. They are not allowed to eat after 12:00 in the afternoon. At 1:00 PM they go to class and learn Buddhist teachings. the rest of the day is dedicated to various chores around the Temple. At 7:30 they do homework right before they go to bed. They are in bed by 8:00. Of course all monks come in different extremities. Some follow their schedules strictly and others are more laid back. It's just like any religion in the sense that there are levels of dedication and stringencies. 

Monks also have various customs. They shave their heads during the induction ceremony and have 227 restrictions that mostly deal with their relationships with women. 

I got most of these facts off of the Internet but it is really interesting to learn about the lifestyle of monks. I hope to learn more about them. There aren't too many monks walking around Dallas so seeing them here is cool and interesting. 

This weekend I checked out of boarding and went to my friend Michael's house with Chris and Lilly. It was a very busy weekend.

Things we did this weekend:

Elephant Show: Elephants are pretty intelligent animals. They played soccer against each other, played harmonicas, painted and hoolah hooped. It was impressive. But it was semi-depressing because the elephants were performing things that were completely out of their nature. These stunts sound really cool on paper but when you see the elephants doing this for tourism its not as enjoyable. It was still pretty cool to see 20 elephants at one time though. And afterwards we got to feed the elephants and watch them bathe in a river. The good thing about the elephant show is that they treat the elephants nicely and the land where they live is in the mountains. So they are in a good habitat. We also saw some Israelis at the show. Israelis are all over the place in Chiang Mai. It's always fun to run into them.

Orchid/Butterfly Garden: This is not somewhere I would have chosen to go but we went anyways. It's basically self explanatory. There were some butterflies and some orchids. I'm making it sound worse than it was. It really wasn't that bad. Afterwards, we went across the street to a dilapidated noodle shop across the street. This is one of those mundane noodle shops that you see everywhere around the city. These are the best restaurants in Chiang Mai. They are under wooden shacks, the menus are all in Thai, the waiters only speak Thai, and the only dish they have available is either chicken, beef, or pork noodles. You sit on tree trunk stools around a larger tree trunk table and enjoy the 20 baht meal (not even a dollar) with your friends in the shack's shade. If you could get this kind of food in Dallas it would have a huge attraction.

Samkampaeng "Hot" Springs: I put parenthesis around hot because the water wasn't just hot it was 105 degrees Celsius which is 5 degrees over boiling. You weren't allowed to enter the spring because it was way too hot. People boiled eggs in the water because it was so hot. there were little wires that held baskets of eggs in the water to cook. The four of us read for about three hours under a tree and unfortunately did not partake in the egg boiling. Reading under a tree sounds pretty cliche but it was really fun and relaxing, and the tree provided great shade from the sun. The cool thing about the hot springs is that it is a local thing. Only the local Thai people hang out there.  There is also a little river shooting off of the hot spring that is cool enough to swim in. 

Tha Pae Gate: This is the main entrance to the old city of Chiang Mai called Lanna. There are three choice, second-hand bookstores around the corner from the Art Cafe which are really good. Backstreet Books is one of them. I put a picture of that one up. That's probably the better of the three. There are a lot of cool places around here. When we went Saturday night there was a concert going on in the square. The concert was pretty cool except that the music was way too loud and didn't sound very good. A lot of good restaurants are in this area. Ta Pea is the hub of Chiang Mai hang out. We ran into some of our other friends when we were there.

Random crematorium near Michael's house: Saturday night after we got back to his house we went out on his motor bikes to explore. We came across a random temple (which happens a lot in Chiang Mai) and decided to hang out there for a while. The next day we told Michael's mom that we were at a temple and explained to her where it was. She informed us that the so called temple had really been a crematorium. I guess that a crematorium can be enjoyable if you mistake it to be a temple. 

Sunday Market: We rode Michael's motorbikes to this market about 15 minutes away from his house. Lilly and I were on one bike and Chris and Michael on another. Michael lives 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai and there is nothing like riding motorbikes around this quaint village. Traveling down a untraveled path off-road, going so fast that your eyes start watering, cruising down a street with the wind blowing in your face and tropical trees on either side of you... and then arriving at a local Sunday market. This market is the most genuine portrayal of what Chiang Mai culture is all about. There is nothing like a local Chiang Mai Sunday market. Every single person was at ease. The shopkeepers were all smiles. There were no harassments or arguments from the shopkeepers. It was peaceful. The market was small, but the food was outstanding. We bought a sticky rice dessert, and an Indian delicacy called Roti. 

Every Super Bowl Sunday I can recall our family has gone to a Super Bowl watching party. Even though no one in my family follows football closely (I only follow basketball), we always ended up at a party. Who knows what it was that drew us to these parties. Maybe the socializing aspect of the celebration, the spirit of camaraderie that is attached with the Super Bowl, or the multimillion dollar commercials that are only broadcasted on that one day. Who knows. 

Well, this Monday when I was checking my emails the main headline read "Pittsburgh Steelers Win Record Sixth Super Bowl." It then dawned on me that the Super Bowl had passed and I had not heard it mentioned once. This, in effect, made me feel like I hadn't missed out on anything. It was as if the Super Bowl had never happened. There had been a football void. This is what happens when you are at an international school. American football has no attraction. Not even the Super Bowl. It was a strange realization.

This last weekend was the best. Lilly and I woke up early and set out to Chiang Mai at 9 in the morning and returned at 10 at night. Basically all day. It was so much fun. We set out with no plan in mind and ended up having a great time. That's how great Chiang Mai is. You don't need any particular plan to enjoy the city. You can just wander around aimlessly and have a fun time. We walked around where we were dropped off for about an hour and found a restaurant to eat at. This restaurant appeared normal and good and ended up being extraordinary and amazing. I ordered curry chicken and Lilly ordered the vegetarian pad thai, both of which were life changing. Easily some of the best food I have ever had. This was definitely a great way to start the day. 

After breakfast, we took a took took (the buses in Chiang Mai are called took tooks) to Wat Buppharam which was at the other end of town. At the temple a random monk called us into his temple to hang out. He spoke almost perfect english. It was awesome. We chilled with him for a while with a couple that was from England who happened to be in the temple when we entered. The temple was beautiful with golden emblems everywhere, incense, nice red carpet, and a variety of Buddha statues. After our random monk encounter, we walked to a flower market and then we came across a second-hand book store called Backstreet Books. We stayed and read at Backstreet Books for a while and then met up with our friend, Michael, who lives in Chiang Mai. We all three went to the night bazaar, which is really gross and touristy, to buy fake DVDs (the best thing the night bazaar has to offer, really high quality and very inexpensive). The night bazaar is basically like the paramount tour group attraction. Everyone there is western besides the shop keepers, and it's really annoying to see the tourists walk around with their cameras, talking really loud and obnoxiously, and showing complete apathy towards Chiang Mai culture. So we stayed in the night bazaar for as short as possible. So after our short night bazaar visit we went to a pizza restaurant and then met up with some other friends at the Airport Plaza mall. Then from the mall a PREM bus picked us up and returned us to school. It was a great day and we will definitely be going into Chiang Mai more often on the weekends.

It's about to be dry season here in Thailand which is apparently just a warm up for the heat season. I don't even want to think about how hot it is going to get here during the summer. Supposedly when you walk outside during summer you are hit by a thick wave of humidity and heat. Right now the weather is perfect but it is going to get a lot hotter.

We never ended up meeting Lin Lao Zhi for brunch. It just didn't work out because he had to take his wife to the airport Saturday morning. But we will hopefully/most likely go some other weekend. 

On Sunday we had a CAS activity on campus. A group of physically and/or mentally challenged adults came to Prem to play sports and swim. So Sunday morning a group of us hung out with them, swam, and played basketball and soccer with them. It was a productive way to spend a Sunday morning instead of sleeping in, and the visitors really had a fun time and appreciated the activities. 

Shout out to everyone at Yavneh, in Israel, in Dallas, and whoever else is reading my blog. I miss all of you a lot.

After two and a half weeks of school, I have come to like some classes more than others. Math, history and chinese are my most interesting classes. The other classes are okay, nothing too special.

Before I talk about my classes, let me explain that at Prem we address our teachers by their first name, and instead of saying the usual Mr or Mrs, we say "Arjon" which means "teacher" in Thai. So, for example, if I were a teacher, I would be Arjon Joe. It took some time to get used to but now I am used to the whole call-your-teachers-by-their-first-name thing. 

Okay,

Let's start with math. My math teacher, Arjon Eric, is from Oregon and is a really interesting guy. He taught in Turkey last year and is now at Prem. I have no idea what takes him from country to country. He is a really nice, approachable and laid back person. Luckily, he is my home room teacher so I get to hang out with him a lot. His math class is also interesting and he is going to help me keep up my pre calculus while the rest of the class continues with the IB math curriculum. 

For history, I have Arjon Mac. He is Canadian and a really nice guy and his class is really interesting.  Right now we are studying Socialist Russia. The first week we studied about Lenin, and now we are concentrating mainly on Stalin because that is what is going to be on the history IB exam next year. Arjon Mac is cool and really laid back. Our class is really engaged which makes class fun. I have personally always wanted to learn more about Socialism, so his class is perfect.

For chinese, I have Lin Lao Zhi (Lao Zhi is Mandarin for teacher). He's pretty much a crazy guy from China who talks really loud and is really insistent that we pronounce ev-er-y sing-le sy-lla-ble perfectly before we move on. This week is Chinese New Years, so we have been celebrating in class. Each day this week Lin Lao Zhi has brought in a different Chinese New Years food. He has a constant grin on his face when he talks about the Chinese New Year and is always extremely excited to give us food. Our Chinese class (Lilly, Boss, Kazi, and I) are going to go get Chinese food with him for brunch on Saturday. According to Lin Lao Zhi, we are going to the best chinese restaurant in Chiang Mai. We'll see how that turns out.

Well, those are my three favorite classes. The other classes (English, Biology, Art, and TOK) aren't too bad, just a little dry. Oh well... 

We switch teachers for TOK every few months so hopefully my next teacher will be better. The information in TOK is really interesting its just that the way its presented is kind of boring. 

Today we went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. This Temple is on a hill that overlooks Chiang Mai. There are 300 steps that lead up to its elaborate entrance (we counted), and on the way up these steps there was a temple elephant!

Lilly bought some cucumbers for 10 baht (30 cents) and Lilly, Chris and I fed the elephant cucumbers. The elephant literally inhaled the 30 cucumbers in less than a minute. It was incredible. All three of us hung out with the elephant for at least 45 minutes.

We got feet messages at an outdoor market! This was when my Mom was here two weeks ago.

As you travel down the major streets in Chiang Mai these ornately decorated portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej are ubiquitous. Some are large like the one above and others are small. King Adulyadej is the unifying figure of Thailand. He is loved, revered, and honored by a vast majority of the Thai population. Thailand has a policy of "Lese Majeste". This law prohibits insulting the King. Dishonoring the King is punishable by up to 15 years in jail.  However, most Thai families have nothing bad to say about the King. He is currently the world's longest reigning monarch and his incumbency has yielded great accomplishments for Thailand.

Okay... 

So much has happened since my last post. I don't know where to start... 

This school is highly international. The average student here speaks three languages and is biracial. For example, one of my roommates is Thai-German and the other is French-Karen. Just being around these type of people is an experience in itself. English is definitely not the prominent language spoken outside of the classroom. It is interesting being around so many different nationalities. It gives invaluable insight into how other countries view international affairs and enables you to view issues from totally different vantage points.

Boarding is also a very different lifestyle that took some time to warm up to. The first week I felt strange and uncomfortable. But now I have befriended my roommates and everything is more enjoyable. It is really interesting being around so many different nationalities. It gives you insight into how other countries view international affairs.

Prem is an International Bacheloriate school. It is very different than the AP program that I am used to. One of the main differences is the class Theory of Knowledge. This class makes us question whether the information that we take to be knowledge is accurate. We are to question the foundation of everything we take to be certain. I've only had two TOK classes so far and it has been really interesting. Another class that the IB offers is Creativity Action and Service. CAS is a community service class where help the community around us by volunteering time. Today was our first CAS lesson. We visited a public Thai school and taught third graders English. Our lesson was an hour long and the kids picked up a few simple English phrases.

Two nights ago Lilly and I were able to watch the inauguration. It was an absolutely incredible experience to witness Barack Obama take office while overseas. It built up a huge amount of emotions in me and made me proud to be American. After eight years of Bush in office, it was great to see the United States elect a man like Barack Obama. While being around all these international kids, it is already apparent that the world view of the United States has changed for the better. With Obama as the figure head of our country, the United States has taken a huge stride forward in the right direction. But a lot more still needs to be done. 

That's all for now. I'll upload some pictures of Prem as soon as possible.

After close to 30 hours of traveling, we finally arrived to Chiang Mai. I am writing while trying to avoid falling asleep at 2 in the afternoon. Sorry if my sentences are incomprehensible.

The people here call Chiang Mai the City of Smiles. This nickname was clearly evident from our first steps into the city. Immediately after we exited the plane we were greeted by a smiling porter. Smiling is a great part of the Chiang Mai culture.