Emily and Joey: A Comparative Analysis: Day 4

December 11: Day 4

Emily

Hello again.

I just got soap in my eye. Thailand has very strong soap.

We arrived in Chiang Mai today around 5pm. It took us a little while to figure out how to get a taxi, but eventually we did and off we went. So far, this city could be anywhere. I can’t find a particularly distinguishing factor. If you blindfolded me and just dropped me here and told me I was in Colorado, or New Jersey, or anywhere else, I would believe you. Until I tried to read a sign. Or say anything. This is what Thai looks like: มากินอาหารนี้

The people who run the hostel we’re staying in are so amazingly nice and helpful and have really cute babies. They helped us set up many activities for the next coming days. Aaaand… our room is pink! It's like an eight-year old's dream. With birds and leaves on the wall and it feels oh so cozy. See pictures below of how Joey so effortlessly and perfectly blends with this cozy habitat.

It is also really hot here. We were walking around trying to find the means to fill Joey’s black hole of a stomach and I was sweating, even though it was 7pm.

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that Cambodia reminds me a lot of Ghana in certain ways.

Anyway, apparently Joey is planning on counting how many times he eats curry on this trip and so far he’s at 3. What a fun game. Tomorrow we will see more of the city and go on adventures. Plus, it will be light out so I’ll have more to say and hopefully we’ll see more people and, well, stuff. It’s weird though – I’m so used to seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar cities, but now it’s only us two in Chiang Mai from our program. I won’t be randomly bumping into my other friends.

You know, when I was younger, like, 10, I used to lie in my bed and wonder who else was out there, what are they doing, who are they, are they thinking this same thought as me? But now that I’ve met 31 amazing people, I know who’s out there and I know that whatever they are doing, they are doing it well. I like that thought… it’s pretty comforting.

I’m glad that I decided to travel after the program. I could be sitting on my couch at home and eating frozen macaroons and watching movies with my family, but I’ll have time to do that soon (and trust me, it’ll happen). For right now, I’m leisurely perusing a continent I had never been on before. Nice.

Okay, goodbye.

Emily

Day 4, Dec 11

Joey

Like I said earlier. Today was a travel day. Woke up, said goodbye to our IHP family (won’t be seeing any IHP homies for sure until I get to the airport for my return flight), flew to Bangkok, layover, Chiang Mai, hostel in Chiang Mai, freak out because I’m so excited to be here, and curry. Which starts me on my new feature, the curry count. So, I’m planning on eating curry as often as I can while in Thailand, so I decided to start a curry count. Every time I eat a bowl of curry (its usually green), I add one to the curry count. Right now the curry count = 3.

During our 7ish hours of travel today, Emily and I played the game where we take turns saying a sentence, and each sentence is another part of a story. But its fun because your sentences don’t have to be logical and you just have to roll with the story. Eventually our story was about how one of the stone facades of a Temple in Angkor Wat turned into Santa Claus after some a huge crowd of armadillos did something. I forget, but the little moments where we pass the time and do funny little things is the real fun part of traveling I think. The big moments where you see Angkor Wat are great, and probably more memorable, but laughing at a silly game you play in an airport is where its really at.

OK, so Chiang Mai- My two best friends from home, Joe and Lilly Lerer, studied abroad in Chiang Mai when we were juniors in high school. Since then, I have heard a lot about Thailand, Chiang Mai, and have wanted to visit ever since. I am very excited to be here and explore the city. But at the same time there are so many touristy activities to do, that aren’t walking around and absorbing the city. There are opportunities for massage classes, cooking classes, and all sorts of ecotourism stuff. We’ll see what we end up doing and what we don’t make it too. But I’m definitely excited for the next couple days.