Feb. 25, 2010

My first day in Thailand is over and I feel like a bus has hit me! Head spinning, body aching, eyes stinging and yet I yearn to run out into the city for more! :)

Yesterday in heals and a dress I greeted Matt at the airport who had a white rose and a tender kiss for me. I wanted to hold on to him and never let go. Matt put my luggage into a taxi and I held on tight on the back of his scooter – side saddle – while we road through the town to our apartment. It was exactly as I dreamed it would be. It has all been some crazy dream – better than the movies. I felt like a princess – a movie star – with everyone watching and smiling. At the apartment Matt paid the taxi driver as I hopped off the scooter. Everyone bows as you pass and the laundry man told me in broken English that I was beautiful. It was all incredible. As tradition, Matt and I kissed in the closed elevator until we got to the 7th floor – rm 4710. I opened the door to a small room with white rose pedals sprinkled on the bed and a vase filled with 2 dozen + roses and a few incredible iris’ . . . well, the door closed and the rest is history.

After getting a little settled Matt and I jumped back on the scooter and went out to breakfast. Here the food is so cheap that almost everyone seems to go out for every meal. There are food stands EVERYWHERE. I had fried rice and Matt had cashew chicken – FOR BREAKFAST! There is some sort of meat and rice present for every meal. The food is incredible though. I never thought that I would like it so much. I woke up this morning craving cashew chicken for breakfast! What happened to my cold cereal?!

So after breakfast we sat and tried to plan out our short time here in Thailand, then we jumped on the scooter to get everything going. Ah man, I can’t tell you how much I love riding on the back of that scooter. It is so exhilarating and I love just holding on to Matt – trusting him entirely –as I try to take in everything around me. Again, I fell like a princess here being totted around – the luckiest girl in the world. Matt is a complete natural on the scooter too. Driving on the wrong side of the road, weaving in and out of traffic. It feels so good to have it be just the two of us out in the world together. Just to hold on to each other and focus on just each other again. For a moment – the only two people in the world.

From breakfast we went to this big mall on the corner of town. Here in Chang Mai there is a moat going around the center of town making it a square. The mall is huge and several stories high and seems to have everything in it. We went there to first send our rank list for residency – Stanford is #1 with Michigan and Duke following. And then secondly we used the internet to co-ordinate our bus, train, and plane tickets for all of our travel plans and to figure out hotel stuff. The reason I’m writing all this is because it was during this trip to this great mall that I had to use the little girls’ room  The Tokyo Airport had me a bit curious as to what I would find here in Thailand – but I was still shocked with what I had before me as a public restroom. Matt had to walk me through. First I had to buy toilet paper from a machine outside the bathroom and then once inside my ONLY option was a squatter!! That is all there was in every stall! I about died because I had to do more than tinkle! So these squatters were porcelain like a toilet but only about 3 or 4 inches out of the ground and instead of a toilet seat there are little ridges on the side for you to stand on and then you just squat down and do your business. Like this . . .
All I have to say is I WANT A SQUATTER!!! Ha Ha! I am serious too! That is the way to do it! It is so much cleaner! Your bum isn’t touching anything anyone else’s bum has touched! It is cleaner and more comfortable and I am converted! :) Yes I did just write that!
After the mall we met up with Emelda – one of Matt’s converts that arranged everything for Matt’s apartment and scooter and has really taken care of Matt. [Below is a picture from when we went out to dinner with them right before we left Chang Mai. The girl in the dead center was actually just a friend of Emelda's but everyone else this picture is part of this beautiful family that Matt taught and was able to baptize. They are still very active.]

I started crashing at this point and Matt took me back to the apartment to sleep a bit. Matt ran errands while I tried to sleep. Man – trying to wake up from that was nothing but painful. Matt and I had plans to go out that night so I had to force myself up but it was no picnic. Matt and I then showered which was another fun experience because the bathroom IS the shower. There is no shower curtain or anything. The drain is just in the middle of the floor with the shower head on the wall. The toilet and everything else gets drenched. [Here is a blurry layout of our apartment]