Trekking Around!

Well, since the accident we have been doing a lot of walking and not so much riding on motorbikes.  For everyone who has been asking, Mel is doing much better!  The first week we were going to the hospital everyday to get her wounds cleaned and then every other day. Today (Wednesday) we are going to get her stitches out! Yay! Her bruises are going away and cuts and scrapes are healing up nicely.  However, she will never drive a motorbike again :-( I have been pretty scared to go out again, let alone drive her around after watching it happen, but our Thai friend, Mint, took me out and I feel much more at ease.  I even drove Mel to the Tuesday Night Market in Phrae last night! Go me!

Our OEG friend Boa (Bow) came to visit because she is trying to switch schools and move to Chiang Mai, so she stayed with us for a couple days. (It is really more dramatic than that, but it's a super long story...)  It was really fun, we walked into Old Phrae where all of the old teak houses are and saw some really pretty Wats.  It was way calmer than New Phrae and much more traditional.  We walked to the Yom River, which turned out to be brown and gross, way underwhelming.

Our farang friends took us to the only club-like place in Phrae, which was pretty funny.  Different Thai bands/people would come out and either try to sing American songs or Thai songs.  They were all pretty emo sounding and screachy but it was pretty funny!  Then they played house music and people danced, well we danced and they all watched us and gave us free food.  Either Thai people don't think we eat at all or they think giving us food will make us be friends with them. I dunno, but wherever we go people give us food!

We have been trying to try lots of new foods, or at least not go to the same food stand every night.  There are a couple of night markets that are close by so we are venturing out lots.  The one right down the street from us has really good pad thai and we usually always get that, but this time we turned right and explored more! 555 (=lol) It was so fun! We found this little sushi cart. (it was super clean, many people were at it and it was a couple of days ago and I am still not sick, so no worries MOM!) Then we had really yummy kabobs with some mildly spicy sauce on them, and MANGO STICKY RICE. It is my new favorite thing! You have sticky rice, some cut up mangos, and then this yummy coconut milk stuff that is warm and delicious to pour over it all! SO GOOD! There was also a waffle stand with different kinds of waffles! Mel got original and I got Pumpkin for the next morning! So fun.

Things at school have been getting better.  Monday is always the hardest, (obviously) because we are trying out a new lesson plan and you never know what can go wrong or what they won't understand.  Teacher Nonglak told us she would give us lesson plans before every week, but that hasn't happened, so we are flying by the seat of out pants! I am supposed to be helping improve their conversational English and pronunciation, etc. So, this week I am having them practice convos, "Hi!" "How are you?" etc. Teacher Nonglak watched me on Tuesday and told me today that she will not give me any lesson plans because I am doing great on my own.  Well that is a relief because I feel like I am doing awful sometimes! They gave us our bikes today and we are so excited to ride around and not rely completely on the motorbikes!
Also, Monday is the Buddha's Bday so that means everyone at school wears white all week. I wish someone could have casually mentioned this to the dumb farangs! Mel and I come strolling in on Tuesday wearing our pink, while everyone else is in white. We felt like chumps! Needless to say, it is Wednesday and we are wearing white.

This weekend we are meeting some other OEG people in Chiang Mai, a large city a 4 hour bus ride away from us! We are so excited, it is supposed to be awesome and have MEXICAN FOOD! Can't wait! Love you all!