Chiang Maiiiiii!

It was so fun. That is all I can say.
We had a three day weekend because of Buddha's birthday so a bunch of OEGers decided to meet up in Chiang Mai! We booked a hostel called Julie's Guesthouse, a backpacker's paradise, and bought our bus tickets a week early just to make sure they wouldn't sell out.  As soon as school was out on Friday, Nongnoot drove us to the bus station, thank goodness because a storm started and it would have sucked to ride our bikes.  We accidentally bought 1st class tickets instead of 2nd, so it was super comfy and they gave us snacks! Four hours later we arrived in Chiang Mai and met Bao at the bus station.  We took a song tauw (truck with seats in the flatbed, kinda like a lesser taxi) to our hostel and met up with people from some neighboring provinces! There are so many farangs in Chiang Mai!! It was crazy! We weren't the minority and the Thai people didn't stare at us or ask us weird, probing questions! It was just normal.  We were able to talk to people without using hand gestures or speaking slowwwlyy, I forgot how easy it is!
Since it was so late we all went out to dinner, and then got ready to go explore the town a little.  We went to this cool rooftop bar and talked and relaxed and it was so nice!
It was nice to hear other people's experiences.  Mel and I quickly realized that we have it pretty good in Phrae.  Two other girls, live in the province of Nan but about an hour and a half from the big city.  They are super rural, like scorpions in their room, no internet or A/C in their apartment, and they are the ONLY farangs in their town.  It was crazy to hear some of their stories!
The next day, we headed over to the Tiger Kingdom! Yes, I got to pet a tiger! They had packages so you could pet all of them or you could just pick the size you wanted, large, medium, small, and smallest.  Of course I wanted to see the smallest, but they were just born and weren't allowed to be around humans yet.  So we saw the small ones, which were pretty big! The tigers aren't drugged or anything like that, they are nocturnal, so when we were there they were pretty sleepy and not really interested in eating us.  The tiger wrangler man made me spoon with two tigers and then put one of their huge paws on my head! OMG! It was scary but so cool. At any second, I could have died! 555 I definitely want to go back and see the babies!

Then we had cheeseburgers for dinner! YUM! Now it was Saturday Walking Market time! Not to be confused with the Sunday Walking Market, totally different. They have the most beautiful things! I bought such cute stuff and cannot wait to go back.  
Now it's off to the farang bars! It was full of white people! We shared some buckets of different concoctions, danced, and had so much fun! Some of my friends from orientation took buses 12 hours long to get there so it was so nice to see them!
After sleeping in a little, we headed over to the huge temple in Chiang Mai, called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.  Doi Suthep is the mountain the Wat is on top of so this gave us really beautiful views of Chiang Mai. Since it was the Buddha's Bday celebration, there were a lot of people there bringing offerings and coming to the temple, it was really cool to watch.

For dinner that night we had MEXICAN FOOD! It wasn't like the best I have ever had, but for Thailand it was really good. I cannot wait to have more.
On Monday Mel and I had to catch our bus back to Phrae at 3:45, so we couldn't do too much.  We went to some English bookstores and all got pedicures for $3.50! It was awesome! Overall it was such a fun weekend and really nice to see our OEG friends. I can't wait to plan more weekends like this!

I received the BEST care package ever when I got home! My mom sent yummy stuff and my friend Nicole had everyone at work write on the box! It was so special :-) Love you all!!!

For now, it is back to class! Nonglak just asked me to write a speech for a student to say in front of the Minister of Education, and a wedding card for the Director of our school because he is going to a wedding tomorrow...ah the life of a farang!