My first ten days in Chiang Mai, Thailand have validated my decision to study and live here, tenfold. Here are a few reasons why.
Take a walk with an Elephant (Chang)
On day four in the land of smiles, TEAN took us to The Elephant Nature Park that’s tucked away in the mountains of Chiang Mai. What sets ENP apart from others is that the elephants there cannot be ridden by guests. Instead, visitors get a tour of the sprawling grounds where the elephants are able to roam freely. All thirty-five of the elephants at this park have been rescued from situations where they were being abused and/or used for labor. The founder of the park, a woman named Lek, is using her park to slowly restore the decimated elephant population in Thailand by taking in these horribly treated animals and giving them a place to live and play.
We walked around the park and met a lot of the beautiful creatures that call it home. We got to walk with them, feed them fruit, bathe them, and watch them interact with one another. I’ve never been so close to such a massive animal before, and feeling the weight of their powerful trunks and their thick wrinkled skin on my hands, was enchanting. ENP’s three ton elephants are as gentle and loving as they are large. Seeing these bruised and scarred animals wagging their tails (a sign that they’re happy), and feeling the love they’ve received, was up there with the top ten moments of my life to date.
Make a Thai friend
TEAN’s Chiang Mai program pairs its students up with Thai roommates as a way to get more immersed in the Thai culture. After our four day TEAN orientation, we arrived at our accommodation for the semester, and met our Thai roommates. It was definitely a culture shock for us, knowing we’d be living in an apartment with a Thai student–bedroom walls and a slight language barrier separating us from them. But when the shock settled, excitement replaced it as we realized how much we’d learn from and teach to our Thai-mates.
The Thai people are insanely friendly and I saw proof of this after just a few hours with my roommate, Cherry. She helped me get my stuff to our room, got me a towel so I could wash away a day of walking with elephants, and she presented me with a shelf-full of Thai snacks that she’d bought me that day. The first day wasn’t free of awkward silences and miscommunications, but we shared laughs and found common likes and dislikes. We also both agreed to help the other learn more about the places and the languages of where we’re from. Each day I get closer with Cherry, and in a week I’ve made a handful more Thai friends. I’m loving every minute of their fun, kind, and relaxed company.
Find the beauty in non-verbal communication
The last part of our orientation was a five-day village home stay at the Baan Ton Chok Village, located a couple hours north of Chiang Mai. We rode red trucks out of the city and deep into rural Northern Thailand. Our surroundings changed from city streets and tall buildings, to tall trees and fields of rice. Once we got to the village, culture shock hit us again; hard.
The village was small, dogs and chickens roamed freely about peoples yards. The houses were even smaller and most accompanied by an outhouse with a shower-head and a “squatter”, the typical style of toilet in rural Thailand that is basically a porcelain hole in the ground. We were separated into twos and threes, and placed into different houses. None of the villagers spoke a word of English, with the exception of a few school kids. So naturally that first night, attempting to communicate with hand motions and a Thai phrasebook, was a very new experience for us.
Not being able to communicate clearly with our host families was met with frustration in the beginning, but by day two we were laughing at ourselves and shrugging it off with the phrase mai pen rai, meaning no worries. Each night after having dinner with our families, we’d venture out, find a quiet spot amongst the trees, look up at the clear night sky, and appreciate what we’d learned that day. Wether it be organic farming, rice planting, or that school children in any country are rambunctious and untamable when given a day to play and learn from new people.
By the end of the week, we’d received so much care from our host mom. But, we couldn’t express verbally how amazing it felt to be welcomed into her home, to be fed by her, and to have received so many smiles. So we wrote them a note the morning we left, expressing our gratitude, and asked a Thai student helper to translate it to her for us. After giving us some gifts and reading the note, our host mom began crying and hugged us tightly. It was incredible to see that she appreciated our short presence so much, despite the fact that we couldn’t have conversations with one another. She saw thankfulness in our eyes and we saw kindness in hers, no words needed. During our five days in Baan Ton Chok Village, we experienced an immensely different way of life than our own, and realized that it’s not wrong, it’s just different.
Cara Taylor is a student at the University of Redlands and a TEAN Featured Blogger. Cara is currently studying abroad with TEAN in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
