A lot of people have asked me: “How is Thailand? What have you been doing there?” So I asked myself: What does a day in the life of a student at Chiang Mai University look like?
.........
4:00am
The roosters start cock-a-doodle-doo-ing outside my window. If it is a night that I am up late Skyping a family member across the 12 hour time difference, I may just be lucky enough to hear their song before my head even hits the pillow.
8:15am
“Beautiful World” by Coldplay begins to play on my cell phone. I prefer waking up to an alarm less alarming. I snooze for an extra 10 minutes.
8:25am
Round two. This time I pull open my blinds. The morning sunshine and jungle-green mountainside shrink my pupils back to their normal dimensions, and I rub the last bit of sleep out the corners of my eyes.
I go into the bathroom and count 3 squares of toilet paper before I tear them off the roll. I wonder how much more environment-friendly I could be in the United States if I had the same fear of poor plumbing. Maybe it shouldn’t be fear of poor plumbing. Maybe it should just be a choice to be environment-friendly. I flush.
8:45am
I put on my school uniform and head down the elevator. I wave and say “saw-a-dii-kha” to the woman at the front desk, and she smiles and replies “kha” with a nod.
I walk out to Soi Jet (‘street 7’ that connects to Suthep). I see my usual canine companions. On my left is the old dog with one eye. He is curled up in a peaceful sleep, unbothered by the flies upon his dusty back. Yet I still shed a tear each time I see him. A couple meters down is the bear-dog - a big ball of fluff that remains on one step every day, enjoying the smell of fried chicken from the street cart beside him. I imagine his fur coat bathed and groomed, and him running around in a yard playing fetch with a frisbee. Or perhaps he is perfectly content with a little mud on his paws and the fried-chicken aroma before his nose.
9:00am
I arrive at class 10 minutes passed 9, but class hasn’t started just yet. The correlation between time and anxiety here isn’t quite as strong as it is in America.
On Mondays, I have Thai Language for Daily Communication. I now have an appreciation for the English Language. In Thai, one word can have 5 completely different meanings, depending what tone you use to say it. “That’s a nice tiger you have on,” I say in Thai, and the Ajarn corrects me - “That’s a nice shirt,” she says, but “sua” still sounds the same to me.
After Communication I have Sustainable Development, but it was canceled this Monday. Instead we took a trip to the market to learn about organic farming. Broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, kale. Sticky rice rolled-up in bamboo, beans and corn wrapped in banana leaves. The farmers grow the food fresh from the earth. They use adhesive yellow paper to attract the bugs away from the plants. Still, some leaves have a few nibbles, but it's reassuring to know that nothing is grown with chemical pesticides. Nothing is genetically modified. Everything is real.
3:00pm
I return home from campus. I have the rest of the day to spend time at my own discretion.
Sometimes my roommate and I enjoy the air conditioning and comfort of our couch while we watch whatever movie is playing on the only channel offered in English. I joke about how thrilling it will be back in America to use more than the one button on the remote control.
Sometimes we walk down Suthep Road, taste-testing from the variety of street vendors. The food here is like a box of chocolates. You never really know what you’re gonna get. But I’ve discovered a few favorites. Curry-paste pastries. Fried bananas covered in black and white sesame seeds. Barbecued pork and peppers on a stick. “Pork” is pronounced, “moo,” though it might be a bit easier to remember if that was the word for beef.
Sometimes we hike to the waterfalls. Sometimes we shop at the night markets. Sometimes we just spend hours in conversation, learning from each other about our similar yet unique backgrounds. Colorado, Ohio, Florida, New York. California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Maine. Maybe my next adventure will be to explore the diversity of own country.
11:55pm
At the end of the night I return to my bed. I reflect back on my day. The world in which I live may have its imperfections, but it is wholly perfect at the same time. It delivers blessings in disguise, and opens my eyes to new windows of beauty, new dimensions of thought. I believe it is true that the real is the unseen which gives rise to that which is seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment