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  • Day 79

    Settling in to Chang Klan by the Ping

    August 19, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Hello Everyone! It’s been two weeks since my return to Chiang Mai. A combination of weak wifi, jet-lag, and a precipitous dive into a high-level Thai class in a school, PLUS settling into a minimally-appointed new apartment threw me into an uncomfortable spin for most of the first week, but today, at the end of my second week, I feel much better.

    I am staying in the “Chang Klan” district of Chiang Mai. If you look at the map, you can see that I am near the bottom right-hand corner of a square. That square is the Historic Area of Chiang Mai. I chose my area because I am eleven minutes’ walk from my school, and also five minutes’ walk from my friend Victoria Vorreiter’s condo. My street is busy with tourist hotels and supporting businesses, but the surrounding streets have schools, homes, and normal city life.

    Here is a link to the description of my apartment. Scroll left at the top picture to see the various rooms. Obviously the pictures are “doctored up” BUT the size and furnishings are accurate:
    https://abnb.me/RmetZDffeZ

    Chiang Mai, like Oaxaca before it, is in the midst of the rainy season. Every day, clouds build up, and there’s usually a thunderstorm or two with plenty of lightning and rain before evening. It’s not too hot—up to the high 80’s—but there is high humidity. It’s all bearable—there is air conditioning after all—and I rather like experiencing this season for the first time.

    Every morning I have been waking up around 5 am, and I immediately leave for a very fast 30-minute circular walk before breakfast. I pass a convention center, and then turn up a long street with an elementary school, a technical college, the center for water control for the province, the Chaimongkol Temple, the Alliance Francaise and French School of the Far East, and the Anantara—the best hotel in Chiang Mai. Another few turns along commercial streets, and I’m home.

    I decided to try the school, “Thai as a Second Language,” so I could hear Thai from a native speaker (i.e., the teacher) six hours a week without any effort on my part. The first week was very difficult, as I’ve never had a textbook in Thai before. The long sentences incorporating the grammar points, vocabulary and expressions were indecipherable, as I was used to short text messages and flash card entries. But I’m used to them already, so the pressure is mild instead of intense. I love my classmates, a man from New Zealand and a Buddhist nun from Argentina. Our teacher is competent, friendly, and very lovely, so we are a happy class. I do look forward to it.

    I have a very long way to go with my Thai language. I can have conversations, yes, but my instant recall of vocabulary is very buggy, and the depth of the conversations is shallow. However, it’s getting better by the day, and you won’t find me quitting anytime soon. I also love being in my third Add1Challenge, sending messages to my language-learning friends, and talking to my Thai-learning buddy Randal every Wednesday morning via Skype. All in all, I’m having a good time.

    Here are a few pictures. If you leave a comment (as I hope you will) please sign your first name. Cheers!
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