The past weeks, in a nutshell

So it seems I’ve really neglected my blog these past few weeks. Before it shrivels up and dies I thought I might present: Jared’s Past Three Weeks: The Confusing, Possibly Unreadable, Abridged Version.

Week 1: My trip to the North
• Day 1: Left AIT early. Drove for a long time. Ate lunch at a sketchy Chinese place with multi-colored buns full of meat. Stopped in ancient Sukhothai. Saw ruins. Lots of big Buddhas. Sweated profusely while exploring. Left ancient Sukhothai for modern Sukhothai. Realized that modern Sukhothai sucked and everything closed at 9.

• Day 2: Left for Elephant Training Center near Chiang Mai. Switched vans to avoid our tour leader Vitoon. Discovered that new van was blaring techno. Became concerned that our driver was insane. Arrived at Elephant Training Center. The Elephants pushed logs around for us, painted, and played a song on some bells. It was weird. I rode on one’s back and felt kind of bad that I was making it do that. Left for Chiang Mai. Had an interesting dinner at a Cultural Center. Saw Thai dancing and was subsequently forced to awkwardly dance with the other farang. Wandered around Chiang Mai looking for something to do. Realized that it was Sunday, gave up and went to bed.

• Day 3: Left Chiang Mai to visit a local development project. Saw a village where traditional weaving was done. Encouraged by Vitoon to purchase the local products. Explained that I had no real desire to buy a dress or a purse. He did not seem to understand this. Headed for the mountains. Observed that our driver enjoyed driving 90 and passing on blind curves on mountain roads. Became convinced that he wanted to kill us. Spent the nigh in a hill tribe village with a local couple. Had and awkward but delicious meal with them. Enjoyed cheap whiskey and conversation with some locals.

• Day 4: Woke up at 5 to see the sunrise. Hiked up the mountain accompanied by some dogs. Too cloudy to see the sun but saw a waterfall instead. Hiked through the woods with rest of the group and saw the same waterfall again. Realized I shouldn’t have gotten up at 5. Visited a foundation helping to prevent children from being victims of human trafficking. Had to awkwardly present its director with a gift. Arrived in Chiang Rai. Ate mind-blowingly delicious Italian food for dinner. Had a beer at a creepy hippy bar. Decided Chiang Rai was far cooler than Chiang Mai.

• Day 5: Visited a museum about opium. Learned more than I ever wanted to know about opium. Saw the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Burma, and Laos come together. Took a fast, scary boat ride to an island that’s part of Laos. Paid 20 Baht to wander around there for an hour. Watched Ryan drink whiskey from a bottle with a snake in it. Yes, IN it. Wandered away from the tourist market and saw Laotians collecting flowers, either to eat or to make something out of. Was followed by some creepy children repeating something in garbled English. Decided that this island was pretty bizarre. Took the boat back across the Mekong and returned to Chiang Rai. Went to a club with a disgusting name (ask me about it some time).

• Day 6: Saw a crazy temple that was all white and warned about the dangers of Hell. Left my beloved Chiang Rai for Phitsanulok. Saw “the most beautiful Buddha in Thailand.” Wandered around Phitsanulok. Decided that Phitsanulok is the armpit of Thailand. Went back to the hotel because the city smelled like a toilet.

• Day 7: Left for AIT. Had our last meal of the trip together at a seafood restaurant. Imagined never having to see Vitoon frantically waving at us, saying “come! come!,” or failing to tell us crucial information about the places we were visiting. Was pleased by these thoughts. Relieved that van driver had failed to flip the van over or crash head on into a logging truck at any point in the trip. Returned to AIT alive. Went for a swim. Collapsed from fatigue.

Weeks 2-3: First weeks of my internship
• I luckily recovered enough from the North trip to be functional on my first day. Kaitlyn and I were mostly shown around the office, had awkward conversations in broken English, and met with a few of the directors of our office. I’m working in the Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO), which is a sub-bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture. Basically they try to distribute land to poor farmers and help them to develop their new farms so they can be more successful.

• ALRO’s Deputy Secretary-General, Dr. Werachai, told us that they wanted us to work on research projects using a combination of the resources at the ALRO as well as some fieldwork. I decided that I would try to study the cultural and social impact that land reform projects were having on traditional communities and to see if they felt their lives had been improved by these policies.

• Since I’m mostly doing research, there’s a lot of downtime. I’m usually able to read the New York Times, the Bangkok Post, MSNBC.com, and the Huffington Post in between reading dense agricultural development reports. I also check Facebook about a million times.

• Commuting to Bangkok SUCKS. I have to get up at 6:30, leave my dorm by 7:15, walk 25 minutes to the van station, take a van for 45 minutes to an hour into Bangkok, and then cross an intersection where 8 roads come together in a circle and there’s no walk signs. It gets pretty stressful by Thursday.

That’s all for now kids! Tune in next time for wacky Thai ladies, red-shirted protestors, and Bangkok’s wonderful array of smells!