First Week of Class

Hello All,
Monday started my first week of class here at Chaing Mai University.I had class all 5 days this week, which is quite strange for me. At SVSU I have never had a Friday class before! I did a little bit of switching my schedule around so I could have Mondays off for long weekends for more travel opportunities. My current schedule is:
Monday: No Class
Tuesday: Thai Society and Culture 8-11 & International Logistics and Supply Chain Management
* I am super excited to learn more about the culture here and also excited about my supply chain class. We will be going on 3 field trips, so I am very excited to learn more about how businesses are run here in Thailand compared to the US
Wednesday: Thai Language for daily communication 12:30-2 & International relations 2-5
*The Thai language course will be super helpful teaching us basic things like how to introduce ourselves and order food!
Thursday: Thai Language for daily communication 12:30-2
Friday: Buddhism and Social Entrepreneurship
* Even though it stinks having Friday classes, I am very excited about both of these classes. What better place to learn about Buddhism than Thailand? I am also excited about my social entrepreneurship class because we get to do a project on our own idea of a social enterprise which is similar to a non-profit. More to come on that later!

On Monday after classes and few friends and I went to get massages. They are super cheap here which is great because they are crazy expensive back home. I had heard a lot about a massage place where you get a massage from a female ex-prisoner. This sounds crazy I know! But it was quite amazing. Another girl in my program had gone to get a Thai massage the night before and she told me that is was painful so I was very scared because I had never had a massage before. But overall it was great! Super relaxing- I almost fell asleep!

The massage group

The rest of my evenings were spent at the student market. It has restaurants and lots of vendors. Here they sell more clothes then souvenirs like the night market we went to on Sunday. The shops are geared towards students so the clothes are more trendy clothes rather than elephant pants and tank tops with elephants.

Pad Thai from the student market

My breakfast most days- omelete and rice!

Overall, the first week of classes went great! I am excited to learn more about Thailand. Most of our classes don't have daily homework which is nice. It is more reading and papers due every couple of weeks which is very manageable considering I am taking 18 credits although I am considering dropping international relations but we will see!
This weekend will be a busy one! Tomorrow I have a craft and culture tour where we will get to tie-dye! Sunday I am going to elephant nature park to hang out with elephants for the day- I CANT WIAT. We have Monday and Tuesday off from classes because CMU has their commencement ceremonies which are a huge deal here- the princess of Thailand comes to hand out the diplomas!
On Monday we are going on a tour on Doi Inthanon which is the highest point in Chiang Mai and it is supposed to have beautiful views!
Tuesday will probably be a rest day and catch up on homework!
I'm sure I will have a blog post or two about this weekends activities so be on the lookout!
Aubrey :)