Sa-Wa-Dee-Ka

            That's hello, goodbye, and your welcome in Thai. If you're a boy you say Sa-Wa-Dee-Krap and if you're a lady boy you say Sa-Wa-Dee-Ha. Fun Facts.
            After having four consecutive days in Chiang Mai, I knew that I probably wouldn't be coming back. The only thing I hadn't seen yet was the Temple on the Hill. The first weekend we were in Chiang Mai we didn't have time to go to the temple and the next time in Chiang Mai I was only there for a night before I left for Pai. Getting to The Temple on the Hill costs anywhere from 400-600TB for a taxi ride, so normally you want to go with a bunch of people. Unfortunately the way things played out, I was the only one out of the group in Chiang Mai last weekend who hadn't gone yet. It was either I pay to go myself, or I wasn't going; so of course I just forked up the 400 Bhat (thankfully I found a nice taxi driver) and went.  It was definitely worth the money. It's one of the most renown temples in Thailand. When I got there it was raining, which wasn't a huge deal but Thailand puts tile everywhere and it gets quite slippery when it's wet. It has to be incredibly cheap because other than that, there's no logical reason you would use so much tile when it rains all the time. Anyway, I was carrying around my huge camera with flip flops and trying not to slip and fall--thankfully I didn't. The gold tier statue in the middle is called a pagoda, which is a completely closed temple that holds Buddhas and other sacred items. On opposite ends of the pagoda were two temples. One of them had a Buddhist monk who blessed groups of tourists and then gave us bracelets. It was quite cool to be blessed, but since it was in Thai I couldn't understand any of it and couldn't help but think he could be placing a hex on us and we would have no idea. Either way, it was awesome.
              It was a pretty quiet week at the foundation. A lot of volunteers had left over the weekend and all the outdoor volunteers were on homestay. One night, one of Thai interns asked if we wanted to go to a temple. Having nothing else pressing to do, we all piled in the truck and went. It was modeled after a pagoda (but you can enter and climb up all the levels) and the outside lights up at night. It was on a huge hill so during the day you can see the view of Chiang Rai. All the temples have dragons at the entrance because their symbols of protection. Fun Fact. It was fun hanging out with some of the interns and they even stopped at 7-11 on the way back so we could get ice cream.
             This weekend I'm back in Chiang Rai hanging out. Tomorrow a couple of the girls need to renew their passports so we're going up to Mae Sai. I was going to renew mine but I'll save over thirty dollars if I just go next weekend and cross the border. I'll probably be going by myself, which isn't a big deal and I'll even get to hang out in Burma for a couple hours.
            It rained for 5 days straight and it's been off and on this weekend, but because of the rain I didn't take my camera many places this week. I wish I had more photos to upload but I plan on taking it everywhere this week. I only have two weeks left of teaching; I can't believe how incredibly fast this trip has gone. There's a police holiday on Thursday and Friday this week, so there's no class. Thursday we're going to work with outdoor and Friday, in honor of the Olympics (that we have no way to watch), we're having a sports day. I also plan on taking pictures around the foundation because it occurred to me that you guys don't really have an idea where I've been staying for the last six weeks. It is literally in the jungle on the mountains and it is beyond beautiful. So get excited kiddos!

The stairs up to the Temple. There was so many tourists that getting a decent shot was near impossible.

The Pagoda and Buddha statues surrounding it.

          

A replica of the Emerald Buddha. The original is in Bangkok at the Grand Palace (Don't worry, I will be going there).

The Temple the Thai interns took us to in Chiang Mai.

This temple was unique because the largest statue not only wasn't Buddha, but it's of a female. One of the workers in the temple told us she was the first female to become a monk and was one of the closest followers of Buddha. The temple was also quite modern.