First Days in ChangMai

Thailand is lush, full of life, many plants, lots of moisture. All the wood living or structural is dark colored, full of moisture, deep... as the land itself. We are in Chang Mai, "The New City", a city that was new over seven hundred years ago. There is a weight and depth of history that permeates everything, like the moisture.
Last night as soon as we got off the airplane, we collected our luggage, passed through customs without any issues, and loaded onto three, non-US Toyota vans (the tall skinny ones that, in Africa seat sixteen and in Thailand seat ten, limosine style) and two Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks. We ate dinner at what must have inspired the Rainforest cafes in the US, except these were real. I didn't see any snakes while we were eating, but there were trees and vines, and dripping water everywhere. It was pretty amazing, and beautiful. The food was delicious, every meal has been amazing so far. We set up all the sound that night, and got a quick sound check in before going to bed at 12:30 am.
This morning we had a crash course in Thai culture and learned a few practical phrases before being sent out into the city in pairs on a scavenger hunt. It was almost like The Amazing Race tv show. We were each given a little bit of money, and a card with an item written on each side for us to find and buy, then a place to find and meet at in 45 minutes. The writing on our cards was phonetic, so we couldn't just show it to a stranger, but we had to form sentences and be led from stranger to stranger, place to place through the city until we found what we needed to find. Ryan and I eventually found Roses (dawk gulap) and an Eraser, (yang lope). Then, we got a tuk tuk (a three wheeled, motorized, covered vehicle) to take us to what turned out to be a temple on the other side of town. All in all, it was a very fun, slightly stressful, challenging exercise that immersed us immediately in to the culture.
This afternoon we finished setting up the chapel, and planning the details of the week's schedule. Kyle and I are going to be lead counselors in addition to running everything technical in the meetings. The junior high students arrive tomorrow after lunch, 160 of them. Right now, it's 11:08 pm, I'm sitting in a covered porch, outside, it's pouring rain, probably 82 degrees, and humid. I'm ready to head back to my room, crawl on top of my bed and drift off to sleep.

Oh, the building that I'm sleeping in is probably the closest to living in The Swiss Family Robinson's tree house that I've ever been.