Some More Pictures

I took these pictures from a trip I took with the school.  One of the Business schools here offered us a free tour.  Where they took us to their school, which looked like a Mall with all these stores and restaurants, etc...  then we went to a little aquarium, a bird sanctuary, and then to a cultural center, where you could see all the different regions and history of the Thai's.  It was like an exhibit cultural center.

It was ok, but here are some of the pictures that I took along the way:

Long time No Write

Well, I haven't writteng anything in awhile, I have been busy and just haven't been able to sit down and write random thoughts.  I just finished up my first course at the language school.  I am taking or trying to learn this great language, it is very hard.  I can understand very little.  I have a friend that has been helping me with understanding and with converstations.

The problems is you can say "mai" five different ways.  Either rising, falling, straight, up-down, and down up.  But to a westerners ear it sounds like the same word said five times in a row.  It is one of the funniest and most annoying things in the world.  Oh and then theres are the long vowels and the short vowels.

Here is a sentence... spelled phonetically for us Americans:

     /      \     /\    /\       /

Maai mai mai mai, mai?

"New wood doesn't burn, does it?"

The / means high.

The \ means low.

The /\ means falling or up-down

Crazy isn't it?

Anyways, I start my Thai Culture class on the 23rd of October and I get to learn how to Wai more problely and learn about Thailand.  It will be great.