On Friday we spent the day with the students at Chiang Rai Ratchapat University. We went to an art garden, the library, and to a garden made for the kings mother. When we first met with the students it reminded me of a dancing lesson that you would have in gym class during middle school. The boys and girls (or in this case UMN/UMD and CRU students) stand on opposite sides of the room talking among our own groups, a little nervous, a little scared, and staring at one another until the teachers partnered us up. When we were finally paired up with a student on the bus and I started to talk to my partner, Jay, it didn’t take me a long time to figure out that communicating was going to be more difficult than I thought. I had to slow down my speech and use simple words. As I spent more tie with my pernter I tried to think of my first spanish class and the words and types of phrases we first learned. Unfortunately, making a connecion with these students was going to be harder than I had anticipated.
When we all went to ride the elephants before some of the students communicated with the guides through singing or simply making noises. When I was in the oxen cart I started to say “ahhhhhhhhhh” because the ride was really bumpy, and the driver started to copy me and soon we were all saying “ahhhhhhhhhh” and other carts were staring at us. It was a lot of fun and halarious. A similar thing happened when I was riding on the moped with my partner. I would point at things and he would point at things and I would say ooooh! and he would make noises and I would copy. While we couldn’t speak to eachother it was halarious and I had a lot of fun riding around campus on the moped with Jay.
These experiences at the elephant rides and at CRU were really fun and some of my fondest memories thus far and I wasn’t even speaking a language. It might seem childish or silly, but it was a form of communication that allowed me to make a connection. That night me and few other students went out with some of the CRU students, and even though we didn’t understand eachother all time, just dancing and sharing that experience with them was enought for me to consider themmy my friends that I made in Thailand. It was prety cool and created a memory that I will never forget.