Currently, I’m settling into my new digs in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand and is located in the North – population estimates fluctuate between 150,000 and a couple million people, mainly because it’s difficult for people to agree on what’s considered Chiang Mai due to urban sprawl. There’s also a huge expat community here and tons of tourists. Sometimes when I go into the Old City I feel like it’s a gigantic Khao San (the backpacker area of Bangkok). However, I’m excited about living here (once I make some friends) – lots of people love it because it’s filled with chill nightlife (but also clubs), coffeehouses, art galleries, temples, cafes, and more. I’m planning on buying a motorcycle or scooter (Vespa, anyone?) to get around since there is effectively no public transportation here aside from taxis (tuk-tuks) and songtaews, which are these red converted pick-up trucks with a cover in back that pick people up wherever they go and then eventually get you to your destination. They don’t follow any prescribed route, so unless you’re going somewhere close, it’s difficult to estimate how long it will take you to get to where you want to go (not the most convenient thing). Also, it’s much more expensive than what a bus would cost…too bad there are no buses in Chiang Mai.
In any case, I arrived in Chiang Mai last weekend. I’m going to be working with the Research Institute for Health Sciences (RIHES) and met with some PI’s (principal investigators, or the people in charge of research studies) last week to help give me an idea of the different studies that are going on right now and where I can fit in. I need to decide what I want to do and am really excited about this one study that looks at access to care for HIV+ IV drug users, but want to keep an open mind and also gain clinical experience both in and outside of the hospital setting. The other fellow (a friend from Case Med, Ben) arrived about 10 days before me and had the opportunity to go on ID rounds and also to clinic, so I’m looking forward to that. Although it’s slow right now, I know that it usually takes 3 months whenever one goes abroad to really start doing anything, so I’m on track of where I want to be – I found an apt (roomy, centrally located, fully furnished studio) the second day I was here, moved in, and I’ve already had a visitor (my friend Judy from Swarthmore, who is finishing up her post with Population Services Intl in Laos). It was actually really nice that she came and crashed with me for a few days because it lessened the shock of me actually being alone in a city I didn’t know. We didn’t really do anything but hung out, talked a lot about college, life, what’s going in the US now since she’s going back (I made her watch the White House Press Conference with Stephen Colbert), and ate yummy food. Exactly what I needed though. I might go visit her in Vientiane (Laos) next weekend before she packs up and heads home.
Pre-Chiang Mai was madness. After finishing up the Fogarty orientation course in Bethesda, I spent two or three days in Baltimore at Hopkins meeting with the US investigators and doing logistics stuff (payroll, health insurance, etc.) since my Fogarty fellowship is administered through the Hopkins School of Public Health. I also took the Thai Fellow to the Inner Harbor so that she could see her first aquarium, hung out, and ate seafood. Following my few days in Baltimore, I flew home for a night and then got on a plane the next morning to Los Angeles (where my now-husband is from). I think I might take a hint from him (those of you who've seen our wedding website story will get this)and just condense the rest into a timeline:
- July 5-18 – Bethesda, MD for Fogarty orientation (like a mini-course on global health) at the NIH. All US fellows and foreign fellows (we’re paired to encourage capacity-building at our foreign sites) attended and it was fun getting to know everyone from all over the globe.
- July 19-21 – Baltimore with Ben and the Thai fellows.
- July 22 – Fly to LA with Chris on the 6 am flight. Arrive in LA, pick up rental car, go to Glendale Galleria to find a dress with sleeves to wear to the Thai temple, and then run to get my hair and makeup done for the Chinese Wedding Banquet held that night at this huge Chinese restaurant in Monterey Park (Ocean Star). About 300 people attended our Chinese wedding banquet (held by Chris’s parents). I knew about 20 of them, but it was all good. We got to visit each of the 30+ tables and toast them with wine goblets filled with warm Coke in our hands (warm Coke generously provided by the Chinese banquet manager…I think I would’ve preferred wine, seriously).
- July 23- Thai Buddhist Ceremony at Wat Thai in Los Angeles. My parents got married at this temple almost thirty years ago and hadn’t been back since, so it was cool to see how much bigger it was. The ceremony consisted of nine monks chanting, us offering alms to the temple, listening to a sermon on marriage, and other rituals surrounding the wedding. It was really nice, although Chris didn’t understand what was going on a lot of the time because everyone was speaking Thai (we translated later).
- July 24 – I took USMLE Step 2 CS (the clinical skills portion). This seemed like a good idea when I scheduled it, but I seriously studied for like 2 hrs the night before. I think it turned out okay anyway, but I was really exhausted. After USMLE Step 2 CS, we went out for Chris’s mom’s birthday at this Shanghainese restaurant before taking the red-eye back to Michigan.
- July 25-August 4 – pre-wedding planning. Two of my best friends from Thailand, Nan and Mon, arrived on July 28th to hang out (it was both of their first times in the USA) and help out. They were super invaluable and loved being bridesmaids in an ‘American’ wedding. During these two weeks, I had my bridal showerette/bachelorette party in Royal Oak (thanks Liz and Suhani!!), had a civil ceremony with Chris in Chelsea (in Buddhism, marriage is secular and not religious) and got 'officially married', bdid last minute wedding stuff (wrote the program, made the seating arrangements, etc.) and prayed I would fit in my Thai wedding dress.
- August 4 – Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner in Ann Arbor. Everywhere was relative central (family came from Chicago, Texas, California, DC, NY, Canada,Thailand)…
- Aug 5- I had to wake up before 6 am because the wedding started at 10 AM in Grosse Ile (I got married in my parents’ backyard), but had my hair and makeup done in Ann Arbor. A high school friend did my makeup (we used to play soccer together and do theater together and were reunited on myspace) and it was wonderful. My photographer actually drove me around the whole morning (and also to the wedding) and we had a really great conversation about being Asian-American (among other things) while driving to my parents’ house. The wedding was really awesome – we had both Thai and Western ceremonies (with accompanying dress changes and both kinds of food) and were surrounded by our family and friends in two large tents in my parents’ backyard. I wrote most of the Western ceremony (which was non-religious) and Chris and I told stories about each other and also wrote our own vows (some of which included Dr. Seuss J). Although we had some technical difficulties with the speakers (the music kept cutting in and out because the tent was far from the house), all the guests started singing ‘Close to You’ when the music cut out and we were dancing with our parents – it was really cute. My dad also had his first public speaking debut and gave a really amazing toast. Anyway, y’all probably don’t want to hear too much about the wedding. Take home point: it was kickass!!
- Aug 6-15 – Honeymoon in Brazil! Chris and I spent time in Salvador, Recife, and at Muro Alto Beach (Nannai, Porto de Galinhas). We watched a lot of DVD’s, ate a lot of food, and had good times together.
- Aug 17 – I flew to Thailand! Although I'm happy to be here, I'm sad that I'm alone and won't see Chris until December. It reminds me a lot of when I first started dating him four years ago and was living in Bangkok while he was living in LA. Before coming to Chiang Mai, I spent a day with my friends Nan and Krit in Bangkok, mostly at Siam Paragon, and saw some of my family.
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