Program finished.

Well, my program ended a little early due to scheduling and whatnot so I am now left with a week to travel around. We did lessons in the school near COSA last week on Wednesday and Thursday which was great. We were only supposed to teach 8 classes overall, but ended up doing 14! Then we had some more time with the staff, volunteers and girls at COSA for a few days. We went to Batman with all the volunteers and staff at COSA and on Saturday said our goodbyes. Everyone there was incredible and hard to leave. I might try to swing by there before I head out of Thailand since I now have extra time. Then the best week came. Sunday we packed our bags and headed up to Maetamann a village about an hour from Chiang Mai. Here, we did a brief session, changed clothes, grabbed some bananas and jumped on some large grey animal called an elephant- yep, we rode elephants. For about 4-5 hours we rode our own elephants bareback through the mountains of Thailand, gave them mud baths and washed them off in the river. My elephant's name was Wan and my guide's name was Dee. I got to sit on Wan's trunk and she picked me up, so cool. After elephants, we met our homestays. Mike, Jaxie and Ellie stayed with P-Phon at her house and Bre and I stayed with P-Oh at her house. We walked to the market with P-Oh to get stuff for dinner where we met the wonderful Jojo. Jojo is a 15 year old lady boy who is so nice and hilarious and speaks pretty good english. Jojo escorted us to see a bunch of elephants at a shelter where P-Oh works while P-Oh went to the market. On the way into the elephant park my Chaco broke. Bummer, eh? They were already duct-taped but it finally gave out. So I have now super glued them. We got back to the house and helped cook dinner which was so fun. We went to bed and met up with everyone in the morning to head to Karen hilltribe villages. Karen is the tribe that wears the rings around their necks... except these ones don't ha. We took a 2 hour ride in the back of a pickup on crazy muddy and fun roads and then a 40 minute trek to get to the village. We saw about 80 people this day doing various measurements like height, weight and blood pressure and the doctors that were with us were giving vaccinations and taking blood samples for malaria testing. The next day we took the 40 minute trek back and a short car ride to the next village. We visited two villages in that area doing some of the same check-ups but far less people came to these clinics. That night, we got played frisbee with the kids and got Thai massages from the women in the village- life is rough. The next morning we visited the school to give them some medical kits and then headed back to Chiang Mai. Last night we went out to dinner and checked out with Brynn who is on the ProWorld staff. Then, we all split and had to say our goodbyes- tough thing to do when you haven't had a single break from each other for weeks. Jaxie left last night to go down south. Me, Mike and Ellie left this morning at 5:30 a.m. to go to the bus station. They took off for the south and I headed out for a 3 hour drive into the mountains to the small town of Pai. I found a guest house with a bed and fan in a room for 150 baht (about $4.50) a night. And you're all caught up! That's where I am. Today has been a day to sort of rest and check out Pai by foot. Tomorrow I am going to rent a motorbike and go to the hot springs and waterfalls nearby. Don't worry, I will wear a helmet and be very careful and everything. Also, Pai is a small town of about 3000 people (plus tourists) so not like the big city of Chiang Mai. I am unsure how long I will stay here at the moment, we will see how it goes. Not going to lie, being on my own today made me miss people at home. Don't get me wrong, I still love Thailand and am excited for the rest of the time here; but I am also looking forward to seeing those I love back home!

K