getting used to the thai way of life

Hi my Dear blog readers!

as I have been staying in Thailand now for almost a week, the aforementioned culture shock is starting to decrease. Now I already speak a few Thai words like "hello", "thank you", "rice", "noodles" and more important than anything else - "mai phet", which means "not spicy". :-)
Since people always smile at me and I always smile back, everybody is happy and nothing can go wrong, even if you don't speak Thai. If you try that in France, you would probably not get away like this. :-)

My sunday was not very eventful, since I spent the day on the internet to check a lot of still unclear things and gather information about Thai customs and things to visit in Chiang-Mai. In the evening I got to know two of my flatmates from the accomodation. The first one is Michael, a funny guy from the US with very long fingernails, which I first thought he would use for playing guitar, but he has it on both hands. The other one is an Indian guy called Ayush, who is also an IAESTE student like me. Since they were coming in when I was about to go out of the house, we didn't do anything together yesterday.

One episode from today I want to tell you: After work one of my colleagues took me to a place where lots of bands rehearse. He introduced me to his band, which consists of 5 students at the age of 19 to 20. They played songs like"Zombie" and other Thai stuff I didn't know. When I entered the room, I was given a very warm welcome and immediately given one of the guys guitars. I tried my very best, but I couldn't hear myself playing, since everybody had turned up its own volume to an unbearable level. Plus, the sound was unfortunately only a mishmash, where it was impossible to clearly hear what each person is playing. During the rehearsal, I adjusted the sound of my guitar for better articulation, although it was not easy the way they had putted their effect pedals.
All together I would say it was an interesting experience and I will definately return, next time I'm gonna show these guys how to produce a good sound that each instrument can be heard clearly among the others. :-)
As an already old guy (with my 27 years I can now say I am a senior :-) ) I should be able to share my band experience a bit with those young people.

Alright folks, that's it for today. Probably, the next days I will rent a motor-scooter to be more independent and can go around whereever and whenever I like. This will also result in more photographs, what you probably like to hear, don't you? :-)