A day in the life of Me

I always thought that roosters knew when the sun came up, but I am quickly discovering that this is not quite true unless they think that they are in a different time zone.  Sometime between 1-2 am each morning, my rooster decides that it is going to be the first time for him to crow that morning.  Eventually he does get it right and he crows at about the same time that my alarm goes off.  By the time that I get up at 6am, my entire family has probably already been up for an hour or two doing chores and getting ready for the day.  I go downstairs, through the house, outside, put on my flip-flops, walk past the cars and through my dad's workshop to reach my kitchen.  Each morning my mom points for me to sit down, my dad gets me some warm water and it is time for me to eat.  I get Nestle packets of coffee to drink each morning, and my mom serves me a pastry.  Every time I get so excited that I might actually get away with a pastry and coffee in the morning, only to discover a bowl of soup, rice, or pourage in front of me 15 minutes later.  Of course, I have to eat it and I can't say I am full because my mom looks so happy and excited to feed me yet again.  I generally am only eating 2 meals a day now (skipping lunch) because I am getting so much food at home.  I think my mom is an amazing woman, but wow, that is a ton of food.

Yesterday we got to go see a ceremony at a local school.  The monks were blessing the school for the year and sat in the building cross-legged as all of the people of the Tambon sat outside.  Afterward there was a feast (which my mom catered for).  It was pretty cool.  I have a few pictures of it that I will post later.

Training starts at 8am each morning so I bike to training, either a 5 or 20 min ride (depending on the location for that day).  We have school until 5.  On our bike rides, we greet EVERY person we pass.  If it is an adult we usually greet them in Thai; if it is a child we say "Hello" because they get a kick out of us speaking English.  We are on our own for lunch, so normally we find a local restaurant and normally pay between 10-35 baht for lunch before going back for more classes.

When I come home at night, I am quickly advised by my sister, the neighbor or my mom that I need a shower.  So, I quickly head up to my room to grab my towel and head off to the bathroom for my bucket shower.  The method of showering here definitely conserves a lot more water than in America.  My one piece of advice if you ever come to Thailand, is to always check the floor of the bathroom before going in so you don't slip.  If someone just took a shower, the floor will be all wet.  At my home, there is no separation between the shower and toilet.  After my shower, I eat again and do language lessons with the neighbor boy or my sister (who is actually not my sister I discovered).  I can now proficiently write my name in Thai.  After that, I am told to go "Chill out" and I head off to bed.  This is at about 730 or 8pm. 

This is when I finally get my alone time.  I hang out in my room, copy some lessons for the day, read my kindle, or just fall asleep.  It is the quietest part of my day.  But, this is my typical day.  Amazingly, I actually get cold at night (its probably in the 70s), and I get very hot in the day, which is sad since it is the winter.  My family jokes every morning when I come out in a t-shirt because they are all freezing in this weather.

Thailand is so gorgeous.  I am trying to take a lot of pictures and I am hoping to have a photo journal entry in my blog whenever I can get all the pictures uploaded so I can show everyone.  I am hoping to get a few family photos tomorrow as well so I can show everyone in the states (America, as it is said here) what the people that I live with look like. 

Its so funny how language can be confused out here.  Today, a group of us were going to the market (i.e. 7-11) and Chris, a PCer, went home to tell his mom.  When he came back his comment was "Well, I either told her I was going with 5 people, or that I would be back at 5pm".  I finish all of my sentences with the work 'ka', but depending on how I say it, it can mean something else.  I tried to tell my mom that I wanted her to show me how to do laundry the other day when I came home from training.  Well, I came home that night and all of my clothes, underwear and all, were neatly folded on my bed waiting for me.  I believe that same thing may be happening today because the last time I went into my room, my clothes weren't there and my mom wasn't home so I couldn't ask. 

Anyways, I'm hanging at an Internet cafe, and I believe my time is almost up.  Hopefully, I can get on again in the near future and let you know what tomorrow brings with a day with my host family.