The time has arrived...

Written March 17th

2am: Crash! What was that?  The wind is blowing unbelievably hard and I have to wonder if all of our dishes are crushed and strewn about in pieces on the ground outside the house.  The wind had been blowing all day and has only gotten worse throughout the night.

 My thought: Oh god!, is my bike ok??? – yes, these are the thoughts when this is now one of only a few worldly possessions that you have going into Peace Corps

3am: So cold.  How is it that a heavy blanket is not enough to keep me from being cold in Thailand.  It is so hot here that you would think that I would sleep without the blanket most of the time.  Brrrrrrrr!

My thought:  Can I sleep through the coldness? Do I have any warmer clothes? Eh, I can stick this out, it really can’t be thaaaat cold, right?

3:30: It’s that cold.  Thank you PC drivers for bringing over my 2^nd bag today containing my super comfortable pajama bottoms and zip-up sweatshirts.  You are my hero. 

My thought:  Why didn’t I put these on earlier…so comfortable... Heaven hath been reached.

6:30 Seriously, I have to get out of bed and bike to school in this?  It’s freakishly windy and it has started to rain.  And, I have to admit to my family that I am cold for the first time since coming to Thailand. 

My thought: Maybe I’m becoming a Thai…maybe next time it is really hot I won’t sweat…yeah right!

7:10 I start getting my bike ready to go.  My dad comes up to me and advises me that I shouldn’t need to go to school because its raining. (In Thailand, many things are cancelled or postponed according to rain – unfortunately, PC does not follow this philosophy – I have to go to school)

My thought: I wish my dad could call the school and tell them I wasn’t coming like they could when I was 6 years old…sad day

I don’t know if anyone in the states understands how unbelievably cold I have been today, including at this moment as I sit in my room.  My computer is my only heat source that the moment.  I definitely appreciate the heat that we have had more now, but I would be fine with the cold if I had a fire (or heater), blanket, and a warm up of coffee or hot chocolate – yum.

When I got to school this morning, I don’t know if I saw a single person walking around in short sleeved shirts.  Everyone had dug around in their bags to find the warmest items that they brought with them for this very day.  Our teachers, who are Thai, were bundled up in winter jackets shaking with cold chills.  One Ajaan advised me that it was 18 degrees out.  They said that this was a cold temperature even for the cold season (the cold season is over here).  Translated, 18 degrees is 64 degrees.  Yes, I know that you are probably laughing because this is definitely not considered such a cold temperature back in Washington, but it is FREEZING here.  Think of it being 93 degrees one day and 64 the next; this is a huge drop in temperature. 

(Pause: sorry, was warming my hands on the bottom of my computer for a second)

Now, I will tell you, I would be ok (not great, but ok) to be outside for short periods of time in this freezing weather and then enjoy the lovely warmth of being inside.  The issue with this is, is that training took place outside today.  I was outside from 6:30am-3:30pm.  It was freezing; goose-bumps and all were abound on everyone there today.  Now think about the fact that not only was it cold, but it was also windy and rainy at times.  No fun, I promise you.  It’s a little better indoors now; I get to avoid the wind for the most part and the rain, but there are no heaters here, and that is what I crave right now.  I guess I will have to settle for a pair of socks, 2 long sleeved shirts, and a pair of jeans, a blanket, and my computer to keep me warm…ah, the trials of Thailand.   J

In other news…

For those of you who may be curious and not yet know, I did pass my language test.  I was sure that it was not going to go well.  I felt like I was stumbling through the conversation and didn’t know how to answer questions.  Not only did I pass, but I exceeded the expected fluency level, reaching Intermediate-Mid.  YAY!  Go me.  I am super excited about that.  Now I want to start learning to read the language.  PC has given us some books to help us start to learn, so there is a good place to start.

On Monday I become a true Peace Corps volunteer.  The US ambassador for Thailand is coming, and all of our counterparts from our sites will be there.  After the swearing in, I can call myself a PCV.  Then, on Wednesday, I will be off to my site to start my 2 years of integrating into my Tambon and working on community development.  It is scary to think, that in just a few short days, I will be the only American for miles around living in a small town.  My PC peers will be spread out all over the country, and I will have to depend on myself and my new counterparts, to get me through each day, learn the language, and help the people that I am surrounded by.  In many ways, I believe that I am prepared, but I feel that there is more that I can do to be ready.

Once I get to my site, I want to spend the first month getting to know the people in my community and learning the boundaries of my Tambon.  I will be learning about both the SAO and village governments and find out who are the key individuals in the community.  And who knows, maybe I will get in some dance aerobic or hoola-hooping with the elderly.  I’ve got to keep this newly acquired figure in check somehow (and maybe loose a few more pounds). J

Wish me luck!! This Saturday is our farewell party for our host families.  Ten of us will be singing a Thai song or two AND acting out/dancing to a Miley Cyrus song, Party in the USA…super funny mind you.  I will try to get my host family to take pictures.

Life is still good, just cold, and I am excited for the real journey to begin.

March 22^nd

It got hot again; very hot.  I kind of started to like throwing on a long sleeved shirt in the morning, but it was still much too cold at night and for the clothes that I brought, so I guess the hot weather will have to do. 

I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer for Thailand.  We had our swearing in ceremony yesterday morning and received our pins shortly after.  I am sure that if anyone visited the Peace Corps website, they would find a picture of our group after it was all over with.  There are now 65 new volunteers that will be sent out into all parts of Thailand tomorrow afternoon to start our 2 year journey.  Scary.

Tonight is supposed to be a night of celebration, excitement, and sadness about leaving our new friends behind.  For me, it is a night of contemplation.  I was sitting with a crowd of PCers by the pool tonight at our hotel, ready to have a great farewell evening.  People were singing, dancing, and playing guitars.  Everyone was laughing, smiling, and having a great time, but I just could not get into it.  I keep thinking about these last 2.5 months and everything that we have gone through to get to this point.  We all have sat through hours of language trainings, cultural awareness seminars, integration lectures and lessons to learn how to do our jobs.  We came into Thailand not knowing what lay ahead of us, not knowing exactly what we were getting into, but that was ok, because we had 2 months to learn about it and experience it.  And now, the journey has begun.

March 24^th

I moved to my site yesterday.  It was a 4 hour car ride to get here (not bad compared to some people who had to drive 12-13 hours – yuck).  I got to my host families home and they had remodeled the room since the last time I was here.  It is no longer open air and they have screens on all the window.  Today they are putting in an air conditioning unit.  I made sure that they weren’t doing it for me, because I am hoping to be out of the home by the end of April, and they assured me it was for their daughter who will be coming home from college.  Whew! I would have felt horrible if they were doing it for me. 

Thai people love to eat.  Instead of saying “good morning” or “how are you” its “have you eaten yet today?”.  Last night, I was exhausted from everything. I just wanted to go to my room, close the door and have a few hours of “American” time.  But, alas, this was not going to happen.  First I took a tour of the village with my new host mother, that was fine, but then some of her friends asked me to eat with them.  I wasn’t hungry and proceeded to tell them, but they insisted, so I ate some chicken (it was very good).  When we went back to the house, my mom wanted to get me dinner; it took me 10 minutes to convince her to please not get me food.  I know that it can be considered rude to refuse food, but I also didn’t want to waste any.  Then, I went up to my room, put on some comfortable close and started to read…ah, fabulous.  “Megan!”…my mom comes up the stairs with my Ron Nayoke (dep. Mayor) and her daughter (so cute), and she asks me what I want to eat.  I tell her I am not hungry still.  I apologize, but she says that she understands.  Great!...back to reading.  Twenty minutes later…”Megan!”.  Now the tessaban’s secretary is coming up the stairs and asks me about dinner.  Again I have to apologize and advise her that I am still not hungry.  I felt so bad advising everyone of this, but I really wasn’t up for going out and getting anything.  I have been training and working for 10 weeks without any breaks or real weekends.  I just needed a little downtime to get used to the idea of what was going on.  Finally, I got to have some peace and quiet.

I have been at my site for less than 24 hours.  Already I have felt excited, lonely, scared, happy, inadequate, and charged, ready to go.  I am currently sitting in my office, working at my new desk wondering how these next two years are going to play out.  I am hopeful that I will be able to be everything that they are expecting me to be.  I am hoping that I can fill the shoes that they want me to, and bring them something that they were not expecting.  I don’t know how this will work out, but I know that I will probably be the one to learn the most throughout these next two years, not them.  This is what I cannot wait to do.

This is a Buddha at a temple in Phitsanulok.  It is considered one of the most beautiful in the country

 This is a banana tree.  I thought this was just a huge flower at first.

This was on a field trip to a self-sustaining farm.  I am making Adobe bricks for homes.  Super fun, but very messy.

Rain, Thunder and Lighting

Written on March 8^th

It smelled like rain when I walked out of training for break today.  You know that smell?  Well, if you’re reading this and you’re from Washington than I am sure that you know that smell that goes along with an impending rain.  And guess what…I was right.  With a flash of lighting and crash of thunder the rain began to cascade out of the sky and pound the roof of the building that we were in.  This all started about an hour before we had to head home…on bikes. 

It looked as if the rain was going to let up a little bit; you could see a sliver of sky that looked as if the sun was about to break through.  Dom, Elle and I decided to give it 10 more minutes to see if the rain would let up a little bit before we headed home (mind you, we could have gotten a ride in a van – but what fun would that be).  When the rain didn’t let up, we decided that we just needed to go and get it over with.  We strapped on our helmets, threw our bags on our backs and in our baskets and hit the road.  Since we were thinking so clearly (not), we decided it would be a good idea to take the short-cut (i.e. the dirt road).  Things were fine at first.  We were laughing as rain pelted our faces and smiled at the people huddled in their homes as we road by. 

Little by little we all noticed we were having a few steering issues.  My back tire continued to slide out and attempt to make me fall.  Mud spun through my tires to shoot out and hit me in my legs and back, and slowly but surely I noticed it was getting harder and harder to peddle.  We are all still laughing at ourselves that we thought it would be a good idea to take a dirt road on a stormy day when we all come to a sudden halt almost running into each other.  Our bikes won’t move.  We can no longer peddle.  Our tires are coated an inch thick in mud and it is getting caught in the lines for our breaks.  We have maybe a kilometer to go before we reach cement and the bikes are not going anywhere.  After attempting to clean the mud off of the tires with our hands, we know our only chance is to carry our bikes.  J  Too funny.  I only wish I had a picture or video to show everyone.

First I just carried the front of the bike; dragging the back.  Then Dom got the idea to turn the bike backwards and carry it on her shoulder.  Not only did this leave a thick stripe of mud down her back and arm, but it looked hilarious.  So what did I do?  Well, I picked it up and carried mine the same way.  Unfortunately, I was not wearing Chaco’s.  Dom was.  I had on these cute light brown sandals I bought in the states that I wear ALL the time.  They are not made for mud.  By the time that we got out of the mud, I was still wearing my sandals, but they were situated on the side of my feet so I wasn’t actually walking in them; I was walking barefoot carrying a few pounds of mud along with me.  Luckily, by the time Dom and I caught up to Elle, she was already laughing and getting acquainted with a couple of men who happen to live just past the mud.  I am sure that they think we are the craziest, funniest Americans ever.  They see us pass them almost every day, but this is our first close encounter.  They are so nice though, and they help us remove half of the dirt from our bikes.  In this process, I manage to actually break both of my sandals and I am officially shoeless and will have to ride barefoot home.  All I have to say is: Thank you nice men for helping us! 

Now that our bikes are “clean” (i.e. still covered in mud) and I am a mess (no shoes, muddy hands, muddy backpack, arms, legs, pants and shirt), I hike myself back onto the bike, get the handlebars thoroughly dirty with my mud-caked hands and step on the peddles for my torturous ride home.  If you ever have the chance to ride a bike barefoot, I don’t highly recommend it…it kinda hurt.  But, I made it…home safe and sound just in time for my 6 o’clock curfew.

I ride in, smiling and laughing at myself because of what I went through to get home, and then I here my dad and mom in the house “ohhhh!!”.  They come out of the house and burst into laughter.  They got a phone call advising them I had the option to take a ride home and I chose not to and could not believe the state that I was in.  All I could say was “kii jak-aa-yaan gap fon-tuk, sanook!!!” Biking in the rain is fun!.  That brought about another round of laughter.  I think I just gave them a good story to tell people for years about the farong that stayed with them that one time. 

My mom was amazing though, she brought down my shower stuff from my room while I washed up a little bit outside and they let me jump in the shower right away.  Best shower ever!  A bucket shower never felt so good.  And, while I was in the shower, my little brother was so nice.  He actually cleaned my bike so it looks amazing.  Thank you little brother!  Overall, it was a good ride home.  My first: I stupidly decided dirt roads were good to ride on in the rain, got stuck, carried my bike, broke my shoes, came home muddy experience…I’m sure I will have a few more.  Love it!

March 10th

FYI - I totally love the rain, thunder and lightning here in Thailand.  It rained again last night as I was going to sleep.  Sounded awesome!

The simple life

I wake up at 6am and chill in bed enjoying the "cool" air of my fan and listen to the day begin outside my window.  I hear my mom and dad yelling to one another across the yard and my little brother getting ready for school.  At about 6:15 you hear the drone of a man's voice escaping his truck through a loud speaker announcing the produce that he is carrying today.  If I get up early enough, I can see my village descending upon this said truck as he stops in front of my house.  Dogs bark, motorcycles drive noisily by, and the morning has officially begun.  I have grown to love the simpleness of my village, my tambon, my second family.  I have a routine that gives me the freedom to relax and take a moment to myself.  The pressure that America forces on you is not here. I took a moment yesterday as I was biking home to just stop on the side of the road next to the rice patties.  I closed my eyes and just took a breath and listened.  Water was flowing down the river, birds wings flapped as the skimmed the tops of the plants, and the smell of the wildlife, plants, and flowers was calming and surreal.  This is my life. 

In just a few short weeks (2), I will be thrown out of this new life, into another one that I have to create again from scratch.  A new family, new friends (none of them American), and a new job.  I will no longer be a trainee; I will be working for the SAO office of my tessaban to help better the community.  I will admit, when I first heard of where I was headed, I was not happy.  There really is not much to do out in Bangrakam within biking distance or a simple Song Taow ride.  I visited my new home this last week, and it turns out that I was right.  But, I didn't take into account of what I am really here for and the new people that I will meet.  The people that I will be working with seem amazing.  They took me on a tour of the tambon (in an air-conditioned van - yay!) and my new mom has already told EVERYONE that I am her new daughter.  I am excited to see where my new permanent home will be in the future, but my next home stay looks like it will be a lot of fun.  There are a few people in the village that speak pretty good English, including some of my counterparts, and I met a few women around my age that seem like they will be a lot of fun to hang out with.

So, each morning I was there, my mom dropped me off at the pre-school.  The kids are absolutely adorable!  Each morning they are responsible for rolling up their bed roll and hanging up their pajamas to teach them about cleanliness and responsibility.  Then, they line up and hand the teacher between 5-10 baht.  The pre-schoolers are learning to save money.  The teachers hold onto the money until the end of the term and then they give some of it back to help the students purchase new uniforms.  At schools in Thailand, the students all line up outside at the beginning of the morning and sing the National Anthem and do prayers.  They also do morning exercises.  I have been involved in this once (I looked hilarious - I will try to find a picture) and got to watch the pre=schoolers do their morning routine. CUTE!  I will see if maybe I can video tape it sometime.

Since coming home from my trip (first to Bangkok - so fun, then to visit another volunteer - super cool, and then my new site), I have been absolutely exhausted.  I cannot get enough sleep to save my life.  Next Saturday I have my official language test, so language classes are grueling and I think that the idea that training is almost over just has let me realize how tired I really am all of the time.  I am hoping to get a few days at my new site where I can just relax and catch up on some zzz's.  Its getting to be the hot season though, so we will see how that goes.  Showers will be taken often.


I have discovered that Thai people really don't like to walk.  Maybe its because of the heat, but I am not sure.  It seems like they want to jump in a car or on a motorcycle to go somewhere that would be a 2 minute walk.  I find it strange, but it occurs all over the country.  Just thought I would throw that out there - that is my Thai culture for the day.

Anyways, life is still good.  One more week of training, then a week of prepping for site and I'm starting my new job...crazy.  I have been in Thailand for 2 months know.  Sometimes I feel like I have been here much longer, sometimes, it feels like I got here yesterday.  Day to day my experience and the people show me something new and exciting (sometimes gross or scary) and I feel lucky to finally have been able to make it into PC after 2 years of waiting.

Showering with a frog...

February 16th

I never would have thought that I would be happy to shower with a frog.  It turns out that they make very good shower companions.  I get to get clean, and he gets to eat all the ants that are deciding to come out of the wall attempting to interrupt my shower.  From now on, I will welcome any frog who wants to join me in the shower into the room.  I am not a fan of ants, especially while showering, so I find this to be a win-win situation for all of us. This was the first time seeing this frog, but if I see him again, I might just have to give him a name.

It rained today, truly rained, for the first time since coming to Thailand.  It kind of made my day.  We were at a school doing an interview when it started to sprinkle a little bit.  We didn’t think anything of it.  It wasn’t until we started to bike home that it started to really rain…and I loved it.  I was biking through puddles, laughing with the passing cars at my predicament at being on a bike in my riap-roy clothes getting soaking wet and not caring that I was getting all muddy in the process.  It was nice to have that moment, thinking about how much I really do like the rain sometimes, and getting the chance to just experience it for a short period of time.  Needless to say, when I got home, I was covered in water and mud, but who cares…cause I got to take a shower with a frog.  Then, I sat in my room, reading a book, listening to the rain through my open windows.  Now this is a great life.

February 17^th

Ok…I may have liked showering with a frog yesterday, and I may have decided that they are good additions to the shower because they eat the ants for me, but I have officially changed my mind.  It turns out that frogs are only good in the bathroom if you have your contacts in.  If you are wearing glasses and would really like to take them off to shower, it may be a bad idea to have a frog in the room, unless you are sure that they will not move the entire time.  This was the issue I had tonight.  I guess it turns out that the frog kind of likes the confines of our shower area because he has chosen to stay there.  When I went in there after work, I was surprised to see him again, but didn’t mind…until he started moving.  The entire time I was in there, he was leisurely hopping around the room.  I assume he was having fun with the water, but who knows.  The issue with this is that today I chose to wear my glasses.  What if I took them off, showered, and then stepped on him.  Not only would I feel bad for the frog, but gross, they are squishy.  Yuck! So, what do you do in this situation…of course! Shower with your glasses on.  Ugh, I don’t want to be doing that on a regular basis.  I guess they are clean at least.  Moral of the story is…just because something was great once, doesn’t mean it will be great a second time under slightly different circumstances.  Tomorrow, I will check the shower first to see if I need to throw a pair of contacts on. 

…I think I am going to name him Dilbert (after a bear I met in Americorps).

February 18^th

Until I was dancing down the street this morning in a sea of men, women, music, and drinks, I did not know the power of baby powder.  For weeks, my fellow PCers and I have been enduring the hot days, sweaty bike rides, and un-airconditioned rooms (sometimes) without the assistance of baby powder that can be purchased for a measly 30 baht.  Where has this life saver been?  The only answer that I can think of, is that we all thought that baby powder really wouldn’t work to cool you down and prevent some of that sweat from dripping down your back.  In my opinion, I don’t believe I was thinking straight when I thought this, because you see Thai children going to school with streaks of baby powder going down their faces and you see men and women applying it liberally throughout the day.  I should have known that these people were not putting it on just for the hell of it; it really did have a purpose.

So we were going down the road, dancing in the crowd, each of us (the PC peeps of Tambon Bon Heep) dripping in sweat.  My mom came by with some baby powder and put it in someones hands…they decided to give it a try.  I was still skeptical, so I kind of hung back to see how it would go…that is when my little sister came up to me, two hands full of baby powder and slapped her hands onto each side of my face.  I officially had been powdered for the first time.  It was great.  I could immediately tell the difference.  Soon, I had it on my face, arms, and neck…glorious!  Thank you baby powder, you made my life a little bit nicer (3 hours later, I had my very own bottle of it).

Oh, and I got my results of my mock language test back.  When I take my real test I want to be at Intermediate Low.  I currently stand just a little bit below Novice High (so a little over 1 step down from where I should be).  Personally, I am very happy with those results.  I have a few more weeks to practice my Thai before the real test, and I hope to make it to the right level.  If not, I just have some tutoring in my future (fine by me because I was thinking about doing it any way).

February 19^th

So good!!!! My mom bought be a chicken burger from KFC! It didn’t have cheese or bacon (which I love!), but did have lettuce (which I usually don’t like) and way too much mayo, but it was delicious.  Probably the best chicken burger I have had in years.  Even though it wasn’t a really burger and didn’t have my usual condiments (BBQ sauce, cheese, and bacon) it definitely satisfied my craving for a burger for a little while.  They were laughing at me because I got so giddy when I saw something “American” waiting for me at dinner tonight. 

Monday I find out my site and then on Thursday I get to go to Bangkok.  We were told that we have some time to look around while we are there, so I am hoping to get a little shopping done.  I really want to buy a handbag; something in-between the little purse that I brought and my backpack.  Sometimes I need more room than just a purse, but don’t like carrying around my backpack all the time.  Maybe we will hit up a restaurant or two and if we have enough time go see a movie.  I hear that everyone stands up and sings the National Anthem before the movie starts, so that would be interesting to see in person…and the movies play in English (bonus!).  But, we will see how much time they give us.  I think we are only in Bangkok for the night before we head out to our future sites for a visit.

My mom and I finally sat down and talked tonight and actually had a real conversation.  I don’t know if we completely understood each other, but we definitely were able to understand most everything that was said.  It was a lot of fun to finally have some time alone with her to talk.  She is really an amazing woman who can do most everything that she puts her mind to.  Smiles never leave her face and she makes sure everyone else is taken care of before she even thinks about herself.  Occupations that she currently does have, or had in the past are: nurse, tambon representative, hair dresser, weaver, cook (she is amazing at cooking, and the teachers often eat at my house every day – unfortunately I can’t eat much of her food because my stomach won’t take it currently).  She also has held some positions within the village I believe and helps my dad out when he catches fish and in his shop (bike and motorcycle repair).  I don’t know what I am going to do to thank her and my Thai family for everything that they have done for me during my stay here.  I am going to have to figure it out fast…only a month left.

February 21st

I get to find out my site in about 3 hours!!!!!!!!

Here are some pics:

This is at a temple I went to this last weekend.  The Buddah head is in the tree.  It was a crazy cool tree.

This was "served" (maybe) at the monk ordination at my house on Friday.  I thought it was hilarious how it was set up..the pig kinda looks like he's smiling.  My family laughed at me taking a picture of it.

Wot Maha Tot

My mom and little sister dancing in the streets at the monk ordination...yes, I danced too

Happy Valentine's Day!

Written February 11^th:

I was biking down the road today (as always), and when I glanced up, I saw that all the traffic in front of me had stopped.  Now, this is a strange occurrence since I have yet to see a stoplight on any of my bike rides (there are lights in the busier parts of the city), and stop signs are thought of more as “caution” signs as you head into the intersection.  Upon further inspection of the road in front of me, at a distance mind you, was what looked like a large pipe being strung across the road.  It looked like some men were attempting to move a pipe about 1.25ft in diameter from on side of the road to the other…of course, me seeing this just means that I need my eyes checked again.  As I approached the said idled cars, I was forced to slow down and stop myself…not something I like to do on my bike when I’m out for a bike ride after work.  In front of me, was nothing resembling a pipe what-so-ever, instead, there were hundreds of ducks quacking and waddling across the road from one field to another.  I happen to be a person who thinks ducks are cute, so I thought this was the most adorable thing ever.  I think the men in charge of the ducks realized this (I had a big goofy grin on my face) because as I started going on my bike again, once all the ducks were safely across, they motioned me to take pictures…Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me…sad day.  What did this teach me, you might ask?  1. Taking the long way home can be both scenic and give unique “Thai” experiences. 2. Not having a camera on me at all times should be against the law.  Who knows when something picture-worthy will pop up.  3. Smiling is the key to life in Thailand…if you’re happy, smile.   If your angry, smile.  Confused, sad, excited, agitated…smile (ok, I already knew this one, but I thought I’d throw it in).

My mom (host) and I were talking two nights ago and she started to ask me if I thought it was hot…duh! It’s very hot here.  I proceeded to tell her this as she brought out a calendar.  She opens it up to April (the month of the water festival – YAY).  Then she turns to me, points to the calendar, smiles, and says “ron maak, maak” and starts to laugh a little.  I had to laugh too.  I am such a farang (foreigner).  Pretty much, she just advised me that the blistering hot, 90 something degrees that I am experiencing now, has nothing on what is going to kick my a** in April.  Fabulous!  At least I have a 3 day water fight to look forward to.   Translation: “ron maak, maak” = Very, very hot.  It will actually really depend on where I am sent for how hot it will be though.  If I am sent to Isaan, east, or lower north, then it will be very hot.  If I go to the south, I will have more rain, and I will have more wind from the water.  I still can’t decide where I want to go.  I am supposed to give a preference next week.  Hopefully, I will have some time to do some research this next weekend. 

I just want to tell everyone, that teaching was amazing!  I loved all the little girls that came to the class, and we had so much fun playing games.  Today when I was at training, a few of them came up to me and started chatting with me.  It was so nice to see that I was able to have an impact on them (no matter how small) in such a short period of time.  It almost makes me wish I was a teacher instead.  But, that is when I remember that with my job, I can do English Clubs in my spare time and spend the rest of the time doing other things.  I don’t have a set schedule, and I don’t have to plan my vacations around the school schedule…yup, the CBOD life is what is for me.

I got an email from my sister, Denise, asking me about my eating, so I guess I will give an update.  I am eating a little more.  Rice is still hard, along with many Thai dishes that are very fragrant.  I can do most noodle dishes, bread and jam sandwiches, and bananas very well.  Since the closest restaurant to my language class is a noodle joint, I am in luck. 

Karen and I were able to find a scale at the health center yesterday, and decided it was about time to check our weight status since we are about 1 month into training.  Of course, the scale is out in the open, and of course, there were two men waiting to see the doctor.  They thought it was great that we were checking our weight because this is something that is widely talked about in social conversations.  They decided to come over and watch us.  Me, being the slightly bigger girl that I am, was definitely feeling self conscious because I knew that I weighed a lot more than him (he weighed himself too so he could show us his weight).  Anyways, luckily, he didn’t make a big deal about the weights or anything; he just repeated the weight the scale said very loudly so anyone in earshot could clearly know our weight.  Anyways, long story short, after all conversions were completed, I believe that I have lost about 20 pounds since getting here.  Not bad for 1 month. I think the lack of processed foods and biking get to take the credit for that.  I will probably check once more before I get to site, just to see how much I am down from the beginning of training. 

Written February 13^th

My weekend (Sunday) was great.  I woke up at the late hour of 7am and got to sit in bed and read for about an hour before heading down for breakfast (coffee).  Nice ‘n relaxing.  My intentions for the morning were to make a couple of calls out to the states, but I was distracted by two other PCers biking by and I ended up going on a 2 hour bike ride around the Tambons discovering where other people lived and checking out the scenery.  There are definitely a lot more working rice fields now, water is getting more widely distributed, and the land looks amazing with fields upon fields of rice growing at different stages. 

When I got home, Elle and I headed out to a gas station to buy gas (this is after a 10 minute conversation with many people in my family to discover if we had any gas in our shop or not).  Turns out it is very easy to ask for gas to be put into a ¾ liter water bottle.  Who knew?  All you have to do is bike up to the pump, point at the water bottle, and then point at the gas pump…awesome.  (Sidenote: People don’t always turn off there car when they are pumping gas here)  Elle and I proceeded to spend the next hour or so cleaning our bikes, getting our gears clean and re-oiling them up.  They are good as new…sort of.  We ended up on another hour bike ride looking for food finding a place along a main road.  The restaurant was in a building on stilts and you could feel the floor shake every time someone walked around.  The family who worked there was hilarious though and we had a blast. 

When I got back to my house, I proceeded to wash my clothes for the first time.  Now, I use this term loosely, because we are supposed to learn to hand wash our clothes just in case we don’t have a washing machine at site.  Well, my version of washing clothes was putting all of my clothes in the washing machine…The End.  My mom put in the detergent and the fabric softener, plugged it in and turned it on.  44 minutes later, she took out my clothes and hung them up to dry.  Thanks mom!  Hey, I guess I can say that I am at least one step closer to knowing how.  I promise I will get it all figured out in the next few weeks.

Anyways, my dad must have misinterpreted me saying that ‘I was going to lunch’ to ‘I was going to want lunch when I get home’.  While me and Elle were in my room exchanging movies on our external hard drives, my mom came up with some Pad See Ew (YUM!)…we had just eaten less than an hour before.  But, it was delicious. 

We spent the afternoon biking into another tambon to meet up with Megan W to pick up some peanut butter for Ellie.  Once there we headed out to Wat Sana and met up with the most hilarious monk who is Megan’s uncle.  Just for information: monks cannot touch women or accept anything directly from them.  If you want to hand something to a monk, you must first either, hand it to a male, or set it on something and then let the monk pick it up from there. But, there is no rule about speaking to the monk.  They also walk around each morning getting alms.  The people in each village give rice and food to the monks for them to eat that day.  Monks will not eat any food after noon.  So, we entered the wat and hung out with him, sitting on a mat.  He brought out his Thai to English dictionary started talking Thailish.  He got so excited about knowing how to speak English that he would keep talking louder and louder and interrupting us every time he ask one of us a question.  He was such a happy man.  We all left there smiling and laughing (Bonus laugh:  A man who was at the Wat as well accidently left with Chris’ shoes instead of his own.  He was on his way to Bangkok and had to turn around to give Chris his shoes back).

Overall, fabulous day…hot day. But good. 

Somehow, my mom got the idea that I liked pink.  I didn’t come to Thailand with a single article of clothing that is pink (unless there is some on a pair of underwear) and the only thing pink that I have is the pasine that was given to me by Peace Corps.  But, two weekends ago, I come home from training, and my mom presents me with this pink purse that goes over your shoulder and across your chest (one that is easy to carry without holding).  Don’t get me wrong, it is adorable…but pink.  I definitely don’t match when I got out wearing it…actually, nothing matched until this last Tuesday.  That was when my little sister dropped by my language class and handed me a bag that she said was from my mom.  In the bag was a pink t-shirt.  It has a very large picture of a girl with big hair winking.  The shirt if pulled all the way down seems to go half way to my knees.  If I tuck it under itself its not so bad.   So, I decided to wait til today to wear both the shirt and purse together to surprise my mom.  She was gleaming when I walked out of the house in the outfit.  She was so happy and proud…but that wasn’t all.  She reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of earrings.  They were plastic flower-ish type things, and pink.  I decided that I would throw on the pink earrings as well.  Unfortunately, they broke taking them out of the bag so I didn’t get to.  Heartbroken.   I have a feeling that I will be heading to me site with many more pink things than I ever would have thought.  If it makes my mom happy, I’m all for it.

 This picture was taken at a Wat.  This is a HUGE Buddah!

 Maybe by the end of two years, I can do a trick like that

Some ruins from way back when

Randoms...

Today was my "mock" interview for my language test.  Since we have hit about mid-term in regards to our Pre-Service training, our teachers gave us all an opportunity to have an interview just as we will at the end of training, to see where we are at this point.  I think mine went pretty well (not great, mind you), but I will find out the results in just a few days.

 This week is also a teaching week for the CBODers, so I have been teaching a group of 7-14 year olds English with my language class.  It was been a lot of fun. The classes are only an hour long so there isn't much material that we get to cover, but we play tons of games (memory, running around the room, simon says, the slap game, etc...).  There is a little boy in the class who is absolutely adorable, and I can't wait for him to speak every time because her makes each one of us so happy and excited for him when he gets a word.  Tomorrow we are teaching the kids how to ask for help and give it...that will be a fun new challenge.

My eating habits have all gone wonky again.  I may have to finally suck it up and speak with the doctor sometime this week to see what he thinks.  I hardly have eaten anything since then.  Just in case you were wondering, this has been my eating habits:

Sunday:
Coffee
1/2 bowl of noodles
1 bread/jam sandwich

Monday:
Coffee
Coke
5 bites rice
1 bread/jam sandwich

Tuesday:
Coffee
5 bites rice
1 bread/jam sandwich

Wednesday
Coffee
1/2 bowl noodle soup
7 bites rice

I don't know how impressive this intake is...I am not the smallest person in the world, so I would assume that I should be eating more.  The smell of food (almost any food) is repulsive.  The two foods I seem to get down ok are bananas and bread and jam sandwiches (it is sad I ran out of both last night and didn't make it into town tonight).  My stomach hurts when I don't eat and hurts and feels gross when I do.  On the bright side, this is probably definitely helping out my diet and weight issues.  Karen and I are going to try to seek out a scale tomorrow to see if either of us have lost any weight and how much if so.  I will need to look up the conversions to pounds tonight.

Otherwise, life is still fabulous in Thailand.  It seems to be getting warmer each day and I am loving the fan in my room at night.  My mom proceeded to advise me tonight that today was not hot, and that I need to wait until April to really feel the heat, especially if I am placed in the Northeast.  The water festival (Independence for Thailand - I think) in April is going to be a blast though...love it!  Maybe I should buy a squirt gun...hmmm.

Anyways, I should be hitting the books...I have to give a short presentation thing in language class tomorrow and I haven't started figuring out what I am going to say yet.  If I'm going to be able to hit my 9pm bedtime, I'm going to have to start soon. :)

Hope all is well for everyone out there...

If I only had....

Mac 'n' Cheese, life would be grand.  I miss cheese like no other, and I would love to go out and order a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger with extra BBQ on the side.  Alas, these two items are not very plentiful in the beautiful land of Thailand.  Luckily, I spoke with my sister, Heather (my American sister), and she has promised to send me some of those mac'n'cheese packets once I move to site.  You have no idea how excited I am about that.  In other news, I finally found a couple of places that make Pad See Ew!!!! So exited, since this is my absolute favorite Thai dish.  It is different from the states, and there seems to be a lot more sugar used in Thailand for dishes than in the US....I don't understand how they stay so skinny...must be all the hoola-hooping.

Today, I saw Elephants!!! They were awesome!  I haven't had the chance to ride them yet, but they were doing the coolest tricks.  I will post the pics as soon as I get them uploaded onto my thumb drive.  But, just to give you a tid bit of info; there was a baby elephant (adorable!) and he just kept shakin is "little" booty at everyone and dancing to the music.  On of the larger elephants stood on two leggest and had a man do a handstand on his tusks.  It was definitely fabulous.  We also ventured out to a few Wat's and I saw the biggest budda ever.  We did a very cool Buddist ritual while we were there, that I am just so grateful to have the chance to be a part of.  I can definitely say that this has been a very successful and fulfilling Sunday.

Alright, John asked for it.  Here is me in my pasin; holding it up of course.  Dom is next to me.  She is absolutely hilarious.  This is taken right before Culture Day started. 

My host dad.  He is so nice and generous.  These are two of the kids in my family.  The one decked out like it is the middle of winter is my brothers son...guess I have a nephew now.

Aren't these wrapped beautifully?!  Yes, I would say they are.  These are the kanoms that my mom, Chris and I made last weekend.  The green is bananda leaves and the part that looks like twine is actually thin strips of wood.  There is definitely some technic to this.

A farm right across the street from my house.  The farmer actually waters it all by hand using a bucket that is tied to a stick.  He gets the water from the mote surrounding his crops.

Ok, I admit; this is not the best picture of my tan, because I am tanner than this.  But I told Denise I would get out a picture of it and this is the best I can do.  I actually just got my first sunburn yesterday across my neck.  I guess I was hanging out in a field to long with my fellow PCers without any sunscreen on.  It was worth it though.  It was a great afternoon.  I will be using sunscreen from now on though.

Two weeks and counting until I find out where I am going to be heading.  Next weekend I have an interview for placement.  4 days after we find out where we are going we leave on a site visit....can't wait! 

I am so happy I was able to call Heather, Jennie, and Grandma D today!  Next weekend I hope there will be more phone calls in the works...I miss everyone...you should all come visit me.  I'll talk to ya later