new experiences in the last 5 days:



1. seeing buddhist monks close up (but not too close since i'm a woman)

2. eating food so hot i thought i would get a hole in my tongue (really not exaggerating)

3. eating a salad so hot my mouth burned and my nose ran

4. eating spaghetti with a spoon. i had a fork, but in thailand you don't put the fork in your mouth, you just move food around with it.

5. corn-flavored yogurt. i didn't actually try this, but i'm sure that the picture on the container was of corn! maybe next time i'll feel more adventerous.

6. some new tropical fruits-sala and longan. they are tasty, if some work for a little bit of flesh.

7. being woken up 5 times in the night by some sort of dog turf war. i'm pretty sure the alpha male of the winning pack was wearing a collar, but not the others.

8. about 12 different kinds of banana snacks, including bbq flavored banana chips. most didn't actually taste like banana.

9. about 500 high school students doing aerobics at the same time. and the principal. apparently there was going to be a "marathon" (i think pretty short), but it got canceled because it started pouring.


i still didn't take any pictures, although i will. soon. then you can see. its actually quite similar to central america in terms of climate and lushness. and random dogs all around (i saw 2 cats yesterday). not too many mosquitoes yet, thank god. it rains pretty much every afternoon or early evening. heavy, heavy downpours with lightening and all. yesterday it had that sort of yellowish look you sometimes see in tornado weather but i think it was just because it was clearing up in the west and the sun was setting.



next week is midterms, then a midterm break. a little vacation i guess. maybe i will go for a little trip, i'm not sure if i will have any responsibilities or not (i think not). there are a few other americans here, and i made friends with a korean guy who knows english and thai pretty well. so i won't be by myself! and kim knows where we can go to see the harry potter movie in english! i think it opens here on thursday.



now, i am apparently going to play badminton. or watch. i said i would watch, i hope they don't expect me to play since i have no idea what the rules are or really how to hit the thing. they don't understand this is a game you only play at picnics and don't take seriously.