Flip Flops and Dresses are not Ideal Hiking Gear

    Our first real trip outside Thailand was a shocker. We didn't know how to say hello in Laotian (In Thai you say 'sawatdeka/khrap (depend on your gender. Girls say 'ka' boys say 'khrap') while in Laotian you say 'sabiedee' which means 'fine' in Thai) and there was bread everywhere!! Thailand eats noodles and rice for their starch so getting a sandwich was a welcome bit of home. Plus, they drove on the right side of the street there and not the British side.
    So here is an all inclusive update of what's been going on here.

• Friday
• Had to go to class at 9. Ajan Boudin showed up with a plushie TARDIS that made sounds. So tempted to steal it.
• Lilith's creepy horse message of the day was "Is the dance floor calling? No."
• Thai airports are about 100x better than American ones. You go through security immediately upon entering, checking in takes a minutes, and there's a Dairy Queen right there. Why can't America be this easy??
• Plus, at the duty free shop, you can buy most alcohols and candies. I bought this fancy smores stuff and have yet to regret it. 
• Had to sit by Lilith on the flight over. Thankfully it was only 50 minutes and I spent a good part of it sleeping. Arrived in Laos somewhat late for once. After getting to the guesthouse we immediately went out for dinner to this cafe Drexler is obsessed with. My dinner was two strawberry smoothies.
• Before we left Drexler divided Deanna and Karen with Karen in Alessa's and Lilith's room. When we got to the guesthouse, their room turned out to be a three person bed with two pillows. A switch was immediately done. 
• Also made friends with a momma cat and was granted access to her kittens. They were so young and tiny!! I regret not taking any pictures of them but three of them looked alike so it would not have mattered. 
• Explored the night market. Walked all the way past it to this abandoned looking temple where I picked up a fluffy friend I nicknamed Sweet Potato.
• Saturday
• We were allowed to sleep in!! Then we decided to visit a waterfall. The only drawback was that the Princesses (this is my nickname for the other half of the group since they require extra pampering) wanted to go to. With us. So we used an evasion tactic known as 'take a super long time to eat breakfast so they'll get bored and leave' which seems to have 100% effectiveness. 
• Alessa has been going up to the Winos and stating she doesn't think I like her. Donna's response was to say "Okay" and walk away. If you're going for some emotional reassurance, don't go to Donna. 
• This is when things got sketchy. We got into one song-tuk (it's like a tuk tuk, but different. So descriptive) which drove half a block to another one where we were told to get out and get in his. Then we drove around the block for him to talk to some people to go back to point B where our driver got out again. Then this girl came up and asked if we were going to the waterfall and asked if she could tag along. Our driver and us said okay so off we went on our hour long ride. There was a closer one but our original driver told us that there was no water there. 
• We found out that she was an English teacher in South Korea and was spending her two week break back packing across Asia. 
• The falls were amazing. You can see how they looked in my pictures post and since I covered most of the excursion there I will not repeat myself. I did go on the rope swing and there is photographic evidence of it. But we basically wandered around for three hours, went swimming in some super cold water for a bit. It was a nice break.
• After everyone returned from their outings we went to the dance performance. Ballet performances are hard enough to understand and this wasn't even the full story. At one point I got that the Monkey General cut off the breast of the Demon ruler's sister and she went away weeping. 
• Went to a fancy restaurant after the performance. Everyone got the set menu except Lilith. Summary: The food there was not that good. Some of it was, like the curry chicken, but they wanted you to combine it with another type of chicken, some fish, and black sticky rice. Niko and I spent a good part of the meal in the bathroom's (which had these funny comics about do's and do not's in Laos. Do: pay respect to the Buddha. Do not: get involved in the drug trade). He had water in his ear and I had eaten fish. Not my brightest moment since I know fish and I don't mix but carpe diem!!
• By the time we left the restaurant I was ready for some serious shopping in the night market. Only to find it closing down. Went to bed grumpy that night. 
• Sunday 
• Woke up still grumpy. I missed the group going to see the most beautiful temple in the world so I wandered around a market, got my retail therapy, ate some crepes and was ready to face the day. All before nine in the morning. For once I knew what it was like to be a morning person. 
• I tried to photograph some of the temples nearby but they required you to pay so I decided to find a free one. My search led me back to the temple from Friday night. I had missed so much. There were monks living there along with a whole temple on the side of the cliff. I did not get to explore there as much as I had wanted but I took many pictures. 
• Returned to the guesthouse for the final time to pack and prepare to leave. Said good bye to the kittens and the mom then I was put in charge of getting Niko. Who was still in bed when we were about to leave. He was sick and when he's sick he sleeps all the time. Lilith, who's half Laotian and this was her first time visiting Laos, spent her time in her room on her computer. Again I wonder why she came on this trip.  
• We arrived at the airport and cleared security and passport control super quick. Our reward was sitting around for an hour and a half waiting for them to let us board. Guess who my seat buddy was again?? On the in-flight meal she was chewing so loud I put my headphones in the ear facing her so I could eat. 
• Donna and I spent the evening in when we got back. We were too wiped out to do anything but go out and eat. We had bread for the first time in a while in Laos but I was so happy to get some rice. I may be going native. 
• Monday
• We had the day off so Donna and I spent it relaxing around the guest house. Until eight that night. That's when all the trouble started. I got really sick and had a fever. The next day I was told that I started clenching and unclenching my hand. I then turned to Donna and said "Isn't this the coolest thing ever??" When she didn't immediately agree I gave her a look that said "What is wrong with you?? This is the best thing ever and since you don't get it, you're a freak" for about a minute. I then pronounced that I needed to drink more water, rolled over, and went to sleep. 
• Tuesday
• Decided not to go to school so I spent the whole day in bed until my fever broke. The cleaning lady was startled when she came in and I rose from my cocoon to greet her. I successfully ate half a slice of toast. Biggest accomplishment of the day. 
• I missed the lesson where we learned how to say 'you have contracted AIDS and are going to die'. 
• Wednesday
• Dragged myself out of bed to class. Had our last lesson out of the book today. Then a review for our final on Friday.
• Had to get up in the middle of class for a false alarm (you would not believe how often we sit around and talk about our bowels. This behavior would not be acceptable in the States). When I got back Lilith shot up from her seat and ran out the door then came back a few minutes later. Really not sure why since she's not sick (we would know if someone is sick, there is no privacy with Drexler involved). 
• Barbara was not back in time to go to Tai Chi so I decided to go to a clinic with Drexler and Niko. I have something very run of the mill but have three different antibiotics to take for it. And they cost 160 baat ( less than six dollars. Why does American healthcare cost so much?!)(One of them looks like mini sandwiches but tastes like cinnamon). It was very awkward talking to the doctor with Drexler in the room. 
• I am not allowed to have acidic fruit juices, dairy products, or some other stuff for a week to help my stomach calm down. So instead of the ice cream I was planning for dinner I got an apple smoothie. Close enough.

Lizard Count: 14              We've had this pair of tok-geh spending the night in our window the past few nights. 

Sorry For Not Updating

    I have been fighting off something since we got back from Laos and tonight it reached it's climax. I will spare you the gory details and say Thailand finally attacked my stomach. I'm wondering if I would be able to make it through school tomorrow.So since I haven't updated in a while I have uploaded some pictures from this weekend to hold you over.

The Laotian night bazaar. They had other goods but just look at all those scarves.

This one didn't like getting her picture taken. Found her at a temple the first night and she wanted to follow me home. I felt so bad leaving her. 

Lao whiskey with snakes and scorpions, plus some other things. 

Sandwiches and crepes for breakfast!!

Went to a waterfall. This was one of the smaller ones along the way to the big one. 

Loved the blue color of the water. 

Really random, especially since it didn't do anything but turn. 

Us attempting to climb up the side of the waterfall. Deanna and I gave up about half-way there and went back down. She was scared of heights and I didn't feel like climbing in a dress and flip flops anymore. 

Because the waterfall wasn't enough there was a bear reserve on the way there. 

The Imperial Palace of the former king. Laos is a communist country which you wouldn't guess seeing as there are rich and poor people next to each other.

Saw a dance about a mythical story where the good guys wife gets kidnapped then he kills the demon that took her (with her monkey army) and then decides she has been unfaithful to him so she has to prove her love. They did pieces from the story because the full tale would have been eight hours long. 

The first temple steps I went up. Then I realized you had to pay to visit this temple and there was another 200 steps.

My second attempt at a temple

Another Buddha footprint. 

This guy scared me. I wandered into a cave at the temple and there he was, looking realistic and crying blood. 

The view from the temple

The way to the temple

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” - Benjamin Franklin

Wow, I am getting bad at updating everyday. Something I forgot to include about Tuesday: Our Thai teacher who lives mostly in Britain loves Downtown Abbey and Doctor Who!! I found this out by asking him how to say Doctor Who in Thai. It's just Doctor Who.

• Wednesday
• So, one of our teachers (Ajan Bubble Butt) is no longer showing up for class due to scheduling conflicts and we're getting a sub instead. She talks in English most of the time, a great change, but she gets hung up on our pronunciation. A bit annoying because she makes faces when we pronounce something wrong. Or maybe it's because I now see her as the new bubble butt. Either way, she's at the bottom of the totem pole of the teachers here.
• On the way back Drexler taught us some bad words. Hehe. 
• When we got back to the guesthouse Karen, Deanna, and I went shopping. Very proud of us for walking to the mall and back. Got a new pair of shoes!! They're flip flops, but unique ones. 
• Talked about the novel we're reading for an hour. Lilith passed out multiple times, but I really wanted to nap as well. I'm almost finished with the book which is way further than we are supposed to have read. 
• Color coordinated correctly for Tai Chi. Barbara and I keep showing up late and she apologizes for both of us in Thai. Especially since one of the ladies always greets us, takes our bags and gives us places to stand. She also tries to give us a ride home everyday. Her name is Ajan Pink (her name sounds like pink in Thai).
• She has started calling me Little One which is a term used for children but I like it. 
• Barbara refused to move another step after we got back and she meant it. I went out for noodles and talked to the Drexlers before I left. When I returned they were still sitting there so I found out some very interesting information. 1) I got to see them interact with each other and it's really cute and funny because she's a mother hen type and he's the same as he is with us, brash (but nice and funny at the same time) as ever. 2) He thinks Ajan BB is a word I'm not putting where my mother can read it. Drexler believes that Ajan BB should not have taken on teaching us Thai if he couldn't commit (he has missed more classes than he has taught). 
• Convinced the Winos to get roti last night. Splurged on a delicious apple smoothie which may possibly become my new favorite flavor. 
• Thursday
• Had two classes today. Because of Ajan BB skipping Monday's class. We finally learned how to say activities but they were kind of un-American. "I like to ride elephants" was one thing we learned. 
• Our second class was with Ajan Pranut, the best teacher here. We learn more than just language like today she explained the soap opera about the big girl and the little girl I mentioned a few posts back. It's actually more like Drop Dead Dive because the big girl and the little girl were in accidents at the same time. The big girl's spirit is trapped in the little girls body. The little girl's parents just split up which is why the mother's brother is taking care of the little girl. A bit more complicated than I had thought. 
• Got insulted by Alessa today when after I asked how to say butt (because the book doesn't say!!) she said "I have an actually serious question." I gave her the stink eye for that one.
• Thai is not a sexual culture like America is. This is best shown by how Americans view breasts as something sexy but Thais see them as where milk comes from. In fact the word for milk is the same one as for breast. Northern Thailand women used to go around topless until some woman came along a long time ago and made them embarrassed about doing this then gave them blouses to wear. 
• Wandered into this on campus museum. Couldn't understand what it was for but it was as fancy as a temple and all in Thai. Almost tipped over a display while I was there. Probably shouldn't go back. 
• After classes Deanna and I went to get a massage. It took a while to find a massage parlor (we were walking around for thirty minutes I believe) and we were promised a discount of 50 baat. We were given 20 off, but that's still better than paying full price. 
• Tried to do laundry while everyone was gone. On the way back from buying detergent I walked past Lilith who made a point of ignoring me. I get the feeling she doesn't want to be friends. It rained twice today. I'm starting to doubt 
• Bit of a problem. The machines usually use cold water because it's less expensive. It's not like you could change what it's going to do anyway since you deposit your clothes in the machine, put in the coins, and it starts going. There's no buttons or visible way to change the settings. Because of the warm water, all my previously white clothes are now a light shade of blue thanks to my blue jeans. 
• Because of the laundry issue I didn't eat dinner early enough and didn't go out until 9:30. I'm almost completely out of money and most places close when it rains. So I decided on a simple roti. Came back and ate it with some fine strawberry wine. It has come to our attention we will be leaving for Vietnam soon and probably will not be able to take our wine with us, so it has to be gone by then. Much wining will be done between now and then. 

Going on our first trip to Laos this weekend. We have class in the morning then we fly out in the afternoon. Except Barbara who is going to Bangkok to meet her son and his kids. She's getting some grandmother time in before Drexler can. 

I found some really funny quotes about drinking here: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/drinking 

I was trying to find one about drinks but this one just fit Thailand too well. 

Deanna vs. her smoothie. 

The apple smoothie with a matching straw. They do that here. 

Me with a cream soda and jello-bits slushy. Yes, that is cream soda flavored and it tastes better than you think.

My attempt at writing 'Hi' with condensed milk.

Karen, myself, and Donna at lunch. That pink drink tastes like sugary Pepto Bismal. Donna made a comment right before this picture was taken so I was trying to keep an eye on here and pose. People criticize Americans for drinking so much soda but these drinks are full of sweet and then they pour condensed milk over it. Not sure how there are so many skinny Thai people.

Lizard Count: 10 

Went For A Ride In The Car!!

    It was really surprising to go to class today. More than it should have been. We haven't had class for only four days and we were with Ajan Boudin for all of them. But it seems four days was enough for our brains to turn off the Thai. We were able to take in new information but a lot of last weeks lessons weren't coming through. Drexler has stopped sitting in on our classes like he used to. Not sure if he believes in us or has decided he has better things to do than watch us fail.
   
    The highlight of today's lesson was when I got curious and started flipping through the textbook during class. I was looking for when we would start learning activities instead of the 'useless' information we are being fed (today we learned body parts and how to tell someone to go to the doctor. Not sure when this will ever come up). I discovered the chapter about helping people. Helping people with what?? Oh, the usual. Heroin, marijuana, alcohol, how to tell someone they have 'contracted AIDS'. These are all words/phrases we are going to learn before the end of the semester. Because they are so important. On the other page was the word for prostitution and just like in the movies the whole class got silent right before I said "Okay, so there's the prostitution" then burst out laughing. The teacher had to ask me what prostitution had to do with today's lesson. Another interesting fact is we did not learn how to say 'butt'.

    Songthaewed it back to the guesthouse. Deanna and Karen went off on an adventure to find pottery but some of us were feeling a bit lazy. Which turned out to be a good thing since they got lost and spent money. The two things you should be afraid of happening in a foreign country.

    Forgot about going to Tai Chi today so got going a little later than planned. Lilith did not join us this time (my prayers have been answered!!) so she will be forced to go to yoga or something else. Barbara is the type of teacher who believes that if we talk to her we will realize she's just shy, not a bad person. This makes me remember she has a Hitler poster in her single at Coe. I don't think we'll be painting each others toe nails and gossiping about boys any time this lifetime. Or the next.

    Tai Chi was really fun today. We had two turtle paced tracks and one slightly faster one!! There was lots of turning and squatting. It was more intense than usual. Apparently they color coordinate everyday. Today was pink, I wore my purple flowy pants. Tomorrow is green. I'm going to be buying some new exercise clothes while here. And they will be color coordinated. We met Barbara's friend who tried to give us a ride back to our guesthouse which is the opposite direction from her house. Her name is Ajan Champuu (Like shampoo. Champuu is the word for pink in Thai). We got to ride in her car and it was the most exciting thing ever!! Because Thailand is like Britain where everything is on the opposite side. And I thought her car didn't have seat belts (the vans we take on the weekend don't. I thought Thai vehicles didn't either) but they were hidden. I imitated a dog going on a ride to the dog park. She dropped us off half-way but Barbara was going to meet a friend for dinner so I got a songthaew and rode it back all on my own. It was scary until some older ladies climbed in and the one who sat across from me had bright pink hair. They said 'hello' and 'goodbye' and it was very reassuring in a weird way.

    Ate dinner by myself, which is something Thais don't do. You never see anyone eating in anything less than pairs so I got some looks but that was probably from shoveling the steaming fried rice in my mouth. For not moving around much Tai Chi makes you hungry. On the way to the restaurant I thought I saw some hookers walking towards me. I realized as they got closer it was just some inappropriately dressed French teenagers. One girl looked like she was in a tube-top one piece swim suit he shorts were so short.

    Having some roommate troubles. Donna has made a joke of calling me a racist which was funny at first but now feels more like an attack. So tonight when I started ignoring her while she told me I was racist she switched tactics. Her new one is 'you stole my pie.' At the middle of nowhere pie place Karen, Donna and I ordered the same pie but they only had one piece left. Karen had given it to me, since she had already had a slice and I didn't know Donna had ordered the same type. I tried giving it to her and made her take the first bite. That's the pie story. So she starts yelling about stolen pie and when I give up on that she starts a story about 'the beautiful princess Donna and the evil, pie stealing witch Lexi.' At this point I left the room. I like talking to Donna, I like rooming with her. Not really enjoying this.

The Winos cross this bridge to get to a park on the other side of the stream. It shakes when you cross it but has been holding on this long. And the stream is really pretty. 

Lizard Count: 9

Going to the Zoo

Double post day!! Again, sorry for not posting this on Sunday.

    We had a late class today so I woke up before seven. I hate going to bed early. The morning was spent hanging out in my room and in the dining room of the guesthouse. I acquired a mosquito bite (I hope that's what bit me) on my arm that looks like a house complete with a chimney and a cloud. I don't know where the guest house got their stash of mosquito repellent but I'm getting real tempted to steal it. I also have a strange bite on the palm of my hand. It's not a mosquito bite which begs the question: What other monstrosity has entered my bedroom??
    Went to school without Drexler and Barbara. Had some lunch then went to the classroom. Turns out Ajan Bubble Butt (the worst teacher we have)(yes, that is our nickname for him) screwed up again. So we had another flunk day. But the class is being made up Thursday morning. Shoot us please.
    Thankfully our driver was on campus so we did not have to pay for a songthaew on our own. So we piled in and came back. But the Winos are never still for long and we headed out to find this mythical zoo Karen and Deanna stumbled upon during one of their walks. We walked for about two or so hours searching for it. If you are good at understanding foreshadowing you have guessed we did not locate it.The walk was nice, we got to see more of the area where were are staying (it's filled with temples, schools, internet cafes, and restaurants) and the walk ended with a slushie.
    But this was no ordinary slushie. This slushies was cream soda flavored with bits of Thai jello (called pipo) in it. And it was lime green. I'm going back for more it was so good.
    After that the day gets rather boring. Eventually I will work up the nerve to go to a restaurant by myself but it almost seems taboo here because I've never seen someone eating alone at a restaurant. But for now I will content myself with random food I get from the 7/11.

Lizard Count: 9

Return of the Jeeti

    We are back from our trip to the middle of Thailand. Not the best weekend trip ever, mainly because of the guy who lead us. He looked and acted a lot like my grandpa about 15-20 years ago. But Asian, and with those super large nineties glasses. He also really liked temples. I do not know what I will do now that I'm not hearing temple speeches multiple times a day. Repeating what he just said was he other noticeable feature. He would talk for five minutes then say "Okay, now I repeat" and keep going. Most of us started wandering around taking pictures while he talked because it was the same as what he said at the last temple.

• Friday (Lampang)
• Drove for a couple hours after meeting our guide for the weekend and promptly forgetting his name, later learned it was Ajan Rieng. He brought an assistant with him but never introduced us. Instead of us all piling into one van we got two this weekend!! 
• Got out at a temple. It was interesting because temples are supposed to have one entrance to the main sanctuary while this temple was open all the way around. 
• There are five parts to a temple
• The main sanctuary
• The secondary sanctuary
• The jeeti (it's pronounced like Jedi but with a t instead of a d)(It is the most important part of the temple)
• The monk's living quarters
• The image of La Buddha
• You have no idea how well that is engraved into my memory.
• Stopped for lunch at this beautiful restaurant where there were little streams flowing through it and some very big koi fish. Plus, the food was delicious. Spicy, but delicious. 
• Our next stop was some ruins. Our guide did not make much sense so all I know is that they are made from a specific stone found in the ground that you dig up and let dry. It looks pretty cool. We wandered around there for about an hour while our guide told us how evil the french were because they had saved the ruins from going under water. Not sure if that's correct. 
• Our guide hates the French and the Chinese. Which is strange since he's half Chinese but he loved to make socially awkward jokes about both. 
• We stayed until the sun started going down. Then we went to our fancy hotel. There was a main area then two hexagon shaped areas. We were in the one with the pool. It was really cold but so much fun!!
• Found a Thai soap opera that's really engaging even through the language barrier. It's about this grown-up woman who has amnesia and sees herself as a little girl. Like, first grade or younger. They switch between the grown-up actress and the little girl. She's living at home with her mother, because her father walked out in the middle of the night, and her husband/boyfriend.
• Saturday (Sukothai, Phitsanulok)
• Had to get up and leave by 8:30 (as we were told multiple times by our guide last night).
• Started out the morning with a bike ride around some ancient ruins. Best thing we have done on this trip so far. The exercise was really nice until I banged myself on the back of the bike. There's a lovely bruise there now. 
• I liked these ruins more than the ones on Friday. They were more intact and had a better story behind them. That or it was the bike riding. 
• After lunch we drove to this museum with the air conditioning in our van not working and the windows didn't open. Not the most fun ever.
• When we got to the museum we were informed we would be on TV. Basically it was a stop for our guide to interview the owner of the museum. Then he tried to get us interested in random artifacts on the first floor. The crew interviewed Drexler for a moment. Most everything was written in Thai so looking around got boring quick and we were excited to go see the shop because there was an aquarium attached to it!! Not really, it was three rooms of fish tanks but close enough.
• We got to the hotel early and went swimming!! With everyone!! Yay. 
• On the way back to our rooms Deanna, Donna and I took the elevator in just our swim suits because we did not bring towels. The elevator stopped at the lobby floor and opened to a bunch of older men who immediately started commenting on our appearance and one whistled at us. A rather traumatizing but funny experience. 
• For dinner we went to this restaurant where you can catch your dinner. If your group orders this dish then it will be thrown to a member of your group to catch with a trashcan lid. I went first and had a successful catch, as did Karen and Donna. 
• Tried some frog. It was really good. We all tried ordering 'Northern food' because no one told us we weren't in the North anymore. Then we tried ordering sticky rice and the guide said no because we weren't in his homeland anymore and we weren't allowed to have outside there.
• Lilith grossed everyone at her table out by hogging the delicious fried chicken, eating it with her fingers, and dipping her spoon (the only utensil that goes in your mouth besides chopsticks) into the soup. I feel Barbara has caught on to her. 
• Sunday
• Made a makeshift funnel cake for breakfast!!
• Went to a close by temple to see the most beautiful sitting Buddha in the world. Turned out that the Buddha wasn't beautiful it was his back drop.
• We also had our fortune's told. There wasn't a good one in the group.
• In Buddhism you make merit by giving food to the monks or donating to the temple or setting animals free. This is why I actively hated our guide by the end. He lead us to a booth that sold captured animals and you paid one hundred baat to free them. There was snakes, turtles (who were also trying to escape the bag they were in), fish and two panicking birds. They were in a cage barely big enough for one. We pleaded for him to free the turtles or the birds but he took two bags of fish and walked off calling us to come with him. The fish didn't care they were in a bag. I bought the birds and set them free. Even though I bought into their system, I still feel good about it. He then tried to justify his buying the fish instead of the birds but my opinion of him had been cemented by this point.
• At this restaurant in the middle of nowhere we stopped at we found out that our guide was the Dean of Chiang Mai University. The second largest one in Thailand. The one we attend. He became a bit intimidating after that.
• Stopped at yet another temple!! The jeeti (the most important part of the temple) was really old so we were forced to admire it. Then we were allowed to walk around after another fifteen minute talk on temples (I swear he ran out of material to talk about after the fourth one and was making up random facts/repeating everything again). This temple claimed to have four footprints of Buddha but they don't make sense. For instance, the smallest one was around five feet long and the biggest one was about ten feet long. 
• Piled back in the van and we were at the guesthouse really quick. Less than 30 minutes quick. This trip did not make much sense.
• We rested for a bit then the Winos went to the Sunday market. I got a pair of purple flowy pants with elephants on them!! And I bartered them down too!! We found a student fashion show going on and watched that for a little bit. The outfits were the strangest mix of Asian and Western.
• We had roti for dinner, for some reason the person making them gave me banana, egg, chocolate, and condensed milk. It was good, but I don't think I'll try it again. We wandered around some more, bought this delicious drink of almost pure white chocolate with a little dark mixed in. Then we found a stand selling noodles for ten baat so I got some. Then a miracle happened: there's a vender that makes fresh cotton candy in Chiang Mai!! And it's really fluffy!!
• After that ominous winds started blowing so we tried to get back before it started raining. We got back wet but not soaked. 

Here's the first temple. The gold tower is the jeeti. It is the most important thing in the temple.

Here is another jeeti at the first ruins we went to. It is the most important thing in the temple.

The biggest Buddha I have ever seen. Some people believe that the image of La Buddha is the most important but no, it is the jeeti. This is from the second ruins we went to.

Some of the people I'm here with. From left to right: Lilith, Niko, our guide/the Dean, Alessa. This temple was at the second ruins. I think it was a temple. 

I loved this fish. He kept looking at me like he wanted to start a fight. 

Me trying to catch the fried vegetables.

The most beautiful backdrop of a Buddha in Thailand.

I freed these little guys!! I was going to keep the cage as a souvenir but was convinced not to since the birds may have left some parasites in it. 

The feet of La Buddha. See what I mean about them not making sense??

Sorry this one is so late, fell asleep while writing it in my new flowy pants!!

Lizard count: 9

Zumba for Old People

    Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! Or, for the other half of the population, Happy Singles Awareness Day!! Today started out good with Niko giving everyone a piece of chocolate. He is becoming better, especially since it's hard to dislike someone who just gave you a chocolate heart.

    Had a hard lesson today. We learned how to say where we're from (because we didn't learn it thoroughly enough the first time) and how to talk on the phone. I wish we were learning more conversation than in-depth Thai. I mean, I think we are going to have to talk more about what we like to do than giving directions or knowing different jobs. Just realized today we have two more weeks of spoken Thai lessons then a week of written Thai before we're done!! Then it's on to survival Vietnamese.

    There was extra time at the end of class so I asked how to say 'prostitute' in Thai. We were given many different ways of saying it from socially acceptable to derogatory and learned how to say 'boy prostitute.' Yesterday I asked how to say 'bubble'. Plus, teacher Pranut told us about how she was shot at once because she looked like her father who was the actual target. She's a lot of fun and it's easy to learn from her. 

    Drexler informed me he was forcing Lilith and myself to go to Tai Chi today with his wife Barbara. We were allowed to go to the guesthouse first to pick her up and change then we went back to the school. Traffic was terrible so when we finally made it they were about half way done. Barbara and I talked about old British TV (I meet so many people who like Are You Being Served?) for most of the trip there. Lilith sat there looking a very pained expression all the way there and back. It was really fun, even though everyone there is probably a grandparent. We were assured that they love young people coming so I will definitely be going back. It's all about working on your balance and breathing so in other terms it's like yoga standing up. But with a lot more movement. So not really like yoga at all but that's how I am describing it. Or maybe it's like Zumba for old people. Definitely going back next week, although Lilith stood there most of the time refusing to follow the movements and afterwards said "It wasn't her thing".  For those who know Lilith at Coe, I saw her wearing ballet flats today, not heels!!

    We flagged down a songthaew right after leaving campus. There were a few other people in it so it was going to be a while before we got back. We were in that damn truck for 40+ minutes. At least. In the mornings it takes fifteen minutes to get to the school from our guesthouse. This songthaew dropped us off on the street next to the one the guesthouse is on. Those trucks have no air conditioning and really tight quarters. In fact it was so tight that my foot accidentally brushed Lilith's leg and she immediately had to wipe away any trace I may have left on her. She looked constipated the whole way back and took off immediately after getting out of the songthaew without thanking Barbara for paying for her. She was also disrespectful to the Tai Chi teacher. We are hoping that her behavior towards people isn't what they remember of our group when we're gone.

    On to a more positive note. We got back too late for me to go grab dinner without locking Donna out of the room so I waited for everyone to come back from the school and we went out for ice cream. It was Valentine's Day today so we felt we deserved something sweet. And we were right. 

    When we got back to our rooms we broke out our wine and had a glass. Not an actual wine glass but each room has two hotel like glasses we used. Karen's and mine looked like white wine (while her's was honey and mine was strawberry), Deanna's was pink (apple), and Donna's was green (cantaloupe). We complained about Lilith and Donna told us the funny story of how at Multicultural fusion orientation, where every African American freshman was, Lilith announced that she hated black people during her introduction. If you ever wanted a stupid idea, here's one of the dumbest ones ever. She has not been invited back since. In order to separate this faction of the group from all of us as a whole I will refer to us crazy ladies as the Winos. Ducklings is everyone, Winos are the fun people. 

    After that we had sing-off through the walls (I was singing "Somebody That I Used to Know" while Karen and Deanna decided to sing the evil Bieber) (In Vietnam we have to perform at a gala. We have two ideas floating around: belly dancing and a mix up of Michael Jackson and Bieber ('I wanna love you' 'As long as you lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me'). These are still works in progress).
The ducklings are going on a weekend trip to some ruins this weekend so no new posts until Sunday.

Here's us eating ice cream. I was finishing off some fried rice with Chinese sausages and didn't wanna smile with my mouth full. 

Lizard Count: 8    Confirmed a sighting when a lizard shaped branch that had been in our window last night and did not move for hours was gone today. 

Cakes of Wrath

    Midterms in Thailand are a lot more fun than they are in America. Well, except for the part where you go

        "Hello, my name is Lexi. I am from America. I am a student at Coe college. There are three members of my family (Thai family means people who live with you). I do not have a father. I do not have siblings. My mother works at the great bank (I have no clue what she does even though she has tried on several times to explain it, so I came up with this). I have six white cats (Since black is easier to say than white in Thai I said black during the exam. Cheating is encouraged here). I like to write. I like to eat sugar (it's funny because the word for sugar is nam taan which is also the word for brown. So I also said "I like to eat brown")."

    Scripted parts are never entertaining enough. After we gave our speeches we had to come up with a new one because none of us described our family members enough. We were like "You taught us this yesterday and you expect us to have it memorized and ready to go??" The teacher said yes. I didn't actually ask him but that's what he would have said if I had. 

        "I have a mother, a grandmother on my mother's side (because there are different words for your father's family members and your mother's family) and me. I am the tallest. My grandmother is the healthiest (more cheating!!). My mother's age is *censored*. My cat is the grumpiest and has blue eyes."

    During the break between classes I managed to get a huge ink stain on the back of my shirt. I feel that the pen has betrayed me.

    Last post I said Lilith's boyfriend broke up with her. Today she was excused from half of our midterm because she told Drexler she was up all night. Later, Donna informed me that she had downed a whole bottle of wine to help deal with her feelings. That's definitely healthy (sarcasm). My guess is that she was more hungover than tired today (I have seen her get pretty loose off of a shot of Amaretto. Really glad I did not see her wining (it's a pun!!)).

    The real fun was when we got to go to a market and buy fresh fruit!! Unfortunately, we were graded on it but yay fruit!! (Theory: Mosquitoes keep biting me. I am delicious. I eat lots of sugar. Mosquitoes like sugar. If I cut down on my sugar intake by eating lots of fruit instead of sugar I will not get bit as often!!) I bought two rose apples and then the teacher said some dreaded words "Would you like something else??" I stupidly said yes and promptly forgot almost everything except "What is this??". I ended up with a half kilo of mangosteens after failing to get some grapes (they're really expensive here). After that we were allowed to wander around the market, because we had never been there before, and buy some more food. As we did this I noticed the teacher was still writing things down when we ordered. We were still being graded!!

It did not really matter because most of us bought random food stuff regardless (I got this really good strawberry cake in a cup with gummies on top. I wish I had taken a picture but oh well. But then I bought some 'steamed cakes'. Worst food purchase thus far. They have no taste and have quite an odour to them which is really bad because the container they came in doesn't close once it's opened. The teacher told me they were good but he lied). 

Then we headed back to the guest house where Donna and I promptly fell asleep. We ate at an ice cream place that also has food. It was really good, pricey, but really good. When everyone left to go to the school I passed out again. I swear there was some rustling in the trash can at some point but refused to go in the bathroom for a half hour so there may have been a jing jhock but we will never know.

Here is a mangosteen. It's in season right now but don't eat the red part, only the white stuff. 

These are the evil steamed cakes. Had to hold my breath while taking this. They are cut like little hot dogs turned into octopuses. Cute, but I still don't want to eat them. 

Lizard Count: 7.5 for the possible sighting

I Have a Dream!!

Sorry this is such a short post. Not much happened today and I had to spend some time memorizing answers for the mid-term tomorrow. I will know a whole bunch of random Thai when I come back. I feel there should be more since I just reached 500 views on the blog today. 

• No Drexler
• Papa Duck had left the previous night to fly to Bangkok and meet up with his wife. An excellent cover story for escaping us for a day. We got ourselves up and on the way to school and back in the afternoon. So not much of a change there. 
• Mid-term scare
• Our midterm is taking place tomorrow and it's different from what we thought it was going to be. We were told by Drexler we were going to the market and were going to haggle for fruit. Turns out we have to answer questions (about stuff we learned today) and possibly read a paragraph.
• Another brain frying day. We had two classes again and at some point our brains reached full capacity. The nice thing was we had the great teachers today so at least we got what we were supposed to. I think we learned eighty or so vocab words today, but it's probably more. We have been studying Thai for three weeks and today we reached page 100 of the textbook. 
• Our second teacher asked us what our dream jobs were one by one but skipped me. So I asked her why she did not want to know my dream. Originally I was going to say writer but Lilith wants to be a writer (today's creepy horse message was "Bring me all the people and I will make sure they are burning." Don't think I want to see anymore of her work) too so it got changed to dressmaker. I felt like getting up and singing "I Have a Dream" from Tangled. 
• Post review session
• Drexler and his wife Barbara arrived safely but she was wiped. Drexler went to the school tonight. When everyone returned we had a review session (except Niko and Lilith because her boyfriend broke up with her today. Most of us had to take a moment to go "You had a boyfriend??"). Everyday I am thankful Drexler is here to help us, because otherwise we'd be flopping around like fishes out of water.
• Went on a bun run with Deanna. It's a good thing Karen didn't come because there were plenty of rats running about. On the way back I looked down to see a cockroach with extremely long antennae head up in a crack on the sidewalk right in front of me. It looked like it was swaying in the wind and jump scared me so much I walked around it instead of over it. 

"Found" something awesome to put here

Disco Buddha!!!

This is from the Burma trip, they put weird lights around there Buddha's over there. 

See that hose next to the toilet?? That's what Thai people use instead of toilet paper. At one point, after some people had tried it, we realized it may be used for something else, much to their embarrassment. But no, it's a butt hose. We even have a song parody set to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" about it.

In the bathroom, the bug filled bathroom the butt hose leaks tonight

In the bathroom, the bug filled bathroom the butt hose leaks tonight

Use it-t-t-t-t-t-t a drip drip drip drip

Use it-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t a drip drip drip  

Lizard Count: 7

The Man with the Dapper Tie

What promised to be a bland day turned had a lot of little surprises. Unfortunately, these surprises were not the good kind but more of a pain in the butt type.

• Class at one
• It didn't matter because I was up before seven itching my new batch of mosquito bites. I can't find repellent so I've been using the guest house's spray but I feel that they're going to take it away from me at some point. 
• Tried to do laundry this morning. I had asked Drexler for a place to go to. Here are the directions I got, "Go down the road to the temple. Find the music store or school then the wall of orange flowers." Sounded more like a secret entrance to Narnia. What I thought was going to be a person I left my laundry with in the morning and picked up at night turned out to be a washer and dryer, so the plan failed and I carried around my smelly bag for nothing.
• Brain dead
• We had the teacher who thinks that if he says a Thai word loud and slow enough we will magically understand it. So we end up mentally tired and having to relearn the last two hours later. I'm going over what we learned today once I'm done with this post.
• The interesting thing we learned was that seven pm is one drum hit and eight is two drum hits because people would go around hitting drums to tell the time in the evenings.
• I noticed that on the back of his tie there was a tag that said 'dapper'. He does dress very fancy.
• Long ride back
• Today we heard about how Alessa's dad owns a kilt. But not one of those modern ones, the real deal. I have often wondered if I could fit out the windows of a songthaew, but never more so than today.
• Laundry
• Used a washer to run my clothes. Drexler said these places with a washer/dryer are less expensive than paying someone to do it so there goes part of my money towards buying detergent. 
• Very proud of myself for walking there by myself and not getting mugged on the way. This should be an accomplishment. 
• Went back an hour later to pick it up and decorated the bathroom with all the clothes!! Donna was so excited by it when she came back. I have the bad feeling she's going to be too half-asleep in the morning to realize they are there and shower with them.
• The rest of the day
• Drexler flew down to Bangkok to escort his wife up here. She will be staying with us for the rest of AT. I've met her a couple times but she seems really sweet. And will hopefully stop Drexler from telling mean stories about me and cats. 
• Went over to the market for dinner. There were three TVs with the same show on right next to each other. From what I understood, these two men hid a cursed jade gem in plain sight. So one of the girls who looked exactly the same found it and suddenly turned evil. Cut to two girls in a cave. Back to a high speed chase between cursed girl and the two men. Then some guy died and they were all at the scene of the crash. 
• Played banana grams tonight with Donna, Karen and Deanna.
• It's like scramble but you try to finish making words before everyone else to win. No points. And Donna wins every time.
• We spent far too long discussing our teacher from today. How American girls would kill for a butt like his, whether he is gay or not, and how we can't understand him most of the time.
• I really need to think up a nickname for this group since I write about this section of the group more than the full part. 

Lizard Count: 7

Love Me Some Pie

Back from Burma safe and sound. It was a long weekend in the van but there was copious amounts of shopping.

• Friday
• 8:30 departure time
• We all fell asleep for the first hour. No amount of twisting or sudden stops could have woken us up. And there was plenty of both. Deanna and I started making bets on how long before the driver killed us. We gave him ten minutes. Apparently he knew what he was doing because we made it back fine.
• Smelly Bazaar
• Our first stop was a bazaar centered around a natural hot spring with a geyser. That smelled like rotten eggs. And you had to pay to use the restroom. But at least there was toilet paper in the stalls.
• Pie
• Stopped at the "best pie place ever" according to Drexler. And it lived up to it's reputation. I had a chocolate pudding tasting slice. I couldn't finish it. 
• Watched Lilith fight with a bee for her cake. She hates insects so she literally flew from her chair to get away from it. Then thought swearing would shoo it away. The bee cared more about the cake. 
• Tea Plantation
• The beds were on wheels. 
• There was a TV in the room so Donna and I watched some Thai shows. It was mostly soap operas. Really odd soap operas. 
• I think most of us were really happy there was toilet paper and a flushing toilet.
• Market
• Went over to the market where we encountered some hard sellers. As in, when you came within five feet of their stall they swarmed you showing off all sorts of weird things that they sold. And they were in a compact area close together which made escape difficult since once you got away from one showing you owl key chains there was another one shoving pill boxes in your face. Not even Drexler could escape them. 
• There were some dogs running around. Since I feel deprived of animal love I pet almost every animal I encounter. Drexler likes to make up stories about me and the animals, especially ones were the cats turn on me. I wasn't worried about petting stray animals until Donna told this story about a friend of hers getting mange from her new dog. Since then I have been more careful about which animals I touch. 
• Saturday
• Left the plantation
• More driving!! 
• Stopped at the market from last night to pick up anything we did not get the night before. I bought a color changing tea straining mug with a dragon on it. Can't wait to test it out!!
• Arrived at an even fancier hotel (Drexler warned us not to get used to such nice places).
• Such soft beds and pillows!!
• Walked to Burma
• It's a fifteen minute walk from the hotel we stayed at to the boarder
• Customs is pretty easy, they are just a little picky on some things
• Burma
• We were immediately ambushed by people trying to sell stuff. The funniest were the cigarette sellers. One told me "I love you" and walked off. 
• Everyone we had talked to previously had gotten us super excited to shop in Burma. But we were let down. Nothing really stood out to us or if it did we weren't sure if it would fit or work in America 
• Almost bought Game of Thrones season one for six dollars before realizing this
• Just looked it up, we do not
• Donna made off with a $200 wallet she bought for $60, the rest of us were not so lucky
• Although, I did get some crazy leggings 
• We walked around the huge market there for two hours but nothing really interesting or memorable happened while there. Except we were in Burma. It would have been nice to do something else while there.
• Post-Burma
• Came back and took a nap for a long time. 
• Drexler took us all out for ice cream around eight. 
• While we were looking for some place to go we passed a moving pet shop full of fluffy dogs
• Drexler said no before I could ask to keep one
• Since Deanna and Karen had hit the market before Donna and I went to the night one. There was a live show that we caught the end of (not that it would make any difference since it was in Thai). Donna is an excellent shopper and got a couple good buys. I was not so lucky because my shirt is way too small and short. 
• I did get two bags of cotton candy which made the night better 
• Sunday
• Wine
• Wine is inexpensive in the city we were in but there was no one open last night so some of us were trying wine before nine in the morning 
• I got apple and strawberry, which are both incredibly sweet
• Breakfast
• The fancy hotel did not offer breakfast so we loaded up before nine and drove to the golden triangle. We could see the banks of Burma and Laos at the restaurant we ate at.
• More Pie!!
• We stopped at the pie place on the way back. It was really busy there and breakfast was so filling we only had pie. I was given the last piece of chocolate mud pie by Karen and it was delicious. 
• Bazaar
• Deanna had seen some whacky flowy pants on the way up when we stopped at the bazaar so she asked Drexler if we could stop again. He said no and it broke her heart. However, he told the driver to stop on the way so she and Karen got their flowy pants. They look comfy. Plus, the waist band is really stretchy so the pants would be good for a pregnant woman. 
• This bazaar was right next to the first one, complete with hot spring. So I stuck my feet in the hot water and it felt so good.
• Market
• After we got back to the guesthouse Donna passed out so I went off to the Sunday Market. It was early and not incredibly crowded like usual. We walked around a lot, about a mile I think, but it felt good after being cooped up in the van all day
• Had some chocolate waffles for dinner

And that's the highlights from this weekend. 

Lizard count: 7 

Another Plot Twist

    Sorry to report another uneventful day, but there was a few fun parts. I feel this post could have been better but I'm being boring these past few days.
    Woke up at 8:06. I am now determined to buy a watch or something so I can wake up and not lay in bed for a while contemplating life. I have also asked Donna to make noise in the morning or turn on lights to help me get my butt out of bed. Had to send laundry to the guesthouse again. Forgot to put stuff in so some hand washing was done tonight. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Sort of.
    Because I'm no longer going to the English school, Drexler is 'recommending' I go to the university's yoga club. By recommend I mean force. I'm sure many people are going "Oh, that sounds fun." And you're right, it does, but I have to go with the other anti-social person on the trip: Lilith. I am hoping she decides not to do it or that I find something better to do but I really want to do an activity with different people my age. Actually meet people at the school.
    Had four hours of Thai lessons today. We were all completely brain dead by the end of it. And we can't remember most of the first lesson. Mainly because Ajan (title for a teacher in Thai, like Sensei in Japanese, only Ajan goes before the name) Sakorn does not get how to teach us. He thinks if we say it once we have it and can immediately start using the new fifteen words in complicated sentences. We actually learned about thirty words from his lesson and forty-plus in the next one. Plus grammer. The three cups of coffee today were really helpful until I started bouncing in my seat. That's when I cut myself off.

Warning: There is whining in the next paragraph

    More creepy messages from Lilith's talking horse doodle today. She told us that she gets all these from a tumblr account called Crazy Horse(?). I also don't think she gets what all of them mean, because the horse's first message today was "Pumpkin Jokes.PDF". Really confused on that one. She erased that and had the horse say "Becoming a bounty hunter is not easy but I am here." I can see these two coming from a tumblr account, though they make zero sense to me. She then drew a dog and gave it this dialogue "Timid little girls she never put fairies on the summer gathering place for the Nazi elite." I'm really getting freaked out by some of her messages and was very thankful when Ajan Pranut (our afternoon teacher today) erased them.  Another thing that is starting to become gross is Alessa. I'm not sure what she's not doing, but she smells really bad. Like, if you walk by her, not even in close proximity, you can tell. My theory is that she's not washing her clothes, because I'm noticing that there are stains on her shirts that are not changing in the slightest. Or she's not showering. And we're going on a six hour drive in a compact van tomorrow. I wish I had bought some duck tape. She likes to go on and on about subjects no one else cares about. And the worst part is that she knows we're not listening to her but she's used to doing this so it does not bother her. Meanwhile the rest of us are thinking "Shut up about *insert random Alessa topic here*. You're being really rude." Okay, I will not put you through anymore of this so on to more fun subjects.
    I have been trying to put off buying the third Hunger Games book so that I can wait until I get home to find out what happens. Alessa had bought a book of short stories by H. P. Lovecraft with her that I borrowed after Niko was done. After reading a few of his more famous stories (The Call of Cthulu, The Rats in the Walls, and The Picture in the House) I have put the book down and keep forgetting to return it.
    We have another exciting announcement!! We are going on a visa run this weekend to get another 30 days. But not quite. The government only gives 15 for land boarder crossing. When you fly over the boarder you get 30 days. So, in order to spend the correct amount of time in Thailand, we are going on two trips to Laos instead of one!! This means that the chances of going to the Thai cooking school is becoming slim.
    The rest of the day was uneventful. Had some alone time in the room today when everyone left for the English school. Went to my favorite restaurant with Donna and tried out a cream bun. It had a warm custard or pudding on the inside and was surprisingly sweet. Leaving for the Burmese boarder tomorrow. We're staying on a tea plantation over the weekend. I'm going to invest in a pair of flowy pants and lots of tea. Many people have recommended buying illegal Chinese DVDs while there. America shares a Blu-ray region with Thailand so if I bought one it would still work.
Since I'll be gone for the next few days there will be a super post on Sunday night (my time) after I go out for ice cream. Going to stop at a pie place tomorrow because according to Drexler the best pie in the world is there but it's located in the jungles of Northern Thailand.

Lizard Count: 7

Thai Flunk Day

    Sorry this post is up so late, I went to bed early (more like my head hit the pillow and I was out for a few hours) and now can't go back to sleep for a bit. So, I wrote this!
    Going to start with after I wrote the post last night. I had a Skype date when I made a new friend: CAKE BATTER!! She is a pregnant cat who I have never seen before and loves attention. I'm calling her Cake Batter because she's a strangely pretty mix of yellow and black with gold eyes. And it reminds me of her namesake. After I got off Skype I tried to go to my room but she was like "If you're going in there, I'm going in there too" and I was told her that Donna would kick her out. She eventually got bored of me and sauntered off into the night. I have not seen her since but we had a bond, so I'm sure she will pop up soon.
    Had an early Thai class this morning, which to me means nine. Because we have to be up, fed (it takes forever for food here), and ready to go at 8:30. Which isn't that easy when you wake up at eight. And your roommate is hogging the bathroom (I was still passed out when she went to shower but she told me that she considered waking me up so I could use it before her. She's so sweet sometimes).
    Got to the classroom, no teacher. Waited for about 15 minutes, no teacher. Called one of our three teachers who got back to us saying the teacher who we were supposed to have didn't realize he was supposed to be teaching so we reviewed for an hour and went off. The only problem is that we were stuck at school till one with nothing to do and three hours to do it in. So all the girls decided to take a nap in the park. Unfortunately. The situation keeps getting worse between the two halves of the group because the other half refuses to acknowledge how annoying they are and we are sick of hearing about anime and being a small percentage Native American. And just being creeped out by Lilith (I have mentioned before that Lilith gets motion sick. So today instead of getting in the front seat like she's supposed to she climbed in the back of the songthaew with everyone else. The whole time I'm praying in my head "Don't throw up everywhere, don't throw up everywhere" because she started looking sick about half-way through the trip back. I really do not understand her logic).
Found out that our missed class today will be made up tomorrow. So instead of getting to sleep in we have four hours of Thai tomorrow.
    Tried to find someone to do my laundry today. Spoiler: I tried to find someone. I basically ended up carrying my really heavy bag of laundry for about an hour with Karen and Deanna (they offered to take it but it smelled). Drexler gave me directions to a street full of laundry people but they made no sense to me so we wandered in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, I am in desperate need of clothes for this weekend's trip so I'm sending some essentials to the guesthouse. I'm really trying not to make a habit of doing that because it is rather expensive.
    Had roti (Thai crispy crepe) for dinner. A chocolate sauce with chocolate powder one to be exact. With condensed milk on top. I eat so healthy sometimes.
    Did not go to the school tonight. I really liked interacting with other people but it's not enjoyable. I forgot to mention how one student, who spoke English, gave Karen and I some cooked corn on the cob, which was great because I had napped until the last possible minute and had not eaten dinner yet. But I think I'll get some human interaction somewhere else. Drexler is forcing Lilith to go to yoga or meditation (it's so nice she's paying all this money to go to another country to sit in her room on the computer all day.) so I might get in on that. And it will give me time away from everyone here so we don't get on each others nerves.
    While everyone was gone and I was left alone in the room, I obviously had to use the bathroom at some point. So I went in and turned on the lights. And something started rustling in the trash can. All of a sudden a jing jok (chin choke) ran out and behind the toilet, making the oddest flop flop flop sound when it moved. So I made a choice. To be brave. When I had finished and was washing my hands I heard it flopping and turned around. It was on the toilet staring at me and I flew out of the room, locking it behind me. When Donna came back, she was disappointed not to see it.
    Woke up after itching like crazy. I have acquired more bites and they are huge, kinda painful and super itchy.Took a shower and reapplied the eucalyptus balm, which is really helping. I'm going to try to get away with wearing jeans instead of my pencil skirt tomorrow so that people can't see the bites and I won't be tempted to itch them. Going to pick up some repellent tomorrow. It' really odd how most of us are getting bitten on our legs/feet when we're asleep, wearing pants and under the covers. I'm starting to think Thai mosquitoes are ninjas.

This is a jing jok. And I hate them. The small ones are cute, but not when you are alone.

Lizard Count: 7

A Boring Day

So since I got in at 11 PM, this post is going to be a little short but with a lot of pictures.

• Awkward Breakfast
• My morning started with Alessa and Niko telling me all I've ever wanted to know about abortion. Best breakfast conversation I have ever been forced to listen to. In fact, it was so great I told Drexler that I wanted to ride in a different songthaew to school. 
• Thai class
• Today was a review day which was great because we fail. But according to the teacher we are pretty good. I think he's trying to protect our feelings.
• I  ordered pumpkin and orange again today. He really doesn't understand that at all. I also tried to buy a gold ring from him but both of us got so confused that he told me he would not sell it to me.
• Bubble gum drink
• Found this tasty pink drink at the cafeteria today. According to others who tried it it's like Pepto Bismal with sugar. It's so good but why does it have to be pink?!
• My poor skirt
• There are two choices for the school uniform: a pencil skirt and a flowy one. I have two pencil skirts. And now I am down to one. While going up the stairs today the back of my skirt ripped to just under the zipper. And the zipper isn't that far down on the skirt. 
• Came back and went to bed
• Napped from about two till five instead of doing my laundry or buying fruit to keep in the room. 
• More school
• Tried the Thai school again. It was about the same as last night. I might go again next week but it would be more fun to start doing yoga or tai chi. Or getting a camera and photographing some of the nearby temples. 
• Night bazaar
• After class Karen, Deanna, Donna, and I went to a night market. It was really far away. Not much really happened there.

Here's me with the elephant!! That's actually a baby.

First day of classes. It was graduation time then and the whole campus is decorated, which is why there is a random swing with decorations on it. 

Random night at the hawkers (I have no clue how to spell it) market with Donna.

Here's making bricks at the Buddhist camp. You had to pull the lever to smush the mixture into brick shape.  It kept getting harder and harder to pull the lever so that's when jumping on it had to be done.

Lizard count: 6

I Think This Post is Mostly Pictures

    So we've almost been here three weeks. And tensions in the group are running high. The next few months are going to be really fun (sarcasm heavily implied here). Where we are going and what we will be seeing are going to be amazing, no doubt there, but the six hour car trip there is going to be a whole other story.

• Almost got to sleep in!!
• Except my internal clock wakes me up at 8. And we weren't leaving until 11:30. Bit of a disappointment. 
• Learned the colors!!
• When I have more energy I will take a picture of our text book, but basically it's trying to teach us colors like we are a dog. By this I mean the Thai word for a color is next to a white/gray/black circle. Not the most effective teaching method I have found.
• Lilith revealed her true colors!!
• So today Niko and Alessa went off by themselves to eat. Which meant Lilith followed the rest of us around. And listened in on our conversation about how we are not fond of Alessa and Niko. When we arrived at the classroom, she was putting the final touches on a doodle of a horse on the white board. Then she had the horse saying "sometimes you get mad and often speak words" which we all realized was directed at us. And it came straight from the horses mouth. 
• Unfortunately, I can see Lilith being bashed more and more on here as this trip goes on. It's really hard to live with someone who seems to hate us all but forces us to be around her. The only good thing so far is that she has not talked about wanting to kill us all because we aren't of the Aryan race. 
• I think I forgot to mention she's a Nazi. Who hates black people. 
• And we get to meet some of her relatives when we visit Laos. I think I'll just go to the hotel and hide under the covers.
• Started volunteering at a school!!
• Previously on this term, people have volunteered at a English teaching school for the few weeks we're here. Drexler took us over and left us. Niko took the computer class, Karen took the intermediate class, Donna and Alessa took the super beginners class, and the beginner class was left to Deanna and me. Literally.
• The teacher who was supposed to be teaching did not show up so the other teacher who teaches the class tried to dump them on us. They do not speak English, we do not speak Thai. It was a train wreck. We even tried talking to the 'principal' (who I swear was on something) to get him to make her teach. He did not. Eventually one of the students got the teacher and she took over till the main teacher showed up and took over.The way the classroom worked was pretty confusing. Deanna and I were pretty ticked the rest of the two hours, but that's mainly because we were hungry. I also threw in a few curses at Drexler for abandoning us. 
• So we sat there as they taught and tried to figure out how to teach like the regular teachers. Because after our group shows up the teachers suddenly fall sick and we are forced to take over the classes. 
• We're going to go for the next few days (because Drexler said we could do it everyday for the next five weeks. My opinion: heck no we aren't!!) to get a real feel for it. But from what people were saying afterwards I doubt all six of us will continue on for long.
• As we were leaving, Deanna and I started telling people about what happened in our classroom. Niko felt inclined to tell us we sucked and that we should have gotten him because he has taught English all over the world without speaking the language. Because he knows everything and could do everything and blah blah blah. I really wanted to shove him into on-coming traffic. 
• Crossed the interstate!!
• Had a few near misses. 
• Still have all my limbs. 
• Almost lost my shoe.
• Jumped into a moving songthaew.
• Got really freaked out when the driver took back streets all the way back to our guest house.
• Rewarded for our bravery!!
• Papa Duck (or Drexler as he's known to most people) took us out for roti, which is basically Thai crepes. I believe all the girls got chocolate with cocoa powder while Niko had banana and chocolate. 
• I am not a Justin Bieber fan. Niko is a Justin Bieber fan and tried to convert me. Or at least make me stop saying Justine Bieber (the first time I heard Bieber I thought it was a lesbian singing). Really had to stop myself from 'accidentally' pouring my hot tea on him. He went on for a long time until he realized I had tuned him completely out in favor of the Thai/Japanese soap opera that was on. 
• I think I understand Niko's distress. Many people believe Niko is a girl who identifies as a boy but is still physically a girl. Many teachers address him as a girl and people have asked us away from Niko if he is physically a boy. 
• Lilith did not get any roti because she decided to stay in her room the whole day. 

Here's some pictures from last week:

 

Us playing cards between classes. Clockwise: Me(against the wall), Niko, Alessa, Donna, and Lilith

Dance lessons. And a full shot of me in uniform. Thai dancing does not require a lot of movement so it can be done in a pencil skirt. Left side, front to back: Deanna, Me, Donna, Lilith. Right side: Dance teacher, Karen.

After dance lesson we were taken out by an administrator. For most of us, the khao soy (cow soy) was too hot to eat so she ordered us some really good ice with coconut milk. However, there were these weird green and white tasteless worm things made out of flour but with the texture of a gummy worm in it. This is my reenacted reaction to them. It was really weird, okay?? How often do you find weird green things in your food??

Here's Karen and I at the elephant farm. I had been posing with an elephant but it's trainer decided to grab some money right before this was snapped and I turned to look for it. There is another picture of me being smelt by an elephant but the person who took it has not given it to me yet. So for now I look like Cousin It while Karen gets a perfect shot. 

In retaliation, I upload Karen making one of her goofy at the camera with a scorpion.

It's right next to her head. That weird brown spot to the left of her face. It's seriously there. Here's a close up.

Lizard count: 6      They came back to us!!