An Unhelpful Guide to Asia: Aquafuma

Another first day of school. Thought those would be over once college started. This school doesn't have uniform so we have to figure out outfits every morning again. A difficult task when done before eight in the morning. Sometimes they pick us up early but we still have to be ready to go since they can't just sit around waiting for us. This is going to be our schedule most mornings. Missing Thailand like crazy.
There are about twenty students for the seven of us from Coe but each of us have a host sister/brother we will spend a minimum of two nights with. My girl's name is Mai, I think. They knew who they had before we arrived and we went in blind. The first girl I talked to said she had me but it turned out to be Alessa. Another girl scared me a bit when she started telling me how much she loved my name and named fictional characters in her video games it. This girl then bonded with Alessa over their weird obsessions. My host sister seems very sweet, she bought me sweet things to snack on during the day (a burrito with coconut and sugar cane inside it and then tofu with sweet water. The first one was better) but also very touchy. This may be an aspect of Asian culture that makes me uncomfortable as an American. It's common for Asian men and women to walk around holding hands but I freaked out when anyone of them invaded my space. Then I observed Mai literally hanging on her friends and calmed down a bit.
Their campus is imtimidating. University of Chiang Mai was big but it was easy to get around and there was room. This campus is actually multiple campuses in one area, including a high school. We are supposed to eat in the cleaner cafeteria even though 1) the food really isn't that good and 2) there is a cat I've named D.R. Scoundrel. Get it?? I tried petting it but it decided I was a chew toy and scratched up my hand so bad I still have marks almost twelve hours later.
First lesson of Vietnamese was awful. During our break most of us put our heads down on our desk to take a quick nap because we were falling asleep in class. The teacher doesn't know how to speak English very well and has given us all Vietnamese nicknames because she doesn't want to learn our real names. She lacks a sense of humor which makes this class basically unbearable. Add the fact she freaks out if you mess up the tones (which are different from Thai tones and much more complicated) and I see me asking my host sister for help because I don't want to spend much time with this woman. The Drexler's have never understood Vietnamese so they're no help for the next few weeks. Maybe she was just stressed out because this was the first lesson, or maybe it was because the lesson was three hours long, so I will try not to fall asleep tomorrow but it may take a shot of espresso to help.
Wandered around with Karen and Deanna for a couple hours after we got sandwiches for dinner. They sell sandwiches everywhere here, usually with pork. This sandwich did not have pork. Deanna guessed it was imitation crab and some other ingredients I didn't want to know what they were. Bought a dress while we were out. I don't really need it and I don't have money to throw around but after today I felt some retail therapy was in order. After I bought it I realized I will be spending some time on motorcycles here and wearing a dress on one is not a good idea. Put a band aid on Donna's and mine relationship, I really have a hard time staying mad at people even when I have a legit reason to be. Found a very interesting children's cartoon which I definitely want to watch again and find out the name of. I believe it was a Canadian cartoon but I'm not 100% sure.
My host sister gave me some homemade chocolates as a welcome gift. She is the most talented individual I have ever met since she told me the fillings were cream but the first one I bit into was half chocolate half green tea powder. The second one had bits of cherry in it and the third was coffee flavored. All of them are delicious but I will probably be up late now thanks to that third one.
I'm testing out the "Lost Count" in place of the lizard count. Or I may start counting how many times I hear jing jocks (which is twice). Or how many times I fall asleep in class, though I don't think my mother needs to know that number. For now it will be the number of times I get lost.
The title comes from the complementary water bottles we get here. It's a play off Aquafina and the label has the Vietnamese flag and the American flag crossing.

Random chicken outside the cafeteria. He was just hanging around, doing chicken stuff but I was so interested in it the girls I was with laughed at me.