Dinner, Zoo, Beach

Sorry I didn’t write last week, but nothing exciting happened until this weekend. I have been doing some things to write other blogs, like taking pictures of foods and writing about when I ate in my journal so that I can write a piece about that. I also decided that I am going to take my lap top with me while I travel so I will write posts on Word and when I get the chance I will post them to my blog, sometimes one sometimes more.

So this weekend was definitely eventful. I wrote 10 pages in my journal about it and I’m sure that I still missed parts. Well I’ll start with a brief summary of the week leading up to this most eventful weekend.

Monday: I went to school and sat in the English Lab all day. It was exam week so there were no classes and Lucas (the boy from Brazil) and I have no exams so we just got to sit around all day! We went to the 7/11 three times that day, they probably thought we were insane! There were some boys who came into the English Lab at one point and they were supposed to be taking an exam, but they kept staring at me and Lucas just laughed! I talked with Macy on MSN for awhile, which was really nice! I miss her and so I like to hear from her when I get the chance.

Tuesday: I stayed home because only kids Mike’s age had exams so everyone that I spend any time with was gone. I talked with Tom for a while on MSN which was nice because we don’t get to talk very often, but he wasn’t very nice to me, not really shocked by that though. Spent most of the day doing nothing really, was rather boring, but I managed.

Wednesday: I went to school. Meow and her friends had a break from exams at 10 so that is when we ate lunch. I worked on a poster that I had to do for one of my English classes after that, but I got sick of that and Lucas and I went get ice cream from one of the places in the cafeteria. We only went to the 7/11 once that day, but I bought a water there and two at school before that, so I couldn’t avoid the school bathroom. I broke down and I went, though if I never have to again that will be okay with me. I guess I will describe it for the pleasure of those who get a laugh out of my horrible bathroom experiences: It is this small room, the door doesn’t lock well, the floor is wet so you have nowhere to set your bag, and directly in front of you is the like toilet seat thing with two pieces on the side for your feet. Directly next to that is like this tile tub filled with water. You place your feet on both sides of the toilet thing and you squat down, most uncomfortable. There is no toilet paper unless you bring your own (thank goodness for Charmin ToGo) and then in order to flush you take the water from the tub and pour it into the toilet thing until it is clean. It is very odd and I would not mind if I never have to have the experience again, oh and there is no soap so I’m glad mom sent me the bar of soap! Now on to happier times, after school my host mom took us to get ice cream at Swenson’s. The ice cream was okay, I had a brownie thing with peanut butter cup ice cream at the bottom (nothing tasted like home, but it was okay). They put this really cute American flag in mine, they are for this American Sundae thing they have, but Meow asked them to put one in mine. I kept it and put it in my journal.

Thursday: Stayed home again because of little kid testing. I slept until 8:50 which is the most I’ve ever slept since I arrived here. I finished my poster for school, which took a long time because I had a lot of writing and stuff to do. I packed for Friday night because Meow and I spent the night at an apartment. Other than that, I didn’t do anything amazing.

Friday: School was normal. Bashayer called me and we talked for like two hours! I can’t wait to see her at the camp in a few weeks! Meow was supposed to get me from the English lab at 3 and didn’t come until 4:30 and never called to tell me anything. The movie that we were supposed to go to was at 4 so we ended up missing it, which was okay because it was a horror and Peach told me it was really scary (and it was in Thai so). After she picked me up she took me to one of her friends house and she went to have her teeth cleaned or something like that. It was one of her friends birthday so we ate cake, it was good even though it tasted completely different than American cake. After we finished there we went to dinner. I ate a lot, even the shrimp that still had the eyes and guts and everything! I decided that it was better if they didn’t tell me what I was eating, which worked out because they didn’t know what anything was anyway. I put pictures of it on facebook so you will have to look because it’s too hard to describe how we cooked it. After everything, I went to Cherry’s apartment (Meow’s best friend) which is close to the school. I realize now how spoiled I really am. They have no shower there, only the garbage cans with water and a toilet like at school. They didn’t have any beds either, only really hard cushion things that Meow and Cherry told me to sleep on and they slept on the floor. I didn’t sleep well because Meow and Cherry talked until after 1 and then I woke up at 3:30 and never went back to bed (I had to get up at 5).

Saturday: The zoo was really fun, I got to hold a snake, pet an elephant, and see a really fun Acrobatic show. I was supposed to wear my gym uniform, but in the end I decided to only wear my shirt and to tie it with a pony to make it look decent if I was going to be in any photos. The zoo was small, but it was fun. I liked the reptile house with all the different snakes and lizards and stuff. The elephant show was AMAZING! They were so beautiful. They did some of the most amazing things, like one could keep the beat of music with his front foot, and one could walk on his two back feet and stand up like a human. The acrobatic show was cool; they kept flinging themselves in the air and doing all sorts of really awesome stunts. The day was fun, but I was really tired and went right to bed when we got home, only to wake up at 3:30 with a horrible nightmare!

Sunday: I went to the ocean with my host mother, sister, and brother. We drove about 20 minutes to this harbor and then walked through the harbor. There was this path just outside where the harbor ended that we took. We followed the path for 30 minutes (with pictures stops) along the most beautiful green water I’ve ever seen. We saw tons of jellyfish and crabs and other animals; they said that the young live there before heading to the ocean because the water comes right from the ocean to that river. At the end of the path were these two rundown buildings that they said were some princess’s a while ago. Straight ahead of the buildings was some rocks and the ocean. The ocean was so blue! I sat on the rocks and watch as the waves beat against them for about 10 minutes, then I was really wet, and went back to the others (they were sitting in the shade so that they didn’t get dark). I got sun burnt from that short amount of sun and I got stung by a bee, though I didn’t feel anything major (it got caught under my shoulder strap and so I felt a pin prick, readjusted my bags, felt it again, lift the strap and saw a bee there). After that we went and ate lunch at this beach restaurant. I didn’t like the food much, but I ate it anyway. There were chickens in the back by the dishes and that was rather gross to me, and there were lots of dogs and puppies. This one dog kept looking at me like Daphney does when she wants my food. After lunch we dropped Mike at home and went to visit Meow’s grandpa (I thought it was my host dad’s dad until my host mom brought out photos of herself so I don’t know who’s dad it is), he is very ill and they don’t think that he is going to make it much longer. The mother doesn’t speak English so while they visited him I sat and zoned out. Before we left they showed me the trees and bushes and watermelon field that the family farms. I got bit by this ant and it hurt a lot more than I thought it would. After that, we didn’t do much, just came back to the house, Meow went and got her hair cut, and then ate dinner and went to bed.

So, this is the gist of my week. This week is nothing until the 2nd when I go to Bangkok with Meow. I am home alone with Mike because Meow has special exams today and Science camp the rest of the week (that’s what I understood at least). It has been raining a lot lately, like right now it’s pouring (not that it ever rains lightly here). It was sunny for a few hours earlier, but that didn’t last. Not much to do, been writing today and will probably write some letters tomorrow so that I can send them all out before I leave.

Hope that you are all well and I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to read my blog, I’m sorry for the time that I put in between posts, but keep checking in because I will try to post at least once a week, and for those who don’t have me on facebook I’m working on finding a way to let you see my pictures too so as soon as I figure it out I will let you know.