Revelations (post training)

The other day, I taught my friend the expression, "Things are not always as they seem."

Some things I realized by the end of training:

• My host sister took 75 second showers - not 5 minutes.
• She washed her hair outside and I think that was the trick to taking such quick showers at night. (On the other hand, I'd only seen her wash her hair once in the two months of training, but she didn't smell bad, so she must have done it when I wasn't looking...)
• My host mom didn't cook (as often as I thought). She bought most of our meals at the market, so that must have been the secret to getting delicious meals every day. But they were still homemade Thai dishes - just as somebody else's house - and still delicious!

Photo Update

We've made it through training and will be sworn in as official volunteers on Monday. We move to our sites on Wednesday!

Here are photos from the last several weeks of training.

During my site visit, over the course of 5 days I spent each night in a different city or on a night bus, in transit. (My site is a 15 hour bus ride from Bangkok.)

Bangkok

View from our hotel room

Western toilet and *gasp* a showerhead/ bathtub!
My roommate and I got so excited we had to take pictures and were late for our meeting-oops!

Clean beds!

Farang (foreign aka non-Thai) food!



Chiang Mai


Tapae Gate


My Site

House at site (next to potential homestay's house)

View from potential homestay's house

Sunset
I think I can get used to this over the next 2 years


Back in Ayutthaya

Thai wedding
(I have no idea who the bride and groom are, but they let me join in their photo - and had me stand in between them at that!)

My first Mardi Gras celebration - and it's in Thailand

Me in Thai traditional dress
(It was tight and bright pink and hot - I was not as happy as I looked in the photo but when in Thailand, do as they do - just SMILE!)

Birthday party
(My host family also gave me this bright pink shirt.)

Site Placement

This is the moment I've been waiting for since last week... Found out today I'll be in Mae Hong Son province for the next 2 years! My site is 4-6 km from the border between Thailand and Burma. Google for more details.

Wat Yai Chai Mongkol (Say that three times fast)

A week ago, my host sister took me to Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, a temple in Ayutthaya built in 1357. There were signs saying the admission fee is 20 baht, but we definitely took a side "entrance" that other Thais were going through and got in without paying anything. ;)





This monk with a huge camera caught me as I was trying to take a photo of him taking a photo of the temple. I gave him a small bow and took a photo of him anyway. There are certain rules on how women are supposed to act with monks, but I think photo-taking is allowed...

FOOD

This post is devoted to food - mostly because I love it, but particularly because these past couple weeks have been full of fun, food-filled activities:

Thai desserts called "ka nom" made from sweet rice and coconut, wrapped in banana leaves

Thai food for lunch, eaten while sitting on mats on the ground

Delicious cake for a friend's birthday which was also on the same day as Chinese New Year's (which is why there's a Chinese-looking dragon on the cake - although it's the year of the Rabbit)

My friend's host mom made the best pad Thai we've ever eaten and then taught us how to make it this past weekend!

I LOVE curry, but it's not as common here as I thought it would be. I'd been craving it for weeks but outside forces were against my getting curry. I finally got panang curry on Monday. I was so excited I almost forgot to take a photo before I devoured it.

No words can describe how I felt

Noodles in Bangkok.

They looked prettier, but that time, I actually did forget to take a photo before I started eating.

(Never come between me and my food. ;))

Eating a Thai-style ice cream sandwich: coconut milk ice cream with sweet rice on a hot dog bun-looking bun. It's delicious.