Funeral Crashing

After training on Thursday, my host sister told me we were going somewhere (my limited vocabulary did not include where exactly where we were going). She lent me of her black skirst that she usually wears as part of her school uniform (she's a teacher) and had me put on a white shirt. Then 7 of us squeezed into my host family's truck which is "supposed" to seat 5, but it's Thailand; we probably could have fit more if we wanted. I had no idea where we were going during the ride but just smiled and went along with it. (I'm getting used to doing that. :))

We arrived at a temple, and my host sister explained to me that this was a funeral! There were a bunch of lawn chairs lined up in rows outside what would be our equivalent of a big funeral parlor. There was a photo of the deceased lady (that I couldn't see from where we were sitting), some monks chanting, and huge wreaths of flowers. We wai-ed a lot (put our hands together at chest level in a prayer-like manner) while a monk chanted into a microphone. Otherwise, it felt like we were crashing a party. They gave us food too. It was like having a second dinner complete with dessert although it's probably not considered dinner in Thailand because it wasn't served with rice. After about an hour, it was over, and we got up and left without socializing with any of the other guests. We wai-ed someone I think might have been closely related to the deceased person as we left. Maybe. And we took an extra slice of cake they provided home with us too. Breakfast tomorrow!

Photos as promised

My new wheels

Our bike "gang" on our commute to the training site

My Thai host family
(Host sister and Host dad)

Our house
(My host sister and I have the second floor to ourselves)

Our room
(You can see Meow, the cat, on the far left next to my bed)

The infamous bathroom and squat toilet

View from my window

Coconut tree

Ayutthaya Floating Market
(A famous market in Ayutthaya province where we live;
my host family took me this weekend :))

An elephant!
You can buy a ticket to ride one but we didn't this time
Ironically, they were also selling ivory ware at a stand next door... :/

Coconut ice cream served in coconuts on a boat

Woman serving the ice cream
I don't understand how she wasn't drowning in sweat in that outfit
Either way, my host family told me it's traditional Thai clothing

Friend's host mom grilling catfish for us
[Vegetarians and animal lovers stop reading here]
She was probably holding down the catfish because she was grilling it while it was still alive...
Every once in a while it would flop off the grill. She would pick it up, throw it back in the bucket of water to rinse it off, and then put it back on the grill. Poor catfish. It was delicious though.

Thai pad thai

Bucket Showers and Squat Toilets

Last weekend, I moved in with my new host family. I have a host sister who is my age, a cat named Meow and three dogs, which I haven't seen out of their cages since I arrived. Every nigh I think my host mom has cooked me the best dinner I've had in Thailand, bu then she outdoes herself the following day. (I have two months here - I wonder how long she can keep doing that!) I had to take a break from those delicious meals the other day though because my stomach wasn't cooperating with me. I felt bad because she and my host sister made a special trip to the market to get me rice porridge. I ate the salad I knew she had probably prepared earlier that day especially for me, even though my stomach grumbled about it later...

Before I make the perfect segue to bathrooms, a disclaimer: if you have just eaten or are just about to eat, have a weak stomach, are easily grossed out, or otherwise don't want to read about squat toilets, bucket showers, or that kind of thing, be warned; but those of you who are now curious...

The bathroom at my homestay doesn't have 1) toilet paper, 2) a trash can, or 3) a towel. There's a "sink" filled with water next to the squat toilet. You're supposed to wash your business down by scooping water from the sink with a bucket, pouring it down the toilet hole, and letting gravity do the flushing. Then you wash your parts off. What I don't get is that you still have to dry yourself off after washing off with the bucket (but there's no towel or toilet paper)... There isn't a showerhead so we also have to take bucket showers. This involves a bigger sink and a bucket (hence the name). We had some training on how this was supposed to be done so we weren't left copmletely high and dry (ha ha). Normally it takes me about 15-20 minutes to take a shower. It took me about the same amount of time after I spent the first 5 minutes locating the drain and mentally preparing myself to take a bucket shower. The floor is the bathtub so you basically get the entire bathroom floor wet when you shower, and the water goes down a drain in the floor by the wall. I felt slightly cleaner and a lot more proud of myself for accomplishing my first bucket shower when I finished. Then my host sister went in and came out again in 5 minutes. I thought she had forgotten something at first until she changed into her PJs and climbed into bed. She had completed her shower in the 5 minutes it took me just to get started! I still have not yet figured out how she does it. I'm going to try to beat my time every time I take a shower from now on, although I won't be beating any Thais in bucket showering anytime soon.

Oh, and I saw my first lizard in our bathroom the other day. It was kind of cute.

After my PC experience in Thailand, there will be very little that grosses me out.

[Photos to come.]

Week 1 (Has it only been one week?)

Time has been passing at a strange rate – I can’t believe we’ve only been here three days. The time flew by, but it feels like it's been so much longer than three days. We've been going non-stop since we arrived. Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting the homestay families with whom we'll be staying for the next two months of training.

We spent most of the day biking and learning about bike maintenance yesterday. My group's instructor's name was Bottle. (Thai people have very interesting nicknames. And they're usually a lot easier to remember than their actual names.) I thought I knew a lot about biking but realized I knew nothing about bike maintenance! We learned how to take out (and put back in) the front and back tires and patch a flat tire. Never done that before. There's a first time for everything - why not do it in Thailand? :)

This morning we met the governor of the province of Ayutthaya. It must have been their casual Friday because he and members of his staff were wearing Hawaiian-looking shirts that featured native things to Ayutthaya. Each of us stood and individually introduced ourselves to him in Thai. In his welcome speech (in Thai), he told us there had been a cowboy party the night before. "Sorry you missed it," he said, lol, but promised to host another one before the end of our training.

I haven't uploaded photos yet so this post will be just words (I know, when was the last time I did that?!) They tell us internet access will be sporadic for the next two months at least. Therefore, not sure when I'll be able to update next, but stay posted.

O-M-G

I'm in Thailand.

(Here's proof.)

Arriving in Bangkok Airport (finally!)

The view from my hotel

Thai FOOD!