Sahbaideemai?

I want to update on everything that has happened on this trip, but it is making me ultra behind in blog posts. Last week I stayed with a family for 5 days. I went to the Nonchai school everyday with my nong-chai Champ to take Thai lessons. The kids at the school were constantly following us farang around, touching our skin, grabbing our cheeks. We were their main source of amusement.

Every morning we sat in lines with the rest of the kids and went through the flag ceremony. There were endless songs and exercises that involved massaging your mouth. After school I'd go back to my families house and play a lot of badminton. We didn't have a court or anything, just a yard where we sat around drinking the juice straight out of the coconut and hitting the badminton around. My family was pretty big, I had a nong-chai, 3 nong-sows- two of them were four-year-old twins and 2 pi-sows and a pi-chai. Along with a ya and my meh and paw.

My family was relatively well off compared to most. They had two houses and four cars. One is where my pi-chai, his girlfriend, my pi-sow and her two kids lived and the other is where my nong-chai, nong-sow and meh and paw lived. I had my own room. My bed was a wooden board, no mattress just a sheet.

The house had a big screen TV, 2 desktop computers and 3 laptops. They didn't have a kitchen, just a rice cooker, fridge and microwave. My meh bought food from the market every day. For some reason Thai's eat unlimited amounts of food, ride their motorcycles to cross the street, and add sweeten condensed milk to everything yet they are insanely skinny.

For some unknown reason every Thai I have met is pretty insistent on constant food consumption. Maybe because farang are naturally bigger so they assume we need more food, I do not know, but it's a full on assault every meal. Im lao kah kop kuhn kaht has become my new mantra. We went out to dinner one night at a place where everyone cooks their food on a burner in the middle of the table. My family brought me big plates of onions rings and french fries. "Gin it's jey gin gin." It was disgusting.

I came back to my house late one night after an exchange with HIV/AIDS patients to find that Champ was out. My pi-chai, his girlfriend and my pi-sow invited me into their house where I proceeded to translate a Budget rental inspection guide. They coerced me onto a motorcycle and dropped me off across the street from a 7-Eleven. I was instructed to get off and they drove away. Mind you not only was I left in a random location with out a cell phone or wallet, I was also shoeless standing outside for 10 minutes unbelievably confused. My pi-sow came back like no big deal. We got some snacks and went back to the house and watched Thai soap operas.

Other than that I discovered the amazingness of the bucket shower. There is just a massive tall tub of freezing cold water and a smaller bucket in the hong nam. You dip the bucket in the water and dump it over your head.

Anyways, I will eventually catch this blog up to present time. Until then... peace.