"It's Thailand, enough said"

I never thought that I would be writing one of those blogs where I just ramble about a bunch of different things that are hardly related. But I feel very talkative today, and I have lots to say about a lot of different things so I am going to astound myself and write a random blog post. Be prepared.

1. Suzanne and I have started this joke that whenever something happens that is super messed up or weird we just say "It's Thailand, enough said" - because NOTHING is the same in Thailand. If you gave me anything to talk about I could tell you how it is different in Thailand, and I mean everything. So, humour me if you will - give me ANY topic and I will tell you the difference, I am sure I could give you at least one.

2. I swear that the bugs [particularly the ants] are on steroids. Either that or there is some form of toxic waste in the air that has transformed them into super bugs that can fly and crawl so fast that you can't even tell if it is an ant or a spider. The misquitoes are black, not brown like in Canada; and misquito bites hurt, they don't itch. The ants haunt my nightmares. I have become so "Thai" that when there are ants on my food I just shake them off and keep eating, but that doesn't change how much they creep me out. The most disgusting thing is to walk into the kitchen to make scrambled eggs and find hundreds of ants crawling all over the stove, the pan, the utensils and the counter. They also like to crawl along the edges of the kitchen table until someone puts food on top. I have stopped eating sticky rice at my house because hoards of ants keep appearing in the jar. Nothing is safe from them. My mom sent me a giant package of food from Canada and the ants had gotten through the giant cardboard box, then into the smaller graham cracker box, then through the PLASTIC! How, I don't know, I told you they were on steroids. I saved the crackers, but it was still gross and made my stomach churn. They find food EVERYWHERE and no matter how much ant poison you spray, they find their way through it. I swear if I die from anything here, it will be ant poison; I have to spray down the sides of my bed so I don't get attacked in my sleep. Though I don't eat in my bedroom, they're curious little buggers and like to run around my bed.... nasty.

3. In Thailand, a funeral lasts a minimum of three days and increases in time depending on how important the person was. For the first two of the three days the family of the deceased holds celebrations and ceremonies at their house, and then on the last day they have a ceremony at a temple where the body is cremated and half of the ashes are let out into the river. It turns out that the Princess of Thailand [The King's sister] died in January and they have had celebrations for her everyday since. They have yet to cremate the body but I believe that the time will come soon.

4. There is a dog following me. He does not have rabies and won't bite me, but he follows me. The first time I saw him he was at my school and I played with him and he followed me around that day. Over the school break I saw him another three times: twice at the market and once outside a restaurant. He just wandered right up to me and jumped up wagging his tail. Now that I am back in school he comes to see me everyday in the English Department - wagging his tail and letting me play with him. He usually follows me around all day, only leaving when the teachers get really mad and push him out the door. He has fleas and strongly needs a bath, I think I will sneak him into the girls' washroom and give him a shower. The teachers don't like dogs, most Thai people don't, so I get yelled at for playing with him.
"HE'S DIRTY! DON'T TOUCH HIM!"
There are some teachers that are nice about it, they feed him fish and sticky rice and put food outside of the English Department door for him to eat. Everyday when I come to school he is waiting for me, asleep on the ground in the Department and as soon as he hears me come in, or as soon is I pet him he is up and following me around. His name is Rusty :)

5. Suzanne and I have been attempting to make No-Bake Cookies because we don't have ovens here. Both times they turned out very well; the only problem is that we keep eating them. I think I must have gained some weight, my legs are much more muscular from biking everywhere, and I have gained a bit of a tummy. It needs to go. I have been slacking on exercising lately because of the school break, and now I am not allowed to go to yoga for a few more weeks because I have cheerleading practice at the same time [that will be explained in my next blog post, I can assure you]. So, for now, I am eating a load of candy, icecream and cake and exercising by watching tv and "cheerleading" [if you could call it that]. I might start running or something in the mornings before I go to school but I can barely get up on time as it is so I think that is HIGHLY unlikely.

6. On Saturday Suzanne and I wanted to be healthy and go on a long bike ride. We were planning on biking to Wat Phra That Phanom which is 50 km away, roughly an hour long drive. We figured it would take us 2 1/2 hours there, we could stop for food and to walk around and then 2 1/2 hours back. Not too bad. We got about halfway there [20 km] and we stopped at the side of the country road for water. As we had biked by people we knew they said "Where are you going?" "Wat Phra That Phanom" we replied. Then there was a gasp, a lot of giggling and we carried on our way. While we were stopped it started to rain. Slowly at first and then harder as the time went by. We didn't know whether we should keep going or not, we were both pretty tired and it was raining, but at the same time we would still have to bike back in the rain when we were tired either way. While we were sitting there pondering a truck drove by us and stopped at the side of the road. We figured it was some person offering us a ride, but we didn't want to socialize with strangers [who were probably old men] so we waved them to go away. They ignored us and got out - it was a boy from my Gym/Guitar class. We took the ride and he laughed at the fact we were going so far away in the rain. Maybe next time we should aim a bit lower than a 100 km bike ride. Today when I came to school, my entire Gym/Guitar class made jokes about my excursion - of course he had told them. Oh well, maybe we can find some other Thai people to join us on our bike ride next time.

"I feel good, na na na na na na na"