Snakes and Elephants oh my!

Hello lovely people! Another week has flown by in Thailand. Monday-Friday I spent the mornings in Thai language class struggling to learn the alphabet and tones. In the afternoons I went to visit government offices, health centers, wats, day care centers, schools, and key village people and interviewed them in Thai. It was very challenging and half the time I had no idea what they were saying back to me. Instead of boring you with all the details here is one example of me stumbling through an interview...

Interview with a Monk: First of all, I find monks oddly terrifying. I am very intimidated by them and never know how to act or what to say. When you speak to a monk you have to use a whole different vocabulary. The words for you, eating, sleeping, hello and who knows what else are all completely different from regular Thai. On top of all that there are certain ways to wai and sit near a monk. So of course I have to mess up one of the most important rules.. NEVER sit next to a monk. For some reason I assumed this never sit next to a monk rule didn't apply when the table was round... Anyways let's just say things got really awkward really fast. After the horrifying awkwardness of everyone freaking out and me jumping up I have to try to think of all these questions I want to ask him and he can't understand a thing I say... It was really not fun at all. But on a positive note, I am one of the few females in the world who can say they got to sit next to a monk.

Other than that nothing too exciting happened this week. My family now calls me an old grandma because I am always losing things and asking them to help me find my phone or keys or purse. Apparently in Thailand only old women lose things and everyone else is super organized. I have also given them the impression that America is a very hot country. I was trying to hide it from them but I have begun to sleep with a comforter on... I know this sounds completely insane considering how hot it is here, but fans make me really cold! I'm pretty sure no one has ever used a comforter here and I'm really not sure why they even have one. They were horrified when they discovered I was sleeping with it and have been talking about how hot America must be. I then showed them pictures of snow I brought and they are utterly confused.

Now some pictures of my weekend adventures!

Chilling with a snake. My sister took me to a zoo/aquarium/vegetable patch. I saw tons of strange fish from around SEAsia and lots of different kinds of tigers. Oh, and gigantic cucumbers and squash...

Chilling with an elephant. This was not at the zoo but at a market. I got to feed it too!

I was on a boat behind this. All of a sudden people were chanting and throwing spears and jumping off the bridge into the lovely green water. No idea what was going on.

Floating market in Ayutthaya. There are boats all along the water selling food and drinks. On the other side are restaurants and shops all right along the water. It was beautiful!