Last week I had two friends come to visit who speak no Thai. While they were here I was translating all day long and was starting to realize how awesome I am at speaking Thai. Then I made two huge language blunders. Instead of saying "my friend wants to have a picture with you" I said "my friend wants to have children with you." The very next day I called someone else the devil. Apparently I'm not quite as fluent as I like to think. I'm a little worried that soon I won't be fluent in English either. I am literally forgetting how to say things and throw in Thai words in the middle of sentences when I am speaking to my American friends. I think in Thai now too and am just waiting to have my first dream in Thai.

Having friends come to visit was great. I got to hang out with people at night, make american food that someone other than myself would enjoy, talk about how crazy my life here is, and share a little bit of my American side with some of my new Thai friends and family. I've still been very busy at work planning my first big program and networking. This week I'm taking a little vacation in Bangkok to see a friend and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to feel good to be in a place where I can blend in with the crowd for a few days.

All photo credit goes to Andy Carlson! 

The Time I Touched the Prime Minister

I was planning on sharing a lovely little video of my new home, but alas I am horrible with computers and can't figure out how to upload. So instead you'll have to settle for written words yet again even though I am sure you all miss my voice terribly and would be overjoyed to hear it.

Everything is starting to feel so normal here I sometimes think I have nothing to write about. But when I really think about it, crazy things happen to me every single day, I just don't realize how crazy they are anymore.

On Sunday I touched the Prime Minister. Yupp, that's right, I touched her. Can you imagine just being able to walk right up to the President and touch him without anyone, including the secret service, even noticing? A crowd was swarming around me and I was getting pushed from behind by this little elderly woman, so instead of falling I reached out and steadied myself on the Prime Minister. Immediately after I turned to the person next to me and said "I just touched her, I just touched the Prime Minister." Of course in my state of shock I was speaking English not Thai so the person just ignored me and went about their business.

Monday was yet another Thai holiday so I had the day off from work. Instead of lounging about my house I went to the wat with the neighborhood and ate ridiculous amounts of free food. Lots of families made gigantic pots of soups, or fried rice, or Kanom Sen Naam neiow (my new favorite food) and dished out bowl after bow free of charge. There were also various flavors of ice cream, fresh tropical fruit, and assorted kanoms (snacks). Families do this to tamboon, sort of like earning merit. For 4 hours I ate bowls of food, fruit, and snacks and ran around playing with the children who are attached to me by the hip these days.

Yesterday when I got home from work there was a blessing ceremony for me and one of my neighbors. We had to sit on the ground and hold on to string for about an hour while an elder chanted things, sprinkled water on us, lit candles, tied lots and lots of string around our wrists, and dumped seeds into a cup. Everything was going smoothly until the dumping seeds part. He takes a small handful of seeds, dumps them into a cup, and then one of the other elders separates them into pairs. In order for this to be successful and for the ceremony to end there must be an even number of seeds and an even number of pairs. If everything isn't even than they keep chanting and repeating this process over and over. After about ten times when things still weren't working out I heard people mumbling about me not having good luck and something about my "quan" being left back in America. At this point I started to get really nervous and was praying that it would finally work. I could just picture them casting me out and saying I was cursed. Fortunately it eventually worked and I heard no more mutterings about my quan. All of the elders then gave me their blessing wishing me happiness, good luck, a Thai husband, and to never go back to America.

The rest of the week I went to the office and worked on plans for projects. I drafted a 4-day project idea on teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS as well as created plans to teach games and songs at the local daycare. I am training the teachers there in different was to teach English to the kids while making it fun and entertaining. That's starting next week and I'm a bit worried about how it's going to go. 

Now I'm off to enjoy a weekend in Chiang Rai with a few of my coworkers!