I think I slept a little too much yesterday because I woke up in the night a lot last night, and finally after not being able to sleep I got up at 5:30am. I talked to Dad for a bit and he helped me with my profile picture (thanks Dad and Mom for sending me the picture in the first place) and then I tried to rest before my 9:30am pick up. I couldn't fall back asleep though so I read a book that Dad bought me for my travels and said some prayers and got ready to go out. Since it was New Year's day today a lot of the Baha'is took the day off of work and we took the children to Siam Park City which is a huge amusement park/water park. I had a really wonderful day. In the past I have often felt self conscious in a bathing suit but today I was able to just run around and play and laugh with the children with out once feeling awkward or anxious about my body and it was really freeing and relaxing . The children who were invited to the water park were the children of our soi (lane - pronounced soy) other children from the neighborhood, I think most of them attend the children's classes run by the Baha'is on Fridays and weekends. The kids were so much fun, some of them knew a little english but the rest of them either didn't or were too shy to speak english to me. It didn't' really matter though, they took my hand and led me all around the water park we went on the tall slides, the swirly slides, a wave pool... every where really. Some of the kids who weren't strong swimmers would go down the slide with me so that I could lift them into the air at the bottom so that their faces didn't get splashed or pushed under the water. Everyone was very kind to me and some people gave me some really good chicken, pork and sticky rice for lunch. I have learned that in Thailand you often buy things in bags, I noticed this at the market on Sunday and again today. When you buy meat, fruit, rice or even soy milk and other drinks they're given to you in these ballooned bags (pulled tight by closing them with the air in the top) and then when you eat the food you either pour it out of the bag on to a plate, or with sticky rice (which is like a solid mass) you just pull off chunks of food leaving the rest in the bag. For drinks in a bag you just open the top and stick a straw in and drink out of the bag, its kind of neat. Anyway back to lunch. I bought these apples called rose apples (chom-phu) and they are really tasty, they're a little grainy like a pear but they taste sweet and crunchy like an apple. Often the fruit here is given to you with a little bag of orange crystals to dip your fruit in, the crystals are a bit of sugar mixed with salt and chili's, it does taste good on the fruit but it is hot and of course quite salty so I don't think I could eat it all the time. After lunch I went down a few more slides and just before packing it in I went into a spa pool. The spa pool was lovely it had jets, there was some tropical music in the background and I was hanging out beneath the palm trees, I felt like I had entered the stereotypical paradise they portray on tv.
After the spa pool I changed into my out door clothing again and we took the kids on some of the amusement park rides (well I watched them, I was never really big on rides). And then we started to get ready to go home.
This evening I went out with Vaughan for dinner (I still need someone to come with me because I don't know how to order on my own). We had a hot green curry (which made my mouth burn a little) and a chicken cashew dish and rice. The food was great and it was at a restaurant on our soi so I'll be able to go back often. On our way home to our building many Thai people stopped me to tell me that I had a lovely face, it was really sweet, one woman even stopped me to tell me she wanted my nose! It was really funny but the compliments were making me blush, at least it wasn't too noticeable because it was dark out and my cheeks were rosy from all the sun today.
It was about 40 degrees out today and I actually didn't feel over heated once.
Oh and I wore my white skirt today and didn't get it dirty at all (for those of you who know me well you know this is a great accomplishment).
Tomorrow Jaya is showing me the school I'll be working at.
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