This morning no one showed for the english camp in my apartment so I went to see Lynne for an hour before I left for school. I also went into school early. When I got to school I went to see my friends Jojit and Joseph (who are the computer teachers) and we went for lunch together. I found out that classes were cancelled because next week is Songkran and so they were doing Songkran activities (ie: Giant Water Fight) instead of classes. The cancellation of classes meant that I wasn't needed so I visited Jojit for a while and then went and explored Meuang Tong which is the area my school is in and is also a district on Nonthaburi. Meuang Tong translates to 'City of Gold'. I had a good little exploration of the area around my school but it was so hot out today that after an hour of exploring I caught the sawng-thaew home. Again I had transportation problems though, urg. This was because I have to connect to a bus after the sawng-thaew but I accidentally caught a bus that wasn't going all the way to my place (something I have never done before). I think that for the most part I am improving in my transportation knowledge but the language barrier is still a difficulty. On the bus today the bus attendant was trying to tell me that the bus was about to make a u-turn but I didn't understand I thought she was trying to ask me where I was going (because where your going will affect the cost of the bus ride) and so I kept on repeating "Software Park" (it's the high rise across from the entrance to my soi on Chaengwattana) but then the bus did a u-turn and I understood. Oops. I ended up having to just walk to Software Park and from there to home, it wasn't far but I did pay six baht to ride the bus for a block and a u-turn. I'm trying to learn the buses but I don't have a schedule that is printed in english to help me out. I ran into Jenny on my way home and we walked home together and dropped off our stuff and decided to take another adventure to visit 'Villa' for manicures and pedicures. Villa is the expatriate district of Nonthaburi. I had been told about Villa and so I wanted to see it for myself. Now I did and now I feel no need to go back. I didn't really like it there the people are so rich when just on the other side of the fence there are all these Thai families living in shacks and run down accommodations. They don't let Thais past the fence into Villa unless they're doing service industry work and Jenny and I had to bring our passports to go in (especially Jenny because she looks like she may be Thai). I don't think I could go to another country and segregate myself among the other westerners, I would feel weird not being part of the real/natural culture of the area. The other thing about Villa is that you can certainly see the contrast between Western culture and Thai culture. We went into the Villa shopping market (which is expensive) because I was dying of thirst in the heat and there were these thirteen year old boys yelling at each other and fighting in the middle of the supermarket, you would NEVER see Thai boys of the same age act in such a way and that kind of display hit me as almost vulgar. I almost got culture shocked by my own culture after just being in Villa for two and a half hours. I'm very happy to stay among the Thai people and their culture for now, thank you, and don't feel the need to enter Villa again unless I'm really craving a Starbucks (though there is a guy on our soi who used to work at the SBux and owns his own coffee shop located nearly across the street from my home). I actually didn't even get any coffee at Villa today... too expensive!

Jenny and I went for dinner and for desert I had some really good ice cream with lychee and banana and peanut and some coconut sauce stuff on top, it was awesome.
In the evening I went to children's classes and helped with the class for the older kids. One of the women who runs the older class (Rae)is leaving in twelve weeks so I may take over the class for a few months until I too leave and so I'm trying to catch on to the flow of the class and the level of the students now. The class was good and I had a really good talk with Rae about adapting to cultural differences and developing different characteristics (ie: virtues) such as flexibility and patience. When I got home (the children's classes are only two doors down the hall from my home) Jenny and I practiced the first lesson out of my "Thai for Beginners" book that Melody at school lent me. I think I'll go to bed early tonight because I've been staying up too late lately and I want to be rested tomorrow because I am hosting the Feast and I may have a late night tomorrow night (I may go out dancing with Jenny and Jojit and his friends).

The picture is of Jenny (below Thailand flag), the twin girls (the girl in blue is the one who held my hand), Erk (the boy), and myself (if you don't know who I am by now... I dunno). I think the location is evident (please read the sign we're sitting below/in front of).

The manicure and pedicure were pretty alright by the way, my feet and fingers look well kept now.