I went to a traditional Thai engagement party this morning! The groom was American and it was the first time he had been to Thailand or met his fiance's family. He didn't speak any Thai. It was pretty funny!

One more thing:
I forgot to write about the hike we took about a week ago. The first place we stayed after Bangkok was a resort in the mountains a few hours NW of Khon Kaen, and it was adjacent to a national park. We hiked for a couple of hours there and even though hiking with 31 people is a fiasco, it was so cool. There were "wild" banana trees and trees that actually look like camoflage. Everything is so green and wet. We played for a long time in a series of really cool waterfalls. I was standing about 20 feet above one of them on a steep and super slippery rock face, and my feet came out from under me. I just about took a very long ride, and would have taken Mariela with me, if it hadn't been for a root at my right foot. Anyway, it was really fun, and I hope I can post some pictures soon. I am hoping we can get a web page up to upload all the best of our photos, so if we do, I'll post that soon.

First free day!!!!!!!!!!! Laundry, homework, exercise and beer before the next homestay in the slums of Khon Kaen. The last night of the last homestay in Srithan, Jenny and Mallika's family came to get me (I was sitting outside doing homework after my family went to bed, and they came to my house and said, "bpa," which means go. So we went.) We ate and drank and had a dance party to really scandalous music, and when I went back home, my family had padlocked the gate to the house. I had to wake my host dad up to let me in. But it ended well when Ajaan Adisak (one of our program staff) came to my house to help me translate my thank-yous and goodbyes. The family told me that they thought of me as one of their sons. They also apologized for their poverty. I didn't know what to say. They took in a total stranger and gave me a bed while some (there were 20) slept on the concrete floor. They fed me (often, and with some confusion about my vegetarianism) and they washed my clothes and showed me nothing but love. I had no way to thank them the way I feel like I should. They told me to come and visit during the semester, and come back for my honeymoon when I get married.
I also got lots of presents from the other kids at the school, including a paper ninja star, a marble, a shirt, and a long piece of cloth used like a belt that had the picture of a girl inside, with a note that I can't read except for one sentence in English: I Love You.
It's hard to believe we're still in orientation. Thai is a struggle but we have come so far in a couple of weeks. I actually read something on a menu in Thai and successfully ordered a "nga" smoothie (it's a spiky red fruit). It was amazing. Food is absurdly cheap; ~50 cents for a meal is pretty standard. There is an all vegetarian restaurant right across the street from the CIEE office. A welcome relief after white rice and MSG noodles at Srithan. And there are about a dozen bars within a quarter mile. Our apartments are quite nice, and my roommate is a DJ.
Last night a lot of us went out, including our teacher Ajaan John. We stayed at the bar for probably an hour and a half after they turned the lights off. Went home with a girl named Whitney, which was unexpected, and definitely not in step with Thai culture. Their customs about sex are hard to understand; prostitutes and multiple wives are quite acceptable for Thai men, but at the same time touching is not appropriate between men and women in public. Nothing is weird about guys holding hands, but touching a Thai girl's arm might get a guy into hot water.
And finally, today I have discovered the joys of traveler's diarrhea. And I am slowly (very slowly) starting to feel less sketchy about Thai bathrooms, which include a porcelain hole in the ground, a bucket of water for wiping your ass, and in homes, a different bucket for showering. I have also encountered a number of other creatures in the shower, including a cockroach, a toad, geckos, a foot-long millipede, and a cat. No soap in any public restrooms. Everything is wet, everything is dirty, and shoes are not worn indoors. I'm gonna have to get over one of my pet peeves: walking on bathroom tile with wet feet. One can begin to understand why Thais have a very bad feeling about feet.

Finally a little free time today after meeting my roommate in Khon Kaen. We have been going nonstop 7 days a week. We are staying with a host family this week and going to school with third graders. This is still part of orientation. My family is crazy. I live at a restaurant with a family of 20. The first night they took me drinking and fed me four dinners (seriously. four.) and showed me the temples and the strip clubs. The next nights were less crazy, but I have had no time to do homework. We have been learning Thai pretty quickly though. We finished the "alphabet" and I can write most things I hear even if I can't pronounce the many vowels, and conversations are getting slightly less awkward. Next week we will do another homestay in the slums. I will have more time to write this weekend. Until then, sawadee!

Arrived in kreung-tehp (the city Americans call Bangkok) at midnight. Met up with my roommates after a taxi ride that flagrantly ripped me off, costing me a total of about nine dollars. Have spent the day with five others who are here already and took a one-hour boat ride to the floating market, tried unsuccessfully to catch a catfish with my bare hands, said hello to a 40-meter Buddha, crammed 6 into a tuk-tuk (a sort of absurdly unsafe taxi that should hold two or three), ate some authentic and spicy food, got a traditional thai massage, am writing to you all now... for a total of less than $20. May go get another massage after dinner. I won't have internet access for two more weeks, as we will leave early tomorrow to start our orientation in the Northeast, and then in the slums of Khon Kaen.
Kreung-tehp is a crowded and dirty and crazy metropolis. My mother taught me to look both ways for traffic; one must multiply that by about seven to have a shot at crossing a street in Bangkok. Solicitations from vendors for all types of things and food and people are not hard to come by for a group of Americans. But to be honest, it is a charming place. People are hard-working and they offer large and penetrating smiles. Today is a holiday in meung-tai (Thailand), so spirit for the love of the great King is at a solstice. And there is never a dull moment. If the people don't catch you by surprise, the roaming dogs and cats might, or the motorcycles, the occasional oversized and obsessively ornate Buddhas, or the Microsoft sign or the plasma screen TV hanging behind the rice merchants playing ping-pong by the river.
It has really paid off to study some Thai this summer. Even if you can always find someone who speaks English, Thais are very warm to an American's efforst to learn their language.
I did manage to order a glass of ice last night, when I really thought I had ordered water. I have encountered a new style of toilets, employing not toilet paper but water. There will surely be more to come that will catch me by suprise, but I feel strangely comfortable and at home in a very new place!
My new friends are really great, and I'm looking forward to the coming weeks!

Sa-wut dee,
Darren