It's a strange thing, this life we live

Hello to everyone who is still tagging along with me. This blog has turned out to be kind of a hassle and I appreciate your patience. First, let me get the red tape out of the way. I've finally figured out how to password protect this beast, but I found out that if I do password protect it, only "Blogspot.com" users can access it. So, this is what you have to do if you're serious about reading my blog for the next two years:

1. Create a user name and password for blogspot.com.
2. Email me your user name.
3. Check your email for an invite I will send once I receive your username

That's is. It's basically like setting up a gmail password is all and everyone's got one anyways, so what the heck eh?

Now, for the good stuff. I'm offically a Peace Corps Volunteer. For the last two months, I had been living with a Thai host family in Singburi Province, learning Thai, practicing cultural sensitivity, and simply adapting myself to Thai society. I could not have asked for a better family to stay with and because of that, saying goodbye was difficult. Thai's have incredibly strong family values, being that the culture is more "to be" than "to do" like in America. They took me to more parties and bought me more stuff than my parents back home ever have (sorry mom and dad, but it's true). When I wasn't with my host family, I was either A, learning Thai for almost five hours a day, or B, sitting in a Peace Corps presentation on teaching participatory learninig ESL or cross cultural training. Which brings me to my next rant.

I wake up seemingly every morning and absorb the fact that I live in the East. I say the East in a political geography sense, but to say we are from the West and Thai's are from the East is not far from the truth. I could have studied the culture all I wanted before departing but until I experienced it for myself, I would never have known the truth to any of it. And then, when I say this to people, they want me to explain what I mean. How can I explain Thai culture when I just said that you have to be here and experience for yourself? Human's are human and that remains static. But thoughts, beliefs, attitudes...the mind, that is what's dynamic. The first humans to begin roaming the earth departed from north central Africa, the center of most world maps. In the most basic sense, some traveled west and others traveled east from that focal point. During their travels, each group encoutered different factors that would undoubtedly shape their life upon reaching their final destination, consequently causing cultural differences. Thailand is exactly 12 hours from Eastern Standard Time. If Africa is in the "middle" of the world, Europe and American are to the west and Asia is to the east. At the end of the day, you just have to experience the culture for yourself.

Enough philosophy. Onto my site. I live in Aumpur Kemmarat, Jangwat Ubon Ratchathani (give er a look see on a map of Thailand). I'll be teaching English for four days a week and spending one day doing community outreach in my village. For safety and security purposes, I can't tell you exactly where my house is, but let's just say I'm a short water buffalo ride to the Mekong River. The village is happy to have me not only because I'm volunteering to teach English, but because now they have something interesting and new to look at. And let me tell you, everyone and their domesticated animals know I'm in town.

What else can I say? I live in Thailand, I eat rice for breakfast, it's hot all the time, I can speak Thai, I shower at least twice a day, I lay around, I visit the temple, I talk to my neighbors, I wai (pronounced 'why') monks even though I don't have to, I never point my feet at anyone or scratch my bug bites so that people can see, I drink ice coffee, I smile often, every day for half the day I am oblivious as to what is happening (you get used to not knowing what's going on), I study Thai, I think about good memories and people I love, I walk through the markets, I get stared at while walking through the markets, I strike up conversation with the people who are staring at me in the markets, I make friends with the people who were staring at me in the markets, I like the markets.

Maybe my next blog will be the most pure Thailand market experience I can conjure up. I'm hoping to post more often now that I'm starting a routine here at site. Before, I never knew when I would have internet access, but now, for two years, I'll be in the groove. So, if you've enjoyed reading my blog thus far, sign up for blogspot and shoot me an email.

One more thing too. If you want to know about anything specific, email me and just ask me to post about it because I am having a hard time coming up with material here. If I know what you are curious about, it will be much easier for me to post. Kawp kun khrap.

Aa-tit