Parlez-vous thaïlandais? Sí, hablo.

    Sure I didn't buy the cutest shirt or visit the sunniest place, but last week as a whole was very satisfying. I spoke more Thai, found out how to destroy Spanish and Thai by combining them, had a failed attempt at learning the chicken walk jive, and helped out at our Wat Pai Lom (the biggest temple in the region).

     And how can I forget, full and interesting conversations happened with me and my host family! I feel good about the language level I'm at, but obviously working at it every day will help me greatly. It really is a blessing that this family doesn't speak English....until now. They are osmosis-ing some English from somewhere, and I don't like it! Not only is it bad English, but it's not helping my Thai comprehension go anywhere. So I've asked them to only use English if there's something that must be said in Thai but I am not understanding the message. If I do hear a word in English spoken to me, I replace it with the Thai equivalent whenever I can.

    The birthday of His Majesty The King (December 5th) involved a lot of walking and standing (surprise, surprise) and we gathered at an exercise field where there were thousands of people from Chanthaburi. Every Thai person celebrates the King's Birthday, even when they're overseas, like my host sisters. Kind of like Americans and Christmas. Here we waited for an hour or so until it got dark. Then we lit all our candles and sang songs to the King (well Thai people did, I don't know the words). Once we were done singing, fireworks went off, right there in the field! We were so close that there was stuff coming down on us, as well as a huge cloud of smoke. It was beautiful to see all the people in one place, celebrating their King, who is now 84 years old, ruling Thailand for 65 of those years.

     Last night. Was awful. Sadly, going to another culture doesn't mean you can leave your baggage behind...or your diseases. If you don't know already, I have Celiac disease, which means I cannot eat wheat and gluten. I got it from my mom. I've known for what, 4 years now? And maybe it's just that I am really emotional. But I felt incredibly lonely last night and I kept thinking over and over again that even though living with my disease is hard for me normally, the difficulties I have followed me here. And I suppose they will follow me everywhere. I want someone to sigh over this with me, and then punch me in the shoulder and take me out for some Cold Stone's. But we kind of live on a continent where I'm alone in this.

    Monday was Father's Day for Thailand. So I believe I have something to say ♥ Dear Dad in Oregon....I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, your baby I'll be.