A Sickening Thought

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay...As the title tells I've been sick. Actually, about 9/19 students got sick and 6 went to the hospital. We think it was food poisoning but during class on monday myself and 3 other girls had to leave early because we were all going to throw up. I slept for about 48 hours and laid in bed, drank water, the usual. I hate needles, hospitals, and spending money so I figured I'd suck it up. And what do you know, it worked. Yeah to stubbornness and stingy-ness.(I'm not quite sure how to spell that. Is it stinginess?)

Well we're all recovering fine and nobody died which is always a blessing. We celebrated Ajarn (Professor) Mike's birthday this weekend with pizza and Thai karaoke. There was a music video with a Thai heart throb who sort of reminded me of Ricky Martin. It blew my mind when I found out he was 49. He looked about 28 but it explained the women in their late 50's who were at the concert. Whatever,it was cool.

We did our own karaoke on Monday during lunch which was hilarious. But we think that's where everyone got sick from so I don't know about anyone else but I won't be eating there again. Say no to food poisoning.

Oh yea, on Saturday we went elephant riding and took a bamboo raft ride down a nice river that probably had a lot of elephant poop in it since our elephants walked through the water and went to the bathroom. Its funny when you're on the elephant but a little creepy when you're that close to the water.

When we first started riding the elephant I got a little nervous. I'm not usually afraid of animals but you know those movies when animals go ballistic because they are mistreated and everyone around it dies, that's what I was thinking of. After calming down and finding a way to not fly around the seat next to Laura it was really cool. How many people do you know that get to ride an elephant through a jungle and back up a river? Not many I'm sure. They did a small elephant show and we fed them bananas and what not. On the bamboo rafts we got to wear the funny sun dial hats and look like real tourists. It was pretty sweet.

Today in class they doubled our lessons which was awful. My head is still spinning. We move in with our Thai families on Sunday and I believe I will be working in an orphanage as well as with the Buddhists minks for my internship. The man who owns the orphanage is an american who sold his company for 350 million dollars, moved to Thailand and bought a failin resort, rebuilt it and started an orphanage and a school for the kids. I hoping he can give me some business tutoriing which he said he would as well as do some sociological research with the monks. It works well enough for me.

Well I guess that's long enough for now. Just in case you're worried or asking the question "Does this girl ever study?" We do. We have class for 6 hours Monday through Friday except this past Tuesday when it was canceled because every one got sick.

Oh yea again..I saw the queen. It was cool because all the students wore their uniforms and lined the road holding candles. When the queen drove by the men bowed and the women curtsied. It was cool.

Love to you all

Amy