1. Everything is sold in bags. If you buy anything on the street, they give it to you in a plastic bag. Drinks, fruit, and main meals are all in bags. They also have a really cool way of tying bags with rubberbands
2. There are lizards everywhere. At night if I walk to the garage, the celing is covered in lizards. The Lizards are almost transparent and can walk up walls.
3.So many Motercycles. I think there are more motercycles than cars. You can get you motercycle liscens at 15(car at 18) so many kids motercycle to school. I have seen pregnant women, babies and dogs riding on motercycles...everyone uses them. Entire familys ride on bikes-mom,dad, two kids...or sometimes four friends fit on a bike. The scariest thing is how relaxed people are about motercycles. They carry umbrellas, talk on the phone, adjust their helmets, sit sideways...i find it crazy.
4. Umbrellas. Before I left, my mom wanted to know what people do for rain. Well... they kindof ignore it. Because of the heat in Thailand people don't go outside very much, so the rain doesn't matter. My family carries umbrellas everywhere, but they arn't for the rain. Because being pale is considered beautiful, umbrellas are to hide from the sun. The 5 steps from the car to the store requires an umbrella. My mom always has on sitting in the car.
5. Markets. We stop at the market everyday after school. I didn't find that strange- they sell everything you need. Fish, meat, fruits, vegitabes etc. The strange thing is that they sell clothes, music, and household supplies right next to the food.
6. Age. People in Thailand look a lot younger then they are. On my first night here we went to the store and look for people I thought were my age. All of them had long hair and clothes like you would see in America. The next day when I got to school, everyone had hair cut even shorter than mine (around jaw length) and look younger than our high school age. I think when they get to college everyone grows out their hair(boys included) because they couldn't for years.
I can't think of anything else for the moment...but I'll tell you about how my three biggest worries are going. I said at the beginning I was worried about food, heat and the language. The Language is no problem, almost everyone knows a little english and my dictionary has helped alot. The heat is a bigger problem but you get used to it easily. At home and school there are fans everywhere and my room has AC that I turn on at night. Outside is the hardest part. I wear sweatpants and a dark red shirt everyday which get hot after seconds in the sun. Food is probably my biggest problem. I'm a vegitarian, which I've had no trouble with, but i have tried so many different foods made of beans. I'm not a big fan of rice, but it is growing on me. I just eat whatever is palaced in front of me. I miss eating bread alot, but I've found the fruit and desserts here good. They use honey and coconut in almost every dessert( i really like coconut). There are many fruits, some sweet, some sour and some almost milky. I tried a durian the other day and it almost melted in my hand. I've had starfruit, rambotans, noks, dragonfruit, mango, mangostein, bananas, apples, green oranges, and numerous other fruits.
I'm working on flickr...here is my page http://www.flickr.com/photos/spbaumann/
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