My new favorite hobby is counting spiders in the shower

Yesterday there were only seven. Today there were twelve. I find the best way to get over my phobia of the various creatures and bugs around here is to call them "little guy." That somehow makes them less formidable, even if they're not little, like this dude:

Oh, hey little guy! Where are you going?

This morning for breakfast we had rice/pork soup. For dinner [I] had cantaloupe and cake. My stomach must be having an identity crisis or something. Yesterday I mentioned pancakes to my host mom. All I said was "Do you guys ever eat pancakes?" But I'm pretty sure all they caught is "pancakes?" and so today when my parents picked me up there were two boxes of pancake mix poking out of the grocery bags. They don't even like pancakes. That's how awesome they are.

My family! Dad, Mom, Noi, Naan

Yesterday at breakfast (at least I think it was breakfast) there was this meat on a stick that I didn't recognize, so I pointed to it with a questioning look on my face. They said, "dog, dog." I kind of freaked out a little. "That's DOG??" My host mom just nodded and said "yes, dog" but after a couple seconds my dad realized what was going on and started waving his hands and saying, "no, no dog!" Apparently it was just pork that was going to be fed to the dog. They thought that was so funny and they've been laughing about it all day long. They'll point to me and say, "Jenna-paa," and then start waving their hands saying "Dog, dog!!" I don't think I'll ever live it down.

At dinner tonight my mom pulled a bag of popcorn kernels out, and my sister Noi said, "You're responsible for the pop-corn." I said, "You need a microwave for popcorn." She told that to her mom, and after a short exchange in Thai, which I of course did not understand, Noi turned back to me and said, "She said she knows how to make it without a microwave." So I took a shower and counted spiders and when I came out, lo and behold, there was Maani standing over the stove jumping in surprise every time a popcorn kernel popped. But hey, she made it without a microwave--kudos to her!

Today for "work" Meredith and I went with our host parents to Pam and Jerry's house and sat upstairs while they had a meeting in Thai. Pam and Jerry have wi-fi so we got to skype our families, which was great. Then Pam offered to take us to the market to help us figure out public transportation. I have to take a yellow truck home, but the problem is there are three kinds of yellow trucks, and the difference between them is a couple Thai letters. So, uh...wish me luck. I might just end up in India or something.

Sipping smoothies...and my hair is a hot mess over here

Speaking of India, while we were in the market today, we stopped by a cool Indian store that had a little coffee-shop type place upstairs. It was darling! We sat on cushions by the window listening to Indian music and sipped blackberry-banana smoothies. It was divine. We also looked around for more designs and beads that we can use in the jewelry we'll be making.

Back at Pam and Jerry's place, Meredith and I sat with Pam in her living room and talked about the organization that she and Jerry founded (Rainbow Tree) for a couple hours. She has some really awesome stories, and she's done so much with her life. We're lucky to be able to work with her (and it was also nice to be in a Western home.)

When Paa and Maani came to pick me up, we stopped by the gas station on the way home. In Thailand they still have people pump your gas for you. I was sitting in the bed of the truck (it's much cooler back there), and when we pulled up, all the Thai guys at the pump did a double-take. I'm sure it was really weird for them to see a pharang girl in the back of a Thai couple's truck. They all came up to me and started speaking Thai, but obviously I had no idea what was going on. All I could say was, "No Thai, no Thai." For some reason they didn't get that and they just kept talking. I shook my head and said slowly, "I. Don't. Speak. Thai. I. Can't. Understand. You." Like they were going to understand that. So I just laughed, and then they laughed, and we were all just laughing and having a grand old time.

Sometimes you just have to laugh!