Today

You better believe that's me riding a water-buffalo. Like a boss.

This morning we all rode a rot dang to a little farm to experience first-hand what it's like to plant and harvest rice. It was...character-building to say the least. It's amazing that people do that kind of work every day to make a living. I was burnt-out after doing it for 30 seconds. 

Once we were all farmed-out, we drove up to a waterfall to play around. But a little while after we got there the water started going crazy and a couple of girls who were playing in the water got swept down the river. Don't worry--they lived. 

Because dying wasn't in our plans for the day, we left and the rot dang took us back into town. We ended up at a mall called Airport Plaza, with a movie theater inside. The rest of the group stayed and saw The Avengers, but Erin and I had already seen it, so we peaced out and went to get a Thai massage instead. Oh man, those things are so great.

Then we got a truck to the big market Warorot and walked around for a bit, but it was closing, so we went up on a foot-bridge and looked out over the Ping river. It was really dirty, but still pretty.

Ping River

I took public transportation home all by myself for the first time. Remember how there are three yellow trucks and I'm only supposed to take one of them? Well at the truck-stop I saw the one that I was supposed to take, but the driver in the next one over was pointing and yelling, "Same-same!" So I was basically forced on to this rot luang with the wrong name! 

Let me tell you, it was so nerve-wracking. For awhile I didn't recognize where we were, and I was thinking, "I'm going to die." (So I'm a little dramatic. What of it?)

After an eternity of waiting and watching, I finally got off at a 7/11 that I recognized and called my dad. He gave the phone to my sister, Naan.

Sometimes in my head I like to think that Naan speaks better English than she does in real life. 

"Hi Naan. This is Jenna. I'm here at the 7/11 by the pharmacy."

"What?"

"At the 7/11 by the pharmacy."

"7/11?"

"Yes. Seven. Eleven."

There was a bunch more Thai-speak on their side and a bunch more "seven-eleven-ing" on my side, and so finally when I realized we were getting nowhere I turned around and asked this random girl,

"Hey, do you speak English?"

"Yes." (Thank the Heavens)

"Could you tell these people that I'm at the 7/11 by the pharmacy?"

"What?"

I'm sure at this point you're thinking what I was thinking, so we'll just skip to the part when Naan pulls up and I breathe a deep sigh of relief.

Back at home, safe and sound, I decided to do some laundry, since my mom has expressed concern about my lack of functional wardrobe lately. I dumped all my laundry in and mom showed me which buttons to push and presto!--I was well on my way to improved personal hygiene. 

45 minutes later I took my laundry back to my room to hang, and for some reason, a shirt that I could have sworn was white was now pink. 

You guessed it. I put my brand-new maroon Thai-pants into that washing machine with everything else and now I've got a bunch of pink "Thai-dye" (pun intended) shirts. 

My mom just shook her head and chuckled every time I pulled a new one out of the basket.

Mai ben lai. That's the Thai way of saying "No big deal."

And I find myself saying it to myself more and more often these days.