Pad Thai, Crocs, Mud and Leeches

So it's almost been a week here [whoa, I'm in Thailand] and I'll just summarize things since updating a blog on an iTouch isn't too fun-I'll explain why.

I think I can sum up what I've learned in 10 random points

1. Pad thai doesnt taste much different from Mai Thai's. It's less salty as the popular street food you buy for a dollar. Yum.

2. It's fun to see crocs on a nature trek but not really to trek thru mud and mud and MUD only to find thumb-sized leeches on your ankles when you take off your shoes. (Didn't happen to me but my classmates found some)

3. A Thai journalist told us that the obelisk in DC is covered in aluminum, not gold, because aluminum was considered YOUNG MONEY.(the Europeans used gold, a thing of the past but aluminum had just been discovered as some fad).

4. The new friends I'm making totally seem to understand the jokes I make about raging uteruses and yawn-gasms (Dale and Jan) so these things have led to nicknames like K-Rage for a Katie, AyBayBay for an Aiden and Future PastandPresent for a Daniel Pastan haha.

5. Taking four hours of Thai language everyday has led me to learn that farang means both guava and foreigner & eem (Korean pronunciation of my last name) means full -which is what I always aim for when I eat :)

6. After abruptly suffering from acute gastroenteritis [basically my intestines hurt a lot], I found that the private hospitals here are very nice - almost like a hotel room for a single person with a hospital bed. I took a shower, got free wiFi and yummy soft Thai food. The only terrible thing was the IV in my hand - that wasn't pleasant.

7.Villagers know more about happiness in simplicity and yet their children leave the local hospitality and love that promises you can always find food in the forest to instead fight for money in the pushy, uncaring streets of Bangkok.

8.  Chewing on sugarcane straight from the fields tastes amazing and not excessively sweet at all.

9.  Rice planting is done all over Korea and yet the first time I plant rice is in a Thai field with my village mother and other women laughing at my fumbling in the mud.

10. Getting at least two mosquito bites a day SUCKS. But buying shirts and shoes for 100 baht (US$3) is something I'm never gonna get sick of.

I really have to update the blog sooner - I'm forgetting the little details that matter.
I'll be uploading pictures soon!

[And as a bonus for those who read my blog, tell me what you'd like for me to buy you and I'll do my best to get it for you!]
Missing you all.