We are here in Assumption University- having another day of kinda-rest before we get to travel tonight to Vietnam. Yesterday- after eating lunch and walking around a bit (getting a lot more photos) we went swimming in one of the pools here on campus. It was so amazing feeling! Afterwards we were walking back, with people walking by complaining about the heat, while we just enjoyed our cooler state! We're thinking of going again today.

Last night a small group of about 15 of us went to Lotus- pronounced Lota- and went shopping/peoplewatching. Lotus is similar to a Walmart or Kmart, only here in Thailand. I went to buy a camera memory card as well as a big bottle of water. We aren't allowed to drink the water here, or even use it to brush our teeth since chances are we'd get sick off it. I tried to use the memory card, but it doesn't work with my camera, so I went to bring it back. 5 people ended up trying to help me, none of them speaking English. The manager said something to me, but I said "I only speak english"'; she imitated me, then laughed...then said nothing else to me. It was strange.

After returning it I went to Home Pro- similar to Home Depo or Lowe's. That was where the people watching went on. There were about 3 employees in each section, and since it was close to closing time they were all sitting around. They stared at me as I walked by, every one of them! Or some of them would look at my feet, which made me wonder if something was falling off them or something, so multiple times I checked to make sure I had shoes on.

It is strange being in a country where you are a rarity, especially when I've always been part of the majority. Although, thinking about it later, they were probably staring at all my freckles- I wouldn't doubt if they've never seen that many.

After getting back I literally passed out on the bed. When I woke up in the morning I hadn't moved. It's interesting- after staying up for as long as I have been my body is already set to this time zone. Gretta didn't even wake up when I came back in, opening our squeaky door 4 times!

To get to Lotus we had taken a taxi. INSANE! There are no seatbelts. They do not follow the law, nor the speedlimit. The speedlimit was 25 km/hr, but our driver was going 120 km/hr, up to about 140 at one point. One of the things that cracked me up though was that even though they're driving like crazy people, they still use their blinkers. There are stray dogs everywhere- since it is illegal to kill dogs, and they don't want to waste the money to spay or neuter them. We almost hit a couple driving to Lotus, then almost stepped on one walking in.

I haven't gotten sick thus far, for which I am extremely thankful. We haven't really had much foreign authentic food yet, we've just been eating the stuff the University and the airlines give us. Apparently the first day we got here 3 or 4 people were sick. I'm dreading when it's my turn to get sick :(