Ok so I know I've been terrible about posting on this thing, but I am so busy and rarely have internet. I will try to catch up on all that I have been doing. First off, I LOVE my host family, I'm so lucky to have such a warm and friendly family and they keep me busy! We always have several activities on the weekends such as going to the temple, the waterfall, a show in Lopburi (the capital), even pedicure and manicure with my older host sister. They do so much for me that it's hard not to feel a little guilty, though as of late they have been letting me wait tables at the small restaurant in front of our house, do dishes (outside in a tub of course) and make some of the food that we eat for dinner. 

In other work, my studies of community development are really err... developing! The education that we are getting here is top notch and it is so hands on. My favorite activity has been participatory community mapping, in which we ask villagers to draw a map of their community pointing out spots of importance, leaders' homes, dangerous places, farmland etc. It was kind of hard to get them going at first, but eventually the project turned out to be great. 

Language is also coming along, it's really hard to believe that I've only been here 3ish weeks or so. Later this week we are having in depth interviews so that the staff can do a better job of deciding on our work sites. This is quite exciting but scary. 

Instead of trying to write out everything that has happened, I have decided to make a list of some of the highlights:

-Thai people ask me how much I weigh, how old I am, and tell me honestly what they think of my appearence, this was shocking at first, but then I realized that these are observations that are obvious to everyone.

-Then some Thai people ask me to guess their age, this makes me very uncomfortable; I always aim low. 

-I usually have no idea what is going on at the wat (the temple), but get blessed repeatedly. 

- going to the Tesco (basically Walmart) was quite disconcerting after 3 weeks in the small village, and fried rice with all white meat was super surprising!

- a cold beer can cool you off much more than water or coke

- Thailand really is hot, hotter and hottest.

- No one sleeps later that 6 am in my village!

All in all in, I love my life and work here, and couldn't imagine doing anything else. I don't miss America yet, but I do miss all of you and would love to get more emails from everyone!