I get to see Mom, Dan, and Molly tomorrow! Then after they leave, I have a week of midterms, then Dad and Chandelle are visiting! I'm so excited!

I guess that means I should clean my room. I haven't cleaned a single time since I've been here. Nor have I unpacked my suitcases. I hate unpacking more than anything. Almost more than loading and unloading the dishwasher, but thankfully we don't have a dishwasher (or any dishes, for that matter).

Still very itchy. I think I got bit by that bug again. More bumps are showing up.

Um. I don't really have anything to say, I'm just bored... Everyone has left for break already (Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Chang Mai, Koh Lanta--we're all over the place!) so I'm here alone. I've been watching lots of TV and I'm starting to get cabin fever. I guess I'll be productive today and clean my room, do my laundry, and go for a walk to find our smoothie lady (who makes the best watermelon and lime smoothies IN THE WORLD).

Thailand!

Okay so I'm already homesick. It never really hit me that I would be SO far away until I actually got here. I'm sure that once I'm really settled in and start classes, it will get a lot easier. I mean, I guess it's just like going to college all over again, so I sort of expected feeling this way for a couple weeks.

Anyway. The food is great! I was very happy to discover that Pad Thai tastes the same in Thailand as it does in America. I'm such a picky eater that I thought eating here would be difficult, but it really isn't... lots of chicken dishes, rice, and noodle soups. So far nothing has made me feel nauseous either, let's hope it stays that way.

The apartment arrangement is very strange. There's about 10 of us in one building. When you walk in from the street, you walk into our small sitting room with a TV, which is joined to our tiny TINY kitchen (sink, fridge, microwave). There's one single bedroom on the bottom floor, which is mine! I fought hard to get my own bedroom because sharing a room with a stranger does not sound apealing to me. Anyway, then there's a very long staircase that goes up 4 stories, 2 bedrooms on each floor--they're all double rooms. Shoes aren't allowed inside, you take of your sandels before going inside. You can carry them in if you want, which is what I do because I don't wnat them to get stolen.

I'm in a province called Pathum Thani, pronounced Pah-toom Taw-nee (I think?). It's supposedly a very nice suburb, upper middle class, but that means something tooootally different in Thailand... it's dirty and smelly. The nice thing is that we are about a 5min. walk from the university, and even less of a walk from a long strip of convenient stores, internet cafes, and restaurants/food stands. Basically everything I need is VERY close!

Oh, and of course it's hotter than Hades here. You walk for 2 minutes and you're drenched in sweat. Not fun! But cold showers have proved to be amazing.

I guess that's it for now... we're getting Internet in our apartment within the week and I hope to be able to share some pictures soon.

Traveling.

So this is how my trip began:

Nashville to LA, 4.5 hour flight.
LA to San Fran, 1 hour flight.
Arrived to San Fran to find out that I completely missed my flight, but someone else on my study abroad program did, too. Very relieved!
So now we're travelling together (his name is Tyson, fyi).
San Fran to Hong Kong, 14 hour flight.

Now I'm sitting in the ultra-nice Hong Kong airport, waiting for my flight to depart to my final destination: Bangkok! And apparently the airport in Bangkok is brand new, built in 2006, and is the largest airport in the whole world. With our luck, I'm betting Tyson and I will get completely lost trying to find our way out...

ps. There's a food stand in the airport selling squids in a bag.
pps. My Google homepage is in Chinese and it's funny.