Here in Surat Thani... Saturday Oct. 16, 2010

Hi!  Or, Sawasdee!  I am sitting here in an internet cafe in Surat Thani, Thailand, my home for the next year.  For all of you who had a somewhat third world vision of what it might be like here, I am sitting in a brand new computer lab, typing on a brand new computer, and sitting in a really nice chair.  It's air conditioned in here (thank goodness!) and the music they're playing might as well be in Philly or Boston.  So far I have only heard current US top 40 songs; Katy Perry, Eminem, Mike Posner, Usher, etc.  I got here this morning from Bangkok.
             So my flight from New York to Hong Kong was wonderful.  Cathay Pacific is a magnificent airline and I reccommend it to anyone and everyone.  They fed me two real meals, and snacks.  I also had a personal TV on which I watched a movie, TV shows, and also played video games.  It was really entertaining.  That along with my book, Ipod, and two naps kept me busy and happy throughout the entire flight.  When I got to Hong Kong I only had to wait for about an hour until my plane left for Bangkok.  That was also enjoyable and only about 2 hours.  So I had freaked out and changed my hotel plans - and I am so happy that I did.  I stayed at the Novotel at the airport, and when I say at the airport I mean AT the airport.  And it was niiiice.  When I got there they were having a complimentary happy hour so I had a surprisingly good strawberry margarita and some delish veggie curry samosa things.  Then I went up to my room, which was amazing.  It had two bathrooms, two TVS, a sitting room, and three telephones!  It even had a huge glass window inbetween the bathroom and the bedroom and speakers in the bathroom so that you could take a bubble bath and watch TV if you wanted!  It was luxurious.
                     I then woke up and flew to Surat Thani this morning.  I flew Thai Air, first class (because it was the cheapest first class I'll ever get in my entire life, like $80), and they fed me TWICE on a one hour flight!  When we landed I was a little surprised... the airport was about the size of my mom's house, the runway about the size of the stadium in Quincy, and we were the ONLY plane there.  I mean the only one.  I got off the plane and Peter, my boss was waiting for me.  We got into his Mazda and headed for town.  I was shocked - they drive on the wrong side like the British!  I had no idea!  We dropped my stuff off at my house and picked up 3 of the other teachers, 2 of whom I will be living with, and we all went out to lunch near our house.  It was delicious.  Then he dropped us off at home. 
                        So let me just tell you about my bedroom.  Our house has like 4 bathrooms, 2 balconies, and 4 bedrooms.  At first glance I was very pleased with my room.  Then  we spent about an hour clearing away the spider webs and evacuating 2 giant spiders!  There were also these little brown things all over the walls, which I thought were little bug coccons or something but come to find out it's gecko poop.  There's gecko poop everywhere.  But some cleaning and rearranging of the furniture with the help of my new roomies and it looks much much better than it did.  So I am happy with the room.  The only thing so far that I am in total culture shock about is the bathroom situation. So, um, you don't flush a toilet here and you never ever put toilet paper into the toilet.  After you wipe your bum, even if you pooped, you throw away the toilet paper instead of flushing it!  That's right folks, throw it away.  Thank goodness I haven't pooed yet, I'm really scared.  So, you do your business, wipe, throw away your toilet paper, and then you manually flush the toilet.  You do this by dipping a little bucket into a barrell of fresh water and dumping it into the bowl until the waste goes down.  Wild.  And there's currently no running water in my house so I will be taking a showe by bucket as well.  So my hour is up, I have to go....  I miss you guys!  And American plumbing!  xoxoxoxo