Victory is Mine!

After a long and desperate struggle, the ants are finally gone. I haven't seen any sign of another invasion for two entire days, and I sincerely hope they learned their lesson at the hands of my toxic vanilla body spray. Or the removal of the bamboo mat, or the shutting of the windows, or the cessation of eating in my bedroom. I don't know what I did, and I don't really care - they left, and that's all that matters. I still see a few stragglers now and then, but they don't stand a chance against me and whatever blunt object happens to be nearby.

Here is a picture of my ant-free bedroom:

And before I forget, here's the temple I visited the other day:

Two days ago I went to the beach with my family, and my host dad took a bunch of pictures so I'll post them when I get them from him. He's way better about pictures than me! This time I actually did take my camera, but it died before I could take any photos so I was glad my host dad had his. We also went to Su-ao cold springs, which is one of only two cold springs in the world (the other is in Italy). Basically, you just soak in the water sans clothes and let these little bubbles form on your skin until you start feeling hot instead of cold. They say it's very healthy for you, which I can believe because I felt great afterward. And Su-ao itself is a beautiful little town; I plan to go back sometime.

After the beach and the cold spring, we all went out to a fresh seafood restaurant. It was... an experience. Remember how there is no part of the chicken that can't be eaten, except the bones? That goes for seafood too, only instead of spitting out bones you remove shells. When you eat squid, you eat the whole freaking squid, including all the internal organs and the defensive ink that they use to escape predators (it must not be a very good defense though, because I was eating it). I did try everything, but I just don't think I have a taste for the internal organs of marine creatures. Chicken heart? Fine. Chicken liver? Okay. Pig intestines? No problem. But shrimp brains, squid gills, and whatever that yellow stuff inside the crab was are just not for me. I'm actually surprised, because seafood organs are the only food here I've tried so far that I really don't like. And according to rule number 5, I am now authorized to avoid it in the future if I want to.

What's rule number 5, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Most people who know me pretty well know that I have a fairly irreverent attitude towards other peoples' rules. That's because I have my own that work very well for me. Here is a list of the rules I made for this exchange:

1. No complaining,

2. Stay positive (it sounds cliche, but I'm really serious about this one),

3. If you can say it in Chinese, don't say it in English,

4. Say yes as much as possible, and

5. Try everything once, BUT

6. Use common sense. 

Number three has really helped me to practice my Chinese. But I still have a long way to go, as demonstrated by the fact that on my birthday my host family was planning a surprise party right in front of me and I had no idea what was going on. I was pretty clueless until about 10 minutes beforehand when everyone disappeared into the living room and told me to stay out. I've never had a surprise party before, and it was really very special. Complete with presents, cake, STRAWBERRIES, and distinctly American hip hop music, it was a great end to a great day. And it was my 18th birthday, so you can infer what some of the presents were. My second host mom says she is very happy that she can now legally teach me bad things. She was joking, of course....

I feel like I have been here for ages already. I no longer freak out when I see my host dad's speedometer at 100 (it's in kilometers per hour), and seeing a $1000 bill isn't that exciting anymore because I know it's only about 30 bucks in the US. I'm not really surprised by new things anymore; I pretty much just go with it even if it seems weird at first (although I would like to know why "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was playing at a breakfast cafe this morning, because it's September and Christmas isn't even an official holiday here). For once, I actually WANT to start school, because I want to hang out with more people my own age. I picked out my classes the other day, and I tried to choose ones where I can just copy people and not really have to understand what the teacher is saying. It has occurred to me that this might be a disastrous strategy for cooking class, but at least I have art and photography and they are the same in every language. Oh, and I get to learn Tai-Chi, so everyone had better be nice to me when I get back to the States! >:)

It's the middle of the afternoon, but I'm sleepy because I got up early this morning to go feed my addiction. My waffle addiction, that is - the breakfast cafe I mentioned earlier has great waffles and my host family and I go there all the time. My host sister says I'm a crazy waffle addict, and she's probably right. Anyway, I'm taking a nap. Gooooood night.