Not too much interesting in the last school week, but an entertaining weekend.

Friday evening, after an uninteresting afternoon photography class, I went home, and then I got in my host dad's truck, in which me and my host parents drove all the way to Khon Kaen. The way there was uneventful. I attempted to work on translating a song (Killer Queen, by Queen) for my Thai class, but only got about half a stanza in before deciding that Thai highways are very bumpy, my host father's truck only made that worse, and that translating something without the help of a very, very good dictionary is just stupid. And also that I was bored of it. After which I just sat and listened to music.

When we got there we went and ate a late dinner, and then we went back to my host aunt's house, where I went and slept on my cousin's floor. My back loved! it.

On our way out on Saturday morning, my host dad went to hand me a red envelope, which I recognized. Apparently the Thai (Chinese?) word for Chinese New Year money is "ang bao." Thank you, host dad.

Then we went to some other relative's house for a while. And by "for a while" I mean like 4 hours or something. I watched an episode of House, and part of an old (yes!) episode of Monk, and then part of some random movie which I greatly disliked. Somebody else decided on the English channel. After those 4 hours, I was invited to go see a movie at Khon Kaen's "Central Plaza" mall, which I declined, but then I ended up going there anyway because everybody was. Instead of going to a movie, though, me and my host parents just wandered around, and then ate ice cream at Swensen's, after which my host dad told me we were going to eat dinner. Actually, though, they weren't so cruel, hahaha. Instead we went to go see the Khon Kaen museum, which ended up being closed, so we went to some temple, which I actually really liked. It was a cool temple. And I got to try and lift up a very heavy weight with my ring finger, and I managed, so apparently I will have good fortune. The temple also had like 9 levels, which you could climb up, and so we did that. I enjoyed the top level, although there were a bunch of monks there so it was like "well, I guess I can't walk on that entire side of this," because there was absolutely no room up there.

After that we went to some park, and I fed fish, and then we actually did go to dinner. It was kind of weird hot pot, but it wasn't bad. There was some delicious desert that was like shaved ice with syrup and sweetened condensed milk on top, with small bits of deep-fried-dough-stuff in it. Amazing. There was also some other exchange student at the table next to us, but I had no idea who it was, so I didn't say hello.

When we all went back to the house, my uncle came over and everybody started playing some card game that was clearly pointless without the obvious gambling everybody was doing with all their ang bao money. Have I mentioned that gambling is technically illegal in Thailand? Hahaha. Oh, host family. I just watched for a while, because I had no idea how to play. But after watching for like 45 minutes and still having no idea at all, my host cousin came over and explained it to me. It was still confusing (and I still couldn't properly explain all the rules to anybody), but it finally made sense, so my cousin gave me a 5 baht coin and told me to play. After like 15 minutes that was gone, so I went and got my own 20 baht-- which ended up lasting me a good 2 1/2 hours, at one point in which I had like 65 baht. I was doing well. And then I lost it all. So two of my cousins ended up giving me a collective 20 baht, so I could finish playing with everybody else, and I ended up making an extra 35 baht. So I ended up being able to pay my cousins back, making back my 20 baht lost, and then an extra 15 baht. 3 hours of pok deng: $0.45. I am an excellent gambler.

After that we went to sleep, and then on Sunday, after eating breakfast and then going and eating lunch like half an hour later, we came home. I spent the rest of the day watching bad Korean dramas. And then translating the rest of Killer Queen.

Today I went to Thai class, but my teacher was sick, and her mother was substituting for her. So we just chatted with her in Thai for a bit, and handed in our songs, and then she told us to go. Us females ended up going to the mall, where we went and wandered around the market of traditional Thai goods that is currently in the big hall there, and then eating sushi, and then wandering around. I am going to be so sad when I can't go to the mall and get 9 pieces of decent sushi for $2. So. Sad.

You have no idea.

:c