i just have a few more updates about my last homestay. not much more interesting happened, but for posterity and my mother's sake i am trying to record most of what i did. one of the most fun things we did is to go swimming in the Mon (sp?) River. we just all jumped in in our clothes during a tour of a community forest. my feet sunk in the nastiest feeling mud ever, and the river had grasses and branches and things one would rather not identify floating all through it, but it was the perfect temperature and had a little pier thing you could jump off of. right before we were all about to get out a herd of kwai came swimming through us to get to the bank. a whole herd of water buffalo sharing our swimming hole! it was terrifying! but fun of course.
thats about it for the homestays, right now we are doing an activity called "follow the food." there are 5 groups who each pick a product and are supposed to follow it to its source. i am in the coca cola group so we are supposed to follow a bottle of coke. ours is not working out the way it was planned, because no one will let us into the coke factories, shaaaady. so today we decided to try to find the coke recipe online, find the ingredients, and make it ourself. what resulted was a very unique drink that sort of tastes like a coke if you try really hard to believe it, but is really tasty. it has a lot more flavor than a coke and we have to mix what we made with soda water to make it carbonated and watered down enough to be drinkable. i prefer this final product to a regular coke, and no union leaders were killed in the process. anyway, if you would like the recipe, let me know, it is quite the adventure to make. tomorrow we go to bangkok to the major coke factory. i had pizza for lunch today and it made me sick, which is just great. not only am i not totally used to thai food, but western food doesnt work either, yay!
peace everyone, wish my bro Jeff a happy (belated) birthday! he's a teenager!
thats about it for the homestays, right now we are doing an activity called "follow the food." there are 5 groups who each pick a product and are supposed to follow it to its source. i am in the coca cola group so we are supposed to follow a bottle of coke. ours is not working out the way it was planned, because no one will let us into the coke factories, shaaaady. so today we decided to try to find the coke recipe online, find the ingredients, and make it ourself. what resulted was a very unique drink that sort of tastes like a coke if you try really hard to believe it, but is really tasty. it has a lot more flavor than a coke and we have to mix what we made with soda water to make it carbonated and watered down enough to be drinkable. i prefer this final product to a regular coke, and no union leaders were killed in the process. anyway, if you would like the recipe, let me know, it is quite the adventure to make. tomorrow we go to bangkok to the major coke factory. i had pizza for lunch today and it made me sick, which is just great. not only am i not totally used to thai food, but western food doesnt work either, yay!
peace everyone, wish my bro Jeff a happy (belated) birthday! he's a teenager!
5 comments:
Hey, how exciting to swim with a herd of water buffalo. How about all the elephants-Where are they?????
Yeesh. Be careful trying to get into those Coke factories. I don't think the people who run those places are very friendly, you know.
yeah we tried to ask them about killing union leaders but our teacher seemed reluctant to translate that for some reason.
Dear Stephanie :
It sounds like you are having quite a experience in the "East". It seems a little different than Ireland! I don't think we will be ready to see any of your snapshots from the visits to some of the places you talk about.Your Mom mentioned on Thanksgiving that you had questioned the advisors about some aspects of your adventures. When I read aboiut your trips to the sex shows, I wondered if the program offers the students an opportunity to put all of these experiences into some kind of context for yourselves? I would think it would help you guys who had to see all this stuff to understand how much all of what you saw was a real degredation of people. As you said, the male prostitute you stayed with , and so many of the other people you described - were sad - cried a lot,and were trapped in doing these things just to make some money. Is this why your advisors took you to these shows - to help you to see how people can be so degraded - or was it just for the "shock value?" If so, it is my opinion that they owe all of you an apology - you didn't have to go to Thailand to see such depravity - you could go on the Internet or to Times Square or wherever and see the same sad human condition.
It seems to me that you,from your experience of life, would have a lot more wisdom and sense to teach your advisors something about the world and about life.
That's my two cents.
I hope your exeperiences have been good for the most part - they certainly have been different. From teh pictures, it seems like a beautiful country that God made there. I hope your trip to Vietnam goes well - that is supposed to be a beautiful country as well. Enjoy your Christmas there - I would think that a lot Vietnamese people probably celebrate Christmas as the Birth of the Lord Jesus.
I am praying you have a good trip there, and safe home - and a good Christmas. Love, Uncle John
Dear Stephanie :
It sounds like you are having quite a experience in the "East". It seems a little different than Ireland! I don't think we will be ready to see any of your snapshots from the visits to some of the places you talk about.Your Mom mentioned on Thanksgiving that you had questioned the advisors about some aspects of your adventures. When I read aboiut your trips to the sex shows, I wondered if the program offers the students an opportunity to put all of these experiences into some kind of context for yourselves? I would think it would help you guys who had to see all this stuff to understand how much all of what you saw was a real degredation of people. As you said, the male prostitute you stayed with , and so many of the other people you described - were sad - cried a lot,and were trapped in doing these things just to make some money. Is this why your advisors took you to these shows - to help you to see how people can be so degraded - or was it just for the "shock value?" If so, it is my opinion that they owe all of you an apology - you didn't have to go to Thailand to see such depravity - you could go on the Internet or to Times Square or wherever and see the same sad human condition.
It seems to me that you,from your experience of life, would have a lot more wisdom and sense to teach your advisors something about the world and about life.
That's my two cents.
I hope your exeperiences have been good for the most part - they certainly have been different. From teh pictures, it seems like a beautiful country that God made there. I hope your trip to Vietnam goes well - that is supposed to be a beautiful country as well. Enjoy your Christmas there - I would think that a lot Vietnamese people probably celebrate Christmas as the Birth of the Lord Jesus.
I am praying you have a good trip there, and safe home - and a good Christmas. Love, Uncle John
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