Learning how to Function

Walked to the office and had coffee at Waggin’ Tales cafe. Waggin’ Tales cafe is a business run by Xplore Asia which supports a non-profit organization in Hua Hin that spays and neuters dogs. It is a clean smoothly run cafe that provides a wide assortment of food and drinks for reasonable prices. I had a great morning because traffic was extremely heavy but I felt more comfortable knowing what to expect from the motor scooters, vehicle, trucks, songthaews (trucks with two benches in the truck bed), and buses. There was an opportunity to share with the group my life story and I was surprised by their reaction. They expressed a considerable amount of emotion and provided me with verbal and spiritual support. In the afternoon, we were exposed to several different seminars covering traffic safety and the history/political climate of Thailand. During the historical presentation, I was pulled out of class and spoke with Ian (placement specialist) who stated I was going to be teaching high school age students somewhere just outside of Bangkok. But first I had to be interviewed the next day by the agent in charge of placing me in the school. As of right now, I still don’t know where I am going but I am pretty sure it will be an hour or two hours north of Bangkok in central Thailand. I couldn’t be more excited.

At the culmination of the day, our group traveled to the outdoor Dinosaur market in Hua Hin where we interacted with the street vendors and bought ingredients for our Thai cooking class. I had the opportunity to try waffles covered in strawberry jam, pork lettuce wraps, fried spicy fish, fried dough, fried crickets, cooked larvae, Thai muffins, and a locally grown tangerine. The food was amazing! At night, I washed my clothes in the laundry mat and observed there were no driers so I had to hang my clothes to dry. I am not sure if this is common but after talking with some of my group members who travel throughout Asia; it seems this might be normal protocol.