Hoss Fom Ali

Meow! I'm in an internet cafe and cannot access my email, so you blog-readers-only get lucky today.

Today I met my host family and moved into their home. I have a 20-year-old host sister who likes to do fun things that I like to do, and an 11-year-old sister who laughs every time she sees me. I live in the city and can walk or at least catch a red truck (=taxi) to places that seem important, even though I don't know my way around yet. We do not have a maid (which the students had been told was pretty likely); the family seems to be of lower class than most of the host families. I don't want a maid, that's weird anyway, but a lack of a maid is no excuse for a lack of a clean house in my opinion. I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to offer to help clean, but if they could understand me when I spoke, I might consider it. None of the family speaks English. 20-year-old sis understands me, kind of, but can't respond very well. We're working on it. We laugh a lot at the misunderstanding, I hope the laughing lasts. My room is an 8x8 cell with no dresser and a window that is six inches away from the next building. Mai pen rai! Mom runs a beauty salon and it is part of our downstairs. Dad has a ponytail and is larger than any Thai men I have seen (perhaps he's not?) and sleeps, watches tv, and has not said a word to me. Parents evidently do not care what we do.

I think these are all exactly what I would have preferred over the realistic alternatives, so I am feeling positive about the situation. I actively miss my friends who are in various homes around the city as I type. Fortunately we will be reunited in school tomorrow morning. Perhaps this week I will look more forward to Thai language class, for multiple reasons.