Dear Charles #12,

hot season has officially started. can you sense the excitement in my voice? i thought it was hot when i first got here, but oh no. i had no idea that 100 degrees and 99% humidity were on their way over here from africa. i swear if i don't come home with the most perfect golden brown skin, i'm gonna be not stoked.

as my mom and kyle were here a couple of weeks ago, i got some days off of my volunteer job (haha, it will never get old) to see a bit more of this country with them. for the most part, they stayed at school with me during the day which was great! the kids really took a liking to kyle and no one took a liking to my mom....(just kidding mom, please don't throw me out this summer. i bet you look really pretty right now...*nervous laughter*). they were able to help out in a bunch of different areas of the school, including making costumes for the elementary green day play we had last week. they were so cute..just like you would picture costumes for a play like that, big flowers and fish made out of felt and paper, with big holes for their heads to poke through. the play turned out...like was anticipated. there were crowds of kids who didn't know where they were supposed to stand, the one who thought no one could see him picking his nose, the kids who didn't know any of the words to the songs situated right in front, and the girl who just waved at her parents the whole time. the gang was all there :)
so the days we did have off from school, we made it to a couple of hot spots in chiang rai, as well as chiang mai, including, but not limited to...waterfalls and bamboo forests, crazy temples, beautiful flower gardens dedicated to the queen, boat rides through a river, riding elephants, going to a zoo and feeding giraffes....oh wait, i'm sorry, did i just say riding elephants!? why yes! yes i did!
this was the coolest thing in my opinion..i may be partial cause elephants are my favorite animal, but it was the coolest experience. me and my mom shared one elephant, and kyle got his own. i was surprised once we were done that we, and so many other trust the seat on top of the elephant, as it looks like a small park bench that is roped the the elephants body. one false move and...i don't know. i don't want to think about it. after about 20 minutes the driver got off the head of the elephant and grabbed my arm and pulled me down to where we was previously sitting, so for the rest of the time (about 30-40 min) i got to ride on the elephants head. unfortunately for me i was wearing a skirt, and the elephant forgot to..shave its body....i don't know how many of you have felt an elephants hide but it is..not soft. my inner thighs were quite sure of that. other then slight discomfort, it was by far one of the coolest things i've done since i've been here.
having my family here was so exciting. being able to take them to all my favorite places to eat, and having them try all the weird foods i now crave here, walking through my neighborhood and meeting the people who i am currently sharing life with. im pretty sure they had a wonderful time...either that or they really are as good of actors as their college diplomas say they are.

since them leaving my life here has slowly gotten back to normal. i finally made it through the series 'friends' this past weekend. finishing the last episode out of 39 disks....(ugh i'm so pathetic), managing to laugh til i peed a little, cry til i realized that any extra condensation on my face was murder, and take an afternoon of acceptance that i wouldn't see these friends everyday. i was actually depressed on saturday when i finished...depressed. if this is how i act for a t.v. show, i am screwed for coming back to america after 6 months here. you all better get me some darn good welcome home presents.

the realization that this school year is close to ending is creeping into my brain. after this week at school, we're into april where we only have two weeks of school then song-khran (2 week spring break) then we only have may left, and then conner comes to visit and we hang out for a few weeks before we both go home. i basically have like 5 min. to do everything else i want here...*sigh*
i might not get to posting anything again before i leave for my vacation in a few weeks. so to hold you over until my next one...i'll leave you with these thoughts to be extremely jealous of me. i am going with a few other families from the school here to hui-hin for a week. hui-hin is a beach in the south of thailand. for those of you who dont know about the beaches in thailand they are....literally paradise. when you think of paradise, what do you think of?....a room full with bags of sour patch watermelons, and hugh grant serenading you...? no, although that is...a wonderful thought...
no. this paradise is white sandy beaches, blue/green water, palm trees, cool drinks, hammocks...aaahhhh. for a whole week! i can feel my sun burn forming already. so while im doing that, hey, washington...enjoy that rain and slushy crappy snow. i'll be thinking of you while im sipping a cool 'non-alcoholic' drink ;)