4-Story Mall Discovery

August 7, 2550 (That's the year over here right now.)

I ate breakfast that morning when I got up. Over here, I'm an early bird. It's weird. In America, I'm a night owl. Oh well. I ate breakfast, including tasting one of the fish that... well, it definately looked like a fish - eyes and all. It was kind of creepy, having your food look at you while you eat it...

Kun-Pah and I dropped Moei (host sister) off at school, then went for a walk around the park a little. We fed the fish and tons of pigeons, had brunch (I told you Thai people eat a lot!), then went to the bank to deposit my emergency money and vacation money. They took us to a different bank to exchange the USD to Baht, because that bank didn't exchange. So we waited in line and I transferred my travelers' cheques to Baht, then we took that money and the original bank took us back to the original bank (they drove us to the exchanger's bank and back), and then we were finally able to open two bank accounts. We got that taken care of, and I took my ATM card to the machine (ATM card from USA!), and withdrew some money. I ended up having a little white safe in my closet, so I stored a lot of money there so I don't have to pay a lot of money every time I withdraw baht from the machine. By the way, "baht" is the Thai currency. Then when we were done, we walked home (right across the street).

Barely a half of an hour later, we got in the SUV thing and went to the mall, because I had to get a couple notebooks to write in (mainly to keep track of the Thai I should know first), a couple pens, and an English-to-Thai translation book. Little did I know, where we parked the car... was under the mall. We parked and got out and I was looking around for any sign of where we were, then we approached some escalators, and rode those up.

A 4-story mall. The only mall in Udonthani, but it makes up for it. It's huge. It's not just 4-floors tall because each floor is small, no. Each floor is huge, and there are four of them. There's even an Auntie Anne's, a DQ, and a KFC. All of which are considered "expensive" to the Thai, but doing the conversions, it's cheaper than America. My parents will laugh at this, but I probably won't eat at the KFC, because it still has trans fat in their stuff. They have a Mister Donut, though, and I can't stay away... I've only been there once, but I became hooked. Their toasted coconut donuts are delicious. It's like the Dunkin' Donuts of Thailand. They also have a Pizza Hut somewhere in town, but I don't know where; Holly does.

After the mall, we drove to Kanchanaphisek Udonthani Technical College, my school. We picked up my school uniform's belt and shirt buttons, and the pin that goes on the shirt. I met one of the English teachers, and she showed me "The Canteen" (cafeteria), and we went into a side-shop that's like a miniature grocery store/snack place, like the ones you find in gas stations. We got some pumpkin seeds, and I popped one in my mouth. The teacher stared at me and asked me how did I just eat the seed, and I showed her... She stopped me before I ate it the second time, though. I guess the Thai don't eat pumpkin seeds like Americans do. I was right. She showed me that you crack them open with your teeth, then rip apart the shell, get the seed inside it, then eat the seed and toss the shell. Not only does that sound more laborous to just eat one little, flat pumpkin seed, but there's no crunch, and less taste. The shell kind of gives it more taste. She thought it was gross how we ate pumpkin seeds. I don't know why, but then again, I was grown up eating them that way anyway.

Kun-pah (host dad, Somchai) and I went back home, picked the rest of the family up, and went to a relatives'. I don't know exactly how we're related, but we are. They're pretty cool, too.

We went to eat some dinner, which consisted of, you guessed it, noodles. Then we had dessert right next door that was pretty good - it was a fruit juice with ice, and some different fruits in it.

We drove back home and I showered and went to sleep.