a very wet adventure

On Friday, for the first time since I've been here, I was feeling a bit homesick and out of sorts. Probably because the only other native English speaker that I know had left town to visit his parents. :) It can just be a little exhausting when you're hearing a foreign language all the time and trying to learn it, plus (trying to) communicate in your own language with non-native speakers, with lots of missed and mixed messages. Add to that lots of cultural uncertainty, and it makes for some tiring and frustrating days.

So when I jogged by Gaan and Geng's shop on Friday evening and she stopped me to invite me on a biking tour with some German tourists, I gladly accepted! I knew the exercise and time speaking German and/ or English with Westerners would do me good. Plus, I love off-road biking! They picked me up just before 8:00 on Sat. morning with the bikes on top of the truck, we picked up the Germans from their hotel and headed for the countryside. We started off biking on the road in beautiful weather- not too warm, slightly overcast. We stopped at a little guesthouse to use the bathroom and eat some bananas. That's where I saw my first monkey in Thailand and used my first squatty potty. The owners of the house had several pet monkeys- they were so cute!

We continued on toward the waterfall and went off-road for a while. Then it started pouring on us. We rode up and down hills, over slippery rocks, through mud and creeks, while getting drenched the whole time. We were so muddy! It was great. Finally, we came to a spot where we were to leave our bikes and hike up a bit to the waterfall. I hadn't changed into my bathing suit yet, so Gaan said I could go into this unfinished house to one of the rooms and change there- haha! I figured "ok, anything goes." I wore my bathing suit top and bottoms w/ my biking shorts over them; putting back on my soaked and muddy shirt in the drenching rain seemed pointless. We traipsed through the jungle and waded through creeks, but when we came to a spot where we'd have had to wade up to our necks in the creek, the Germans objected. I wouldn't have minded, since we were already so wet and I wanted to see the waterfall, but I was ok with turning around, too. We drove back down to the guesthouse for lunch, because we'd had enough of getting soaked for the day. The food was great, and on the way home, we got to stop and see a waterfall anyway. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my adventure; I didn't take my camera because I knew it was likely to rain, or my camera could get broken in the rough conditions. Christine and Lars took a picture of me at the waterfall, though, so when they e-mail it to me, I'll post it.

In the evening, I went shopping at the market by myself for the first time. It was fun. I took my time and looked at all the pretty fruits and vegetables. I can understand and say the numbers pretty well now, and that's about all you have to know to go shopping.