Bicycles.

Yesterday was bike day!  We've spent the last two days becoming intimately acquainted with our new rides.  This morning we rode about 25 miles around some of our host family sites, and it was absolutely awesome.  The weather has been perfect and it was so great to get out and explore things a little more.  I also got some pretty ridiculous tan lines today from our bike tour (can't really complain I guess, considering that meant spending the day in the sunshine).  Training has been pretty exhausting so far - long days filled with copious amounts of information and an introduction to learning to speak Thai ( the other day we got to go introduce ourselves to the Vice Governor of the province we're staying in right now, and we had to do it in Thai - slightly anxiety provoking, but awesome).  Tomorrow is the day we meet our host families and move in with them.  It's been a little surreal so far, living in a hotel with 49 fellow volunteers, and it's still not really sinking in that I live here.  I'm excited to meet my host family and be off on my own for the first time, but it's also a little scary.  They probably won't speak any English, and so far the only things I really know how to say in Thai are hello, my name, where I'm from, thank you, numbers, and a few other random words/phrases that likely won't be much help, so this will be an interesting experience in cultural immersion.  Sunday is our first real day off from training where we don't have anything scheduled besides spending the day with our host family, so I'm excited to see what the weekend will bring. 

I had my first experience with a squat toilet yesterday.  When someone first explained to me what it was I was concerned that it was literally just a hole in the ground - which it is sort of, but it's more like a toilet seat that has been lowered so it's about 6 inches off the ground (and there's no running water and you can't sit on it....hence the name).  There's an art to using one, which they taught us the other day in training (along with how to take a bucket bath - I'll save any details of that for my first bucket bath/shower experience). 

There's a chance I might not have internet access again for several weeks, so I'm soaking up the last night of internet, air conditioning, electricity, running water and all the other basic amenities I might be going without very soon (there's also a chance my host family will have all these things, but I'm setting my expectations low so as not to be disappointed - and who knows, it might be a great experience to do without all that for a while).  Judging by our training schedule and the potential for no internet access in the next few weeks, it might be hard to provide many updates, but so far it's amazing (albeit slightly overwhelming sometimes) and I can't wait to go native.

Here's a few photos to get started...our volunteer group prior to going to meet the vice governor and a few from the bike tour today...I promise I'll add more later!