Ok, so the last blog was a little disjointed and I have some more time now. So the village we were at for our homestay are living in the forest that the government wants to use for tourism. Right now they have an agreement with the government that basically says if the government can find them land somewhere else they have to leave unless they can prove that they have been on their land for over 50 years. Unfortunately, there just weren't legal land titles and other documents like that 50 years ago so they have no way to prove it. What they want to do is increase tourism so the government will leave them alone while at the same time maintaining the lifestyle they have. The next day we woke up at 6am, helped our meh cook breakfast and then we hiked up a mountain to get to these caves that I think are the big tourist draw. They had cave drawings and chrystals and stuff. The villagers asked if a historian could help date the cave drawings to prove they were over 50 years old. And then we traveled to Khon Kaen. Its kind of a crazy place. The actual campus is maybe 20 minutes from the city but the campus itself is a city. It is HUGE. Everything you need is right here or you can get a tuk tuk, kind of an open air taxi, to go into downtown Khon Kaen. Tomorrow we are meeting with the president of the University to officially register and stuff, then heading off to a homestay in Khon Kaen until Friday. I don't know if it's because every bed and pillow in Thailand feels like sleeping on a cement block or I'm just not adjusted to the time yet, but I've been waking up at around 6 or 7 every morning. In the village, it was because the roosters were cockadoodle-dooing. Seriously. Then I ahp-naam (shower) which in the village was dumping buckets of water on myself and in the city is standing in the bathroom and using a hose. Also there is no toilet paper. Again, buckets of water or a hose. Its quite an experience.
We've only been here for just over a week but already so much has happened that I can't keep it all straight. I'll be sure to put up pictures soon.

so this is my first blog from THAILAND. its amazing. we spent a couple days in bangkok kind of getting to know the program and doing tourist things and going out. then we had this retreat in the mountains and did intense thai lessons and get to know you stuff. everyone in the program is really great including the ajaans (teachers). the food has been AMAZING, sooooo much garlic and seasoning and flavor. we did our first homestay in this village that is living illegally in a national forest. they don't have electricity but it was just amazing. i'm pretty sure my meh and paw (mom and dad) were some head honchos in the village because their house was the most spacious and they were kind of old. they have a daughter who is in america. or else it was our meh's little sister. those words are very similar. communication was a bit of a challange but we got it and it was such an amazing feeling when we could understand eachother while barely speaking the same language. its been great. yesterday we finally moved into our rooms at the university in khon kaen but tomorrow we're going again to another homestay. this one is in the city and its for like a week. all of our families have kids in them so that should be fun. my thai roommate is really sweet. she's 27 and getting her masters in sociology. ok, so i still have about 56 emails to read before my thai lesson. but the basic summary is, thailand is AMAZING. i never want to leave.