Thursday

It’s the last day of June. I’ve left the States for a week now. It seems like it’s been so long. I’ve done my laundry without softener. Now, my cloth all feels like paper. I’ve lived without air con. and my feet’s still swollen due to the msg. And my skin is certainly much darker. Besides all that, it has been good times. I like small town mentality. I can put up with so much more than being in a city. Big cities can easily drive me up to the wall. When I walked down the street here, I don’t feel like burning the place down as I would Taipei or New York. Granted, it’s hot during the day but, it’s not too bad so far and it’s been cool at night. The cool thing is I get to see the mountains whenever I’m outside since there isn’t any tall building and sometimes the scenery can be really gorgeous.
Our assignment today is to learn the local language. Des & I went to get our haircut at this up-scale salon probably 15 feet from our place. Not only they washed our hair like 10 times but also they did the whole message thing from head to lower back including arms! Then, another 45 mins to just cut our hair. All that only cost me about US$3.00! Sweet, isn’t it. We went to this one & only fried chicken place across street to get some semi-American food. We’ve been learning the local language from the restaurant owner and helpers. We spent the whole night there so, now I could sound a few sentences. It’s fun to be laughed at sometimes so that we narrow the gap and let them know that Americans aren’t that superior. The most effective way usually is to see yourself as a learner, story teller, and trader.