Interesting week with no internship...

I am sure the Monks will miss us and wat suan dok this week or maybe not. They do not have class so therefore we do not have an internship. I am not really sure what we are supposed to be doing but yesterday we went to a temple of a monk friend and chatted for a while and he showed us his room and we just hung out. Today we went to the library to get some books on buddhism and then headed to the pool and read buddhist teachings while getting some sun. It is really a hard life here let me tell you...
Tomorrow I think I am going with my host father to a fashion show for the faculty of humanities which probably includes many lady boys apparently. Sounds like a drag show to me so I am excited. Apparently my host father is the Emcee so that will be fun to watch.
We had a speaker in our culture class today that talked about social benefits of buddhism and how he started a program using monks and lay people to spread HIV/AIDS education and prevention. He also talked about using meditation to calm the mind and help accept death in a better way. He was so cool and actually the first white monk (from australia) that I have met so far. Or at least he was a monk at one point. Very cool. I talked to him about interning with him in the future..he sounded interested. He travels everywhere teaching so that would be a great thing to get involved with.
I am having a hard time learning Thai these days. It seems like Marit is picking everything up and I just can't remember anything. I wish there was a tea around here for concentration. I would drink it. She is very good with language but I am much better with visuals and maps I have learned. Funny how it has taken me this long to figure it out.
I am trying to get a Thai friend of mine here to fly to Minnesota and visit in May. She is already going to be in Florida and I want her to see Minnesota. Marit and I might split the cost of her flight to Minnesota because she can't afford it. She is one of the coolest people I know here and I am sure that she will love Minnesota. If she comes I can impress everyone with my Thai as well which would be cool.
I might put a picture of the pagent up...that way all of you can see how funny we all look as Thai beauty queens.
Aubs