#2 consists of bad luck with technology!

So far, so much bad luck with technology. Firstly, the insanely clever part of me decided to kneel on my kindle breaking the screen meaning I was now bookless. I could cope with this for a while knowing I had a kindle app on my mac though. Then, Monday afternoon decided to hand me a plate full of more bad luck - my laptop just turned off and wouldn't turn on. After several phone calls home trying to explain that this time it wasn't my fault - "no mum I did not drop it, no mum I didn't step on it either, I also did not spill anything on it or let it overheat. No mum... mum seriously...?" It's now the following Monday night and as far as I know, my laptop is in the hands of some computer tech man who speaks barely any English "I fix for you, leave here, 2-3000 baht, I call when fixed" God knows the fate of my poor Apple Mac which has been a trusty reliable friend for about 6 years now.

At the Temple with the teachers

So with the evenings dragging without my laptop to watch films (and Suits, omg I was in the middle of an episode where Donna was sleeping with the new fancy pants guy!) it has been a loooooong week. However, the days have only gotten better! One day we drove a two hour drive to the Mekong River where we could see Laos and we went to one the biggest temples in Thailand with all the teachers at the school parading around with us, we had no idea what was going on but we did get to bang the big gong at the end! The next day we drove a similar drive with the two guy volunteers from Phana and their hosts to a National Park where we saw many cool rocks (kinda like Thailands equivalent of Stone Henge - interesting for a moment or two and then you realise that it really is just a rock) but we also saw a famous rock painting which was actually really cool! Afterwards we walked down to a waterfall and us 5 volunteers all jumped in the water and swam under the waterfall which in the blistering heat was insanely refreshing and fun! Then on the drive home our host bought us ice creams, soya milk and fried chicken and chips - she really really doesn't think we can handle Thai food! 

After two busy days we were then left to ourselves on Friday to have a lie in, relax, attempt to order our lunch from a local restaurant where they speak no English and we speak no Thai... we eventually managed to say chicken rice in Thai - kow man gai (that could be spelled totally wrong)! We also got to ride our bikes more - we love our daily bike rides down to the 7/11 where we buy chocolate milk and cakes for the morning. Ok, so we are trying to immerse ourselves into Thai culture but we have found that we just simply love the chocolate milk and banana/milk cakes from 7/11 and of course the strawberry fanta! 

Saturday we arranged with the other volunteers close by to all meet in Ubon Ratchathani for some real fun! We had all managed to find our various ways in via Song Thaew's or lifts from hosts if you were lucky and had met everyone by 12ish in Sunee Tower where we ate lunch from the food court. This mainly consists of pointing at pictures which look fairly edible and not having a clue what is in it - not eating beef or pork means this is very difficult so I have learnt the Thai for chicken to try and suss out what I am eating. We then decided to go bowling as the only English films on were ones we had never heard of. Bowling was so much fun - we ordered some alcoholic slushy type drinks from the bar and were given a form of shot glass and jugs of alcoholic slush. They tasted pretttty daaaamn good (especially after 2 weeks of no alcohol which I'm sure many of you are shocked that I am still standing after 2 weeks with no alcohol). Seeing other volunteers was a nice reminder that all of us out here are going through similar versions of culture shock and are adapting slowly, most of them have been quite ill which I have not yet suffered so I'm counting my blessings. Even if I can't manage to save my electronics at least my body is saved from illness (fingers crossed).

All in all, the second week at Muang Samsip has brought ups and downs but my lovely partners have been letting me use their laptops and kindles - I'm now reading some strange WWI book that has actually gotten quite interesting, clearly not the end of the world then. Today is my birthday and I've had a lovely card signed by the other volunteers and cute little cake from Nicole and Cissy and a purple bag that our host had me knitted as purple is my favourite colour - how cute! It's weird to think that although my birthday is almost over here in Thailand, it still has half a day left in England! Also, Cissy's mum has sent Les Mis bracelets in the post as she found out I love Les Mis, I cannot even explain how excited I am for this!!! 

Loving and missing you all back home and thank you for the lovely birthday messages! I'm going to properly celebrate once we get to Chiang Mai with vodka mixed with strawberry fanta (So excited to try this!)

(Also photos will be added when and if I am reunited with my baby appley - come back to mummy soon laptop, I'm praying for you)

Amy xxx