&etc(cont.): Kitties! also, lots of pictures

So Thailand is kind of a funny place. There are plenty of things you wouldn’t expect to see in America, some things you wouldn’t expect to see in Thailand, and lots and lots of things you wouldn’t expect to see anywhere.

Here are some of my first impressions:

-There isn’t any hot water. I’m sure it’s available in some places, but I haven’t found it yet.

-There is plenty of food, everywhere. I was a little concerned about losing weight, but now I realize that was silly: one is never more than a couple meters from food in Thailand.

-Most meals are eaten with the hands. All meals are eaten with sticky rice.

-Thais will eat anything and everything. Fruits, stalks, leaves, stems, flowers, beef, pork, chicken, fish, buffalo skin, bugs, birds, eggs, bugs- it doesn’t really matter.

-Thai is a tricky language! There are five tones, meaning that the intonation of a word is important to its definition.

-Most toilets are of the squat variety.

-It seems like everybody rides little motorbikes. I haven’t seen any crotch rockets yet, though; most of the bikes are small and not very flashy.

-There are animals everywhere! It seems like everywhere you turn there's either a cat, or a dog, or some chickens, or a lizard, or water buffalo, or something else prowling around.