Living the Thai Dream...

It has been a little over 2 weeks since I have moved to site and I am learning to appreciate it more and more each day. I must admit, it was very hard at first, I didn't have my bike and I got to site right in the middle of a holiday when no one was working. Now, I actually have transportation...aka my bike, and I have been going to work everyday at the local government office from 8 am to 4:30 pm. I have already learned so much about my community and the 14 villages that I will be working with. For the past week I have been going to each village and talking with each village headman. I feel like I have somewhat made myself known here in the community, but definitely have more IRBing to do (intentional relationship building, as the Peace Corps calls it). I haven't rode my bike much since my office has taken me around to each village and showed me where everything is. I think once I get out on my bike everything will look much different, since I will be living it and not just looking at it through a window.
I have 1.5 weeks left until I move into my own rental house...finally! I have been living with host-families for the last 4 months and can't wait to be able to just do my own thing. My office is going to help me move in and hopefully take me to the tesco lotus, which is like Target, Thai style. I will finally be able to go home and relax, without worrying about speaking Thai or having people watch my every move. Don't get me wrong, I have loved living with Thai families. I learned how to cook about 10 different Thai dishes as well as learn about the Thai culture, up close and personal. For example, last Saturday I got up around 6:30 am, since I never get up passed 7...ever, and as I got out of the shower my Nayoke (boss) was standing there waiting to take me to a monk party. I then went straight to the party, around 8 am. I sat there while others had already started drinking. The marching band showed up a little later, and when I say marching band, I mean marching band. It was complete with trumpets, saxophones, and drums that you hold while you walk. After listening to them for a bit we all loaded up in the trucks and went to the temple down the street. We all piled out of the trucks for a good 15 minutes and danced while the band was playing. We then walked back to the house, which was about .25 miles away but took a good hour to get back becuase we were dancing the whole time! The soon-to-be monk was being carried on this bull looking pinata/chair thing that about 5-10 men were carrying. Just to paint you a better picture, we were walking in the middle of the road with about 100 semi-drunk people at 9am dancing to a marching band while a monk was being hoisted up on people's shoulders. This party then continued for the rest of the day and late into the night. These parties are all day extravaganzas and the family usually blares music from the obnoxious speakers for about 3 days straight. This is definitely the Thai culture that I learned to love and probably wouldn't have experienced it this intensely if I was living alone. Needless to say, after 4 months, I think I can handle living alone and waking up after 7, not because of the monk party music or the roosters crowing, but because I actually want to :)
Next week is definitely going to be a full week seeing how I will be moving into my own place and going to Bangkok for the weekend to play with the other volunteers, since it will have been a month at site and we are finally able to leave our provinces. Look forward to a blog update complete with many new and interesting experiences.