Week 2

Well, even though i am already on week 4, here is a little recap of what happened on my second week in Laos. I have not been able to update because I only get internet access for short amounts of time about two or three times a week and I have been using that to check email/facebook because I never felt like I had enough time to blog and often could not put on any pictures. So I will do several little entries to catch up on what my life has been like these past few weeks.

Week 2

That second weekend I went to Lao ITTEC which is like a convention center/shopping mall and went to a little Insect Cuisine Festival that we had seen advertised in the Vientiane Times. It was quite the experience! It was really crowded and difficult to get to the free samples. But still I managed to stomach down: 3 crickets, 1 grasshopper (in two chunks), 1 maggot (? not sure, kind of looked like one of those rolly-polly potatoe bugs) and one unidentified bug that was chopped up in a spicy curry. The picture on the left is one of the grasshopper legs!! The bugs weren't really that bad. It was the concept itself that was more disgusting than the actual taste. The texture was...crispy.

On Sunday I went to a Lao church and sat in the back where they had headphones you could wear and someone would translate the sermon into English! It was fun to listen to all the Lao worship songs and try to follow along with the script displayed on the projector.

Week 2 was my first week of Lao Language classes at Candlelight, a small Christian school that teaches both Lao and English classes. There are 6 people in my class. (in the pic we are holding our vowel/consonants/tones charts!)
We start at 1:30 pm with an hour and a half of conversation class, take a 15 minute break, and have an hour and a half class in reading/writing. During this second week I was commuting via bicycle from the MCC office/Wendy's house with Whitney. It takes us about 25 minutes each way.

Typical day in week 2: lazy morning studying Lao/hanging out, bike to school, Lao class, bike home, dinner with Whitney, Wendy, and Justin, hang around the house and watch movies/play games. One night we went out to a night market - see pic - and got a tasty drink in a bag (my favorite thing to do!) and some steamed pumpkin filled with coconut custard for dessert (on the far right side of the table in the pic) - so good!!



It was a great week to start learning Lao in a relaxed way. Oh, and about Tuesday of this week is when I finally recovered from jetlag! I realized it when I woke up one morning and..felt like myself again! I was able to be talkative and happy all day! It was fantastic.