Sunday, Sandra and I finally got the souvenirs we were planning on getting for the longest time since Luang Prabang. Just last night, Sandra, Brandin and I went with Bee [Sandra's new language partner] to eat at his friend’s house. We had bbq kabobs and sticky rice. Perfect for a cool evening off in the side roads – quiet and peaceful. It was really interesting. His friend had other people there from France. Two had a French dad and Lao mom, one was full French and another one was 1/4 Italian as well. Most came to Vientiane for vacation and one actually works here in marketing for a magazine. He says it’s going to be pretty widespread this coming October. He says the smaller mag is going to be put on international flights coming and going from China and Japan. To top it all off, he showed us his own original layout for the bigger magazine layout!!

Okii doke, so tomorrow we’re going to be having dinner at a buffet with some of our LAC friends — Kii, Goong, and Nui — to celebrate them graduating from the University. So should I eat lunch or should I not?? just kidding.

Bombs falling from the sky. From 1964 to 1973, Laos became the most heavily bombed country in the world when the U.S. dropped over 2 million tons of ordnance as part of the wider Indochina conflict.

Our history teacher’s leaving for a conference in Cambodia and is going to miss a week of lessons. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We just started on something other than the Kings of Laos and now we won’t have class. We’re hoping to get some guest speakers while she’s away. As for our language class, we finished our book!! Yay! Now  we have 3 weeks of practicing…

Volunteering at DonKoi’s becoming a little difficult though because for some reason we can never find a tuk-tuk that time in the morning. It’s not that late! Why can’t we find a tuk-tuk to take us to DonKoi!?

So my guitar lessons were awesome I learned 5 chords within an hour. What was pretty sad was that I only remembered 3 after he left…Oh yes, and Vatsana went to go dye her hair a darker shade of brown today [what she's been wanting to do for the longest time] and Sandra asked me if I wanted to dye my ends green. I would say yes, but I don’t know if It’ll suit me! But I got a great haircut a while back and watching people’s reaction to it was funny.

So let’s see what we have been up to… oh yeah, one of the LAC teachers invited us to his friend’s restaurant this weekend to sit and relax for a couple hours, and some of us may go. And next week we’re going to have our homestay instead of going to VangVieng! Yes, success

So, two of our UGrad friends, Onee and Bea, left this week for the U.S. Our good friend Sai will leave on Wednesday and Tay on Thursday. I’m so sad… I’m going to miss them so much. Well, this is why Facebook is so great.

Saturday we all went to Dam Naa [plant rice] in a village near Vientiane.  Sandra was so enthusiastic about the whole trip along with our Lao friends, Nang, Noy, and Da. Right after planting the rice, we drove the opposite direction to the Buddha Park. Oh goodness, it was SO warm!! But do you know what I keep forgetting to do, but is the main reason I wanted to go in the first place? Getting my stick-fortune! First we climbed up a huge Hindu-Buddhist rock statue/structure to “Heaven” (the artist had created 3 floors with carvings to represent Hell, Earth, and Heaven). Then I remembered about the fortunes because I saw people doing them, but after coming down I was so preoccupied taking pictures of the sculptures that I forgot. I can’t believe myself. I’m so disappointed… The only place I’ve done the stick-fortunes was at Tham Thing in Luang Prabang. I missed doing it at PhouSi in Luang Prabang, and also at Buddha Park. So sad.

So when sending Bea off at the airport, we saw one of the Lao guys we met at the Outdoor French Music Concert the first week we were here. I don’t know why, but every time I meet someone who can play the guitar, I can’t help but be totally entranced. Maybe it’s because it’s the only instrument I ever wanted to play but typically fail at. But I really really wanted to learn! He’s so nice, we exchanged numbers and he agreed to give me 2 lessons before he leaves to go back to Singapore. I’m so excited!! So my first lesson is on Monday at 4 [after Lao class]. Wish me luck. What’s sad is that the reason I only get 2 lessons is because the day he’s leaving is the day after Sai leaves and before Tay leaves. But hopefully he’ll teach me to play a goodbye song for Tay. HOPEFULLY.

Good morning my fellow friends! This is Eileen and it’s the 3rd day in LAOS!! So far its been a great trip and I’m very excited for these next 2 months.

So here’s my story on the “before the action” coverage; orientation was pretty cool, I read all the bios the hour before leaving the house just to see what kinds of people to expect were going to be there. Actually it was mainly because I was nervous because I’m the youngest SAILer (I’m only 16) and I didn’t want to sound too … I don’t know, I just didn’t want to feel like I’m not supposed to be there. Orientation was at City Hall in San Francisco — I have a couple pictures of it but it might take too long to load judging by how slow these computers are. [We all think we’re kind of spoiled ‘cause we were SO impatient when we found a couple Internet accessible computers in the Lao-American College English Center. Half of us already gave up trying to check our emails, so we aren’t very sure about the 10+ minutes worth of a million videos/vlogs we took.]

At orientation, my mom called in before we even started the movie so I had to leave then to “take a picture for my visa” which we hadn’t done. When my dad came back he said, “oh, you can get your picture taken when you get there for a dollar.” Then I went to Sandra’s house and she was finishing up her proposal for work, and I fell asleep. I’m one heavy sleeper so I didn’t even notice it was 9 until Sandra woke me up recording her dog, which was sitting on top of me the whole night.

The next morning was technically the day we were to leave the US. My mom came a little before 10am and got us breakfast and then drove us to the airport. There, Sandra and I met up with Samantha and her mom. We waited for the rest of the group to get there and finally boarded the plane to Tokyo. After transiting in Bangkok, we boarded a jet-propelled flight to Laos! When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by Samantha’s friend Thang and another guy, Athith who took us to the guesthouse. After putting all our stuff down into our room and settling in, Athith took us to get lunch. The whole meal for 7 people was a little over $9. That’s a pretty good price. Best part is that everyone was full and there was still more.

That night, we got to sit in the back of Thang’s pick-up as he took us to a restaurant. There was awesome food there too — Vietnamese spring rolls, etc.. I wish I could put up pictures of it ‘cause we took lots. On the 3rd day, we traveled around a bit and went to our first day of school – Lao-American College – to meet potential language partners, but it’s taken awhile to actually find one.  It’s pretty cool though because we got to meet all the students who are going to America this year. Some are leaving earlier, some are leaving later. After lunch we had our first language class. Our teacher teaches Lao to tons of foreign people too, so he is experienced. Our first day of class was pretty intense, I would upload scans of our homework, but unfortunately, it takes a while to upload pictures.

Highlight of the night, we took a tuk- tuk out to the Mekong River and had some fish, some young coconut juice and more papaya salad for Yaeng.

Stay tuned for more….

Right now, i’m sitting at home waiting for my family to finally drive me over to Sandra’s house. [we decided ahead of time that i'd sleep over at her place so it's more convenient for us to get to the airport together.]

Recently i’ve been pretty stressed out. [i know i'm not supposed to be, cuz imma teen and i haven't even entered the real world y6et so there is no way i could feel stressed. - but i've been pretty stressed out on my part.] my family has really been pissing me off lately, school just ended this week so that means i’ve been having finals, and just the whole juggling of responsibilities.

My parents, in truth, didnt’ want me to go to laos with this program. but sandra helped me convince them by telling them all the benefits so they finally gave in. even after they gave in though, they keep lecturing me and yelling at me for no apparent reason. maybe there’s some things at work stressing HEr out, but she’s really pissing me off. NO ONE wants to see eileen pissed off – my friends have already been hurt s they know. i’m usually pretty flexible so if something ticks me off, it really ticked me off. that means that same thing happened like a million times and no one bothered to do anything about it.
adding to my mom being a total nag, she’s also doesn’t understand the situation. there’s no communication between the two of us. i swear, i REALLY need to record EVERYTHING we say to each other because i tell her things and she keeps claiming i never did. and i always tell her about three times before going to bed.

ok, maybe i shoudl stop complaining and be more me – optimistic.

i should be excited, but it doesn’t even feel like i’m going yet, nevertheless it’s summer yet. i dont’ feel relaxed and laied-back in any particular way, and i dont’ feel overly nervous for the culture shock when i get there. it’s almost like i dont’ know how to feel. i’m sort of happy i’m goingt o a different place but have complex feelings about homesickness. i know i’ll miss my american lifestyle, but i doubt i’ll miss my family within these two months. i don’t know, it’s just weird.

as far as the packing is going along, i think i’ve pack more than i need cuz my mom keeps telling me to bring this, bring that. i’ve traveled with my family every summer to hong kong, china. if there’s anything i should know, it’s how to pack for summer vacation.

this is going to be the best trip i’ve had for years. the only concern i have is that my 8 gig usb memory stick might fill up the first week of staying becuas ei’m such a  camera-whore…

and as of now, i’m still waiting for my parents to give me a ride to sandra’s…
i needa work on my power point…
and i gotta post this up…

i’ll miss my american lifestyle – but it’s going to be SO much fun these next two months.
i hope i don’t run out of room in my luggage…