Random

I started making Sora a cheese sandwich today and she started acting like she was taking a picture and saying, "Cheeeeeeeze, Cheeeeeeze." I was confused at first. But she's such a smartie. She must wonder why when we take a picture we yell out "Cheese" every time and she never actually gets any cheese.

Ovaltine is really big here. Sort of surprised me. There is an isle full of it at the grocery store. They sell it at lots of restaurants and you can get it hot, cold, on ice, with condensed milk, etc... I guess I should try it...

Micaiah learned about Self-control at church last week. He's so cute when he hugs himself tightly and says, "You have to have SELF-CONTROL!" Of course, I don't think he quite understands the concept. Orin, however, does. He's been on antibiotics because of the stitches and doesn't like it. He spit it out once which did not make mommy or daddy happy. Caiah quickly reminded him that he had to have self-control. Orin got worried and said, "But what if I have North control?" We had a lot of fun explaining that it's "self" control not "south" control. Now it's a fun running joke in the family.

We got into a minor (very minor) car accident. A motorbike ran into us. Motorbikes here outnumber cars probably 4 to 1...maybe more. I haven't seen a family with more than two kids since I've been here...probably because you can fit more than 4 people on a motorbike. Actually, I should correct that. I've seen a two kids, a dad and a mom holding a baby all on 0ne motorbike. They are all around. And you HAVE to be constantly aware of them. It's only mandatory for the driver to wear a helmet...but I'd say only about 30% people do this. And it's always funny to see a driver sporting a helmet with his 2 year old kid riding without one. I need to take pictures of the crazy things people do while riding. Anyway, that being said, most drivers are pretty cautious, but every once in a while you'll see someone do something really stupid. We were in the right lane, trying to turn right across two lanes of traffic coming at us. I had my blinker on and was stopped. A motorbike decides to go around me on the right (this is into oncoming traffic) and as I turn right he runs into me. Crazy. This is a common occurrence. You have to train yourself to look in your review mirror every time you turn to look for a motorbike. This time I didn't. Luckily, it was really slow and he was able to pretty much stop. I know the guy felt silly for doing something so irresponsible...not that it doesn't happen ALL of the time! Luckily his bike was ok and we only had a scratch on the car. Thank goodness because the "unspoken" rule is is pretty much that no matter whose fault it is, the "richer" person pays for the damage. And we are definitely the richer person. (and even if we're not we're Farang so we'd pay.) :-) But honestly, I really love driving here.

Oh, and I still often walk to the wrong side of the car to drive. I'm wondering if I'll ever get past this. I've gotten used to many aspects of driving on the opposite side but this remains an issue. :-) Another thing my brain just can't get used to is that the fast lane is on the right. I always find myself creeping back into the left lane and get stuck behind the slow traffic.

So here is a map of countries that drive on right/left side of the road. The "red" countries drive on the right and the "blue" countries drive on the left. As you can see, most countries drive on the right. Almost every country surrounding Thailand drives on the right. But for some reason, Thailand drives on the left. It's been a fun learning experience.