Its not that I compare myself to other girls...

But Ive noticed that Ruth's blog is like a forum of feedback and comments and none of my readers (of course they exist! you are reading this now, arent you? jerk.) leave comments? Are my topics boring? Does this hair color make my face look fat?

Anyways, so heres whats going on right at this moment:

1) Currently, Im on Koh Tao, which is as island mainly used for SCUBA divers looking to get their PADI certification so they can hang the paper on their wall and tell all their friends how cool they are. Obviously I cant dive so we are here for snorkelling and general interest type stuff. Today we used a kayak. Stephs idea of "paddling easy" was not paddling at all and watching me do it. And the sea slugs felt like sea boners on the end of our paddles (but I swear we didnt kill the reef). There was lots of screaming and giggling.

2) Koh Tao means Turtle Island and I figured that out the old fashioned way - by hearing the dude on the boat say it and going "oh, that means turtle island!" Rock on low tones!

Speaking of language -->

3) Ive been increasingly distressed by my lack of progress when it comes to reading Thai. Ive got all the consonants and vowels down for the most part but when it comes to tone rules, I might as well be reading guess what (all Greek to me, right?). We were discussing the other day about how I could probably learn Chinese relatively quickly now that I have a background in both Japanese (kanji using language) and Thai (tonal language). Not that I want to learn Chinese...or pronounce tones correctly all the time...or that I remember most kanji... But at least I know how to write them and/or tell them apart. And thats a start.

4) I drove another motorbike today and now I want to buy one desperately. But Im afraid of how shabby my already shabby legs would become if I was just cruising to school everyday instead of huffing and puffing and pumping those gams.

5) Lonely Planet, despite being the best guide book available, is delusional when it comes to the pricing of guesthouses. Either that, or its ALWAYS high season in Thailand. Hostelworld.com did not lead me astray and they deduct the $2 service fee if you have one of those Youth Travel Cards (or Student Travel Cards, but Im not one of those anymore). Here I thought that I had just gotten it for the plane ticket.