random things that I don't want to make individual posts for

Let's start with the most important thing, shall we?  I live in a country that is mostly Buddhist.  I don't know very much about Buddhism.  I know that the priests aren't allowed to earn money, so they go around and call down blessings for people who give them rides, feed them, or give them money.   I also know that they do not celebrate Christmas.  This means that there is no Christmas music outside of my new favorite YouTube playlist.  My playlist lacks a lot of my favorites because there are weird restrictions on which clips can be put in what playlists in whichever country.  This being said, there are no Christmas decorations anywhere and I was rather sad about this, that is, until I *finally* went to the market and saw

CANDY CANES  and my buddy Resae.

And there was much rejoicing in the land.


I think that this is, by far, the most important American import ever.  So I bought the over-priced candy canes and chalked it up to growing the American economy.






Also, we made alphabet cards.  Funny thing about it is that the paint is washable, which is a good thing, but when little dots of it come off (and they do that because, let's be honest, small children are not the most careful painters) they stick to your clothes and then your clothes actually have paint on them because it is so humid.   It washes out, yes, but the paint never completely dries.  Here is the little thing that I made for the ICHope blog because if I post too many pictures, Google will start charging me for the use of their space.  I'm trying to limit myself....hence all the picture collages.























Like this one.  This is play-time.  They think it's really funny to do thumb-wars with me.  They cheat.  That is also very funny.  I'm pretty sure my bike is everyone's favorite toy.  I still don't understand any of their hand-clapping rhyme-game-things, but there you have it.