What the....?

A few weeks ago I had reminisced about my time in Thailand and realized that many cultural shocks had no longer phased me. But, as I thought back on all of my experiences and looked at my current lifestyle, I realized that there is still a handful of things that leave me saying  "What the.....?" So, just so I can indulge myself in my love of lists, here are some of those things that just haven't settled in quite yet. 


Cold showers: Yes, I live in the tropics and complain about the heat and humidity every day,  but cold showers still kill me. I've gotten much better. I no longer feel the need to whine and complain about it every chance I get, but I still dread going into a cold shower. At first, I would literally force myself to do some jumping jacks or run some 'laps' around my room to break into a mini-sweat before convincing myself to suck it up and take a shower. But now, I just walk into the bathroom, turn on the water and jump in before I have a chance to realize what I am doing. Most days I take a shower while saying "I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. This is awful. Make it stop." BUT, on the bright side, my one hot shower a month at a hostel is GLORIOUS. 


Squat Toilets: Ohhhh squat toilets, you are so grody. They are such a big part of SE Asian traveling and one has no choice but to hold your breath, tiptoe through the dirty, nasty water on the floor and just squat while doing some kind of balancing act, holding your bag and digging around for some toilet paper. Is this too much information? I apologize, but its my life. Squat toilets don't really bother me so much any more. It's just the way it is. But, they made it to the list because I just had the shocker of the YEAR. For 9 months, I was doing it completely wrong. I mean- picture this (or don't). You walk into a toilet stall, see a toilet bowl in the ground and are left to your business. The bowl faces the same way as a Western toilet, so one would assume you use it the same, but...well....lower. But noooooo.  I was recently informed that you face the wall. What?!?!!?! Seriously- my mind= blown. That little piece of knowledge changed my life. Squat toilets aren't as bad as I thought. This may seem silly and kind of gross for all you lucky Western-toilet users out there, but use a squat toilet once and then come back and thank me. 

Ahh........yea

Stray Dogs: If you know me, you know I love dogs. You know that I will spot a dog a mile away and comment on how adorable it is. I can't not say anything about them and I always want to stare and pet them. Ask Sarah- she loves it (AKA hates it because she hates dogs). But in Thailand, this is difficult and not such a good idea. There are stray dogs everywhere. They are in the streets, in front of apartments, in restaurants, at Wats, in the mountains, on the beach, in the rice paddies, and everywhere else you go. They are unavoidable. And they are never in good condition. Some of them are missing giant chunks of fur that reveal some gory patches of skin. Others have limbs bent out of shape and they are left to hobble and hop around. Others are just revealing a little too much down below because none of them are spayed or neutered. It is heartbreaking to walk down the street and see all of these dogs tattered and torn and with no place to go. Luckily, they are not under-fed. In fact, many of them are rather plump from all of the excess rice and noodles getting thrown away. But, it is against Buddhist belief to "fix" this problem, and so the dogs are left to suffer for their entire lives. I wish there was something I could do, but I can't afford to bring hundreds of dogs to the vet and I don't have space to adopt them. So, I just have to turn my head the other way, and give love to the ones who look disease-less. Being a dog-lover, it is impossible to ever get used to seeing this. 

Bugs: Not much needs to be said here. I'm over bugs creeping and crawling all over me. I'm over getting attacked by mosquitos. I'm over having a gazillion scars on my body from random critters. Please, bugs, just JUMP BACK and leave me alone. 

10 months in and I just can't seem to get over these things. It just means when I get home I'll take really long hot showers, love my dogs a little harder and appreciate the bug-less environment even more.