It is oppressively hot once again in SF, which is highly unusual. Even if our summer time has just begun - September and October are traditionally gorgeous in SF - this is WAY too hot!
I'm getting more and more excited about my trip to Thailand! I'm trying in vain to learn some basic phrases and sentences. But every time I want to practice, I get a bit of stage fright: What if my tones are completely off and I'm offending someone? Sure, I'm gonna sound like a foreigner speaking Thai, but I don't want them to think I'm making fun of them by being all overly dramatic with the tones! It's the hardest part of the language for sure!
I mean, I'm used to tonal languages - Mandarin for one, I hear it every day on the MUNI - and I can mimic slightly those type of tones. But Thai just sounds more odd somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but yeah... there it is. Doesn't mean I'm gonna give up trying to learn!! :) I want to know how to go shopping for food on my own, ya know? Even if I never have to.
Fern (my sister...) has said the situation in Bangkok regarding the volatile PM relations are still quite volatile at the moment. So, we might end up sticking around her neck of the provinces for the whole of my stay. OK, so I miss Bangkok this time around. Or maybe the violence stops before I show up. We'll see, but I am definitely not calling off my trip! I mean, if the country devolved into a communist state overnight, I might have to reconsider, seeing as how suddenly Americans would be the enemy. But I highly doubt that'll happen by October.
It's an internal problem that doesn't get front page news for Americans unfortunately. Even a militaristic "democracy" isn't gonna ruin relations with the US so much so that the tourists stop coming. Tourism for Thailand has got to be the number one reason they have an economy. So.... unless bombs went off, I'm going.