More presents! Can vegetarians eat bird nest health supplement?

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I got an interesting assortment of gifts at school this year. Most interesting of all was the gift from the director. She was handing out these sort of fancy health tonics and she gave me a little box containing two. There was a picture of something tan on the label and just as I was about to conclude that it was ginger, the director said that I didn't think I could have that one since I am a vegetarian. She traded me for two prune-flavored tonics. I was really perplexed by this exchange until I figured out that the tonics she had traded me for were actually made from birds' nests!!! Yikes! I'll take prune, thanks very much. I actually have no idea what you are supposed to do with these tonics, but I guess I will have to investigate the situation.

I also received a little buddhist prayer book from one of my students which is neat. A lot of it is written in Thai, but there is also English and Thai translation of many of the prayers that Thais say in Pali (an ancient Indian language). This is helpful because each morning students all over Thailand pray to the three gems of buddhism (the Buddha, the dharma, or teachings, and the sangha, or community of buddhist practitioners) in Pali. Now I will be able to actually follow along and understand what's going on. Other gifts included a malted milk, some peanut sweets, and a small purse. My neighbors also gave me to fresh coconuts today on my way to school.

In other exciting news, the much-anticipated package from Stephanie arrived on December 26! It took all of my self-restraint to make it all the way to the guest house in Bangkok before I ripped into it, tantalized by the hippy dippy smells that wafted from each crack. The package was great and helped spread some holiday cheer in our room, with a little lighted Christmas tree. Other favorites included Easy Mac, chamomile lemon tea, more trashy mags, and a touch of Colorado, some Boulderific Pangea products-- very much appreciated smells from home.

Finally, Courtney hunted down an awesome Obama t-shirt for me (well, for both of us), in which Obama is written phonetically in Thai letters. I was so surprised and pleased with that shirt that is a little piece of history and will commemorate where we were on the momentous day. Unfortunately she didn't bring it with her to Ko Tao, so I didn't get a picture of us in our matching T's (yet!)

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Comments

[Courtney]

ohh just you wait! we will have a matching obama tshirt pic and when we do, we can both put it as our profile picture hahaha. glad you like it!

[Christine Berg]

Tee
Hey Laurie, That Obama shirt is awesome - what a cool way to celebrate our new President!!!