Samut Sakhon

So apparently Cherry doesn't know her days of the week in English, because we actually went to Samut Sakon (another province to the SouthWest of Bangkok) today, instead of on Monday. I left with my host parents in the afternoon, and we went to The Mall to do some grocery shopping and wait until Cherry was done her extra tutorial (yes, even though she just finished her exams on Friday, she is already studying for her exams at the end of next semester). Then we picked her up, and headed out for dinner at a restaurant beside a river that apparently leads to the sea. It wasn't too exciting. I ate the weirdest ice cream I've had in my life for dessert. It was weird, Cherry handed me the menu and said "Kris, pick a dessert, it's in English." and I looked at it, and it was completely in Thai. So I was like, "uhhh very funny, where is the English." and then she finally looked at it and said, "oops the title is in English but everything else is in Thai." Duh. Oh well, I'm going to try and not give her a hard time about anything, but I dunno, part of me kind of feels sorry for her. The reason for that is mainly just because she has no hobbies, all she does in her free time is study, and I think her parents put alot of pressure on her to do well in school. Also because she seems very sheltered, and isn't really allowed to do much on her own. The first day I was with my host family I remember my advisor asked my host parents if they'd ever let her go on exchange, and they said no. Then she asked if they would let her go to Canada and stay with me (not my idea, she was just asking theoretically), and they said no, it's too dangerous. I know I really shouldn't feel sorry for her for these things, because she's been brought up in a different culture, and one of the things I've noticed about Thai culture is that kids here are more encouraged to study than to join extra curricular activities and things like this. I shouldn't say the way they were brought up is bad or wrong, because my understanding of how someone should be brought up is based on a completely different culture. I must admit it is really hard to suspend judgement about these things sometimes. Anywas, after dinner we drove to some relatives home (I'm not really sure exactly how they are related). My host parents chatted with them for a bit, and they gave Cherry the phone number of either their son who is a doctor, or their daughter who is a pharmacist, so that she can contact them and ask questions about their profession and such. Afterwards we drove back home, and at one point I think my host dad was yelling at Cherry about something, but I'm not really sure because I couldn't understand what he was saying. It was awkward. We got back just after 11 p.m.