Excerpts from Lauren Puretz's Letters Home: The way you eat in Thailand is very different from the way we eat in America. There are several dishes in the center of the table (roughly equal to the number of people at the meal) then each person has a plate of rice, a spoon, and a fork. Don't be fooled by the simplicity. The fork is not used to eat with, it is simply used to shovel a little food from a center dish to your plate where you then combine it with rice and then use the spoon to put it into your mouth. You repeat this with every bite. It is 'rude' to take a complete serving at once and eat from your plate; the meal is a very social event, lasting at least an hour.

My host mother drove me to school, which was only five minutes away, on the back of her motorcycle. First of all, I am terrified of motorcycles -- plus, there are a million other motorcycles and cars zipping around, not following any rules -- if there are any rules!

All Thais love their king; speaking unkindly about the royal family in public is illegal. It is all very confusing, and I make a lot of mistakes. I was at a market and the national anthem came on. The whole market paused and stood at attention. I was amazed at this display of devotion to anything relating to the government.

The weather is pretty gross right now; when it is nice out it is sunny and beautiful, but when it rains it gets very muggy and hot. Since we are in the rainy season it rains at least once a day, and it rains very hard. It is funny to see the people on the rot motor-sye (motorcycles) pull out umbrellas and drive around holding one.