christ church

I think Mariela and I will stick with Christ Church. She's figured out the right buses to ride so that we don't get stuck walking for an hour in the heat to get home every week.

Since our first Sunday morning there, we've learned that you shouldn't always wait for a free bus. They don't come frequently enough, and the next level of bus only costs 6.50, which is about 20 cents. We took non-air con bus 77 home today, and we were the only farangs on the thing. I really enjoy riding the bus, actually. It makes me feel less like an outsider and more like someone who lives here.

I think I've adjusted.

Tonight, I sat on my balcony toward dusk reading The Brothers Karamazov and eating rambutan. It was breezy and cool and I looked up at the sky and out over the trees and rusty corrugated metal rooftops below and sighed. Contentment is certainly a good feeling.

Sometimes I forget I'm here, though. Yesterday I stayed in bed because I have a cold. I must confess that I spent nearly the entire day looking at wedding Web sites. With Mariela talking about getting her dress made here, it's impossible not to catch wedding fever.

Anyway, last night I was lying in bed, thinking about wedding dresses. I got the urge to go to my mom's closet and put on my huge, white, poofy gown from floorshow my senior year of high school, and then I remembered that I was in Thailand.