OK, bit by bit it's getting better.

I found at least two restaurants that I can navigate in so I've eaten a real dinner 3 times this week. I learned to eat at the school patio/cafeteria for lunch (75 cents, set price for a heaping plate of Thai food.) The girls even recognize me (well, that's not so hard around here, I'm the only huge blond within 50 km.) They immediately get me a styrofoam container for 'take away' and point to 'mai pet'  - all the choices that aren't Issan Thai spicey- in other words, loaded up with rat shit chilies. I'm not being uncouth, that's what they call the little curly red chilies here.

I got a case of water and a bunch of yogurts to put in the frig for breakfast and I'm good to go. There is supposed to be a Joak street vendor/restaurant across the street but I haven't found him yet. I really like Joak for breakfast - it's a cogealed rice soup with chicken and seasonings - think of it as the old farina your mother made. Lots of salt and pepper and it's delicious.  If it's made right, it's thick and creamy, if it's made poorly, it's chicken rice soup, but it's still good. I think it may be the same as the Chinese 'congee'.

My mentor teacher, Noon, has been on the scene again and took me on a tour of the campus yesterday.   They have all majors, a beautiful big library with a Thai culture room that is stunning - it even has a little bamboo elevated house within it, much like my little tiki hut in Phanat Nikom.
There are movies to rent, ebooks, independent study offices, a theater - (but try to find a schedule of activities here, I think it goes by word of mouth) , several bookstores (Thai books only), a post office, an outdoor vegetable market, a couple of coffee shops, a bank - what more could you need?

I now know how and where to catch the songtaew to and from school - 7 baht or 21 cents each way. Why would you even want a car?   I found the songtaew that goes into the town proper for more civilized shopping.

John, the ajarn from Washington state, will show me a church this Sunday. They say there is a nice gym at the nurses' building - the only trouble with this is I finish school at 5, to take the songtaew to the nurse's building , work out and get home would be after dark and I don't go out after dark. There's probably no real danger but I am about 1/4 mile back a dark deserted soi so I wouldn't want to walk it - wild dogs and all.

I cannot for the life of me get my hands on an academic calendar so it is very hard to make my syllabi for my courses. John says some days you'll go in to school and they'll say "What are you doing here? No school today, it's the King's birthday."  But you never know ahead of time. Graduation day is wholly dependent on when the prince or princess can make it to hand out the diplomas. It used to be that the King handed out all diplomas, a huge honor here in uber respectful Thailand, but since he's now 82 years old , his children have taken over some of his duties.   Some people say when the King dies there will be a civil war as no one likes the Prince. I doubt it though, Thais have trouble arranging a time to meet for coffee.