Florida trip: Spring Break

Diana & I got back from Florida last night and it was fun to me. There're 30 Intl students. 27 were Chinese! So Diana, Shintaro (Japan) & I were the minority :).

The weather in Florida's very warm very much like Thailand's. Surprisingly, so are tropical plants & fruits. 

My face is a bit red & sunburnt b/c of warm weather there. It's like boiled lobster, I think :)

I paid $450 for the trip from 2-10 March and admittedly, it worthed.

The program was very neat. Thanks to Bill Saxton,the organizer from the International Ministries of PSU.

 I got a chance to stay 3 overnights in an American host family's houses. This family included parents & 6 children age ranging from 11-25! They're very warm & friendly though. One night I cook Pad Thai & banana in coconut milk while Jianli, my co-housemate cooked Chinese dumpling for them. I got these children as helpers and we'd fun cooking together. I found that cooking is a good way to talk about culture and promote my country.

Plus, when I visited a local Calvary church with the host family, I met Kathy, the mid 50 American woman, who told me her brother'd a Thai wife, P'Jar, so she invited me to have Thai dinner at their house. ( She thought that since it's been nearly a year stay in USA, I might miss Thailand. Honestly, I don't miss it much as I really enjoy exploring America & it's easy to keep in touch with family & friends via Facebook & phone call or even skype.)

Kathy also took me to shop Asian food at "Food Town" when I told her I'd like to buy Pad Thai sauce to cook Pad Thai for my host family and we ended up at "Publix" to buy ripe bananas for my banana in coconut milk.

 I'd a good dinner with this family & played with Amanda Ploy, P'Jar's daughter. Their Thai neighbor, P'Jeem, from Phuket, also joined the dinner.  It's my 1st time eating papaya salad in USA.

Apart from these interaction with American & Thai families in Florida, I visited Walz Disney World ( Magic Kingdom, Sea World, & EPCOT)

--- The more I travel, the more I feel that I still have to learn about people and places as the world's very wide and there are still lots of places that I've never known----