-My experiences started the moment I stepped onto the plane in Dallas. I got to my seat and a lady and her husband were in my seat and the middle seat. Long story short, I ended up on the back row with 2 seats to myself where I slept pretty hard. No complaints here other than the food. I have no idea what was in those things. I think the first thing was lamb curry with rice. For I think 4 meals straight, I had white rice, a roll with butter, kit kat and water. I'm sure my trainer, Nate, would be proud.

-Speaking of a roll with butter. Right before we landed in Doha, Qatar, I looked over and saw a man that saved his butter from dinner the night before and he was using it as Chapstick ?? I may have gagged a little.

-On the same lines about food... Eating at a restaurant in Thailand was always an experience. There were 24 of us so the more people that went to eat together, the more interesting it became. Except for this one restaurant in Chang Mai where just me and my roommate (Georgie) decided to go grab some lunch. It was called Dailyicious. We walk in and there in one other table with about 6 people. Georgie and I took awhile to decide on what we wanted but we ordered our drinks right when we arrived. When we ordered our food, they waitress said "It's going to take 25 minutes because we have another table here." Imagine walking into a restaurant in the states and the waitress telling you they can't get your food out soon because there were people at another table in the same restaurant. Seriously?! Is this a restaurant? We ordered panini's too. Those take about 5 minutes to make. It took for ever. And mine came out wrong. AND while we were waiting on our food, I looked over at the waitress who just made some sort of smoothie/slush drink for another table and she was taking pictures of the drinks. She would take a few pics with the straws straight. Then some with the straws bent. Different angles. My blood pressure is going up just reminiscing.

How to order at restaurants: I learned early on how to order. I remember a few months back, Blake and I were in a restaurant called Brick House in Dallas while Ash was on a work trip. It was more of a pub setting. We sat at the bar and I decided I wanted to order fancy, so I ordered steak, mushrooms, and other yummy stuff. I think he ordered a pizza. Anyway, after I placed my order, Blake said "I can't believe you would order that at a place like this." I of course asked why and he said that you need you order based on the type of restaurant you are in. If you want a steak, go to a steak house. If you want pub food, go to a pub. If you want Mexican, go to a Mexican restaurant (oh how I miss Mexican food). That lesson was used greatly on this trip. I had to relearn my lesson though. Early on, if I was tired of Thai food, I would order American food. If it wasn't an American-style place, it wasn't a good idea. I ordered calamari and soft shell crab one evening and both were below par and waste of money. But one night at our last island, we were at a pub where you could tell Thai food was just thrown on the menu to make Thai people happy, but they specialized in pub food. I ordered a chicken sandwich and everyone was very jealous. It was delicious. Shoutout to Blake for that lesson! Oh and what I ordered at Brick house wasn't good. Shocker.

How to pay in restaurants: Paying was always an ordeal. The more people, the more of an ordeal. There were very few times we paid from the table. Majority of places, we had to walk to the counter, tell them everything we ordered and pay that way. The less organized restaurants would drive me crazy. Something would be wrong. We had 4 orders of rice and the check said 5. Or we had 10 waters when the waiter said we had 12. And then those in our group that would forget something they ordered, pay, leave the restaurant and who ever was last would have to pay what ever was leftover. Just messy.

How they bring out food: There was one restaurant on the whole trip that brought out food like a normal restaurant. So many restaurants are small and have very small kitchens therefore they can only cook a few plates at a time. Those were typically Thai restaurants and I learned that depending on what I ordered determined how quickly mine would come out of the kitchen. Salads would come over fairly quickly. Pad Thai was average. But the meal I learned to love was Pa-nang and Massaman Curry. Any curry dish came out last. They also weren't great at bringing out appetizers first. I received my appetizer and meal at the same time at many restaurants. With that said, our meal moments as a group always took quite some time.

Last thing about restaurants.... If you don't like something on your order, don't order it because trying to change it up with the waiter/waitress that doesn't speak English was never a good idea. For example, don't order a burger and ask for no lettuce or tomato. Either be willing to take it off yourself or order something different. Early on, I tried to order a pizza and wanted them to add onions. Yeah that definitely didn't happen.

Thai massage-Yall. Those little ladies have the strongest hands. Us Americans don't know what a deep tissue massage is. They were like needles.

Steps-The steps/stairs in Thailand were SO tall. Everywhere. On the street, hotels, temples. You would think they would be shorter since they are shorter people. No. It was like the stair master at the gym x2. It was a lot easier to trip up them as well. I think I caught myself a few times. Oh and they don't have handrails.

Sheets-The bed sheets were tucked in so tight. I don't even know how they did it. My feet would start hurting from being so squished so I would attempt to loosen the sheet with my feet. I couldn't even do that. I had to get out of my bed and pull the sheets loose so my feet could lay correctly. I said I "pulled a Keith" cause he does that every night.

7/11 is THE convenience store of Thailand. Someone said Thailand has the most 7/11's out of any country in the world. I spent some time in them too. Because we had to buy bottled water all the time, we took many trips to the closest 7/11. They also had these prepackaged meals. I have to admit... I questioned them at the beginning of my trip. They had burgers in bags, ham and cheese "toastys" in bags, Thai meals, etc. You would purchase the meal and they would heat it up in the microwave behind the counter. There was no way I was going to eat any of that at the beginning of my trip, but everyone else had been buying these toastys since the beginning of the trip. No one was sick off of them yet so I thought I'd give it a try. I tried a Thai meal and it was delicious. My favorite was Basil Chicken with Rice.

Most Thai people don't even drink their own tap water. They all buy bottled water.

Thai people don't sweat. I'd be sitting there in a puddle of my own sweat and I didn't see a drip of sweat on one single Thai person. The day I was headed back to Bangkok and we were on a bus, the driver was counting the people on the bus and he was sweating. I decided he wasn't Thai.

Speaking of sweating... The last week on Koh Tao, we had no air conditioning (aka aircon to the Brits). When I say no aircon, I mean everywhere. No restaurants, stores, hotel, etc. nothing had aircon. I discovered towards the end of that week that I slept best when I would take a cold shower (only cold showers too.... No hot water) and left my hair wet. I felt like I was back on Mexico mission trips. My body handled those better when I was young ??

One part of our trip was a time for volunteering. We were in Koh Samui and volunteered for 3 days. The first day, we built a dam with concrete and the rocks that were around us. Droughts in these places are common so saving as much rain water possible is extremely necessary. With 24 of us, it only took about an hour to build the dam. Some people stirred concrete, some people dug up rocks, and some people built a line to transfer the concrete or water to the necessary places. I was a part of the line that transferred the concrete. The second and third day we painted walls at a local school. You may have seen this on Facebook, but this was the poorest school on the island. They took us on a short tour (it was a very small school). They said a lot of the kids showed up to school with chocolate bars in their hands and chips. They joined up with a company that gives them fruits and healthy snacks to feed the kids in the mornings. For lunch, a grandmother of one of the kids cooks for all the kids a whole and healthy lunch. They said that is probably the only decent meal they get during the week. The grandmother doesn't get paid. She just does it out of the kindness of he heart. One of the teams painted the cafeteria and painted a chef on the wall. The chef was wearing a chef hat. They said they next day, that grandmother showed up to cook in a chef hat and wears in all the time now.

The 3rd day of volunteering, we went back to the same school to paint more walls. When we got there, they asked if we wanted to go see the kids in the nursery. Of course we said yes. Yall. These kids were SO happy to see us. The longer I watched them, the more overwhelmed I became. I couldn't get over how happy they were with what they had. They all had on uniforms. They all had the same shoes. They actually had a nice playground (that I'm sure someone donated). There were very few actual toys. I remember one boy had a transformer action figure. I don't remember seeing any baby dolls. They played with the sand and dirt. There were no chairs in the classrooms so I guess they all sit on the floor. There were 100's of them. Laughing, giggling, screaming, running around... The boys loved the boys in our group. They just wanted to play chase.

After we visited them prior to painting, we painted our walls and the leader asked if we wanted to see the kids again before we left. Of course we did and I really wanted to take my iPad with me to take pictures but I was hesitant. I didn't want it to cause a problem. I didn't really want them to take it from me or me have to tell them no. But I wanted to capture that moment because it was so meaningful to me. I decided to take it with me and didn't have one kid try to touch it. I was shocked. They didn't have a clue what it was. It was almost as if they were scared of it. Once I showed them how the camera would reverse so they could see themselves in the camera, they loved it! One girl pointed to the screen to show me which one was her and the screen moved. She jumped back and pulled her hand away quickly. Compared to how 2 year olds are already playing on phones and know how to work these devices.. We are one spoiled country.

My background on my iPad is Moose. I showed them his picture (keep in mind, they know zero English). The only way I could communicate with them was to "bark" when I showed them a picture of him. I'm not sure they even associated that with the word dog, but they enjoyed the animal noise and they all started to "bark" with me. So much fun. So humbling. So overwhelming.

Next topic.... American movies and music. I never realized on this trip how universal American movies and American music really was. One of them first days, I asked someone why they were able to understand me so much easier than me understanding them. They said its because they watch American movies and listen to American music. I didn't realize how much of a powerhouse our country actually is. We really are major leaders in this world. These people knew more American artists and actors/actresses than I do! Even stranger than the Brits was the music in Thailand. It's all American music. If I had I hear Hotel California one more time.... Or Jason Mraz.... Or Edwin McCain.... Help me.

Best investments for trip: Noise canceling headphones, iPad since my phone is gone, portable battery charger mom gave me (thanks Jude!), travel pillow, bright backpack (it was easy to spot).

Nutella Crepes-Y'all. This is why I don't try new things that are bad for me that I don't really know if I like or not. I tried a Nutella crepe (aka pancake in Thailand) made from a street stand. That was probably the tastiest thing I had on the trip. It was unreal. I'm glad those are that easily accessible or that cheap anywhere else.

Locks on doors are upside down. You have to put the key in upside down (in comparison to the US).

Billboards are about 15x the size of the ones in the U.S. Not sure the reason, but makes them really easy to read!

Street food: I was nervous at first about eating things I didn't know where they've been, how long they've been sitting in the outside heat, etc. I was very conservative on my food choices at the beginning until one night in Bangkok I branched out and got Pad Thai off a stand on the street. It was amazing. I don't know if it was truly amazing or I was just that hungry, but at the moment, it was amazing. I never got sick from it so from then on, I was pretty trusting. As long as nothing made me sick, I was ok with eating it. And unlike most on the trip, I never got sick. It was wonderful. Those prayers from the states had me covered. I knew it the whole time.

Bathroom situations... Pit stops in Thailand didn't have toilet paper so we would stock up/steal toilet paper from places we stayed. BUT even though hotels had toilet paper, we couldn't put it in the toilets. Did I follow that rule all the time? Nope. I did not. I actually think I didn't follow that rule majority of the time. I didn't want to touch anything in the bathrooms. Having to open a trash can to put used toilet paper in.... No thank you.

55555=hahaha in text talk. Our leaders were both Thai. We had a Facebook message between our group and Aow would always put 55555 when he was laughing at someone. I didn't realize haha wasn't universal.

Everything in Thailand is "THE BEST." The best Thai massage. The best pancake. The best Thai food. The best Massaman. The best manicure. They need some help with marketing efforts.

Water bottles are filled to the brim. I spilled water 80% of the time I opened a new water bottle.

And now that I am safe in Sydney, I can go ahead and talk about my first night in Thailand. My first night we were on Koh Sahn Road (worse than Bourbon Street), I got separated from the group and didn't know how to get back to the hotel and didn't know how to pronounce the name of my hotel to ask anyone. Half of our group went out for drinks and the other half went back to the hotel. I was trying to be in the "back to the hotel" group. It was probably one of the scariest moments I will have on this trip. I walked up and down the street acting as though I knew what I was doing because I didn't want anyone to know I was lost. Our hotel was at the end of a dark alley (I'm not exaggerating) so I took a few turns down dark alleys that led to nothing. Just scary people. After what felt like an hour of searching for my people (was probably only about 10 minutes), I feel someone put their hand on my shoulder. My heart drops. I turn around and it's my roommate. I hugged her and teared up for a second. She said she got back to the hotel and I wasn't there so she and a few others started a search party for me. I was wearing a bright pink shirt. She said she saw it from a distance and chased me down amidst SO many people. Again.... Worse than a Bourbon street (safety and grossness). Needless to say, I didn't separate from my group again for the rest of the trip. Under any circumstance. Lost on Koh Sahn Road first night of my trip.... Another thing I can check off my bucket list ;) Love you, Mom :)

Much love to all ??