Nineteen

The closer I get to my birthday, the more I realize I am in no way ready to be 19. I'm really enjoying being 18, in fact, I think it's fair to say that this has been the best year of my life. I'm pretty sure I was born to be 18. 19 is a weird age. You don't get any special privileges, you're just one year closer to being the all-important age of 21, plus being 19 means you've been an adult for a whole year and adult-like behavior is even more expected. I'm quite happy with being 18, it affords me the privilege of excusing any inappropriate behavior. All the silliness, the occasional ignorance and lack of respect, I just crap it up to being 18, and I've been getting away with it. In less than two weeks, I don't get to be 18 anymore, and as if this trip hasn't made me grow up quickly, I have to grow up a little bit more.

In other news, I just got back from our temple stay. It actually wasn't as fun as I had planned, but we still had a good time. The temple was in the middle of the jungle (my idea of a jungle is slightly different than most people's - there were a lot of trees around), which made me a little uncomfortable. Before we did anything, we had to change into these ridiculous white outfits, and then we went into the Ordination hall for a bit of meditation and chanting. After that, we went walking through the town (still wearing those horrible outfits), and stopped at 7-11 for snacks. The monks aren't allowed to eat after noon, and some of us tried to follow suit. I'm pretty sure no one actually made it through the whole day without eating, though. When we came back, we listened to some more chanting and the monks taught us the four types of meditation; sitting, standing, walking, and reclining. Lights out was at 9, and surprisingly everyone went to bed when they were supposed to. We woke up at 5:30 to walk through the village and collect the food offerings for the monk's breakfast. Women aren't allowed to hand anything to or take anything from the monks (we're not even allowed to touch them), so the boys did most of the work during the food-collection while we just followed along behind. When we got back, Iris, our tour guide, handed us brooms and we had to sweep up the temple area before going inside for more chanting and meditation and an offering of daily necessities for the monks. After this, we ate the lunch that the monks cooked for us, changed out of the horrible white outfits, and got on the bus to go back to the eco-house.
I have to say, as jungle-y as it is here, I'm actually starting to like it. I don't mind living with geckos and frogs, and I'm even putting up with the mosquitoes. It's been raining a lot, so the heat is starting to go away, and the temperatures are actually quite livable now. The rain is definitely the best part of this place. I sat outside during a storm for about 15 minutes, and was so cold I actually started to shiver. It was the best feeling to be cold here for once!
Tomorrow we're going on a 3 hour bike ride around the town, and as long as it isn't too hot, it should be really fun.