Free Refills

I'm standing at the counter at Wendy's and suddenly I'm faced with the toughest question I've ever had to ask myself: how thirsty am I? See, there are no free refills here (or anywhere outside of America, for that matter), and I think we really take this fact for granted. Back home, it doesn't matter what size drink you order because you can just keep coming back for more. You can even switch from Coke to Sprite whenever you want! But not here, oh no. They fill the cup for you and if you want more, you have to pay for it.
So here I am, standing at the counter trying to decide whether or not I'm thirsty enough to upgrade to a medium drink. I'm not like, super thirsty now, but what if the fries are really salty? What if the bun on my chicken sandwich is really dry? What if I'm not thirsty at all and I waste money up-sizing? Major conundrum.
Ok so you're probably asking yourself, "why is she going on about free refills? This has nothing to do with her gap year." But it does! Not having access to free refills has actually made me realize all the things I took for granted back home. Things like a mosquito-free environment, air conditioning, streets without mange and flea ridden dogs, traffic laws, my own bathroom, hot water, being able to drink from the tap, and my own vehicle.
Now that I'm in New Zealand and far, far away from all things 3rd world, I have to say I really appreciate those things a lot more than I did at home (with the exception of having my own bathroom. Hostels do not allow for this.).
But in other news, I got to New Zealand a week ago, and things are going pretty well so far. Well, they were going well until Wednesday, when I started getting really sick. I figured I just had flu and decided to wait it out, but my boyfriend reminded me that I had been in 2 malaria-risk countries and suggested that I go see a doctor just to get tested for malaria. This is where having a car would come in handy, because I spent the better half of today taking a bus tour of Auckland trying to find a doctor's office that wouldn't cost me $360. Eventually, I found a place, but I still had to pay $120 to see a doctor! Ridiculous! I had the malaria test and a ton of other tests done today, so I'll find out by tomorrow (I think) if I have it or not.
Other than that, I'm having a pretty good time here. Auckland is a lot like San Francisco, so I can definitely picture myself staying here for the next 6 months. I'm currently looking for a job and an apartment, so pretty soon I should be moved into my own place! Hopefully soon after that I'll get my own laptop so I can work on college applications and uploading pictures and such.

Oh, I almost forgot about Koh Samet!
So we got to the island the day before my birthday, and it was gorgeous! White sand beaches, and the water was so clear you could see the bottom even if you were so far out you couldn't touch it.
The bar that we ate dinner at every night was right on the beach and right after we finished eating there was always a fire dancing show followed by a break dancing performance by some local Thai guys. We really didn't do much other than lay around on the beach all day and hang out at the bar at night, except for Wednesday, which is when we took a boat tour around the island and went snorkeling and deep sea fishing (I obviously did not partake in the fishing. Fish are friends, not food.).
I guess there's really not much to say about it, other than it was the best way to spend my 19th birthday, and we all had a blast there!