I always thought life was easier if you were blond

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand. After literally three days of travel, we finally made it out of France, through Switzerland and Germany and into Thailand. The flight here was over an impressive list of countries Americans have been taught to fear- much of the Middle East, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and Burma.

After the initial shock, we are starting to get into the spirit of adventure here and are loving much about this city so far. All of us having been loving the Thai food and glad to eat more like our family does at home. I smile when I hear the girls talk about wanting to eat the street food here because they recognize and love the smells- satays, peanut sauce, lemongrass, etc. The weather is a lot nicer than the rain and cold of Colmar. We have also loved the shopping! Prices here are incredibly cheap for the most part. The girls got cute outfits for $6, new shoes for $8. All of us have been adding to our wardrobes bit by bit only spending a few dollars at any given time.

One thing though that the girls are hating is the attention that Teresa has been receiving because of her blond hair. People are anxious to greet her, talk to her, and touch her hair because she is so exotic. All of the attention is not appreciated by her as she is usually shy of strangers. Maria isn't liking it very much either.

Yesterday we were walking through the crazy, crowded Sunday night market. The girls were both hungry and unfortunately, we can't trust most of the street food at these events. However, we found a waffle vendor and so we ordered waffles and planned to eat them on the street. We brought the girls over to a place out of the way of the flow of traffic and were ushered into a shoe store by a teenage girl. She wanted to play with Teresa. So, she offered to let us eat in her store and pulled out stools for us. While sitting, she started to play with Teresa's hair and french braided it. When she was done, Maria asked her to braid her hair too. We thought it was funny that this girl had no motivation to get us into the store to buy something- she simply wanted to talk to Teresa and play with her. I always thought the world treated blonds different- what confirmation!