First of probably many similar updates

I had a deliciously indolent day today. Well, afternoon anyway. I went back to Big Brother Mouse again and found it a little more taxing than yesterday - today's visitors were less comfortable with their English and it made them very hesitant to try to say much. There was a lot of "do you have a big family?" "yes, I have a big family...." with no elaboration, and I'd have to coax more information out of them, but over the course of the morning they loosened up a bit and we had a few laughs. I didn't get to talk to Sansuri again, but there were three other first year college students that I spoke with over various parts of the morning. Man, lanuage barriers are exhausting. It certainly gives me a whole new level of respect for people who come to the States and have to struggle with culture shock and language shock. I'm unbelievably lucky to have happened to be born in a country whose language just happens to be the fast-growing lingua franca of the world. Everywhere I go, almost everyone speaks enough English for me to get by without learning much more than token phrases like "hello" or "thank you." It makes traveling really convenient, but it's pretty incredible that everywhere I go, my language has preceded me...
But on to my deliciously indolent afternoon. With my Christmas shopping at long last completed (after 4 months of scavenging the globe!) and in the post, I had nothing to do this afternoon. Nada! So I got my book out - a book about a ballerina to compensate for the fact that this'll be the first year in my memory that has not included some version of the Nutcracker or another - and read for hours. Then I went for a wander, picked up a rice basket as a favor to Chris, who couldn't get one on account of the ATM failure on the day of his departure, and stumbled upon the evening's chants at the local wats. All the monks (or at least large numbers of them) gather together in the main hall and chant these long songs and never seem to take a breath. It's very beautiful and soothing. I didn't want to take any pictures of the monks themselves, so I just sat and took video of the courtyard with the chants (hopefully) filtering into the tiny microphone on my camera. Fingers crossed it works, because I'd love you guys to hear it.
Then I wandered past the cooking school, which smelled heavenly, and signed up for an all day cook-stravagaza on Saturday. We'll go to the market in the morning and then from 11 on we'll be cooking and eating until 5 or so. Delicious. And I already have my cookbook to start studying before I get there...and I'll get to bring it home so I can make tasty Lao food for myself - and maybe a lucky few of you guys too! Mmmmm...laap chicken...
So now, as I look forward to that, I have nothing to do with my night but upload some more pictures from my camera, go have dinner and a glass of French wine by the Mekong, and maybe continue my quest for a perfect dessert. There are lots of French bakeries around, and I've tried several, but have yet to find something that hits the spot. Last night I got a piece of cake that looked tasty but when I got it, it became clear that it had been sitting there for days - it was like a crouton! Luckily they switched it for me, but it kills the mood. :) I live a really hard life...