So guess what I got? No, not a puppy. A sunburn! Just on my lower arms, because I left my special UV-resistant umbrella at a bus stop and my UV Tainted Milk (what it says on the lotion that I have under the "SPF 40") does not work very well. I am surprised by the fact that the sunscreen lotion over here is neither screeny nor lotiony - it really is like milk, very runny and in teeny tiny bottles. Everything to do with women and beauty is "milky," rather than "creamy," here. Westerners, we love our cream. But here, not so much. So no slip, slap, slop - it's more like slip, slap, dab. (I will send the bill to the Canada Airport Authority for my skinectomy - if they hadn't confiscated my perfectly good thick, SPF 60 ubersunscreen lotion I would be, well, somewhat less sunburnt.)

In other news, Hello Kitty really is everywhere. Miniskirts are "in." You pay for busses when you get off, not when you get on (except sometimes, when you do). Jade is WAY OVERPRICED. Whole families live in the back of their shops, and all the children wear brightly coloured two-tone school uniforms - none of this plaid crap. All the dogs (well, the male dogs) have enormous testicles; neutering is virtually nonexistent. I saw a pack of about ten wild dogs just lying around in the sun the other day. They all looked very hot. We went to a carbonate hot springs and the nice lifeguard lent me his goggles for swimming laps in the cold pool. Do not drink tap water, because even if it starts out safe, it travels through some pretty suspicious pipes. Air conditioning is a public service - without it I would be dead. Honestly. We saw a huge mangrove swamp and all the little black-, white- and pink-striped crabs waved their one big pincher at us angrily. Also, the nice old man whose family runs the breakfast shop down the street recognized us and came over and shared his tea with us (after informing my mom that her container of store-bought sugary milk tea drink was probably bad for her.)

This morning I sent off like 20 postcards. If you don't get one in a week or two, well, um, tough luck! It cost me a whole FIVE DOLLARS to mail them all and I hope you all appreciate the fact that I licked those stamps myself (well, not all by myself. My mom helped. You can thank her later.)

Tomorrow we are off to Hong Kong.