I think I may have potentially made a friend down the street! He works at this restaurant I like to go to where there is always the owner, an old chinese lady, sitting out front and a very fresh lady chef. This potential new friend said, you're not Thai are you? I laughed and explain that I'm almost Thai because my parents are. He continued to say I look Japanese. This is often meant as a compliment because for some reason Thai people think the Japanese are better.

Dream Internship (still unofficial) wants me to be a journalist/social media correspondant as in speak to Thai journalists, be a kind of representative, or face for community forestry. Yikes. Thai can be broken down into five different registers/social contexts, only one of which can I actually speak (street/common Thai), the rest, formal, religious, rhetorical, and royal Thai I barely understand myself. This is to be discussed, but everything else about the job seems very worthwhile as it underscores exactly what I want to do in my Fulbright project. I am taking deep big breaths because I think I may have already screwed up my chances with Fulbright. I hope my hard work and references will allow them to show mercy on me.