Dirty

Feet are taboo in Thailand.
Thai people are not too fond of feet.
The main reason why Thai people don't like feet is because of Buddhism.
98% of Thailand is Buddhist and 1% is Muslim so there isn't too much diversity....or religious freedom for the matter. Even if Thailand doesn't have an official religion.
I learned quickly what- not- to- do with my feet here...
Don't directly point your feet at people of Buddha.
When walking through doorways, don't step directly in the doorway/frame, step over it.
Take off your shoes before you eater the house, or any special building or classroom.
Don't step over anyone, or anything important like books, instruments or really anything.

There are tons of other foot related taboos here, but i just try to make it simple by remembering:
Don't step on or over anything.

The way Buddhism relates to feet is that Buddhist people believe that your soul is located in your head and therefore heads are sacred. And since your feet are the furthest from your head, feet are "dirty".

At first I didn't understand this. Why does there have to be a part of your body that you hate? Can't it all be good? Why the feet? Feet are useful, they help you walk and play football (I call soccer football now apparently...).
And if you take off your shoes before entering a house, wouldn't it be worse? Because instead of your shoes on the floor it would be your actual feet?

So I asked my Thai friend Gap. And he said that it all goes back to ancient times. Because your feet were literally dirty from walking around the streets with the dirt, so people didn't like them. And the "taking off your shoes" thing, was not for Buddhism (even though that's what people say) it's because people don't want the floors of their house getting dirty.
Wouldn't ya know.
Thinking all this time that the Thai people had this long tradition of hating feet turned out to be them being stubborn about cleaning their floors.
But who would blame them?

Warning: Some people actually really care (especially the elderly) about the whole soul/dirty feet thing, so if in Thailand, follow the rules.

Book: Just finished Paper Towns today. Holy Toledo. That book was soooooooooooo good. I know I say this about all the books I have been reading but gosh darn they're all good!
Thai: face..............................................na