What a Trip

FINALLY got back to Nai Soi. I do not recommend trying to go from Bangkok to Nai Soi in a straight shot. I left at Tuesday 2:40 Seattle time, and finally walked into my room at Friday 9AM Thai time (That is about Thursday at 7PM) And I was lucky to get that! About 32 hours of the 52 hours was spent traveling, 20 was spent waiting in various stations for various buses, and none of which was spent actually sleeping. Anyway, I am here, I am in my room (after spending an hour evicting the bugs who assumed that I wasn't coming back and 24 hours sleeping).

I'm not actually as thrilled to be here as I thought I would be, for some reason it was a lot harder to leave Seattle then it was the last two times that I went. I commented to Sarah while we drinking my last good cup of coffee in Seattle that I was actually a lot more nervous about traveling and a lot more reluctant to leave then I was-- which was odd, since I had a great situation that I previously couldn't wait to get back to. When the plane flew over the needle, I actually started crying. I figured that all would be well once I got home, but for now I am itching to mark December on my calender, and I feel eager for classes to start just to find out how badly I am needed-- and how soon I can leave. Hopefully this is just due to being here and having nothing to do and will pass once the students actually arrive. If not, I have a feeling that this is going to be a real quick trip.

My room in Nai Soi was a mess. I was a little worried on the way up that after 5 weeks someone had broken in and helped themselves. I undid the lock and first noticed that everything had been left untouched. About five seconds after that, I thought that perhaps it would have been better if someone had broken in and at least disturbed the dust a bit. The most disturbing thing was that there were about five or six large evacuated termite nests. The termites were gone, thankfully, but they left behind their calling cards-- thousands of little two-inch wings that are shed after they come out of their eggs and have sex. I ran into the fuckers during Chiang Mai-- one night the room was covered in so many flying insects that they blocked out the light that I was trying to read by. From what have heard this is a common occurrence during the rainy season in Thailand so I am sure that I will have lots of chances to photograph this phenomenon. At least someone is getting some in this room.

Just as I got my room to a sleepable state my boss, Kyaw Hlu Sein stopped by for a chat. I told him that I hadn't slept for three days but that didn't seem to phase him much as he pulled up a chair. What is wrong with these people? The nice guy who gave me a ride did the same to me as well-- after I got into his car (I have to admit that he was doing me a favour) I told him that I had been traveling for three days and I was tired but this still didn't stop him from give me a tour of his house and making three stops so that he could play “show off the foreigner”. Anyway, Kyaw wanted to go over the academic program for the next nine months so I threw him out of my room as gracefully as I could and passed out. I don't think that I offended him too badly because he was at my door at 9AM the next morning.

Welcome home.