2008. when did that happen.

Happy New Year!

Lucy should be mid-flight on her way to Japan and then back to the U.S. I think she loved Thailand more in her two week visit than I will in my one year stay. It was great to show her my “new life” here and have her take good reports to those Stateside. We went to Koh Samet and toured around Bangkok, well my bubble of BKK, which consists of shopping malls and fine dinning. Only the best for visitors.

New discovery in my neighborhood; a public scale. A few feet away from the skytrain station entrance is a scale with two photographs. The first picture has a woman, resembling Natalie Portman, and a Thai monk visiting a sick person in the hospital. The next is of a malnourished, topless woman who is staring at the floor. Since the picture is pixely I can't tell id she is Thai or Western. There is some Thai under the pictures explaining their connection and likely the reason for the public scale. I could learn Thai to figure it out or continue to make up my own extensive explanations. My best guess is that it's a public awareness campaign for eating disorders.

In other news, the King's sister passed away. She was 84 and had been in the hospital for months. Thailand is now in mourning for 90 days. This means that everyone wears black to work. Thankfully my office is more...not sure, but we don't have to wear black. I would have had too at my old job. Another reason to be content with the change.

Tonight I'm taking the overnight bus to Chiang Mai for a fun filled weekend of “chaperoning” 100 Singaporean 9th graders. I will basically be tagging along on their extended field trip, being the "foreigner-in-a-box" that I usually am. Did I mention how at the science camp I was photographed with each student, handing out their "diploma"? I was also asked to m.c. the whole day, a little foreign monkey on stage. Nevertheless, it should make for some great stories.