Happy Year of the Rat (or mouse- Mickey is WAY cuter).

Salutations. Another exciting Friday night at my apartment. I did just go for a spin on Daniel Jones' new Fino scooter. Pretty awesome that I have a friend with a scooter and extra helmets. Supposedly the main road- Sukhumvit, goes all the way to the ocean so we may try to take it one day. It could take days, but it's a Fino.

In other news, I decided to try volunteering for the enth time since being here. I get rejected a lot, I mean I WANT to help. While my first 6 months were technically volunteering, I want to do something I actually enjoy. A non-profit, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), finally e-mailed me back wanting my translation services for their final reports, I eagerly agreed. Basically I get to translate their 30 page final report into Spanish for their Latin American members to read. The upsides are that it will be great practice and allow me to become familiar with technical terms in Spanish in the area of human trafficking, legal issues and advocacy. I met with the lady today, we spoke in Spanish which was marvelous (she's Spanish). She was very happy to have my help, since she actually has other things to do. She also told me that if I continue to be interested in the area she has contact with various NGOs dealing with the issue of trafficked women throughout Latin America and the world that would likely be happy to have me. Awesome. Connections are another plus, and the only downside is that it's 30 pages.

Tonight Christina's dad arrives and tomorrow we are all going to the weekend market to have bugs. Yes, roaches and the such that are "cooked" for a nice afternoon snack. Never fear, despited my intentions to give up soda for lent, I will be purchasing a huge coke to down as soon as the crunch of the insect of choice gets to me.

cheers.