Adventure!

I woke up after not sleeping to the bleary beating of the telephone in my room. After working from 10am til 2am I wasn't exactly thrilled that my group member didn't receive the files I sent. Myneu email sucks. Everyone needs to adopt gmail ... After figuring out the issue, our group hurried off to print press packets for the mornings event.

While the Americans really only had to "sit tall and pretty" it was still a hey-day of a morning up until the press conference actually started. Then it was a let down. The press (3 television crews and 4 newspapers) stayed for about 15 mintues. I'm sure it was more out of charity than anything else that they even showed up at all, but after all the hard work we put in it was a little frustrating.

Our group was the second to present. Our three Thais marched to the front of the room and asked that I join them for moral support. I held our sex-ed poster that we paraded around the streets on Saturday.

After the whole conference ended (I spent much of it figuring out the plot for a story I am trying to write) everyone was relieved. I went to the post office which took forever and tried sending a package home and eventually succeeded (yes there is a box in the mail going home!) but it won't arrive for another two months. One if by land, two if by sea...

After, Julie and I took a tuk-tuk (think glorified motorbike cab or motorized rik-shaw) to the Horizon Hotel about a half hour outside of Chiang Mai. We went to the hotel because it was this huge compound. Think of it like a Thai version of the Arboretum with all sorts of palm-trees from different parts of the world. It also hand these huge ponds scattered throughout, a zoo, a cacti garden (aka heaven), an herb garden, an orchid garden... Basically the place was just gorgeous. We rode our bikes around for about two hours.

I got to feed some deer after having been stared down by an ostrich...Let me tell you, they are one nasty looking bird -- especially because they have those big dinosaur legs... We also got to chill with a couple camels. What odd looking creatures.

After, we got back from our wild tuk-tuk ride and met up with a bunch of our Thai friends: Nat, Nok, Game, Mu, Min, Jim, and Pou-Pei and went to the local mall "ga-son-gao" which is 7 stories tall and did karaoke.

The second time around was better because now, after having been here for a while, I actually knew some of the words to Thai songs. This is a really popular song in Thailand. Check out the music video for it on youtube. It's kind of long and takes awhile to get to the actual song (about two minutes in) but whatever!

Nobody But You - Wondergirls
Sorry Sorry - Super Junior

These two songs are really popular and there are a couple different covers but I think these are the versions I've heard the most...

Other than that not too much is new. I'm leaving Chiang Mai on Wednesday and am really sad about it. I've made such good Thai friends here that the idea of having to say goodbye is really hard... Tomorrow is our farewell dinner...

Anyways I'm tired and running on six hours of sleep. Gonna go to bed now!

OH!

I almost forgot! My Thai friends gave me a Thai nickname "P-noho" (literally pronouced Pea - no -who " which means Owl in Thai because I have an Owl Purse and an Owl wallet. Noho means owl while P means "older sister." It's a sign of respect...

(Strange that I am calling an early night 11pm when I am named owl!)