I caved.

Crazy that it's been almost three years now that I've been in Thailand. People have been bugging me this whole time to start a blog. I never have because... well, there seems something so- how can I say this politely?- something so self-serving about a blog. You're just sitting here writing about your own thoughts and presuming that people actually want to read about this stuff... It seems somehow presumptuous and arrogant.

No offense to everyone who has blogs- because in the end this is exactly why I have caved: if, in the end, I like reading everyone else's stuff, then why shouldn't I be able to share my own goings on?

So here I am. In my office in Administration Building 2 in the Lower Matayom at the Prince Royal's College in Chiang Mai, Thailand, blogging away. For those people with whom I have been out of touch for a very long time, I will provide an overview of the past three years:
I graduated from Yale in May of 2005 and moved home to Charleston, South Carolina for a summer of fun, friendship, and frivolities. I lived at home and worked as a runner at the Buist, Moore, Smythe, and McGee law firm downtown. Then in August I packed up and went to Australia for two weeks to visit Bill, Adriana, Renee, Jane, and Wendy in Melbourne and Adelaide. From there I flew on up to Chiang Mai where I immediately began taking Thai classes and Payap University.

After a few months of professional uncertainty, I started teaching high school at the Prince Royal's College and volunteering at the MPlus Group doing HIV prevention and gay and transgendered rights work. I was still studying Thai all this time. In February I went to visit David (Lau) in Hong Kong. Then in March of 2006 Laura, Elaine, Dasha and I put on Thailand's first ever production of the Vagina Monologues and we raised 20,000 baht for the Burmese Women's Union.

Then my dad came to visit (and is to date the only member of my family to come see me. on the other hand, every single on of my friends who has said they would come see me has come!! thanks, guys! I think the count is at 24 people... :-)). We traveled around and saw beautiful things. Then I went to visit Elona in Vientianne (Laos) in April.

Things get a bit blurry in here as I'm trying to pull all this off the top of my head, but I think after Dad's visit and experiencing my first Songkran ever, I went home for a few weeks. Songkran, by the way, is the Southeast Asian New Years, known aptly as the "Water Festival." It is every year at the hight of the hot, dry season. It's celebrated in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Traditional celebration includes a trip home to see family, attending a service at the local temple, the ritualistic "washing" of the monks, gift exchange, and a large meal with extended family and friends. In Chiang Mai, however, Songkran means ridiculous, insane rave-style foam parties in the middle of the day, being doused with icy water dredged from the bottom of the moat where it's been stagnating in the hot sun since the previous rainy season, and eating lots of hang-lay curry and sticky rice. It's awesome, but completely overwhelming and exhausting.

Back to Chiang Mai for the new school year. Continued volunteering at MPlus (which entailed things like doing outreach with sex workers in bars, organizing informational meetings with school groups, and teaching a free English class for the community- the vocab list for this class was really funny...), teaching at PRC, and added college adviser to my duties as several of my 12th graders were interested in going to college in the US. We spent countless hours prepping for the SATs and TOEFL, and it was all worth it in the end. (Right, Maprang?)

Really busy times then. Not much out of the ordinary except I took a trip to Vietnam over a 4-day weekend in July. Flew into Hanoi, trained up to Sapa on the Chinese border, hiked around the rice fields and swam in the most beautiful lake I've ever seen, did Vietnamese karaoke on the train with some French/Vietnamese guys on the train ride back to Hanoi. Befriended by a crotchety old American ex-pat who ceaselessly referred to Hanoi as a cesspool, even though he had chosen to live there for the last 15 years of his life. Oh and did you know there is a photo of Jane Fonda in the Hanoi Women's Museum?

Other than that it was business as usual. For the semester break in October, I spent a week in Beijing with the PIAs (thanks for being such great hosts!) and about 10 days (...right?) with Ben Shell in Mongolia. Saw all the sights in Beijing and accidentally got dropped off by a local bus in the middle of a cornfield two hours outside of Beijing on my way to the Great Wall. Used my pigeon Chinese to negotiate with a passerby to take me to the Wall and then to the nearest bus station. China is a crazy place.

Took the Transiberian Rail to Ulaan Baatar and was met by Ben at the train station. He was working for a microfinance bank in Ulaan Baatar but took a few days off when I came. We got a guide and a drive and took a bouncy ride in an old Russian van to stay with a nomadic Buriat family in the most beautiful valley in the world in the middle of nowhere in Mongolian Siberia about 30 miles from the Russian border. Words of advice- don't get in snowball fights or go on blizzard hikes with Mongolians.

Back to Chiang Mai in November 2006. More teaching, helping a student get his high school diploma from the US (that's you, Pui), only to be later adopted by his mother as "the daughter she never had". Again, details are all blurry here. People were coming and going and work was very busy.

The next thing I remember for sure is Rachel coming in March of 2007. She quit her job at PWC and I was about to take a break from PRC and we were going to travel around the world. We started with Cambodia- we somehow managed to finagle an invitation to (slash crash) a wedding in Phnom Penh that was hosted by an extremely wealthy family. The Cambodians were amazing hosts and answered our incessant questions about the country and culture and took us everywhere we wanted to go. From Phnom Penh we went up the majestic Angkor Wat (I'm sorry to use this hackneyed adjective but really nothing else described it) with Allan, the most amazing guide ever. If you are going to Angkor Wat, please tell me and I'll give you her contact info.

From Cambodia back to Chiang Mai to tie up loose ends (i.e.- getting approval to write and implement a new HIV prevention curriculum in the middle school at PRC. I was to spend the next 6 months traveling and researching this topic). Then on to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. We had decided long before that we wanted to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in SE Asia, and had timed it perfectly so we'd be climbing it during the full moon as the last part of the climb takes place in the hours before dawn. In typical fashion, we had not, however, bothered to check that you need to make reservations way in advance to climb this mountain as the Malay national parks system only allows a certain number of people on the mountain per day (as it should be). We managed it though- 14,000 feet. Watching the sun rise over Borneo was probably one of the highlights of my life to date. Back in Kota Kinabalu city, we SCUBA dived, ate awesome fish with our hands at local markets, and almost got pulled into a gambling ring by the local mafia. Sometimes I'm too friendly, I think...

From there we went on to Kuala Lumpur where we met with local educators and talked about the shortcomings of the "abstinence-only" education system allowed by the Muslim government and the subtle ways to get around it. From KL on to Singapore where we were put up at the wonderful Anglo-Chinese Independent School, connection courtesy of Mike Hock. All we had to do in exchange for free accommodation for 3 days was give a one-hour talk about Yale and Ivy League admissions and be available to the students for email consultation. Loved the Singapore Night Safari and our hosts at ACSI!

From there down to Darwin, Australia to be yelled at the customs official for forgetting to eat my banana on the plane. Whoops. Went camping in Kakadu National Park where we say GIANT salt water crocodiles in the Adelaide River that would literally jump all the way out of the water. Saw aboriginal cave drawings and some crazy didgeridoo playing. Swam in the clearest waterfalls I've ever seen.

On to Perth where we stayed with Xia and Menno and hung out with very cool Australian med students. I had some really great interviews with med students and NGO reps. Loved Rottnest (sp?) Island where Rach and I rented bikes and picnicked. Fremantle is also a very cool little town.

On to Adelaide for a few days- dinner with Renee, Jane, and Wendy, took a random road trip with Fidelma, our new Irish friend. Celebrated Anzac Day with some intoxicated sailors. All-in-all a good time. Then on to Melbourne to stay with Adriana and Bill AND spend time with Leigh and Jon! Also a nice breakfast with Dr. Chris. Rachel and I saw our first Australian Rules Football (footie) game (Carleton vs. Brisbane Lions). Carleton is apparently a traditionally Jewish neighborhood in Melbourne. There was a row of Orthodox Jewish teenagers behind us who had had a bit too much to drink and were very excited about the fact that Jon was Jewish. Jon said it was the first time he'd ever been "high-fived" for his religion.

From Melbourne on to Sydney which is, I'm convinced, the cleanest, most beautiful city in the world. LOVED it. Went surfing for a day at Bondi beach, walked around the cliffs and beaches of different neighborhoods, stood and gazed in awe at the Opera House.

From Sydney on to Tasmania. We rented a car and drove around the entire island in 3 days. Did some hiking, stayed on some really neat sheep farms, ate great organic food, and tried to avoid hitting wombats and Tasmanian devils at night. Though we really didn't do that much driving at night as almost every town on the island shuts down at 6PM.

From Hobart we flew to Auckland where we were met at the airport by Jonny the wonderful. We stayed at her place and took full advantage of the stocked kitchen, internet, and TIVO. The next day, Rachel's dad and Ciara came in so Rach and I went our separate ways. Ciara and I rented a car and drove to Raglan where we stayed at an amazing seaside hostel and went surfing. Ciara was a natural. From Raglan we went on to Taupo and Rotorua where we bathed in sulfuric mud and water. Our skin was much the better for it, though we smelled like... yuckiness... for days. Taupo on to Wellington where we stayed at a fun hostel and decided to do a night on the town.

Bad idea as we had to be on the ferry for the South Island at 6 AM. Ciara got terribly sea sick as I enjoyed the breathtaking scenery of the Marlborough Straights. Stayed the night at kindly old woman's B&B who brought Ciara tea in bed to calm her stomach. Drove southward through wineries to Kaikoura where we swam with hundreds of wild dolphins, geared up in wetsuits more than an inch thick to guard against the Arctic water. Being in the water surrounded by hundreds of dolphins with the snow capped mountains behind me and the crystal blue water yawning beneath me is another life-time highlight.

Kaikoura on to I think Franz Joseph where we hiked on the glacier. Amazing to be on top of a massive chunk of solid ice wearing shorts and a tshirt. From there down to Queenstown where we took it easy. Then back to Auckland. Ciara went back to the US and I went out to the Great Barrier Island to work at a bed and breakfast (in exchange for room and board) for a few days. Sitting on the beach on the east side of the island looking out at the ocean was crazy- it's the longest stretch of ocean in the world (about 7,000 miles).

Back to Jonny's for a few days, then met Rachel at the airport for two 12 hour flights back to back- Auckland-Hong Kong, Hong Kong- London. Then London-Edinburgh where we met Caitrin and Katie. We got lost trying to find out hotel and were escorted to our hostel by two elderly gentlemen dressed in tweed from head to toe and carrying walking sticks who kept using the word "wee". It was truly Scotland.

We did Edinburgh for a few days, then one night on Loch Lomond, just because I had always wanted to see it. Then London for a few days which was great with Caitrin, the world's foremost expert on English history.

Then we all flew to Athens to meet Mom and Dad. Stayed at nice places, didn't have to worry about planning. It was great. Did Athens, Delphi, and the isles Naxos, Paros, and Santorini. Highlights include Dad's giant plate of baby goat spaghetti on Paros, the restaurant owner in Santorini who spoke no English who was so proud of her tomatoes, and the pirate ship cruise- swimming in the crystal clear Agean Sea after hiking up to the top of the volcano in the million degree heat.

This first post is turning into a book... I'll sum up the rest in a few sentences and go back and add details later. No one is going to read this whole thing anyway. So after the isles, Mom, Dad, Caitrin, and Rachel went back to the States and Katie and I continued on. Did Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland before flying home to the States. I was in the States for a month and then back to Thailand and the Prince Royal's College to start my curriculum. Long story short, I am still here, working on the same thing.

More details soon!