Its coming!

Ok its been way too long since I have posted anything.  I've been in one of those "my life has become too routine" phases.  But then I realize that day-to-day life in Korea is interesting to folks back home.  So...up next: soccer in Sangju, beach trips, and bungee jumping.  And I'll tell you about work, since after all it is ground breaking work...though boring and too Korean. :) 

Sickness. ugh.

Since moving to Korea I have been sick every month.  I blame the freaky Korean germs.  The positives are that doctor visits are dirt cheap as is medicine, also Koreans are freakishly nice and cook for you.  The negatives (aside from being sick) is that there is nothing to watch on tv!  The only English programming is on at night.    

Its weird, back in America I got sick maybe once a year if even that.  In Asia…different story…I am currently blaming the cold dry winter since I have never experienced that being from Georgia.  I am really waiting for this supposed “HOT and Humid” summer.  Maybe my health will suffer slightly less in weather that is normal for me. 

Well take care until next time!  And it will be soon.

Thailand Flashback #3: Chiang Mai, around town

I am way overdue for a Thailand update, so I figured I would give you a fairly decent account of my day-to-day life in Chiang Mai. Everyday started about the same. I woke up late morning unless I was going swimming with my friend Faang, in that case I was up and headed to the pool at 8. Otherwise it was down to a local coffee shop, then to Wat Phra Dhatu Chedi Luang to sip my coffee and read under one of the trees surrounding the 800 year old structure. Not a bad morning routine. Then lunch…one of the highlights of my day, I always ate at Salomjoy. It was a great resturant that was fairly cheap and had an awesome menu including a local specialty Khaw soi! And just about anything you can make with a mango. The family that owned it loved me and were a huge reason I always went back. They were so sad the day before I left…nowhere near as sad as I was though. :)

Daily cup of coffee. and yes those are monks.

So that was a typical weekday through 3pm, then it was usually a long walk or going to the guesthouse to pick on Faang and get online for a bit. I would meet my friends for dinner when they got off of work. This was always fun because I made them pick what we ate and they also taught me a few Thai words each night. I always enjoyed riding around on their motorbikes as well. This was what I loved the most about Thailand, the people. They work hard but have a lot of fun!

On the weekends…it was all fun and games! I played soccer with local college students, had beers with my friends, and danced more than I had ever. Saturday/Sunday night my friend Ryan, from England, and I would go to a cluster of covered outdoor bars to watch the English Premier League games. We always watched Liverpool (my team) and Arsenal (his) and all of the employees would be expecting us. They loved us because we always at least ordered and complemented them in Thai. Also we were definitely the only white guys there. It was great, They had big screens with the games projected on them. We would order a few beers an enjoy the game. Usually our friend Nong would join us but she was a Man U fan so she didn’t count! 5555 :) Other days some of us would go to a local lake and relax. And some nights I would head to a nightclub with my friend Bebe (Supinya) and a few others! No matter what I did it was always fun because of the people I was around.

Late night ride with a pack of motorbikes.

Its not just the natural beauty, or the history, or even the food. It’s the Thai people. They always have a positive attitude through everything and are so caring. They earned their slogan “The land of Smiles.”

Chilling at the lake with Nongers. (Mama)

USA Vacation and Japan quake experience

So many of you know I was able to visit home in the US recently, which was absolutely amazing! On my flight home I had a layover in Tokyo just as I had on my way to the US. On my way home the flight ion and out of Tokyo was great to watch from the plane, it was a massive and vibrant city, this was one week before the earthquake. On my next flight in two days after the earthquake and tsunami it was a completely different story, Tokyo was dead. Not to mention the airport that I was flying into had been closed just one day before I left. There was very little traffic in the city and the airport was in a near panicked state. Many of the airport shops were closed and a lot of domestic and a few international flights had been canceled. Everyone was glued to the tv. Did I mention that aftershocks were still being felt? I remember the whole place shaking for 20-30 seconds, something really unnerving.

After a great visit home to see so many people I care about and then being so close (even if for a short time) to one of the world's biggest natural disasters it is hard not to be grateful for everything good in life.




Good friends and their kids.  Are we really growing up?!? btw, Wyatt is totally wearing the 311 swag I gave him.

 

I am glad I got to see all of the folks that really matter. I'm so blessed!




The only photo of me on my camera...oops.

 

Vacation in Fukuoka, Japan.

  

My trip to Japan was great! We went to Fukuoka and Nagasaki which were both amazing. We will save Nagasaki for another time. Backtracking now...My mother went to middle school In Fukuoka while my grandfather was stationed there. So I grew up hearing stories about the place my whole life. This was the main reason that I have always wanted to go to Asia. So this visit was like going full circle for me. I was so excited the second I boarded the plane. We were only in the air for 30 minutes! We landed at Fukuoka at about 6:30pm, jumped straight on the subway then walked to our hostel. Our Hostel was Khao San Fukuoka and was the cleanest and best hostel that I have ever stayed in. The first night we just wandered around the nearby area and went to a rammen shop recommended by an employee of the hostel. The noodles were absolutely great! I had some spicy pork rammen that was quiet spicy but this stuff blew away the junk we eat out of a cup at home...freshly made noodles...yum. Then we literally just walked for quite awhile until just after 1am. It felt great to be in Japan and have nothing to do but relax and enjoy yourself.

So the next day we wake up and head to Saitozaki, the town next to the former US military base. I was pretty excited to finally see where my mom used to live. We got on the city train and headed out to the peninsula, it was a nice ride with tons of nice, new scenery. We got off at the last stop on the line, Saitozaki Station. This was a small former fishing village, it was still small but not much fishing was going on. There were a few large condos and nicer new houses but plenty of older homes and buildings giving it an interesting character. We walked to the bay and looked around and took pictures, then decided to walk out to Shikanoshima Island, then return to the Uminonakamichi area where my mom had lived. We eventually made it to the bridge separating Hakata Bay from the Genki-Nada Sea. It was so beautiful! I also had my first view of the area that my mom used to live if I looked back at the opposite side of the peninsula. We walked across the bridge to Shikanoshima Island to explore and find food. As you enter the island you walk into a small old village you can tell that everything has been there for awhile and the population seems aged as well. It was nice and peaceful. We decided to visit a shrine. It was a quick hike up the hill and we were the only people there. There were some nice super old buildings and nice views over the town and the ocean. Then we decided to head back and leave the island. We had a quick sushi break on the beach then continued the trek to Uminonakamichi. When we got there it appeared that not much was left of the base but we did get a look at the theme park that now resides in its spot.

We spent most of our other days in Fukuoka walking and riding bikes around town. We covered a lot of ground! We ate at an Italian restaurant and an amazing Mexican place, which are both things that we can not find in Andong. We also went up the Fukuoka Tower, a tall seaside building with a lookout, which was neat. We could see out over the entire city and over look Saitozaki as well. The trip was great and I can not wait to visit Japan again! Until next time...

New Year Korea update

So I realize that I have not had too many posts on Korea recently. Well here is a recap of the last 2 months.


I now work at the research institute and its great! I work 1-9pm which is great because I hate waking up early. I teach classes online of 1-4 students at a time. I teach all ages which is interesting but I love it. It is overall a very easy job. I have tons of breaks and my Korean co-workers and bosses are great and all like me. They tell me I am doing a great job and have not had any negative feedback so that is always good as well.

I've made tons of friends and traveled to a few other cities in Korea. Life in Korea is good, food is cheap which is good because I love to eat! The only negative is that I haven't learned as much of Korean language as I would have liked. After three months in Thailand I was really good at speaking Thai but My Korean kinda sucks. I just never spend much time on it.

I will be going to Japan for five days in February. I am actually going to the city that my mom used to live in years ago so that adds yet another element of excitement to the whole thing.

All in all my life is going great! I miss all of you folks from back home and in CNX as well.

Thailand Flashback #2: Railay to Krabi

After leaving Bangkok I headed to the beaches!!! I met up with some friends from my TESOL course (Logan, Charlie, Crystal, Justin, and Crystal’s friend Megan). We got on a bus on Khao San Road to head to Krabi the were getting on a boat to Railay. The bus ride was about 10 hours of pain, the seats were tiny and my legs were asleep the hole time! I never slept. About half way were were dumped off in the middle of nowhere and waited to switch to another bus...this was 4 or 5am. The 2nd bus wasn't much better. This was also pretty much the last time I rode the tourist bus...I stuck with the Thai bus system, they were always much better and fed you.

So we finally got to Krabi and waited on a small boat to come and get us, finally we got on the boat. It was great but I was so tired! We rode through a bunch of tiny islands and I was absolutely amazed at the shapes of all of the rocks popping out of the water, it was all pretty surreal. Finally we jumped off at Railay and were greeted by Charlie and Megan. We checked into a bungalow that cost 200 Baht per room, roughly $6.70 and split each room 3 ways. Yes, it was cheap but! We had to shower in cold salt water and the room was so damp! I honestly felt like we would fall through the floor at any moment! Not to mention having to douse each other in mosquito spray before going to bed. Back to the story...we took naps and then walked down to the beach, the girls layed around in the sand and the guys went exploring since it was low tide we were able to walk out and into caves, pretty neat.

The beaches were beautiful but the place was quite touristy and expensive for Thailand luckily for us we were there for the low season. On the second day we decided to find another place to stay with real toilets and walls. We ended up nearby at Diamond Resort, well it was at least a step up from the bungalow. The restaurant/bar there was actually really good, They had big tasty baguette sandwiches and good Thai food plus many nights they had big BBQs with fish, chicken and baked potatoes plus tons of other good stuff. Not to mention cocktails were 2 for 1 every evening and we got close with some of the staff there and ended up with a few freebies.

And then there was Last Bar. After one night on the island we were already well known, none so much as Justin aka. “JJ.” Last Bar was literally that, the last bar on the island and actually hung over into the water. They had a good DJ and fire dancer and his girlfriend was a bartender there. We drank, danced, and played games every night and also celebrated Justin's birthday there. I'll leave many of these stories to memory but we will surely never forget those nights! :)
So everyday on Railay we would ask locals where they would go to hang out, everytime the answer was “Krabi Town” so the last day before the rest of the guys had to go back to Bangkok we went to Krabi Town. We all loved it, so much more real the Railay. We got in another small boat and rode for 30-40 minutes then got in a van that was jamming out to old US pop songs and an hour later were finally in Krabi Town. Next we jumped in the back of a pickup truck and checked into a guesthouse and began to explore. We ended up checking out a place called Fubar, I walked in and was instantly sold on it. It was a Reggae bar full of random nick-nacks, reggae posters, and driftwood...most importantly there was a Liverpool FC scarf hanging above the bar. So we ordered some buckets of whiskey and Coke and started play Jenga. Side note: this was like 4-6pm. Before sunset we wanted to check out a place called Rooftop Bar, so we walked down to it and grabbed a beer and watched the sunset over the city. It was absolutely beautiful. The bartender there was a British guy who recommended a nightclub that we could go and dance. It was called Route 69. He called taxi's for us...and we saw a first: motorbike taxi's! It was fun enough just getting there. We found out that there was a popular Thai rock band playing at the club that night. Being foreigners they let us in with no cover and then gave us a table near the stage. The band was pretty good and it was a fun time. The next day I looked for a new guest house and everyone else booked a bus back to BKK. Good times with amazing people!

The rest will follow soon!

 

Thailand Flashback #1: First time in BKK

Leaving Chiang Mai we jumped on a bus for about 11 hours to Bangkok (BKK). Not too bad considering they fed us and there was tons of leg room also a really loud Thai movie. This was the first of my many bus journeys in Thailand.

I was actually a bit freaked out when we arrived in Bangkok, it was so large and I didn’t really know what to expect. Also, I did not really have a plan of what I would be doing after my first night. After getting off of the bus Lucas and I jumped in a taxi and went to his friend Joe’s house. Luckily it was large and comfortable because we arrived early in the morning and just wanted to crash! The next day I heading into to city and found a place to stay on Khao San Road, the backpackers district. It was pretty different from Chiang Mai, tons of tourist traps and shady, overpriced bars. I stayed for a few days and hung out with my friend Rachel for a bit before she headed to Korea and did the tourist thing. We cruised up and down the river, saw some temples, ate amazing food, shopped, and went for some walks that were way too eventful.

Weird things about BKK: taxi drivers never know where you want to go…One guy didn’t know where a massive soccer stadium was and another didn’t know where the Korean embassy was. Grabby hookers…really, quite different. It was a really sad sight mainly knowing that they were all forced to do it to pay off “debts” many of these women were kidnapped or bought from poor neighboring countries and forced to sell their bodies for these men. The ease at which you could find anything was unsettling (odd animal parts, drugs, stolen goods).

Overall it was a pretty good experience but I was glad to leave Bangkok. Best moment: playing reggae with my new Thai friends until the sun came up the next morning.

Muzak

So there have been a lot of songs that were stuck in my head or that have helped calm me or encourage me during the last few months.  My mp3 player died the second week that I was in Thailand…most of you already know what that means to me!  I lost almost all of the music from my favorite bands (311, Pepper, Slightly Stoopid, Pearl Jam, U2)  so I have slowly downloaded some good stuff while waiting to rip all of my cds when I visit home in March.

Below are the songs…

Rebelution – Bright Side of Life

311 – Its Alright  (typical 311, always good)

Passafire – Turn the lights on  (Most listened to song, just wanna jam out)

Tomorrows Bad Seeds – Reflect 

B.O.B. – Airplanes  (New to me and nice)

Through The Roots – Best Friends  (name says it all, miss you guys)

Iration – You Don’t Know  (Just plain good)

Katastro – That Place You Know  (Got in my head before leaving)

T.I. feat. Rihanna – Live You Life  (just funny moments)

Tenth Avenue North-

-By Your Side  (Amazing)

Lifehouse – Everything  (Thanks Jodi and Alex)

Most of you back home know that when it comes to Pop and Rap I am like a 60 year old man, I don’t like it and have usually never heard any of it.  I had heard “Airplanes” once before leaving the states and on the plane over it was one of the many cds that I had never heard of so I ended up playing it over and over.  I really like B.O.B. now.  I know its weird but the lyrics actually don’t suck and that’s rare in that type of music!!

Anyway, You should check some of this goodness out if you haven’t heard some of it.

My first Thanksgiving away from Georgia

On Thanksgiving day I knew the home sickness would finally hit, I mean it had been 4 months.  I was really worried going to bed the night before.  Last Thanksgiving was a unique one…my sister had just undergone surgery to have a tumor removed and my mother stayed in Atlanta with her while she recovered.  This left Thanksgiving to just my dad and I since no relatives would be visiting.  At least we all had SOME family to be with though.  Back to now, I’m on the other side of the world and wondering how the day will turn out.  So I head to school to teach Korean kids about Thanksgiving…and had an amazing day.  I had to teach the kids about Thanksgiving and then made turkeys out of their hands.  They were so amazing that it made me forget all about missing home and it turned into the best day I had in Korea so far. 

For dinner Rafael, Anthony, and I headed to find a real feast!  We ended up trying a new place and ordered a whole chicken, seafood pasta, and a pitcher of beer.  Luckily the menu had pictures.  We went around the table and said the things that we were thankful for and said a prayer.  It was a unique and pleasant experience that just went to show once again that good people can make up for where you are or aren’t. 

 

I am so blessed no matter where in the world I am.  I still always have an amazing family and great friends.  A little faith and a positive attitude will take you a long way…its worked for me so far.  J

Andong: My new home

A little about Andong, Gyeongbuk, South Korea…The city has a population of 184,000 located on the Nakdong river.  Andong is known as the cultural capital of Korea and is a central market for all of the surrounding rural towns and villages.  The name Andong means “pleasant town” and it seems to be fitting.

I will work at Gyeongsangbuk-do Education Research Institute starting Dec. 20^th.  Until then I work at Andong Gangnam Elementary teaching grades 3-6.  Everyone one the institute seems to be really cool so far.  We have had a few work outings and meeting to date.  I am absolutely adored by all of the teachers and students at my elementary school!  They are not too used to foreigners in Andong.  I am called “handsome” and “tall” as well as greeted by “hello” by pretty much every kid that passes in the hall.  It’s a great feeling… 

I love Andong so far and it is a very beautiful and different place.  It is basically a blend of old and new thrown between a river and some mountains.  The area that I live Ok-Dong (Dong means district) which has tons of new construction.  Ok-Dong has a large nightlife district and plenty of good restaurants all within a few blocks of my apartment.  My apartment is in a smaller building (only 3 floors) 5 other American teachers live in the building as well.  I have a view of a field on one side with mountains in the background and a hilltop park on the other.  Behind my building is another park with a basketball court which we like to play basketball and soccer with the local kids. 

 Above: Like a boss? Below: My view.

So far I feel like I made the right decision and am enjoying my new home. 

Seoul and EPIK orientation

Korea! Finally!

I arrived in Seoul a day before my orientation began. Seoul is massive, the largest city I have ever been in! (around 24 million people, 2^nd largest on earth next to Tokyo's 32 mil) Day 2 I hiked down the street with all of my luggage to the National Institute for International Education building where I would stay for most of the next week. Check into my room eat lunch, meet a few guys...the rest is the kind of thing that legends are made from. I quickly bonded with about 8 other guys and we decided to go to a place named “Beer Castle” that night. We talked over a few pitchers of beer and bottles of soju and had a great time, then we did it for the next 5 nights.

We also took over a bar "Cool Cats" for a few nights...see below.

 Some of the guys.

Orientation was pretty cool, we got to watch quite a few interesting lectures and met some great folks that would also be working in Korea. So we studied, partied, saw some historical sights, and watched LANTA, look that up!

 Odd bar signage.

 Our favorite, taste like Kix and Fruit Loops. Plus beer and Soju. SFP!

 Culture!

 Beautiful/Awesome

Laos part 2

Vang Vieng...wow

Tubing, bucket bar, booze, Europeans, western food, football(soccer), robbery, dancing in the rain, zip lines, rivers, massages.

So so much happened in my week in Vang Vieng that I literally don't feel like typing it all. I enjoyed tubing down the river and jumping off of massive zip lines! My friend Sachin got a massage from a ladyboy...then we decided to drink chick cocktails. I rocked out to T.I. Repeatedly and was introduced to “drum and bass” music (which sucked). Drank and danced everynight at Bucket Bar including one night in a downpour. I played soccer with local high school kids and some Englishmen, and dominated them. Unfortunately many of our pictures were lost/destroyed when “Dutchie” was robbed while carrying all of our stuff in a bag while on the river one day. Its a shame because the pictures on the river were awesome! Oh! I also drank snake infused liquor, it made my body burn/tingle for a few minutes...won't try that again.

After Vang Vieng I left all of my friends after 2 amazing weeks together and headed to the capital city Vientiane. Where the jerks taking us took some of my things on the way. I asked where my phone and a few other things were and the driver says “I don't know” my response...”either you or your helper took my stuff”...I walked closer to him and he gets in the van, so I yell at him...He rolls up the window and I decided I really didn't want to go to jail in a crappy communist country. All I wanted to do was get out of Laos. And I did a few hours later...a 24-hour bus trip back to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

 ok, this one is actually from Luang Probang but it took me awhile to find it.

Laos: Part 1

So Laos was pretty crazy. I rode on a mini-bus From Chiang Mai to the Thailand-Laos border where we stayed for the night. I was with an American and a group of Europeans, we met on the ride. We were in a tiny town and decided to walk down to the river to see what we could find. Ended up at a restaurant on the river and sat down to have a few beers, ended up mostly discussing football (soccer) which was great to me! All while staring across the river at Laos, our destination for the next morning.

We ended up playing beer pong all night which was a great experience. “Team America” dominated the Dutch and English boys obviously. Haha! Then woke up early and boarded our little water taxi to cross into Laos, the second you step foot in Laos you know you are somewhere...different. It was like stepping back in time 30 years even though we had only traveled about a mile. (Quick reference: Laos, pronounced Lao, is a poor communist nation bordering Thailand, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Everything there is either made there or imported, not much selection in anything, also 11pm curfew for all.) So as son as we step off the boat a small man (like most of them) directs us to the passport checkpoint and takes our passports. A feeling of helplessness sets in, I now have no passport and am in a foreign country...after waiting awhile I receive my passport and am instructed to walk alone and not to act like I am with my friends down the road with little vague direction. Luckily we all met up at the right place. We get our tickets to the “slow boat”, our 2 day cruise dwon the Mae Khong river. Walking by piles of trash and human feces (no joke) we board the neat looking covered wooden boat that we will now be on for 7 hours. We sit on small wooden benches with a thin pillow provided. Luckily the boat is only halfway full and we are able to stretch out and talk/relax. We eventually get to a small town and can't even get off of the boat before being swarmed by people begging us to stay at their guesthouses or offering their assistance with luggage. We weave our way through and decide we needed to just sit down at a restaurant and calm down before we all lost it. We met up with 3 guys who had the same idea as us, 2 English and 1 Swiss. Eventually, one of the english guy's, Si, volunteers to go check out a guesthouse and let us know how it appeared. He came back and we all walked down to the guesthouse which was quite nice with the exception of no Air-con. Since the town had no internet and it seemed nobody had the Man. U vs. Liverpool game, and there was only one bar...we played beer pong and got the staff to join us. Pretty cool. Si, “Dutchie,” and I ended the night grilling fish on the river bank at 3am with the owner of our guesthouse.

Unfortunately we had to wake up the next morning and get back on the boat, this day we were not as lucky, instead of being halfway full, it was overflowing with people, fish, chickens, and dogs. Wow. 9 terrible hours later we arrived in Luang Probang. An actual city! We did the guesthouse tango again riding to about 7 before picking a decent one. We had quite a bit of bargaining power considering we had 11 people at this point. Got settled in and went to grab dinner...and so began the Legend of Blao! Beer Lao is the only beer in Laos, luckily its also the best beer in Southeast Asia. We were too lazy to say Beer Lao so we decided to just call it BLAO. “Blao me” or “9 Blaos please” were the first thing the servers heard when we entered any establishment. Another note: In many towns beer was cheaper than water. The local Laos food was pretty good, especially the pork laap.

In Luang Probang the were quite a few decent restaurants to chose from which was much welcomed. Also a few cool bars but the 11pm curfew kind of hurt that...except for the discotheque a night club that had paid the police off enough to stay open until 2am at least some nights. They would play Thai and Korean pop music and western pop/rap as well. It was usually pretty fun and there was a noodle shop just across the street that had massive bowls off beef/noodle soup. The best part about Luang Probang was the natural beauty, there were plenty of waterfalls and mountains to check out. I always joke that all I did there was eat and swim. The first waterfall that we went to was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, it was crystal clear and flowed down it seemed like forever. The area had plenty of nature trails and even a Black bear reserve. My favorite part was definitely the rope swing, I'll also never forget Dutchie hitting the tree after waiting too long to release the rope. Too bad we didn't get a picture of that! We also went to another waterfall that was less spectacular but had plenty of swimming holes around plus elephants were roaming the park.

My favorite Laos memory though was the annual boat racing festival! Myself and the other two Americans, Vincent and Sara, plus our Danish friend joined 4 Laos guys and as we were about to leave 2 Australian girls jumped in as well. We drove for 40 minutes or so and all of a sudden there were people everywhere! There were food stalls and carnival games lining the dirt paths down to the river. When we finally got down to the river there were people everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. It was also insanely hot...so our Laos buddies found a table on the hillside under a tree. (the only table under any tree, I think having a crew of white folks helped out) We ordered a few Blaos, grilled fish, and boiled goose eggs. The eggs were a little more mature than we were used too. :) Anyway The races were really cool, they were in wooden row boats pretty much like crew, except cooler. Every time the boats would near the finish line the crowd would erupt, people were waving flags and spinning noise makers, yelling...its was awesome! This went on for quite a while and eventually the guys asked if we wanted to go somewhere else with more beer and even dancing. So we went. We sat under massive tents with tons of small tables and listened to some live Laos bands. I decided to sit with the four Laos guys at the end of our table. One of them kept eyeing the girls at the table behind us so I told him to go talk to her, he did. Later he comes back and says “dance” and points to the two girls. So I go dance with them. Just so you know...this was traditional Laos dancing and music, quite awkward for me.  It was one of those truly surreal moments in life that I will never forget.

More to come!   

Chiang Mai: The beginning. Recapped

I landed in Chiang Mai around midnight July 23^rd. Considering I was one of the few not Asians on the plane I noticed a girl around my age that looked American and asked “are you here for the ATI course?” luckily she was. We rounded up our bags and shared the shuttle to our resort. Upon arrival we found out the only 2 other people had arrived...our roomates. After waking up my roomie, Brad, We decided to take a walk around despite the fact that at this point I had been awake for over 30 hours. Long story short we bought fried “chicken” bits and sat on the curb to eat and drink at 7-11. after talking for a few hours we realized it was 3:30 am and we should probably get some sleep. The next day the 4 of us walked the city and did the tourist thing...Chiang Mai is old! And there was plenty to see and more excitingly for me, to eat.

I our time together there (1 month) the sixteen of us, went to waterfalls, markets, temples, ate bugs (well some of us), danced, partied, studied, taught, hung with monks, and had an awesome time getting our TESOL certificates.

Hmm...how to start?

So I'm finally doing this blog thing.  Everyone and their mother is asking me about my trip so I'm giving in!  I'll eventually catch you up. At the moment I am sitting at a coffee shop in Bangkok.  I left the US on July 22nd and have been in Thailand for 3 months.  Alot has happened since then, I have been working on a condensed recap of my epic adventures in Thailand and will post it in some form soon.