Things are back to normal. I've been seeing friends all around school, sitting in the same classes, taking guitar lessons, playing soccer in the evenings, and trying to clean up my room. Dekker, P'Yui, Charley, and P'Mo took me to dinner with their friends last Thursday, a last meal in Thailand type thing. Yui's younger brother Tum is now working at the new airport so he came to dinner too. He's staying right near P'Momo and I, so we're going be playing soccer together in the evenings and going out to eat sometimes. After dinner we went back to Dekker and Yui's hotel room and stayed the night.

Today I'll have class at two o'clock. Tonight there's a staff meeting after class I too; about Loi Krathong day. My eleven o'clock class was the math course that I used to have. Good news and bad news on that one. Even though I didn't get to take the exam, I heard that the teacher boosted all low grades to 40%. Bad news is I still should drop it: 40% isn't very good for a major test. So... November 14- December 17 is my withdrawal period. Then I get to pre-register on the 21st of November! (shouts to express feeling of excitement) That means I'll have to pay in early December. Which means I'll need the credit card I never got in the US. Bank of America (not the Port Townsend branch) is lacking on their customer support.

I need to pick a topic for my persuasive speech tonight. A good one. Controversial. In the next few days I need to do a reference run to the library. Friday afternoon I need to announce my topic and cited works. Then I'll have one more week to write the speech, and memorize it.

Grades are slowly trickling out. B's in both exams that came out. Computer Science and Public Speaking. Again, no help to the GPA. This means even with 100% on the final exam (impossible) I would still have a B+

I need to buy a print cartridge. At $30 a cartridge I may just buy a new printer that takes the refillable type cartridges.

I'm back.



Every time I do the sixteen hour flight from Seattle to Bangkok it seems to get easier. I find myself thinking less and less of the flight. The the two day long flight takes me from one half of the world to another. The transpacific flight was a bully that stood in my way everytime I had to travel. The fight seems to have gotten easier or at least shorter. The same trip has started to feel more like a shuttle between my apartment and Seattle. No more exciting than getting on, putting change in the meter and waiting for the city bus to get close to your neighborhood. When you get close grabyour duffel bag and politely ask to get off. Or it could have been the sleeping pill I took that made it so easy. There's a good life lesson for me: drugs can solve my problems.

The United States of America. My trip was really very enjoyable. Just as relaxed as I had hoped it would be. I got to see everyone and relax with my family, which was just what I needed. Going between Seattle, Cinncinnati, Columbus, Massillion, Columbus Charlotte, and Port Townsend this time was very different. Seemed as though I was standing back watching it all happen. One of the big things was the cultural diferences. So many things are done, said, given, and taken differently in the states. Just different. Not bad, just different. I'm certain that I got a lot of good ideas from this trip, but for some reason I haven't been able to organize and sort those ideas yet.

I'll put some pictures up soon...

Tomorrow I spend the day getting my visa renewed and my stuff unpacked.

This is so depressing.

I have been getting better quickly. Sunday went by without me throwing up: I made it through work and the wedding OK. Yesterday I only had a bit of a cough left as I did laundry and studied for my mathematics exam today. Today I feel about the same but much much worse. My alarm clock failed, and my body wanted to wake up at 10am, one hour past the start time to my math midterm. Not the end of the world I suppose, I now have to drop the class and won't receive any penalty for it. This means I'll be taking it again next year! On the brightside, this was a midterm. If this had been a final, I would have failed the course I think. So... Public Speaking on Friday, 9am, new alarm clock and lots of sleep.

I'll post some pictures of the wedding below. This was a lot of fun. Everyone from Grammy was there, which meant everyone we see on TV, hear on the radio, or see live, came that night. The wedding was held in the Sanam Pao convention center, which is currently help by military forces. They stopped my taxi and gave me directions to the reception. The rules at the wedding were that anyone gave a toast from the stage was allowed to call someone up to perform. At somepoint this meant P'Yod (Bodyslam) playing drums, P' Win (Potato) playing guitar, the guy from Pancake playing bass, and both P'Pup (Potato) and P'M (M the Star) singing. I helped out Fam (Potato/Big Ass/Sua Yai) backstage. The food was great too.

It's 12:30 again. I'm scared of laying down and vomiting, so I'll write for a while instead. Why did I have to get sick now? I had a bit of an upset stomach the whole day, but everything started to get a little worse around nighttime. The taxi ride back I was nearly passed out from exhaustion. My sheets were wet with perspiration. Today I woke up at 6:30, took my Media Presentation midterm, zoomed across the city to Impact Arena to photograph a trade show, zoomed back to go to my guitar lesson (canceled), then headed home around 7:00. Since then I've had a fever, nausea, dizziness, and on/off stomach twitches. My experience told me to take water down slowly, but it makes me feel like it'll come back out soon. I don't have the energy to go buy food. Enough complaining. Tomorrow this should all have cleared up.

In my midterm, I ended up next to a girl cheating off her friend, again. This happened Wednesday as well.

Modern Pres. went by pretty easily. Computer Systems was pretty easy, but very long at 150 questions. Media and Society was easy but confusing: Four essays and no multiple choice. Wednesday is Fundamental Math and Public Speaking on Friday.

Tomorrow is more trade-show at noon. This is a job P'Dang got me. Should pay pretty well, and is relatively easy. Take pictures of all 200 booths and entertainment. After doing that, I'll try to catch the last of P'Hung's wedding.

Yesterday I went to pick up my phone and heard that it's pretty much dead. It can be brough back to life again, but that would cost nearly as much as a new one. So I bought a new one. I'm very happy I did. The price of $149 got me a phone that won't need service monthly (last one was serviced 7!! times), plays mp3, mp4, and radio, came with a free 256mb card and $50 Sony earbuds, and takes 2mp pictures with good quality. I can pay for this buy getting through tomorrow.

I'm gonna try laying down again.