And, we're off

We have officially been in Chiang Mai for 6 months now, which concludes this part of our journey. Last night I had my last class, we went for our last dinner at a restaurant we call "Japan", and today we check out of our room.

The trip has been interesting in a lot of way: what we have seen, where we have gone, who we have met, and what we have learned. It's impossible to comprehend the magnitude of anything like this while still sitting in the same place, but over time, I think a clearer picture will be painted. I do know that I had great time, and wouldn't have done it differently if I had the choice.

We are now headed to Bangkok today, to fy to Hanoi tomorrow and vistin Vietnam for 2 weeks. We then head to Cambodia, then back home. Then into the lion's den of job hunting.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog while we've been gone. Its nice to know there are people back at home who are interested - we will see you all very soon.

Expect probably one more blog while in Vietnam.

Thanks again,
















luke

Ninja

As many of you know, we have a ninja. Not our personal ninja to do our bidding, like an awesome monkey, rather a security guard ninja who hangs out in front of our building every night to make sure people don't come in and steal our stuff. Now, you may ask, how do you know he's a ninja. Have you ever witnessed ninja moves or anything awesome? The answer is simply no. But we know he is. He exudes ninja.

We decided it would be in our best interest to befriend ninja, as we call him. Since he is there every day, if anyone messes with us ninja is a good ally to have on our side, plus he speaks Thai and Burmese and Hill Tribe language, but no English, so he's good for our Thai practice. Every day when leaving and coming home between 6pm and 6am, ninja is there, so we talk to him.

Now, I use the terminology of "talk" lightly. We speak a little Thai, and have incredible control and use of the 25 words we know. This is, however, as far as our vocabulary reaches, so our conversations require a lot of hand-gestures and acting. We do, however manage to communicate. Ninja, Katie and I have talked of home, cars, girlfriends, children, travel, jobs, and a myriad of other topics with our profuse gesturing and bad pronunciation.

We recently learned that ninja is going home for 4 months to be with his daughter and help with the rice farming. Tonight is, in fact, his last night as our ninja. We made a plan a while ago regarding a potential gift for our ninja, as he has been so friendly to us, and he likely rarely gets any appreciation for his job. We chose to buy him a trophy in appreciation. Luck would have it, that a trophy store is literally across the road from our building. With some help from my Thai student, I had them engrave the trophy in Thai, saying, "Thank you, security guard, for you to have being been thank you our Thai teacher." (more or less a direct translation). Here is a photo of the trophy. (we had a photo on the computer, which turned out AWESOME on the top)




















And, here is the photo of Katie and I giving it to him. Despite his rather placid expression, he did seem to enjoy it, and has been quire robust when we inevitably pass by him in the evening.

Our Last Month

So, here it is - our last month. March has brought with it stiflingly hot weather - mid nineties most days, and a permanent haze across the city and into the mountains due to the burning of the rice fields. Occasionally, like today, there is a clear morning, and once again we can see the temple on the hill from our room.

We have begun the last leg of our teaching. Strangely enough, this may be our busiest month of teaching yet, keeping us nice and busy for the final stretch. The last month of any time in a certain place that has a distinct end-date is always an uncomfortable purgatory between what was and what is to come. This happens with jobs, schools, and cities - we happen to be doing all three at once. With any luck our schedule will keep the antsy-ness to a minimum.

We are also on the hunt for jobs. We have focused our search on Boston, as it seems to be the best "city" (sorry Burlington) on the East Coast for our needs. Katie is looking for internships at museums and jobs related to art or event planning, and I am looking for anyone who will hire me. I'm hoping to be able to use my German or international experience, but beggars can't really be choosers in this economy. If anyone has any great connections or ideas for me, I'm open to all suggestions.

In the first 2 weeks of April, Katie, Natalie and I will be traveling to Vietnam, where we will hopefully meet up with 2 other friends of ours to do some exploring. We are planning to take a couple days on a sailboat to some white sand beaches amongst giant limestone outcroppings in the sea.



This is the type of place we have yet to experience in Thailand, not because it doesn't exist here, rather because we haven't had the time or the money to travel to those places. Vietnam should be an amazing trip. On the way back to Bangkok we are also stopping at Angkor Temple in Cambodia, a world heritage site of miles and miles of ruined ancient temples. It should be a very memorable experience.