Update for another week

It seems that another week has slipped by in this land of strange time. Time is different when I travel. I don't think that the countries that I have visited have their own subjective times. Time, after all, is nearly immutable and makes fools of us all. I have a full stomach and a small glass of scotch, so later on I will probably wax philosophic. (That's actually a word. Hm.)

The past week dragged by, but has flown by. As I said, time gets strange when traveling. The highlight of the school week was the mini-presentation that we had to give on Friday morning. It wasn't too bad, but now I need to focus on the larger presentation which comes at the end of the program. While the one last Friday was 10 minutes, this one will be 15 minutes, 50% longer. However, it's still not very long. From the way Jeff presented it, it seemed like a bigger deal. Maybe it was back when he attended the program.

Saturday was a very dull day. I caught up on reading and did some homework, not really going anywhere except out to eat. Paula, Peter, and I ate a little Japanese style restaurant not too far from the entrance to our soi. It was good, but apparently ramen here just upsets my stomach. On three different occasions I've had ramen and then later had an upset stomach. Oh well.

Sunday, a group of us took a rot daeng to Doi Intanon, about an hour and a half away. The driver is Hmong, and since one of our students is also Hmong, they share a bond. Her husband is also here, and he and the driver share the same last name, which means that they are practically family, in Hmong thinking.

Doi Intanon is the highest point in Thailand, and it is absolutely beautiful. When we were there it was very foggy and misty. I have lots of pictures from the day that I will share when I get home.

One thing, though. The price discrepancy between the price for foreigners and Thais is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The price for a Thai citizen is Bt40, but the price for a foreigner is Bt200. Luckily since I was a student, I got the reduced rate of Bt100, but still. And here's the rub: most foreigners don't know they're getting charged 5 times the price for Thais because it's written in Thai. It's not just this park, either. Paula said that when she and her boyfriend, Peter, went to the zoo, the price for foreigners was considerably more than that of the price for Thais. She also said that it was actually written out in Thai, numbers were not used. So it was something along the lines of this:
Thai Citizens: One hundred Baht
Foreigners: Bt500
Oh, Thailand.

On a more positive note, I've decided to get a tailored suit while I'm here. It will be about half or a third of the cost it would be in the states for just a suit, without tailoring. Which is pretty fantastic, I have to say. Soon, I will finally realize my dream of a linen summer suit. Things are coming up Ike.

Today was very hot. Possibly one of the hottest days since we've been here. The sun was out, which makes it infinitely worse. The sun is the enemy here. Sunny days are nice sometimes, but not when they make you drip sweat sitting in the shade (it happens.)

I'm pretty excited to come home, I will be honest. I want to be around my family, my friends and my girlfriend.