wow! it's been a while

For New Years break I had to go to Laos for a visa run to get a new visa. I had to take a tourist tour van there because my school waited too long to tell me that I needed to go to Laos- they changed my visa. It was an expensive trip, but I enjoyed Laos. I would go back definitely. We stayed in Vientiane, the capital city, which was very small and very laid back-much more than Thailand. it was interesting mingling with all of the other foreigners. the tour paid for our hotel and food and transport which ended up i think cheaper than if i had went alone. i shared a hotel room with a girl from the philippines who was nice. i walked everywhere in the city to see the sights because it was small and because i like my exercise. on one of my walks a monk approached me in a temple and he wanted to practice his english so we talked for a while walking around the temple. it was fun. he invited me to go to a new years festival with him, but i couldnt.

the bad part about the trip: the lines. we arrived at the thai border at 5:20am and had to wait there for 3 hours and then we arrived at the lao border and had to wait there for 2-3 more hours. then we had to go wait at the thai embassy for 2-3 hours in lines in the heat. everything was so inefficient it seemed.

new years i spent in thailand alone because all of the buses were full to go anywhere and i didnt have time to travel before new years since i did the lao visa run. so i went to central world mall downtown where they had their big ball dropping countdown for the new year. i was amazed at how many people were down there. it was crazy, and dangerous because people were packed in so tight with not enough access to water or an exit even. people were passing out/fainting all around me and i almost did too. it was so hot and so packed and i was so dehydrated.

now im back at school. tomorrow is 'Sport Day'. at school which im not sure what that entails, but i guess they're gonna play games all day. i dont have to dress up, yay! maybe i get to play soccer with them even. fun!

well this is my update for now. oh yeah, and a kid from wesleyan arrived yesterday early in the morning 1am, and i picked him up at the airport and he stayed at my place and then i sent him off to thammasat- i miss thammasat.