Waterfalls in the Woods

This weekend Meagan, Steph, May, and i went out to Kanchanaburi. The guest house we stayed at was incredible. Our rooms were floating out on the river and we had an incredible view. The bridge over the river Kwai (actually pronounced Kwae) was only about a kilometer down river and we had plenty of time to go and take pictures and walk the bridge before we stopped and got dinner the first night. We got dinner at a floating restaurant at the bridge and the fish i had for dinner was one of the best meals I have had yet here in Tahiland and that is saying allot.

This morning we got up early (around 7 i think) and took a but out to the Erawan falls. It is a spectacular seven tier system of water falls that string along for about a kilometer and a half. The water was a crystal blue and amazingly clear, i have some pictures where you can see whole schools of fish in the pools like the water wasn't even there. I think the thing that made the weekend the best was just the fact that we made it out into nature. Living here in the city the closest thing I have had to being in the woods since we went to Cambodia are the groomed shrubs on campus, and being from Alabama i really think that wears on me sometimes.

Finals are coming fast and hard, it seems like we just got through with midterms but classes are already through for the term. The good new is that so very soon I will be chilling on a beach in Ko Samui seriously contemplating mutiny (inside thing with the team). Then it will be off to northeastern Thailand to teach English in a rural village for a week.

Don't start the revolution without me!

Overthrow of the government, now thats something to write home about.

Things are going well over here in Thailand, from what i can piece together the military lead by the democratic reofrm party has taken over the govronment and declared marial law. The constitution has been emporaraly suspended. But from talking to everyone around most people seem at least happy if not a little bit excited about the turn of events.

Right now the military is unified and there has been absolutely no violence. Realy all the more that this has effected us is that school was canceled today and all the banks were closed.

And just to clarify I live inn Rangsit which is inside the Bangkok perimiter but is on the northerrnmost edge of "Bangkok". It takes about half and hour to get to downtown Bangkok.

Vive La Revolution!

Galileo

So singing karaokee may be the most rediculose fealing thing ever but its just plain fun. Maybe its hard to relate just how great it is to see Chill dance over a blog, but i promise you i will not soon forget or stop laughing about it. I would have to say that our rendition of Bohemian Rapsody wasnt half either (but "Your So Vain" by Carly Simon was).

About half of the group is out at the Opera tonight. I opted to skip because even though tewnty five dollars is cheep for an Opera, its still way to much money for me to gamble on wether seeing allot of people sing in French for 2 hours was going to be enjoyable.

After having his house burglerized for the 6th time in the last few mounths (five times while he was on furlow) the Coleys are moving into a new house next weekend. Sadly I will be off to somewhere that i have forgotten the name of 5 or 6 times already to see the bridge over the river Kwai, so i wont be around to help lug furniture (im realy choked up about that one). Meagan and I babysat for Greg and Allison last night and the kids seemed realy excited about the new house; they get to finaly have their own bedrooms!

Thailand has changed their regualtions on tourist Visas and it could possably cause realy big problems for the team. While it wont effect the exchange students because we are here on student Visas. Missionary Visas are realy hard to get and take a realy long time so 4 out of the 6 long term team members are here on tourist visas. This hadnt been a realy big problem until the changes, it just meant a run to the border 4 times a year. But now tourists cannot come back into Thailand for 90 days after they have been here for 90 days. This means that when December rolls around unless they get their Visa status changed not only will the 6 stuents be heading back but 4 of the six team members too.

The rainy season has realy com into full swing during the past week. I think it rained every single day for at least a half an hour. The great part baout that is that the weather is starting to cool down. The bad part is you dont realize just how much of an inconveniance rain is until you dont have a car to get you anywhere. Bus-stops can be very wet places.

Well i have run out of time to update so until next time; sorry this one didnt get edited all that well.

Half Way?

Its been said to me that Thailand has three seasons, Hot, very Hot, and Damn Hot. So far I've only noticed one. Normally the rains bring in the cool season, but even with a storm yesterday that shook our sad little coffee hut all the way to the foundation. When i woke up this morning it was still 90 degrees with at least 70% humidity. Needless to say i have a new found respect, no lets call it a love for the Air Conditioning industry.

Things went well with our trip to the Grand Palace over the weekend, all in all the feildtrip was kind of booring, but we had allot of fun hanging out with the guys in our class. Its not really that it wasn't cool to see all of the stuff that we did. It was more of the fact that we took 8 hours to see 3 hours worth of stuff.

In 2 days we will be at the official halfway point of my trip, in still not how to take that. I am looking forward to the time after classes are over and we have allot more time and freedom to plan things. October break should be really exciting. I already have a week at the beach and a week service project planned into my schedule. I really thing the part im most excited about is the train ride to the beach.