quick update

I'm at school now, after eight days in Thailand and a night in Seoul. Today is the last day of classes (I'm not teaching though, I finished up before my trip) and in about half an hour I'm going on a trip to Pohang with the teachers. I guess this is something they do every semester. Pohang is near Gyeongju, where all the ancient Shilla sights are, which I already saw during the fall ETA conference. But I think it will be interesting. Part of me just wants to rest, but I think the teachers appreciate that I am coming. Part of me also wants to go to Seoul for New Year's Eve, but since I'm going on this trip with the teachers, that won't be possible. So instead I'll be observing the solar New Year with my host family, which means viewing the sun rising on January 1st. I think that will be cool, and I think I owe my host family my presence at at least one winter holiday.

I was in Thailand from December 19th to December 27th. I met up with my friend Amanda from high school and her boyfriend, Abe. I met up with them in Ayutthaya, I got on a train to there directly from the airport in Bangkok, about an hour ride. We saw some sights there, and then headed south to Ko Phangan, about a 21 hour trip. We were on that island for about four days, and took a sleeper train back up to Bangkok on Christmas Day. We were in Bangkok when the earthquake struck. We didn't even know it had happened until I checked my e-mail that evening and had an e-mail requesting that I let Fulbright know I was okay. Ko Phangan is actually on the opposite side of the peninsula from where the earthquake struck, so even if we'd still been there, we probably wouldn't have been affected. Still, it feels somewhat like a close call, especially since I didn't want to go to Ko Phangan from the beginning, and if we'd gone to a different island it might have been a different story. We're definitely lucky.

The trip was great, of course. We swam a lot. I think the most memorable part was probably snorkeling at Ko Ma, which was amazing. I spent a day by myself in Bangkok at the end of the trip, since Abe and Amanda flew out in the very early morning on the 27th, and my flight left that evening. So I saw the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace and the Teak Mansion. Anyway, I wish I could go into more detail, since it really was a great trip, with lots of interesting things, but I only have a few minutes, and it feels sort of difficult to capture at the moment.

I made a donation to the Red Cross today for the tsunami victims. It feels insignificant but I guess it feels good to do something. I wish I'd known about the blood drive when I was in Bangkok, so I could have donated.

One moment I'd like to recall....After Amanda and Abe left for the airport I took a tuk-tuk to an area near Khao San Road, to look for a blues club I'd read about. I wandered for about an hour, asking a couple people for help finding it, to realize that I'd passed the street a couple times, thinking it wasn't the right street because the name was different, but it turned out the name changed to the correct one a block down. I went into the crowded bar and sat on a stool in the corner. The house band was as good as promised, and the female singer was so friendly, giving me a big smile as she passed to get a drink of water. I didn't really speak to anyone there, just observed the mixture of hips Thais, backpackers and ex-pats. My eyes were already stinging from the cigarette smoke in the place, but when she interrupted a sort of guest-appearance by an American guy to launch into "Piece of my Heart" by Janis Joplin, I had to sort of sniffle from happiness.

When I got into Seoul yesterday morning I went directly to the Vietnamese Embassy (which, by the way, is a run-down looking four room prefab building within a stone-wall enclosure) to get my Vietnamese visa for the four days I'll be spending in Saigon. Then I got a call from Billie and Matthias, who it turns out were in Seoul for the holidays. It was a wonderful surprise to get to see them, and to have lunch and dinner with them. I'll be meeting up with Matthias in Saigon, and hopefully I'll get a chance to see Billie in Busan before I head to Japan in Feb. It was sort of weird making the transition from Bangkok to Seoul, I kept momentarily forgetting where I was, like when I thought maybe the bus was too cold because the air conditioning was on too high, and then remembering it was cold because it's freezing in Seoul in December.