One semester down, one to go.

Last Friday Marked the academic halfway point for my trip. I've got until May to travel around Thailand and maybe check out a couple neighboring countries. After that I've got a solid 5 months of teaching. No Holidays to break it up like last this term, and the weather will be a bajillion times hotter and wetter. On the other hand I'm a little wiser, a little more experienced, all around better prepared for whats coming.

Time has been flyin recently with grading all of the final tests and entering scores. Its a blessing in disguise I feel. The workload has kept me occupied and kept my mind off of all the quality folks that I've had to say good-bye to over the course of the last week.

One of the perks to teaching abroad is meeting fun, interesting, open-minded folks along the way. The downside is that the rapid turnover rate of teach-abroad English teachers doesn't permit much time for hanging out before the inevitable departure date. Its pretty common for contracts to expire after 5 months to a year. The end of this current term seems like a mass exodus of really great people. On the flip side, I can't wait to meet the next batch of teachers in May. The rumors have been confirmed that my school is getting a couple Japanese teachers and one new English teacher to replace Tyler. The English teacher's name is Maxime. He is a large (seemingly) French-Canadian from Quebec, 23 years old, and English is his second language. Should make for an interesting next term for sure.

News:

Instead of trying to catch you up with EVERYTHING thats been going on I'm just going to post a few pictures from my recent adventures and let you use your imagination.

14.5k/9mile "fun" run. Gassed.

Yakisoba at the new kitchen.

Academic exhibition for the community.

Doi Phuka National Park.