Friday, January 18, 2008

Uttaradit..... tallyho!

Wow, one more week and Al leaves for Uttaradit! We thought we were moving to Ubon but we're wrong, it's Uttaradit (long story about that mix up).

Here's the lowdown on Uttaradit, Thailand as we know it now. It's the capital of a rural province in Thailand, also called Uttaradit, that is known for it's jungles, farmland, and it's famous fruit called langsat. There is even a langsat festival. The city is only around 40,000 people but it's on the main train line from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and has the creature comforts we hoped for; namely high-speed internet and a grocery store. It's on the Laos border, two hours south of Chiang Mai. There are jungles there which house various hill tribes as well as elephants, rhinos, and tigers! It has some interesting historical and archaeological sites but is best known for it's natural beauty.

We will be teaching English at the Uttaradit Rajahabad University, which is part of the national university system and has 10,000 students, mostly from rural areas. The facilities seem nice from the website and it has some joint programs with schools in the US and China. We will be able to afford aour own house and probably a car which will be great. Al will live at his friend Matt's house at first.

There is very little information about Uttaradit on the web and nothing in the guidebooks! It's so close to Chiang Mai, which is an adventurers mecca, so most just pass over it. It'll be a big change from bustling Seoul!

Here are some web links with a bit more info....

The University Webpage.
Wikipedia entry with map.
Tourist Sites
Another Tourist Site
Langsat Fruit
Hmong Hill Tribe
Mien Hilltribe

OK, anyway, I'll be Stateside in a few short weeks! See you guys soon!

DSCN4063


DSCN4063
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

Marrioner Park

Thursday, January 17, 2008

DSCN4054


DSCN4054
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

It's cold!

Monday, January 07, 2008

don't stand so close to me...

There is very little sense of personal space here and sometimes it drives me CRAZY! Ahhh.... I have come close to freak out mode a few times here. Just now, I was in line at the mini-mart when the girl behind me stood close enough for me to hear her breathing. She just had one item and grew impatient while my six items were being rung up so managed to eventually wedge herself between me and the counter waving her dollar bill at the clerk. She was inches from my face this whole time. There was no one else waiting, plenty of room to stand behind us and it wasn't taking that long. Ahhh.. I wanted to scream, get off of me!

I'm also tired of being pushed ALL THE TIME. If it's crowded, I can tolerate it but a lot of people seem to push all the time regardless. Last week when I put my foot up to board the bus a man pushed on ahead of me. My foot was already on the first step. There was no one else at the bus stop. I was there first. The bus was not crowded so we certainly didn't have to compete for a seat. WTF?????

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year!



The first few seconds of 2008!
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