Last Post Before Lift-off

Sleeping in until noon didn't leave me with enough time to do anything remotely useful with myself today. Once again, I parked myself in front of the computer, wishing I had more emails to reply to than I do. That's just a hint to remind you all that blogging is not a substitute for email on either of our accounts. I've been preparing for my classes a bit. I'll be teaching writing and speaking 12 hours a week (which is nothing) and doing interesting topics such as poetry translation, interviewing skills and negotiation. Going through the course outlines I think to myself, "wow! Am I sure going to learn a lot!" Then I gulp a little as I remember that I'm supposed to be the teacher here. For example, the exam preparation hand-out says that student's should be prepared to answer questions such as the following:

• If a poem rhymes in the source language, should you try to make it rhyme in the receptor language? Why or why not?

Anyone? Anyone?

I've also been doing some research on the area in which I will be living and on the refugee population there. Finally I have this Burma/Myanmar thing figured out. Burma is the name the country took after independence from Britain back in the day. The military junta that took over and is now ruling today changed the country's name and the name of some of it's cities and landmarks to Myanmar without consulting the population. "Myanmar" means "Burma" in the Burmese language. However, over 40% of the population in Burma aren't ethnic Burmese. For many people, Burmese is a second or third language, if at all. So the whole "Myanmar" thing is just a rude insult that reminds everyone of how un-democratic things are there.

I know this because I recently read Burma: Country in Crisis, a super short, concise little booklet on the state of affairs in Burma. If I haven't already bored you to tears and you are not my parents (some of it is pretty brutal) you may want to check it out. What I found most "interesting" (wrong word, I know) is the section on drug production in Burma. Heroin production is going through the roof, flooding the market with cheap, pure, addictive as hell drugs. They say that you can follow the drug route by following the increased rates of HIV infection from the dirty heroin needles.

On a more positive note, I have downloaded some photos from the EIP website. I hope to be adding my own photos of life on the border in Thailand every week, but these will do for now.

My plane leaves on Sunday. I got a great deal but it's going to be one long haul through L.A. and Seoul before I get to Bangkok at 1:30am on November 2nd. Unless you hear from me before Sunday, you won't be hearing from me for a little while.


Brooke in camp 
My soon to be home: the Girls Dorm