Christmas is Coming...

I am currently in the last phases of my ritual initiation into life in Thailand, or so I hope. As any traveler knows, this initiation consists of spending a large amount of time near the vicinity of a bathroom and there is little one can do about it save for hoping that the moment strikes somewhere more opportunely than an 8 hour bus ride. I take back my earlier posting about how I am entitled to at least two years of sickness free. After a long night of becoming intimately acquainted with my new bathroom, I realize the sheer folly of those words.

Thankfully, I spent another splendid week up at camp teaching, with only a few digestive disturbances that did not interrupt any of the lessons I was teaching. On the three hour truck ride back to Mae Sot, I experienced what I thought was merely car sickness - something I knew would be inevitable on those crazy turns through the mountains. Again, I felt thankful that I was able to vomit in style, outside of the truck, without splashing anyone. Nobody even blinked.

I had a few hours of reprieve in which I bought some groceries, finally figured out how to make an international phone call and chatted with my next door neighbor Tim, who recently returned from visiting his girlfriend in Vietnam. I made the rather unfortunate mistake of eating a great deal for dinner, despite the fact that my stomach had already began to quietly complain.

As for the rest of my night, I won't get into great detail. I only felt safe leaving my house around 1:30 in the afternoon today, feeling rather hollow as if I have lost half of my weight. I rode my bicycle extremely slowly and am now relaxing in the office with the air-con on full blast and a cup of sugary coffee in hand to restore my blood sugar levels.

Hopefully the ordeal has passed.

I am trying to upload some photos of camp and am unsure of the results. One thing is certain, I fear I have lost my cd into the bowls of this capricious computer.

I am struck with how simple life is up at camp and how beautiful. Sitting outside my classroom up on the hill, looking down at the camp as the sun sets, it is hard to imagine that I spent my whole summer in the grand metropolis of Montreal, full of social events and festivals and so much activity I hardly knew what to do with myself. Now I spend my evenings watching the sun set, the wind in the leaves and the moon trace its path across the sky. I usually go to sleep around 9pm because that is when our generator stops and I wake up around 5:30am because that is when my students wake up and we all live in a bamboo dorm with thin walls so it is impossible to be quiet.

My mum wins first prize at the letter writing contest with two letters waiting for me in my mailbox today. Will I be able to wait until I am up at camp with nothing to do to open them? That is the question. Myself, I am off to the post office soon but have forgotten half my letters up at camp, silly Jen.

Christmas is coming! I know one goose who will not be getting fat and that's me. I have a Christmas request though, for anyone with a bit of free time on their hands. Letters are the best presents, of course, but anyone with a bit of free time over the hols could always put together a CD and stick it in the mail. It's light, fits into an envelope and makes a great cheap gift! You can imagine me listening to your songs after a long day of teaching, drowning out the sounds of the rats and dreaming of home before drifting off to sleep. I'm not picky about the genre of music, surprise me with your favorite tunes and don't forget to name your compilation. Suggestions: "Essential Lesbian Love Songs," "Dance Mix 2004," and "Songs for JoJo."

Another idea for Christmas: hobbies in an envelope. What on earth am I going to do with all my free time here? So far, writing, learning languages and reading books comes to mind. If anyone has any other suggestions, send them over.

Meanwhile, my stomach seems to have stabilized and although I haven't been able to retrieve my CD, it looks like my photos are on the computer. Time to connect this puppy up to the big world and see what I can do. Have a great week everyone. Love,
Jen