Khon Kaen Hotel

Today, my last full day in Khon Kaen, I spent time celebrating and saying goodbye to my new friends and colleagues. In the morning after I got back to Khon Kaen from Wat Kampramong, I came back to my dorm room for about an hour to pack my bags. Boy oh boy, am I going to owe some serious overweight baggage fees - yikes! I have an entire duffel bag filled just with gifts for friends and family back home. Around 11:45, O, Dr. Pakwilai (Pak), and Dr. Siriporn came in a KKU-FON ...

... the flowering trees. Everywhere I turned, it seemed as though all of Thailand was abuzz. During the time I've been here, I've noticed that Thailand almost seems to vibrate - there's a palpable energy to this place that's difficult to describe. Even the rust-colored dust that lines the paths and roads here seems alive. It's really quite striking to spend six weeks in a country where even the dust particles resist settling down.

When I got to my office, I spent ...

... for two days and gave up on them because they did nothing but make me nauseous. I'll take distracted over nauseous-and-distracted any day, thank you very much).

I've accomplished a huge amount of work since coming to Thailand but sitting in a chair to get all my editing and writing done has, at times, been a real struggle. The editing and writing part isn't hard for me - fortunately, words flow freely and my fingers fly over the keyboard, clickety clikety clack. The ...

... my edits and comments with them in detail. Their articles were really interesting to edit - one was about he development of a palliative care program in Thailand and the other was about the factors influencing older adults to exercise. Peed came to join in the meeting around 3pm or so and we met to discuss my edits to her abstract as well as my suggestions for the structure of her research article. All three meetings ...

... Powerpoint maybe a little too much, clinging to it as a teaching tool despite the fact their students are clearly bored. Rather than offend Dr. Siriporn, this seemed to energize her. She said she's long wondered why English classes are so much fun and nursing classes have to be so dull. I told her they don't have to be dull - the teacher is what brings the subject to life, not the technology. I showed Dr. Siriporn Blackboard and how courses are structured but it quickly ...

You know how some days you just wake up and you think to yourself, how did I get such a cool life? Today was one of those days. When I woke up, the morning air was cool (relatively speaking) and the shrill sound of the hyperactive traffic cop's whistle ("shkreet...shkreeet!!! shkreeet....shkreet!!!) that wakes me up every morning could barely put a damper on my enthusiasm. I hopped out of bed (or should I say, unzipped myself out of the mesh body-bag contraption I sleep in), took a ...

... faculty members advised me to avoid getting a visa-on-entry for Lao because I might end up spending hours at the border waiting. I'm not a big fan of border crossings anyway - all those men with rifles freak me out - so I was more than willing to pay an extra $17 to expedite the process and ensure a smooth entry into Lao PDR.

When we got back to campus, Fei-Li and I met for about an hour to discuss her thesis topic. Pak was in the office as well and I could tell she ...

... a pharmacy professor at MSU and P'Noon told her to look for me. Her name is Pom, her one friend is Tam, a Pharmacist downtown, and her other friend is Arm, a doctor. All very nice. They gave me a ride to the Serm Thai shopping center after church and insisted on putting their names on my phone "in case I ever need anything." I was so taken with this gesture. Kelly and I had recently had a long discussion about how ...

... And a clinician training program. And advanced techniques in gynecological surgery. And ideally a CD containing photos from Thailand of horrifically disfigured genitals afflicted with STIs. Is this something I can help them with?

(4) The food here isn't always really vegetarian. What can be done about this?

(5) They don't want a lecture on life skills today. They are already experts in this. What they really want is for me to teach them ...

The weather has started to cool down a bit here, now that "winter" has come. Today feels like a cool summer day instead of a hot summer day, but people here keep telling me that it is “freezing cold.” Needless to say, it never snows in Thailand.

Yesterday, the Faculty of Nursing administrators decided that they don't want me to ride a motorbike to and from work each day because they are afraid of what will happen if I get hurt. Amusingly ...