Which Kingdom, you might ask? As some of you no doubt have heard, I'm going to Thailand. I leave on the first day of March. I get to Thailand on the second day of March because it's a friggin' long way from Macomb to Bangkok. Unlike every other trip I've ever taken, this one is with a group of people I've never met before but, hey, we're all from west-central Illinois so how different can we all be, right? Well, three of us are from actually from the area, one is from "Chicagoland," and then me, I'm not from Illinois but who's counting?
Not me, as in I'm not counting how much this trip costs because it's on Rotary International's dime, thanks RI District 6460 very much! I'm a part of an official "group study exchange," with our fearless Rotarian leader and four of us non-Rotary "young professionals." Read: 25-40 years old, with a full-time job, and able to abandon it for a month; me, no problem! I'm on sabbatical!
We'll tour northern Thailand for the entire month, staying in Thai Rotarians' homes, eating their food, and--well--engaging in "study" and exchange. Consider me as a cultural ambassador, if you please. Please! I've been promised some vocational components and would be extra psyched to shadow a Thai professor for a few days but don't know if that'll happen.
Where is northern Thailand? Lets just say that Bangkok ain't. You might've heard of Chiang Mai and little else. We'll be exploring Buddhist temples, spicy basil noodle dishes, and the mysteries of a tonal language where the same spelling of a word might mean five different things depending on the tone. Yikes! Afterwards, I intend to head down to southern Thailand to climb and dive and hang but that could change depending on life between now and then. I return to the States on 9 April.
Feel free to check in periodically, as I intend to update this here blog whenever and wherever I can. Oh, two other things. First, the other website that hosted my Tanzania blog died, the bastards. So I imported most, but n0t quite all, of my posts to this here one. Second, I'm also going to post images to my trusty ol' photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/sawtooth
As one of the all-time great comedians, Bugs Bunny, would say, "that's all ffffolks!"
Umbrella Workers
can you say union?
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A famous philosopher once said, "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble--not much between despair and ecstasy. One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble--can't be too careful with your company." So watch out for those fiendish Rotarians.
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