Issan - School Stuff

Fon and Soe, 2 of my closest friends here, just had a baby on Friday. I had promised to go to their home when it came. So I ended up flying to Yasothorn in the SE for 2 nights. It was nice. I met their families and they took good care of me. Last night they had this ceremony/party which was kind of interesting. As usual the white guy gets the full blown Thai test anytime anybody says I can speak Thai. But Issan (SE) dialect is quite different from the 2 that I know (Central and Northern). It was odd that I could understand a lot.

So as many of you know, I'm always saying how all the song thaew and tuk-tuk drivers in CM should be killed. I feel this would obiously solve the air pollution problem. And I figure most of those guys deserve it for just being such scum bags. Sure, a few innocents would go along with them, but it can't be helped.

On my way back from Yasothorn today, I took a bus to Ubon Ratchathanee than I took a tuk-tuk to the airport from the bus station there. The driver was extremely excited to find that I could speak Thai. It was kind of embarrasing. Sometimes I feel like a language monkey. I'm often asked to perform. He was walking along shouting off to various other people who work at/around the bus station "Hey, I'm talking with a farang. He speaks Thai perfectly! Ask him a question!" Bah. I've never seen anyone get so excited over me. Well, maybe on International Day.

Now, so I was feeling kind of good. The guy seemed genuinely nice as opposed to 'I will smile and take all of your money' nice. But then I thought, if you put this guy in Chiang Mai, he would be like the rest of them within a month. Is it his fault? Partially, but it goes deeper than this. It could be the tourists, but killing them probably wouldn't fix the problem either (but it would make this place much nicer!). So perhaps, someone should just sabotage all of the taxis in CM, so the red car monopoly can shut down and they can actually have the new buses in CM provide more useful routes than the crappy ones they managed to weasel away from the red car association. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore haha.

New topic: I was informed today that I passed the three exemption tests I took a while back. This means 3 classes I don't have to take to graduate. So I managed to get credit for a full load of classes when I only go to Payap twice a week. Good stuff. I hate that school most of the time.

I have more pics from international day. I will post them when I get home. Maybe tomorrow or sat.

I need a guitar. I need a keyboard. I need a pda phone. I need a motorcycle. I need more books. I need a new computer. I need more time in each day. I actually schedule "free time" into my week now. It doesn't always go as planned, but it keeps me productive. Skipping classes and running away from Chiang Mai for a few days was pretty interesting. I read a very good book called The Kite Runner on Tues. It was the first book I have read in many months. I don't have time to read. Staying at my friends house just lying on mats on the floor talking to the family or watching tv. Just doing 'nothing' made me a little insane. They thought I was so bored, but actually I was going insane at the fact that I wasn't doing anything and I was trying to plan out how I was going to redeem myself in exercise, study and such next week. Should be fun.