March is the end of the Thai school year, so, for me, February was full of prepping for finals. March was grading, rewriting lesson plans, designing new syllabus and schedule for next year, writing entirely new lesson plans for 2 completely different classes, finding out that I'm not teaching those classes and beginning to write new completely different lesson plans for 2 different classes, teaching summer school, and finally a little bit of vacation right after a basketball tournament.
That's right, I said basketball. I met some Thai guys playing pick-up at the nearby university and was invited, along with my American friend, to play on their team in the upcoming open tournament. We found out we were on one of the lower ranked teams... but no prob! We pulled together and got fourth place! My Thai friends told me people were saying "Why are they in the semi-finals? They never make it that far," etc. So it was cool for my friend and I to finally play some round ball and for my new Thai friends to advance in a tournament further than they are used to or were expected to! Now I'm focusing back on ultimate [frisbee]. I have a team tournament in May. I'll upload photos of my ultimate jersey when it comes in. Photos of my basketball jersey will be below.
Currently, in Northern Thailand, there is a lot of burning of old crops. This is the fastest and easiest way for farmers to get rid of all of the old crops and other vegetation to prepare for planting for the next crops. Rainy season is right around the corner, and I can't wait. All of the smoke is pretty much staying still. Some days it is unbelievable how much haze there is and how limited visibility can be. I always hear about people getting sick with respiratory problems because of the heat, smoke, and pollution. To put it in perspective, Chiang Mai has consistently been about 3 times what is deemed "unhealthy" in the US. We don't have it the worst here. Mae Hong Son is almost double Chiang Mai! Anyway, I've been really resilient for the most part, but during the tournament a week and a half ago, I had 4 games in 4 days with late nights and some work all thrown in there. My body finally gave in and I have a little bit of bronchitis or something.
The Wednesday night after the tournament, I went to Laos with my friend, Woody. He needed a new visa and I wanted to use my vacation time while I still could. After the long, uncomfortable mini-bus ride to Vientiane, I felt worse. The day we got there, Thursday, I had a decent fever and ended up sleeping 5+ hours in our hotel room. This was probably my most unpleasant stay in Laos (I've only had two). Temperatures were the hottest they had been all year, Thursday peaked at around 106! But Woody was a good travelling buddy. We ate some good food, I slept a lot, we wandered around a little bit. We ended our time at the Buddha Park near the Laos-Thai border. See pics below. After returning to Chiang Mai, I found out the same guy made another similar park on the Thai side of the border.
Here I am, Friday afternoon, waiting for my flight... to Bangkok. Tomorrow starts the biggest holiday in Thailand: Songkran, the water festival. Maybe you heard of it, and, depending on your amount of knowledge, you might be wondering why I would leave Chiang Mai, the Mecca of Songkran, to go to Bangkok. Well, I'm visiting my friend. We will go to Kaosan Road. It is supposed to be CRAZY there. Then, Sunday morning, we will head back to Chiang Mai to finish off the holiday in the best place in Thailand to celebrate. Yeah, I'm missing a day and a half in Chiang Mai, but I get to see a friend and celebrate in two venues. Sounds good to me. I'm taking the GoPro, so expect some fisheye pictures and hopefully some awesome video by Wednesday.
