tarantula!!!!!

i'm not even kidding! my biggest fear came true. i saw a tarantula!!! a real live tarantula........and i'm not even exaggerating. i almost had a heart attack. the guys have taken in this stray cat (which i can't stand), that's quite playful and it loves playing with rather large bugs and some of them can be quite interesting so i like to peer over the side of the chair or look over at it and see what it's got this time. well last night i was sitting in my chair in front of our apt., reading and the cat started jumping around playing with something and i looked over the side of the chair to see a tarantula on the end of one of the guy's sandals being jumped at by the cat!!! i was alone at the house 'cause the guys were at our friend's place across the little street we live on and i couldn't speak. i could hardly breathe but i managed to say loud enough that they heard (thank goodness!!) "guys there's a tarantula over here and i'm gonna die!" i was so weak i could hardly stand and when they came running over i started to cry and one of the guys took me over to our friends house where they'd been visiting. our friend who lives there took one look at my face and ran to get me a cold glass of water (i'm not even sure at this point if he even knew what was up) and everyone else was just standing around in mild disbelief. i stopped crying and all i kept saying, over and over, was "i can't believe i just saw a tarantula!". nevermind that it was only about a foot from the chair i was sitting in! i calmed down a bit and after a while we went back over to our place. i sat in the house with shock remaining on my face and finally i felt ok enough to go to bed. i cried myself to sleep, woke up several times during the night and got up in the morning still in disbelief that i actually saw a tarantula.....heck, i still can't believe it! the guys say it was as big as the palm of my hand!! i thought my memory of it might be skewed a bit during all the commotion, but that's what i'd have guessed. i have no idea where the thing is now but i don't think it went far. when i asked where it went, the guy i live with, who shooed it away while i got out of there, pointed at the grassy area in front of our place. it'll be a few days before i can relax in front of our apartment again! it's a good thing for these guys that this didn't happen in my first 2 weeks here 'cause i was so homesick then that i'd have left for sure! wish me well in my last 11 days!!

3 weeks to go!

and that's only 2 weeks left of teaching! i can't wait to be back in korea with my friends and t and i finally feel like time is passing more quickly than usual. i do my last visa renewal this weekend across the bridge to burma. i want nothing more than to be back in korea with my friends but leaving my burmese family isn't going to be easy. these people have been nothing less than respectful, appreciative, accepting, kind, caring and wonderful to me since the day i arrived. i certainly don't look forward to the goodbye.

after 9 days straight of rain with no sun, the past few days have had sunny breaks between the downpours........this gives me a small bit of hope that i just may be lucky enough to have a sunny break or two when i'm on the beach for a few days before my return to korea. the rainy season has definitely arrived. i don't really like it very much. it just keeps raining and raining. it's kind of amazing actually, but not very great for the beach. the guys i live with love to laugh at their joke of me sitting on the beach with my umbrella. not funny guys.........it may just happen like that! oh well, at least the scenery will be amazing!

when it rains........it pours

"what are you doing in chiang mai?.........you have to go to the sunday market."

"i recommend you go to the sunday market."

"one of my favorite parts of chiang mai was the sunday market."

"you're going to chiang mai? you have to go to the sunday market. i loved it!"

ok........so everytime i told someone i was going to chiang mai, they all raved about the sunday market. i had a cooking class planned for today but knew the markets are opened pretty late here so i wasn't worried i'd miss it. i took a nap after the cooking and woke up, got some dinner and went to get a coffee before going on a big shop, fulfilling the requests of my friends and getting myself some things too. well about 20 minutes into it (which isn't much when the market goes for miles and miles) it began to rain. i thought "this tiny sprinkle feels good on my sunburn. the sky doesn't look too dark.......hopefully the market stays opened anyway." about 15 minutes later the sky opened up and it poured.....hard. all the merchants were scrambling to cover their things and everyone else was taking advantage of any bit of umbrella or overhang to try and keep a bit dry. then the power went out and it became quite dark. after standing under and overhang for about 10 minutes i decided to walk the 2-3 km back to my room and get a shower and dry off. this rain wasn't stopping anytime soon and many people started packing up their things. i arrived dripping wet, had a lazy shower and dried off and took my time getting dressed, hoping that by the time i was in dry clothes and my hair was presentable i could venture out again. there's not much to do inside when traveling alone. by this time the rain was back to barely sprinkling and i made it to this internet cafe without getting drenched. so.....no sunday market for me. i like to get a feel for what's available before i start buying things so i hadn't bought anything in the short time i was at the market before it started raining. last night i was at the night market a few streets over and i guess i'll be back there tomorrow night. it's a pretty good market as well. the sunday market looked great but hopefully tomorrow i can find what i need.

you can just call me an expert

so i took a thai cooking class today and it was awesome! can't wait to be back in korea and have a thai dinner party with my friends. everyone should pick a different thing to make.....right down to the dessert! it will be fantastic. think about it........you're all in? cool........awesome. at justin and rach's on saturday the 24th (i think) around 7pm. hahaha. we'll work out the details later but i really think we should have a thai dinner party.

chiang mai is beautiful. i can't even believe that in this heat i entertained the thought of teaching here next year. it's a city but isn't as dirty as most asian cities. it has charming little cafes all over the place, tons of little side streets for exploring, cheap guesthouses and shopping, lots to do..........i think it'd be a great place to stay for a while.

on the road again

finally! my time off will arrive tomorrow at noon. after teaching for the morning and grabbing some lunch, i'll be on my way to good ol' chaing mai for 6 days. i've never been there in all my trips to thailand, but i have heard many great things about it. i'm gonna go a little risque and wear some tank tops and shorts (this town is a little too conservative for this heat!), get waxed (finally!!), take a thai cooking course, do lots of shopping, visit some temples, eat some thai food and just have a break from the boredom of mae sot. my class and the guys i live with will probably enjoy their time with me gone also. i hope all is well where ever you are reading this from. leave a post or send me an email would ya?! (this doesn't mean you, annalise! i mean, sure, send me a note if you want, but you already did the other day.........thanks!)

who woudda thought.........

so who woudda ever thought that i'd.........

have an address in thailand?

live with burmese people?

have karen (an ethnic group of burmese people) clothing in my closet that i wear?!

have been appointed as a co-advisor to a union of former burmese political prisoners? (i still have to find out excatly what they mean by this and exactly what they think i know that they don't!!)

spend 3 months of evenings talking to my burmese friends about their lives? (which is very inspiring and interesting---i can't believe what some people live through!)

eat burmese food morning, noon and night for 3 months?

be homesick? (i have never dealt with this before, but i miss my friends in korea terribly---i now have a new sense of understanding and pity for people who are often homesick.)

have met 3 people from nova scotia in this small border town? (first i met a couple from annapolis, then on my way to the internet cafe today i met a guy from truro. small world.)

........i look at my life right now and laugh a little sometimes. about 10 or 15 years ago i never would have imagined that i'd be living the life i am right now. i've already lived for 5 years in south korea and now i'm living on the thai-burmese border. after i finish here, my life could go anywhere. i really have no idea where i could end up after christmas. i am determined to spend this christmas at home.......this much i do know---i think......hahahaha! it has been a long time and i miss that time of year very much, but come january, i could be headed anywhere in this earth. it's both exciting and daunting. where do i begin? i want to be doing something interesting, rewarding, helpful and exciting........but i also want to be doing something with t. this means, not only do i have to find something i want to do but something he's interested in as well. i really wish he was finished in korea sooner than the end of october, but i guess this will give me time to catch up with friends and family at home. i love the life i live but sometimes it is funny for me that i do what i do. living such a life of transition means always saying goodbyes, (i kow it always means saying hello too), and for me this seems to get harder and harder. i can't even watch people say goodbye. there were some burmese friends moving out of the town and into the refugee camp a week or two ago and i barely know these people but i couldn't even watch them say goodbye to each other...........we don't even want to talk about what the goodbye in korea was like (do we t??!!). some things just never get easier, but if that's my main downside, i'll live with it. there are far more benefits, for me, in this kind of life that i live than losses so i'm happy to keep on. if any of you know of any interesting jobs (volunteer or salary), please pass along any info or suggestions you have.

there aren't any interesting stories to write about lately. i have a bit of a routine here in mae sot. basically i get up.......teach for 3 hours.......have lunch........nap (cause it's too hot to do anything else!).........go into town for any errands or emailing..........hang out with my friend's students at their office...........go home and have "loree-beth" time while the 2 guys i live with are at computer class...........eat dinner..........chat or play a game or do some lesson planning.........go to bed. repeat..........for another 4 weeks, since i'm taking a week off next week to go to chaing mai.

i hope you are all well. only 6 more weeks 'till i see you guys in korea! 10 more 'till i'm home in ns!