news, news, news!

nicholas got a job! he now teaches math at a "famous" secondary school in chiang mai. he says it's enormously challenging but that he really enjoys it (what? a physics major likes things that are challenging?? get outta town!), and the kids seem to like him. we ran into one of his students today at 7/11 (okay, side note: 7/11, or "sewen," as it's called here, has taken over thailand. there's a sewen on pretty much every single street corner. and they're AWESOME ; ) coconut yogurt, sticky rice burgers, and 5-baht sugus candies. sewen is the best), and he alerted us to his presence with a jaunty british, "hallo, SUH!" from morning assemblies with 20-foot gongs to in-the-know expat coworkers to thai supervisors with subversive tendencies, nick believes he's going to learn quite a bit about thai culture outside of our largely rural experience thus far.

while it's a huge blessing to have such a great job--teachers definitely have it made in this lil country--so quickly, i do miss spending all day every day with my lover. and i definitely miss tag-teaming it in the classroom here in sankamphaeng; those children can be demonic, i shan't lie.

which brings me to MY news ; ) i finally started my internship! after a 5-day solo trip to the burmese border that nearly killed me because i haven't travelled alone in years, let alone stayed in a hostel by myself without my snuggle buddy, i was cleared to begin "teaching english to hill tribe women" in chiang mai. that's what i have to say i do because of, erm, legal technicalities concerning my job and the implications of having a google-able name, so that's what i'm doing according to the blog ; ) sorry to leave you all in this painful suspense, but just know that the women i'm working with are phenomenal and are changing how i look at humanity. whoa. i know.