One-month Catch-up (Part I)

Sorry to everyone who actually reads this blog that I haven't written in a while. It has been a crazy past month, and there is so much to update you all about!

My exams were fine, not my finest hour but they are done and I am just thankful for that. I just don't do timed essays very well. I much prefer to be able to think about things for a while, read further about the topic, and take my time in responding. Obviously, one hour is not conducive to that! I still don't actually know my grades for the exams, but I am so busy right now that it just isn't a high priority for me to find out. I *think* that if I failed someone would have told me already.

After my exams I hung around Cambridge for two weeks. It was so nice to be able to spend quality time with my wonderful friends in Cambridge. Goodbyes are always so hard, but thankfully I only had to say goodbye to a few friends - most are going to be staying at Cambridge next year. I still don't know if that includes me, but I decided that, no matter what, I would go back to Cambridge in late September/early October. I might be staying for the year and starting my Phd, or it might just be to pack up the rest of my stuff. My mom and Lou have said that they will come with me then, which would be so wonderful. I really really want to show them Cambridge and London so they can see where I have been for the past year. It has been such a significant place for me and I would really like to share that with them. So my fingers are crossed that they will be able to go with me!

I flew home 5 days before my mom and Lou's wedding, which was just such a special time. I loved being home to help my mom get ready and feel like my life is predictable and comfortable. The ceremony was so lovely and it was so nice to spend time with my family (which now is a whole lot bigger!) I am writing this blog entry in Vietnam right now, and thinking about the wedding is making me terribly homesick and sad, so I am going to move on to what I am doing now!

I took a marathon flight from Philadelphia to Bangkok two days after the wedding. My first flight (out of a total 3) was delayed because of engine problems. We ended up sitting on the runway for two hours and I was convinced that I was going to end up missing all of my connecting flights and enduring hours and hours additional travel time. However, I guess God was looking out for my sanity because I got to Chicago with just enough time to run and make my flight to Japan. From Tokyo I then flew into Bangkok and reached my hotel about a million hours after I left. I really lost count, and the whole flying west/back-in-time thing baffles me anyhow.

Something about these epic plane rides to the other side of the planet really gets to me. I suppose it is the hours and hours of time to just sit and ask myself what on earth I am doing. Why am I leaving home and everything and everyone I love to go someplace terrifying that I have never been before? The plane from Chicago to Tokyo had one of those in-flight phones for passengers to use. Even though I knew it would cost an exorbitant amount to call home, I can't tell you how many times I thought of calling. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to hear a familiar voice, but I know from experience that that actually makes my homesickness worse. I won't call home this entire month in South East Asia, because if I do I really might lose it and get on the next plane home. So email will have to be my only comfort for a while.

My first week here has been a blast. I am so glad that I decided to spend my first week of fieldwork as a complete and utter tourist. It is tremendously comforting to adjust to a strange place with other foreigners and have people to laugh and have fun with. I got so lucky with my fellow travellers, they have been a pleasure to travel with. Now that my trip is over, I still don't feel ready to get to work, but I suppose I am as close as I am going to be!

Bangkok was a great city, and I am planning to go back there again at the end of my research. I figure I can probably spare a day or two of fun before my flight out of there on the 28th. I am debating about maybe staying in this super-swank hotel and just going all out for a day or two just for fun and to treat myself ("all out" is pretty cheap in Bangkok, relatively speaking. To stay in a REALLY nice hotel would be about $100-$120 a night)But this will depend on how my research goes, and whether I am feeling indulgent or totally panicing about my dissertation!

While in Bangkok I met up with a friend of a friend who lives there, however this was not just any Thai... she is the grandniece of the King. Yes, the king, so technically she is a princess! She showed me around for several hours and it was just the coolest thing ever!

I really liked Bangkok, and the more I travel in Southeast Asia the more I like it! Initially I was turned off by the overcrowdedness, squalor and general dirt, but now I see that Bangkok is pretty clean and modern compared to other places in the region. There are a lot of hippies there, and it is such a strange amalgamation of business people, backpackers, beggars, people trying to sell you stuff and shady men looking for god-knows-what. Obviously, like any city, there are some not-so-nice places and some spectacular places, but if you have money I don't think there is a more fun place to spend it!

After spending two days on my own in Bangkok I met up with my tour group. The first day was spent on a 8-hour bus ride from Bangkok to NW Cambodia. This was not just any bus ride though, because guess what? The roads are not paved in parts of NW Cambodia. This insanely bumpy ride was just my first introduction to what life is like in Cambodia. Now that I have the benefit of comparing Cambodia to both Vietnam and Thailand, I would say that Cambodia is about 20 years behind its neighbors in terms of infrastructure development. And I thought Bangkok was dirty? Cambodia takes a lot of adjustment, and I don't want this entry to sound like I am just complaining about the state of Cambodia. It is an unfortunate reality that Cambodia has been crippled by events in its recent history, and comparing Cambodia to Vietnam and Thailand just makes this reality all the more poignant and visable.

(So this blog entry is already really long, but there is so much more to write about! I have to go meet my fellow travellers for our last dinner together now, so I am going to have to write more later. The next entry will be all about Cambodia and Vietnam... stay tuned for further updates!)