I'm happy right now. This past week was not so good. I got a serious attack of the self-pities! thinking about all the cool things I was foregoing by living in American cities with my friends, then it rained for 6 consecutive days, and then I got sick. But I'm feeling better and the sun is finally out. Three things about getting sick: 1) It's somewhat relaxing because I drastically lower my expectations for being productive, 2) it's hard to tell if you have a fever when you're sweating all the time and 3) pharmacies are pretty much the pinnacle of civilization. FYI when you leave the U.S. you can get some high-quality stuff that would be prescription only in the States for like $4.

Right now I'm really appreciating all those times my co-teachers have skipped class because when I say "I'm sick, I think I will go home today" they're pretty much guaranteed to cover me. Mutual back-scratching makes this system work.

About the weather: did you know that belts, pillows, shoes, cabinets and staircases can mold? Because now I do. Between the sun and some bleach hopefully I can conquer most of it. Too bad about Bolt and Bekele at the world champs. They might change the false start rule now, but each alternative to automatic DQ has serious downsides.

The other day I saw this in my bathroom (about 4" leg to leg) and I was about as viscerally scared as I've been in my adult life. But I calmed down enough to take a photo. My bug tolerance has gradually increased to the point that I don't freak over cockroaches- nor take them as a sign of my uncleanliness, because my house is simply so open that I'd have to rub poison on every piece of wood to prevent entry - but this was too much.

I'm sorry I don't have more to say about Thailand. Not much has happened recently that feels distinctly Thai or really distinct at all. My Thai lessons are on momentary hiatus due to unforeseen circumstances. I hung out with some other foreigners -farang, we're called, but only white people are called that, and get this, France is "Farangsed," something like "place of foreigners" - which was cool, and classes have been going much better, but otherwise it's been pretty dull here. In like 3 weeks the semester ends and I'm spending a month traveling, so yeah! something to look forward to.