Number 16

Didn't actually get to the blog last night so I'm doing it now on Monday morning. Yesterday was another day of doing whatever needed to be done for the GAJE conference. I worked with Aom all morning getting displays and posters and brochures designed and put together (he did the artwork, I wrote the copy). They all need to be at the printer this morning and, as seems to be normal here, everything needed to be changed or fixed or redone.

The afternoon was spent with the Lao professors helping finalize and clean up their presentation. They aren't going to the conference but Bruce is presenting a 50 page paper on how they have been building their program in Vientiane from the ground up as a paradigm for other countries and Universities to consider. Part of the presentation is the first couple chapters of their teaching manual which includes the work they've been doing on the elements of crimes and specifically, battery. The hypothetical they drafted involves Mr. Bin and Mr. Thong who are both enamored with Ms. Nafang and get into a fight over her. Before we sorted out the fact pattern and got the English correct the hypothetical had fairly heavy, if not inadvertent, sexual overtones. When I explained that to them they thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. They're very proper Buddhists and apparently the source of their amusement had something to do with the Dean of their Law School and what his thoughts would have been.

Everyone in the house, except for the Laos, went to the Night Bazaar for dinner and to shop. The Night Bazaar is only open at night (hence the name) and is basically a collection of vendors with small booths that seem to go on forever. They sell souvenirs, chatzkees, pirated DVD's, T-shirts, hats, sunglasses, wallets, purses etc. There is a lot of "Tiffany" jewelry, North Face backpacks, watches and purses with designer names that are either knockoffs or, as in the case of the North Face packs, apparently come from the place that makes the real North Face gear but somehow went out the backdoor. They have the actual tags and everything.

Just before you get to the Night bazaar is something called "Walking Street". It's about a mile of booths running on both sides of the street and is only open on Sunday night. There are more food vendors and "touristy" souvenir type booths the the Night Bazaar but it's fun to simply walk around with all those people looking at everything they have to sell. The "kids" bought DVD's including a couple of movies that just came out. Kim bought Twilight and when she put it on, it was clearly made from someone sitting in the theater holding a video camera. I'd heard about that but never seen it.

Ella bought a "designer" wallet that she bargained down from 750 baht to 400, but was teased mercilessly by Justin who said he could have gotten it for 300. Bruce, who moved back to the volunteer house now that Wendy's husband came back from Australia (nothing sordid, he had a room in her house for the few months her husband Andrew was gone), came with and bought Hanukkah presents for his relatives. There are a number of Hill Tribe women who walk around tugging at your sleeve (not overly aggressively) and try to sell you jewelry and multi colored hats. The older women sometimes actually cry when you don't buy something. Bruce bought a hat.

The Night Bazaar is the home to the only Burger King in town as well as McDonalds and Subway. The "kids" wanted Subway so we ate there. It tasted exactly like a Subway in the US which surprised me a little. We stayed at the Night Bazaar until after 10 and then all piled into a red truck and headed back to the house.

It was the first really cool night we've had since I've been here so I put on a long sleeve shirt and sat outside watching the stars and finishing up about an hour and a half's worth of GAJE work while listening to my iPod. Very relaxing. As I sat on the porch, looking up at Orion, I had one of those flashes where I thought to myself; "wow, you're in Thailand!"

It was another good day and night in Chiang Mai