So far I have to say the best part about living in a country undergoing a coup d'etat is the jokes that inevitably come out of it, most of which were in fact true statements. We got to say things all day long like: 'Sorry I didn't do my homework, there was a coup...' and 'My mom said I can't go to the gym after school today, because there's a coup d'etat and all'. The last one was mine, and it was true. Maybe it's because Thailand has no snow that they have coups -- otherwise there's no way for students to just get a free day here and there. A common saying in Thailand is 'Mai pen rai' which roughly translates to 'forget about it' or 'no big deal'. At the beginning of 'coup day', as we called it, we were all wondering -- can you mai-pen-rai a coup d'etat? It turns out that you can, and most did. Not only did our head instructor basically joke it off, at least as far as a legitimate safety concern, but we found out later that many Thais were going up to the tanks and soldiers surrounding the government building in Bangkok, taking pictures and putting flowers all over. We saw many troops just hanging out and joking around... with their assault rifles. This officially puts 'coup d'etats' up at the top of the list of things you can mai pen rai, just beating out the death of your youngest child (true story: one of my friend's Thai teachers told of how her child died, and when the students reacted sympathetically, she just said 'mai pen rai'). We're wondering how much higher you can really go, as far as what can be mai-pen-rai-ed. Further jokes were made about the likely polite and 'unoffending' nature of the coup, with the invading military officers appologizing profusely for seizing control of the government, dismantling the constitution and dissolving all elected government. Malaysia has already coined the Thailand coup 'Coup Lite' -- all the military seizing of control, but none of the unsightly violence. This is the eighteenth time it has happened since Thailands switch to democracy in the 1930s. It also conveniently fell on the same day that we were scheduled to have a lecture on Modern Thai Politics. Naturally, the lecture centered around the day's events, which only made it a million times more interesting, and was very useful for actually giving us an idea of what's going on. If anyone's interested, I'd encourage you to just find a New York Times article about it, all the ones I've seen so far have been pretty comprehensive.

Right now my Thai family is watching Mr. Bean on DVD. Yesterday one of my uncles came with about six pages of printed out comics (I forget what it's called, it's the one with the birds at the bar in the tree) and asked me to translate them. I also just heard 'Holla Back Girl' come from my host brother's phone, but I don't think Thais understand 'Awwww dis my shit...'. It's like I never even left the States.

I have a three day weekend now, because my first course just ended. The next one I start is Agroecology, so the week after next I'll be going a few hours north of Chiang Mai to Fang, where I will study the more ecological side of agroculture. Unfortunately this will interefere severely with my following the Tigers in the playoffs, which I can only assume is going to happen.