It's been a while, no? Sorry, I've been busy activating. As in, that which is done by an activist. Work has been great. Great and mundane. But delightfully mundane. As this is my last week, I'm working on compiling all the research I've done over the past three weeks into (what will eventually become) a hefty ten page (single-space) memo, for use by the staff here. It's really satisfying putting it together, though writing a paper on "The Processes and Related Environmental Effects of Mining [confidential]" sounds like one of those absurdly hyperbolized papers that teachers on television shows assign kids for screwing up. One of those "you owe me ten thousand words on [mundane topic of your choice] by next week" / "but it's the weekend of the big game!!!" sort of deals. For all you teachers out there, I openly endorse such assignments. They students will hate you, but come on, it's really funny.

But I have been doing other things as well. As far as work has gone, I got to attend a conference and workshop type event for a current campaign. It was very interesting, seeing how all these different activists came together and started hammering out a cohesive plan. And then when it was all over we all went out to dinner and I got to split a bottle of brandy with [identities and ethnicities withheld for confidentiality] (Prize awarded to the person who can come up with the best joke. Points will be determined based on the degree of clever and incendiary social commentary, not on shallow, colonialistic maintenence of stereotypes surrounding marginalized and ethnic peoples [this is gonna be a lot harder now huh without me saying what the were]). But I won't suffocate you with details because: a) I don't want to bore you (even though you shouldn't be bored and if you are you're a touch on the cold-hearted side), and b) I'm kind of unsure about how much it's safe to divulge, given the sensitive nature of the people involved. This last part goes to a lot of my work here. And I'm really not trying to build it up as some sort of espionage adventure, I just don't really know what's kosher as far as writing things in a public space. That's all.

Aside from work, though, it's pretty much been anotherday-anotherdollar sort of life for me. I don't have a whole lot of time and energy to go out and explore, and I don't even really want to that much anyway. I don't really have any Thai friends or anyone to help me get into the culture here a little more, which is unfortunate. It also means my Thai is really starting to suffer, going unpracticed save for the rare time when a salesperson engages me in Thai rather than broken English.

This week also saw the official passing of the "90 days left" point. My program will end in less than sixty days, but I will be staying in Chiang Mai for a month extra, probably doing some work back at my organization. It's weird though, seeing myself pretty neatly in the middle of my time here. I'm sure I've written it before, and even if I haven't I'm sure you can all assume, that it's passed remarkably fast (see the December 1 entry of juliainecuador.blogspot.com for a terrific account of how repetition and routine have affected the passing of time abroad).

And then there's the upcoming holidays. From the look of things, you'd think Thai people love Christmas. But really it's probably just another case of them being all about some fragmented and diffused concept from Western culture without really having a damn clue what it means. And can you blame them? It's also an issue of a lot of the businesses decking the halls (read: malls piping out the Christmas tunes to get shoppers in the spirit for something completely irrelevant), while everyone else doesn't really pay attention, except for the loads of tourists here on their holiday vacation. It's kind of frustrating, but it's really cool in a sick sort of way. Just seeing how such a vapid and senseless holiday can be seen for all its vapid-senseless-ness once its taken out of the normal cultural context. That being said, I look forward to having the loneliest, most prototypically pathetic Christmas imaginable, hopefully spending it in an empty restaraunt eating a too-small portion of noodles. I only wish that I could walk past the warmly lit homes with the views of the families reveling in love and holiday cheer inside, and then listen to the faint echoes of carollers down the street as I chew my food and mull over the painful alienation from it all. But unfortunately that won't be here, so I'll have to make it up. Regardless, I say that because, even though I know you'll now pity me, I think the whole thing will be very funny. After all, how often could something that splendidly pathetic and cliche happen to me? I know! It's hilarious. But I'm jumping the gun a little bit on the holiday writing. I should have saved it for the Very Merry Christmas edition of the blog.

And with that I've effectively killed the last hour of work and it's time to go home.