Winding up quick here, folks. As of today I only have nine days left in this godforsaken country. Things have been going, in a word, well. Not a whole lot to report on. I've managed to work myself into a nice groove between work/gym/reading/sleeping to the point where that's about all I do, which helps the time to fly by. On Friday (as in, two days ago) I went back to Mae Ta with Ryan (fellow K student) and Pookie (Thai). We went to Mae Ta five months ago for our first field course, so we thought we'd go back and spend a little time there with our old host families. It was a good trip. The ride there was amazing -- lying in the back of a pickup truck, driving through wooded mountains at night, looking out and seeing the dark forms of the mountains cut open with perfectly straight lines of fire, which everyone had set in order to prevent massive fires from ravaging the whole forest when the season only gets hotter and dryer. It was fairly breathtaking. When we got into Mae Ta later that night, Ryan and my host family (we had the same one, though at different times) was excited to see us, which was reassuring. Shortly into our stay, however, our host dad asked Ryan if his friend had ever been to Mae Ta, so we had to explain that I indeed had been to Mae Ta, and in fact had stayed with them. After we explained that, he remembered who I was and was doubly excited. The rest of the time was spent either eating their amazing food (which they grow, organically, themselves) and sleeping in various locations: Pookie's host family's farm, their house, my host family's house. It was stupidly lazy, at best. But still it was great to get back there and see them all again, not to mention the relief at them remembering who we were. Conversation was still fairly stilted, but they seemed okay with the silences, awkward as they were. We then left this morning bright and early, taking several song taews, cramped and uncomfortable, to get back home. And that was that.

I was going to take this space to relate a couple stories from the past week(s), but frankly I'm too lazy so I'll just cut the chase. The other day I was forced (not really) to open my apartment door with a credit card, which was both a supreme boost for my sense of resourcefulness as well as an equally sizeable knock against my sense of security, now knowing that I live in a place that can be easily opened by anyone with a thing piece of plastic and a little persistence. I've of course made new friends with the deadbolt.

The second story has to do with my experience at a copy shop the other day. I was at work and wanted to get a book copied (which you can do in Thailand, what with the whole lack of copyright law and everything (I love it)), so I walked the few blocks to the shop. I gave them the book and told them I had to have it back by the end of the day because I had to return it to my friend. I asked when it would be done and they said 12:30 (as in, noon). Unfortunately, I thought they said midnight, which simply would not do, so I basically argued with them for a few minutes to have them take longer on the book than they had to. They surely thought I was either crazy or just a jerk. I didn't realize my mistake until I had already left, and when I went back at 12:30, thinking maybe they just stuck to the plan despite my pleading to the contrary, they curtly replied, "No, five o'clock". Shows me right.

Like I said, nine more days.