Ok…first off…I am sooo sorry that I haven’t updated this in a while…I have a good excuse…REALLY!!! My family came to visit & I was traveling with them for about 3 weeks (with very limited access to internet & not enough time to write a blog) and then when I got back, I found that my work had changed the internet setup. You see, before when I wanted the internet I would just unplug the cable from the computer (they only had internet for one computer) and hook it into my computer and I was good to go. But when I got back, they had changed things so that they now had a router and had multiple computers hooked up to the internet & none of them had a cord that I could unplug and plug into my computer (the cords weren’t long enough). Now that doesn’t mean that I have been without internet access…you see, I have this really cool cell phone & I can hook a cable from my cell phone to my computer and link up to the internet that way, but it is EXTREMELY slow. Slower than dial-up in fact. Which means that there would be no way for me to upload pictures (and I know you all come for the pictures). But good news…when I showed up at work yesterday, they had a cable just for me so now I can plug in with no problems (and people won’t kick me off when they want to look at porn…they have their own computer for that). So I am now “back in the saddle” so to speak.
So now for what’s been happening…there’s been quite a lot actually (it has been 2 months after all). I’m going to go a little out-of-sequence on the updates…mainly because I didn’t take a lot of pictures when my family came to visit…my mom & Karmen did that & Karmen was even nice enough to send me a disk of all of the pictures that she took (the disk from my mom is coming). The problem is that there is something wrong with my disk drive & it wont read any disks…so I have 3 disks filled with pictures & can’t access them. I am going to Bangkok this week & will take my computer in to get it looked at & hopefully fixed. So until then, you will get to hear about stuff where I took the pictures.
First things first, I’m no longer a rookie. That’s right, the new volunteers are now in Thailand. It’s weird to think of myself as an “upper-classmen” because there are still days where I have no idea what I’m doing or even where I am. But I’ve learned how to fake it pretty well.
The new volunteers flew into Bangkok on the 23rd of January & there is this tradition where the current volunteers go to the airport to greet the new volunteers. I remember when I first got to Thailand…I was sooo exhausted (we had been on the plane for what felt like days) and I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing or how I even got myself into this situation. We were hearded through customs & shuffled through the airport to the buses. And as we rode down the escalator to the buses, there was a huge group of people yelling and cheering for us. It didn’t seem as scary anymore (for a little while at least).
So I was really looking forward to greeting this new batch of volunteers. Luckily, my brother’s plane left a few hours before the new volunteers’ plane was supposed to get in. So I took him to the airport & saw him off then waited with some other volunteers for the plane to arrive. Now keep in mind that my brother’s plane left at 10:45 pm & the new volunteers’ plane was scheduled to arrive at 11:30ish & of course it was delayed. So we stood around the airport and waited with the Peace Corps staff (luckily they have a Starbucks).
We finally got word that the plane had landed so we all went to where the bus was parked. There were not too many of us…maybe 9 or so (they had about double that last year) but one of the volunteers had gotten her students to make a really awesome sign.
As soon as we saw the first volunteer (we recognized them because (a) Dr. John our director was leading the way and (b) they were all wearing lei’s) we started cheering.
I was among the group holding the sign & some others had little snacks that they gave to the volunteers as they walked by.
They weren’t given much time to talk as the buses were waiting & they had to get their luggage loaded, but we were able to talk to a few very briefly & they seemed like a good group! We left when they were all loaded onto the bus...it was 3:00 in the morning and we were all exhausted! They are going through training right now…So technically my group is still the rookie group of volunteers, but their swearing in is coming up soon!
So now for what’s been happening…there’s been quite a lot actually (it has been 2 months after all). I’m going to go a little out-of-sequence on the updates…mainly because I didn’t take a lot of pictures when my family came to visit…my mom & Karmen did that & Karmen was even nice enough to send me a disk of all of the pictures that she took (the disk from my mom is coming). The problem is that there is something wrong with my disk drive & it wont read any disks…so I have 3 disks filled with pictures & can’t access them. I am going to Bangkok this week & will take my computer in to get it looked at & hopefully fixed. So until then, you will get to hear about stuff where I took the pictures.
First things first, I’m no longer a rookie. That’s right, the new volunteers are now in Thailand. It’s weird to think of myself as an “upper-classmen” because there are still days where I have no idea what I’m doing or even where I am. But I’ve learned how to fake it pretty well.
The new volunteers flew into Bangkok on the 23rd of January & there is this tradition where the current volunteers go to the airport to greet the new volunteers. I remember when I first got to Thailand…I was sooo exhausted (we had been on the plane for what felt like days) and I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing or how I even got myself into this situation. We were hearded through customs & shuffled through the airport to the buses. And as we rode down the escalator to the buses, there was a huge group of people yelling and cheering for us. It didn’t seem as scary anymore (for a little while at least).
So I was really looking forward to greeting this new batch of volunteers. Luckily, my brother’s plane left a few hours before the new volunteers’ plane was supposed to get in. So I took him to the airport & saw him off then waited with some other volunteers for the plane to arrive. Now keep in mind that my brother’s plane left at 10:45 pm & the new volunteers’ plane was scheduled to arrive at 11:30ish & of course it was delayed. So we stood around the airport and waited with the Peace Corps staff (luckily they have a Starbucks).
We finally got word that the plane had landed so we all went to where the bus was parked. There were not too many of us…maybe 9 or so (they had about double that last year) but one of the volunteers had gotten her students to make a really awesome sign.
As soon as we saw the first volunteer (we recognized them because (a) Dr. John our director was leading the way and (b) they were all wearing lei’s) we started cheering.
I was among the group holding the sign & some others had little snacks that they gave to the volunteers as they walked by.
They weren’t given much time to talk as the buses were waiting & they had to get their luggage loaded, but we were able to talk to a few very briefly & they seemed like a good group! We left when they were all loaded onto the bus...it was 3:00 in the morning and we were all exhausted! They are going through training right now…So technically my group is still the rookie group of volunteers, but their swearing in is coming up soon!
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