Well it's now officially the Thai New Year celebration, and while protesters are busy shutting down Bangkok, up here in Chiang Mai everyone is busy having--what else?--a giant, city-wide water fight. It's pretty much insane. Thousands and thousands of people, squirt guns, buckets of ice water, stages set up with bands everywhere, food stands, drunk Thai people, and everybody ridiculously, awesomely, soaking wet.
It probably helps that there's a moat here in Chiang Mai, though the idea of getting moat water dumped all over you is a bit...well, disconcerting :)
So that's this week. I didn't take my trip to Laos last week, instead I just did another "border run" up to Burma to get another 15 day visa. It's pretty silly really, you just get stamped out of Thailand, walk across the border, get stamped into Burma, then reverse the process and bada bing bada boom, you've got yourself another 15 days. I can't keep that up though, too much work, so the Laos trip still has to happen so I can get an extended Visa.
I didn't want to go last week though cause I was hanging out with a girl, who was leaving :)
And yes, she's very cool.
In other news, I'm all settled into my new studio apartment. Brand new building, beautiful view, up on the fourth floor, TV, fridge, fully furnished, wireless internet. All for less than $200/month. Not too shabby eh?
Now that things are settling down a bit I've been taking the time to think through what my goals are while I'm here. What sort of writing schedule I want to stick to, what sort of ministry I want to get involved with, how I want to budget my money and how much time I want to invest in side projects, etc.
Church is great, I've gotten plugged in with a good community of believers here, it's really cool to see what they're doing, and to meet Christians from all over the world. I've been spending time with people from all over the place: australia, the netherlands, Siberia, and everywhere in between. Very cool experience.
Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, but will write more soon. I want you guys to start posting here too so we can all keep in touch!
Love you all.
-Mal
