Laos

And now I've made it to the last destination of my trip, Vang Vieng, Laos. I'm staying on an organic mulberry farm. It looks like in the evenings I'll be helping to teach English classes and during the day I can either hang out in the town or I could help out on the farm. I'll probably do a bit of both. Hot and humid here too even though I'm at a higher elevation. It's really beautiful here surrounded by green, green mountains and the Mekong River is running right past the farm.

The town is a bit of a tourist hang out, many, many girls walking around town in bikinis like they were in Panama City or something. I'm becoming an old, modest fuddy-duddy; I just want to yell at them all to put some clothes on! But the farm is about 4 km outside of town and feels very isolated and very Laotian. I arrived around 5 last night and then after a quick shower I immediately went off to the first class of the night. It was full of young children, and we all know how much I love teaching young children. But it was actually fun and then the following class was full of teenagers, much more my speed and the class seemed to fly by.

I walked from one class to the other with one of the Laotian teachers. As we walked by little "restaurants" - open air huts with tables really - I was asking what each served. The first was a noodle soup place, a meal I recognize and love. The second had grills set up and I asked what they made. "Dog," she replied. I thought maybe I misunderstood and she'd really said duck, but no, upon reconfirming it was a dog restaurant. I've tried many, many meats in my life ostrich, deer, elk, reindeer, horse, eel, alligator, raw beef, raw oysters, all without blinking an eye. But confronted with the option to eat dog, this might actually be one restaurant I pass on.

Tuk-tuk, bus, tuk-tuk, bus, tuk-tuk, arrived

It was a long day of travel today. I went from my quiet stay in the Mut Mee Guesthouse on the banks of the Mekong River in Nong Khai, Thailand and crossed the border into Laos. I had changed money back into US dollars to pay the $35 visa fee. I'd had 4 visa sized photos made and had read how to best do the visa process in several guide books.

In theory it was easy enough, take a tuk-tuk to the Friendship Bride which crosses the Mekong and takes you into Laos. The first stop you get your passport stamped saying that you left Thailand. Then you catch a bus that actually takes you across the bridge into Laos. There you fill out a form, hand over your passport, photos and money and get your visa. What they don't tell you about is the very long line of foreigners cutting in front of you (especially the older men who are just there on a visa run so they can stay in Thailand with their girlfriends), a problem exacerbated with each new bus arriving, and then there's the fact that there's only one window to go to, but in the end, I got it taken care of and finally got to enter Laos with my new visa filling yet another page in my passport. And then you had to wait for another tuk-tuk to actually bring you into Vientiane, the biggest city in Laos. I shared it with a kiwi girl and two very nice (looking) French guys. I was the last to get dropped off at the bus station and there I caught the public bus to Vang Viang.

First though I had some noodle soup. And it was then I noticed there was something wrong with my left arm. It was shaking, so much that it was hard to use the chopsticks. Was I afraid of being on my own? I didn't think so, but perhaps. Had I pinched a nerve carrying all my bags, getting heavier by the day as I pick up more and more stuff, that seems more likely. So I decide not to worry. I catch the bus and have to laugh each time my window slams shut. Finally the bus "steward" takes pity on me and shoves a piece of paper in the window to help keep it open. And it works and is great, until it starts to pour rain. Overall though, the 4 hour trip was pleasant and the scenery kept getting better and better as we wound further into the hills. Finally we arrive at a teeny bus station and the foreigners exclaiming "this is really it?" I'm so excited that I jump off with my bags... leaving my damned metal water bottle sitting on the seat. Why am I always losing it?

Um, Nate, can you bring me another one when you come out in September?


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How to fly Business Class

I have flown business class far more often than is right for a person under 30. I have never paid for business class and only a few of those times did I use my miles. I thought I'd share what I've learned.

When I check in I always ask if a flight is over sold. If it is and I can afford to miss the flight, I ask if they are looking for volunteers. An airline would much rather upgrade people than have to give away free flight vouchers and if you're on the volunteer list, they may upgrade you instead as a "thank you" for volunteering. If at all possible, earn status with an airlines frequent flier program. For several years I had "Premier" status with United's Milage Plus program. This meant on two occassions when I flight was over sold, they upgraded me without my asking on over sold flights.

If you can't afford to miss the flight, pay attention to what's happening. This happened to me most recently in Helsinki. I knew economy was over sold, I was told as much when I tried to get out of seat 47J - middle in the back. (I tried the getting on the list trick, but they'd already requested volunteers.) So I sat near the check-in desk and watched. Sure enough, one of the women from behind the desk approached a couple sitting near me. She asked if they were sitting together and then said, "Let me see if I can get you some better seats." She returned with two business class tickets. I then approached the desk and said, "If you're still looking for seats, I'd be happy to give up mine." She brushed me off. So I kept watching and then one of the men (very handsome) came from behind the desk and again approached a couple who also ended up in business class. When he came out again, I approached him and said "Are you only looking for couples? Because I'd really like to move up. I promise to fly Finnair from here on out." And sure enough he took my ticket and after several tense minutes he came back to me and my 47J had turned into 2C. Here I am enjoying my preflight champagne:



I'll tell you, there is nothing better than being able to lay down and sleep on a long flight.

Next Up

Moscow!!

This past weekend the boy and I attended a job fair for international schools. We interviewed with six schools spread across the globe - Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Korea and China. I really liked the head from Turkey, however that position ended up being filled before I could even interview for it. Brazil also ended up getting filled by a local hire. China I was not so into.

However, we both really liked the options in Korea, Thailand and Russia. It was agonizingly painful. We had roughly 15 hours to decide. The position in Korea ended up being our first choice, but they ended up offering it to another couple. So we were down to Thailand and Russia. We ended up picking Russia because the Thai school was located 20 minutes outside of Chiangmai. I ~love~ Chiangmai. However, 20 minutes by car outside the city would mean we'd need to buy a car. It's also a boarding school which would mean we'd be surrounded by the students all the time. Further William would have been the science department and I'd be teaching 5 of the 7 offered math classes and all of those 5 would have been different.

However, with Moscow, the only science position they had for the boy was chemistry which he's not all that into. Besides he is keen to spend a year in Japan. So he'll go to Japan, hopefully with the JET program. However, the director of AAS (Anglo-American School) likes him and knows that in a year he'll have 1-2 Biology positions. For me, I'll be teaching upper level IB math. It's a sweet schedule too.

There are eight periods for students total, four periods a day. And those four periods are taught in different orders. For example: Mon: ABCD Tues: EFGH Wed: CDAB Thur: GHEF, etc. Which is something that would make a huge difference with my teaching right now since my classes at the end of the day are the worst performing.

I'm super excited, scared, over whelmed. And right now really need to be preparing for the coming week. So there you have it.

Woo hoo!