Last days in Chiang Mai

Since the last time I posted,

• Gordon Brown has become England's new Prime Minister
• Robert Mugabe has made more crazy threats, this time to seize foreign firms in Zimbabwe
• Dave not only got out of bed before 9am, but made it to breakfast with me and Zach at 20 past 7
• I have discovered that I will actually, rooly, trooly have a proper job, and that it sounds super duper exciting and busy

Chiang Mai clouds at sunset

After all the months of wondering exactly what I would be doing in Thailand, I met my new boss on Tuesday night. We had a long discussion about work and the situation, and where nebulousness reigned before, excitement now prevails! It looks like I will get a major project for my MPH out of this as well (now I just have to apply, find a supervisor, write a research proposal - blah) and to boot I am really hoping - and am now optimistic that - I will be able to do some work which will continue to bring some returns after I have left, and provide a base for others to follow. I'll write a bit more about the specifics once we have nutted them out a little more - probably over the next few weeks.

This morning I had my Thai end-of-course exam. It was supposed to take 3 hours but I finished by 10 so we spent the rest of the morning fine-tuning the lesson notes for next weeks' new intake of students and then went out for massive luxe buffet lunch. I am really sorry to be leaving the language centre - I have had such a good time with them over the last 5 weeks, I'd forgotten what a joy it is to learn a new language and all the girls there are so much fun. I'm hopeless at goodbyes so I kind of just slipped out after thanking everyone quickly and hoped that nobody would be offended.

Tonight we're going out and then tomorrow I'll be in a hilltribe village somewhere planting trees. Tomorrow night I'm staying at Benjawan's, and then that's it - Sunday is the big move!

I'm so glad that I managed to meet my boss before going; when I last posted I was just feeling sad about leaving Chiang Mai, and it was hard to get excited about the next step when I had no idea what it was about. Now that I know a bit more, I'm looking forward to this next chapter for whatever it is to bring, and it's kind of revitalised my commitment and passion in what I came here to do.

Who knows? Maybe sometime soon I might have something interesting to say!