Sorry it's been a while, things have been really busy out here. Work is going well, however slowly. At our last meeting we sat down and developed the questionnaires for the focus groups we will conduct as the next step in our situation analysis. Apparently we will spend this month coordinating and planning with people in the community, and actually go into Lamphun in January. However, I the OVC project head has submitted her resignation, which may slow things down somewhat. I'm getting the impression that our boss, who is really knowledgeable and nice, may be severely lacking in some key managerial skills, such as time management. So...we may have to outsource a research team to help with the situation analysis, or else hire and then train new staff, so we'll see how things develop.

In other news, some of you may have heard about the political turmoil going on. Protesters took over both of the airports in Bangkok, and even the one here in Chiang Mai for a day. They were protesting against the government, though for the most part people up here in CM were supportive. However, a few days ago the Thai courts decided that the Prime Minister and his party were guilty of electoral fraud, resulting in the immediate dismembering of the current government. So...none of this really affected us, except that my roommate Natalie was supposed to fly home a week ago, and got an extra week out here. Needless to say that has been fun for all of us, especially after she finally got her flight situation handled.

I've been doing a good job of mixing fun and work, going to lots of interesting seminars while making sure to make the most of my time of with my roommates. I'm sad to say that tonight is actually the last night with 2 of them, Mairi and Natalie are out. (Though for those of who know me well, I know you can imagine that I've been pulling "our second to last Thursday out!" for a while now...) A little bit back we spent a day at the zoo, and then up to Doi Suthep. The zoo was seriously amazing, you could get absurdly (read: dangerously) close to a lot of the animals. They also had 2 pandas on loan from China's zoo, which were beyond ador. Doi Suthep is this super amazing temple 12km up into the mountain, and then you climb almost 400 steps and have this sweet view of all of Chiang Mai. I also heard some cool talks on the HIV affected population in prison, the situation on the Thai-Burma border, and the situation for HIV affected youth in Lamphun, though that one was mostly in Thai.

Tomorrow is a national holiday here, as is next Wednesday. Eve and I had already planned to go to Laos for a little bit, and then my boss decided our office would have next Friday off instead of Wednesday, so...we now get a full 10 days in Laos! I'm super excited to check out a new place, I can't believe how little travelling I've done since getting here. We are taking the slow boat to Luang Prabang, and then after a few days heading to Vang Vienne, then hitting up Ventienne quickly in order to catch a bus back home. Luang Prabang is supposed to be super chilled out with some gorgeous waterfalls right outside the city, and Vang Vienne is supposed to be tons of fun. Apparently you spend all day floating down a river and going on zip lines and slides, so it should be a good time. Ok, we booked a sketchily cheap guesthouse in Luang Prabang, so wish me luck, and if you don't hear from me by the 16'th or so start to get worried...