Other Side of the Mountain Gr

It's Erin. I'm back! Grandma- this update is just for you. Sorry its been so long, I will try to post more regularly. I miss you :)

WHAT a week already this one has been. Saturday night we were out with friends and I wasn't feeling well, so I went home early. It turns out that I had food poisoning or something like that... the doctor called it an "intestinal infection" but whatever the name, I was a sick sick girl on from 10pm Saturday till about 6pm Monday. I missed school Monday and stayed home to sleep and watch movies that Kels put on my computer before I left for Thailand. The one called "Rocket Science" was pretty funny. Luckily, I have Dan and he took SUCH good care of me. He was running to 7/11 for tylenol to break my fever and 7up when my stomach wouldn't keep anything down. He's incredible. Much thanks to him, I'm feeling almost 100% better. I'm just waiting for my appetite to come back... I'm sure it will come soon.

That was the beginning of the week. Yesterday Dan, Whitney, and I had to miss class in order to get our work permits- what a disaster! As of today, (Aug 4), Dan and I have been in Thailand 90 days! Which is awesome, but that means that the visa we entered the county in has expired and we need our permits so that we can stay longer to continue teaching. To make a very very long story much shorter, we waited in traffic and stood in line at government offices for 10 HOURS to get this done and we still don't have permits. The system of communication here is lacking and we didn't have the right materials and went to the offices in the wrong order. I just wanted to scream and stomp my feet in protest at the end of the day. I didn't! But I really wanted to. We have one week left for things to get sorted out and will miss another day of class to wait in line... but hopefully with a better result. Otherwise I will be returning home much sooner than I originally expected haha.

Dan has a swanky new camera (I can't remember if I mentioned that earlier) but he's been taking some amazing photos. Last week we had a 4 day weekend and traveled up north to the city of Chaing Mai and into the mountains with a group of friends. When we were up in the mountains, it was actually cold outside! It was kind of scary. I think it was a mistake to choose to live in Bangkok, because it was also just beautiful. And clean, which goes a long way in my opinion.

Either way, I have stolen some pictures from him to post on here from our trip. One night we stayed in a really nice guest house with soft beds, then two nights we stayed in a youth hostel. I hate to say it, but I much preferred the guest house even though the hostel was cheaper and gave us free breakfast. I guess thats a sign of growing up... but really does anyone prefer to stay in a youth hostel? I don't know. We saw waterfalls, lots of green land, rode mopeds, ate bugs and ate the some of the best "foreigner" (American) food in Thailand. It was pretty amazazing

Dan and I in Chiang Mai with the city down below :)

That's me getting ready to eat a bug. It was a cricket, and it wasn't half bad!

And finally, we made it to the other side of the mountain. It was beautiful!