I have misinformed you! The pink eggs are NOT hard boiled but preserved in an acid formula. They are called Kai Yeo Ma, or horse piss eggs as some believe they were once preserved in horse urine - not true, though. They are preserved in lime and covered in straw and can last 3 months. The white turns into a black jelly and the yolk turns into a green custard-like substance. I think I may have accidentally eaten one at that retirement party, just to be polite. They are what the Chinese call 100 year eggs or 1,000 year eggs. Glad I didn't buy any. They also have the cultivated eggs, the ones with the baby chick inside but I don't know what color they are. Maybe I'm in for a surprise.

The weekends are still unbearably long. This Friday was a holiday, Chulalongkorn, which is the anniversary of King Chulalongkorn's death. He is the present King's grandfather. They tell me that in the movie, The King and I, he was the crown prince, the one who asked all the questions. He also freed all the Thai slaves. Sort of like a Thai Abraham Lincoln. Now if you figure that we celebrate the King's birthday, the queen's birthday, the day his grandfather died, times his two parents (birth and death?) plus his four grandparents, that's one honking lot of holidays.

But from my perspective, it was just an extra day in an extraordinarily long weekend. Friday I went to the town of Mahasarakham proper, bought a day bag that I know I won't use and some plastic thingy that was as close as I could find to a spatula, ate lunch, chuckled some beautiful Thai babies and came home. All of this took about 3 hours. Now what do I do? I finished reading The Geography of Bliss and the author had a great section on Thailand, all too true. So much for Friday.

I desperately need to find someone who speaks English before I go postal. I'm already talking to myself and I've never been that engaging. The only other two falang teachers at the school are men, so it's not like I can call them up and say let's go to dinner. The Thai teacher, P'Noon, (P' for older) has some very strange habits that I can't comprehend. She constantly says, "Let's go to... We should go buy... I will take you to... Would you like to....eat dinner, buy plants, come talk to my night class, go shopping, etc."  but she never follows through. I ALWAYS say , "Oh, yes, I'd love to."  but she never sets a date. Do I appear too eager? Is this a cultural thing that hasn't been explained to me yet? Should I be more aggressive and say, "Yes, how about tonight?"  Have I offended her? Is she embarrassed to be seen with me? I know she hates my backpack and always urges me to leave it behind. The one day I listened to her (when we went to the dentist) the first thing they asked for was my passport, which was in my freakin' backpack.

Saturday I screwed up my courage and took the songtaew first, then the florescent pink bus to Khon Kaen, the next big town. It went surprisingly well and I do enjoy riding on the bus looking out the windows at the rice fields, sugar cane, cows. In one house, I could see someone weaving on a huge loom. We passed three men sitting 'I dream of Genie' style on a raised platform playing checkers with soda bottle caps. (One team facing upright, one team facing down.) When I returned some 5 hours later, they were still at it.

I got a tuk tuk at the bus station and asked for "big, big shopping" and he took me to one of the two malls. ('Shopping' is one word they all understand.) Coming back, I had to remember to tell the tuk tuk driver to take me to the bus station because I was "going to Mahasarakham" as there are two bus stations, one going south to Bangkok, one north to Lao. (by the way, it is Lao. Someone somewhere misinterpreted it and called the country Laos, which really means 'the people of Lao' - everyone here calls the country Lao.)

I bought an English newspaper! I got my nails done! (Three hours, the girl was meticulous.) I bought a map of Thailand for my room (84 cents) and one of the world for my Tourism students. (Thai students' sense of geography is appalling!) I tried to find Moldova on the world map (it was in the book I just read) but it wasn't on there. However, you'll be happy to know that Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia still exist.

I got home after dark but my soi isn't so bad, it's pretty well lit except for one small stretch.

I have concluded that I will travel each weekend, scoping out all the nearby towns - Roi Et, Kalasin, Korat. I don't think I can properly do Vientiane in Lao unless I have a minimum of 3 days, but judging by Thai government holidays, that could be soon. I could do Bangkok again, but to be honest, I've been there a lot and there's nothing new to see. If only I had a friend to go with me...

Book Club friends - I am half way through Fieldwork and enjoying it immensely - I particularly liked the part about eating on the street in Bangkok, so true, Tom Yung Kung (spicy shrimp soup, toilet paper on the table, rat shit chilies.) A friend over here recommended the book , McMafia, they said it's very insightful as to how far the reaches of the Mafia are in various countries.