Back to normal life

Today marked the beginning of midterms for the students at Strisrinan.  Which means that I have a week to do whatever work I need to, since I don't get to give my tests until after the midterm exam period.  This actually works out pretty well for me--I will be finishing my TEFL training.  I began it before I came to Thailand, but when I arrived I had spotty internet accessibility and fell irrevocably behind in the assignments.  So in order to complete the class and receive my certification, I began an official extension and have the next week to do the work I didn't finish before.  This means I have a ton of lesson plans to write, but at least I have some spare time to do it.

In other news my body seems to have decided that it is mission critical to visit the orthodontist in every foreign country.  Translation: my permanent retainer broke last night (the last time it broke was literally 2 weeks into my Spain semester).  So I spent a good chunk of today visiting different orthodontists in town to get it fixed.  We went to 6 different offices in total.  The basic response was that of confusion--they had never seen any orthodontic device glued on the inside of the teeth, only the outside.  According to these dentists, only a skilled practitioner could fix this.  Meaning I would probably have to go to Chiang Mai or Bangkok to get it done.  It was suggested that there might be a dentist in Phrae who could repair it for me, but there was a great deal of uncertainty.

Luckily we doubled back to the first dentist's office to get more details, and this time we actually spoke with the orthodontist.  After looking at my mouth, she asked me why I had a permanent retainer and not a removable one.  I dunno, because my orthodontist chose to do it that way?  She just wanted to say that it was much easier to clean removable ones--true, but it is also easier to forget to wear them, negating the entire orthodontic process.  Ahh well.  Anyway, the upside to this is that she said she could fix it.  Yay!!!  I was relieved to hear that I wouldn't have to remove it or go to Chiang Mai this weekend to get it fixed.  So tomorrow at 4:30 I will head back for the repairs.

I also have encountered a really interesting blog.  It is called Legal Nomads and basically talks about food, travel, and life in general.  I stumbled upon it while doing some research for one of my own blog entries, and now I am hooked.  It is written by a woman who quite her job as a NYC lawyer after 5 years to travel for a bit.  She always intended to go back, but has now been travelling, eating, and writing her way around the world for 5 years.  I find her writing to be fascinating and I am truly inspired by her life story.  I guess it just spoke to me considering my recent history.  So I wrote to her, and she is quite nice.  I have been enjoying following her adventures, and some of you might too.  It seems she is planning a food tour in Bangkok during my fall break (perfect timing), so I am hoping I will get to do that.  We will see what happens when some of the details get fleshed out.

Anyway, that is all for now.  I am actually going to bed super early tonight--sleep has been elusive of late.  And although my days aren't terribly stressful at the moment, I could still use some more shut eye.  See you later!

P.S.  In hearing people talk about the parade, apparently everyone in town thought I was a student--a bit awkward.  It seems the makeup did make me look younger, or else I really just look as young as people say I do!  Still, I really don't think I look as young as Sunny, our AFS (foreign exchange) student from Finland.  But maybe that is just me.