Keegan's Study Abroad Journal

Okay, posting from an internet cafe. News of late:

I lost my debit card, put a hold on it, and called home finally. The first three weeks of our 4 week "foundations" course are over, and I know a workabble amount of Thai at this point (I can almost right legibly, I just need to memorize the several variations of letters that sound somewhat like "d" "s" "g" and and "kh."

I finally know what my first expedition course will be, and who is coming along for the ride. The program here has 18 students (including 3 environmental studies majors from University of Denver), so we're splitting into two groups of 9 for our tromps out to the villages near the Burmese border. My first class, on Agroecology (translation: agriculture that works within the finite limits of a given ecology) will take me to a town called Fang, far north in Thailand, and then to a town further south called Mae Ta. The group is as follows (for those of you from K who may know some of them):

Keegan O'Connor
Erin Agee
Mike Glista
Morgan Hague
Hilary Lake
Gavin Mooney
TiIffany Tononi
Veronica (sorry Veronica, I don't jknow your last name)
and Tracy Vlnicka (UoD student, who is mighty awesome)

For this I need to find a fleece in a city where nobody weatrs them because it's always too hot. Off to the mall I shall go.

And now an amusing story:

I've heard people say they don't eat anything "with eyes." NOt only have I had food with eyes, but I've seen many an eye while eating (most notably with the fried shrimp, a veritable mass of shrimp fried into patties with eyes and tendrils sticking out everywhere). Last night I had pig brain, seasoned with lemongrass, ginger, garlic and salt, which was delicious. Also on the list of foods I didn't expect to eat while in Thailand: blood cubes (I knew about them, but didn't realize I had eaten one until I had decided they aren't so bad after all), bee eggs, seafood pizza, and a corn/butter/lots of sugar fast-food-type dessert.

And now this is getting excessively long, so I'll stop.

I am leaving for an extremely roundabout trip to Thailand, in 55 hours. I still have a few things to purchase, pack up my room, pack my life for the next 6 months, move everything into storage and print/copy a few important documents. I'm not getting increasingly excited or anxious, like I expected. It's reached a peak, and I'm kind of hovering there. The dominating feeling right now is a sense of obliviousness to the magnitude of this whole thing. I will not see the people I most value for half a year, I can see myself growing in ways that I can't possibly predict--and I expect my friends will do the same. I haven't quite grasped how different these relationships will be when we all return from our respective countries. I'm going to go do something productive now, but check in for updates.