In all, it wasn't a complete waste of a weekend. It was really good to see everyone, and I met the newest member of our program, a girl named Emily. She's with the Chaiyaphum group, came in from UGA at the beginning of August. She seems really nice, I look forward to more group shenanigans to get to know her more.
I got to Lampang that Friday with Ben, we'd left school early. Checked in to our usual Kim City hotel, and found there were already a good few folks there. We had to meet in the conference room for the beginning of our panel discussions, which were about our experiences in our towns teaching as well as what we thought about orientation and how helpful it was for our lives now. After much riveting discussion, we had dinner and adjourned early. Everyone else went out to bars and clubs, but I just wasn't feeling it and ended up going back to the room and read instead. Turned in early.
Saturday was fairly slow. We had more panel discussions and then had dinner together in the meeting room. That night we went out again. Bou, Amaka, Char and I accompanied Chase, Nabi,l and Sean to watch a football game. We ended up at a local Thai bar that was playing three, back to back. After a little while, Ben and Merhawi joined us. I left around 1130 as everyone else went to another bar and wandered around Lampang for a while. I found a lot of great junk! Got back to the hotel around 1230 and went to bed.
Got up Sunday morning and went down to breakfast. Turns out the Sunday meeting was rather pointless, all TTC wanted from us was a quote and a bio for their website. Sent them a quote, thanks to Howard for the assist: "I came to Thailand because it was here, because this place offered me experiences so far beyond my hometown as to be nearly alien in nature. I came because Thailand was here, but I have stayed because of my students, because of these wonderful chatterboxes of culture and inquiry. I give them a second language. They give me a second life."
I promise you, it is intended with every bit of sarcasm you think it is :). Still haven't turned in a bio. Oops.
After we all realized the Sunday morning meeting was just info wrangling, we parted ways and hung around Lampang. Bou, Nabil, Amaka and I all went to get a massage at the place we like that's right in front of Kim City Hotel. Then we went to a local farang hangout where i had a delicious fajita. Mmmmexican. Weekend overall was nice and relaxing, and I had a good time with folks I don't see very often.
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