i'm back!
so, im' back from beautiful bangkok. actually, bangkok wasn't all that beautiful and has actually made me quite sick. i now have a cough, headache, runny nose, and intermittent fever thanks to thailand.
but to recap what i was up to in the last week or so:
friday: landed in bangkok and did a practice run of a microbicide advocacy presentation. then, went out to dinner with my friend, bebe, and her brother, artit. it's really awesome having friends all around the world and ones that are willing to let me crash at their place.
saturday: did my presentation, for which i was adequately reimbursed, then went shopping. bangkok has this wonderful weekend market that has everything you could ever imagine. it's really amazing. so, i did that, then went out to dinner with people from vietnam with which i work. it was nice. oh, then i went to a "boy go-go club." i, along with the other two women i was with, were the only two females in the place. it was actually pretty entertaining. some stuff that i can't mention on a public blog, but if you want details, i'm sure i can relay them in person. some of it, i may have blocked for fear that it would my innocent mind.
sunday: registered for the international AIDS conference. went to opening ceremony, in which i witnessed kofi annan speak, and mention microbicides! yeah, i'm a big nerd. did i mention that kofi annan is my hero? so, yeah, that made my day and possibly my year.
monday: went to the conference during the day. then, i went to a gates foundation banquet (the charitable arm of a little unknown named bill gates). i got to see helene gayle (another dorky hero of mine) and richard gere (a very handsome older gentleman indeed). after getting home, i went out again, this time to a "girl go-go club." this was not entertaining and not at all fun.
tuesday: went to conference during the day. nothing else. went home early. i thought that maybe it was a good idea that i get to sleep sometime before 2 am. however, that did not happen as this is when i started getting sick.
wednesday: skipped conference for one day and went shopping instead. didn't get much, but oh well. i forget what i did at night. did i really block everything out?
thursday: went to conference. at night, went to a banquet put on by an academic institution with which I am affiliated. it was held at this restaurant called, Cabbages and Condoms. It's an awesome restaurant and you get free condoms like you get mints at the end of dinner. really great idea and really great food. maybe that's what i'll do when i graduate from medical school.
friday: went to a small island a few hours southeast of bangkok called ko samed. we sat and ate on the beach for a few hours and then went out partying. really, partying on some remote island in thailand is surreal. it's a bunch of chicken white boys and a bunch of partying asian girls. i know it's a terrible stereotype, but i felt very out of place there because i was neither into getting someone to go to bed with me or into drinking my brains out. but there was some awesome guy doing tricks with a fire stick and stuff on the beach. however, i don't think that i would recommend thailand to anyone who wants to go for the beaches. but it did however make me want to go to the carribean for spring break.
saturday: got back from the island and got back to vietnam.
a funny story to relay (which day it happened, i forget). i lef the conference early one day because i wanted to stop by my friend's house before heading out for the night. so, i took the shuttle bus to the sky train station, which took nearly an hour. before getting on the bus, i made the stupid mistake of drinking a cup of coffee, so i needed the bus ride to be quick. then, i took the sky train back to my friend's house, rushing to get to the toilet - but she wasn't there. so, then, after a minute "talking" (i speak not a single word of thai other than "thank you") to the guard man who had to talk to some receptionist, i finally got to a toilet. yeah, weird story and probably not what you expected or wanted. but hey, something that happens only in thailand. or at least, something that only happens to me.
i have to say that i was not really homesick until i got to bangkok. not homesick for vietnam, but homesick for somewhere that i could make my own mess and not worry about it. i don't really know where my home is, as my apartment in boston has my stuff in boxes and nothing else (not even utilities).
well, i only have three weeks to go. wow... such a short time. i guess i should really start doing some work and stuff. also, any requests for (easy to carry) gifts from vietnam?
