Vienna

Vienna! Just 3 hours away from Budapest lies the capitol of Austria -- Vienna! It is full of history and here are some interesting facts:

-World famous classical composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms, have all lived and performed in Vienna.

-It has been home to various artists such as Gustav Klimt, Sigmund Freud, and Arthur Schnitzler.

-The largest emerald in the world (2860 caret) is displayed in the Imperial Treasury in Vienna.

-The highest waterfall in Europe is in Kriml Falls in Vienna reaching 1,250 feet.

I spent two nights in Vienna trying to see as many sights as I could. Here's what I found :)

Budapest

First stop: Budapest, Hungary. The first leg of the trip was work. Well, kind of. We were treated like kings and it didn't really feel like work. The pics above are shots from my room as well as the gym in the hotel. Beautiful.

The drama started in Chiang Mai, Thailand when I had to go shopping for "business casual" dress for the conference. Two friends of my made the trek to the Chiang Mai mall -- which actually felt like a mall anywhere in the world. We together decided on khaki pants, a striped shirt and brown shoes... not too shabby Thailand. I was ready to go and got on the plane for Europe.

When I arrived in Budapest after a layover in Bangkok and Paris, and over 20 hours of traveling, I had no luggage. Yup they lost it, with my new clothes. The Parisians were probably too busy smoking and worrying about baguettes and the Eiffel tower to not get my bag on the plane :)

I once again had to go shopping because we had our first "meet and greet" a couple hours after I arrived. Thanks to H&M I got myself a new look - much more European this time!

The week in Budapest was great! It is an amazing city, with so much to see and do. With a week full of talks, city tours, karaoke bars, and the baths, it was fantastic. Made cities in Western Europe feel overrated. Try it yourself.

Chiang Mai, Song Kran!!!!

So before I left for my European adventure I went up to Chiang Mai for the weekend. To celebrate the Thai New Year the country turns into national water fight. Sorry I don't have many pictures of the actual fighting -- too dangerous for the camera. We ate as much food as possible as we can't get much in small Mae Sot. Fantastic weekend - including an elephant or two!

Holiday

I am currently traveling in Europe after I finished a conference I was attending in Budapest, Hungary. I am away from Thailand for two weeks and I will be doing a whirlwind tour of 3 cities: Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Or as they say Budapest, Wein, and Praha. Posts and lots of pictures to come... x

My Class

This is my class! Yes, a full class of students expecting me to teach them English. I've been teaching for about 2 months now on my "free time" which turns out to be about 3 hours a week. I love my students. They are so eager to learn -- they all have worked a full day in the clinic -- dealing with sick patients (see post below) and then voluntarily stay after work to learn English. I generally follow a curriculum already set up by an NGO that works out of Mae Sot, but I change a lot of it to make it more relevant to my students. Two weeks ago I wrote my first exam for them - of which they all passed. Wow does it feel good to be a teacher :)

The other pictures above are shots of the motorbike ride I take to get to the clinic. During this season they burn all of the fields to clear them before the rainy season. Leads to very polluted air and beautiful orange sunsets. Wait 6 weeks and all of this will be green, and no more pollution in the air. Goodbye to slash and burn. Pics to come!

A bit of education

This video report comes from the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border and is completely filmed in the clinic that work in 3 days a week. Many of the local staff that you see in the video I work with and teach English to. All of the women and children that you see in the video are an everyday sight - nothing was staged about this video, the clinic is overcrowded, people do walk for days to get to it and then sit in the hot 100 degree weather for hours to be seen.