In which I offer a Thailand fun fact...

Thailand is sufficiently enamoured of tourists that the government actually throws festivals to commemorate their arrival. I'm not kidding: right now, the market district of Chiang Mai is in the throes of "Chiang Mai Mardi Gras: Celebrating the Start of the Tourist Season".

This is a very unusual country.

In other news, after a night spent in a hotel room whose comfort level and price displayed no correlation whatsoever to each other (take that as you will), I made it back into my apartment Wednesday morning. I'm astonished that an apartment complex that houses closes to a thousand people has no way of accomodating someone who lost their keys after 6:30 PM. Between that and the decrepit internet access, I'm looking for a snazzier place to live.

Meanwhile, I'm thoroughly occupied this week, teaching a 1-week course into which I am apparently to condense a comprehensive education on Economics, Globalization, and Natural Resources. Ummm... the odds ain't good. But it will at the very least wreak havoc on my blogging schedule. Moreover, I'll be well and truly too busy to notice the passage of the final days before my Christmas vacation. Ye gods, I'm excited to visit home.