I've done it!

First "I've done it!" I took a flight to and from Malaysia yesterday to be able to get my 30 day extension without having to do two land border crossings. YAYAYAYYAY! Apparently if you enter Thailand via an international airport you get a 30 day extension. If you enter via a land border you only get 15 days. Hmm wonder who's got pockets with the airlines for THAT decision! The good news is that I don't have to leave Thailand again before my Feb 4th flight to Indonesia. BIG DEAL to me cuz I hate being stuck in transport for hours for pointless excursions like visa runs. :-)

Second "I've done it!" I finally was able to fax transcript requests to the various colleges so that I can get my grad app completed. I tried both from the school as well as from Kapong village 2km away and ... no luck. We were unable to fax internationally. The solution? Stop by the closest tourist area 1.5 hours away and find someone who's use to dealing with westerners and contacting their part of the world. $10 and a few days later... I was able to fax FIVE pages to the USA. WOW. :-)

Third... I finally got my fix of western food. I couldn't understand why people around me were getting sick of rice. I like it. I've eaten the "cafeteria Thai food" here at the school and didn't have too much of a problem until about 2 weeks ago. Now I'm OVER rice and cooked vegetables and spicy fish soup and chicken (many-parts-included) soup. So on my weekend outing, Fiona made me mashed potatoes and fresh salad Friday night (which I ate heaps of!), at the airport yesterday I bought a plain baguette with processed cheese and sliced ham (usually beneath my standards of what qualifies as food but OMG it was good) and in Malaysia I treated myself to a nasty McDonald's Value meal of a Big-N-Tasty and fries - yes it's still a gut bomb (all of course while still not having completely digested the baguette) and then threw in a bag of chips, a coke, an ice tea and.... I was one stuffed chica sitting in the Kuala Lumpar airport for four hours! Today I ate cold cereal for breakfast - a luxury for me - and had a club sandwich and fries for lunch. YUM! I think I'm now ready for a week of rice three times a day. Although just thinking of those mashed potatoes and my club sandwich, I'm once more salivating and hungry ... sigh. The cookies I just bought for the week may not make it through the night! Mmmmm