Koh Samui

Right now I am sitting in our bungalow on Koh Samui waiting for the rain to stop :( dang rain!

Laura, kolleen and susan arrived safely in bangkok last Thursday. Friday we let them sleep in while Becker and I went to the train station to pick up tickets to Laos for the end of June. After we arrived home from the station we went to the Siam center for some shopping. I finally found some cheap swimsuits, four for 800 baht ($24)! It was exciting. After shopping we rested a bit and then met katie and nick (our diving buddies from Koh Tao). We went to Buddy's Steak for dinner. A yummy restaurant where you can get a steak for 79 baht ($2). Mmm mmm good :)

The rest of the time in Bangkok was spent shopping at the Weekend market and seeing the Grand Palace.

Monday morning we caught a plane to Koh Samui and have been relaxing in the sun/rain ever since. Yesterday we did a nice kayaking trip at the Angthong marine park which was cool. It's a bunch of rock islands and we got to kayak through a cave. In about 15 minutes Kolleen, laura, susan and craig are going on an elephant ride. Should be interesting since it is raining cats and dogs right now! They'll just have to wear their swimsuits and hope that their elephants can swim! Since I've already ridden an elephant I'm just going to stay back and read. It's rough ;)

Sawadee Kha (Hello)

Only 4 more days left of class for the 1st session!!!!!!!!! These last 3 weeks have been pretty hectic with classes, papers, presentations and field trips. But its almost over and then I have a month off!

Last weekend we had a field trip to Kanachanburi(just outside of Bangkok)and to a polyester factory. The bus took off from Bangkok on Friday morning. The 1st stop was a buddhist temple which was very pretty. Then it was a few hours of traffic before arriving a our hotel. After a quick lunch we headed to an elephant park where we got to go on elephant rides. So much fun! A little bumpy, but still fun! After elephant rides we had a lecture which was centered around thinking positive while the world is throwing negativity your way. It was a great lecture. It revived my positive thinking and made me happier! Screw you economic crisis! You're not going to beat me!

Anyways. After our uplifting lecture was a dinner cruise filled with good thai dishes and some dancing. Upon completion of the cruise all of us MBAers decided that what we really needed was a dip in the hotel's beautiful pool. So that's where we headed! The rest of the night was spent swimming and playing some water b-ball. At midnight when we were kicked out of the pool I was thoroughly exhausted! A few hours of playing water b-ball and having to tread water because I'm short (thanks mom!) proved to be very tiring!

The next day we took a train ride and then visited a polyester factory (the actual reason for our field trip!). It was pretty interesting. Did you know that polyester is made by mixing chemicals until they turn into litte crystals, then melting the crystals, then cooling them and turning it into thread? I didn't, but now I do! Can't say I didn't learn anything in Thailand!

Not only have these last few weeks been busy for me, but Becker has also been very busy. He has been taking as many tests as I have been writing papers and has been assisting open water dives and working on his diving skills.

He is really tired and thinks he has an eye infection, so is looking forward to heading back to Bangkok this Saturday. I'm really looking forward to seeing him again!

Then I only have one more week until break! I'm so excited that I only have to sit through 15 more hours of lectures and then 9 hours worth of group and individual presenations. Can't wait for Thursday at 5pm when I'm FREE!!!

Shortly after I gain my freedom, cousin Laura, Becker's sister Kolleen and her friend Susan will arrive in Bangkok. They'll be in Asia for 10 days of smoggy Bangkok and beautiful beaches! Exciting :)

1st Week

One week of classes down, 3 more to go until break! Not that I'm counting down or anything!

This week was a pretty rough one. It was really hard to get back into classes and also to have class from 9am-12pm and then again from 2pm-5pm. But what is great is that Mountbatten takes us out to lunch everyday!! And some of the places are really nice. Now I know where my $20,000 worth of tuition goes!

The classes that I have for this first session are:

Political and Economic Development in Asia
Operations and Supply Chain Management
Research Methods
and a CAPSIM business simulation game

Political and Economic Development is a little boring, Operations is a little interesting and the Research class is way easy because I've already done the research for my paper, so I pretty much have all of the assigments completed!

Becker left this Tuesday and it made me sad :( But at least he's not too far away like he was when I was in London. He had his first aid class on Wednesday and started his Emergency First Response class on Thursday. I guess these classes are quite a bit of work and he says that he is exhausted by the end of the day. Sunday he finished the EFR course and then on Monday he gets an orientation for the Divemaster course. He's really excited for that! I'm really excited for 2 1/2 weeks, which is when he's coming back to Bangkok!!

Today I did a bit of sightseeing around Bangkok with Carmen, Candace and Teresa. We went to the Grand Palace and it was hot, hot, hot. But the palace was amazing! Lots of shiny decorations and an emerald Buddha! Tomorrow I have a group meeting at 11am and then the rest of the day will probably be dedicated to more reading and working on my paper. fun!