OK, so...

I'm not actually in Thailand yet (obviously--I'm in the snowy tundra that is the 7-county metro area) but I'm going.

The nitty-gritty:
I'm going for nine weeks, July 7-Sept. 12 or so. I'll be spending the first five weeks in Bangkok and the last four in a small town near the southwestern coast, Trang. I'm going with an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions. They'll set me up with a Thai non-profit, hopefully an orphanage/preschool/something where I don't have to know a lot of Thai, and I'll be volunteering in the mornings and exploring/taking Thai language classes/going on what amounts to field trips in the afternoon, with weekends free to travel the rest of the country.

One of the things that I really like about this program is that they work with existing Thai non-profits. As much as I think it's a great thing volunteer anywhere that extra bodies and extra hands are needed, being an American going to a developing country to work with the underprivileged smacks of imperialism. That's at least partially mitigated by the fact that all my supervisors will be Thai and that I'll be doing work in the community that Thais think is important, not work that Westerners think is important. Of course my motives for going are not as altruistic as all that: I found the program because I was looking for a long term (well, more than a couple of weeks, anyway) experience abroad where I could be more directly involved in the culture than most tourists tend to be. I leapt into this one, there's no question about that. Less than two weeks passed between the time I found the organization and the day I called them up and gave them $500 to reserve my spot. But I'm really, really excited.

The impetus behind this blog was the realization that I won't be in close contact with a lot of important people for the two months that I'm there, and that last time I was abroad, and internet access was limited, I wasn't always great about keeping in touch via email. As much as I feel a little silly about putting my life on the internet, I like to think there are people (hi mom and dad!) who'll be interested, especially once I actually get to Thailand. So leave a comment, I'll be happy to know you're here.