I've officially become a boring person. I'm sorry. (apparently I'm also Canadian).

My days in general have been spent either working on my schoolwork, working on my work work, or some other sort of random task that rears its ugly head. I took on a project for Ella's friend to correct her thesis, which has surprisingly been an agonizingly long process. Ella's university claims their thesises (thesii?) need to adhere to APA style. I think their administrators were absent the day when they learned what APA style was. It's a weird blend of APA, MLA, and their own random nonsense thrown in. This makes it very frustrating, as every time it is submitted it comes back with some sort of error. And since they're not following APA, there's no way to really know before hand. Just kind of, keep submitting it and see what happens? Anyway, I'm pretty sure that project is done now.

We've had a few new visitors show up. Ella had a pal from China who left just as quickly as he appeared, but he did buy us Japanese curry. Which, if there's a faster way to get someone to like you, I don't know what it is. Zolta (I'm probably not spelling that right) was an odd sort of fellow, but affable enough. He worked at a bank, and loved getting pictures of banks and Thailand's multicolored ATMs. I mean hey, we all need a hobby right? I think the picture sums up his personality pretty well.

My school had a festival, which was for some random holiday I had never heard of. I was speaking to someone back home about it, and realizing I didn't know the purpose of it, googled it. The first result was my school's webpage talking about it. Right so, made up festival. Thais are good at coming up with an excuse to knock off for the day, so it seems this is as good as any. And this was no small festival. They had a haunted house that was downright terrifying. Random bloody doll parts strewn about, a student covered in red paint striking a meat cleaver on a block of wood, hands randomly jutting out of the wall and grabbing you... they really like scary stuff! Keep in mind that my school is also a grade school, so there were plenty of little kids who ran out crying. Yeah, that'll teach you kids! I'm sure there were some life scars made.

Over the weekends, we've been quite prolific at the meetups. These fun little events usually involve meeting at some sort of bar and drinking. They've been a blast, and have really opened up our circle of friends. One of my friends, Stefan, has a group on LINE (Asia's answer to Whatsapp or all those other thingies) that seems to grow in number on a regular basis. We had a night of karaoke, many nights of partying, and another trip to Koh Kret island, this time with new friend Francesco. Actually old friend for Ella, he's her student. Also a great guy, we rode bikes around the island and had many drinks at a place that will be unnamed. I was speaking with the owner about why he doesn't sell his stuff downtown. He says that Thailand's laws don't allow it, so he has to stay under the radar. So not only did we get some of the best beer in Asia (Have you ever had a Jackfruit Heffeweisen? It is delicious), we got to do it at an illegal brewery. And had $2 pizzas at the end of the day. If that's not a good day, I don't know what is.

So, future plans! Maybe the next update will be after the semester break in October. I have a bit of time off, and unfortunately have to do another, oh-my-god-I-hope-final, visa run. I found a really cheap (super cheap) flight to Singapore. It is my 2nd favorite city in the world (Whatup Taipei), so it sounds like a good place to go. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. Less than $10. Why? Because Asia is great, and America never seems to have figured out that cheap flight stuff yet. Of course after airport fees it's not quite $10, but it's still the best deal going around.

Oh and there's this cat that is at the train station every morning. I started taking a picture of her every day, so I've amassed quite an album. Ella and I have named her Bing Bong after the Inside Out character (which, is that not the best movie ever?!)  Bing Bong is actually pretty apathetic to everything, as cats are. And I guess you especially have to be when a million people walk over you ever day. But someone is feeding her, and so she hangs around. So if you ever visit and happen to transfer at Makkasan - Petchaburi, give Bing Bong a hello. She will likely ignore you.