For the first time this week, I really feel like Khon Kaen is a fun place to be. I've finally had a bit of free time the last couple nights, for the first time since August (seriously). Monday night we watched a movie, and last night the whole group went bowling. Some of us went to dinner downtown before that, since a bunch of restaurants have turned vegetarian for a couple weeks (it's a vegetarian festival!) Bowled a 146 sober, 70 after some Japanese beer, and danced around like a fool all the while.
We're back into action with classes and my internship, but it's really not too stressful. We're working on developing a group vision that will guide all our independent final projects and group publication in November and December. It's a perfect application of the stuff we've studied in PLC, and it's something that 31 people are going to have to buy into, so it's a long but really interesting process of coming together. Also, for my internship, we're starting in on another project funding proposal, this time for the construction of a giant community hall/meeting center/future dorms and classrooms for CIEE Thailand, among other groups. It would be really incredible if we could make something like this happen--something I could come back to Thailand for and point to, and say, "I made that happen." Moreover, I don't feel like this proposal is going to be too stressful, since we don't have to actually DEFINE what the project is going to be so much as just think about who our audience is and how we can pitch it. (We then just need to raise about $60,000.)
There's also one more project idea that the Thai Seeka Association has, in some entirely nebulous form, about sustainable energy. I really wish that I had done this Study Abroad a year ago, in which case I could have almost certainly gotten funding to come back here and carry out a project like this and call it a senior thesis. The program director (Dave) is really pushing hard for me to stay here and keep working for Thai Seeka, and though I know that that can't happen, I still wonder if I could come back over the summer. Or, alternatively, I would think about coming back after college--which would mean I wouldn't do the Peace Corps until after grad school. Dave did the Peace Corps here in Thailand and hasn't left, but he is a big advocate for certain alternatives to the Peace Corps instead. It's an interesting idea.