laying low in laos

I'm trying blogger out again despite all the frusturations from the last time (so lets cross our fingers that this actually posts!!!)

I've been in Vientiane, Laos for three weeks now -- it hardly feels like its been that long -- probably since sooo much is has happened! in the last three weeks i've:

1. lost and received my luggage
2. met a million people from australia
3. found a roomate (coincidentally another canadian on a cida internship)
4. after much aggravation found a house
5. moved into the house
6. searched for and purchased a bike
7. worked full time (still trying to figure out exactly what that entails)
8. eaten at probably a third of all the restaurants in this city
9. developed an addiction to chocolate croissants and
10. made approximately 4 friends (thats right, amazing, eh?)

so you can see why its taken so much time to get on this new project --- although also compounding it is that while there is plenty of email access there actually arent many computers that arent programmed in the lao/thai/chineese script so i cant read what the f is happening on screens that i am not familiar with... in the true spirit of how cheap this city is, i have treated myself to a 2 usd sunday breakfast which includes an hour of 'free' internet -- pretty sweet, eh? so i'm overcoming my constant fear of getting jacked in this country and have brought my computer out of its hiding place and to this restaurant.

because all of you who might read this have lives and jobs, i'll be brief since i dont actually have very much to convey... here are some of my first impressions of my new home

1. i think that every international ngo is stationed in vientiane -- there are a million expats and yesterday i was able to find pepperidge farms milano cookies to accompany my evening dvd session (pretty unbelievable, eh?) so in short i brought way too much stuff with me in anticipation that there would be nothing here (but am extra happy that i brought ziplock bags (ants in the kitchen) and drugs (i have yet to see a pharmacy)

2. life here is pretty damn cheap -- in south east asia fashion, beer is cheaper than water or milk -- so you can have a full meal and a 750 ml beer quite easily for under 3 dollars (this doesnt exactly make one want to cook) the only problem with this is that the lao staple is sticky rice which as far as i can tell can do nothing for your health... luckily you can get just about any food in a restaurant here (save sushi, but i think thats a pretty good thing) ... so far i've had some great indian and thai food not to mention there are some shi shi french restuarants (read 10 for a meal) that i'd like to eventually check

3. life here is pretty damn hard if you dont speak lao and you move out of the tourist area --- most people dont speak english... this resulted in me ordering fried rice for lunch several times last week when left to my own devices for lunch (its ht only thing i knew how to say) --- luckily i'm starting language lessons tomorrow and i also found a place near work where there is a menu in english (fantastic)

4. the roads are fn crazy --- there are a lot of one ways which cause people to drive down them the wrong way.... most people ride motorbikes but there has been a recent influx in a lot of cars and so its super dangerous -- roads that arent wide enough, cars and bikes jockeying for positions.... in addition there is tons of drunk driving (ridic) ... i've elected for the time being to ride a bike which i bought from a french dude because most bikes here dont even have gears, which is ridiculous...i figure its pretty good exercise to bike around and maybe i'll get a motorbike in a bit (sorry loretta)

5. security is questionable -- there are a lot of australians here on internships -- they get a lot of training and orientation and therefore have a lot of security concerns that no one had advised me about ... so now i live in fear of getting jacked as well as pushed off my bike for 10 dollars.... dont worry i dont think it happens to frequently, but still....i spend a lot of time thinking about security.... people say we should get a guard.. if you have facebook check the pic there (i'll try and figure out how to get my flickr working again soon) we have this shady room for him to stay in (what kind of guarding will he do while asleep?) we dont want to spend our nights with some weird dude around so we've decided on a 'maiban' (read maid) who will hang at our place 3 days a week while we're at work -- lets hope that does the trick....

6. work is inexplicable -- id say that my job might be 'co-ordinator'/proposal making assister/ not sure..... its kind of hard to understand what is expected of me right now so that is a little frusturating... coupled with the language adjustment -- most dont speak english (including in my office) so a lot of meetings and trainings that we are supposed to have input into or help with are conducted in lao -- which creates an interesting dynamic (read confusing)... but the people are really nice -- they helped me get a phone, get my sins (traditional skirts), find a house....etc etc... one even took me around yesterday for a tour of the city (again see facebook, sorry) -- so thats definately a redeeming thing

ok, well thats all for now just in case all this work was for nothing and blogger is as shitty as it used to be! (ok maybe i've jinxed it!!)

hope you have a chance to check my pictures and i'd love to hear whats going on on the other side of the pacific!

miss you all quite a lot!

c