Bangkok

Last night was the bosses' going-away party - not for my going away, but for theirs. They're going back to America after 13 years. Big move. The party was proportionally large. We demo'ed the product we created at the party. We got it done in time - not having achieved in our constant pursuit of the platonic ideal exactly, but it was something that demo'ed well. It was a proof of concept, if you will. The cleanness and professional look of the demo is as much to the credit of our best mechanic, Prem, as it is to the big shot foreign engineers and architect. Prem - what a guy. He always has a smile and is always ready to make anything mechanical better.

But this morning, I woke up in Nepal for the last time of beecherinnepal. Got up with the sun at about 7:00, heated up the daal bhat, and went to work. At 11:00 I said goodbye to everyone I've known for the last eight months. I got two silk kata scarves and 3 necklaces of flowers - as travelers do.

It felt like the end of undergrad.

Neither now, nor at the end of undergrad, did it feel very real that it was all ending. With that kind of feeling, there's really no answer to 'hey, how does it feel to be leaving?' or 'thought, reflections?' or 'did you write a poem about this?'. What is there to say? It was, and now it's done. It was good. I think we did good work. I think it's been good for me. Check that - I think it's been great for me. And it hasn't been all about me.

I had a professor once last year, Bernie Roth, who suggested replacing 'but' with 'and' in all manners of speech. It changes excuses into statements. I think that's a simple idea that changes everything, like using short sentences. It's for the better.

I flew into Bangkok this afternoon. This country has parking spaces and the taxis' meters are actually metered. I haven't spent enough time to observe much else yet. I read in my guidebook that in some Bangkok hotels, girls knock on your door all night asking if you want special massage. The guidebook named the Grace Hotel, in Sukkumvit, as a particular instance of this Bangkok-sleezy-hotel phenomenon. So I told the airport cabby where to go, and here I am at the Grace. I think they've cleaned up their act since the guidebook was published. Maybe these two things are related. Regardless, it's midnight, there've been no knocks, and I'm going out. I have to buy some fruit juice or sorbitol gum - I won't elaborate.

There's writing your blog, and then there's a whole modern city out there with a night life, after eight months in Nepal. You understand I hope.