Islands

Hi all!

So tomorrow morning at 6:00 Am i will be getting on a bus and heading down to the southern tip of thailand for our final field course ISLANDS! i can't wait! i think this may be my favorite field course and it will certianly be the biggest adventure. It starts with a 24 hour bus ride to get there. Then a four hour boat ride to get out to the archipelago of islands, in the Andaman Sea. We will be in a cluster of islands and reefs on the west side of the Thailand peninsula. We will by kayaking, sleeping on the beach, diving in the reefs, doing diversity studies, and even doing a NIGHT DIVE in the coral reef! This means diving in the dark, with lights to look at the night time activities of the coral, the phosporecents, the SHARKS LURKING IN THE DARK WATER AS THE WAVES ROLL UNDERUS!!!!! ok... maybe not. :D but i'm very excited. We will be interviewing/learning from a people called the Urak Lawoi (im not sure bout that spelling) Who used to be a semi nomadic sea people. Now they live in some quickly globalizing islands. They fish, run tourist industry, and i'll be able to tell you alot more abotu them when we get back. They are caught in a political dispute over usership/land rights.... They sold their land rights long ago, for cash under the impression that they would still be able to live there without rights, but now, years later, things are getting messy....

They used to fish the reefs by throwing dinamite in the water...

Thanks giving was nice. The whole school, Staff, Pi's, Students and families went out to a nice western restaurant for dinner and we got BREAD!!!! YAY!!! i love bread!!! (there is no bread here. only white bread, once in a while). After we had "beer olympics" in the dorms. Which included making teams with themes like robots, farang, team struggle bus... and each room hosted a different drinking game (like checkers on the b & w floor with beer cans)... it was very fun. The students who are not from K will be heading back home soon, just after Islands ends, its insane! i can't think of leaving yet!!!

I'll be doing my ICRP on a comparative case study of ecotrouism in thailand. i'll be comparing the Community Based Tourism, homestays we visited for forests and a zip-line adventure park outside of Chiang Mai. They are both good (but very different) ecotourism places. I'll be comparing how they deal with the economic, soical and environmental pillars of sustainablilty. Ill be doing lots of ethnogrphy (never done this before!) interviewing and stuff. I'm so excited because i've never done anything like that before.

I still have no idea what i'llb e doing for break. Although one idea i had was to go back to the Karen Villages and draw a coloring book of Karen life. THe kids there grow up with pictures of a white Jesus, and toy dump trucks (when they've never seen a construction site). I think it would be cool for them to have a toy/media about themselves. Also it might help with the toruism because it could show basic activities and ways of life and teh parents could use it as a resource when people come to stay with them but dont speak much Thai. (it would have the word for each thign in Thai, Bakenyaw, English, French, German, Chinese ext)... dunno. it would be really fun to draw though!

Love you all loads! i hope your having the best of holidays!

Remember, when your feeling down, that there is so much to be thankful for!
I'm thankful for all my supporting friends and family back home,
Love Gigi