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Hi,

It was another sunny day in Chiang Rai. We had a little sprinkle last night but nothing to get excited about. Today we went back to school, and we made a new friend.

Congratulations to all those who knew the 'Easy' song was "It's Too Late" by Carole King. Here's a new challenge for you: "Just a castaway, an island lost at sea. Another lonely day with no one here but me. More loneliness than any man could bear, rescue me before I fall into despair. I'll send an SOS....." Hint: It's by a trio from across the pond, singing about a man lost in a big pond. Hmm.

We've been having forecasts of rain for several days, and yet the sun shines. While some of you wish the rain would end, we just wish we could get enough to water the yard and clear the air. How about a small trade?

Yesterday we went to one of the local appliance stores in search of an air purifier. There is a salesman who speaks pretty good English but he wasn't around. We knew the words to describe what we wanted, but it still got misunderstood. We were escorted to a building in the rear that we thought might be a catalog desk but it turned out to be a dead end. Then one of the guys came out with a small vacuum cleaner and we just looked at each other. When it was determined that they didn't have what we wanted, they just left us there. It was like 'OK, we're done'. As we walked to the car we couldn't help laughing.

It's been quite a while since we've had a Thai lesson. We had promised ourselves that we'd study on our trip to America. That didn't happen. When we got back we kept putting it off. We did some review over the last couple of days and then jumped back into it today. Our teacher, Janya, had some new material for us and we spent the session learning some new words and worked on sentences. It actually felt good to be doing it. Now comes the commitment to study. Oh boy.

Sometimes you just never know how connections with people will play out. Lisa's childhood friend McKinley found her on the internet and they had a wonderful reunion while we were in America. McKinley has a college friend named Teresa who is an artist and is on a tour of Thailand. He wrote to us and put us in touch with her and today we met her at her hotel and spent the afternoon and evening seeing the sights and talking about art and life. We went to Le Meridien and saw the exhibit of Lisa's art and were very pleased to see that it was all hung the way she wanted it. Then we went to dinner by the river, and drove down to see Wat Rong Khun. The lights were out on the temple grounds, but all the little mirrors that cover the building were sparkling in the moonlight. Very eerie and beautiful. We drove back to town and watched the light show at the new Clock Tower, which was built by the same artist as the temple. We finished the evening off with watermelon shakes in the lobby bar of her hotel. It's always fun when we have visitors and this time we got a new friend as well.

I feel a Wacky Wednesday comin' on.

Peace,
Danny

"If there is light in the soul,
there will be beauty in the person.

If there is beauty in the person,
there will be harmony in the house.

If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation,
there will be Peace in the world."
~Chinese Proverb

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style
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