Heres a quick rundown of what you have missed
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I left Boston at 7:30 am on Saturday morning and arrived in Chiang Mai on Sunday night. Both the Boston-New York flight and the Bangkok-Chiang Mai flights were a breeze, and surprisingly the 17 hour straight shot from NY to Bangkok really wasnt as much of a marathon of misery as advertised. So, for those who are wondering (because I know that I was), the flight goes north from NY, up near Greenland, stays north of Europe, and then comes down through Russia, Kazakhstan (alas I couldnt see Borat from 30,000ft.), India and then down through Burma and Thailand. The most aggravating part of the flight was that the long flight, through its route, made both of the small flights result in backtracking, adding a few hours to a flight that was already long enough. So, that being said, my petition for a Boston-Chiang Mai has already been submitted.
I was met at the airport by a bunch of my future coworkers, who checked me into a guest house, and left, telling me not to call before 11, After crashing at 9:30, I got up at 6:00 AM, ready to attack the day. I estimate that I walked 5 miles that morning, read two newspapers and went online for an hour, before heading back, showering and repacking up all my stuff, and then calling at 11. Over the course of the day I found an apartment, ate my first real Thai meal, bought a mobile (just like my trusty old Nokiapronounced knock-ee-ah) and moved in, all before sunsetits amazing what one can accomplish in a day if one starts it early (so maybe this is what my mom has been trying to tell me for so long).
During my wanderings, I started to notice that a remarkably large portion of the people that I saw werelike me wearing bright yellow shirts. I dont know if I only noticed this because I was one of them, or because they were EVERYWHERE, but it made a guy start to wonder: what sort of cosmic improbability would account for half the people here having been too lazy after a 17 hour flight, to dig beyond the first layer of their suitcase, and to have the same color shirt packed there. The algorithms started to hurt my brain, so I settled on the idea that there must be an easier, if not more accurate, explanation.
I asked Caitlin (my co-worker-cum-tour guide/guardian), about the t-shirts, and apparently it has to do with the King. He was born on a Monday, and so now tons of people wear yellow every Mondaypretty sweet deal being a King I guess. Im still somewhat partial to the cosmic improbability part, but oh well.
However, upon hearing about the supposed meaning of all of that yellow, I was faced with contradictory emotions, there was relief in knowing that the mystery was explained, but I couldnt ignore the sense of disappointment in knowing that everyone doesnt wear yellow everyday.
BONUS: For those who have seen my acquisitions from ZA, this bodes well for Thailand, as the gross majority of t-shirts I acquire here, also, may just be bright yellow.