Dear American Economy,

Please snap the heck out of it! The US Dollar needs to kindly stabilize before I get any poorer. I just checked the exchange rate against the Chinese RMB. ¥100 used to be right at $13. Now it's almost $14. This is exchange rate moving in the bad-for-me direction. Now, I understand that I'm only here for 6 months more and that it ought to be ok. But my rent is staying the same in RMB. The number of dollars that comes out to is changing. I'm going to be paying about $40 more in rent this time around. Swell job, economy. Just swell.

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I leave for the adventure of a lifetime (subset 3, part A) tomorrow! Phuket, here I come! The Professor and I are hoping to learn enough Khmer to get around, since we'll be there a few weeks. Of course we won't be conversational, but at least we can learn the number system and greetings and "how much" and "too expensive!" and "no, please don't touch me" and other useful things. The top things on my excitement list are as follows (in semi-chronological order):
-Phuket's beach
-the floating market in Bangkok
-Angkor Wat (including the boat rides there and back...)
-the medical relief work (pending)
-Hanoi's old city

All that said, I need to get packed and ready. Tonight a few people are coming over, as per usual, and I need to mop the entry way of the muck from the snow/salt/sludge from our shoes over the past few days. Fortunately I've gotten most of our laundry washed and dried already, so we're pretty good to go. I'm not looking forward to the trip from here to the airport tomorrow. It's gonna be cold, since I'm not taking a heavy coat to the tropics. Weird, I know. I think a hoodie'll do me.

Mmm... this time tomorrow, 88 degrees and sunny in Bangkok. Hooray! Actually, this time tomorrow I'll be somewhere flying over central China. Whatever. Don't spoil my fantasy.

I'll be in touch.

T