Primary Elections

We got our absentee ballots today for September's primary elections in Spokane. This'll be Dung's first election as an American, though it's only the primary, most candidates are running unopposed or without serious opposition. We're waiting for the big one in November. Nevertheless, we'll send our ballots in and do our civic duty. Check out our vote for Congressman: http://www.votepetergoldmark.com/.

Surfin' Phuket

Dung and I took a long weekend in Phuket last week. One year into this country and we hadn't hit the biggest tourist destination yet, and really hadn't had much interest in it either. But there's one thing Phuket's got that's nowhere else in Thailand, surfing. By no means real surf, it's no Pipeline, it probably isn't even as good as North Carolina, but it served its purpose. I've always wanted to go surfing and figured this was my chance. We stayed on Kata Beach where there's surf during the rainy season and no other time, and not really any other place. For 1400 baht I got a two hour lesson with a Thai guy with dyed blond hair and lightning bolts shaved into it. But the guy could surf. After some quick lessons on the beach, we headed into some light surf and did the real thing. The first ten times or so were unsuccessful, but I got a little extra advice each time and finally popped up just right and rode a wave all the way into the beach. Not a big wave but big enough to carry me. I think I got up one more time for more than a few seconds and that was it. The most exhausting sport. Fighting through the waves to get out there is tough (and these were small waves), trying to stay on top of the board and then paddling ahead of the wave to catch it, just about killed my arms. Not to mention huge bruises on my knees from jumping up on the board time after time. I don't think I made it the whole two hours. The next day I rented a board on my own and went out with the rest of the surf crowd to try to catch some. Bigger waves this time, and I didn't catch one. Nobody else was having much luck either, but I figure it's all just practice. Problem is I need to live closer to a beach where I can get some serious surf every day. Next post?

Oh, Blessed Internet

Our DSL has been running slow like molasses the past few weeks, too slow to upload any pictures to the blog. We'd been trying to get the internet company and building to fix it but they kept saying the line was fine, finally they figured out today that the modem had gone defective. The odl one still worked but very slowly. The new one's faster than lightning. We'll have to get some postings up now.

Press conference

I did my first press conference yesterday, announcing a review of the U.S. Generalized System of Preference (GSP) program. The program allows exports from developing countries into the U.S. duty-free, but we might be eliminating the program or at least changing it for some of the biggest users, including Thailand. Not too bad, I tried to keep to my talking points, but they managed to draw me out on a couple things.

Thai Day, the local insert of the International Herald Tribune, got the story the best: http://www.manager.co.th/IHT/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9490000101184

The Big 3-9

August 3 was my birthday, 39 years since I came into the world in 1967. Not quite the milestone like it will be next year, but nevertheless. Funny thing is that I don't feel old. I don't feel all that different than I did ten years ago. Clean living, I suppose. At my request we had a mellow birthday, out to a cute French restaurant for lunch, then to probably the best Mexican restaurant in town (not saying much) for dinner. Our 3rd anniversary is on the 9th, then we're heading to Phuket for a three-day weekend, an anniversary trip of sorts. A good reason to hit the beach!