The Plan

I am leaving January 19th from my dad's house in North Carolina and will be arriving in Thailand January 21st. I will be going to Northern Thailand near Chiang Rai. The plan is to stay with the director of a school there and teach English during the week. On the weekends I will be staying with the director of an orphanage for children whose parents have died of HIV and helping her out with the kids. The director of the orphanage is a friend of my old neighbor in Connecticut and according to him, she is like Mother Theresa and spends her time split between working at the orphanage and raising money to prevent child trafficking in Thailand. She sounds like an amazing woman and I can't wait to work with her!

After exhausting the 30-days-without-a-visa-rule, on February 19th, I will be leaving Thailand to head to New Zealand. There, I

have set up a camping/bus tour though Flying Kiwi to see the North and South Island. I was wary of signing up for a tour but I think this one is pretty low key and I decided that by that point, I would probably want some company. The part of the tour I am most excited for is the Routeburn track; a 3 day trek through alpine terrain in the Milford Sound area. It is supposed to be incredibly beautiful. I am also excited to see where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. I will be heading back to the US on March 23rd.