Mai Soshul fo paw (it's phonetic, not foreign)

I'm in Bangkok for a couple of days to attend some meetings on Avian Influenza. There are a bunch of business people, especially from food and agricultural industries, like McDonalds, Cargill, and Tyson. Also, I'm easily the youngest person at these meetings. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages include: no one takes me seriously at first, people don't usually try to approach me to talk, and There actually aren't any advantages really. Well maybe one. Wednesday evening the participants of our meeting were invited to a cocktail party by the hotel's pool. I figured that it'd be a good chance to meet some of the other people. So I thought this would be like a pool party. I almost wore swim trunks. I decided instead on jeans and a collared shirt. I arrived (half an hour late; who knew that red lights could last 15 minutes?) to a gathering of suits. Awkward, party of one. Well, it wasn't any worse than it had been already. I got to listen to a man from the US Department of Agriculture explain how fake pear bacteria are causing $5 billion economic problems between the US and China. Let's rewind a few days so I can tell you about Espy, my new roommate, who arrived on Saturday. Espy is 19, and taking year's break from school to work doing public relations for ADRA Vietnam. I think he's designing a web site (sorry Jill, maybe it'll suck and we can improve it). He's pretty funny, and we get along well. It helps that he cooks, and I know enough numbers in Vietnamese to get stuff at the market. We're taking Vietnamese lessons together now, and he'll very soon surpass me (actually he already has; in my defense, I hadn't learned any Vietnamese before he arrived). But he already speaks like four languages, and I'm thinking that might be something of an advantage. So we have some differences. Also he has a girlfriend, is diligent in his work, preferred Goal! to Fight Club, and has lived in Kenya. I'm half jealous. Or maybe a little more than half, but less than 3/4. I'm bored. I should fill out one of those Christmas surveys, so when it asks if I've ever kissed under the mistletoe I can write something like "unwillingly, or unwittingly" and feel very clever and then see how the clever thing is working out for me. It usually works pretty well, especially here in Vietnam where no one understands my simple sentences (such as "No meat."), much less any of my wordplays. It's now almost 6 am and I've been up all night annoying people. It happens.