Spooning and Dripping and Leaches

This week our friends Debbie and Eric are going to Cambodia for a visit. This means that Jon and I have the honor of house sitting their two dogs, Maddie and Pippa, which means it will be four in a bed since these dogs like to snuggle (I'm talking sharing my pillow and spooning). Pretty excited. After that, Jon and I have packed up all our stuff and we are heading up to Chaing Mai, Pai and Bangkok. I know I said in my last post that you should stay away from Bangkok, but we are only going for a few days and we know to be cautious. Its going to be interesting; we have several 10-12 hour train rides ahead of us, but luckily we are going for the sleeper cars. Anyway, there's a lot to see and so we've decided to try to conquer most of the country during our travels.
It will also be nice to get away since rainy season is coming early, meaning an unwelcome visit from leaches in the house. These annoy me more than other critters, as we have a spider larger than my open hand living with us. He's become friendly, sharing our bedroom; he does his thing, we do ours.
However, despite the sporadically early rain, this is still the hottest month of the year in Thailand. Thus, the bizarrely interactive holiday, Songkran, is only a week away. For one week, there is no hope- none- of remaining even remotely dry as the whole country erupts in a torrent of water- dousing every single person they see with hoses, buckets and super-soakers. It doesn't matter who you are or where you are, you will not be able to take one step out of your house without instantly becoming drenched. Of course, as is tradition, we will be dousing back. For a glimpse, I know that the movie, The Beach, starts out with a scene of Songkran.
So after dripping water off our clothes and skin and hair for a week straight, both here and up north, and travelling through the country for a while...
I'm making it back to the States. A couple months short of a year's stay in Thailand, but with all the turmoil I think it's about time to go. It's odd, I think, I've made this country my home. But almost everyone I care about here is heading out. So it's time to assimilate back into America. I'll post more on how I'm feeling about this soon.