hi all! everything has gone surprisingly well, considering we don't speak, read or understand a word of any of the languages spoken here, and had almost no plans or reservations. and we almost missed our flight out of new york city. our night in bangkok was fine, got up early and took a 6 hour bus ride to tak. at tak, we took tuk tuks to the bus station, and got on a little orange bus for a 1 1/2 hour ride up into the mountains, through the jungles, it was very beautiful. there was a moment of panic when we arrived in mae sot at night without our hostel address and unable to communicate with anyone, but after some hand gesturing we were able to convey that we were headed to the clinic, and everything worked out. our hostel is great and run by a really nice lady - running water, a pseudo-shower, and a fair number of mosquitoes, geckos and mosquitoes. but our bed nets work great. and today we got bikes to scoot around mae sot in. mae sot is a cute town, and we were quickly directed to places like borderline cafe, the local hangout for NGOs, expats, and activist types :) this morning was our first day at the clinic, it was pretty overwhelming. eth war gave us a tour of the medical village and then, a la immersion therapy, just stuck us in different departments - yumi was in labor and delivery, i was in outpatient pediatrics. its unbelievably sad, and the language barrier is wicked frustrating - we have found that even our little thai phrasebooks are useless, as everyone is speaking one of the three burmese dialects. so we're not sure what we'll be assigned to do yet, but we're meeting with dr. cynthia tomorrow morning.
alright, off to dinner. we'll write more later, and figure out how to attach photos

much love from mae sot
annie and yumi