Lao -> Thailand (the abridged version)

Since I've fallen so far behind, and have been relatively stationary the last two months, I will do a gloss of the last two months, so i can be caught up when i hit the road again in a few days.
-Took a bus from Luang Probang to Vientiane on the 17th reasonably uneventful ride, sat next to a University student studying English business in Vientiane, had some interesting conversation, but interestingly he didn't really warm up to me until the bus passed Vang Vieng, and he asked me if i had been, to which i said no: "if i wanted to be a drunken asshole floating down a river, i would have stayed at home." After that, the conversation really flowed, once he realized i was not one of the swarm of disrespectful westerners that descend on the country every year.
-arriving in Vientiane around 11 at night, i was worried I'd have trouble finding a guest house. Wound up sharing a double room with a girl from Belgium, who had come in on the same bus as me.
-the next day met a great Japanese dude, named Toshi. hung out with him for the next couple of days.
-Ran some errands, bought three cartons of Cigarettes,  because they're much cheaper in lao, i could get a carton for half the cost of a Thai pack.
-we all were there to sort out thai visas, so we shared a tuk tuk down to the thai immigration office. we got there around 8:30, there was already a large line of people ahead of us, I think i was number 128 in the queue to hand in my passport and paperwork. after you hand in yr paperwork and stuff, you have to go to another window to pay for your visa, they only took Baht, so i had to run across the street, find an illegal money changer and negotiate the rate, i wound up getting 1000 Baht for $40 about $7 more then its worth, but i had no choice.
-had to wait until two the next day to pick up my passport and visa.
-the next day, picked up the visa, went to the guest house, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the public bus station, where there was a bus that would take me to Nong Khai for 10,000 Kip ($1.20) unfortunately the 3:30 bus which i had planned to take was already sold out, so i had to wait three hours for the next one. i had already changed most of my money to baht, so didn't really have any way to kill time, plus i was lugging my stuff around. bought a huge baguette for 5,000 kip and my last beer lao. Shrugged off the tons of dudes offering to drive me to the border in their trucks for exorbitant rates.
-On the bus, sat with the coach of the Lao national running team, they were headed to Bangkok for a competition.
-Also on the bus, the only other Falongs, was a French Canadian couple, the first dude i've met with a beard bigger then mine.
-at the border, was charged by the Lao gov't 9,000 kip for overtime, because we came across so late, luckly i had exactly 9000 kip left. also had to put my bags through an x-ray next to an intimidating sign about the death penalty for drugs... oddly though, when i picked up my bag from the fancy one way glass walled enclosure, i noticed there was no one actually watching the bags going through the x-ray, but two cops making sure you put yr bag through it. The good ol' empty tower.
-teamed up with the canadians to find a guest house, he had a good map, and we decided rather then shelling out for a tuk tuk we could walk and find a suitable guest house.
-after an hour of walking wound up finding a pretty shitty but cheap place on the Mekong river.
-got some dinner on the river.
-the next day i went for a stroll, wound up finding a great Morlam record stand, spent a lot of time there, listening to music and talking sans mutual language with the guy that ran the stand.
-the day after that went for a stroll through the market and along the river, noticed a man with a Phin on his back playing Guitar to some of the workers for the Vietnamese restaurant/ chopstick factory. Ran back to my guest house and grabbed the recorder, spent an hour recording Mr. Samak Sewarak (recordings on Earsphere) bought him a beer and gave him some cash, had a great time. saw him riding around town yesterday actually, got a big smile and a thumbs up.
-That night was coming back after scrounging up some dinner, there were a bunch of Thai skateboarders skating and drinking by my guesthouse.
-one of them said hi as i passed so i stopped and chatted for a while, wound up spending most of the night drinking and chilling with them.
-went to the market to negotiate with this guy who had a big stack of Morlam 45s and had refused to come down in price the previous day. he wanted 200 B per record (roughly $7 for 7 inches which i was unsure of the content, he insisted it was old morlam) wound up spending two hours going through all the record and pulling out the one in the best shape, if i was going to throw down i might as well get the cleanest ones, wound up convincing him, after he made a phone call, to sell me 10 for 1,500 B, so $5 a record. 
-hung with the skater kids again that evening.
-the next day, chilled with them again, figuring that i'd leave Nong Khai the next day. this time they had brought down some speakers, and i provided some music while they skated. one of the skaters, who had not been there the previous day, Ali, was hanging out with his girlfriend and offered to give me a ride to their bar, 60 Station. i said sure, and went back to the bar with them, where i met David, a Swedish wack job who had been staying with them for a while already, and Tom, a super chill Thai kid around my age covered in tattoos.
-I immediately took to Tom, Ali and Breeze (Ali's girlfreind), so when they  offered to let me stay there in the room upstairs for free i jumped at the opportunity, and the next morning moved out of my guesthouse and schlepped my shit down to their bar.
-stayed at the bar until the beginning of may, helped out around the bar, painted a mural on the back wall, did some decoration and painted the sign outside.
-Had a great time staying at the bar, we cooked food together most nights, or Breeze went and picked up food, or occasionally when Breeze wasn't around Ali's wife would bring food over.
-Spent a lot of time chilling at the bar, meeting the various people who came through. also did some trips with the kids from the bar, we went to the buddha park (pictures forthcoming) and drove down to Udon, Went on some fishing trips, etc.
-While i was staying at the bar, one of the regulars came by with a guy i hadn't met before, but who worked for the middle school in town, he said they desperately needed a science teacher and asked if i would be capable to do so. i said i probably would be but would have to think about whether or not i wanted to do that, not being one to jump into things, esp. long term commitments.
-After a day of thinking about it i decided i might as well go interview. called peter and set it up
-got my resume together, and headed down to the school the next day.
-it was a confusing interview, with out much mutual comprehension, but they gave me the job.
-i went into the school a quite a few times before classes started for meetings or to get information on the curriculum i was supposed to be teaching, but everytime i went in, I sat around for a few hours and nothing happened.
-in the meantime, waiting for school to start, i went out and bought a bicycle, and went searching for a place to rent.
-I wanted my own place certainly if i intended to stay, but also i was becoming embroiled in drama at sixty station, I tried my hardest not to get involved, knowing how these things work in small towns, but by proximity alone i found myself playing a roll i didn't want to play.
-Moved into the house on the tenth,  had a small gathering of freinds over, drank a bottle of "Obama" whiskey, and pretty quickly, upset the landlady,  a pretty uptight woman from the states, making too much noise too late.
-The house is a old wooden two bedroom on stilts, with high ceilings, a big bathroom, skylights, and surrounded by a quiet and beautiful garden. I'm sharing it with an American kid a little younger then me, who's been living here for a while, Sam.
-spent the next couple of days getting stuff for the house and finding clothes for work. Bought a pair of dress pants for $7 at Tesco, and found some nice shirts at the sunday second hand market for a dollar a pop.
-The Twelth was my birthday, and also supposedly the day we'd actually have the long promised meeting at the school. went to the school around 2 sat around for a while, no one else was there, so i left. Went back to the house, to meet up with Breeze, to buy party supplies and set up at Sixty station, but it started to rain really hard, and there was drama between breeze and ali, so Breeze, Sam and I chilled at the house for a couple hours til the rain slowed a bit and we went to the store.
-A bunch of people were supposed to come by Sixty and we intended to have the party there, but no one came out because of the rain. so we wound up going to the strip of girly bars where everyone hangs out, once the rain had stopped, there i met up with all pretty much all of the people i know here, and proceeded to get mao mak (thai for very drunk). at one point i punched Sam in the side of the head, and he socked me in the face, partially breaking my nose. Also among the events of the evening Breeze kissed Sam, to get back at Ali for something that happened the previous night.  two bottles of whiskey and an uncountable number of free beers later i headed home, and slept like a rock.
more soon.