Learning to Cook

Wow, I can't believe the last time I posted was August 18!!  I apologize to those of you actually reading this :)

I am beginning to count down the days left in the semester because when it is finished I will be off on another adventure.  We only have 22 school days!! I am still in shock at how quickly this semester has been going.  On October 2, I will be flying to Borneo, Malaysia with Emily and Nathan.  We will be doing some jungle exploring for a few days... I am praying we don't see any snakes!  On October 9, Emily and I will be making our way to the Philippines where we will stay until the 20th.  Nathan is heading back to BKK on the 9th because he has made the wonderful decision to stay in Thailand!  He got a job with a company in Bangkok so will be moving to the city.  After traveling I will be back in Bangkok for one day and then on October 22nd I will be returning to Minnesota 368 days after I left.  I am getting pretty excited :)

Recently Emily and I took a cooking in the Silom district of Bangkok.  We have been wanting to take one since getting here and it was her birthday so we had the perfect reason to finally do it.  This is low season in the tourist industry so we ended up being the only two in the class.  We were able to make a lot of dishes and got a recipe book so with any luck I will be able to somewhat replicate the meals at home.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

The beautiful herbs and spices tray before cooking.

First up was the famous Thai curry Tom yum goon or spicy shrimp soup.  It is one of my favorites!

Next up was pad thai gai or fried noodles with chicken.  Aroi mak mak... very very delicious.

Kang Khiao wan gai was next... green curry with chicken.

     

Laab gai.  Laab is a dish from Northeastern Thailand with minced meat, onion, rice powder, and a slew of spices.

For dessert we had rubies in coconut milk.  Thai people love coconut milk!

So, there you have it.  Hopefully I learned a little bit about cooking Thai food so I can have dinner parties with some of you wonderful people soon!

Names and Ladyboys

Every Thai person has a nickname. At first I thought it was kind of strange, but after realizing the length of their full names I was very grateful! This week have to do a little bit of grading and recording for an upcoming school inspection. Here is a little taste of the names I have to fit into a very small space on a chart.

Chotika Tantiphiwatthanasakul

Phuritchaya Phongthawornphinyo

Anaphat Lertchalernwongsa

Natnihcha Tangpihrihyahwit

Aratchaporn Suishai

Patnaree Saksakunkaileart

As you can tell writing all these names becomes daunting very quickly!! On another note, for a recent school celebration there was dancing at morning assembly. We have learned that with any special occasion comes some sort of performing, usually dancing but every once in awhile singing. The most recent performance combined dancing and ladyboys. Ladyboys are a very noticeable part of Thai culture and it is often astonishing how many men can make themselves look like women. Our students are required to wear uniforms everyday so they may not dress like ladyboys, but during this performance it was allowed. See if you can find the ladyboys.

Surprisingly enough the girl in the black is not really a girl.

The people are hard to see, but the two girls in front are in fact boys.

Happy Birthday Queen Sirikit

Hello all! It is Monday morning here and I am fresh off of yet another four day weekend. I am very sad to report though that it was our last day off of school until the end of the semester. There are only seven weeks left in the semester which is very hard to believe, but I must say I am getting a little burnt out on the teaching gig. I know the next few weeks are going to fly by though.

This time the long weekend was in celebration of Queen Sirikit's 78th birthday. Her birthday was on Thursday and the government announced that Friday would also be considered a holiday. Woohoo! Nathan and I decided to take a little road trip with our Thai friend, Jade. One of Jade's friends from university was getting married and Jade invited us along, basically we created the Thai version of Wedding Crashers. The wedding was in an area named Bankrut which we had never heard of, but it was beautiful! The ocean looked untouched and was crystal clear. We arrived in Bankrut just in time for the reception and dinner to begin. I mean literally just in time. We changed clothes in the car and I went without any make-up on. Yikes! We found our table and sat with a few of Jade's other friends from university. The dinner was served in true Thai fashion meaning everything is served family style. There were about ten dishes including fish intestine soup, pigs stomach, and century eggs. If you are unfamiliar with century eggs I suggest looking it up on Wikipedia. I will just say we steered clear of a few dishes. Thai weddings don't have the big dance American ones do, but there is karaoke. Of course! A few people sang and the bride and groom gave a small speech, but other than that there was not a whole lot going on. The wedding was very beautiful, but because it was dark outside I didn't get any good pictures, below is the welcoming stand and guest book though!

Friday morning I woke up early and enjoyed sometime by myself just hanging out and reading on the beach. One of the workers at our hotel brought me out a nice chair and umbrella...usually for the sun but during these months for the rain. It was drizzling slightly, but the water was unbelievable! I think it was the epitome of relaxation.

Once the boys started moving for the day we visited a temple overlooking the ocean with a few of Jade's friends. We have become so used to seeing temples that their glamor has worn off, but this one seemed different from many others. It wasn't nearly as gaudy and had some great views.

The large Buddha statue at the base of the temple.

Jade and friends making merit at the base of the Buddha statue from above.

A woman praying at one of the small temples.

The stairs leading up to the main temple.

Tada... It's pretty :)

No shoes allowed in the temple.

The view.

After the temple trip we were back in the car for the two hour trip to Hua Hin. Hua Hin is a major beach destination for Thai people because it is only about 2.5 hours from Bangkok. The city has everything from very fancy to resorts to less than beautiful dorm rooms in the city. We spent a little time hanging out on the beach, but the rain season once again kept us from getting any sort of a tan. On Friday night we went to the local night market where we were immediately claustrophobic from the small street and large crowd. We ended up getting a schwarma (kebab) and quickly relocating to a less busy part of town. On Saturday morning Jade took us to this restaurant that supposedly had really great cheesecake. I must say though, Western countries are much much better at making cheesecake. The restaurant had a garden feel and overlooked the ocean. We also shared a really chocolaty pudding that was delicious! After that we began the drive back to Bangkok, but made a few stops along the way. We stopped at an outlet mall and at a palace built by the sixth King of Thailand (they are now on their ninth King). Marukhathaiyawan Palace (meaning Palace of Hope and Love) is built on a massive estate and is full of bright colors.

Nate and Jade 'hiding' in the mangrove forest.

Beachin' it

Last weekend we headed back to the beach and luckily had plenty of sun this time! About a month and a half ago we met two guys our age living in Bangphli, Marc and Tom. They work for a kite boarding company and live only about 10 minutes from us. This weekend they invited us to stay at their boss' house on the ocean in Pattaya. We left Saturday morning and after a short little drive were enjoying a very sunny day on the beach. Marc and Tom were hoping to kite board, but found the wind wasn't quite strong enough. After having a little snack at a restaurant on the beach we made our way to the house we would be staying at. Let me just say I was pleasantly surprised with our weekend home. It was beautiful! The house was right on the ocean, had a pool, spiral staircases, and a lot of windows! Let's just say I was in heaven and would have gladly stayed longer than one night :)

Phuket- Round 2

I don't know what I am going to do when I can't just hop on a cheap flight or an even cheaper overnight bus to one of the most beautiful tropical islands in the world. I got to spend four days with a close group of nine friends on Phuket celebrating yet another Buddhist holiday. We returned to Jenny's father's home on the island for a completely relaxing stay full of great food and unfortunately rain. The rain didn't stop us from doing too much, but I do wish we could have used the pool more. I mean look how beautiful it is...

We spent plenty of time watching movies, playing games, and cooking American meals (this is a fairly big treat). We went to Patong beach one day for shopping one day and I think everyone walked away with some goodies. Patong is among the touristy beaches in all of Thailand so you can usually find things geared towards Westerners. I was on a mission for a swimsuit and because Thai women don't wear them it has been hard to find one! I finally found one in Patong, but in true Thai style it was from a street vendor where there is no such thing as a changing room. How do you try on a swimsuit without a dressing room you ask? Just look below...

After this little extravaganza I treated myself to a Thai massage with a few of the girls. You really can't be a one hour massage for only $6!

I had a wonderful weekend thanks to these eight wonderful friends!

Embracing BKK

Over the last few weeks and weekends we have truly embraced Bangkok. The once overwhelming city has very much become comfortable and do I dare even say homey. We have been to many new restaurants, clubs, and even malls. I thought we had already explored all the shopping, but undoubtedly there was more. Bangkok is such a big city that even after being here a year I think I will only scratch its surface.

Here is a little bit of what we have been up to. Two weekends ago our Thai friend had a pool party at the beautiful new duplex she moved into. We got to meet a lot of new people and spend the evening around an aesthetically pleasing pool.

Last weekend we went to an event at a tapas bar on Silom Soi 4, right in the heart of Bangkok and where the redshirts were camped out for many weeks. Needless to say, we are very happy they are no longer there. The bar had a cover charge to get in, but with it we got an array of Spanish food. It was among the most delicious meals I have had here. We had everything from croquetas to seafood paella. After we feasted our friend was being the DJ on the next level up. We danced a little and then soon headed across the street to another tapas bar.

Everything has been rolling along nicely at school. I think the schedule is FINALLY figured out (half-way through the semester!) and it is already midterm. I am giving a few exams this week and a few next week. I even have to give them to the first and second grade class. That just seems a little silly to me, but it has to be done. I am really missing teaching my second graders, but now I am just extra excited for my one class period a week with them. I think they get excited too :)

We have Monday and Tuesday off school because of the Buddhist Lent holiday so I am headed to Phuket. About nine of us are going to the island to stay at my friend Jenny's fathers home. I can't wait!! We just have to pray it won't be rainy!

Lunch Time

Nathan and I have a newly formed fan club of fourth grade girls. There are two girls who try very hard to sit with us every single day at lunch and they even occasionally clean-up our trays! They have just the greatest time trying to interact with us through very broken English. Most of the time is spent having them teach us new Thai words and talking about what we are eating. One of the girls, Pang, is very into art and has been coming with a new drawing for us several times a week. So, here are a few of her creations. The top one is two children wai-ing a monk and the bottom one is of fairies. I think I am going to have quite the collection of drawings by the end of the semester.

Kalasin and Oil's Birthday

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!! My schedule has recently changed dramatically at school and I am no longer teaching P1 or P2 math. What used to take up 14 periods on my schedule no longer exists, instead I am teaching P3 and P5 English. So far I am embracing my new schedule and it has been a very nice change in pace. My classes seems a little easier and I am really enjoying teaching the older students. These changes have led to a pretty easy Friday for me with only three classes. Yippee!

Here a few pictures of my trip to Kalasin and a recent celebration for Teacher Oil's birthday.

Nathan, Dena, myself, Lizzie, and Rochelle all squeezed on a songtaew bench.

The group post tubing.

After our 4th of July BBQ! It was a lot of work to get everyone to

gather in the scorching sun for this pic.

Out to dinner with fellow teachers for Oil's birthday.

Oil, Emily, Nathan, Mitchie, me, and Dr. Absorn

Celebrating America.... Thai Style

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate back home. It is always filled with sun, cabins, boats, and lots of great friends. This year was a little different, but we managed to still have a wonderful weekend and thanks to Thailand there was no shortage of sun... or fun.

After school on Friday we made our way into to Bangkok to catch a bus to Kalasin. Where is Kalasin you ask? Well, it is about eight hours from BKK in northeastern Thailand. Myself and six friends were on our way to visit Reuven and Dena who teach there. It was a long journey with overnight buses on Friday and Sunday, but it was well worth it! Our bus got to Kalasin at about 2:15 am on Saturday so one Dena and Reuven picked us up from the bus station we were all quickly asleep in their apartments. Even though they are in rural Thailand there apartments were nicer than mine! They have TV and air-conditioning... can we say jealous?

We woke up on Saturday morning fully refreshed and ready for our agenda-heavy day! A songtaew (trunk with benches in the back, a very common form of transportation) picked all of us up to go to a nearby dam for a day of tubing and sun. I think everyone there was a little overwhelmed when 11 farangs showed up!! The service at the lake was great and the food was even better, very cheap too. We each paid around $9 for a tube, lawn chair, tables, beer, fried chicken and sticky rice. After we had had enough sun we packed up and our driver brought us back to town. Next up was a dinner and karaoke evening with Dena's and Reuven's fellow teachers.

The Thai teachers in Kalasin were unbelievably nice and welcoming! They pre-ordered an enormous meal for us on Saturday evening and a local restaurant they often frequent. After eating som-tom (spicy papaya salad), pad-thai, cashew chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and boiled fish it was time to move into the karaoke part of the evening. Believe it or not this was my first karaoke experience in Asia. There was a constant mix of Thai and English songs and I think everyone sang at some point throughout the night. After having our fair share of singing we moved on to a local club called MV. It was among the stranger clubs I have been to in Thailand. It was completely uninfluenced by Western culture which is rare to find in BKK and on the islands. We got there when the band was taking a break so the 'dancers' took the stage. Dancers is in quotes because they were horrible!! They were entirely unenthusiastic and unsynchronized. It clearly wasn't a job any of them were excited about doing. All in all the night was a lot of fun and I got to experience a whole new side of Thailand.

On Sunday afternoon one of the Thai teachers was gracious enough to host a 4th of July BBQ for all of us foreigners. It felt so much like home and the summer BBQ's we get to have. A few things were missing though including hamburger and hot dog buns, pickles, beef for the hamburgers (we used pork, still good!), and maybe a few fireworks. One of the teachers even bought us all a table-runner size cloth hand woven in Issan, the province.

I missed everyone from home on the 4th, but I think I celebrated in a pretty unique way! I didn't take any pictures over the weekend, but will post some once my friends put them online.

A gem of a fruit

I just spent far too long revamping my blog. It is always amazing how long you can sit and tediously click away on your computer, not amazing in a good way though. Oh well, I think the look is pretty cute. I know my mom will like the hummingbirds on the side too :) I want to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day and my grandma a happy birthday tomorrow!

Now onto this gem of a fruit my title is referring to. Rambutan. It has changed my life. I simply love it. I had no idea this fruit even existed before coming to Thailand and now I am afraid I won't be able to find it anywhere in the states. During rambutan season a kilo only cost about 15 baht. That is about 50 cents... so not only is the fruit delicious but it is crazy cheap. Double bonus. cheap.

Here are a few pictures depicting the steps on eating rambutan, because let's be honest the first time I ate one I had no idea what I was doing.

Step 1: Laugh about the obscurity of a rambutan.

Step 2: Crack it open and try to avoid being sprayed by juice.

Step 3: Eat around the seed and avoid eating wood chips. YUM!

Wai Kru Day!

Every Thai school celebrated Wai Kru day last Thursday which is a day for students to honor and give thanks to their teachers. There were two ceremonies, one for pratom (grades 1 to 6) and one for mattyom (grades 7 to 12). Each student brings a bouquet of flowers, candles, and incense to be given to teachers as a symbol of appreciation. The bouquets they bring are similar to ones given as offerings at Buddhist temples. This ceremony happens at the beginning of every school year to bring luck and happiness to teachers and students. Thanks for taking great pictures Teacher Oil!

Pratom 1 regular program students all lined up with their flowers.

Nathan, Emily, Lynn (a Chinese teacher), and myself receiving flowers from students. Please notice the mask on the boy giving me flowers :)

Funny happenings

I have had several funny experiences with students this week that really need to be shared. Several times I have been in class teaching and literally just can't stop laughing at the things the kids say and do. For some reason this has happened several times this week.

The funniest experience was with a boy named Mon(moan) in P6. This kid is notorious for being incredibly strange but a real sweetheart. His claim to fame among the American teachers is his need to pet our arm hair while he works. He will be very off task, but as soon as he can pet our arms he will do his work. Like I said, very strange. Well yesterday he took it to a whole new level when he would not let go of my arm! He sat in his chair kissing my entire arm while saying "I love you" for nearly the entire class period. So I spent the entire class laughing and trying to escape his strong grasp and not really teaching. After class I quickly ran to the bathroom to wash my arm with soap.

As I mentioned in the last post, some of the first grade boys are seriously impossible to get settled down but they are really dang cute. There is one boy who started the semester thinking his nickname was Ferd, but as classes passed his name became First. I am still not sure what exactly happened there, but he now knows his name is First. He still gets a little confused sometimes though and will end up writing Fird. Anyway, today we were doing a math worksheet which he knew all the answers to, but he kept writing the wrong numbers just to see my reaction. He honestly thought it was the funniest thing in the entire world. I think he was hamming it up because he saw I just couldn't stop laughing either.

I also just had a second grader ask me if I had a baby and she was shocked when I said no. It sparked a classroom discussion in Thai and I would really have loved to know what they were saying. This happened moments before there was an announcement over the loud speaker that the Princess was coming to Bangplee and school would be ending earlier so the vans could avoid the traffic jams. Of course I didn't know what was being said so the homeroom teacher translated, "Teacher, Princess, Bangplee." The kids were beyond excited, but at this point I didn't know school was being let out early. I just kept on teaching and after ten minutes the teacher came back and said it was time to go home. These situations just make you love Thailand :)

Is it really June already??

My second semester is well underway as it is already week five of a 20 week semester. I frequently find myself wondering how that has already happened? Time going quickly is a good thing, but don't get me all wrong I am definitely counting down the four months until I return home. Part of me hopes time will fly by, but another very large part of me knows it will be very very sad to leave this country, my students and the wonderful people I have met here.

Now, let me get into the shenanigans this semester has cooked up for me. Satit Bangna was undergone a lot of changes this semester including the departure of four American teachers. Emily, Nathan and myself are currently the only three American teachers so we got a heavier load of classes this semester, but so far we have been able to handle it. My biggest challenge so far has been teaching 80 minute long math periods to first graders. It is exhausting and by the end of 80 minutes I find myself a little defeated. Those kids have much more energy than I do! Expecting six year olds to sit for 80 minutes is just outrageous especially considering about four of them have no idea what English even is. The girls in the class are little angels, but the boys are a handful! As I have mentioned many times before though it is so hard to stay upset with these kids though because they are just so cute. I will have to take some pictures of the new first graders soon! They have some good nicknames too my favorite is a girl named Mameow. It cracks me up every time.

My first graders from last semester have now graduated to the second grade and something happened to these children over the summer because they are wonderful little students this year! I have always been slightly obsessed with the kids because they are great at English and Math and all have very strong personalities. I get to teach them eight periods a week and they are definitely some of my favorite classes! They will be without a doubt very hard to leave.

Another very very exciting thing this semester is that my office has air conditioning (air con as the Thais say) and so does every classroom I teach in! It sounds so simple, but this makes my day about 10 points better.

This week all Thai schools have what is called Wai Kru day. Kru means teacher and a wai (why) is the bow Thais give each other as a form of respect. Thai students are expected to wai to their teachers every morning and at the end of each day. So wai kru day is a day for students to honor teachers. We have been told students give teachers flowers, but I will let you know more after it happens on Thursday.

The weekends have been really fun lately and the protests in Bangkok have stopped so it is now safe to return! Thank goodness, I was getting worried about not being able to go into the city this semester.

Hope everyone is well at home! My tentative return date to America is set for Oct. 2oth. Just in time for Halloween festivities :)

Vomiting Vietnamese

Vietnam has an abundance of motorbikes weaving through traffic and very few cars. This lack of cars means that people get motion sickness easily. I mean very easily. People, mostly women, throw up everywhere! I'm talking vomiting in cars, buses, bus stations, airplanes, and ferries. It was astonishing, confusing, and disgusting all at the same time.

The first time we encountered a vomiting woman we were in a taxi that had scrunched 11 people into a seven person car. Keep in mind we don't know these people and they don't know each other so everyone's personal space was more than invaded. Nathan, Emily, Mark, and I had to squish in the back of an SUV onto two seats. We were driving along and my head was basically between the people in front of me who had wedged four people into three seats including a very elderly grandmother. All of sudden people begin talking in Vietnamese and I see a plastic bag handed to the lady in front of me. She then proceeded to vomit into the bag. I would have to say she did it politely and soundlessly, but nonetheless she puked in a car where everyone is already too close. She held onto the bag for a while before reaching over another woman and tossing the bag out the window. This was our first experience with vomit, but not nearly the last!

We saw a woman step off our bus and walk right over to a wall in the parking lot to throw up, a woman on our airplane was throwing up, a woman on the bus we took to the plane was throwing up, and I am sure there were a few more encounters. We quickly began to notice that every bus and plane seat had plastic bags tucked in the backs of the chairs. It was then that we realized seeing so many vomiting women was not just a coincidence. After talking with a few other travelers we learned that Vietnamese people are not used to riding in cars, buses, and planes because motorbikes are the main form of transportation. Apparently they never get used to sitting inside a moving vehicle; therefore, they get sick frequently! Sorry if this post irks your stomach a little, but we all thought it was a funny phenomenon.

Cambodia

You know you are in Cambodia when everything costs $1 and there is no need to carry kip, the local currency. I am still trying to hash out my feelings on Cambodia. We got scammed into over-paying for a visa into Cambodia by Thai people when crossing the border and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Seeing Angkor Wat made the trip to Cambodia worth every penny, but the country as a whole in extremely third world.

If you are unfamiliar with Angkor Wat, like I was before coming to SE Asia, Google it! There is no way to describe the ruins without using flowery language: astonishing, jaw-dropping, amazing, unbelievable, awe-inspiring... I think you get the picture. Nathan, his dad, Mark and I spent two grueling days in the sun while trekking through the never ending array of ruins. They never stopped. I have seen ruins before in Mexico, Greece and Italy but nothing can compare to this. The temples were built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD and I cannot begin to grasp how it was possible. The ruins are sprawled out over several kilometers of land making it impossible to see everything without a few days and a reliable tuk-tuk driver. We spent two full days at the ruins battling the heat by drinking a ton of water, knowing our hotel had a pool, and anticipating the 50 cent beers on Pub Street in Siem Reap.

One of the smaller temples within the complex

We got a little too ambitious our first day at the temples and decided to spend about 8 hours touring. Lets just say we learned our lesson and toned it down a bit the second day. The heat was astonishing and left us all feeling a bit crazy and tired at the end of the day. The scene around the temples was fairly chaotic and extremely third world. As soon as a tuk-tuk pulled up women and children would begin yelling at you to buy something for $1. Everything was $1. It was funny at first to see how aggressively they sold things, but by the end of the trip it became rude and annoying. We understood how poor their living conditions were, but the people's selling tactics really turned us away from buying things.

"Lady, you buy cold drink. Lady, you buy pineapple. One dollar only."

Our evenings in Siem Reap were fun because among the poverty in the city there is Pub Street, solely visited by tourists. The street has many restaurants with cheap food and almost all have beer for 50 cents all night. One of the stranger things about the country was the complete disregard for its own currency. Most restaurants listed their prices in dollars, gave the bill in dollars, and didn't really want to accept kip. One night Mark and I set out to find an ATM and after going to about 4 different ones we finally found one that worked!! The ATM's don't even given you kip but dollars. I thought that was hard to believe.

If ever in SE Asia seeing Angkor Wat is a must! Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit any other cities in Cambodia but I still have lots of stories from just this one place. I didn't even get into the transportation...some of those stories should be saved until I get home :)

Round 2 of teaching

It is almost impossible to believe but the two month summer vacation has ended. Children are returning to school and activities are beginning! I am writing this blog to the constant beat of drums, tambourines, singing, and yelling as school has hired a company to entertain the pratom children for a day. Not having class on the second day of school is pretty nice, but the noise is becoming a bit obnoxious.

School is picking up right where it left off with only a few exceptions. The main difference for me is we only have three Americans here now, as four have moved on to either more traveling or have returned home. Emily, Nathan, and I will miss them dearly! I will be teaching 1st and 2nd grade math again this semester and I can't wait to meet my new students. The 1st grade class is coming up from the kindergarten aka anuban and rumor has it they are good at English and well behaved. I am teaching English to the 7th and 8th grade classes in the English Program, but combined it is only six students! I am also teaching English conversation to every class in EP, but that is only one time a week. My classes should be fun this semester and much more relaxed now that I know how to handle the students and their ability levels.

As many of you know Bangkok has been in the news frequently over the last few weeks. I have gotten several emails from people asking where I am located and if I am safe. I am safe! Our school is about 30 minutes outside of BKK and entirely unaffected by the protests; however, my social life is entirely affected! We are ready for the protests to be over so we can go to Bangkok on the weekends. It has been sad to see the impact this is having on the Thai economy and how people view the country! Hopefully the situation will be under control soon.

I am planning on highlighting my favorite places from traveling as the semester continues so stay tuned for that!

Let the traveling continue...

Hi all! I have had an amazing summer vacation so far and the best part is that it's not even over yet. We got back from our Vietnam and Laos trip on April 19th finding ourselves completely exhausted and overwhelmed with everything we had just accomplished. I had to see Mark off to the airport on the night of the 19th which was difficult, but I am very lucky he was able to join me in Asia for so long. This week has been rather relaxed...almost too relaxed! I taught summer school for two days, have done oodles of laundry, and caught up on sleep. I am pleased to say that my next adventure begins on Sunday when Emily and I fly to Penang, Malaysia. I can't say I ever thought I would go to Malaysia, but I am very excited. We are planning on seeing the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and making our way down to Singapore. I return to school on May 10th for my last semester teaching in Thailand. Time sure does fly! Hope everyone is well and enjoying spring in the US.

Here a few of my favorite pictures from our trips:

Angkor Wat

Siem Reap, Cambodia

A truly amazing place.

Akha Hill Tribe

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Emily and I got to wear the traditional Akha clothing. How do we look?

Tubing

Vang Vieng, Laos

This was a giant playground of tubing and zip-lining!

Motorbike Tour

Dalat, Vietnam

We took a full-day tour around the beautiful mountainous city of Dalat.

This was among my favorite days!

Here I come Southeast Asia

One of the reasons I signed up to teach English for one year was the enticing two month summer break. Well, that break is here and tomorrow I will begin bee-bopping my around Southeast Asia. Mark is currently sitting in the Seoul airport and will arrive in BKK late tonight!! Woot woot! He will be here until April 20th and then starts a job on May 1st.

Here is a little glimpse into what I will be doing:

• This weekend Mark and I are going to Koh Samet, an island about 4 hours from Bangkok. He has never really been on a beach vacation so it should be a lot of fun! As my dad said, "You are going to turn him into a beach bum." That is very likely!
• March 15th-18th: We will be in Siem Reap, Cambodia with Nathan and his father. The main attraction there is Angkor Wat.
• March 18th - 24th: We will be in Northern Thailand in the Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces. Emily will join the four of us to do a morning hike up a mountain called Pu Chi Fa.
• March 24th - March 30th: Mark and I are going to Southern Thailand to spend some more time on the islands. I think we will go to the island of Koh Samui, but that could easily change depending on the advice of other travelers. Do a little google image search of Koh Samui and you may have to pinch yourself to make sure it's real!
• April 1st: Mark, Nathan, Emily and I are flying to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! This part of the trip is not well planned, because it is very difficult to know how long we will want to spend in each area. We hope to spend about 10 days in Vietnam though!
• Around April 10th we will begin making our way to Laos. The larger cities in Laos are Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Vang Vieng.
• April 20th Mark leaves :(

I don't have to return to school until about May 6th, so believe it or not this is not everything I will be seeing! There will likely be a return trip to Cambodia around the end of April.

I am not sure when the next chance I will have to update is so until next time I hope everyone is doing well back home! I have heard spring is in full swing (I have to admit I don't like spring in Minnesota). Hope you get a chance to check out the links above to see where I will be for the next month.

Meditation Retreat

As of March 3rd Satit Banga students are enjoying a much deserved summer vacation. The break isn't so much needed because of stressful schoolwork, not a lot is demanded from Thai students, but because the school year is so long! Each semester is about 20 weeks long and there are not a lot of days off. Apparently there are even fewer days off in the coming semester which I am not happy about.

To finish up the semester all Thai teachers were required to attend a two day meditation retreat. Being the curious Americans we are, five of us decided to tag along. The Thai teachers were shocked we wanted to go and tried to tell us politely that we should just stay home, but we were told we would learn from English speakers and hey, it was free. As we somewhat expected their was a breakdown in communication somewhere and the center had not prepared English lectures or speakers for us. When there was someone available to speak to us we did enjoy learning the practice of meditation and about the Buddhist religion. We learned how to do walking and sitting meditation, but are far from experts on the ability to clear our minds while practicing. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind of all thoughts, but I often found myself thinking about the most obscure things.

This retreat was a great way to spend more time getting to know the Thai's. They are often scared to speak with us because they are afraid their English is not up to par, but they really tried this weekend. Of course the language barrier leads to some fairly awkward conversations, but we have learned laughing and smiling can cure those. I think the funniest part of the retreat was the obsession the Thai women took in when the Americans were going to shower. Every Thai women showered before dinner and they could not figure out why we were not doing the same while we couldn't figure out why they didn't wait until before bed. "Teacher, when you shower," soon became the top question and conversation we had the rest of the night. It made for some good laughs.

Koh Si Chang - Round 2

Koh Si Chang is becoming one of my favorite places in Thailand. It is easy to get to and must be the least touristy of all the Thai islands. Emily, Nathan, and I spent the night of February 28th on the island, because we had Monday, March 1st off of school for the Buddhist holiday Makha Bucha. Not a bad way to bring in March.

Nathan and I had been to the island a few months back and used the same tuk-tuk driver throughout our stay. When we got to the island on the 28th we stopped a little store to stock up on a few waters and snacks, upon leaving the store we here a driver yelling the famous 'hello' Thai's love. I was slightly annoyed until I realized it was Shu, the same driver we had used during our last visit. He recognized us and knew we would be needing a driver for the weekend, so once again Shu became our personal driver.

We stayed at a new place called the Sawatdee Si Chang Resort. The workers, the view, and the room were among the nicest we have experienced. We are pretty sure that our tuk-tuk driver even told the workers to treat us like locals and not charge us the foreign price for the room.

The beach was packed due to the holiday weekend, and by beach I mean the restaurants hidden underneath umbrellas. The restaurants have delicious seafood dishes and for very cheap! You really can't go wrong! We spent an even amount of time between the sun and shade. It is amazing how hot and powerful the sun is here. Of course we all got a little burnt and were asked why when we returned to school on Tuesday. Thai people will never understand the attraction Westerner's have to tan skin.