We all sat out with flags (we couldn't take photos) and watched his bus drive by us really fast, and then I snuck in the secure area to watch students give him a tour of the museum, which was really just me walking around to the back entrance... got to love Thai security. Here's a picture of him and his signature in a book...
Since we last "spoke", a lot of
things have changed. I am no longer a Kindergarten teacher in Chiang Mai. Actually, I don’t even live in Chiang Mai anymore. I finished (almost) my contract with PRC, packed up all my things, and said goodbye to the last year of my life. Once
on my own, I went to Bangkok for two nights before departing Thailand. The first night, being completely overwhelmed with heat, having two bags probably weighing the same as me, and being an overall mess, I settled to take a room to myself for 500 baht (usually I like to keep it to 200), and luckily met a nice Canadian girl also looking to take a room for one night, so we shacked up together. Luckily for us, it was one small room, with a large bed to share. Gotta love traveling strangers.
I met up with Dan and spent the next night at his place, waking up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport. The flight was easy enough, and I landed in Hanoi, Vietnam, where I took the public bus one hour (for 30 cents) into the heart of Hanoi, met a nice guy who helped me buy a map, SIM card, and get a cheap taxi ride to the Thai Embassy to get my new visa in order.
Then, an old friend from Chiang Mai picked me up. Angie, who taught with us for the first school term, quit PRC, traveled all
over Thailand and Laos, went home for Christmas, and resettled in Hanoi to resume teaching. She let me crash at her house, which was great, and we spent a whole week doing absolutely nothing at all. It was perfect.
We decided to do nothing, take no great photos, go to no huge tourist sights
and watch movies at the cinema. Here are a couple examples of our "Hanoi: The Collection" photos...
Following my stint in Hanoi, I flew back to Bangkok, spent a night in the city, and the next morning met up with Morgan, an old friend from the Summer Camp last year, and we headed off to Asian University for another 2 months of summer camp.
Now it’s into my second week of teaching here, and it’s completely different from last time. Last year I taught level 2 kids, at a beginner’s stage of English, and this year I’m teaching the highest level, level 9. These kid’s are amazing at English, tons of fun, and generally older than the rest. 
On top of having the highest level class, I’m also the Head Teacher, meaning I’m in charge of a staff of 10 other teachers (sort of) and they come to me with all their problems (during and after school hours).The camp has been going great, and we just went to the zoo, had our first Camp Idol performances, which were fun, and now I’m trying to get my kids enthusiastic about debates, and public speaking.
I’ll be forcing them to teach the class something, teach and English class to the lower level kids, do some class debates, and projects with presentations, etc. It’s all about getting them comfortable speaking, and having fun while doing things in English. Like any kid at that age though, they may be great at English, but they’d rather just stick to Thai, and hang out, sleep and be “too cool”. The life of a teacher…
These pics are all from out "outing" to the local "open zoo" which was actually pretty cool (sad conditions for the animals, though)
Other than those changes, nothing too big has happened. It was sad to leave my friends in Chiang Mai, as some are now in the states, some still in Thailand, some moving to new countries soon… everyone is spread out, but guess that’s just how life abroad pans out to be; nothing too permanent. Hopefully things are going OK back at home, and with the recession. Haven’t heard from too many of you in a while, so feel free to email, or get a Skype account and we can chat when we’re both on.
<--- The Badasses
(For the record, I had put in many more photos, and it was looking good, but somehow they all started deleting each other and the formatting got screwed, so this is what I salvaged...)
