Songkran

This is an event that's really hard to explain. Imagine this:

1) The hottest time of the year in South East Asia

2) Waterguns

3) Millions of people

That about sums it up.  Songkran is a festival for Thai New Year, which has turned into one of the biggest water fights in the world.  Guns, buckets, bottles, hoses... if it can shoot water, it's used. 
Traditionally people get in the back of their pickup trucks, driving around soaking people and other cars.  There are truck wars, wars with pedestrians, and anything you encounter along the way.  It also is a time of social drinking, so everyone has a beer and a smile.
We spent out Songkran in BKK, in the middle of the latest set of riots.  No problems on our fronts, but lots of military, a temporary closing of the tourist main street, some smoke in the distance, and remnants of burned charred busses.
We spent the afternoons fighting in the streets, and the evening fighting in other streets.  We climbed in strangers' trucks, dancing and throwing water (in heavy traffic, it hardly moved).  We we doused with buckets an buckets of water, met tons of people, and spent hours roaming the streets screaming "Sawasdee Bee Mai" or "Happy New Year".  
I have a couple pictures from the big night out, where we played on Silon (a big street).  This was jam-packed with people in every space on the street, the skytrain was above us, and big building hid any view of the sky.  It was the most "bangkok" scene I could think of.  
Jam-packed with jars and motos, people filled in every crevice on the sidewalks, the streets, the medians, and were up dancing on any surface.  Loud music screamed from every building and bar, and every truck driving through.

The white powder is Talcum powder, which is used usually as a sun repellent put on cheeks of farmers.  It is rubbed on your face by literally every person you walk by, sometimes a gentle touch, and sometimes an accidental smear.  It goes in your nose, eyes, and mouth... and does get a little old.  

All in all, Songkran is one of the most fun festivals I have ever been a part of.

The End and Beginning

So I know it’s been a while, and I apologize on that front… That said, I bet Shelley’s stealing most of the limelight these days (and Shell, you know what day it is… you said you’d get that baby out today, so you have about 19 more hours.First off, the King of Sweden came to visit our school, as he is a patron of all the scout troops in Thailand, and that was sort of interesting.  

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...)

The South

So lucky for me, we had a 4-day weekend, which happily turned into a 5-day weekend when I just didnt show up for work on Friday.  This turned out to be a wonderful idea, as I was able to run from school to the airport, fly to bangkok, take a bus to the train station, get a train, and overnight it to Trang, a city about 3 hours from the border of Malaysia, way in the South of Thailand. 

<---- Koh Lanta

Morgan, who you may have heard me talk about, seen pictures, heard of her infamous dancing skills, lives in Trang with her husband Job.  I went to see them, and also to go to Koh Lanta, a wonderfully peaceful and laid back island.

The journey itself took about 30 hours from my school to my hostel in Lanta.  But once we got there, saw the beach, rented bikes and m

et up with her friend who lives there... it was all worth it.  Koh Lanta is a backpacker island, still with the chilled-out atmosphere you come to love in Thailand.  During the days, you relax o

n the beach, read, eat, hang out, and at night the beaches become miniature bars, with tables, and large flat platforms set up for sitting and talking with friends.

Morgan's friend Lauren, lives on the island with her Fiance Kwan, who owns a Bamboo Tattoo shop, so we ended up hanging out at the tattoo shop, meeting all his clients (who are some really cool people from all over the world) and cooking food 

at his house, and gossiping about the ongoings of the island tourists who hook up with locals,

 and locals and locals, and tourists and tourists, etc.  Pretty interesting when its a small island, and everyone knows everyone's business.

We spent two nights on the island, then one night back in Trang, where Morgan and Job live. On sunday night we went to Job's village to have dinner with his family, who are more and more excited by how many bowls of rice you eat. I got to three.  They also found my dance moves to be insanely hilarious (they're horrendous) but they enjoyed it, and we all had dessert and laughed the night away.  The next day was spent lo

unging at Morgan's house, watching all the TV we could, before I had to train, bus, fly, drive back to my house up in Chiang Mai.  

All in all it was a great weekend, good to see Morgan (who worked the last summer camp and is my boss for the next summer camp). And meet her friends, husband's family, and island goers.  Makes me ready to be a backpacker again. Johanna and Dave, if you're reading. We need to plan a trip.

Other notes. School is almost over. Thank God. The king of Sweden came to our school, he's a patron of scout troupes? I dont know, but I saw him, and snuck into a tour they were leading him, so saw him up close, and the mayor of Chiang Mai, and a really high level security officer appointed by the King.

Other than that, same old, same old.

Gustaf

My Next Job

I applied for a job, check it out!

www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/a8go86CERHk

Pai Reggae Music Festival

This weekend was yet another spur of the moment trip... This time to the charming mountain town of Pai. We decided to do a last minute trip out there to go to the Reggae Festival.  

The drive is about 3.5 hours, with a stop or two to stretch out the ass, and is through some beautiful scenery.  You go up and over the mountains, so at the very top there are tons of pine trees and its cool and smells sort of like Tahoe.  We did the drive fine, sometimes though being bullied to the side road/dirt by the busses and vans and truck speeding by, as we are little 125cc bikes.  Even the real motorcycles sped by us.  The drive went well and when we got into town, we found some nice rooms and went directly to the Country Kitchen, our favorite place to eat in Pai.

After stuffing our faces, we head down the street to a bakery, and had some of the most delicious Toffee chocolate cake I could have imagined.  It was great.  The apple cinnamon muffin, chocolate banana bread and doughnut couldn't compare... though a taste test was necessary.  We went back to the room to nap and hang out before getting ready for the festival and walking down the street to get shuttled out to the event.

The event was at great little resort, with bungalows, tree house looking rooms, and right on the river.  They had build a bridge over the river, and funneled people through the bridge to the music stage and food/drink/merch stalls. 

The music was alright, and the food was decent.  The drinks were decently priced as well.  The really good part about the concert, besides watching the hippies dance with hula hoops and sticks, was seeing Job2Do, one of Thailand's most popular artists.  He is well known all over the country, from my 5 year old students to their grandparents.  It's crazy how famous he is.  His music is also played all over Thailand, especially in the south at the beaches and any chill hangout spot. Below is Job2Do singing his set, which only started 2 hours late... sometime after 230 am.

Below: First, notice our awesome headbands. Second, bamboo straws. Third, peace sign.

We partied at the festival until about 3 am, and headed back, as we had a long drive ahead of us the nest morning.  After waking up, packing up, and eating a huge breakfast, we set off on the journey, quickly stopping in Pai Canyon.  It's got a great view of the surrounding area and also some weird little stone paths.  It's hard to explain, but there is a little dirt path, and it drops down a solid 20-30 feet on both sides, and the path is about 2 feet wide.  Stupidly dangerous, so of course we all wanted to walk on it for pictures.  

This is one of the scariest ones, and it just jets out a little, and drops straight down at least 30 feet on each side.... perfect area for some sexy photos...

Here's a picture of the canyon, and Claire's new friend...

And to note... this is the first time I really learned how to "blog" adding pictures in text, and links... hopefully I can keep this up. 

Glad I got to skype everyone this past week! Mom, dad,  grandma, grandmpa, steve and shelley... not a bad turnout. 

Sukhothai

Two weekends ago, Nicole (fellow PRC teacher) and I made a last minute decision to take a night buss to Sukhothai, Thailand's historical administrative and spiritual capital. It's like the Angkor Wat of Thailand. We took a bus leaving at 8 pm, and arrived in Sukhothai around 1 am. The bus was freezing, and impossible to sleep on... but go figure. Its cold in Thailand, they keep the AC running on high all night... Amazing Thailand

We got a cart/taxi and tried a couple places before settling on the Sukhothai Guesthouse and trying to sleep, but the room was freezing, we accidently left a window open, and they had given us a blanket and a sheet, to share. Nicole got the little blanket, and I used the sheet, a silk piece of bed covering, and towels to try to keep warm... I even put on pants and a sweatshirt in the middle of the night. We got a couple hours sleep and then headed out to visit the ruins. This entailed a 20 minute walk to the trucks, and then a half hour drive in giant trucks to the ruins, where we rented bicycles to cruise the grounds.

Sukhothai used to be Thailand's spiritual and administrative capital about 700 years ago, or something. Now it's just a local and foreign tourist attraction and holds spiritual sentiment for most all Thais.



We both rented individual bikes, and set off around the ruins, stopping to check out the old temples, stonework, or simply laze around in the shade. Luckily it was a brisk day, so riding the bike actually warmed you up, and the shade was a nice relief from walking in the sun.



We spent the rest of the time checking out some of the temples and sights, Buddha images and ruins... It was a very relaxing afternoon. We checked out the night market for dinner, which was pretty small and quiet, and went back to the room to read/listen to music and sleep. We took an early bus the next morning, and was back in Chiang Mai by early afternoon. It was a nice little weekend away, and since we had Friday off school, made it a long weekend as well.

Back to Thailand

So, you all got to see me at home, but now I'm back in Thailand..

I left for the SFO airport at around 7pm on Tuesday, January 6th. I took a flight from SFO-LAX, arriving in LAX around midnight. Since I was on a domestic flight, I figured I would have to switch over to the International terminal. I went outside, caught a bus (after standing in the cold) and rode the whole look, until the last stop, number 7, for United international flights. However, the woman driving was preoccupied on the radio and skipped it, so I had to sit through the entire loop again. When she got to it again, I had to stand up and yell stop, or she would have skipped it again...

Funny enough I was dropped of exactly where I picked up the bus... as United flights in LAX are both domestic and international. Wonderful. I was too late to get into the gated areas, and they told me they would open around 5 am. This was wonderful, as it was about 1 am at the time. There was only the ticketing areas (which were being cleaned) so very few people were already crashing on the even smaller numbers of chairs. I eventually settled on a series of 3 carpeted metal crates, happily situated next to a door, which, contrary to common sense, opened and closed all night, for no apparent reason. This was wonderful, because without a blanket, and in shorts and sandals, I was horribly cold for the "sleep" i got. At 4 am, I finally gave up and went to stand in line with the rest of the zombie-like passengers.

I was finally allowed in to the gated areas around 430 and immediately found a bench, and passed out till 7, when it was time to wake up, try to find internet, and eat some food. I spent the morning in the airport, watching it get crowded and then empty for a flight. My flight was at 11 am, so when I finally got on I was ecstatic to find myself alone in a row of 3 seats. Until the last moment... when a Japanese exchange student came on holding two bags too big for her to carry, and people helping her. She then tossed on bag on the floor in the middle of the isle and started re-sorting (we were trying to takeoff) and pulled out books, dvd's a computer, make up, hair straightener, stuffed animals, a jacket, etc etc etc... She also would turn and excitedly talk to you, even when I was reading and/or listening to music... To top it off, the TV on our side of the plane didnt work, so for the 11+ hours, I could only see the top third of the TV screen way ahead of me, which made watching any of the movies pointless.

When I finally arrived in Japan, I had a 3 hour layover before a 6.5 hour flight to BKK. The flight was better, and I was able to pass out a decent amount of it, trying not to get sucked into the conversation of the old golf pro and girl coming out to visit an old friend. They eventually got me, and I found out the girl was coming to visit the older sister of a girl I know in Chiang Mai.

Upon the glorious arrival in Bangkok, I went to try to see the reservation I made for a ticket the following morning (we arrived at midnight). There was no reservation so I went to ticketing and bought the first available ticket to Chiang Mai, which was at 630 in the morning, from the domestic airport, and business class. I took it, wanting to just be in Chiang Mai. I got a taxi to the other airport, and proceeded to find a corner to "sleep" in for the 3-4 hours of sitting there I had to do. Even though it was beautifully warm at night, the airport was frigid. Thankfully I had stolen a blanket from United. I attempted some not so restful hours of sleep, and finally boarded my BUSINESS CLASS ticket to Chiang Mai. Let's just say, if you can afford it, business class is the way to go. Big comfortable seats, juice and water upon arrival, a full breakfast with napkin tablecloths, real cutlery, newspapers... the best hour I had in the past 30+ of traveling. So I left for SFO around 7 pm Tuesday night, and ended up (with the time change) arriving home to Chiang Mai at 745 am Friday morning...

That afternoon a friend of mine was flying home, so I went to her house and moved into her old room. It was perfect timing. So now I live in the city, with my friend Dave, who teaches at my school. We have a two bedroom, nice comfy living room (he has an amazing couch) and even have an oven. It's pretty nice, but I dont cook. The room is normal, nothing special, and its loud at night, but thats what I wanted, so no complaints. I spent Friday getting my stuff moved in and sort of hung out, going to bed early, as I was exhausted.

Saturday was a hang out and clean up day and Saturday night was a shitshow with free tequila shots at my friend's bar... Sunday was spend entirely in bed. Now it's monday, and I'm at school. I had two classes this morning, and one canceled this afternoon. I'm trying to fulfill the full day (for the first time in months...) since it's almost the end of the year.

It is an odd feeling coming home to Chiang Mai, where I oddly feel more comfortable then I do in San Jose. Probably because I have a job/friends here.

As you all know it was great to see everyone over Christmas, and the cruise was a blast (except Guatemala... which I protested going to)

Hope the New Year's Resolutions are going good. I'm giving up eggs and rice. If you knew what I eat here, you would find that immensely funny.

Actually, I plan on returning to the gym today (fearful of how fat they all will tell me I got) and start working off the pizza and burgers from the cruise and Adelita's burritos.

Love you all...

the new living room/best couch in the world...

Whoops

Dear Friends,

I hope that you enjoyed our Obama for President rally last week. It is great to see the enthusiasm of the Obama Brigade here in this provincial Thai capital. We had over 100 enthusiastic Obama supporters FIRED UP and READY TO GO!

In the enthusiasm of the rally I mistakenly gave away two Obama posters. These are of great personal value to Gary Suwannarat, the Asia-Pacific Regional Vice-Chair who brought them back with her from the convention. They are both on hard cardboard with a blue background. One is "Obama-Biden" and the other is "CHANGE". If you have either of these posters or know who does, could you please e me back as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your kind cooperation and your enthusiasm which will see the election of President Barack Obama!

Best wishes,

Steve
Asia-Pacific Regional Vice-Chair
Democrats Abroad




I have the "CHANGE" one... but they said we could have them. I'll think about giving it back, but it's worth 5 cents, and if she's so important, I have a feeling she can get more, since it's a cheap piece of flimsy recycled cardboard...

looks like morals: 0 obama poster: 1

White Water Rafting

Guess the biggest thing that has happened in the last couple weeks is White Water Rafting. Four other teachers and myself went out for a day of rafting, about an hour or so drive from Chiang Mai. Funny thing, after the drive out there, we stopped at a place to wait for some more people to meet up with us, and then drove to a Riverside Hut.

This hut is the exact place, 6 months ago or so, I ended a Hill Tribe Trek with Johanna and Dave, at the tail end of our SEA travels. Little bit of nostalgia...

Anyway, we drove from the bottom of the river 10 km upriver (the same 10 km we would be rafting later) standing up, for spacial purposes, in the back of a land rover. It was bumpy, muddy, and trees whipped you in the face. Typical Thailand, I guess :)

Once our arms, hips, sides, and chests were properly sore from holding on the the metal railings for support, we ended up the the river hut. We had a phenomenal lunch of fried chicken, salad and spring rolls. We got a safety demonstration, got fitted into out life jackets and helmets, and put into boats. The five of us had one boat, with Captain Tommy, our 17-year old leader, and one of his friends, to even out the weight on the boat. We practiced paddling up and back, turning, and he held us against the current. Then he jumped in and we were off! The beginning trip wasn't too bad, probably some 2-3's, nothing too crazy. We did get hit around, and splashed and walls of water hit you in the face. The front was very fun, but as I weighed too much, he made me move back... which probably worked out better in the long run... you'll know why in a second

We had to get off the boat at one point, and travel a little down by road, as the river was too swollen from the days rain and it was too dangerous. We called his bluff, but when we got back in the river, looked up at the section we would have just come from, we realized he was right. It looked pretty gnarly, but we still through we could have done it.... That's why Tommy is captain, and not us.

We started again, dodging rocks and avoiding large bamboo poles all floating down the river in a furious rage. When things got too ruff, he yelled "Get Down!" which means hop into the boat and hold on for dear life.

"On the job" means hop back up, lock your feet in position (into cracks to help keep you in) and start paddling hard.

A couple "get down's" and "on the job's later" we got to the best part, and biggest rappid. Paddle! Paddle! Harder! Faster! Harder!!!! GET DOWN!!! ON THE JOB!!! GET DOWN!!! HOLD ON!!!

Next thing you know i feel a body slam on top of me. Assuming it was my friend Paige, who was sitting across from me, I was just glad she didn't fly out and smash on to a rock. When i could see, I noticed it was Captain Tommy,who had flown from the back of the raft on top of me and was scrambling to get back to his post. At the next seccond, I hopped up, and was ready to paddle, only to see Paige get sucked back by water and pulled off the boat. Where we had crashed was a spot where the water swirls, and so we were not moving, and able to jump over the edge and help Paige. Tommy was the only one who helped (we were told not to be heros) but then he yelled for me to help, which worked out well, as we pulled Paige back in the raft, only her shorts and suit sagging low. Thailand has never see so much ass.

We got her in, and paddled like hell to get out of the rapids. It was crazy. It was so much fun. After the rapids, we stopped downstream a little to wait for everyone else. The next two boats came through fine, and the third was missing two people. The fourth was ok. Guess one of the boats had thrown most all of them out, and one guy had to swim to the banks, the other girl I think was grabbed by a rope, and the first two somehow made it back in the boat. Gotta love it

It was such a great day, and after a couple more rapids, and some easier stuff, we made it to camp. It was so much fun, and I forgot how much fun rafting was, and simultaneously dangerous. Good thing we're all ok. a little sore, but nothing serious. And Paige got to flash some people... all in all a successful day!

That was our saturday day, the night we went to a wonderful bar called Samo that served all you can drink beer (heavily iced and watered down) for 3.5 hours. Drink fast enough and it's a good deal. We watched the Liverpool ManU gamee, to which Thai's are obsessed, and then began a good night out.

The night was so good I spent most of Sunday laying around. Then it was Monday, and back to work.

Three more weeks of work, and then Morgan (a teacher from Asian U, the summer camp Johanna and I worked at) comes to visit for a week, and then I go to LAOS!!! for a week and a half backpacking trip. I am beyond excited. It's been too long since I have been a backpacker.

Hope this was a good update. Guess you guys all heard Shelley's getting fat. It happens. Be nice to her, fat robotic cyborg.

More Updates

To be honest, the daily life here is the same. I wake up, I teach, I go to bed.

Beyond that, on some weekends we try to get out and do things:

Doi Inthanon (2 weekends)
--This is a national park about an hour and a half drive from Chiang mai. It is the highest peak in Thailand, at about 7,000 or so feet. We spent two different weekends up there, with two different groups of people, and it's a great park. It's cold, which is weird, so you bring sweatshirts for the night time. If it's not raining (which is does a lot) there are some really cool waterfalls and trails and things to see. It's pretty cool.

Another weekend we also went to a resevoir, lake thing, where you take a little boat out to floating houses (its more like a shitty motel on water) but attached is 7-8 little rooms (with only a bed and fan) restaurant, bathrooms, and some platforms to jump off of into the lake. The surrounding mountains and scenery are really quite spectacular. I have to get pics from some people, but it's some really great stuff out there, and it's only about an hour away.

The best part of Chiang Mai so far is the abundance of cool weekend trips possible within a couple hours. The downside is we only have 2 days to travel, see and do everything, to get back in time for work, which is beginning to bore me, but that'll happen with any job, i guess.

I think the only problem I have with my job is that there is no one to speak English to (fluently) all day, so I sit alone for hours and hours and hours doing nothing but sitting on the internet, listening to music or trying to "plan" in advance. I mainly zone out and stare at the wall... but we'll see how things change in the next couple months, since my boss wants to add 10 minutes to all of my classes, and I am going to start just leaving campus when i have lots of dead time, and see what happens...

Other than that, really nothing goes on new anymore during the week. It's the same M-F, and the weekends are the great escape from society.

Guess that's all I got for now, come october I should be traveling for 2 weeks so I'll have more interesting things to talk about rather than what I do with 6 hours of dead time in a single day... (like today)

Love you all

Sports Day, Basketball Tournament and Pie

So a couple of things have happened worth mentioning for you.

Sports Day is a day where all the kids (separated by Matyom (grades 7-12) and Pratom (grades 1-6) are divided into colors and groups and makes giant floats and does a parade with skits and songs and dances... it lasts all day. I believe they actually do a couple "sport" like things, but I only had time to stay for the 2 hours of parades in the morning. It was pretty funny.

There was a basketball tournament, which I did not watch... But they did have cheerleaders and chant squads out to do performances, which is hilarious. Thai people don't really understand talent. If they were to ever watch a cheer squad or dance team from the US, they would be shocked. They do lots of weird "Thai" movements, obviously taken from Thai dance... but their costumes were hilarious! Thats the only reason I went to go watch... it was pretty funny

This past weekend a couple teachers from PRC went to Pai, a lazy mountain town about 3-4 hours by motorcycle north of Chiang Mai. It is a town known for its hippy and very laid back attitude. It was gorgeous. The drive was really fun, as we rented bikes and drove up and through some windy mountain roads and the city was really chill. We got little huts right on the river, nothing special, shared bathroom, lots of bugs, but its quiet and peaceful and only 5 bucks a night per room. We spent the days hanging out, checking out waterfalls, going to hot springs, driving around the countryside, and the evening sitting outside and relaxing (also all the bars were closed due to the holiday) but that worked out nice. It was a great weekend and very relaxing.

However something happened to me the last night, and now I'm sick. I blame Malaria and Dengue, but it's probably just a flu like bug, only hot/cold flashes, cramps and diarrhea... nothing new :)

hope alls well back home. counting down the days until the cruise!

The Rainy Season is Coming!!!

So, it's been a while... yet again.

Update. I moved into an apartment. 2 bed. 2 bath, 10th floor, so some nice views of the city. TV, couch, chairs, table, fridge, sink... what more could you want? It's nothing special, but it's much bigger than the old place, and I moved in with a fellow teacher from PRC, Ms. Paige Allbritton. So far it's nice to have a larger space to hang out in, the pool is larger also, which is nice. We got internet, but only one cord, so we fight over who gets to plug in their computer... we hope to get a splitter or even better wireless soon..

Teaching is about the same. Long hours, tiring lessons. This week is COLORS... i know, im really stretching their little heads... but they have to match up the spelling of the color to the actual color to color in a worksheet. this is near impossible for 50% of them, who just color everything the same color...

I don't think there is any news update. I spend M-F teaching, and going to bed at 10pm...
Friday and Saturday I spend doing adult things, usually sleeping in, and going out to have fun till the wee hours of the morning, thus sleeping all day...

Just wanted to say hi, and i love you all!!

End of Asian U, Beginning of Chiang Mai

It's been an extremely long time since I have posted, and since I am on my daily 4 hours of "prep" be completely bored time at work, I thought this would be an ample time to describe as much as I can about what is going on out here.

Asian University Summer Camp #2 was a blast, really a good time. It was a little shorter than the first camp, so I was only sad to see some of the kids go. They were a very cute and fun group, with a lot of energy. They were great... So we finished the camp, and then started our long process of goodbyes. One girl went back south to live with her husband (shes been in Thailand for 5 years). Two of the guys went to live in Bangkok and work a couple months before going home. Johanna spent a week in Bangkok, then flew home. Kelly spent a couple days in BKK, then she also went home (both to america). Everyone split up, and I move dout to Chiang Mai, all alone. It was hard at first, because I missed everyone from the summer camp, and knew that I was leaving Jo for good, and that I wouldnt see Morgan or Kelly for at least 5 months...

So I moved up to Chiang Mai, after getting a job at Prince Royal's College, a K-12 Private Christian school, teaching English to Anuban 3, or babies, as I like to call then. They are all about 5-6 Years old. Its kindergarten... I took the job because I wasnt really sure what level I wanted to teach, and I figured with the kids, the lesson planning would be easy, but it would be hard in class, since you have to run around and scream and jump and act like a fool to keep them interested and motivate. As long as they are having fun, they will respond to the learning. The school is actually HUGE and they have kids, as I said from K-12. They have over 400 kindergarden students, and I think over 6,000 students in all. Its HUGE! I work on the kindergarten campus, off alone, behing the sports complex and near the High School. I am the only farang (white) person in my campus/building. I work with all women (TA's around 18-25 i think, teachers around 40-60) All women, and 400 kids. It is chaotic and loud. I teach in the mornings, M-F.

I get to school at around 7:30, then we have the flag raising ceremony at 7:45, followed by some "aerobics" (meaning simple little dance moves) and the kids go to their classes to do something... My first class starts at 9:10. If I have a full day, I teach until 11:20 (40 minute lessons, and thats pushing it for these kids' attention spans) at 11:20 we play in the playground, or I sit in my room exhausted. 11:45 we eat lunch. I watch the kids eat, they sit in a little area with long tables, all crammed in. They sing, then they pray, then they eat. Then we get to eat. Its usually not the best, and somedays pretty gross, but its food. By 12:30 I go back to my room, and sit there waiting to be able to leave at 4pm. The kids nap until 2pm, then play in their rooms until 3 pm, then if its not raining, they play outside until 4, or whenever their parents come to get them. Sometimes I just sit in my room and stare at things... its pretty boring (but better than lessons ni the afternoon as well...)

Starting in June I will be tutoring the Thai TA's Teachers, and the Assistant Director and Head of the Kindergarten program. Im very nervous about that, but all of the teachers and TAs are really nice, and I think Ill just follow a Tha-English phrasebook I have, and teach them everything I can out of that, since its what I use when I want to learn Thai.

I live in a hotel just 5 minutes on bicycle down from the school. I have rented a bicycle and use it to get everywhere, which is actually quite nice, though I sometimes break out into uncontrollable sweating if I have to do some agressive cycling through traffic (i have to ride like im on a moto, which can be dangerous, and difficult to cut off cars and trucks and busses and motorcycles, all on a bicycle...)

I am a 10 minute ride into the main little park of town, with lots of shopping, food, and entertainment, but can always tuk-tuk anywhere I need to get, for only a couple dollars (50-100 Baht).

I am planning on moving across town, into a 2 bedroom apartment with a friend I met (one of just a few) so that we have more space, and a living room, and a place to be able to hang out on evenings and weekends if we dont want to go into town.

So far its fun, extremely tiring, but very fun. The kids are absolutely adorable, and cling on me, since Im pretty much a huge white playtoy.

To give you an idea of what I do in the classroom, this weeks new lesson was
1) The alphabet- review, and singing the song
2) Story- I just point at pictures in a book and say the words, they repeat everything you say. Everything. Even "so, yeah" "um" "hmm"
3)Commands- stand up, sit down, make a circle, come here, make one line, make two lines (then yelling them out and letting the kids scramble to do what I asked)
4)Vocabulary- classroom objects, book, penicl, backpack, ruler, glue, eraser
5)Boardslap- i yell out a word (1 boy vs 1 girl) try to run and slap the board at the apporpriate picture... (this is very hard for them)

next lesson will be a continuation of the game and words, practice writing out simple sentances "it is a book. It is an eraser." review on "what is your name? My name is..." and Days of the week!!! Whoohoo!

When I woke up this morning is was sunny and hot. I just heard some thunder, and realized there is nothing but dark clouds, and think it will begin to rain heavily soon... which means no outside playtime for the kids, which means they will be running around screaming in the rooms... I should probably go. Hope this was a somewhat sufficient update on what is going on!

Hope all is well!
Love you all (mom and grandma, who I assume are the only people actually following this!)

oh, Ill try to get some photos uploaded on facebook, and ill let you know when, so you can see my school. and pics of the kids

Camp 1 and Song Kran

So we finished camp one. There is some things words cant describe about the camp, like the closing ceremony, so Ill just say that kids were crying, teachers (sadly not myself, as I found it all a bit ridiculous) were crying, the TAs were crying... it was a sob fest and the kids get on the ground to "wai" you in respect, tell you they love you and how much they enjoyed their time here... or for me and Jo, sort of just mumbled in Thai/English. It was an experience at the least...

So camp ended, and we ran for the bus, and went to Bangkok to celebrate, what i consider to be, one of the all time great festivals of the world, to compare with Beerfest or even Carnival. Song Kran is the Thai New Year. It consists of 5 days of waterfights. Families loaded in the backs of trucks drive the streets and dump/soak water on you. Everyone has waterguns and buckETS OF WATER... it's literally complete chaos. All the thai people get this powder stuff, and they turn it into a paste and wipe it on your face, saying happy new year (so what dee bee mai) I ended up doing some great thai jokes, Alai Na?(whats that) pointing up to the sky and then squirting them in the face with water... or another favorite namn mot (out of water) then squirting them in the face saying me namn (have water) most all found it to be completely entertaining... i sure did. The nights and days were just complete chaos, and you couldn't escape the water... even with our bags people would throw large buckets of water directly at your face. it was fun, but exhausting.

After the complete chaos of Bangkok, we headed down to Koh Samet, and island south of where we are currently teaching, and spent a couple days relaxing during the day and partying all night, which, of course, ended up being drenched by buckets of water and swimming in the ocean. We were always safe, of course

So now we are back at school, just met the new group of kids, and it's hard not to have favorites from the ones that are returning from last camp. Should be fun, we'll see!

Hope all is well, glad to hear the cabin is coming along, and will be ready for me to visit, maybe, if I have time when i come home for christmas! Can't wait for the cruise!

Love you all

Teaching

Forgot to upload this, but once i get my computer i should be able to make a littlemore steady of account of the time spent at Asian University.

The kids are really fun, though somewhat spoiled (since this camp is more than 8x's what a "typical" thai makes in a month) but they are still good kids...

They are just nervous about speaking, and shy, but once you get them having fun they're like any other. Teaching them is fun, since half the time it is me running around like a fool trying to get them to understand what I am asking them to do, or get them interested in learning the language to be learned. We get to do lots of projects and art stuff to help, and break up long days teaching. We have AC rooms and access to materials, and they provide a book for a baseline. It's fun.

they have weekly BBQ dance nights, in which we theme up and dance outside (sweating horribly,as it's probably still in the 80's at night) and that's fun.

Started to get into the groove of things,so not much to report... just trying to have fun and teach at the same time, and go out to the islands or on fun dance nights when we are allowed off campus to have fun.

all is well, good talking with everyone on Easter! The cruise is only a couple monthsaway!

Chaing Mai

So we got to Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand. We did one day of walking around the city, taking it all in. It is a big city without the mess and chaos of Bangkok. It's nice. The old part of the city is surrounded by a moat, and that is where most of the life is.

We decided to take a Thai cooking class, where we can now say, proudly, we are certified to cook Thai food! We did a full day class, where you start with a market tour, letting us see all the materials we will be using late in the day. We then went to our chef's house where there were individual stations for all 8 of us, with utensils and everything. We learned how to make 7 dishes. It was great. We all did very well and stuffed our faces with curries, pad thai's soups, spring rolls, sticky rice and mango, papaya salad, etc. One part, the "adventure cooking part" we even learned how to make a huge fireball explode from the pan. it was a very very good day. at the end we got a recipe book to be able to cook for everyone when we get home.

The following day we decided to do a 3 day 2 night Hill Tribe trek into the mountains. This was an awesome experience. We started by doing a vigerous uphill hike, and then down a long long road into a valley (actually we started at a little waterfall and lunch...) The first tribe was about 28 families, and they live nestled in a valley. All the houses have their own rice paddies and livestock tied up right below their house. Literally you can hear the cows and buffalo sitting under you as you sleep. They made us a great dinner of curry and vegetables. We got to walk around the village and see daily life, and go to a small church. The next day we did a 3-4 hour hike through more paddies and hills before coming to an elephant camp. We got to ride the elephants for about an hour, half the time we got to sit on their heads. We then treked into the next village and got to play games and hang out with a bunch of kids while some people played soccer. The shower situation was interesting. the first place had a large piece of bamboo shooting out from the rocks above in the stream so you could stand under the "shower" in the river to clean up. The second shower was just getting in the river and washing off. The third day we woke up and boarded our bamboo rafts, that are made by hand by tying together bamboo (very simple) and standing on them and using long bamboo poles to navigate the river. We spend about 4 hours rafting down the river, which was calm at points, and small rapids at others. It was overall a really really great three days.

The following day we took it easy and walked around the city again, checking out the temples and wats. We saw a teak wat, and old ruined wat, and even at one wat got to sit and talk to a monk, who is 22 yrs old, and finishing up his last two years of schooling. We learned all about a monks life and what he wanted to do once he had finished school. Quite the lifestyle.

Today, March 5th, we took a local bus 4 hours north to a city called Chiang Rai. We checked in and are about to see what there is to do around here for the next day or so, then we head to bangkok for the weekend. We will sadly be saying bye to my friend Dave from school who has been traveling with us for the past 6 weeks. He's on his way to south africa. Then I move into school on the 12th, and start teaching officially on the 15th. Talk to everyone soon!

Back to the "Motherland"

Well, i am back in Thailand, thank god. Vietnam was fun, but I am very excited to be back in Thailand, where the food is better, the noise is less and we speak the language a little bit more. It's amazing how much better received you are when you can do simple transactions in Thai.

We flew from Hanoi, Vietnam to Bangkok and then took a night train that evening up to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. It's the second largest city in Thailand. It's .... ohh no! i need to go eat lunch. ill update this later!

Vietnam

Ok, so we've been in Vietnam about a week now, and it calls for an update.

The busride from Cambodia was long, and boring, and warm, and crowded... so all in all not too bad. We arrived in Saigon (District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City). Luckily we found a room right around the corner for $15 between the three of us with A/C warm water and a TV and fridge. Not too shabby. Dave had become sick, we assumed it was Dengue or something equally awful, for he spent the whole time in Saigon in bed, watching TV, going for short walks and then returning to bed. We did one full day of pure shopping, because you can find all sorts of worthless junk for a dollar, which makes it seem worth buying. I did reletively ok, since we had been to the exact same markets two years prior, and nothing seemed too needed. The food in Vietnam isn't the greatest, and we ended up finding some really good and cheap western places, to get sandwiches and salads.

Another day I did an all day tour out to see a Cao Dai temple, which is a religion infusing Catholicism, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucionism, etc...) The temple was really neat, with large pillars and dragons wrapping around them. It was pretty cool to see. We then head to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong fought during the Vietnam/American War. They are a serious of 250 km underground where the VC lived and fought, making it almost impossible for the American troops to see of fight back. It was really fun running around and crawling through the tight litttle tunnels in pure darkness and stuffy hot air... for about 2 minutes, then you want out.

A third day we went into Chinatown which ended up being the same as everywhere else with the people looking a little more Chinese.

We decided to take a sleeper train and stop over in the middle of Vietnam for a day or two before heading up to Hanoi, but once we got there, the train schedule was awful and would make us either stay 3 days there or leave immediately, so we jumped back on another overnight train hours later. It ended up being about 36 hours on the trains overall, but the sleeper cars are great when you just nap and stare out the window and read, so it went by very fast.

When we got into Hanoi we went straight to the Old Quarter, where the streets are narrow, packed with people, motos, and an unbelievable amount of buld goods from candy to shoes to chickens. One of the most little chaotic towns we've seen. It's crazy and all day and night you just hear people honking and blaring their horns. In Asia, unlike the US, a horn is a very liberally used instrument to say, hello, im right here, behind you, watch out, move over, im coming around you, hurry up, why are you stopped, go faster, im coming around the corner, anyone there... and anything else possible. Some of the riders have their kids in the front and sometimes you see a 2 yr old just sitting there holding the horn down, but the parents can hardly stop them for they need to focus on not hitting one of 102,938 other things in the street at the time. It's great for an early morning headache.

We did a two day one night trip to Halong Bay, where there are 1,980 islands shooting out from the water of the bay, many with caves and temples build on and around them. The trip was on an old junk (a type of boat) and we slept in cabins below. There were 11 of us, all 25 and under, from England, Canada and Japan, so it was a really fun trip. The next morning we continued a tour of the bay and then head back to Hanoi

Luckily our mail came through, to help us get the Non Immigrant B visa we need in order to legally work, so now we have to wait the weekend to trun it in on monday and get started on the visa before we head out, either into Laos, or up to Northern Thailand. There are many horror stories of the busride to Laos, taking from 12-38 hours so we will probably end up flying somewhere instead... but we're not too sure.

Just today I got to go and see Ho Chi Minh's body, in a mosuleam, where it has been preserved and put on display. It looks like he's just slepping peacefully in a comfy little bed. It's interesting because you can't talk, or use your phone or camera, or put your hands in your pockets or stop walking... the gaurds just push and shove you right through to make sure the hundred and hundreds of people each morning get to see him. Now it's a couple days to try to enjoy the chaos of Hanoi and check out the sights while we wait for our Visa's to let us back into Thailand. Let's hope it's not a huge pain to get everything checked out and legal... but who knows, it's SE Asia, and nothing is as easy as it should be.

Ode to Rocks

Our first day in cambodia was in transit to a city called Siem Reap. The city itself is really nice, actually, as it caters a highly international crowd. We spent the afternoon just walking around, finding great food for a dollar and checking out the city. The next morning we rose at 530 am to get a cart attached to the back of a motorbike to go out to Angkor's temples. In the day, we saw about 12 different ruins (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom [Bayon, Baphuon, Terrace of Elephants, something involving the king] Phreah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Sra Srang, Banteay Kdei, Ta Phrohm, and of course, Angkor Wat. It was such a long day, but well worth every penny and minute. The temples are gorgeous, with stone faces carved meticulously into the facadesa and perching on the towers. Some have been overgrown by the jungle (Think of Tomb Raider... since we saw the one it was filmed at). Giant trees, incence, statues, gates, gaurds, unbelievably detailed stone walls covered in intricate carvings... it was truely a sight to behold. You'll just have to see the pictures. We saw sunrise and sunset, all within the ruins, and had a driver all day taking us around. We even had lunch and snacks and waters from the people that still live within the ruins. It was an amazing day.
tHE NEXT DAY WE OPTED TO GET AHEAD OF SChedule and went to Phenom Phen, with a bumply little 6-7 hours bus ride. Phenom Phen is the capital city, but with few buildings over 3/4 stories, it's hard to remember that you're in a huge city. We scoped out the sights near and around our guesthouse the first day.

The following day was devoted to the shopping experience that is the Russian Market and Central Market. Here you can get real brand name clothing (as much of it is made here) for dollars. you can get watched and necklaces and shirts and pants and sildk and scarfs and anything else you want for dollars. It was fun. Luckily we can't carry too much so I had to limit myself to a couple items, the best of being a birthday gift for my brother. (check the mail ill send it to mom and dad unless i find good internet and get your address.) There were some other little things, dont worry grandma and mom, and maybe dad and shelley and nick... and mom's classroom... We spent a full day shopping around twomarkets. the first one, the russian market it a giant mess of stalls mere feet apart with little isles and paths around. it is caotic, as you can be in clothing one second and with pig snouts the next.

the central market is in a big building that is a huge done with 4 wings full of merchandise. same same stuff. this one had a lot of beautiful floral arrangements outside as well.

Today, the 12th, we spent in a sombering tour of S-21 and the Killing Fields. It was the Khmer Rouge that devistated the country in the late 70's killing anywhere from 300000 to a couple million people... no one knows. It was ethnic cleansing and genocide, and we toured a high school turned prison camp where people slept 50 to a room chained to the ground or in cells hardly big enough to lay in. Almost everyone that went through the camp was tourtured, questioned and then sent to the Killing fields to be killed and thrown in mass unmarked graves. So that's not fun, but well worth the trip to understand where Cambodia was, and how far it has come today. The afternoon was spent checking out the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda (where they have 5,000 Kilograms of silver plates on the floor) That was a nice change of pace. We had a great lunch inbetween and an even better indian food dinner. Tomorrow we take a nice little 7+ hour bus ride into Saigon to experience, once again, all that is Vietnam in a whirlwind tour of the country.

i heAR you'rew all up in the snow... lucky. i don't remember what cold feels like, unless it's at night when you rip off your clothing because your back is stuck to everything and your face is drowing in sweat... but then again, it's winter here and the cold season. lets see how i feel in april/may

love you all and tell chase to get out here, he'd love it!

Cambodia

Two years ago, I was denied entry into this country due to a "random" selection on Semester at Sea Fall 2005. I blame the government, global warming and India. Today, after waking up at 420 AM, taking a 4 hours bus, 2 hour border crossing and 3 hour taxi ride, I arrived in this hidden country. Exhausted. The bus was good, except for the 2 thai girls and one thai guy that started to vomit on the floor. The border crossing went smoothly, ignoring the fact visa's are 20 bucks and making you pay 33. The taxi ride was ok, from the mafia, who drives 60 mph on a dirt road littered with potholes, turned, construction, chunks of rock and cement, 1000 bikes and moto's with dead pigs hanging off the back... it was a long day....

But we're in Cambodia! Bet Chase is jealous. We plan do do a all day sunrise to sunset ankgor wat temple exploration tomorrow. look into buying tons of fake merchandise, and eat for 1-2 bucks a meal. good times. We left out house in hua hin, retirement capital of Thailand, and went to BKK for two nights, saying goodbye to our Canadian friends and out Ennglish friend we'd been traveling with for 2 weeks. We met up with an old TEFL friend at his new apartment, which was great with 16th story views of BKK skyline.

Other than that, I got a call from Shelley, which was great. Hope all the family is doing well, hope mom got my text for her anniversary. ok, more later

Southern Thailand

So, I'll make this as quick and detailed as possible.

We left Hua Hin to do a border run to Burma, which was really cool. We took a little longtail boat across a big river, stopping at little Immigration Island Checkpoints. It was beautiful and being out on the water was really fun. By far, it was the best border run Ive done to date. We then hitched a bus to Surat Thani to catch a night ferry to the island of Koh Pha-ngan, where the legendary Full Moon Party is held. The boat was unbelievably fun, it's like a floating camp. The top floor is all mats where you all cram in and sleep. Everyone gets drinks so you just chat and hang out and have fun. Then I met some Malaysians and we decided to go sit on the front of the boat, which was loaded with produce. So we climbed over grapes, lettuce, oranges all sorts of stuff and sat at the front of the boat on produce. It was really fun, dangerous, but really fun. We got to the island at 6 a.m. and walked all the way down to our little beachside bungalo. It was a shack, but right on this whitesand beach with mangrooves and it was gorgeous...

The full moon party was unbelievable. thousands and thousands of people dancing the night away out on this huge beach. sometimes there can be as many as 25000-30000 people there. it was really really cool. we danced and partied till about 530 am, then i had to retire for the night. It is a really fun island, and I even got to meet up with a friend from home, which was really fun.

We then took the boat back and went to a place called Khao Sok National Forest. This was what you consider a Jungle to be. Huge trees, vines hanging everywhere, lush green vegetation. it was realy really fun. we did two different hikes. the first one was about 7 K round trip to a waterfall called "sip ed chan" which means 11 layers. It was cool, but we got leaches on our feet and then I was attacked by a swarm of bees who liked the way i smelt (like a dirty sweaty mess) The hike was really fun though. My feet got torn up by my keens, and the leaches, so the next day was tough

The following day we did what I like to call the Death Hike. It was about 16-18 K roundtrip, took us about 7 hours roundtrip. It was fun at first, really easy, then it turned to straight vertical climbs, where you needed to hold onto vines ad tree roots to pull yourself up and climb down. the killer was the heat and humidity. you sit there and sweat and sweat and sweat. we both took 2 liters of water and they were gone half way. the shirt i was wearing would probably have been drying if i jumped in a pool. imaging doing a hike, a hard rigerous hike, in a sauna. then imagine you do it with clothes that just came from the hot dryer. That's about half of what it felt like. hoooooooot. but after it was fun to look back. the waterfall was really cool, with a nice pool to swim in to cool off. sadly i was once again attacked by bees and had a "unstable" moment of flailing my arms about.

After the national forest we went to Phuket, to spend the evening before going to Koh Phi Phi. We found the most delicious store in the world Banana Variety. Imagine...

We then took a boat out to Koh Phi Phi, a stunning island in the South of Thailand. It was really cool and we spent one whole day kayaking around the bay. it was exhuasting but we got to see some really amazing parts of the island, limestone cliffs jetting straight up out of the ocean, then i tipped the kayak, then we went to monkey beach and around to a little cove that was stunning.

Jo's birthday was the 29th, so that involved a lot of buckets of liquor and a bar that lets drunk friends fight in the ring for buckets. we went straight upstars to the dancing portion and watched some liquid enduced entertainment and dances and had a really good time. it was fun.

the next day was a recovery day, then an all you can eat buffet, which made us all sick. so we evacuated the island and went to phuket for a night in patong, a lively night area and then took a 12 hour bus ride back to Hua Hin to relax and rest up before starting a 4 weeks SE asia whirlwind expedition...


hope that was a decent update!

I have a job, in two months...

So, quick update.

I got a job working a summer camp, two 4 week sessions

I don't start till 2nd week of March, so I have decided to travel south east asia for a little. I am going south to the islands (Koh Pha Ngan, Phuket, Koh Phi Phi) and some national parks for 2 weeks, then ill head up north to the chaing mai/rai area. as time permits ill probably check out Laos, and maybe Vietnam and Cambodia...) Then I'll work for two months, and in that time probably secure a position for the academic school year starting in May.

Tomorrow is another border run to Burma, and then I'm off the the island for some fun and Full Moon Parties (world known for all night partying on the beach)

Hope all is well!

Hua Hin

So we came from Bangkok to Hua Hin, a couple hours on the Upper Southern Gulf of Thailand. We got a bus, came into town and got a hostel. We decided to start the house/job hunt, and ended up with a great 3 story town house for the month of January, to base our job hunting. The house is great, near the Royal Palace and Queen's Park, in a relatively quiet and safe area, about 6 minutes on bike from the city center. We quickly found out that the jobs in Thailand really want you to work for them, but they won't hire you until the school year starts. This means that schools would love to hire us, but can't get us working until May 1st, and there is no way any of us can wait that long. Of course we found this out the day we got our townhouse, but it seems that anywhere in Thailand, for normal Thai schools, would be in a similar problem. So we have been looking all over...

We did get one job offer from Stamford International University, with their English Immersion program, but have not fully decided on that one. It would be amazing, and we could even start teaching University level intro English classes, but we feel that teaching kids would be more rewarding for us. So that is one option, if things get out of hand.

Another school really liked us, and was trying to figure out a way to pay us half time until may when we can start working for fulltime. This sounded ok, but we have started to question if Hua Hin is somewhere we would want to spend 6 months or a year, as there really isn't a young scene, or a huge backpacker scene... so we'r just conflicted and torn.

The worst part is that our Tourist Visas are coming to and end. We have to do a border run next weekend, and if we can get a 2 or 3 month tourist visa from Malaysia, we may make the trek, but if not we're planning on renewing for one more month, and then just figuring it out.

The money is going, but not horribly fast, so we're not in a GIANT rush, but the visa thing does suck a little. There is a really cool Summer Camp, which would be awsome, but it doesn't start till March, and unless we have a tourist visa that can handle it, we may have to flee the country in hopes of something else. But that's not for at least a month.

Weve been trying to see what we can of Hua Hin, which has great night markets, and some decent beaches. There is a temple at the other side of town that has monkeys running all around, so you can pay 60 cents to get bananas and feed them. Today Johanna set them down to take a picture of me, and one big monkey stole the whole bunch and ran up a tree... sneaky little...

There are some cool beaches, and when it's really hot we go for a swim and do some reading. Cooking for ourselves is also great, and putting peanuts and fresh pinapple with stir fry has really become addicting... the best pinapple.. mmm so fresh

Let's see. We rented bikes too, so we have our own transportation, and it gets great gas mileage, i think. I spent about 5 dollars and got around 200 kilometers... i tried to convert it, but didn't remember exactly what I got. Either way Ive driving all over the place in the past week and only spent about 8-10 dollars on gas... gotta love the little motorbikes...

I guess that's it for now, sorry I didn't write earlier.

Oh, Her Royal Magesty, the Princess (the King's sister) passed away a couple weeks ago, and it's interesting to see all the tv adverts for her, and lots of her pictures were put up. Also you are asked not to wear lots of bright clothing, as to respect the time of mourning...

On that note... hope all is well, and I'll post up on this once I figure out if I am going to take any of the job offers, or move to Bangkok to look for jobs, or try for that Summer Camp at the University on the other side of the gulf... Hopefully tomorrow morning will help everyone get back to my emails and we can get some productive stuff done. Also, I just might be able to call people (no promises), so watch out grandma!

New Years

Hello everyone.

So we have successfully finished the course. We are all certified teachers. After we finished, we took a bus to a town called Pattaya known for it's Adult things. We ended up dancing for two days straight at one of the best clubs Ive been to. A mix between a live band and DJ, it was really good. Then after, on the street people are walking around with giant snakes and baby lemurs and all sorts of naughty things so the walk back is also quite fun.

Then we came up to Bangkok and are staying with our friend Chris, from the course. He has a great place, with a pool on the roof and it's right next to the Skytrain. We went to a movie (4 bucks) and saw I am Legend. No one knew it was scary and we all nearly had heart attacks. I officially hate mannequins. We partied alright (but nothing compares to the dance-fest of Pattaya)No we are relaxing by the pool, getting coveted Western fast food, and trying to feel better. Tomorrow is more sightseeing in BKK, an embassy visit, and hopefully seeing the Guertins at some point.

Ill update again when I have the time. We will be in the search for jobs and an apartment in the next week, hopefully we'll have both by the time I need to do a border run in 20 days. Enjoy New Years! or... i guess you already did.

Cambodia!

Well everyone... 1st off. no one has gotten skype to call me, but thats ok. sometimes i text message myself. Also, mom i tried to text message you a little bit ago, i dont know if they work, but if you get one from me, email me and let me know.

In other news, I have found out that teaching English is fun, and that my teachers think that Ive been doing a good job. Must be all that practice in Mrs. Medina's 4th grade class. Tomorrow I am going to Cambodia for a border run. Which means I have to pay a lot of money to leave Thailand, then turn around and come back in. Im excited for the experience but it will suck getting ripped off at the border. There are 6 of u going, we rented a van and driver so that should help. Wish me luck!

We have also decided to travel to another part of Thailand to look for a job. Now we are looking into the South peninsula, the northern part. It's about 4 hours south of bankok, but this time west of it. We are planning to base ourselves out of Hua Hin, which we hear is a great city. There were will scope out the surrounding town looking for someone to hire us for the year. Everything is going great, Thailand is a lot of fun, and when we get long breaks we go swimming in the ocean, which is a 3 minute walk down the road. It's warm, and humid and hot, but we're starting to get used to it a little.

Hope Christmas plans are going well. We have a dinner at a restaurant in town from an expat who is going to make a big turkey roast, stuffing, ham, potatoes... food we miss dearly in a rice-dominated market.

Feel free to email me at robster125@gmail.com whenever you want. Ill try to email people when I get the chance, but the internet shop down the street is heavily flooded with kids playing oldschool Warcraft games, so sometimes it's hard to get a computer (especially one that doesn't shock you when you touch metal)

Talk to everyone later!

Oh, and in case you REALLY wanted to call me (66-83-110-8791) or maybe it's 66-083-110-8791... i forget if you need the zero or not. laters

I have a cell phone!!

If you want to call me

+66 8 3110 8791

It's probably expensive to call, so I suggest getting a Skype account. I have one, name Robster125... feel free to set up a skype and then call me anytime! i think it's free for me to accept calls, if it isn't, then ill stop answering them

In other news.

School is still going. Teaching is fun. It's still warm. We plan on going to Bangkok for New Years to celebrate in style, then a little trip around to look for places to call home. Hope all is well

I'm a bubble Goodbye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

week one

well everyone... it's been a week. i know i should try to keep the grammer of this correct, but if you sae the computer i was on, you would understand...

sooooooo. bangkok was rad, but too much going on. we hopped on a bus down to Ban Phe (ban pay) and then walked to find our school at the end of town. The walk was horrid, with all of our bags, we were hot, sweaty nd tired by the end. our school is on a street that runs into the beach. we're about a minute walk down to the beach, 5 if you want your own little spot of sand undisturbed by anyone else. it's fantastic. The king's birthday was on the 5th, so from monday the whole town started putting up lights, setting up huge markets, a giant stge for music nd dancing... it's been quite the week.

sunday we hung out around ban phe, met everyone in our program, made some friends...
school isn't hard. its actually quite easy and just a lot of busy work. may be harder for the older people who rnt used to writing a lot and reading everynight... but its really not bad.

wednesday we got to be in the parade for the king, all wearing our King's Polo's (yellow) and marched down into town then had the owner of TEFL take us out to dinner (the second free diner we have recieved)

today, saturday, the course payed for a boat to take us over to the usland of Koh Samet, with white sand beaches. we rented scooters but mine had no power, and on one hill, johanna had to get off, then the engine died. then the wheen locked up, then i fell into a ditch with it... whoops. the water here is so nice, so warm, feel great after sitting out in the sun

lets see, prices...

meals set us back about 25-60 baht, 70 cents to 2 dollars a piece
renting a moto for the day is about 8 dollars
gas is a dollar a liter (but thats ok with motos)

we've met some people teaching all over, and even have a couple contacts we want to try to use when it comes time for finding jobs. we have met two kids, Airlie and Trevor, from PEI, Canada, who want to work in the same city as us (Rayong, about 30 min from Ban Phe) so we may all get a house together. We hear jobs are plentiful and rent is cheap, so we're going to check it out tomorrow.

the week went by pretty fast, but it feels like we've been here a while.

our thai is getting a little better by the day, ordering food and drink is getting a little easier, and hello and thank you and do i look good in this... all the basics.

hope all is well, i bet it's getting a little cold at home... the best we get is AC'ing our rooms to get cold, but once it's off you just start sweating again... or at least i do.

ill be uploading pictures on facebook soon, so mom... remember to check those.

hi gradma and bompa! hope hawaii was fun

talk to you all soon. soon ill have a cell phone and number. and i may set up a scype account. talk to you soon

Bangok

So after a looong flight, we finally arrived into BKK, Bangkok. The first flight was about 14 hours, and due to an older plane, the entertainment factor was quite slim. Sadly, the highlight was High School Musical 2, which was the only movie worth watching of the 2 they played. I tried a couple glasses of wine but that just made me feel sick and not be able to sleep. However, the flight went surprisingly fast, and after a quick stint in Taipei, we got an AMAZING AND AWSOME plane to Bangkok. There were 60 channels, movies, audio, and video games. I watched TV, ate, called my friend in the seat next to me via our seat phones... it was a blast! If only the first 14 hours were as nice. Bangkok has been good to us so far. We opted to brave taking a bus from the airport and saving money, so we headed to the station below the airport and waited for our bus. Surprisingly (or not) it was full of tourists only all going to the same street, Th Khao San. This the THE tourist pull, but we got off and were determined to walk to find a little hostel. We met a kid names Bailey from Northern California and he had a recommended place so we followed him to it. The hostel is called KC guesthouse and worked fine for us. We took a double room, but then asked if he wanted to sleep on the "couch" and so we're now sharing a room with AC for 6 dollars a person a night. Not too bad.

The street food is PHENOMONAL, mainly the pineapple. It's about 20 baht for a whole one, which is about 60 cents. It is so fresh and sweet and they cut it up right there for you. Then there are the noddles, and banana pankakes and more fruit and eggs over rice. Who doesn't love street food (keeping away from the fried stuff, of course). So far it has been good.

The first night we lived it up a little too hard, and went to bed at about 9pm. We were all so exhasted we didn't make it late at all. Then we slept for about 12 hours, but I was up bright and early at 7 am, showered in the cold water and then just lay around, because it's still tiring from all the travel and no sleeping on the planes.

Today we explored a little bit of Bangkok, going to the Golden Palace and the Siem Square and possibly Chinatown later and then over to Patpong for some nightlife and entertainment. As of now, the people are great, and laugh histerically when we try our thai, and offer to help us learn words, however complicated, which we forget immediatlely, of course.

Ohhh, the weather! Thailand is HOT AND HUMID AND HORRIBLE. no it's not. it's perfect. it's not really hot or humid, it's cool in the night... we hit the good season. i don't want to know the hot season, because this is perfect. I love it. We are excited to get down to Ban Phe and have a place to call home for 4 weeks. We're near fluent in Thai. Love you all

Rob

Yet another Blog...

Well,

Since it looks like Ill be doing little blogs for the family (Diane, Nancy) everywhere I seem to end up... This is the latest and greatest fantastic fun-filled breath-taking bounty of blogwork. As always, I dont know how much I'll be able to update this, but I should be able to access it once and a while.

In case you dont know, I have decided to move to Thailand and teach English for the next 7-12 months.