See Ya Thailand...

It’s 7:30am here now and Christin and I are awake and blogging because…well we are sharing a single bed and both woke up about 6am and couldn’t go back to sleep. We have to check out of our hotel room in about 4 hours and find something to do for a few hours till our flight back to Bangkok. I am still grasping the fact I’m in Thailand, I can’t even believe we are leaving TODAY!! I already miss my little buddies at BCC and I want to cry thinking about leaving and going back to Cleveland Tennessee. It does ease my mind knowing that Mindy and I are more than likely coming back this spring, but still. It’s the little things like eating out on the patio and ordering bottles of water while eating with a fork AND a spoon. Or trying to talk/understand what the Thai people are saying and watching all of them just smile at us. Mostly I’m going to miss the massages, hands down, that’s my jam. I’ve got to learn to cook rice even though I just found out about, oh THREE days ago that rice was fattening!! You may not remember but Christin started a “thighland” blog and we were FOR SURE going to follow the asian ways and lose weight. HA! That didn’t happen and we couldn’t figure out WHY?!? I mean we were walking about 5 miles a day to and from dinner/bus stations/etc. We ate rice for every meal with about a spoon full of chicken, and we drank bottled water like it was going out of style. Who knew that sticky rice, or even steamed white rice was just straight sugar and wheat headed straight for the butt? Not me! About the only weight I lost was from shaving my head hahah. Speaking of, gosh I’m dreading going home to cold weather with no hair. “How am I suppose to live with no hair, hair haaiiirr” (that was the Rhianna song btw). I can’t believe in less two days I will be sitting at home in Georgia telling my family all about my adventures. I keep thinking where the first place I want to eat is, but I honestly don’t miss any of the food or anything from the states so I don’t know, but it will have to be NOT greasy and really light or my body will NOT like me. That’s one thing I’m not readjusting to is American food and PORTIONS. DQ’s family size take home ice cream is a LARGE in America!!! Hahaha really? Like a dinner at Applebees could feed a whole family here easily. Anyways, I’ll be flying into Atlanta Thursday afternoon around 1, then spending two days with the family. I’m coming to Cleveland SATURDAY and can’t wait to see everyone!!! Like, seriously. I haven’t gotten homesick once this whole trip, but I do wish everyone was here with me experiencing the same stuff. I CANT WAIT TO SEE MY FRIENDSIES!!! (Sunday’s happenings can’t come soon enough). So I miss you, and I’ll see you in a few days! I LOVE YOU MUMSEY AND DADDY!!! J I’m not one to get homesick, but not getting to talk or send stupid text to them every few days has been hard! From what I heaaaaaaar, there’s about to a paaaaaaarty in the Usa. See ya in two months Thailand!!!!!

Tiger Kingdom

Okay so I thought it was cool we rode elephants, until we got to spoon with a tiger today!! Holy cow those things are HUGE! We finally looked Nice Nails up online and wasted so much money on transportation yesterday we WALKED there. Let me make you jealous real quick and say I got a manicure and pedicure for $10 (and that’s with French). It was so very much needed because I had walmart feet and it was just nice to sit and be pampered….(not like we haven’t gotten that our whole trip lol). The lady who owns it was so sweet she drove us back to the YMCA when we were done! We headed up to Tiger Kingdom and it was just amazing. Us three girls payd like $10 each to hang out in a cage with 3 large tigers for 15-20 minutes and take pictures. When we first got in there two of them were passed out cold and the little guy was just dragging them around by their tails and paws. I was so mad because I though “they sedate these poor little animals so we can come take pictures!” so I asked the guy and he busted out laughing and was like “no tigers sleep for 18 hours out of the day!” Duh, they are felines, house cats probably sleep that much. Two of the tigers names were Meatball and Spicy Sauce hahah, and we just layed all over them and took pictures. They warned us not to touch their head our front paws and what do I do? Start talking in my sweet baby voice to him saying “heeeey buddy” and petting his head lol. I’m an idiot. Their paws were like twice the size of our hands and feet and you could just feel their massive muscles when you would pet them. The thought of one of these bad boys attacking me made me get chills, you could feel some of the ones in the cages stare holes through you, no thank you. The guy got ours up and walking so we could take some pictures and I’m not going to lie, it made me a little nervous! We saw baby tigers and they were so freaking cute, all I could think about is how bad I want to be like Princess Jasmine and have a pet tiger . Gosh I love Aladin. After that amazing adventure we came back into town and had our last Thai dinner by the Chaing Mai night bazaar and of course, did some MORE shopping! We stopped by before dinner and got our last massage too, I’m going to quote Christin and I “that was the best massage yet!” We pretty much say that everytime, after every good dinner, always. Each time was the best yet hahha. We shopped awhile and I finished up buying all my gifts and things then we just hung out awhile. Gosh I can’t wait to get home because I have so many funny stories to tell. AHHH I can’t believe we leave tomorrow L

Maesa Elephant Camp

WE RODE ELEPHANTS TODAY!!! We got charged WAY to much to take a sang tao out to this place and we didn’t even care, we’ll know for next time though lol. I hate having odd numbers because then there is always someone left out, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of taking turns. Christin and I rode the elphant together and our buddy was 22 years old and his name was Mae Wampan. We rode for like 30 minutes and there were a few times when we literally thought we were going to fall out of the little carriage thing we were in on his back. Alyse had to ride by herself L but don’t feel to bad for her because her elephant and tour guide was so freaking cool! I would love to put a picture up of us on our elephant, but our tour guide didn’t smile, talk, nothing. Alyse’ s elephant was huge with two big pretty tusks, and again was just freaking big (her little guide took like 20 pictures of her on him too!) But the ride was cool, I didn’t enjoy it near as much as I did riding camels in Egypt…but it probably made a difference because I was riding those around the Great Pyramids and up Mt. Sinai! It was super cool, but we just walked this little dirt trail right behind all the toher people riding…pretty lame. I can say I rode an elephant though, and need I even say that Christin and I made it fun lol. The coolest part was watching the elephant shows after we rode, they are so smart with so much personality!! One elephant kept standing on his hind legs and spinning his trunk around and around…it was hilarious. They were spinning hula hoops around their trunks, taking peoples hats on and off, all kids of crazy things. I had heard of elephants painting, but it was just unreal to actually see it. The guy standing behind them wasn’t guiding them at all, he just held on to their little chain, I don’t know how they train them to do that. The elephant in front of us painted a picture of…an elephant lol. I would have loved to buy it but it was definitely $60 and our (Christin’s) camera works just fine…so we just took plenty of our own pictures lol. Oh yea, we bought the professional picture of us on the elephant and it came in a picture frame that says “we love elephants” and the frame is made of elephant dung…haha…I love cheap fun souvenirs. After we hung out there a few hours and got our moneys worth, we headed back into town and wandered around the rest of the evening. When I say wandered around I liteally mean we got dropped off at a shopping center with no clue where to go and looked for “nice nails” for about 4 hours. No one could tell us anything, it was the first time the language barrier has even been an issue. We were so stressed we literally got DQ twice during that 4 hours, and eventually ended up at ANOTHER MALL…still couldn’t find nice nails, so we went and saw Valentines Day…so cute. I was really disappointed though, with that many famous/good actors it could have been way better. I always love Ashton’s roles in movies, I think he’s just adorable. Anyways, it was a good ending to a not so good 4 hours, but a great day in general…I mean we rode elephants. Here is a cheers to being single on valentines day too, although Christin was the best valentines ever!!

Chinese New years!!!

So our bus was like sitting first class on an overseas flight, and it was only a 3 hour ride! I’m talking, our seats leaned all the way back with room to recline and prop your legs up, and they even served us a sweet roll and water! We are staying at the YMCA during our time here and I can’t wait. Tonight we got our room and went straight to the “Chaing Mai Saturday night walking market” which is pretty huge. I bought tons of fun junk then we went across the street to eat Mexican to celebrate Alyse’s birthday (since we’ll be flying on her bday) and Chinese New Years!! We all wore our little matching asian outfits…since that’s clearly the thing to do here (obviously Christin). Everyone walks in twos and always matches, its like you have to have a uniform for EVERYTHING. Anyways, this was probably the best Mexican food (and cheapest) out of the three times we’ve got to eat it here lol. We all had chicken fajitas and a drink and it cost us $7 MAYBE. Crazy huh? It’ll be hard to get use to paying $10 for a meal again in the states! After dinner we had our usual 30 cent McDonalds ice cream cone (I can’t figure out WHY I didn’t lose any weight!). So we have three people staying in a two person room, aka two single beds…and being the poor college kids that we are, we didn’t want to pay that extra $6 for an extra bed. So what I’m saying is…Christin and I being the large lovely white women that we are, are sharing a single bed somehow and its really not that bad hahaha. I mean lets be honest…we’ve had our beds pushed together the last two months, whats a few more nights. I’m going to feel so lost when we get back to Cleveland and I don’t have her one foot away, talking about what we’re reading and pondering life till we fall asleep. I’m not okay with this…I have to convince her to come back with me.

Farewell Chaingrai...off to Chaing Mai

We woke up this morning (Sunday) and had breakfast while the kids went through their praise and worship practice. A lot of kids from another orphanage and around the neighborhood came and listened to Pat bring the word, I really enjoyed listening to him talk, he works well with the kids. One little girl attached to me and played/messed with me the whole service, she was the cutest little handful though. Afterwards we packed up and had lunch with the kids and just hung out till Deb took us to the bus station. I was totally not ready to go, I could have spent my whole time in Chaingrai!! I love the Wheeler’s and especially the kids!! Matao is one of the boys they took in and he just won my heart in the four days we were there. He is 17 and has Cerebral Palsy but as Deb said “has peace like a river” and is the happiest boy ever. The first time I saw him was after Deb came to get us from the airport and as we pulled up to our gate she said “one of our boys is in charge of the gate” and he was just hauling butt running down the driving way…I got so tickled. That’s when she told us all about him and he gave us this big ole grin and I immediately just fell in love with that kid. Watching him play with the dogs, try and help the kids out around the house, or even play the bongo drums and dance during praise and worship just made me melt. You can’t understand what he says but he chattered and hung out with us the most probably when we were just hanging at the house. I seriously couldn’t help but to just smile when I would look at him, he as precious when he rode with us to the bus station today too. I cannot WAIT to come back this next year during some of my teaching breaks!!

River of Life-Chaingrai

The older girls were a University break, so Gonchanna took us to the Burma border to do some shopping. I’m just throwing out that I got some sweet white converse with a picture of Michael Jordan…in his 23 Bulls jersey, holding a soccer ball hahaha. Six dollars, yes please. We got tons of stuff for so cheap, story of our lives while shopping here, and had an amazing lunch. I’m so glad she went with us though because although we’ve been here two months now, they don’t know near as much English here in Chaingrai as Bangkok and we would have never got our way around!! Friday we all piled in in the back of the truck and the Wheeler’s took us to see some stuff. First thing we saw was a huge white temple, with little pieces of mirror all over it so you can see it glimmer from a mile away. It was by far the prettiest temple I’ve seen yet, and it had a little white buddah sitting above the monk inside. Then we hiked through this bamboo forest to a waterfall…so cool. Christin couldn’t go that day because she was sick, but Alyse and I got in that freezing cold water and went under the waterfall for about 2.8 seconds till we freaked out and jumped back out. The water was coming down so hard it hurt my head, and once we got under there it was so loud and water was getting in our face so we jumped right back out. I can’t even tell you how cold that water was (I wish I had pictures, but no. Old Thai lady had to go and steal stuff). Sorry had to get that anger out just then. That evening the three of us took a little bike ride up to the convient store and got our usual icecream BEFORE dinner, don’t ask why these two retards want it before dinner, but its whatever lol. On Saturday we hung out with the kidders after they did their chores, watched them practice their praise and worship songs, then headed to a place down the road called “hot springs” and got a full hour Thai Massage for THREE DOLLA!!! It may have been the best one we’ve got yet. That evening Deb took us and the girls to a night bazaar, lets just say Christin and I spent more money on food and drinks than we did souveniers lol, they had soooo many goodies and food stands it was ridonkulous! It was really awesome though because things are a lot cheaper in Chaingrai than Bangkok and its a lot more authentic. There was a band playing and all these cute older Thai’s out doing this little Thai jig, and wouldn’t you believe CHristin and I had to take a shopping break to get out there and dance. It was seriously so awkward and fun (cute American boy with his mom…spotted). But yeah, I got all my friendsies gifts out of the way with one bulk purchase, lets just hope it all fits in my little bag I brought with me here till I can put it in my suitcase in Bangkok!!!

Chang Rai

So we arrived at the River of Life Orphanage today and its amazing here. Deb picked us up from the airport, we had breakfast, took about a four hour nap, then woke up in time to shower and go with Mike to pick the kids up from school. I obviously don't have a camera anymore (don't want to talk about it again) so I'm just relying on Christin's photos as she takes them, so I don't have any from today. But there are currently 17 children here at the orphanage now and they are just precious. It's alot different than I imagined, its more of a children's home. It's mostly girls and they've had a few of them for atleast ten years. After the kids did their chores we all went out and played volley ball for an hour or so, it was so much fun! The kids are sweet as can be and the older girls can speak a good bit of english. After volley ball we washed up and had dinner, the kids were pretty shy at first but after dinner Christin and I went up to the older girls room and hung out awhile. They were so funny, we talked about boyfriends, school, compared our English and Thai, and laughed about silly things like whose feet stink. I wish we had longer here, I can already tell I love this place and the Wheeler's are such a blessing. We're laying in bed at 9pm now, because we're getting up in the morning to do the bible study with the kids before they go to school. Christin, Alyse and I are taking a bus tomorrow to the Burma border to do some shopping and see a more poverty shriken area (I dont think we're going to cross over though). I'll have less pictures now, but I'll hopefully get some pictures up of the kiddos tomorrow!

Heading north for the week

Monday night after we got back from the beach the BCC administration took us out for a going away dinner. Okay, it was definitely the most food I have eaten since I've been here. We went to The Grand Hyatt Hotel where they had a huge buffet of food from everywhere! I pigged out on some sushi, chicken in mushroom sauce stuff, and yummy desserts. My supervisor and head of the English Immersion Program is the sweet muslim lady standing in the back, Ajhan Fa. Ajhan is the Thai title like "teacher Allison." She's so sweet though, she's one of the many reasons I would love to come back to BCC. I have so many things that I want to write on here but I won't until everything is final. All I'm saying is me and Min are Bangkok bound HOPEFULLY :) AHHHH!

This would be a motorbike taxi...they are actually pretty dangerous to ride according to some people. We really just wanted to do it before we left...and it was way to fun! So Christin and I hop on the back of two bikes...we tried to ride with the cute guy but the other guys diverted us...boo. As soon as we hop on though, we start driving on this huge highway AGAINST traffic! Like, going the opposite way! I was gripping the back of my bike praying we got there okay, and everytime we would squeeze between two cars I would literally suck in like that was going to help me fit hahah. I don't know how they do it, they drive on sidewalks, drive between cars while driving at like 40 mph...its ri-donk-ulous! It was fun to see other parts of Bangkok though because we ride the BTS to work EVERYDAY, so we see the same things, I really enjoyed it. I've heard some pretty scarry stories of riding those, but we just wanted to get our fix and ride them once before we head out. Christin definitely sat sideways, like most Thai women do. No thank you, this big girl wanted to evenly distribute my weight on each side and not have two nobby knees hanging off the side to get whacked off by a car lol.

Okay seriously, how cute is this picture? Christin and I fell asleep like this last night :) Like we both have our little hands folded under our face and everything...I laughed so hard when I saw our friend took this picture. Too funny :) I'm going to feel lost when I have my own huge bed by myself and I don't have Christin to talk to as I read and fall asleep...no homo haha. I love that we passed out fully clothed with our shoes on. We woke up late for our flight to Chang Rai this morning and it was just a disaster! We had to pack up, jump in a taxi, and RUN halfway to the airport cause they dropped us off earlier than they were suppose to! Thankfully we got there in time and Josh Wheeler's sweet mother picked us up from the airport. We're staying with them at their orphanage these next three or four days. She made us rice with scrambled eggs and dell sauce for breakfast...SO GOOD! I'm seriously going to learn how to cook all this when I get back (aka learning to cook rice).

They LOVE to be filmed

Before the boys go to lunch they have to say a prayer as a class, in this one they are saying "Heavenly father, we thank you for the food we eat. God bless my father, my mother, my teachers, and God bless BCC! Amen." Aren't they precious? They act silly as soon as you bring a camera out so they usually sit so sweet with their hands folded and everyone yells it. Remember, about 99% of the students and faculty are Buddhist, so its interesting to see them say this prayer (the school was founded by Christians so they have to, and they have to attend a christian chapel every week). Hopefully it plants a seed :)

This is my dancing Diva, Ratchawat! Everyday he says "teacha watch me tap dance!!" And I get so tickled, so I had to take a video to show all of you. Thailand's got talent?

My knuckle head 3rd graders went bonkers when I took this video. Every class when you walk in they are suppose to be sitting quietly and the class leaders says "Class stand, put your hands together" and they all say "good morning teacher allison!!" And I tell them good morning, have a seat, and they say "Thank you teacher allison!" They wai every time they say it and its too funny. I can't wait to come back here and teach next year! Oh yeah, that is kind of the plan Mom and Dad :) hahah we'll talk about it when I get home? LOVE YOU!!

No Camera=no pictures, these are my last ones :(

Take a moment....okay we're good. This is our cutsie little british PE coach, Andy. Christin took this and I'm out of pictures to put up here as we lazily sit and blog now that we aren't teaching.

Okay so Friday was our last day of teaching right? Yeah, I literally cried when I left the classroom, I LOVE MY KIDS! But all of the faculty in our office presented us with a large picture frame of us and our class (I'm not smiling in mine and Christin isn't even looking, Christian one of the guys made it which makes it all the more funnier! It literally was the worse picture out of the TEN he took, so funny but cute!!) and we all had a pizza party. This is a picture of everyone in our little office that we got to know over our course of teaching here, they are so sweet!!

This...well this was our Friday evening picture. We went out to a new area we had never been before with some friends we've made here and some of their friends. We listened to a Thai band play, I love that they play about 80% american music, so fun! But we had a little dinner, watched TV, then went out and listened to this band and met some cool people. It's never a dull day or night here in Bagkok.

So we definitely went to Koh Samet beach this weekend, oh what an adventure. This is the moped we rented as SOON as we got there, best idea we've had yet!! We had to take a two hour mini bus to the waterline, then a fifteen minute ride on a speedboat, then we got off the speedboat and just started walking around looking for somewhere to stay. We stayed in this crappy little roomand it was only $20 for the night lol, I'm talking our shower leaked into our whole room and you had to literally straddle the toilet while you showered because the bathroom was so little and the shower is just in the middle of it!! I loved our room though, and even more so this sweet little moped. It was only $10 to rent for the day, and we rode it all around the little island, thankfully we still have all of our limbs!!! We were driving on little dirt roads with potholes and passing trucks with just enough room for us to squeeze by, it was scary but we got the hang of it real quick. We're big girls...that little thing had power!
These are the fine British gents we met during our two days there, they saved us from a crazy group of Canadians lol and we hit it off pretty quick. Okay so lets talk about how all of us were hanging out at the beach, not even 150 feet from our stuff and some old hag of a lady stole my camera and wallet!! It's alot of tourist so not even thinking, I hid my purse with our stuff and within FIVE minutes she had come over and taken it, they sit and wait for those opportunities! These two guys helped us search the beach for her and there was no sign. All I'm saying is that someone must have been praying for Christin and I at 3 in the afteroon, because we definitely had angels around us at one point when we were faced with some locals. That's all I'm going to say. But we had a complete blast, it was sad to leave Sunday evening, but I obviously have alot to figure out money wise, I don't have my drivers license, debit cards, or the cash I had in there! Luckily I had just pulled my passport out and left it in my travel bag or that would have been real bad!! But yes, this is Adam on the left and Alex on the right, total sweethearts :)
This has snuck up and become our SECOND favorite meal in thailand, this was at our usual coffee shop for lunch! It's called, and excuse the spelling this is just how you pronounce it, "cow-man-guy." UUUGH, its so freakin good. They always put a fried egg on top of the rice and its just delicious! My body is going to hate me when I go back to eating nasty greasy american food that comes in portions big enough to feed a whole family here lol. Literally, at DQ their "take home pint of ice cream" is like a normal large serving at our DQ!!! The portions are usually so small here, unless you go somewhere touristy and they pile it up.
These are my 3rd graders and I snuck this picture while Jayson was going over some stuff with them at the end of class. This is the technique we do to hold there attention. They will be talking, cutting up, doing there work whatever and as soon as you say "boys, hands on your head!" they do it and its good because they can't keep doing there work or write or anything, they HAVE to look at you and pay attention. This little one in the front right with the blue jacket on is Siraphop, and he wears that jacket everyday and its blistering hot here! You can't see his little hair but it sticks STRAIGHT UP, its sooo cute! He reminds me of a little american skater punk with his saggy little shorts, so funny.
Atid is such a little goofball, these were the cones we used during PE and he has big ears so he could get this things to stay on there. He looks like a little asian Shrek :) Everything they do is so cute to me.
Okay so Thursday the school had a circus in the middle of the "football pitch" also known as the soccer field lol. They set up like 3,000 or so chairs, this huge stage and everything in like FIVE HOURS!! But this is a circus group from China and these kids aren't even real people. Like they can fold their body up and twist in ways that shouldn't be possible (erin owenby, I put in an application for you!! Keep those stretches up!!) In this picture these girls are balancing on each other as they SIT ON THEIR OWN HEAD!! Like the face you see on teh bottom, that first set of legs are HERS! Their balance and flexibility is amazing. Christin and I literally sat there with our mouth wide open for an hour squeezing each others leg out of sympathy pain because they were just moving like I've never seen a human move before. The kids ages ranged from like 5-15 too!

Coming back to Bangkok? Yes, actually.

This is our rigged up movie night hahaha. So I told you Christin and I pushed our little single beds together the first night, right? Yeah so all five of us piled up on our two little beds one night, put my computer desk chair up there and propped Christin's laptop up and watched Slumdog Millionaires (I insisted that Christin watch it because we see the SAME STUFF HERE!!) I cried, and cried. It kills me, sorry if you haven't watched it- but we see SO MANY blind people walking around and all i can think about is this movie. It was too much emotional drainage for one night. But doesn't our rigged movie theater look so fun? Cause it was!
Okay so this is by far our favorite spot that we have found here in Bangkok!! Every Thursday-Sunday they have stands EVERYWHERE with noodles, rice, drinks, every Thai food imagineable seriously. This weekend is World Music Fest so there is food and bands from lots of different countries, and charity booths to help blind, disabled children, and just different organizations. Tonight Christin and I had a true Thai dinner where we got 30 cent noodles, took our shoes off and sat on mats while we listened to a Brazilian band play the drums! We just sat there soaking it all in since we're leaving in TWO WEEKS!! :(
So Chinese New Years is Feb 14th, see ya Valentines Day! You don't need a date for this...not when you have me, Christin, and a huge country like Thailand :) These are decorations at the mall by our apartment, asians are so festive and decorative, to say the least! And yes, I'm wearing a scarf in 90 degree weather, its totally normal here lol.
So I help out with third grade P.E and these are some of my little monsters :) They are so much cuter than pictures can even show! This was us out at the "football pitch" aka SOCCER FIELD...haha can't hate a hot british accent/lingo.
These are my second grade babies, the class that the school actually OFFERED ME TODAY! That's right, I got my first job offer!!! heeeeey-o! We just listened to a CD and they are finishing their phonics workbooks. Thankfully they were angels on my second to last day with them. I teach brothres (one is in my 2nd and one is in my 3rd), and my second grader caught wind that I'm leaving Friday and was so upset in class...it was adorable. He was like "TEACHA TEACHA my brotha tell me you leave Friday, is he lie? You're not leave, right????" hahah I literally almost cried, no but seriously. I have to come back.
These are the boys with their lunch. The closest one to the camera is Poom (he's such a handsome little guy!!) Everytime I say his name in class I start singing "Gotta put that POOM in it, POOM in it" (Boom in it by Mario?) Yeah well its funny to me anyways. The one in the back is such a little goofball, I don't know WHY the boys do this pose for EVERY PICTURE! They put their little pointer finger and thumb under their chin and cheese, like all 30 of my kids do it sometimes...who knows? Between that and the peace sign it seems normal now lol.
This is my 3/10 (one of the two of my third grade classes). They are the bad class, I'll just say that real quick. They are cute as a freakin button though. They were eating lunch and I pulled out the camera and before you knew it they were on top of DESK, falling off, just going bonkers trying to get in the picture!! So I got most of them out in the hall and we just took a group picture :) Don't you just want to adapt some of these kids???

Stamp that passport

I never do finish a whole post because I get so annoyed with how slow our internet is where we live. It is slowly hitting us that we only have a week left in Bangkok teaching, then almost two weeks to travel around, I want to cry just thinking about it! This weekend has been great though to say the least! Friday night we went and watched some old Thai dancing/play (yawn) and then went out to a local restaurant/bar and listened to a band play. While we were there we met two guys from South Africa that work at our competing rivalry school here and talked to them for most of the evening. As usual we went from casual conversation about Bangkok and teaching, to american politics (not by choice) and then to religion. Both the guys were in their late twenties, grew up as christians, and "quit believing once they got educated." Now Christin and I are not ones to argue and prove right or wrong when it comes to religion, so we let them do most of the talking at first. I think because we weren't aggressive about it one of them was really interested to hear what we believed and why. Of course they kept making snide little comments about us being Christians, but overall it was a good night and conversation. It's crazy that we work at a "christian college" here and you can probably count on one hand how many faculty/students are christian. Most people we've met here are like "ooh christians ay? We better watch out or they'll judge us!" It's REALLY disheartening that christianity has that reputation not just overseas (but its worse where christianity is so small) but also among non christians in America. Anyways, so yesterday I went out and explored some of the big malls and marts on my own for the first time and bought two full outfits, but you'll never believe how much I spent all together ($15!!) That is two dresses, two pairs of shoes, two headbands, an ice cream and a smoothie!! Its so big and gorgeous here, the 2nd and 3rd pictures is the area I was shopping at by where we live :) They just put out a bunch of huge tigers heads getting ready for CHINESE NEW YEARS!!! It's february 14th and we definitely plan to celebrate it since we were traveling during our new years :( Christin and I got ready around 5 and went a few train stops up to a place called Sala Daeng where we had a mexican dinner with virgin margaritas, it was really authentic food too (not like las mas lol). After that we shopped around Patpong which is an area of little marts, food, music, and all those sort of beauties of Thailand. We walked by this one area (the picture of neon lights saying "dream boy, fresh beach boy, future boys" etc, yeah, the door was open to one of them and as they were haggling us to come in we saw these teenage asian boys all standing in line, in their white tighties with a number pinned to them. We asked the owner what it was (obviously having a good idea) and he said "women or gay men come and by them for 400-1000 baht (thats $12-$30) for sex or whatever they want. We could see some old white men sitting in there just starring at the boys and we literally freaked out. We left that street and walked a good five minutes in silence. Talk about ruining your night, we were in tears looking at those young boys, we have kids at our school no younger then them!! Ugh it was so disgusting. But needless to say we left that street and shopped some more. We met two guys from New York and hung out and talked with them for a bit, super cool guys! Greg and I wore our tattoo sleeves around all night lol. Since we had a really early dinner we sat at a table out on the street and had some delicious Pad Thai with the boys, but little did we know the whole area we were in was a homosexual area! Christin and I slowly realized we were the only REAL girls (as oppose to the many lady boys around us) on the street hahah.We went upstairs to this Karaoke area and sang for like an hour with 5-10 gay guys, where we met our first southern american!! He was from Nashville with a cute little Thai boyfriend, and his dad is a southern baptist preacher. We had an absolute blast!! One said, "Hmm girl, you dress very pretty" lol. The best part was that we sang Thai songs and we just sang what was on the screen and they were like "you girls Thai very very good!!" Obviously we didn't have a clue what we were saying, but they loved singing some old American music. Christin and I sang "have you ever seen the rain" and they danced around with us and chimed in. Great times. I love the big city, the different people we meet along the way, and the food. I don't want to leave. We slept in today and I woke up sore from all the dancing (excuse me, "creative movement") so I went and got a Thai massage to start the day for 200 baht ($6). You can't beat that, my body is going to go into shock when I get back and don't have my thai and foot massages every week!!

Boys will be boys

This first picture is of the P.E. class that we help out in (that’s the hot british guy lol). This week Christin and I time their fifty yard dash, then the whole class plays chair ball, which means Christin and I stand on chairs with buckets and try to catch when our team shoots. It’s a nice way to get teaching hours and a nicebreak to a long day of teaching! It’s funny because this guy Andy is from GB, so we’ve picked up little words like “lift” instead of elevator and we catch ourselves saying them throughout the day lol. Our kids have a funny English vocabulary too because they have English speaking teachers with different dialects from all over the world!

This picture is of one cute little buddy all decked out in his boyscouts uniform. On Friday all the boys and Thai teachers wear their boyscouts unifroms, which is the shirt, scarf and hat. This is the picture he drew Heidi, isn’t he just too cute? The one on the left is of my crazy 3^rd grade remedial class, I teach them the last 3 minutes of lunch break. They get an hour long lunch break to run around the school, eat down at the canteen or do whatever they want. The ones who are struggling in certain subject areas use that time to do remedials and I get to count it as an hour of teaching time J As you can see on the board behind me we were going over adjectives, and those were words describing Nattipat (the one with the glasses). They obviously don’t want to use their lunch break to study, so they can be a handful some days!!

Austrailian Day anyone?

Who knew there was one day out of the year that Australia dedicated to no work and all play? Because I sure didn’t, but Christin and I quickly have become fans of this holiday! (this is ole Aussi Phil and I comparing whose mouth is bigger lol). It was January 26^th and we took the liberty of celebrating it with a group of Aussi’s we met here one day. After a long day of work, we threw on our bathing suits and a $4 dress we bought at the beach and headed over to their hotel. They have a sweet pad to say the least, although its nothing compared to our large shower/toilet/bathroom and cold tile floor, with rock solid beds…its pretty amazing. We literally just sat and marveled at their marble floors and huge rooms. Two of them had on matching shirts that said “Australia” with kangaroos all over it lol. They “grilled some ribs on the Barbie” (although ribs is totally not a norm in Australia), some corn, potato salad, and peas. Given the fact that T

hailand doesn’t have a Wal-Mart so finding ingredients for all that food was hard, it was quite deliciousus. Lets talk about how Christin and I DEMOLISHED some ribs. I’m talking they made at least 10 racks of them and there were about 7 of us all together. We hadn’t had a rich American meal like that since we’ve been here so we were in tears eating them haha. Don’t be mistaken though, we are dreading coming back to the states and eating all of our greasy, 4 person servings every meal lol. After we ate and chatted a bit we all went swimming and played games, it really was a lot of fun. Wednesday we went to see 3D Avatar (for my 3^rd time since its been out) at the Paragon mall since none of the girls had seen it yet. Before the movie starts the whole theater stands out of respect while they play the King’s song. Lets talk about how they played a video while his song played of him helping the poor, getting crowned, and little things like that and I CRIED!! Hahaha I couldn’t help it, he just seems so sweet!! After being here a month and hearing the anthem, seeing his face plastered all over everything, and the respect this ENTIRE country has for their king just hit me while they played this little video and we all stood in a MOVIE THEATER! Seriously though, can you imagine if we stopped walking, traffic, everything, and stood to play Obama’s song? No, there would be 10000 law suits so that “people would have the right to stand or not” yada yada yada. I have a lot of respect for the level of respect that people have for one another (from what I can tell). But with all that said, the movie was really good and I’m just glad Christin can start taking part in conversations now lol. Every time we’re out talking to different people and the conversation dies, it automatically leads to “so have you seen Avatar?” Because face it, that is one thing all nations have in common is American entertainment and movies, lol. Last night we were out and about and found a new area we didn’t even know existed RIGHT BESIDE where we live! In between these other two HUGE malls there is a long, patio like area and they had live music, and a bike show (who would have thought we’d see Harley’s and true bikers in Thailand??). So Christin takes a bold step and I SITG'd to the extreme, that's how we roll. That's all I'll say. Afterwards we celebrated by listening to the live band and eating noodles from a little stand. These people cook enough of each different dish of noodle to feed atleast 50 people and pile them like two feet high on trays and just stick them out on the table. I got one called “mai mai pet” and it was soooo good! As we set and listened to music, looked at the little shopping tents along the streets and the two huuuuuge lit up buildings we were sitting between, we were in tears thinking about leaving. We only have one more week of teaching, 4 days of beach, and one week of Chang Mai and Chang Rai and we’re leaving (3 weeks)!!!! We have come to LOVE the Thai food, like seriously. We eat it for almost every meal (except for the 7 Baht= 20cent McDonalds ice cream cone we get everyday). Pictures don’t do justice and capture just how big this place is. I know I’ve said it before but its literally like Times Square on 4 or 5 different corners of where we live. We casually walk to dinner and everynight there is something crazy going on. There is never a moment we DON’T have something to do (I mean I know in Cleveland we have Las Mas…but lets be real) lol. This last picture is a little BNF love to my theta folkies (if any of you even read this!)

Weekend Festivities

This weekend was great. Friday we celebrated “tap night” Thai style, and I even wore a dress with a cute little purple and navy blue owl on it that I bought here. We met some Russian’s and a few groups of Thai people and just hung out for the evening and listened to some good music J Saturday was a long, rough, yet eventful day for me. We got up at 8:30 and saw some museums/touristy things…I honestly couldn’t even tell you what the first two places were cause I hate that kind of stuff (yeah, I’m still immature and don’t appreciate historical things). We did see the temple that had the biggest golden buddah in Thailand (first picture, people are paying reverence to it and giving gifts). Then we had lunch in China town, that was super cool until I got sick and had to SPRINT to the restroom (or “hong nam” in Thai) where I started uncontrollably throwing up. Remember, they don’t have normal toilets, no they have “squatty potties” which is a little porcelain bowl about 5 inches high. So I’m aiming for this little thing only to find out I threw up all over my shoes. In America, not a big deal you can wash them off in the sink. THEY DIDN’T HAVE A SINK THOUGH. We shopped around China Town awhile which was a neat place, it just had millions of little shops all over the streets. After lunch I was sick, hot, and not wanting to be out and about…and what did we go see? The Kings Palace. It was cool and I’m glad I can say I’ve seen it, but I was neither in the mood or impressed by it at all. That evening we rushed back and got ready because we had plans with some Austrailian friends we made here our first week. We went out to dinner on Kho San Road, which has tons of little shops, restraunts, and bars. I was done with Thai food for the day so I had some yummy fish and chips and we all people watched for a while. Kho San Road is where all the backpackers and people stay so it was the first since we’ve been here this last month that we’ve seen just an area full of “falangs” or foreigners! It was so weird and I didn’t really like it. We live/hang out where all the local Thai people are and its really fun, but it was interesting to hear and talk to people from literally every country. Sunday four of us headed to Hua Hin beach again and once again, I got burnt and I’m peeling. While we were laying out and our cabana boy was delivering our drinks, we met our first Amerian since we’ve been here a MONTH!! There are a few americans where we work but we literally haven’t talked/seen any when we’re out. Then Monday Christin and I went back to Kho San road for some shopping and dinner and it was quite the experience. Its funny because being here everything is so cheap, so you know what the expected price of a dress or shoes should be. Since that is where all the foreigners hang out they jack the prices up and they would ask for 300 baht (equivealnce of $10) and we’d be like NO WAY!! In America we’d buy a dress for $10 in a heartbeat!! But since you KNOW you can get the same dress down the street for $5 you’re mad when they ask for that extra dollar or two lol. We took a shopping break at a restraunt there on the street and met our second American. He was from NY and was quite a jerk, I don’t know why we talked to him as long as we did. Probably because we met the Switzerland people he was hanging with and before you know, we were walking around this little chill out area talking to people from London, Swtizerland, Portugal, Netherlands, EVERYWHERE! We got into a lot of interesting conversations and tried to take pictuers of most of them. Meeting different people has been by far my favorite thing about being here!!

So after taking a 4 hour nap and sleeping for 12 hours last night, Christin and I didn't wake up and go to school till around 12. I taught three straight 2nd grade classes so even the half day felt really long. We've been taking our meds and drinking plenty of water so I'm already feeling a little better today. The sleep really helped! I'm stressing because my Regions banking account won't let me withdrawl money because I forgot to tell them I was going out of the country, and I left my cell phone in our lobby yesterday during our nap and now I can't find it :( No one has turned it in so obviously someone stole it, but it won't cost but maybe $15 cause its a "GO" phone. Other than that today went well. Nothing real exciting so I thought I would tell you about our room This first picture is the view of our bedroom from the bathroom doorway. The first day we moved into them the two twin beds were separated by a desk and Christin and I quickly pushed them together to make one large queen size bed lol. The mattresses are rock solid, like no bed I have ever felt before. Like seriously. We have two desk and one big HUTCH (my fav). We split the hutch which is plenty big enough for the two of us, and we have our own desk which we obviously DON'T use since we spend so much time at one during the day! The beds are indeed rock hard, but they ended up not really sleeping that bad, I actually like them now lol. That "open" area by our beds is where we do our intense floor/ball workouts! This second picture is our bathroom, when we first saw this we literally almost cried. The shower head splits the sink (to the left, not pictured) and the toilet on the right. There are no walls, no nothing, just one huge room and floor with a curtain shielding the toilet for some reason when you shower. You would think it would be between the sink and shower, but no. While you shower if anyone opens the door you are totally in the middle of the room. Again, I thought "oh no" but i love it now! We have to wash our own panties/bras which sucks, but where we stay washes and hangs up our clothes for us. We always fill a bucket up they provide us with water and laundry detergent, and scrub our undies the old fashion way lol. Hang them up in the corner. Glad Mumsey taught me how to hand wash before I left. I barely knew how to use a washer, SURE didn't know how to hand wash things!! I'm daddy's little girl, and Mumsey's world. What can I say?? :) A maid comes every other day, so I can't complain. It's a pretty nice little place in a GREAT location! Okay thats all I have for now.

Under the Weather

So Christin and I woke up after getting a GOOD 2 hours of sleep...maybe! We coughed our heads off all night and just woke up feeling like crap. Of course, the one day we feel bad the BTS trains were "delayed" so it took us FOREVER to get to school and we did alot of unnecessary standing around. This picture is from our office of the boys in the morning standing for their national anthem and then they do exercises. It's like a 30 minute process and we have a huge glass overlooking them so I love watching. Everyone...including people walking down the street, cars, everyone....stops while the school plays the national anthem. The boys are so cute all singing it at once in front of our building! As soon as we got to work our supervisor Chris saw us and sent us to get medicine immediatly cause he said everyone had been getting this cold virus thats going around and it only gets worse...so we had to hop BACK on the BTS and we spent $30 at Boots getting perscriptions. We headed back to school, taught one class, and they sent us home for the day. We layed around and skyped/stalked people from school (LOVE OUR NEW BIG BROTHERS!!) and it made me miss them. Such a fun week this is at Lee University!! We took a 3 or 4 hour nap then got up for dinner. Every day we are marveled at how big this city really is, living here and getting in routine we sometimes forget how cool and big it is. We sat outside awhile tonight just marveling at everything going on and the beauty of the buildings and decorations. Asians sure know how to make malls/sidewalks/whatever look stunning. This second picture is a wall with water running down it and the picture doesn't do it justice cause the whole place is lit up with stairs and a live band playing nearby. I hate taking pictures because you can't capture everything, it just really doesn't do it justice! Christin and I always get our little 7 baht ice cream cone from McDonalds after dinner, and tonight we just sat on the stairs and looked around and soaked it all in. We wanted to go see Avatar in 3D Imax but they had false advertisement about the price and we were mad so we just decided not to. Plus we need to lay around and rest tonight! I love skype, its so fun to get to see and talk to people from home! It's crazy because within 1 hour I skyped my Epsilon grandbig, big, little, and grand little. I love that purple. I wish you all could see Christin and I sitting here now listening to this band practice in the lobby area where we stay looking super rough and listneing to them practice the same song over and over and over for two hours!! Every night they do this. SO ANNOYING. Along those same lines...we have a bird outside of our apartment. Every night, every evening, and every morning it chirps "who-o" in a rising tone (and super loud). Have you ever seen Failure to Launch? Well thats us...wanting to sit and wait for it with a BB gun lol. This trip couldn't be going more perfect. I know all I talk about is Christin on this thing, but thats because our office is together and we room together. I love the other three girls with us...we all mesh so well...I wish I would have known them better these last 2 years at Lee. BUT this trip is making up for all that time passed becuase we spend everyday together!! lol. So we work at "Bangkok Christian College" which is a 1-12 boys school, although 95% of the teachers and students are buddhist, there are still bible verses around campus. On our building as we walk in is the last picture. If I wasn't teaching and didn't want visible tattoos I would totally get this verse in the Thai script you see above it tattooed somewhere. Mumsey, Fatha, calm down, I'm not going to do it lol. But Thai script is so pretty...and after the little things that have stressed me out this week there couldn't have been a better verse for me to ponder on as we walked into work. I love it.

Losing weight

So I bought a $4 exercise ball from Walmart before we left, and we have broke it out and began our serious lose-weight-cycle. We take turns doing squats, sit ups, pushups, etc with the ball...and I can already tell I'm trimming down just a little. I love it, its good to expend a little energy at the end of the day! A poster with exercises came with the ball and I thought I should bring it too lol. When I pulled it out of my suitcase I realized I had nothing to hang it on the wall with, so after a minute of thinking and then it happened. I saw some pads sitting in the corner of the room...I mean adhesives are all the same, right? I would have loved to see our maid's face when she came to clean today and saw our poster hung up by pads, so trashy. Last night while we were working out we turned our air conditioner on high, and like dummies we left it on high all night long :( We both woke up in the middle of the night coughing our heads off, runny noses, and dry mouths. Christin has been coming down with a cold or cough from the pollution for a few days, today was my first drowsy day :( I get tickled at how everyone here wears masks but I'm seriously thinking about getting my own. While we were riding in the car to get our hair done the other day I was looking around and the pollution is literally so bad it is ALWAYS smoggy just above the tall buildings everywhere. Some days when its really hot I feel like I have trouble breathing just walking to the BTS station, its like I have been smoking for 10 years now. No bueno. The guys advised us to get some Vitamin C and it would clear right up. School was pretty slow today, but I've been reading A Change of Heart, but Jodi Pocci and its really good. I have to make myself stop reading it to go to class sometimes. I would make my parents proud right now because this is the second book I've read this trip and I HATE READING :) I was NOT blessed with their love for art and literature! I feel like we are in a routine since we have to teach five days a week, but it never fails that I see new things everyday, I love it! The cute little buddy (i put a picture of carrying the books a few blogs ago) sits beside the teachers desk and today while Jayson was teaching Science and I sat at the desk he just stared at me the entire hour. Its funny though cause while he's working I stare at him. HE'S SO FREAKING CUTE. I kept looking over at him and he would griiiiiiin and get back to work, he's the first kid I just fell in love with here. But because we are all "falangs" (what they call us, it means foreigner, they casually switch L and R sounds alot lol) we people watch, and they watch us right back. It's really fun but somtimes it gets kinda awkward. Okay so one thing that I haven't really indulged but I've fully embraced the idea of is STREET FOOD!! Everywhere you walk there are little vendors along the sidewalks with fruit, meat/pork on a stick, sticky rice, sushi....everything. It is the cheapest way to eat and it smells DELICIOUS! I've been very cautious because its easy to get sick eating that food, I mean you never know if their hands are clean or if the foods fresh before they cook it. But I HAVE started eating it a little bit since I've been here a few weeks and my body has built up some bacteria here. The second picture is one of our highschool students getting a snack by the school afterwards at one of the street food stands. It's really a cool concept, of course my chubby cheeks wants America to pick up the idea lol. Can you imagine a las mas taco stand by the school? YES PLEASE. So this bottom picture is of one of my 3rd grade buddies I passed watching soccer after school. Doesn't he just melt you're heart? Okay Epsilon and Lee University folk....doesn't he look like an Asian Drew Smith (Tori and Jamie's bestfriend)??????? hahahah i kept thinking...he reminds me of someone!! Then as I was taking the picture it hit me. It's crazy that I'll be walking down these huge streets in the middle of BANGKOK and think I see someone from home, even though the person is obviously Asian!! They still look similar to people back home, and I'm not crazy, it's happened to all the girls. So I just found out that where we are staying is actually a boys dormatory for colleges here in Bangkok lol. We met some of the guys tonight after dinner and played a little pick up game of soccer then basketball (you know which one we dominated, and its NOT soccer). One guys name is Duo, he goes to college down the road, and speaks very well english. He was an exchange student for three years in Mississippi. I'm telling you, we meet the neatest people EVERYDAY! After we played around with them awhile we walked some parts of the streets around where we're staying we haven't seen yet. It was more out of the city where the locals hang out, very cool place to see. Hopefully we'll eat at a little outside dinner area there this week! Tomorrow is 80 baht movies night ($2.50) so I probably won't make it back in time to blog tomorrow! Sorry Mumsey, going to have to cheat on you again and watch Sherlock Holmes and all the newest movies without you!!! Right before we leave here we are treating to ourselves is to go watch Alice In Wonderland (which I thought was Allison Wonderland till I got to college lol) in 3d Imax because it comes out the week before we leave! It's going to be amazing.

Asian Michael Jackson? I do believe so lol! Today has had many highs and lows. School was great, I had 3rd grade for half the day and they really are precious. Its funny cause I always ask John "What should I do now?" and he's not certified so he's like why don't you teach me something new!! lol it just feels weird coming into someone else's classroom, using their lesson plan, and doing something completely different. It's fun though, I love the freedom to try new things and have help. One thing thats crazy is Christin and I haven't spent more than maybe an hour straight away from one another except for when we're both in class each day, and we see each other between almost every class lol. I get tired of people pretty quick and can't spend a long amount of time with but a few people, and Christin made it on that short list! Who would have known? We are some compatible as travelers together. We're down to do whatever the other one wants, we have our alone time by listening to our iPod, working out while the other one showers, just whatever it takes to make it work. It really is great. I don't miss home. Sometimes when I talk to people I feel like I'm missing out on epsilon stuff and things like that, but I'm definitely not homesick at all. I was in a really bad mood after we left work today and what did Christin do? Suggested a thai foot massage--this is why I love her. It was a much need way to spend our dollars. After we got our massage and Christin's "lady-boy" kissed us on the forehead awkwardly, we hit some gooood food. We splurged a bit and had mexican for dinner...which has only happend like 3 times since we've been here!! We had a delicious chicken quesadilla and chicken nachos...which was quite the treat after eating straight thai food for a few days. What I don't miss about mexican and american food is how full you feel afterwards, we literally waddled back to our apartment which never happens. I'm always full after I eat some chicken and rice, but never uncomfortably. On our way to dinner we saw a modeling shoot going on in the middle of the street (the picture where they are holding rakes), its cool because we always see random things like this in random places. Its like we forget we're in a huuuuge city because we live here now and its normal for things like that to go on (we see boxing matches by the mall, all kinds of random things!) I love the fashion here, if I were about 40lbs lighter (which isn't impossible) I would totally pull of their poofy shorts and baggy shirts. Speaking of losing weight, Christin and I laughed at dinner about how we spend 50% of our day justifying what we're eating. Whatever we eat we're like "I mean we walked extra today....we ate thai food all week...we saved money by not ____!" And before you know it, we've treated ourselves to a nice dinner, with a 7 baht McDonalds ice cream!! lol, exactly what we said we woudn't do (story of our lives here). Now I am sitting in the lobby impatiently waiting on the Lee University Help Desk to answer their phone so I can get on WebAdvisor and confirm my enrollment before they purge me out of my classes! Today was overall a great day minus all the monotonous conversations I had on facebook, but hey thats what I get for chatting instead of teaching, huh? We made up for it with all of our great "bad" decisions we made.