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???