Heather is coming to Asia!

    My good friend Heather is moving to the island of Macau, off the coast of China, near Hong Kong, with her husband Adam in a couple days! They signed a three year contract with a school to teach English and they are so excited! I am so excited to visit her and for them to visit me! She recently posted this wish list on her blog and I really loved it.  I stole it and changed it to fit my situation a little, because it had some amazing things to do on it! It makes me so excited to travel. When Heather and I met my sophmore year of college, we bonded over our love of travel and always talked about teaching abroad and now we are both doing it! Here is her South East Asian wish list! Look who is number 8....:-)

Our South East Asian wish list

50 things we hope to do and experience while living in South East Asia...

1. Scuba dive with a whale shark

2. Stare in awe at the mountaintop Buddha in Hong Kong

3. Eat a deep fried spider or scorpion (note: this is for Heather ONLY, she thinks they'll taste like crab- thanks Andrew Zimmern!)

4. Spelunk into the caves of Borneo

5. Make a difference in the lives of others

6. Gorge on Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches

7. Witness sunrise from the top of Mt. Kinabalu In Malaysia

8. Visit Chelsea in Thailand

9. Lounge on a boat down the Mekong River

10. Have fish eat our feet soft during a fish pedicure 

11. Relish Portuguese egg tarts at Lord Stows bakery in Macau

12. Learn Cantonese.

13. Feel like we're at the top of the world on the observation deck at the Macau Tower

14. Toast with a Singha in Thailand as the sun sets over the ocean

15. Savor laksa in Borneo

16. Explore a foreign country with friends and family from back home

17. Sail in a Chinese junk

18. Get a Chinese fighting fish as a pet, or is it just a fighting fish if you live in China?

19. Island hop through the Perhentian islands 

20. Ride in a tuk tuk through the streets 

21. Return to Bali to see old friends 

22. Be memorized by the sunset at Angor Wat, Cambodia

23. Take a ride on the back of an elephant 

24. Serve a meal we learned from a cooking class

25. Experience a live aboard dive boat

26. Discover the most friendly and yummy street food vendors in Macau

27. Move into an ocean view apartment

28. Love our careers

29. Volunteer in an orphanage

30. Take a stroll on the Great Wall

31. Experience a level 8 typhoon 

32. Pick Rick and Chris up from the Hong Kong airport

33. Go on a trekking adventure through the rural Lao wilderness

34. Make friends that will last a lifetime

35. Camp somewhere 

36. Devour a bowl of pho in Vietnam

37. Gamble a dollar in the Las Vegas of the East

38. Add 100 dives to our scuba dive log (Current count- Adam: 150 Heather: 99)

39. Zip line through the jungles of ________

40. Bungee jump off the worlds tallest bungee jump at 764 feet with Heather's sister Tiff (Note: Adam ONLY! Heather's not that crazy!)

41. Glide through the waters of Ha Long Bay aboard kayaks

42. Savor the romance of Luang Prabang, Laos

43. Relax while enjoying a Chinese massage

44. Meander through exotic markets 

45. Participate in a beach or underwater clean up

46. Attend the Formula One Grand Prix in Macau

47. Be dive and beach bums on Malapascua island in the Philippines

48. Take an overnight train ride complete with the smells and sounds from local culture

49. Gaze at a meteor shower from the beach of a remote tropical island

50. Enjoy the experience of a lifetime

Mel and I just got back from a crazy weekend and I will work on that post and pics later, gotta go to class! First class in two weeks and I have to teach a song called "The ASEAN Way." It is kinda creepy and cultish...Fun times! Love you all! See you soon Heather and Adam! :-)

NUEY WON!!!! Oh... and Sukhothai part 2

 Sorry last week was so emo, it was pretty stressful at Wat Metang!  Mel and I would go home and even though we would tell ourselves it isn't that big of a deal, we were just super tense and nervous all last week!

On Thursday, Nongnoot asked us if we would like to go back to Sukhothai because she had to go to a seminar in a neighboring province and Sukhothai was on the way.  Since Mel and I were busy with the speeches and hadn't really had time to plan anything we decided to take her up on the offer.  By bus, it is about 4 1/2 hours and you have to change buses in Phitsanulok. By car, it was about a 3 hour drive.  Super nice!

Last time we stayed in the Historical park area and did the Wats in the park.  This time we stayed in Sukhothai city and decided to explore some new things. We did this evening sunset tour called "Cyclying Sukhothai" and it was SO FUN! We went through villages and rice paddies and just kind of back roads Thailand, not touristy. It was beautiful.  The company is owned by a Belgian man, his Thai wife, Mam, and their son.  Our tour was around 3 hours long and had around 20 other people on it, ALL FRENCH! We think maybe the French Lonely Planet really hypes up Sukhothai or something because everyone we met that weekend was from a French speaking country.

Anywho, Mam took us all through the countryside and taught us about the rice paddies, spirit houses, interesting plants, and other random goodness.

Picture this: Riding on a bike through a rice paddy, a rainbow off to your left, the sun slowly going down on your right, and beautiful green rice paddies on either side of you.  It was one of those moments where Mel and I looked at each other and said, I can't believe we live here! It was a great moment and a great tour.  We were both wonderfully exhausted and sore by the end and ready to go to sleep!

Rainbow!

Mam showing us about the rice paddies! 

 Riding through the rice paddies!

The next day we went to the one Wat we had missed from our last visit, Wat Chang Lom.  Chang means elephants in Thai so we were expecting to see some elephant ruins.  We were not disappointed! It was very cool, with some elephants intact and some completely destroyed.

 We were the only ones there so we decided to take some fun pics!

Then, we went to the Ramkhamhaeng Museum, named and dedicated to the crown prince of Thailand. We weren't expecting much but we actually learned a lot about the different positions of the Buddhas and saw some pretty cool artifacts from the 13th century.
A really exciting thing about Sunday was our lunch, I had a club sandwich and Mel had spaghetti! This is not a big deal in America but in Thailand, especially in Phrae, it is AWESOME! We were in heaven! Nongnoot picked us up around 6:30 and we headed back to Phrae!

Speeches time!! So all last week we worked with our students on their 3 speeches and had a ton of fun working with them! It was like our own little family.  It was basically the 6 of us in a room together all day everyday and so we all got pretty close! All the kids wanted to do was take breaks, obviously, so we would make them practice for a certain amount of time and then they could play angry birds or temple run on my iPhone for a little bit.  They were obsessed and super good! They also taught us to play this jack-like game that they love to play. It was pretty cute because they were so excited to teach us!

This morning, Monday, was the competition in Phrae.  Everyone was sooo nervous! When Poom, Am, Nuey and Chain were speaking I swear I didn't breathe.  Mel kept calling me a stage mom. 555
 They all did so well though and no one forgot their speech! What we didn't realize/know and the teachers were really pissed about, was that children of foreigners could be in this competition, so the children of the filipinos who are English teachers were in the competition also. Some of them had been speaking English all of their lives.  One girl was named Amy Sanchez for crying out loud! So that was a little disheartening...
So everyone said their speeches, we had lunch and then they came back with the results! Nuey was the only one who had won, which was super exciting, I teared up a little...:-) So now she advances to the next round which is on Saturday and which Mel and I are helping to judge, I wonder who we will pick...(because this is Thailand and that isn't against the rules, by the way)

Chain, Poom, Am and Nuey!

Haha she was saying her speech to me this way, too cute!!

this is us by the end of the day...

Speech Day!!! 

Mel with Poom and Chain!

Me with Am and Nuey!

good luck!

Speech Update

So really there are FIVE speech topics.

Nonglak told us today that they could go up and pick my story, my family, my school OR my health and my environment. She just thought those other three were easier so she just told us about those three, and I guess the students can choose two different times so if they go up and choose my environment they can choose again and hopefully get one of the other three...

AND it isn't on Tuesday it is on Monday. I know that is only one less day but it's not like this competition is just thrown together last minute, let's get this right guys. They showed us videos today of past winners and said make their speeches better so they can win....ya ok thanks for the encouragement.

Mel and I were both visibly tense and Nonglak pats my arm and says be calm, don't worry. 555 ok.  I explained that the girls are still trying to memorize the first one, which I incorporated all three of the subjects in just in case they wouldn't have time to memorize all three, three minute speeches.  She can have one really great speech or three ok speeches.  Her answer: three ok speeches.  Mel and I are not entirely sure if she doesn't understand or is pretending not to understand...It is going to be a long week! Meanwhile I am saying the girls speeches in my sleep! "My father is an engineer and my mother is a government officer."

Am and Nuey practicing away!

 They wrote my name in Thai!

P.S. Nonglak just came in and told Mel and I that now on August 15, 16, and 17 we would be teaching Police Officers about how to talk to farangs. I guess all you can do is laugh and plug along!

Frustrating.

Warning this is a ranting post:
Ugh. This has been one of the hardest weeks here to date! All of this competition nonsense stresses me out and then you get 52 different stories of what is going on and what you are supposed to be doing.  This is usually ok but when it has to do with writing a dozen different speeches in a weeks time and getting three third graders to memorize them in a week it can get kind of irritating!
So here's the story. Nonglak come to me about a month ago and says there is some competition in a month, here are these three girls, write a speech for them about their "Life Story."  Sure, fine, whatever. We have now been practicing said speech for about a month now and the competition is supposedly in a week. (I am still not sure) Then another teacher, Teacher Tiantong, comes up to me and says, ok there is another competition in Phrae on the 23rd and this one is about their family, write a speech about that, three minutes, these two girls cuz the other one isn't as good (:-(), k great. Nonglak has come up and said ok so speech about family and story for the 23rd competition? Wait so they are for the same competition or different? Either way I need to write a whole new speech and have them memorize it in a WEEK! And the students are still trying to memorize the first one!!!! We don't have to teach next week and will just practice the speeches with our students, but who knows if that is really true! It changes every minute until just before it happens, meanwhile Mel and I are left piecing together stories of what different people are telling us. And you can't really ask questions because between everyone here they know a handful of words of English and will just answer you with a nod and a "mmmm." It can get frustrating.  And they told us that the 6th grade boy that Mel is teaching has won like every year! No pressure! So if they don't win, it is our fault! I was so stressed I started crying at lunch yesterday with Mel...:-(
Hard week. On the other hand, teaching is actually going really well. I was in the middle of teaching my 5/4 class yesterday when like five of my 6/7 boys kept walking by and looking into my class and waving at me. I waved them in and they came in and played the game with us and sat through the class even though they just had my class yesterday and had this exact lesson.  It was really cool and fun, I teared up a little....lol
 Then I got home and had an awesome care package waiting for me from Ali, full of chocolate, skittles and bracelets for lung cancer, which again made me cry...I think I just needed to cry out my stress!
As I am sitting here writing this Nonglak hands me a paper and the headline says "Impromptu Speech."  Then there are three bullet points with -My Story, -My Family, and -My School. She said just before the students will give the speech they will draw and get one of these three topics so I will need to have these three speech topics prepared for them....Oh Buddha give me strength.

Western Weekend!

This past weekend Mel and I went back to Chiang Mai to celebrate the 4th of July by having a Western style weekend! We had mexican food, (yeah, I know not American) went to a mall and realized we can no longer afford mall clothes, and saw a movie! My first time at a movie theater in over two months!!! It was awesome! They have three different popcorn options, banana flavored, regular and sweet. I got sweet and it was tasty if I do say so myself.  One drawback of having a Western style weekend is that you are now used to the East! I got a little sick from the food and I got to see the food again...if you know what I mean.
I also got a little homesick because there were a ton of families and travelers in Chiang Mai on summer break.  I am so used to only seeing Mel!
I took it easy Saturday and called it an early night.  On Sunday, we decided to pamper ourselves! Mel got an oil massage and I got a pedicure and reflexology, which is like a pressure point massage, it was AWESOME!

At school, we have been working hard training our students for the upcoming competitions.  They keep adding competitions, or changing things around. You would think we would be used to the chaos by now but alas, we are not.  Mel is now training some grade 6 students for the speech competition that is happening in a week and a half.  They told me yesterday that my girls were going to say there speeches at the morning assembly, the next day. (this morning) So I hurriedly added an ending, we practiced and this morning they said it.  They obviously did not know the ending but the rest they did so well on! I felt like their mom! Or stage mom! I didn't breathe the whole time they were on stage and said their lines as they said them.  I was super nervous. Afterwards, Nonglak came up to me and the girls and said this one was better than that one. !!!!!!!??? They are human beings! I was like they just learned the ending and they were awesome for saying it in front of 1,555 students and teachers!!! UGH! Then she told me that there is a Phrae speech competition on the 23rd and she wants me to write a speech for them. The subject is about family. Umm...ok. We have been working on this one for around a month and you want them to memorize a whole new one in a week and a half?! They are not robots?! Then she said I wouldn't teach all next week and we would just work on the speeches.  They are seriously obsessed with competitions. Whatevs. I really like working and helping with my little girls so I guess that's good!

Mint, Am, and Nuey! 

The view out of one of my classrooms!

I try and learn a couple student's names everyday, this is Toto! He made me a friendship bracelet :-)

Miss everyone and love you all! 

Sukhothai, Rain Storms, and the 4th of July!

We decided kind of last minute to go to Sukhothai, a city about 4 1/2 hours away, buy bus from Phrae.  It was the first capitol of Thailand, has a ton of ruins and is a World Heritage Site.  We booked a really nice guesthouse in Sukhothai for Saturday night and decided to play the rest of it kind of by ear.  We also invited our friends Jane and Erica, who live in the Nan province in a small, rural town called Taw Wang Paw, to meet us there. We were all pretty excited at this spontaneous trip.  First we had to take a 3 1/2 hour bus to Phitsanulok, where Mel and I found us a room to share for the night. It was cheap and ...interesting....but we just needed a place to crash before our bus to Sukhothai at 6 the next morning.  The room had a large bed, which we all four slept sideways on, and a huge cube-like structure in the corner with the shoilet. (bathroom/shower)  It was see through except for the curtains to give you a little privacy. It was pretty funny.
When Erica and Jane arrived at midnight, we went to go get a drink before turning in and happened upon an empty karaoke bar! I did it!  It was my first time, and it was perfect because it was to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” which my students sing to me all the time because they think Lady G and I are friends.  The DJ man kept playing Lady Gaga until Mel went up to make her own selection, Lady Marmalade! It was pretty fun.

The next morning we caught our early bus to Sukhothai.  We made reservations online at this place called the Pinpao Guesthouse, nice but didn’t break the bank.  When the songtau driver drove us there, a lady came out and told us it was closed because the owner was in Italy...SO THAILAND. She told us to go to his other guesthouse, the Orchid Hibiscus, which we saw but was twice as expensive! It was super pretty and nice but we didn’t want to pay more than we already had, but we didn’t have to, super cool! Check in wasn’t until 12 so we decided to hit the ruins! We walked to a bike shop and rented bikes for 30 baht for a day! ($1!!) The Sukhothai National Park is broken up into sections, North, Central, West, etc. and to get into a new section you have to pay 100 baht. We started with the Central section which has the main Wat, Wat Mahatat.  It is pretty big and beautiful!!! So many Buddhas and ruins:

Then we headed over to a pretty famous Wat, Wat Si Chum. It has a huge Buddha that has a large golden hand and is well known around Thailand.  It was beautiful and such a perfect day! 

More pics...

All of the heads were ripped off of this ruin :-(

We got a little sunburned... so we went back to our guesthouse and hung out at the pool.  They had these really nice cabanas so we swam, slept, read and ate. It was so nice. At night they have a pretty huge night market and we tried some different foods.  I had these chicken turnover things that were delicious! 

The next day we were pretty sore and sunburned so we hung out at the pool more and got ready to catch a noon bus back to Phitsanulok. First we had an AMAZING breakfast at the guesthouse.  They gave us honey with the honeycomb and bananas to drizzle it over...it was SO GOOD! They also had different jams and toast and eggs, yummy! 

After packing up and saying a reluctant goodbye we headed back to our little town.

It is now Thursday at 11:15 am and as I speak it has been POURING since 11pm last night! The school grounds are all flooded, I have never seen this much rain! I had to go from one building to the other, with shoes in hand, and the rain reached the lower part of my calves! It has reached half way up the wheel of the cars and motorbikes now! I guess this is the real rainy season! All of the kids are outside splashing in the little lake that has formed and running around screaming, it is pretty fun, but hard to teach during! 

Speaking of teaching, since it is the fourth of July, we are trying to teach about America! I lip synch the words to the “Star-Spangled Banner”  (I play the Carrie Underwood version and they all think it's me, it's great!), I show them where California is on a map of the US, show them pictures of fireworks and barbecues, and then have them draw and color a picture of the American flag! (Which they think is the Malaysian flag...) I guess it is pretty arrogant to assume they would know anything about American history but we were still pretty surprised to find out that they know absolutely nothing about America! When I show the map of the US, I have had multiple students ask where Thailand is on it...lol. But they were excited to draw and color the flag and have me take pictures of them!

My 6th graders!

My 4th graders, Noon and Mark! 

This weekend we are going back to Chiang Mai to have a western style weekend! We are going to try and see a MOVIE, eat Mexican food, and go to a mall! It is definitely going to be exciting! Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Love you all!