Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas in Bangkok, Thailand

For Christmas weekend, we splurged and stayed at a lovely hotel along the riverside in Bangkok. We really enjoyed the shower (complete with an actual shower door!), a comfy bed, and towels that actually fit! On Christmas Eve, we went shopping at MBK, pampered ourselves with mani's and pedi's, ate Mexican food with margaritas, and enjoyed a movie with wine at our hotel.




On Christmas Day, we went to Bourbon St. for a lunch buffet with our dear friend, Rose. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening lounging poolside along the river. We had some champagne and toasted to Rose's engagement. We, also, were able to see the movie, "Tron", with our friend, Jon. Overall, although we missed our families back home, we had a lovely Christmas.

~ Stacy





Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Reclining Buddha - Thailand

Here are a few pics from a recent visit to the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok:

~ Randi and Stacy



Turkey Day - Thailand
















To celebrate the beginning of the holiday season, I decided to have all my students make Turkeys by tracing their hands and then writing what they were thankful for on the fingers. It took a bit of explaining, they don’t really have turkeys here in Thailand, so I went around explaining it was a larger version of gui (chicken in Thai). I then had to explain "thankful"; even this took a lot of explaining. It was a great success and even Win and Stacy joined in, though they teach older students. It was a nice break from teaching from a book and the kids really got into coloring and designing their turkeys. Most of the turkeys were very impressive.  Many of the things students were thankful for were extremely common: family, friends, teachers, the King and Queen, Thailand, etc. I also got some very interesting things to be thankful for: girlfriend(s), boyfriend(s), computer games, Korea, eggs, my body, me, Anime, cartoon books, etc.  All in all it was a fun project and a nice way to expose the kids to an American holiday. As all of the foreign English teachers here at our school are American we had a nice dinner to celebrate: 1 small chicken, corn on the cob, homemade mashed potatoes, pumpkin custard inside a pumpkin (made by P’Gee - aka amazing), sauteed mushrooms, Thai pizza, and of course Thai beer! We all had a nice time going around and saying what we were thankful for and also just chatting about our different experiences in Thailand so far. There was also the lovely temperature of 84 degrees! It was a great way to spend this family holiday with great friends and awesome food :)

~ Randi

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Tis the Season in Thailand!

This past weekend we visited our friends, Andrew and Derrik, in Chum Bueng. After a late nite (or perhaps I should say early morning) of catching up, we were awakened by the cheerful arrival of P’Gee, our head foreign teacher. After getting ready in 5 minutes, we traveled in the back of a truck to a local hot springs. Not sure if their healing powers worked, but we did feel relaxed!

This week has been spent proctoring exams. This means we spend our days reading, browsing the internet, and drinking free iced coffee…with, of course, an occasional glance to ensure that the students aren't cheating.








I’ve  adopted a local stray dog, whom I’ve named Luke Skywalker. He’s so grateful for our attention, and dog treats, that he’s started entering our house unannounced and uninvited. He’s progressed from peeping his nose around our living room couch to making it all the way upstairs. Despite my inclination to allow dogs into bed, I’ve managed to resist Luke’s pleading eyes. I don’t really need fleas in my sheets.


My flowery, blue bicycle has continued to deteriorate. The chain has come loose, the seat needs tightening every week, and my basket has come unscrewed (spilling my purse into the middle of a busy intersection!!). Yet, despite it's condition, bicycling to work is still my favorite mode of transport.

A few weeks ago, Win, Rachel, Randi and I traveled 9 hours northeast to Surin for an elephant festival. We only stayed one night, but we enjoyed the fair, where we bought matching pants and took in an elephant show! The show consisted of 300 elephants entertaining the crowds by painting, hoola-hooping, playing soccer, and reenacting war scenes. After 7 attempts at mounting a standing elephant, Randi got to ride an elephant to a local temple. Because elephants are my favorite animal, and because I've never laughed as much as I did at Randi's mounting of the elephant (tho to be fair, without a ladder or a stool, I wouldn't have been able to mount the elephant either), it was one of my favorite weekends :)











                                                                   



To get into the Holiday spirit, we've been listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies. It won't be the same this year without snow and family (both of which we miss), but we’re looking forward to a weekend of R and R at a riverside hotel in Bangkok. We'll be lounging poolside and enjoying a Christmas dinner with our friend, Rose :)

~ Stacy

Koh Tao, Thailand: 3rd time's a charm

















Last weekend, we joined some friends (Bridge, Lucy, Gavin, Win, and Rachel) on the island of Koh Tao. We enjoyed our first oil message and our second Katoy show, so much so that our friend, Win, joined in onstage . Randi, Bridge, and I spent a lovely day sipping cocktails on the beach. After watching the sunset, 5 rounds of Mai Tai’s, shots of tequila, and Randi’s powers of persuasion, we got tattoos together. We ended the day by dancing at Lotus Bar, a Koh Tao tradition.

~ Stacy