New Adventures...: Happy Birthday/weekend To Me!

Current mood: happy
Feeling: loved
Listening to: Sunday

Ah had such a fabulous birthday! What a crazy week! Finally able to take some down time for myself. Time for a weekly update. Well, I had two days of English camp last Monday and Tuesday for the new MEP 1 students. And you have all seen my gummy bear dance, if not, please check it out. It's quite ridiculous, but silly and it makes me smile haha. After the kids had drained me of what energy I had left after my vacation, Buddha let us have a day off on Wednesday. Finally was able to do some much needed laundry, organized my room (which is already a mess again), finally got a haircut with my girls, and got back into my fruit consumption. I have been running every day after school for 40-55 minutes, depends on how much the heat consumes me and on my lazy factor. Ah I love running, so therapeutic. Time to be alone with my thoughts and when my mind won't shut up, run faster! Never fails :) This week I have been focusing on the mantras: I am enough, I am lovable, I am amazing. Try to say them out loud, whenever you can. It's true! Every word. Anyhow, it has helped me stay grounded with so much change going on in the air. I finished my book and couldn't wait for the first day of school (Thursday). The halls would be full of laughter again! So needless to say I woke up with a grin on my face on the first day of school. I heard their little giggles (I live at the school) and couldn't wait to greet them! Decided on a simple top, small sweater, and a black skirt for the first day back. It's so hot, baby powder is my best friend. So Jeffrey and I head to the office and get swarmed by the students with hugs and little shrieks. Ah love these little munchkins so much. They weaseled their way into my heart. On Thursdays, I teach two secondary classes, but because it's Thailand I didn't have to teach on the first day. haha. Oh Thailand...Well at morning assembly I get tackled by my IEC students from last year and took a million photos with them. I will miss seeing their faces this year, but happy with my classes thus far. We also have a new office! Ah love the smell of fresh paint. We actually have legit windows too and I made sure I got to sit by the window - as in once we cleaned the office, I put my desk right in front of the window and made sure no one else would take my spot. So school lets out and I go on my run, meet my friend for dinner and talk about my birthday. Still so weird to me that I would be turning 27. Can't help but reflect. A year ago I was celebrating my friend's bachelorette (hen) party in Reno, drinking lots of wine, meeting amazing people, and Thailand was still only an idea, nothing had been set in stone yet. Fast forward 365 days and I was in my little town of Mae Chan, having dinner with my friend from England and contemplating if I have enough energy to stay awake till midnight. School nights = bed time 9:30-10pm. Crazy times! Friends still asking me what I want to do and I just thought pool day at the guesthouse in Chiang Rai and a small dinner and some drinks on Saturday. So I head home Thursday evening and hang out with my friends and in bed at a reasonable time. I start to read and then 30 minutes later I woke up UGH! I took a nap at 8:30pm! So needless to say, I was up for the midnight countdown haha. It was really fun though, it started to rain and could hear it on the room - one of my favorite sounds. I'm from California, it doesn't rain where I live, deal with it. I put on my favorite classical song and wrote in my journal. Now attempting to make my journal more structured and not just rambling thoughts. Anyhow, realized it was midnight and said happy birthday to myself haha. Then drifted to dreamland listening to the sound of rain...

And then HELLO 6AM WAKE UP CALL! Emily, Wynie, Jeffrey, and Aor woke me up by blasting/singing Happy Birthday and paraded through my room, dance party was in full swing. Ah it was so amazing. They had a delicious breakfast for me and we listened to my jams (and yes gummy bear dance happened) and they had tea for me (I hate coffee, deal with it). They are so sweet, I love them so much. I know we won't be together for forever, but I am so happy to be in this moment and that I have been blessed to have them as my family. So after that I went back to sleep because school didn't start for awhile haha. So I doze off and then wake up to start my birthday all over again, but when the sun is shining and other people are up, not just the dogs. I hop into my cold shower and welcome the shivers. It's rare to actually feel "cold" in Thailand these days, temps don't drop below 30 (80s-90s). I put on my green dress to match with Jeffrey and head off to the office. Teachers wished me happy birthday and my students sang to me. So adorable, warmed my heart. When they learned I was turning 27 they were shocked! Not sure if that's a good thing or not haha. So I spent my day teaching three classes (two Primary 4 classes and one Primary 5), eating mango for lunch, then off to tutoring. My friend Un surprised me with a little brownie as a birthday gift. She's so sweet, I can't wait for my parents to meet everyone in Mae Chan! After that I went for an evening run before meeting up with my friend Gemma for dinner. As my birthday fell on a Friday, there was the Friday Night Market. The big thing in my town haha. However there was thunder and dark clouds looming over and we kept trying to figure out if it was going to rain or not. We finally decide to risk it and meet for dinner. Yay no rain! Gemma is so sweet, she baked me delicious cookies/brownies. So we just had a delicious dinner at The Garage and a beer and just chatted about the week. Was busy for us since school had just begun and it's a bit overwhelming to adjust to, especially after traveling. Not complaining, we just get tired haha. We venture out on the market to see if anyone is sitll out there and pretty much everyone packed up. Oh life in Mae Chan! We decide to head back to The Garage and split a beer and my friend Pae showed up! So happy I got to see her, she's so nice. She lives in Malaysia, but is from Mae Chan. I met her a few months ago and we keep in contact. Was going to see her in KL, but since Bali didn't happen didn't get a chance to see her. So around 10:30pm I head home and curl up in bed and go to sleep, it was a perfect birthday. So many messages from friends all over the world, love love love. So I sleep in and pack my bag and saunter off to Chiang Rai to celebrate with the girls. Treated myself to a massage (shocking) and we met for lunch then headed to Bens guesthouse for the pool and checked into our rooms. Ah the girls are amazing. The gang was: Emma, Abi, Hazel, Sophie, Tonia, and Bethel. A perfect group. We lounged by the pool and chatted and then decided that we would just get dressed up and head to dinner and if we went shopping then we could just stash our stuff behind the bar at Coconuts (our domain) and then grab it when we went home. So we headed to Hungry Wolfs where we all ordered a ridiculous amount of food, I needed a crane to lift me after that meal ;) Then drinks started to happen and we just all had a really fun silly night! Honestly, it was perfect. Nothing crazy, just drinks and so many laughs and a million photos. Went home around 1-2am and slept in a bit. We got bagels for breakfast and then headed home. Now back in Mae Chan and rode my bike for a bit, forgot how beautiful my little town is. Met a new teacher from Sweden and about to meet up with the gang (all 3 of us) for dinner. Here are some photos from the weekend and a quick glance of my little town. once the heat wears off I'll be doing some biking again, until then only running on the track. I am way too scared of running into snakes when I run on the roads in my town. Oh and I also got to talk to my parents and my grandmother, what a blessing to hear their voices. I am lovable :) Now to go get some food and chillout before my first week of classes begins!

Sawadee jhou

Okay this photo is a silly one, we were killing time and we have this huge fan in our office, Jeffrey told me to pose and this is what happened. I kinda like it :)