Wow! So I have a lot to update everyone on...that is if people are still reading this crazy attempt of a blog of mine...So the last time I left you my brother was boarding his flight back to America...and now it's the 20th of January so...here is my feeble attempt to update you on complete chaos.
So basically once my brother left I was a bit emo and slowly getting back into the swing of things. I spent the weekend (18/12-20/12) somewhere...I honestly can't remember, so much has happened and have been traveling A LOT. I haven't spent a weekend in my own place since October 2015! So...That Monday (21/12) was the day 1 of Sports Day(s)! I was on Team Blue (holla!) and was told to make a costume for the parade...well my amazing friend/sister Emily helped me (okay so she did all of it, I just paid for the supplies) make a blue tutu out of plastic bags...complete with glitter...so much glitter! I bought a blue masquerade mask (covered in glitter) and found blue nail polish and leg warmers to complete my amazing outfit. And bought additional glitter because one cannot have enough glitter. Up bright and early (6am) on Monday (FML) we all get ready and I cannot wait to show off my tutu. I make a mess of my makeup (in the best way possible) and put on my mask and casually walk to the main entrance of the school...it took some time for the students and teachers to recognize me, but once they did oh my...so many squeals and pictures galore! They gave me a baton and showed me where I would be in the parade and we were off!
Me in all my glory
Now due to some technical difficulties, most of my photos didn't make it to the blog. A bit bummed by that, but oh well! life goes on! So Sports Day(s) went on for 3 very long and exhausting days and it ended with a teacher run relay. I had to run in pants and well no sports bra because it was impromptu. And barefoot because I was in flipflops. Oh so silly. Anyhow. Overall my team (obvs) took home the most medals and this is where I say that winning doesn't matter and we were all there for a good time, but reality is that we have won BOTH years I have been on the team and...#jk #notreally
:)
So later that evening we (teachers) were responsible for decorating the auditorium for Christmas - we celebrated on the 24th with the 25th having a day off. So after we did our best and mustered up all our energy we made Christmas trees and a million balloons and turned our Buddhist auditorium into Santa. I slept soundly that night.
The morning of the 24th I woke up feeling like it was xmas morning because I knew I was going to see my students in little Santa hats all excited to see Santa. So here are some photos of the Christmas party (out of order, sorry!)
Myself with Jeffrey, Kru Tik (assistant director), Wynie, and Emily - we greeted the students and gave out candy at the entrance
this is what happens when you give your 8 year old student your iPhone
Anuwat and Kelly - I love them, even if Anuwat doesn't express it here
Me with my littles
My Mattyhom! M2 - Grade 8
Me after Xmas
So my boss invited the teachers over after the xmas party for dinner under the full moon. And beer flowed and I became fluent in Thai. Was quite fun and I didn't need to eat for a year afterwards
Typical - one day I'll learn to take a normal photo
Teacher Faye, Teacher Aor, and myself :)
Gift from Cartoon! (grade 3 student)
Selfie time
<3
got a bit festive
So once that day ended we all slept soundly and I awoke to xmas morning to meet my friends at their school to see their students perform xmas songs. this is my life #teacherlife
And then later that day I was informed it was also our New Years party so...we hopped on motorbikes and headed to the hotel where our faculty was waiting and was seated and food was served and drinks were poured. Ah what a merry time in Thailand. My table was with the director and two assistant directors and the rest of the English teachers...aka best behavior
Happy New Years!
Teacher Opal! I loved this dance - all my friends/teachers did a Thai dance for everyone :) so beautiful!
Karaoke
karaoke
teachers mean business!
everything is a blur b/c no one stopped dancing for me to take a picture!
So finally was home around 6pm and crawled into bed for a nap because I was headed to Gemma's for our Christmas party with friends and munchies and drinks. So after a little snooze I biked on over and was greeted with xmas decorations and so much food. Seriously - gained about 200lbs #truestory
Thai teacher friends being festive
Gemma's parents sent the glasses - had to snap a pic
WE MADE GUACAMOLE!
AND IT WAS HEAVENLY
Alrighty so I went home around 10pm and crawled into bed to sleep for about 10 hours. I don't mess around with my sleep. So much has happened over the past two months (Indonesia, friends visiting, brother visiting, beach trips - not complaining, but I missed my own bed!). So my friend Becca (new teacher from America) and I went to Chiang Rai for the day on Saturday to get some Western food and have a nice tea/coffee in the sun before going back to our town to binge watch YouTube and sleep. I have caught up on chick flicks and sleep. Sunday was spent exploring Mae Chan on bicycles. I rode for about 2.5-3 hours Sunday afternoon and stumbled upon my future house :)
ta da!
#futureThaiPad no #padThai #555 (555 = hahaha = lol in Thai)
So had to snap some photos of "lessons" in the English workbooks that the Thai kids learn...needless to say I enjoy making up my own lessons, but you can get an idea of how absurd some of it is.
classroom fun - teaching my students to write out numbers
not tall enough!
when all else fails, find your own seat close to the board
oh yeah Emily got me an xmas gift :)
I HAVE A NEW ROOMMATE!
El Pato y Tam Tam
So I taught 28/12-29/12 and was really hard to get my kids to focus, however they ended up just having parties so didn't really have to do too many lessons and on Tuesday this was my Mattyhom's New Years party. They all congregated in the auditorium and got to wear "freestyle" aka whatever they wanted (school appropriate of course) and brought a gift with them that they had to register and then it was placed on the tables.
presents galore
not enough black hair!
one of my lovebugs
PRESENTS
NOT ENOUGH - notice they write their "9" as "g" been trying to break the habit, but no dice
my students
M3 girls (grade 9)
M3 boys (grade 9)
punks
excited to register
good to go!
serious business this is
M3 girls <3 (grade 9)
My M2 student being silly before her dance (grade 8)
M1 (grade 7)
My student wearing the girls uniform and putting on makeup #standard
think they're in a relationship - they change boyfriends/girlfriends every week, I can never keep up nor do I try - I just laugh and roll my eyes and tell them they are silly
excited to say hi
they love their costumes!
some of my mattyhom
culinary students
My P4 (grade 4) boys sneaking a peek
M3 boys being cute - #don'tbelievewhatyousee
why I love Thailand #allthefood
Teacher Wimala (wife of the Director) and Teacher Emily (my friend/teacher/SISTER)
Okay so...now it's 30/12 and it's time for me to catch my flight to BANGKOK to reunite with one of my all time favorite friends EVER! Lauren :) She is on a SE Asia tour with her family and we decided that we should definitely celebrate New Years in Bangkok. In a condo on the 15th floor that has a view like this:
<3
Now I will just summarize this perfect New Years. Upon her meeting me in the lobby we were nonstop squealing and giggling and talking the entire 46 hours I was in Bangkok with her. Standard in my opinion. The first evening/night we went out to Terminal 21 and had a delicious dinner with my friend Ally (who is a teacher that lives there, but used to live in my town). We enjoyed amazing food and drinks and then we went to W District to have some mojitos and then we called it a night. Here is our one photo we have from that night:
happy to be reunited!
Now New Years Eve DAY we got up early to explore the grand palace and see the big reclining Buddha. Emphasis on the BIG. I haven't done much touristy stuff since being in Thailand so we decided to explore together. Here are some snaps of our day:
Oh snap what's up Buddha
My camera taking skills fail
praying to the Buddha
and we're off!
my boyfriend
after all day out we decided we needed to explore the pool and take a nap
ah - so these are all over Thailand and I love them. And I scared Lauren with this in 7-11.
selfie time
standard
Buddha prayers
selfie with Buddha
LAUREN BROUGHT ME TAPATIO (100 OF THESE BAD BOYS) LOOK AT THAT SMILE!
Road beers in a Tuk Tuk in Bangkok #11AM
2,000 baht for a taxi ride? we say OH HELLLLLLZ NO
So we went back and swam a bit and napped and then started to get ready to head out on the town...Here are some snippets :)
Outfit - sorry mom!
selfie shame
#notPG
Us after the countdown!!
So happy to be together
Our new friends from Singapore
not enough selfies!
Us when the ball dropped and fireworks went off like crazy!
Well so we got home around 6am (we're 27, what do you want from us) and went to sleep. We skyped our parents and wished them happy new years as it was still 2015 in America (get with the times peeps). And I headed to the bus station that afternoon to catch a minivan to Rayong to meet my friend on the beach for the rest of the weekend. Was so sad saying so long to my friend, but happy she made it out this way. I love sharing Thailand with people from home, they get why Thailand is now my home and no plans on moving back :) (sorry mom)
So I made it to Rayong and met my friend Katie and we both agreed that dinner needed to happen and then bed. PERFECT. Was asleep by 9pm and we got up early to catch a ferry to Koh Samet and by mid morning this was my view:
Then we decided to be a baller and rent a speedboat for a few hours to snorkel and explore about the island #mylifesuckssometimes
HELLO 2016
my friends being silly - yes I'm on the boat b/c I get cold easily
The 3 amigos - met Tovar on the minivan to the beach, he's from Hungary and lives in Bangkok and is a dive instructor. Which means we had our own tour guide under water. He showed us some cool marine life that we would have never seen. And you can see all our photo fails.
Once we were back at our beach we went to get some dinner and caught this beautiful sunset. Complete with yoga photos and photobombs. Enjoy :)
Now we were exhausted from the day so we called it an early night and crawled into bed and I watched Hunger Games on TV and it was in English! Crazy - can't remember the last time I used a TV haha. So then we were up bright and early and we parted ways and I headed back to Bangkok to catch my flight to Chiang Rai. Enjoyed a nice lunch and ran into my friend Sasha (teacher in my town) and we headed back to our little town together.
And THAT was my New Years...
Can you see why I haven't updated in awhile? I'm only on the 3rd of January as of now...
Speeding things up...
4/1-8/1 - Teaching begins again! Here are some photos my students not paying attention, but they're so cute it's hard to stay mad at them for long. So I snapped some shops of work happening.
This photo is for my brother - Elliott mumbles a bit (sorry bro) so when he introduced himself to my class they called him "alien" which to them is "UFO" so that's what they know him as. That and b/c of his beard "santa." So every Tuesday (when I see this class) the boys always ask where he is. I told them to smile and they all said "ALIEN!" in the photo. Quite adorable
Stepped in to tutor for my friend. Grade 1 students. So cute. SO LITTLE!
This is P 5/3 - probably one of my most difficult classes. They're cute nonetheless, but so much energy
yoga play time at Gemma's
morning bike rides
winter in Thailand
selfie - almost got hit by a truck for this #worthit
friend wanted to take a selfie of me at work - yes that is Wninie the Pooh on my desk
Number lessons
me not helping my students carry stuff
Friday Night Market - first time I had been here since September
that is $1.80
selfie fail when I ran into my students at the market
someone in my shot!
there we go!
Teacher Gemma (England), Teacher Becca (Boston, MA), Teacher Dao (everywhere)
Okay so...
11/1 rolls around and I wake up to a million Facebook notifications and messages from people all over asking me about my blood type and how far away was I from Chiang Mai. There was a young woman (21 from England) that was in a pretty bad crash in CM and needed A- blood, which is very rare in Thailand. Anyhow, this story went viral and updates had said she still needed blood. Me being the genius I am...well I have no idea what my blood type was so I went to the clinic to get it tested and then the hospital. Turns out I'm O+...So no dice to donate, but she had so many people step in and is going to be okay so no need to worry!
However I went with Emily to the hospital because she was going to donate and since I have never donated before I figured why not. EVEN THOUGH I HATE NEEDLES MORE THAN I HATE SNAKES.
And Emily was such a doll that she snapped photos of this terrifying experience for me. I can't look at needles - hence my scarf covering my eyes. The doctor couldn't help but laugh - oh my life.
me in disbelief this is happening
who me? how did I end up here? #rethinkinglifedecisions
omg...this is happening
AH A REAL NEEDLE
thanks Emily for this closeup.
So the rest of that week (15/1) I got back into teacher mode and then noticed my students had this O-NET to study for..what is this exactly? It's like their standardize testing nationwide I think...Anyhow, I freaked when I saw this question about SF. I also had to correct the question in the pre-O-NET test. Oh Thailand...it hurts sometimes
Also this week we were instructed to create lesson plans for MEP/IEC 1-3 and have them printed and binded to put on display for the district supervisors to come have a look at. OH, and to put together portfolios and all of the students work out on display. And we would have to decorate the hall ourselves.
JOY.
So I helped my friends on the computer, hello 300+ pages of lesson plans! I think my hands had recovered, however after writing this blog - nope.
And on top of that, we had to select 3 students to memorize speeches to introduce the ceremony. So Emily and I wrote some speeches for the kids and had them practice in our office.
Here is Cartoon (her nickname) and I "practicing" - she is the one that gave me a gift. I love her
Cartoon, Valentine, and Milk - hard at work!
Baan Mae Chan Love <3
Friday had arrived
must stand closer!
Mae Chan skies <3
So in our celebration of completing the chaos and receiving lots of praise - we feasted at KFC and could feel my body bloat. WORTH IT. At this point I was up to riding 10-20 miles on my bicycle per day as well as doing some yoga and cardio workouts with the girls. #judgeme
Yikes almost done finally! Okay so the weekend was spent in Chiang Rai with Bethel. We went to an art show on Friday and I was so tired from the weekend I was back in bed by 10:30. Saturday she had to go to CM for the day so I got lunch with some friends and then spent the day in bed watching YouTube standup videos. I really am not interested in spending my weekends in CR much anymore, but the lazy day in bed felt nice. That night I stayed out till 10PM before calling it a night and then slept for about 10 hours. Sunday turned into a Sunday Funday, but in a very active way! My friends made friends with a Thai guy with a truck so we ended up going to hike to a waterfall. Which was freezing, yet beautiful
one of the little waterfalls
some waterfalls
Once we thawed out we went to the hot springs and this was my happy place for about an hour or so.
Then we went to grab some dinner...at Cabbages and Condoms...because where else are you going to eat dinner? This place is amazing, they bring awareness to practicing safe sex and donates money to organizations like Planned Parenthood. The restaurants are all over Thailand.
yes that is an Elvis made out of condoms
their motto #truth
That evening I went to my friend Earl's and we binge watched Elementary and I snacked and then biked home for bed.
Now up to 18/1
This is what happens when our students have a full day of exams and we don't have to teach. Star Wars - Mae Chan edition
And phew! That brings you up to today! I have an adult coloring book and have been listening to podcasts in the evening to relax. I finished a book I started back in December and just finished another in a day and now onto Marching Powder...And I am completely hooked! So that's my life update. Bike rides, coloring, podcasts, millions of selfies, lots of food, and sleeping. New Year, clean slate. My last day of teaching will be the 16th of September and will be headed to California for a couple of weeks for one of my BFF's wedding and then back to Thailand to (hopefully) do a workaway at a yoga center in the islands and will be moving to Melbourne, Australia November 2016...
My next adventure begins in March...(Vietnam, The Philippines, and the Thailand islands) through May...
So just trying to stay present and to just let things be.
Happy New Years everyone :)
Come out and visit!
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