this friday was payday, and you know what that means... the girls are going out! so some of the girls from work (and one lucky man, richard) took motorbike taxis (my FIRST TIME! it was awesome!) to the state tower and went to the top and took in the view at the sky bar. what a sight! we arrived just in the nick of time for the sunset. breathtaking and amazing are the words i use to describe it. whomever makes it to thailand will be escorted there by yours truly. i did the best i could with taking photos. there really isn't any way to capture what you experience up there... i'll post the photos when i have some free time among all the work.
my friend anelda and i have been frequenting our local 5-star gym. we joined last month. it's our entertainment now. i've enjoyed the yoga classes and actually got myself on the treadmill for a normal run last night. the steam room and sauna always cap off a good day. the pool is beautiful and a great place to read and relax. it's been a wonderful investment. i even save money on shampoo and deodorant. they provide everything you might want. hairbrushes, water, blow dryer, the whole lot.
back to the motorbike taxi. WOO! what a ride! they take you through (meaning between) the traffic at fairly high speeds. my dad would kill me if he really knew what it involves. oops. i guess he knows now. NooOOoo, it's safe. they and their riders must wear helmets. it was a really exciting ride. i was nervous (since i've been here) about riding one because i see how they dodge cars and dart around traffic, but it was really nice because we arrived at our destination at least ten to fifteen minutes sooner than a car could have. i highly recommend it!
if you've seen the newly posted photos, then you see i've 'moved in' or unpacked myself in my apt. it feels very cozy and i even bought a fan this weekend. i'm pretty disappointed because it's not what i expected. i'll have to put it full blast and pointed directly at me tonight to see if that's better. at least i can lay off the air cond. for a while.
we've been getting regular rain lately. i think we've entered the rainy season. each day at work i look out the window in the afternoon to see the dark, dark clouds rolling, or sometimes rumbling, in. it's beautiful, fun, and a hassle all at once. i love storms and thailand's are INTENSE! the temperature hasn't gone down at all since the summer. the islands and south were much, much cooler, but the city is STEAMY and humid.
school... the boys are busy learning all sorts of things like the letter sounds for s, i, p... the ideas behind the words, 'under', 'on', 'in front of', (prepositions for those teachers out there! ;-)) we've covered colors, numbers up to 20 and addition and subtraction up to 10. science has covered living and non-living things (living things need food, water, and air. just as a reminder. hehe). it's been a lot of fun through all the trial and error i'm going through. the boys are doing better with English each day and becoming more and more brave to speak the words they know. it's great to see them making progress already! smiles abound and they are SO proud to show off their work. i have a couple VERY talented artists in the class. one boy can draw dinosaurs with extreme detail. maybe i'll take a photo of some of his work and post it ... we'll see.
i have a meeting to attend but before i go ... one more thing. CONGRATULATIONS to LLCS (my previous school) on their first year (almost) completed as a new school! it's such a wonderful place and i'm so proud of everyone who works and attends the school. WAY TO GO!!!! i miss you all very much! tell me all about how school ends and what's new and exciting for next year!
off i go...
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
school has begun and times they are a'changin!
sorry for the lapse in posts! i've been so busy getting prepared for school and the first week was hectic as well as fun. now that i made it through the first week it seems like it'll be smooth sailing from here forward. the boys are getting used to tackling the subjects all day long, they have amazing classes! i can't believe their schedule! they have a careers class... and weekly meditation class. it's so interesting! thai teachers are very tough on the students, which helps and hinders when i have them. it's something of a sigh of relief to see me and then again, i can't let things get crazy in class even if i'm not as strict as the thai teachers. i'm always warm-hearted when i hear, "i love you miss beth" or get a big hug. they continue to melt my heart. they're at the age where they're very big on getting the approval of adults, so i constantly have a boy proudly showing me his work, even after i've asked them to "stay at your desk, please." all in all, it's going well and i'm glad to be with them each day, even on the 'long' day... thursday. oh, and i've finally gotten my uniforms... they're nice to have. it takes away the morning, 'what should i wear' decision. they're not that bad. i'll post a photo soon.
i should fill you in on our holiday to koh phangan and koh tao. my friend anelda and i travelled south with her friend, matt, and another colleague, tom. the four of us stayed at the same bungalows as luke and i had two weeks before. the guys shared and the girls shared since the bungalows were full. on our first evening at nantakran, i went to our bungalow to use the toilet and on the way in the door a thought crossed my mind, "there's a lizard in the bathroom... look for him" because our floor had frequent and large, green lizard poo since we arrived, though i hadn't spotted the culprit and wanted to see who had created such large treasures. i opened the door to the bathroom, switched on the lights, stepped down halfway into the bathroom and looked to the very spot where our frequent 'gifts' were left only to see the LARGEST black spider i have ever personally encountered *SHIVER*. it took my breath away and i immediately panicked. WHAT is that thing doing in MY living quarters!?!? get it out! get it out!! is all i could keep thinking. i promptly closed the door (so it wouldn't get into my bedroom and ON ME, of course) and tromped out to the restaurant/common area, retrieved the bungalow 'tour guide' and asked him to kindly REMOVE the bloodsucker from our home. after a lot of squealing from yours truly and the comment, 'just kill it, i don't mind'... it died a brutal broom-swatting death which i feel ever guilty about to this day. anelda laughed and laughed at me standing on the bed declaring, 'i just canNOT sleep with that thing in my bungalow.' in the end: we slept with the lights on until daylight and i awoke almost every half hour to inspect the bungalow for any new "rain spiders." apparently, according to anelda, they're rain spiders that come indoors out of the rain. unfortunately, it was not the last rain spider that we had to 'deal with.' (death to all of them, sadly). each one of our 3 bungalows had a rain spider, each of equal human-devouring size. ah, i digress, the third one, who stalked me from the ceiling of our grass bungalow, was shooed out instead of brutally smashed with a broom. by then i guess the guilt had gotten to me. let me tell you one more fun fact: those things can COMPLETELY flatten themselves to look the size of a popsicle stick. their legs flatten sideways and their bodies somehow deflate. it's incredible. i'd have taken a picture but i was too crippled with fear. for the record: i'm not AFRAID of spiders, i just REALLY don't like LARGE ones that vacate the same living quarters as i do. that's all. looking back, it was no big deal. really. (and i thought the cockroaches were bad. pff, they're NOThing!)
other than the spiders, the weather was very rainy, every day. we spent five long, slow days on koh phangan. we rented motorbikes and i overcame my fear of being the driver. i'm now addicted and can't wait to meet my new hog next visit to the islands. i named my motorbike on koh phangan Sally. she was a lot of fun and we covered many miles together. not to brag, but we broke 40 SEVeral times. (that's 40 KILOMETERS PER HOUR. mm hmm) when we got to koh tao i had a leaner, meaner, sportier bike and decided the name Larry would suit him. koh phangan has MUCH better, smoother roads for buzzing around than koh tao has. we went to koh tao for another five days, which flew by. i miss koh tao, i really liked it there. it's different than koh phangan because it's an island for getting your deep sea diving certificates, so there are many foreigners sitting in classes and studying on the beach. it's a different atmosphere and i liked it. the thai people all spoke pretty good english and the menus are mostly western food. it was a wonderful, relaxing stay and i can't wait to go back. it was just anelda and i on koh tao, the boys went their separate ways in search of adventure. we had fun just beaching, hammocking, reading, eating, and dancing at night. somehow, we both ended up with colds... i returned to bangkok with laryngitis and anelda's best friend was her box of tissues. it turns out that something was going around the country because nearly everyone showed up to work with some sickness or another. strange.
there really isn't much more to the story of our holiday. see the photos if you're interested. just a lot of relaxing and biking. we tackled some pretty crazy dirt roads on koh tao since we quickly bored of the ONE paved road that they have on the island.
i think i'm headed off to a book store to try and purchase some of our recent book club selections... or something to read after i'm finished with "i know this much is true," by wally lamb. any recommendations? i'd be glad to have them!!
hope you are well and i'd love to hear from you soon!!!
i should fill you in on our holiday to koh phangan and koh tao. my friend anelda and i travelled south with her friend, matt, and another colleague, tom. the four of us stayed at the same bungalows as luke and i had two weeks before. the guys shared and the girls shared since the bungalows were full. on our first evening at nantakran, i went to our bungalow to use the toilet and on the way in the door a thought crossed my mind, "there's a lizard in the bathroom... look for him" because our floor had frequent and large, green lizard poo since we arrived, though i hadn't spotted the culprit and wanted to see who had created such large treasures. i opened the door to the bathroom, switched on the lights, stepped down halfway into the bathroom and looked to the very spot where our frequent 'gifts' were left only to see the LARGEST black spider i have ever personally encountered *SHIVER*. it took my breath away and i immediately panicked. WHAT is that thing doing in MY living quarters!?!? get it out! get it out!! is all i could keep thinking. i promptly closed the door (so it wouldn't get into my bedroom and ON ME, of course) and tromped out to the restaurant/common area, retrieved the bungalow 'tour guide' and asked him to kindly REMOVE the bloodsucker from our home. after a lot of squealing from yours truly and the comment, 'just kill it, i don't mind'... it died a brutal broom-swatting death which i feel ever guilty about to this day. anelda laughed and laughed at me standing on the bed declaring, 'i just canNOT sleep with that thing in my bungalow.' in the end: we slept with the lights on until daylight and i awoke almost every half hour to inspect the bungalow for any new "rain spiders." apparently, according to anelda, they're rain spiders that come indoors out of the rain. unfortunately, it was not the last rain spider that we had to 'deal with.' (death to all of them, sadly). each one of our 3 bungalows had a rain spider, each of equal human-devouring size. ah, i digress, the third one, who stalked me from the ceiling of our grass bungalow, was shooed out instead of brutally smashed with a broom. by then i guess the guilt had gotten to me. let me tell you one more fun fact: those things can COMPLETELY flatten themselves to look the size of a popsicle stick. their legs flatten sideways and their bodies somehow deflate. it's incredible. i'd have taken a picture but i was too crippled with fear. for the record: i'm not AFRAID of spiders, i just REALLY don't like LARGE ones that vacate the same living quarters as i do. that's all. looking back, it was no big deal. really. (and i thought the cockroaches were bad. pff, they're NOThing!)
other than the spiders, the weather was very rainy, every day. we spent five long, slow days on koh phangan. we rented motorbikes and i overcame my fear of being the driver. i'm now addicted and can't wait to meet my new hog next visit to the islands. i named my motorbike on koh phangan Sally. she was a lot of fun and we covered many miles together. not to brag, but we broke 40 SEVeral times. (that's 40 KILOMETERS PER HOUR. mm hmm) when we got to koh tao i had a leaner, meaner, sportier bike and decided the name Larry would suit him. koh phangan has MUCH better, smoother roads for buzzing around than koh tao has. we went to koh tao for another five days, which flew by. i miss koh tao, i really liked it there. it's different than koh phangan because it's an island for getting your deep sea diving certificates, so there are many foreigners sitting in classes and studying on the beach. it's a different atmosphere and i liked it. the thai people all spoke pretty good english and the menus are mostly western food. it was a wonderful, relaxing stay and i can't wait to go back. it was just anelda and i on koh tao, the boys went their separate ways in search of adventure. we had fun just beaching, hammocking, reading, eating, and dancing at night. somehow, we both ended up with colds... i returned to bangkok with laryngitis and anelda's best friend was her box of tissues. it turns out that something was going around the country because nearly everyone showed up to work with some sickness or another. strange.
there really isn't much more to the story of our holiday. see the photos if you're interested. just a lot of relaxing and biking. we tackled some pretty crazy dirt roads on koh tao since we quickly bored of the ONE paved road that they have on the island.
i think i'm headed off to a book store to try and purchase some of our recent book club selections... or something to read after i'm finished with "i know this much is true," by wally lamb. any recommendations? i'd be glad to have them!!
hope you are well and i'd love to hear from you soon!!!
Saturday, May 5, 2007
motoring the islands
sawatdee from koh tao. just a quick update for my faithful readers. . . i've been six days on koh phangan and now have dedicated a couple days to koh tao before heading home to BKK. my friends and i have each rented a motorbike to get ourselves around. it's been fun... my hog here on koh tao is SWEET! you'll get full photos once i return to BKK. i had to say goodbye to my bike Sally this morning. i haven't decided what to name my new beast. it's a bit more rugged so i must find a boy name. maybe andy?? no. i'll consider Larry for the time being. Larry has BIG wheels to yield my way through the sandy-slash-muddy-slash-washed out roads of koh tao.
this island is popular for divers (deep sea diving) and that made it difficult to find a reasonable location that would offer us a place to relax and be lazy which is our mission for travel. tonight we dine with new friends made minutes after our arrival to the new bungalow. don't even know their names yet. should be good...
until bangkok.. have a great day! stay tuned....
this island is popular for divers (deep sea diving) and that made it difficult to find a reasonable location that would offer us a place to relax and be lazy which is our mission for travel. tonight we dine with new friends made minutes after our arrival to the new bungalow. don't even know their names yet. should be good...
until bangkok.. have a great day! stay tuned....
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