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!!!