Merry Christmas!!

 Merry Christmas from Thailand!!

We can't believe it's already Christmas - how time flies! It's also hard to believe it's Christmas because we're still sweating in 90 degree weather, everyday! We have seen many Christmas trees, lights, and decorations around town, but it's not the same without snow! Interesting enough, the majority of the country does not celebrate Christmas - but they love to decorate!

<--We met Jake at the BKK airport to spend a some quality time together before he boarded his plane to Perth.










We are a bit sad not to be spending Christmas at home with all our friends and family - does that mean we get to eat extra goodies and get extra gifts next year.. haha - just kidding! But for real - we do miss all of you! We hope you all have a safe and wonderful white Christmas! Because we were unable to send our annual holiday greetings card this will have to do for this year. 

What we did prior to Thailand - 
* We rung in 2012 ice skating under a full moon with Pat and Teddi
* We took a road trip to Montana to enjoy the ski slopes
* Beth took a last minute trip to Philly for a work conference
* We moved into the farmhouse and have been loving it!
* Josh worked on the farm and is learning at a rapid pace.
* We canoed... lots!













* Beth attended her first Twins and Timberwolves games!
* We went on a CHWC Mission Trip to Kansas City with St. Mary's Youth Group
* We ran a 5K and both won 2nd!
* Beth's grew another great garden full of yummy things.
* We spent many nights playing Settlers of Catan.
* We enjoyed quality time with family and friends!!











Then...
*Beth said goodbye and resigned from West Fargo Public Schools and Josh said goodbye to St. Mary's - and we both said HELLO to Thailand!!
*We flew halfway around the world.
*Beth took her first taxi ride, and now she rides in one weekly.
*We've toured countless Wats.
*We rode elephants!











*We eat ice cream in a bread sandwich.
*We've toured ancient cities.
*We trekked through the mountainous jungle.
*We've let scorpions crawl on us!
*We've spend time at the beach, without getting sunburned.

*Josh got his hair cut by a ladyboy!
*Beth eats interesting and delicious fruits!
*We've battled many ants and one gecko - and won!
*We eat rice daily.
*We've mastered public transportation.
*We've learned that a schedule isn't always set in stone.
*We've learned how get by on less.
*We've learned to relax - mai ben rai.

*We get to experience and explore this culture one day at a time.

To summarize 2012 in a word - Adventure. We'd had so many new endeavors this year! We look forward to what 2013 has in store for us.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What are we doing for Christmas?
     We are going to midnight Christmas Eve Mass with a Filipino friend tonight. Christmas Day, we will be at school, working on Christmas. Our office is having a mini Christmas party. It will be an international pot luck with the other foreign teachers. I'm hoping to create my knephla soup here! We're also having a little gift exchange.

 

At Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

How will we ring in the New Year?
     We're headed to Chiang Mai to spend the long weekend. More on that later...

English Day Camp

On a Saturday we were asked to tag along on an English Day Camp trip to Amphawa Floating Market, about 2 hours outside of Bangkok. All of the English Program students went on this trip - M1 through M5. We had a vague idea of what this trip was all about but were very excited to find out!

We were told to arrive at 7:30am - where we waited and took photos with the each of the classes. Then we boarded the buses and started the journey. We drove for about 1.5 hours on a busy bus, tour guides and students playing games the whole way - and eating, we were given little snacks and drinks. Some more interesting than others.

Our M4 EP Class

Beth's M5 EP Class

First stop - an ocean-side Wat. In this Wat you are supose to make a wish, if your wish comes true then you light many fireworks off in thanks. We heard the loud cracks and bangs of firecrackers in our 30 minutes there. We were free to roam around this small area looking and eating. We enjoyed a iced hot chocolate - yum!

Small transportation/fishing boat

Back on the bus for another 20-30 minutes to Bang Kung Camp in the providence of Samut Songkrham. This 200 year old temple, Wat Bang Kung, is said to be special because of all the local trees growing in and around it. Also in this area are statues showcasing different moves in Muay Thai boxing. We could look around this area touring, fruit shopping, and some more eating. Some of the Thai teachers bought us some new delicious fruit and some coconut paste grilled in a banana leaf... yummy!

Full of fruit, we boarded the bus where we had a boxed lunch - rice and cashew chicken - yum! But a word to the wise - don't eat the red chilis or the chili paste if you do not want to breath fire!! We drove and finally arrived at Amphawa. First we toured a large memorial park for King Rama II it was difficult to learn much as all the explanations were in Thai.

Then our guides directed us to the floating market, where we were all free to roam until the meet up time to go home. On our way a young student from a different school, maybe 2nd-3rd grade, stopped us farangs (white person) to ask us questions in English and write our responses. She was very nervous talking to us but we helped her fill out her sheet. Our students did not have to do this though... not sure why especially because it was "English Camp." Three of Beth's M5 students served as our guide as we wandered, good English practice for them, good Thai practice for us. We had a good hour and a half to explore, shop and eat. This was not the floating market we had envisioned, it was less floating and more of a large market along a canal with the occasional novelty docked boat selling various goods. At one time it was a bustling floating market but with changes in time and space it is not as practical as it used to be.

Our walk consisted of the students buying treats and for us to try - so many interesting things to eat! Some yummy others not so much. Sweets here can be very different than what we are used to. Our big purchases for the day were ice cream and handmade bracelets.

 Back on the bus to take our full bellies and purchased treasures back home. These kids amaze me - they ate snacks the whole way home! A full day of eating sugar does not sound as good as it used too, maybe it is a sign of getting older....

Dolphin Bay Beach

Love 3-day weekends! Thanks to Constitution Day December 10 we got Monday off. We decided to take full advantage and have a relaxing beach weekend! After researching we decided to travel past Hua Hin (a popular beach 3 hours from Bangkok) another 30 minutes to Pranburi to get to a quiet secluded, clean beach. The area is referred to as Dolphin Bay because from February-May many bottle-nose dolphins visit this area. We were so excited when our Canadian friends decided to take the long 12 hour (from the very West side of the country) trek to join us!

We stayed at a small guest house, Long Beach Inn, owned by a Dutch family - only 150meters off the beach. Our room was bigger than our apartment! We thought we were living in luxury with a soft bed, two sinks, a shower curtain, hot water, and a tv with many American channels! Oh how our outlook has changed! The hotel also had pool and good food.

We arrived did a quick change and headed to the beach!! We had the miles of beach pretty much to ourselves! There were a few other tourists, but for the most part Thai people head to the beach around dusk. The beach was sandy; the ocean was blue, warm, sandy, and shallow - absolutely no rocks! We could walk out a few 100 yards and still it was only chest deep! We spent the day basking in the sun and cooling off in the ocean.

Low tide set in in the late afternoon, leaving a large sandbar where all the crabs would start cleaning out their homes. They all scurried to hide as we approached them. It was around this time when the people started to fill the beach. We returned to our guest house to get ready for super. We had supper beach-side - great idea!

Ice Cream and Fruit Malts!

The next day - hit repeat! Another lazy day on the beach; sunbathing, lathering on layers of sunscreen, playing in the water, spying on ocean life, enjoying oceanside refreshments - great day! Eventually we did have to lay in the shade for a bit - don't want to catch too much sun.

Long Walks on the Beach

We enjoyed a long walk on the beach that evening - and I found a starfish! I gave it to two little Thai boys who were collecting them in a  little pool on the sandbar - they were so excited!

The four of us enjoyed a few games of hearts and enjoyed a great supper with a few glasses of wine. A great last night at the beach with friends!

Sports Day!

The foreign teachers with the department head and our school director (principal).

 Every school in Thailand has a sports day. We're not entirely sure of the exact meaning or purpose but this is what we think it is: A day to celebrate culture, to compete in final rounds of sporting events, and hold awards for events. Sadly our sports day could not be held at our school because of the construction, so all 3600 students and 100+ teachers (even some of cleaning and kitchen staff!) road in vans, songthaews and buses to a stadium the school used for the day. Again, sadly it had rained quite a bit the past few days and the track and field were wet and muddy - but the show must go on!

Students are all assigned a color group. Within that color group they all are assigned jobs - cheer team, cheer dance team, parade and others. Students are either dressed up in their color shirts or decked out with makeup, hairpieces and super costumes either cultural or for the cheer dance competition. It was so surprising to see students like this! It was difficult to recognize some of our students. Many of the lady-boys went all out on this day also! You can image my surprise to see them in the women's bathroom.

Preparing for the Parade

The event started with lots of speeches, none of which we understood. Then it was parade time! Students walked with their color teams celebrating some theme. Most were ASEAN themed, but we also saw hippies, indians, army, no to drugs, and jungle just to name a few.

The Parade

 After the parade all the M2s along with the respective cheer dance team danced to Gangnam Style - haha!

All the M2s and Cheer Teams danced to Gangnam Style!

Then the award winning Wat Khema band had a little show of their own.

To signal it was time for the games begin a torch was ran around the track and then lite as flags raised - reminded me a lot of the Olympics! Many track events took place, some other silly team games. The cheer dance competition was next, this was quite the sight! The team colored younger students did clap cheers while the older students in little outfits, tons of makeup and hair danced quite provocatively to the cheer and music. We left before the end but as we did they were setting up for tug-of-war then a game of football (soccer).

Crazy Game

After spending all day outside in the sun on the hard bleachers, it was time to go home. We first got on a songthaew, then a ferry boat, then a bus  - all for under $1 USD!

Riding home hanging off the back of a songthaew