Greetings and Sawatdee

Sorry Friends but I don't have much to say about today. School wasn't particularly phenomenal. Though I do like many of my students I have realized that I don't want to be a teacher and I'm not really sad that the semester will be shortly drawing to a close. I made a stop by the pharmacy to pick up some stuff to help me fix my health and then spend the evening relaxing. I spend a while visiting with Thong at the coffee shop, he cut his hair and wow does he look different! Still cute though.

I don't know if I've ever posted a picture of Chaengwattana but here it is. This is the main road I live off of, my soi entrance is on the opposite side of Software Park tower (on the other side of that foot bridge). I was standing on the next foot bridge down when I took this photo, it's a low traffic time in this picture.

Different Ideas of Beauty

This morning I was a bit late to school because I had something to deal with that took me a little longer than expected. Thankfully, Erfan took care of my side of the class and things worked out. To my surprise (and pleasure) the grade 8 students were all on a field trip and so I had the rest of the day off after the first class.

Nothing much of real interest happened today. I am suffering from some side-effect induced difficulties due all the medications I've been on this past month and so I took the rest of the day to just relax at home and nap.

I said in yesterday's post that I had some things I wanted to post about in this last month. I thought I would start off with talking about my observations and learning in the area of beauty and beauty products/practices. This isn't something that I had ever really thought to write about before, every culture has is beautifying practices, but I thought maybe people would be interested.

Firstly, most women (maybe men too but I mostly talk to women about this kind of stuff) want to be whiter. In every drug store, market, 7-11, shopping mall, supermarket etc.. there are stacks of whitening products. I am talking about skin whitening products like creams and powders and it's hard to find a face wash or face cream that doesn't contain some "whitening" agent. Even many deodorants are whitening. I was told by one of my friends that the reason that everyone wants to look white is because it means that you aren't poor and don't have to work out in the field all day. I told her that in North America we all wanted to be tanned because it showed that you didn't have to spend all your time in doors and could actually afford to go on an exotic vacation. Since everyone in Canada wants a tan and many use tanning beds it's been a little odd to see people trying to be as white as possible, but that is how beauty is represented here on t.v. and in the media. There is a commercial where (from what I can tell, since I don't speak Thai) a girl wants to be Snow White in a play but she's a bit dark and plain looking and so she buys this magical whitening cream that makes her look unnaturally pale (for a Thai) and even makes her "prettier" (I think they brushed her hair nicely and she's smiling).... and of course she gets to play Snow White.

The other thing I learned was a fashion fad was braces! I remember hating braces and I couldn't believe that people actually paid money to get fake braces put on. I was told that people who have real braces try to keep them on as long as possible too because it makes you look cute and young (especially with fun and funky colours).

There are of course more fashion and beauty trends here of which I've see many since I live so close to Bangkok, but I need to get to bed.

Today's picture is Phra Thinang Aisawan Thiphya-Art at Bang Pa-In Palace (I took this picture back in April).

One Month As Of Today

This morning I woke up a bit cranky but I managed to get to school on time and had an alright class with the grade 9a students. Tuesdays are short days (thankfully) and so after running a few errands I quickly returned home. One of my errands was to pick up my new dress. It's a very simple dress but the pattern of the cloth is kind of busy and it fits me really well and so the simplicity is nice I think.

Tabitha and I mostly just hung out and talked today. She had to re-pack her bag so that she was ready to take the night train. Not a very exciting day but really I didn't want one, we ran around and stayed up late on the weekend and it was nice to relax especially since I'm a bit grumbly.

As I'm sure is obvious today marks the beginning of my final month in Thailand. I have had some plans for things to post on the blog and so I hope the blogs will start to be a bit more interesting. I know things haven't been all that thrilling lately since I've been sick and really doing a whole lotta nothin'. At the end of this month the adventure doesn't end it will just be continuing in Africa instead of Asia.

Oh! I wanted to mention that I got the last of the "Evan CDs"! They are excellent, thank you Evan.

Today's picture is one that I found from my trip to Khao Yai National Park when I went with Jenny back in March/April. This was the closest my camera could focus on the butterfly but it turned out ok (looks better large). This trip was my very first out of town adventure.

Goodbye Madeleine

This morning I got up a bit late again but I didn't need to teach until the afternoon and so it was no big deal. When I did get up Tabz and Madeleine were both still asleep and so I went out and got my shoes fixed at the cobbler at the end of my soi. I'm really excited to have my shoes fixed! In Canada if these shoes had given up it wouldn't have been worth it to get them fixed but here it only cost 20Baht! When I went to school Tabz and Madeleine were busy on the computer (Tabz) and on the phone (Madeleine) and they were pretty much in the same position when I returned.

School was ok, my class was really a treat and so things were ok. After school we all ate a late lunch together and then Tabz and I sent Madeliene off to the airport for her trip home. In the evening we went to IT Square shopping mall to get some of Tabitha's photos printed and then to buy Tabz a train ticket for tomorrow night so that she can go home to Omgoi. I got myself a very affordable webcam at the IT Square while we were there and it seems to have an ok picture.

Tabitha and I are having a relaxing evening, nothing too strenuous.

Today's picture is from another in the floating village in Cambodia.

A Long Day of Nothing

This morning we all slept in late. It was a slow morning/early-afternoon and we really didn't get going until about one. Tabz and I did some laundry and Madeleine straightened my hair. It was strange having my hair completely straight, I don't think it's something I'll really do again but it was interesting.

Once we finally had our act together enough to actually leave the house we went to Chatuchak market to get some natural scented oil for Tabitha and then back to MBK to pick up the phone that Madeleine wanted. After a short time in the crowded mall we, took the sky train to Victory Monument and caught the bus back home.

We didn't really do much when we got home... we didn't actually do much when we went out. It was kind of a day where you were out a lot but didn't have much to show for it.

This is Madeleine.

A Day Out with Tabz and Madeleine

This morning I woke up early because I was going to help Oh with some of the move but when I phoned her she no longer needed my help so I spent the day with Tabz and Madeleine. We went to the mall to get some things the two of them wanted/needed and to just look around. I picked up more stationary and when Tabz went to her meeting with the National Baha'i Assembly of Thailand Madeleine and I got facials. I'm glad that I got a facial because my skin felt nice afterwards and it was a new experience for me (I'd never had one before), but I didn't like having so much goo on my face. The other thing that bothered me about the facial was that the room was so cold and everything she put on my face was cold, I was practically shivering and it wasn't fun. I do have to say thought that Madeleine is a treat, we had heaps of fun together.

When Tabz rejoined us we went for a sushi dinner and then I took them to Suan-Lum Night Bazaar for some shopping. We all found some good buys.

When we got home we checked out our loot from the day and watched some movies.

This is the main entrance sign for the Night Bazaar. There are always pictures of the King near the entrance signs to a place, often with the Thailand flag and the Royal flag.

New Skirts

Today I went to pick up my two new skirts at the tailor which was a treat. They both fit very well and are beautiful! I get to pick up my dress on Monday. Otherwise, I didn't do very much today. I went by Magic Years school to meet Oh to plan the Baha'i children's classes but she wasn't able to teach with me because her family is moving this weekend and she had to pack and prep. In the end I didn't find anyone to teach with me and so I taught the class alone with the help of one of my older students. Things went ok but it was difficult.

Later in the night Tabitha arrived. The flight Tabitha arrived on was a couple hours late and she met a girl who was our age who didn't have a place to stay and since they arrived so late Tabitha invited her to stay with us. I have two new roommates for tonight (and a few more nights?) and it's a party! Madeline is our new friend. She's a lovely Swedish girl who has been in Australia for many months and is now making her way home.

This little girl is the daughter of one of the Baha'is in my community, she's so sweet!

Monkeys On A Boat

This morning I got to school and found out that my first class was cancelled though no one told me, curses. I was a bit upset that I could have slept in and chilled at home. Ah well, I ended up helping Eden by some cutting of things with an x-acto knife to make some posters for the classes. I only cut myself once and it wasn't all that bad, though Eden was surprised at how bright my blood was and was a little freaked out that I was bleeding. It didn't hurt.

I spent most of the day helping Eden and getting ready to teach Leadership club though I did manage to squeeze a little nap into the busy day.

Leadership club was some what a flop because the grade seven classes were out on a field trip and so there were only three people in attendance. We did get some things done but most of the activities I had planned involved more students.

After school I fell asleep for a few hours and then went for dinner and coffee. I was so happy to go for coffee because Tong's shop had been closed for the past week and a half and I hadn't talked to him or his family in a while. I found out that his Aunt died which was, of course, horrible news. We did have a good visit and I'll probably go by to say hi tomorrow after children's classes.

Tonight I watched another movie and did a little bit of knitting. I'm not really making anything this time, just playing around with different stitches.

Tomorrow night Tabitha comes back for a few nights or a week (I'm not sure of the details). It should be good.

Here is another Cambodia picture from the Bayon temple. The title of today's blog is brought to you by Adina who named it, you'll have to ask her for the reason of the name. My guess is that she hasn't been getting enough sleep and suffers from some type of sleep induced madness or perhaps it's just her every day madness.

My Own Personal Pharmacy

Classes were ok today. I fell asleep in the math lab between the first and second class and was really groggy for my second class and could have fallen asleep again by the time I got to the third.

After class I had to bust it down to the hospital for my appointment with the specialist. She seemed ok but she said something similar to doctor #1 and took me off the meds I received from doctor #2 this past Monday. Now I have a whole new pack of meds! She gave me a new antibiotic, the same pain killer that doctor #1 gave me, and an antacid because they may hurt my stomach.... oye! I have so many drugs lying around my place now.

I managed to find more movies for sale that were in English (finally) and so I bought three on my way home from the hospital. Tonight I have been taking it easy and now it's time for bed.

Today's picture is from Cambodia. Many weeks past I posted a picture of a cow. He was the leader of this pack and this is the girl who was taking care of the cows and getting them moving at the back.

Soo Sleepy

I'm really tired so this will be a short post. Class was good this morning. I taught grade 9a and they were good, but soo shy! There are only eight students (now that we've split the class) and it's like pulling teeth to get them to speak.

When I got home I chatted online a tiny bit but I was so tired so I went for a "nap" which lasted nearly four hours. There is some construction being done two doors down and on the opposite side of the hallway from my place and so I did wake up a couple of times because of the skill saw but mostly I slept through the hammering and sawing and what not.

I went to Carrefour to mail some letters. Letters are being mailed a little later these days. I haven't been getting to the post office as often as usual and have been waiting for a stack that needs mailing before I drag myself out to the post office. So, if you think it's taking a long time for letters to arrive it's probably because they were waiting a week or in my out box before I even took them to be posted.

After Carrefour I went out to dinner on my soi, got harassed by the motorcycle guys, did some laundry, and prepared one of the spare beds for the guest who will be coming tomorrow morning some time around 5am. Oh. I also found a movie in the apartment that I hadn't watched yet or at least not in a while, I don't think. I've been trying to stick around home and rest since this illness is not going away but I'm running out of movies to watch. Few (if any) of the movies that I can buy at Carrefour are in English.

Now I'm tired again! I shouldn't be, I slept the afternoon away, curses.
Ah well back to bed and an appointment with the specialist tomorrow.

Also I forgot to thank Jenny for her shoutbox post yesterday (sorry Jenny). So: Thank you Jenny for the shoutbox post I'm glad you enjoyed my Durian photo. I sent you a letter I think it should be arriving sometime around now... send me an email. Also, thank you Evan for complimenting my durian photo and other photos of mine. He's been one of my number one fans and I appreciate it.

I haven't posted a monkey in a while. Here is another from Monkey Beach at Ko Phi Phi Don. I like his fingers.

The Illness Strikes Back

When I woke up this morning my throat was once again sore and it was hard to swallow without pain, curses. It would seem that my illness wasn't going to give up even though it seemed to have gone away and this was the final day of my medication. I slept most of the morning and in the afternoon I went to teach grade 9b.

Today we split the grade 9b class in half and will each be teaching eight students for the remainder of the semester, it was awesome. I thought that my class was pretty cool and they said that they were happy that they had me for the remainder of the year (it made me feel kind of special). After class I had plans to meet up with Oh T. so that she could come with me to the tailor to make sure that my dress would turn out ok and to drop off the fabric I bought yesterday for another skirt to be made. Oh phoned me and told me that she and Oh R. were together and were going to pick me up on Chaengwattana Road so that we could all go out for food before going to the dress maker. At this point I was feeling even more sick and when we went out I ate a lot of veggies that were high in vitamins, some soup, and some chicken. Oh R. dropped Oh T. and I off at the tailor and we sorted out all of my dress details. Thank you Oh!

When I got home one of the kids who lives in our condo building was hanging out in the hall waiting for Sunantha so I invited her into my place. I let her play on the computer and I fell asleep on one of the beds in my room. When I woke up we played a game together and then I went out for some dinner. I was feeling even more sick at this point and so I decided to go back to the hospital for a re-examination.

Vaughan drove me to the hospital and after a bit of a wait I went in. My doctor didn't seem to really know what he was doing and his english was quite poor. Vaughan speaks Thai and was able to help me out with communication, but I still didn't feel like the guy checked out all of my ailments properly. In the end I go three new medications and an appointment to see the ears, nose and throat specialist this Wednesday at 5pm. I sure hope this E.N.T. specialist can do something that will actually make me well because I've been sick for weeks now and I don't want this to drag on any longer.

Today's picture is of the top of a doorway at Banteay Srei, they were all so intricate.

Tasty Durian!

This morning I woke up early again and once again I met up with Oh R., but this time we went to the feast in Bangkok. This was the first feast I've attended in Bangkok and it was really fun. There was an excellent turn out, I recognized many faces and had the opportunity to meet a bunch of new people. Since the feast started at 10am we all had lunch together. My friend Aaron's parent's are here visiting him (they're from the U.S. but they were just in Haifa serving I believe) and they made the lunch which was spaghetti. It was nice to have spaghetti made by a westerner because I've had a poor spaghetti re-creations that weren't entirely accurate (and that is being generous).

After the feast I went into Muang Thong and did a bit of shopping but I was really tired and had a head ache and so the trip wasn't a very good idea or really very productive. I did get a pretty pair of earrings and some nice cloth though.

After shopping I went home and passed out for a bit (unintentionally), and when I woke up it was nearly 7pm and I rushed off to the night market in Kor Tor Mor. I got myself a tasty feast for dinner. I got freshly cooked corn, chicken, spring rolls, my favorite tea drink and some durian. Durian is an extremely stinky fruit which I used to hate (I'd tried it once in Canada), but I've gotten used to the taste over the past months because my sawng-thaew passes a durian stand on the way to school and I can always smell it as we pass. I decided that since the smell didn't bother me any more and was in fact becoming a comforting smell that I enjoyed I decided to give it another chance. I love it! It's a taste that just needs to grow on you I think.

Thailand is a place of smells. I've found that many of the smells have started to become so familiar and comforting. Not all smells are enjoyable. I could do without the smell of raw meat in a hot and humid market (especially pork and fish) and the pollution in Bangkok is still and will forever be gross, but the smell of fish sauce is lovely in it's own special way (though it is fermented fish juice), the smell of durian I think is nice, and the smell of jasmine and marigold (especially jasmine) will forever remind me fondly of Thailand.

I have a wicked headache right now so if things are poorly worded it's due to my headache induced lack of focus.

Today's picture is of me lovin' up my durian that I bought at the market. It looks like someone else took this myself, I'm always improving at the arms-length photography. I was a bit bored so I decided to play with my photo doctoring software as I'm sure is evident.

Don't Wear Jeans at Chatuchak

I woke up early to meet the Ohs, but Oh T. slept in so I in the end I hadn't needed to be up so early, curses. It's ok though I did work on my letter for getting into University. It isn't done yet but it is coming along.

When I did meet up with the Ohs we went into Nichada Thani because there was some event at ISB (ISB = International School of Bangkok) and Magic Years had a booth set up and both Ohs work at Magic Years. Oh R. teaches children's classes for a couple of hours on Satruday mornings so she went to teach that while Oh T. did her thing at the booth and I decided to go for a coffee and to write some letters. Oh T. was supposed to be an hour but it turned into two which was fine because I was in a letter writing groove and lost track of time until she showed up to get me. I don't like Nichada very much, I'd been there once before and didn't like it then either. Nichada is the expatriate village and it's not real Thailand, its very exclusive and it's like being in any miscellaneous suburb of some miscellaneous western country, bleck.

We went to Chatuchak in the afternoon but it was really hot and we were all tired so I didn't actually get that much off of my list. A word of advice to anyone visiting Chatuchak, don't wear jeans when you go. It is so crowded and hot that if you wear jeans you'll feel like your skin is suffocating and you're going to pass out from heat exhaustion. Oh R. and I both wore jeans and both regretted it many times over the course of the day. We mostly wandered around feeling hot and then when it looked like it was going to rain (it'd been getting darker and more cloudy all day) we went to Central Lat Phrao shopping mall and had some sushi.

After our excellent dinner I quickly rushed home for the Feast. We had a nice Feast. This evening I haven't done very much, I'm going with Oh R. to the Feast in Bangkok tomorrow morning so I should go to bed early. I've spend my evening listening to the many awesome cds Evan has made me and sorting through my stuff so that packing will be easier when the time comes.

I didn't bring my camera with me today because Chatuchak is a place to worry about theft, therefore no new pictures. Yay more Cambodia photos! This is my "I was there" photo that I had May take of me so that I could send it to Evan and Tonya to show them I was really at Angkor Wat. I should have fixed my hair and made myself look less sweaty. It was soo hot out this day and very humid, this was the day that it poured down with true "rainy season" force and so much rain fell that there was a bit of flooding in some areas. It rained about two hours after this photo was taken.

Pendulums, Order, and Chaos

This morning when I woke up I talked to Mattea, Etana and Leo for a nice long visit. Etana showed me all her new tricks over the webcam. Her "attack! attack!" is pretty cute especially in her sweet little voice.

Once I was done talking with them I had a shower, cleaned my apartment, and listened to music. I took things pretty slow and easy. I went to Magic Years to meet up with Oh to plan out children's class lesson for tonight. It was the first day of the new semester at Magic Years and everyone was running around organizing, labeling and having little meetings. I helped label some of the kid's cubbies and put papers up on the wall display boards and then I sat back and wrote letters while Oh was in meetings. It didn't take us long to plan the lesson because I'd already written out a general frame work and we took ourselves out for an early dinner (where I tried a new fish dish) before class.

The lesson went well in class. One of the girls told me she liked my nose and we coloured some pictures of people feeding each other fish balls with giant chopsticks. It was ok.

After class Oh and I went out for coffee and read the BK Magazine and the Bangkok Post while discussing all of the stories, reviews and silly horoscopes. One of my horoscopes talked about physics, pendulums, and making order out of chaos.... I can't remember my other horoscope, it was much more typical.

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting the Ohs early and we're going to go to Chatuchak market to do some shopping.

In health related news I was a lot less sleepy today (though I did take a little nap at Magic Years when Oh was in meetings) and I felt a lot less nauseous too! Yay!

Today's picture is of the sunset over the rice fields as seen from Phnom Krom (the big hill) in Cambodia.

Learning about Leadership

It was really hard to get up this morning but I managed to get to school on time and I had a decent class. I have a huge break in between the grade 7b class and leadership club and so I wrote many letters, played on the computer, and finished my awesome lesson plan about servant-leadership for leadership club.

Club was ok but by the time I got to that class I was feeling a bit nauseous and really tired. I think though that my students liked the lesson. I've never had to teach leadership to others before and I'm not exactly sure on the best methods but I think we're muddling through ok. Thanks to my Dad for referring me to the Greenleaf centre for servant-leadership web page, some of the articles are really interesting and helpful. I started club today with the general definition of servant-leadership and then we started to learn the first two of the ten characteristics of the servant-leader (while doing activities to explore and reinforce those characteristics). Hopefully I'm effective.

After school I took the sawng-thaew and walked the rest of the way home, as usual. I can feel myself getting better, I have a bit more spring in my step now. When I got home I was tired but I didn't crash and instead wrote some emails. I went out for dinner and then to Carrefour to mail fourteen more letters (I'm up to 270 now), I was keeping myself busy so I wouldn't crash again. I spent the evening writing draft letters to educational institutions so that I could get myself back into school as soon as possible. I also sat back and watched a dvd.

Today's picture is of Angkor Wat as seen from the highest point of Angkor Wat, the walk way leads to the front exit (the elephant gate) and you can see the two libraries on the left and right of the main path. In the gate tower is the statue of Vishnu (which I didn't get a picture of). Sorry to those of you who are tired of the Angkor Wat photos, my camera seems to be working again so I'll try to get out and take some neighborhood photos or something so that I'll have something new to post.

Rip Van Winkle

Today was once again a day of sleepiness. My first class was at 8am and Erfan couldn't make it so I was solo. The original plan was that we were going to start splitting all of our classes as of today so I had planned a lesson for my half of the class. I couldn't carry out my plan so I decided how the class would be split for next time and then just gave my students free time. My antibiotics make me feel a little queasy so I wasn't really feeling up to doing much. I'm also insanely tired still and after my first class I passed out in the math lab for two solid hours! I was told that people were coming and going through that room and I slept through it all. Erfan came for our next class at 11:50am and I thought that the splitting of the class went successfully and I had a good time with my half. During the second break between classes I kept myself awake by writing many letters.

The last class of the day was grade 8b. These guys used to be my favorite but every class they seem to be getting more out of hand. After much effort we split the class and I tried to lay down the law with my half. We managed to get through the next lesson and they were quiet, but not everyone was willing to do work. Some progress is better than no progress.

When I got home from school I changed, rested and went out for cashew chicken. This evening we had Ruhi book six which was really good. I'm fighting to keep awake now though. I can't wait until I'm back to normal and can stay awake for more than two hours without dozing.

As promised here is another Cambodia picture: Taes and I at the Bayon temple. The picture was taken by some other tourist that I never caught the name of.

Boo Camera

This morning passed with little excitement. The grade 9b class was well behaved, I no transportation issues, and I didn't sleep in which I was worried about because I've been all about the sleep lately. On Tuesday mornings I only teach until 9:50am and then have the rest of the day free so I went home to quickly change and then went to the tailor to get another skirt and a dress made. Giving the directions for the dress was hard because I don't know any Thai, getting the message across required many sketches and flipping through magazines for examples. I think I'll bring a Thai friend to my first fitting to help me out with any particulars that may need discussion.

I did a bit of shopping after my visit to the tailor and then I came home. I was really tired again and so I decided to rest for a "bit" and slept from three until 6pm, oops. I was so groggy when I woke that I would have slept right through the evening, but when I looked at the clock and saw the time I decided it was best to shake off my drowsiness and eat so that I could take my medications.

Since dinner I've been reviewing the tests my students wrote so that I can give feedback when I see them tomorrow. Also as of tomorrow Erfan and I are splitting the classes and each taking half as a permanent arrangement until the end of the semester. I think things will work better this way.

In sad news my camera is acting up again. I'm going to try to take it to the camera doctor, but this may mean that won't be posting photos for a while or I'll be reverting back to old Cambodia, Thai temples, and Khao Yai photos from months past. I hope my camera comes to it's senses soon, I really want to be able to take more photos!

May, I have emailed you from three different email address now but haven't heard from you. Did you receive any of them? Do you have another email address?

Thanks for the shoutbox post Mich, Mattea is red too. I think your pose is the enlightened Buddha. I'm glad you're getting my letters, there will be more. Thanks also for the beautiful birth announcement today! Oh and thanks to Mandy for a real hand written letter which I also received today! I was so thrilled to get two things in the mail on the same day!

Here are some boys from my Friday night Baha'i children's classes. Here all the kids (especially boys) pose framing their face with their finger and their thumb. No matter where you go they do this, but I'm not sure why.

Sashimi Madness!

I spent the first half of the day in and out of my bed, I was feeling so groggy when I was up that I'd lie down and then after a half hour of rest I'd get up only to feel groggy and tired again. Finally at 1pm I decided that I should force myself to stay up so that I would be able to sleep tonight, as I do have to teach tomorrow morning.

I had borrowed some movies from Khanum and so I walked down to Magic Years School to return them and say hi to my friends (most of whom work there). When I got to the school I saw that Pun was there, her first day back from Germany! I am so excited to have Pun back in town we're going to have so much fun in these my last seven weeks in Thailand! Both of the Oh's were working as well and I helped Oh T. select some pictures for one of the display boards. The school is being redecorated right now for the new school year which starts this coming Friday. I hung out at the school until they were done their work day and then went with Pun to IT Square (shopping mall) to get the pictures Oh and I selected printed and, while we were out, go for dinner. We went to Oishi for all you can eat and after having nearly no appetite for five days I really packed it in. I ate two dinner sized plates sashimi and sushi (mostly sashimi - and I piled the fish up) and gyoza, tempura, miso soup, edamame, radish, chicken and veggies, beef and veggies, muscles, and desert oh and rice tea mmmmmmmm. Pun and I both walked out of there feeling that we got our money's worth but with over-full bellies. The place was buffet style and you had a time limit for how long you were allowed to stay and so you pile up your plates and for the cooked dishes you select the raw meat and veggies and give it to them and they cook it and deliver it to your table. So awesome.

We picked up the printed pictures and walked around the mall to try to settle our food before we ran to catch the bus. I still feel really tired and will probably let myself go to sleep soon.

Here is another picture of the Mekong, some palm trees, houses, and beautiful mountains. I took this picture from the top of Phu Si.

Teddy Bear Sweater

Today I engaged in my most practiced pastime of the past week, can you guess it? Yup that's right, sleep! I woke up for a bit had a shower, had breakfast and took my three meds. I also tried to tidy a bit because although a woman comes to clean my room on Sunday's I don't want her to have to clean up my mess on top of doing a basic cleaning of the room.

When she came to clean my room I was dozing again and fell asleep before she left (around noonish?) and didn't wake until three... or maybe it was four. I went to the Sunday night market in Kor Tor Mor and then watched a movie and knit a teddy bear sweater.

The makings of a thrilling day!

This photo is of one of the many temples in Luang Prabang. For the most part I had great weather in Laos, such blue skies. I went through my flickr account and made more photos public for those of you who feel like browsing.

Happy Birthday Adina!!

Today being Adina's birthday and Thai Mother's day I took myself out. I tried to go into Bangkok to celebrate but once I got into the busy city I decided I was too sick to stay out very long. I took myself out for some ice cream in honour of Adina's birthday, and then took the bus back home. The ice cream was really good mmmmmmmmm.

I had looked into seeing a movie but there wasn't anything that I wanted to see and I think I would have fallen asleep in the theatre so it's probably for the best that I went home for a nap.

Today is the Queen's birthday which is why it's also Thai mother's day and so I wore my blue "love Mom" shirt (as seen in the picture). They really know how to celebrate Mother's day here, everyone gets their Mom a white flower, wear a shirt stating how much they adore their Mom (and the Queen), and this evening there were fire works in every direction I looked from my balcony!

I started to take medication for my throat and lymph infections today and am already feeling better (but that may be because of the muscle relaxants and pain killers I was given). I think I'll have a speedy recovery now.

I think today's picture is obvious: me with a sign for Adina and Mom wearing my blue shirt. The white flower (jasmine) is the official flower of Mother's day.

Happy Birthday Adina! Happy Mother's Day Mom! Happy Thai Mother's day to my other sister, Mattea, and also to all the other Mom's out there who are reading this.

Hospital Celebrity

Since today is Friday and I'm sick I decided to let myself sleep in and didn't set my alarm. Usually, I don't sleep past nine or ten and so I was a bit surprised to be woken by the ringing phone. I though that it was still morning though and was shocked when Oh (T.) told me that it was 2pm! Oh helps me teach the Friday night Baha'i children's classes and usually I go to her school to plan on Friday afternoons. I couldn't believe I slept nearly 16 hours! I had actually intended to walk to meet Oh at the school.

In the evening children's classes went ok but my illness had gotten worse, despite my insane amount of sleep over the past two days. Since I was feeling worse not better Vaughan drove me to the community hospital to get checked out after the children's classes.

I don't think this hospital sees many farang because everyone stared at me and there were about seven or eight nurses and hospital attendants watching me get my throat looked at.

Vaughan also took me to pick up some soup and fruit and then I went back home. When I got in I ate and took my pain killer and muscle relaxant which helped tons and then it was off to sleep for me.

Happy Anniversary to my friends Evan and Tonya! They are the parents of the sweet girl named Clover whose blog I've made reference to a few times before.

I've posted this tree before just never seen at this crazy angle! It's the tree at Ta Phrom temple in Cambodia.

Sleep and Leadership

I woke up this morning with the chills which is strange because I sleep with the fan on low and my apartment must have been about 30 degrees. I really wasn't feeling hot to go to school so I told Erfan I wouldn't be able to make it to our morning class and I went back to bed.

I slept solid until one in the afternoon and got up to get to school for three. On Thursday afternoons I don't teach class but am in charge of the leadership club for grades 7-9. Erfan has decided he doesn't want to work on this any more and so I'll be running the club alone from now until the end of the semester which is fine. I let club out early because I felt really unwell but I do think that we did make some progress. The club is mostly comprised of classroom leaders and our goal is to sharpen their leadership skills to help them be more effective leaders in class. I've never taught leadership before and am struggling a bit with how to teach them the practical skills but we're taking it one step at a time and we're all learning together so I hope to figure it out as we go along.

I got home from school (around 4:30om) and had another "nap" which took me until about 9pm. I talked to Adina for a bit and then went back to bed.

Here are the alligators at the alligator farm in the floating village in Cambodia. The one with his mouth open kept swallowing, I think he was expecting something.

Days of the Week

Today I woke up feeling more sick then yesterday and I spent the whole day at school feeling tired and nauseous. I didn't puke but I was not feeling very solid. I rested and wrote over on my breaks between classes. I think I wrote about six letters, whoow. Some of today's classes were great others were not so much. The day went by fast enough though and when I got home I had a nap before dinner.

This evening we finally resumed our Ruhi book six group, it was really good. We'd been on hold for a couple of months because things were changing and everyone was so busy and I'm glad to be back in the groove.

After Ruhi I sat down for a chat with Jaya and Erfan and then I came back to my room to type out the blog (which I'm obviously doing now) and then I'll be crashing. If I don't feel better tomorrow I'll be phoning the doctor because my ear is a bit sore, curses. I was planning on going away this weekend but since I feel so crappy I guess I'll just stay in the city, go out to a movie, and if I feel up to it hit up some markets. Maybe I'll take myself to the ultra swanky movie theatre with the reclining lazy-boy chairs and the duvets.

Today I was one with the Thai masses and wore my yellow shirt for the King. I found out that there is a colour for every day of the week and that we wear yellow because the King was born on a Monday! I thought yellow was just the royal colour but no it's because he was born on a Monday. This means that when there is a new King the colour could change for whatever day of the week he is born on. The Queen's colour is blue because she's born on a Friday and so this Saturday for the Queen's birthday everyone wears blue to celebrate! I was born on a Friday also so my colour is blue, and its story of Shiva and dust (they all have Shiva and dust) also has my number, 21. What's your colour?

I learned from Oh (Oh R. that is) that there is also a Buddha pose for every day of the week. Mine is the contemplating Buddha. This pose implies a "complete spiritual transformation". Check me out! My Dad's Buddha is my favorite because it's the one with the Naga King, and the Naga is my favorite (not that I'm saying mine isn't pretty cool). What's your Buddha pose?

Today's picture is of me and one of the monks of Luang Prabang. We're at the monastery at the bottom of Phu Si, one of the other monks took this picture. This guy in the picture with me is the one who made the ball and the grass hopper out of the bamboo leaves, very talented. I also made a picture available on the photos page of Buddhas in different poses, it's the one that also has a bearded Buddha (I don't know anything about that one). I took the Buddhas photo in a cave on Phu Si.

Two Ohs

Today I went to school only to realize that class was cancelled and no one had told us. I was supposed to meet two of the new Baha'is in our community for lunch but I wasn't really feeling up to it so I ducked out of our plans. I would really like to be friends with Laura and Hutan and so I'll have to phone them later to work out some new plans for another day.

I relaxed for most of the late morning and early afternoon and then Oh phoned me for plans with her and the other Oh who just returned from two months in the U.S. Yes there are two Ohs the Oh I have been hanging out with is Oh T. and the Oh who just got back from visiting her boyfriend in the U.S. is Oh R.

Oh R. picked me up and we went to mall called "Fashion Island" to meet up with Oh T. The three of us had dinner, did some shopping, and had some coffee. Oh R. and I got head massages and relaxed for a bit, it was pretty ok. After having a few frustrating days it's nice to hang out with some good friends and just relax.

I've had some swollen lymph nodes near my jaw since the weekend and today it began developing into a sore throat, curses! I guess I'll go to bed early tonight an try to make this my illness go away before it really gets started.

Today's picture is from Luang Prabang, I think the content is obvious. It was a beautiful day out, I got a minor burn that day on one side of my body.

Mai Dee

My finger is still sore but not nearly as much as it was and it's starting to look better too! I think it may be on the mend!

Today was not a good day, I don't really have much to say about it I'll leave it at: I'm having a frustrating time.

School was decent today, my students were pretty well behaved. Nothing crazy went on.

In the evening I decided I had to get out of the house so I took the bus into Bangkok and went to buy more crazy fun stationary! The highlight of my day.

By the way "Mai Dee" (Mai pronounced My) means "not good". When mai is in front of a word it's a negative and means not or no, if it's after a word it becomes a question. If mai is a negative then by process of elimination you've figured out that "Dee" means good, you'd be right. If I wrote "Dee mai" it would mean "good no?".

Today's picture is of some mountains (obviously). I was in a boat on the Nam Khan facing the Mekong, you can see the line where the rivers merge and the water turns red, the end of the Nam Khan the beginning of the Mekong.

Sore Finger

This morning we had an Assembly meeting which took up most of the morning. I think it was a pretty good meeting. In the afternoon I wrote a few emails an letters, but I some how hurt my finger the other day and even though I've kept it bandaged it got worse and is now really gross and kind of painful making typing difficult. Curses. I'm trying to type without the sore finger but am making more typos than I am correct words.

This evening I went out to the market. It's a bit of a walk to Kor Tor Mor circle but it's really not that far and I like it, however the motorcycle taxi guys were out in full force today shuttling people out to the market and one even followed me down the road for a few blocks. Oye. I bought some rambutan, chicken on a stick, coconut milk with pieces of coconut flesh in it, sticky rice, and my favorite tea. Yum!

In the later evening all I did was read since writing hurts (boo), this stupid finger may slow down my letter writing.

I forgot to mention yesterday that in honor of her one year bloggerversary Clover had her Daddy update the design of her blog (Clover's Daddy, Evan, designed my blog). It looks really cute, check it out.

Today's picture is of Bop and I. Bop is in my Friday night children's class, he's the entertainer of the group. His face is white because we were playing a game with baby powder. I'm lifting him in this picture.

Three New Friends

This morning I slept in a bit late because I stayed up late again last night. During the day I cleaned my apartment, did a bunch of laundry and did some writing. Erfan was back from his two weeks away and so we went to lunch together to catch up.

In the evening there was a dinner at Khanum's house so that everyone could visit with a Baha'i woman who did a lot of service for the Thailand community back when all the older adults were youth. The three new members of the Nonthaburi Baha'i community came and we all got to get to know each other and visit, good times! Two of our new community members are a couple from Spain and the other person is a fellow Canadian named Nicole. Dinner was fun and the food was great. Tonight the plan is to go to bed before 2am (for the first time in several days) because I have to be up early for the Assembly meeting tomorrow morning.

Today's picture is of one set of steps up Phu Si hill, there are about four different sets of steps around the hill.

Nappy

When I woke up I immediately got on the computer so that I could finish catching up on my blogs. Unfortunately, I wasn't very diligent in my writing because I was so tired from my late night the night before and I kept on going back to my bed and "resting my eyes". I did this pretty much on and off all day. Usually on Fridays I will go and meet Oh at Magic Years school and we'll plan our lesson for Baha'i children's classes but she phoned me to tell me she wouldn't be able to make it today because she was out in Ayuthaya province visiting her brother. I planned a relaxed lesson on my own because I wasn't sure if I would have any translator helping me and the kids don't really know very much English.

The children's classes went ok. We finished writing the stories we were working on last class and read them to the younger class, every thing was pretty relaxed.

After class I came back to my room and lay down on my bed to write some letters and postcards and an hour and a half later I woke up with my pen still in my hand. Of course since I'd had so many day time naps I wasn't tired now that it was night and so had another late night. I only had four more blogs until I was up to date so I wrote while also chatting to Adina and went to bed around 2am. I will have to keep myself up during the day tomorrow so that I won't be continuing my new pattern of being up at night and asleep during the day.

Thank you to the anonymous shoutbox smiler, it's very cute. And to May: I emailed you, I hope that you received it I want to keep in touch too.

Today's picture is another of the Mekong, check out this huge boat. My friend Oh was telling me that there is a belief that a Naga lives in the Mekong River and that he shoots a fire ball in the air at the end of Buddhist lent. People also make sacrifices to the river to thank it for they way it supports thier livelyhood. I find the many stories of the Naga really interesting, the Naga is important in stories in Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos (probably other Asian countries as well). I guess I've always been interested in mythology though.

Finished the Book

Last night I stayed up a little later than I should have reading my book and so I slept in by accident this morning and had to bust it to get to my class. Lucky for me my bus pulled up just as I got to the bus stop though (such excellent timing) and so I managed to make it to my class a little early even. This was another class that just didn't want to listen, I ended up working with a small group in this class much like I had in one of my classes yesterday but I just didn't have the energy to try to calm the masses. In the afternoon leadership club was much better, it's a smaller group and I think they like me and trust me now so they're much easier to deal with.

I'm glad that this school week was over, maybe they were extra rowdy because their midterms were over but still it was stressing me out a bit.

While on my long afternoon break at school I finished my book, all nine hundred pages. I am still deciding what I thought of the book as a whole, some parts I liked and others I was just trying to read through quickly to get back to the character that I wanted to hear about. I will have to find another book to read now because after reading so intensely over the past week I feel like there is a literary void that I need to fill. My parents sent me another book so I guess I'll give that one a go next.

After school I sat on my bed and closed my eyes and decided to just relax which turned into a nice long nap. When I finally woke up and stopped being too groggy I went to my favorite restaurant on my soi and had some veggies, tofu and rice and then to Thongs for another visit and a coffee.

Instead of going to bed early I stayed up late chatting with Adina and finally typing out all of my blogs from Laos.

Today's picture is of Phu Si hill as seen from the boat, which is why the horizon isn't even.

Difficult Classes

Today was a very long day, I had three classes of students who didn't want to listen, were rowdy and who 'forgot' their books at home, ugh. During my last class I was so frustrated I just sat with the five students that wanted to actually do the lesson and taught the lesson in one corner of the class while the rest of the students went nutty. I'm not very good at classroom management and I'm not a trained teacher, it's so frustrating sometimes. I send out a lot of respect to teachers who are good at what they do, seriously! On my breaks at school I read my book and wrote a few letters and tried to think of ways I could get my classes under control. Erfan is still out of town and not back until next week so I'm teaching solo this week which is fine, it's just today that was especially frustrating because the students just wont listen. Sometimes I will say something to a student while they're standing there looking me in the eyes and then they still won't listen and go back to whatever it was they were doing, ugh.

In the evening I mailed Etana another present and sent out a few letters and then went to see Thong for coffee and a visit.

Today's picture is another of the wonderful Mekong. It's such a beautiful and fast flowing river. Also if you want to compare the colours of the two rivers the picture for the day before yesterday was the Nam Khan and you can just scroll down and check out the difference.

The Walking Dead

This morning when I got up I was so exhausted from staying out late and staying up late reading my book last night, but I had a class to teach at 9am and so I had to get ready and get to school.

When I got to school I was like the walking dead, I was so tired that i don't really remember what we did for class just that I was really exhausted.

I took a nap once I got home and then dove back into reading my book for a couple of hours. Some time in the afternoon Sunantha called me and told me I would have a roommate so I ran around cleaning up my place and getting ready for a guest.

In the early evening I went out for dinner at my usual restaurant and then to visit Thong for coffee. We chatted for a bit but I promised Sunantha I would be at my room to meet my one night roommate so I rushed back home and waited. I didn't need to wait too long and this woman named Farideh came. We chatted for a bit and she asked me to take her around outside because she wanted to have dinner and to visit a fruit stand. We got some fresh coconuts,walked around, and were also successful in finding her some dinner.

Once we got back to the room she went to bed and I started to get caught up on blogs and of course read my book a bit before bed.

This picture is of the city of Luang Prabang as seen from Phu Si, isn't so nice and green? I love it, I really do want to live there.

Nothing Phenomenal