Greetings and Sawatdee

So, today I'll be leaving Thailand. I'm sad about leaving but I am excited that I get to visit my parents in Africa. It sounds like they have a lot of cool adventures planned for us! I haven't been posting lately because I've had guests and I've been so busy getting ready to go (and the computer I've been using is slowly giving up the ghost). I have been keeping notes and journal entries of my past few weeks and when I get settled in Africa I'll try to see if I can get them all posted.

I fly on the night fight to Africa and will be there tomorrow morning at 7:35am.

Not Fantastic

Today was my final day at school and I have to admit that I am glad. Some of my classes were good but mostly it was just frustrating as usual. I did run into four of my grade 8b students on my way out, they're sweet girls. I have to return to school on Thursday to pick up somethings and so I promised each of these four girls that I will write them their own personal letter and deliver it on Thursday when I come to say goodbye. When I got home from school Luke and Tabz were out looking for lunch and I relaxed on my bed for a bit and didn't get much done. In the evening we tried to go to a street vendor for dinner but we didn't speak enough Thai and the vendor wasn't interested in trying to figure out what we were saying so we left feeling a bit frustrated and went to Thong's coffee shop and had his Mom's delicious food for dinner instead. We were going to go out to the night market but Tabitha had a headache and my day hadn't been fantastic so we just rested instead.

Anxiety

I had some plans with Nicole for lunch today before I knew that Tabz and Luke were going to be in town. And so after Tabz and Luke told me they are now engaged (yay!), we met up with Nicole (and Erfan came too) to go out for Persian food for a late lunch/early dinner. The food was great and we had a nice visit. Luke and Tabz needed somethings and so we all went to MBK shopping mall which was absolutely crazy on a Sunday... actually I needed some things too and so I took the time at the mall to look for what I needed. I was successful in finding some stuff that my parents needed as well as buying myself a large store of extra stationary which was on my list. The mall left me feeling really anxious and irritable and when it was over I was seriously ready to go home and just chill out. In the evening I had a really good chat with Tabz and it helped me calm down some of my anxiety about leaving Thailand, but I still have the feeling that I don't really want to return to Canada.

A Perfect Going Away Party

The day started off with some confusion about when we were meeting up so I went over to Pun's place early and found out that Oh R. was to pick me up around 3pm. It didn't stress me out all that much to be up and out of the house early, I went out for an early lunch and then I came back home and did some serious cleaning and some laundry. At three o'clock Erfan and I met up we Oh R. and we went to Patty's house for my party. When I got there Pun taught me to make a new spicy meat dip, mmmmm. We also got everything together to have som tam (which is my favorite salad) and then we cooked up a bunch of chicken, beef, pork and squid to go with the dip that we made. I ate the majority of the som tam and all of the food was so tasty that I was very full by the end. We sat around the table and chatted after dinner and then Oh T. arrived. She had been late because of family issues and so we pulled out all of the food we'd saved for her and chatted while she ate and Erfan had a second dinner. Once everyone was done grazing we went upstairs to sing some karaoke. It was an excellent time full of singing (of course), dancing, and a lot of silliness. I had such a great time. I had to leave before midnight because I was expecting guests and so the night ended around 11pm. After I got home I finished washing my soaking laundry and continued to have my own one person dance party until Tabitha and Luke arrived. I am very happy that Tabz is back in town and Luke is very nice too. They've come to town to see me off and so will be staying until I got to the airport on Friday.

The Children's Goodbye

Today was my going away party at the Baha'i children's classes. I half heartedly packed and cleaned my apartment during the day and then went to meet Oh at Magic years as usual. I helped with some shores around Magic Years for a bit and then I went with Oh T., Pun, and Oh R. to Carrefour to pick up some snacks for the kids. We were all hungry so we grabbed some dinner before going to the Baha'i center. We arrived at the center a bit late but it didn't matter as the children were all busy making me some very sweet and artistic going away cards. We played games, ate food and I made a horrible going away speech and then the evening was over. The kids are sweet but I am not a crowds person and really not a "going away speech" kind of person and so when the evening was over I was ready for it to be over. Nicole (a girl who is pioneering to Nonthaburi from Canada) came to the party and so afterwards I invited her to go out. The Ohs and Pun were tired but Nicole, Erfan, Jaya and I went out to ice cream. I had some tasty chocolate ice cream and then went home to relax.

Back After a Long Absence

My internet has been down and things have been crazy, so now I'm ultra behind in the blogging (as many of you have noticed). I'm going to attempt to catch up. This catching up will not be tonight though because my stomach is a little sore and I'm tired so I'll do today's and maybe tomorrow I'll start to go back and begin to fill in the adventures of the past... month.

As many people know, there is a coup in Thailand right now,so I would first like to assure everyone that all is well with me and I'm perfectly safe. Thank you to everyone who has written me or messaged me to double check. Things are peaceful in my area because the citizens of Bangkok and Nonthaburi are happy that Thaksin is gone. I guess we'll see if they stay happy when a new acting PM is put into place, but that will happen after I leave, hopefully it's someone that the people will want to follow and who will do good things for the country.

Today was my last day of Leadership Club at the school and so I spent most of my day preparing activities for the class. Leadership club has been challenging for me because I've never taught leadership before and though I understand leadership concepts, understanding and teaching are two separate beasts and sometimes I found it hard to teach it in a fun way. My students are great though and are very sweet and this is a group that I'll definitely miss. Today's pictures are of some of the kids in my club since not all were present today, I think maybe because of the coup.

After school I had a little nap and then went out to the restaurant I nearly always eat at on my soi and then to get a coffee. Tonight I've been listening to some Thai music and trying to pack. Thai pop has really grown on me and I have been purchasing some music to take with me back to Canada. I'll be posting a music blog soon, but first I'll get caught up on the blogs of early September.

It's a Coup

I woke up this morning to an official declaration of the beginning of the coup. This meant that schools, banks and government buildings were all closed. I had a lunch meeting with Jaya and Erfan to give my feedback and discuss any suggestions that I may have for future years. After our meeting I went on a shopping trip to look for things Mattea had requested. I wasn't sure how safe it would be on the first day of the coup and so I took a taxi to Central Lat Phrao shopping mall. My taxi driver was very excited about the coup and very happy that the army was out in full force and so every time we passed any soldiers or tanks he would unroll the window, give the thumbs up and yell "Gang mac mac" which essentially means "Excellent" or "very very excellent". The shopping mall was very busy but my trip was most unsuccessful except for one pair of pants for Etana and some coffee for my parents. I took a taxi home as well and though this taxi driver also supported the coup he was less pleased at the presence of the military and every time we passed a tank would click his tongue disapprovingly. I got home just in time to be ten minutes late for Ruhi and so I grabbed my book and rushed to the Baha'i center. We finished the last unit of section two and then I went home for a quiet evening.

A Good Class

I ran errands today to look for some things that my family have asked me to shop for though I have been mostly unsuccessful, hopefully I'll find more in my next shopping adventure.

I met up with Oh at Magic years at 3pm so that we could plan our lesson but the place was pretty crazy setting up for their parent evening next week. I helped them with their set up and then Oh and i quickly planned the lesson for the Baha'i children's classes and rushed to the Baha'i centre.

The class was really good today and our students were really excited and involved. We have been learning about kindness and have been studying a quote which contains the words "kindness", "consideration", and "concern". We split the kids up into three groups and got them to act out what each of the words meant, they were very creative and it was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we're going rafting and leaving early in the morning and so Oh and I are sleeping over at Pun's house. Pun lives in Muang Thong near my school and so Oh and I caught a taxi to Muang Thong after class. We were in good spirits after such a successful class and so we went out for dinner and did some shopping in the Muang Thong market before heading over to Pun's place. I hope we can get up tomorrow morning, we have to be at the main train station at 5:30am!

Here is me and one of my students in my Baha'i classes. I french braided my own hair, I taught myself... Good Nai.

A Good Food Day

Leadership club is my only class on Thursdays now and so my day was chill. I had a good talk with one of my students at club today, he wanted to know what I did in school when I was his age and I am starting to realise how long ago that was now! Time flies.

This evening was the feast and so after school I met up with Oh R. so that we could go together. We had a lot of time to kill so we met up with Oh T. and Pun for dinner in Muang Thong market first. I never know what I'm going to eat when I go to Muang Thong, my friends (especially Oh T.) know that I will try everything so usually I will find the table and they'll find the food and then I'll just eat whatever is given to me. They always chose excellent food, today was a spicy noodle salad with this sausage stuff in it and a lot of tasty seafood.

The feast was lovely. Khanum hosted and organized the most beautiful program. She also provided dinner which was so tasty.

This is Oh R.

Low-key

This morning it was really hard for me to wake up, I was so tired and kept resetting my alarm for "just another fifteen minutes". One of my plans for when I visit my parents is to have a sleep in day, just one but it's been so long since I've truly had one that I think it'd be really nice.

The whole day ended up being low key today. My grade nines were their usual excellent selves and the grade 9a class apologised for their behaviour last week and we were able to just move on from there. I'll miss my grade 9b class they're lovely and they sing to me.

I was supposed to go to a movie with Yu and Tai today. They are home from school for the fall break, their new semester starts mid October. The plans were cancelled though because they both found jobs and couldn't make it so I just chilled.

The picture is of Yu and Tai, Yu is on the left and Tai is on the phone.

Jaochai Noi

Today school wasn't anything all that eventful, my students were ok and I got some teaching done which was nice. After class I went to Khao San road to have my first suit fitting. I think that the suit will turn out well, I was amazed at how fast they work there but I guess they make so many suits it's just routine. I like my fabric, it's a darker grey with pinstripes and my coat will be beautiful when done! It's probably best that I'm leaving because getting clothing made here is addictive because it's affordable and since it's made for me it fits my curvy self.

After my suit fitting I decided to grab a cab home and I got one of the funniest most animated cab drivers I've ever had, he was great. We had a conversation nearly all in Thai, I was so proud of myself! The conversation was mostly about foods but still it's a beginning. The only thing is at the end of our conversation he insisted on giving me his number, in the words of Adina "pffft".

This evening I went out with the Ohs and Pun for dinner at the market in Muang Thong and then Oh (T.), Pun, and I did some shopping and I bought piece of art.

Jaochai means prince and noi means little.

A Rafting Crankenstein

This morning we got up early to take the train to the country to so that we could go rafting. The train left before 6am though and so we had to be up so disgustingly early. I had a hard time getting up and even when I did I was a bit of a sleepy crankenstein all day. We took a taxi to the Hua Lampoong Station downtown and took the train (in the economy car) for three hours to the opposite side of Khao Yai National park to the outdoor resort to go rafting. We were picked up at the train station and brought to the camp and prepared to go rafting. Even though I'm not that huge Thais seem to think I'm much larger than I am because I'm bigger than they are and so I was given he most monstrous life jacket ever. I could pull this thing up and over my head when it was cinched to it's tightest setting. Seeing that I was already cranky from a lack of sleep being treated like I was unnaturally large made me a bit... fumy. Eventually I got a proper life jacket and we went rafting. Rafting was ok thought the skill level could have been more difficult I didn't feel like I was really being challenged. Ah well. We then went for lunch where I had some green curry and one of my favorite Thai deserts. This cheered me a bit. After lunch Oh R. and I relaxed on the grass while the others ran around doing other activities. I would have liked to do other activities as well but I didn't want another fuss raised about my size and so I just took pictures and chilled. We took the bus back in the evening and got home in time for a late dinner. I went to back to Muang Thong with Pun and we had dinner at the market before I went home to crash.

Changes in the Flight Plan

I woke up this morning to find that my flight information for my return to Canada had changed by a few hours on each day which meant I had to contact Mattea, Adina, and Evan to tell them the change in plans. I think things work out better for my return to Edmonton because now I'll arrive before dinner which means I can go out with my sisters for some dinner right after my arrival.

My mornings lately haven't been spend doing anything of consequence. I don't like that my classes are in the afternoon because I want to go out and do stuff but I'm always too nervous that I won't get back in time and so I end up sitting around waiting for the afternoon so I can go to the school and teach my class. Ugh. I'm really ready for this semester to be over, but it will happen soon enough.

School today was ok though I didn't actually get any teaching of the lesson done. I felt like playing with my students and so all we did was play games. Today's class was grade 8b and playing with them reminded me why they were my favorite class to begin with, I wish I knew how to direct that energy towards the actual lesson. I think they like me and have fun with me but it's actually getting them to transfer their energies into work that is beyond me.

After class I walked with Erfan to meet up with this girl named Maya, she's a Baha'i from Canada who has been staying at the Baha'i centre for the past few days. She was supposed to be staying in my room but for reasons she didn't and today was the first day that I met her. It's too bad that she didn't stay in my room because she and I hit it off in our brief meeting but alas, today she left on the bus to Yasothon. In the evening I watched a movie and tried to organize my stuff. I also tried to teach myself how to do coding for blogs but man am I bad at it. I think I am improving but right now it's hard to tell.

You can eat everything out of a bag here. To save you on the bottle deposit when you buy a bottle of Coke or Pepsi they will put it into a bag with ice for you. Here is a bag of Pepsi.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

This morning I had intended to wake up early but it was a snooze alarm kind of morning and I deferred rising from my bed for as long as possible. When I did eventually rise I slowly got ready and after reading my book and relaxing I went downstairs to my favorite restaurant on the soi for lunch. After lunch I went to school for my first real day of the new schedule. Things were ok, my first class made me really upset but my second was awesome. I have really warmed up to the grade 9b class and they have warmed up to me as well and now we joke and laugh but also get things done. The grade 9a class so was so on task today that I decided that we'd end class early and go outside and play basketball, I even made a few baskets. It was stupid hot outside today reaching a high of 33 degrees with virtually no wind and an average humidity of 59% and so basketball was a sweaty affair though it was fun.

After school I took myself into Bangkok for Persian food and then for a coffee. Dinner was so tasty, I'm glad I went. This evening I watched a movie and now I'm trying to catch up on my missed blogs.

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents! I'm very proud of them and their courage to be living in Africa. I'm really excited to see them in another 23 days.

Oh! And also I wrote my 300th letter today. Whoow.

I wasn't going to post this picture because it makes me sad, but I've changed my mind about posting it because of it's story... so here it is. It looks like this monkey is just chillin' out because he's a monkey and he chooses to chill out. The truth is that he is tied to the tree (at the far gate of Ta Prohm) and when tourists come the two guys that sit at the gate snap their fingers at him and wave food around so that he'll come forward for a picture. When he comes forward the collar he is wearing gets lost in the fur around his neck and the rope that comes out of the back of the collar is lost in the shadows of the tree making it look like the picture is a natural one. He doesn't really have that much rope to move around and it distressed me that his life is spent tied to a tree in the middle of a beautiful jungle. If you don't remember what Ta Prohm is, it's the temple near Angkor Wat that is grown over with many huge trees.

Le Petit Prince

This morning passed without any real stories to tell so I'll just skip to when I went to school to teach.

On Monday's I've always only had one class to teach at 2:20pm and so I went to school prepared to teach this one class. When I arrived at school and went to sign into the book I was told that today was the day that the schedule for every class in the entire school changed, didn't I know? No, I didn't. I got Marisa to print off my new schedule and discovered that I missed the three classes I was to teach and was already done for the day! Oye this school and it's poor organization skills. There wasn't really much to do since I had no classes to teach and so I copied my new schedule and decided to go purchase the pretty watch I had been eyeing for months. The watch just recently went on sale for a little over fifty percent off and so I could no longer resist. The watch face is an original illustration from one of my favorite books and I'm so glad that I was able to buy it. I also purchased a fun book today which is especially fun to read because it's so true.

I tried to do some other shopping at the mall but I was really cranky and hungry and all I wanted to do was to go home and eat something from my favorite restaurant on my soi. I did just that. After dinner I went to see Tong for a coffee and a visit and then I went home to relax. I've been a bit out of the writing groove... well typing groove lately and so my blogs have been late. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

I decided to post this picture from my trip to the Impact centre for the display about the King because of all the yellow shirts and today being Monday the colour is yellow. You always see more yellow shirts than usual on Mondays. In the background you can see the King's Royal symbol.

Oh's Exciting Face

Oh let me sleep in and so when I woke up everyone else was already up and doing their thing. I don't think I was up any later than 9:30am but I still felt like a lazy especially since Oh was outside scrubbing her laundry (they don't have a washing machine so she does it by hand) and had been doing laundry since she got up at 7am.

I quickly showered and helped, to the capacity that I was useful, make breakfast. After breakfast Oh got ready while I read and then we went to the mall so that Oh could visit the dermatologist. Oh has had a rash on her face since they moved last weekend and she was concerned so we went for her to get it checked out. When she came out of her appointment she said "oye, my face is very exciting" which was very cute. I guess there are some mites that are causing this rash (which admittedly is gross) but her reaction was cute because of the way she expresses herself in English. Her "very exciting" comment was followed by "I have animals on my face!" which I couldn't help but smile at. She's concerned about it but I'm sure it'll be ok, they gave her some meds and will see her next Sunday to check up.

We met up with her cousin and all went out for pizza which was ok. The pizza tasted ok but it showed me that though pizza is good sometimes I don't miss cheese.

We looked around the mall a little but not for long and then we went to another mall for her to pay her credit card bill. We looked around a little but neither of us had much energy to shop and so we walked to the bus stop and waited for the 150 so that I could go home. I felt bad that Oh waited with me because the bus took over an hour to come and she missed having dinner with her family.. I mostly felt bad because I could have taken a van home but didn't because I don't like taking vans alone. I don't speak the language enough that I'm confident in vans and was worried that I wouldn't be able to communicate properly where I wanted to get off and would embarrass myself and so I stubbornly waited for the bus and passed up many a van ride... thus making Oh wait around even longer. Vans are kind of like a cross between taxis and buses, they operate the exact same as sawng-thaews actually, they have a route but you can tell them where to drop you. The difference between sawng-thaews and vans is that in sawng-thaews you ring the bell like on a bus and then the driver stops at the earliest convenient spot and in vans you tell the driver like you're taking a taxi.

Once I finally got home I dropped my bag off and went out again so that I could go to the market in Kor Tor Mor circle. I was late for the main part of the market and people were closing down but I did manage to grab something for dinner and some tasty baby bananas.

Here is a picture from Germany. It was a building near my friends' hotel.

Happy Birthday Evan

This morning I woke up surprisingly early considering I had a wicked time with insomnia last night and was up until the wee hours of the morning playing on the computer wishing for sleep. I had planned to go out and so something but alas I sluggish. I had plans with Oh today and it ended up working out that I stayed home because she phoned me and told me she and her Uncle and cousin were on their way to get me and I should be downstairs in ten minutes. We had planned for me to sleep over and I wasn't yet packed so I whipped around loading up my bag with whatever I thought I may need and ran out the door. I had a great time with Oh and her family. I was taught to make more food and since I was sleeping over I got to see her new house and it is really beautiful. We mostly cooked and ate. I ate a lot and everything was really killer hot but I ate it anyway. My stomach has proved to be quite tough and nothing has upset it yet. I hope that this hold true for when I'm in Africa.

After dinner Oh and I went for a little walk and then I played with her niece who is one cute little girl.

Since I couldn't sleep last night I was ready to crash out early tonight and so was a bit of a party pooper when I was falling over at 10pm.

Happy Birthday to Evan who is older today than he was this time last year! I don't think I need to link him again because I've mentioned him so many times in my blog you all should know who he is by now.

Today's picture if of Oh and her sweet little niece at her niece's school show a month or so ago. I don't know who took this picture, Oh sent it to me a few days after it was taken.... I hope she doesn't mind me posting it. Oh's neice is two and a half years old.

I've Seen a Horse Fly I've Seen a Shoe Fly but I've Never Seen a Dragonfly This BIG

During the day I didn't do all that much. I spend the morning chatting, lounging and cleaning my filthy apartment. Nothing thrilling but low key and the cleaning was pretty necessary. In the afternoon I went to Magic Years to meet up with Oh R. so that we could plan our Baha'i children's class lesson for this evening. I had already planned most of the lesson so we went over what I'd planned and then went with the other Oh for something to eat. We went to the the market in Muang Thong where we met up with Pun and had a feast. We ate Som Tam, some raw muscles in super hot chili sauce, a shredded-dried-fried fish in a spicy salad, and some tasty desert. Thought the dried fried fish doesn't sound (or really look) appetizing it was really very tasty. Everything except the desert was hot but I believe I held my own and the clams were really quite tasty mmmmmm.

After children's classes Oh and I went out for junk food. We planned on having some ice cream in honour of my friend Evan's birthday (we were mostly looking for an excuse to eat ice cream) but the shop was closed so we wandered around and found a Starbucks and had coffee jelly frappuccinos. These frappuccinos are kind of like bubble tea a la coffee jelly instead of tapioca and blended coffee beverage instead of tea, they were tasty. I heard something flapping it's wings outside the window and looked out to see the biggest dragonfly I have ever seen! I was so pleased that I had brought my camera and went out and took some photos of it. Isn't he lovely? Oh took the photo shown here, it was too hard to take a picture of him on my hand myself and I don't think Oh really wanted to hold him. I put more pictures on the photo page, including one that I took at arms length of me and the dragonfly together.

Oh the bracelet I'm wearing is the "I Love the King" bracelet.

On My Way