Doraemon

One of the reasons Tricia and I make such good roommates is because we are both obsessed with 7-Eleven and the recent promotion that they are doing. haha 7-Eleven has this thing going where every 40 baht you spend you get a silver Doraemon sticker which equals 1 baht and they have special items that they change every so often that is worth a gold Doraemon sticker, which is 3 baht. They give you these little passbooks that we keep our stickers in. Now, we can either redeem these stickers for cash OR we can work to get the special prizes that they offer. All the prizes are Doraemon themed. The best prizes are the terry cloth trash can, clock, bowl set, and pop up chair.

Tricia and I rock at getting stickers. haha We are the best. Neither of us can go to 7-Eleven anymore without spending 40 baht. I get this guilty feeling every time I go in there without getting a sticker. We are also very lucky with the gold stickers this month because the special items include diet coke, yogurt, and pork buns- some of our favorite things that we must have every day. haha Basically, I've been drinking a disgusting amount of diet coke in order to get stickers. hahaha

Well a very exciting thing happened last weekend- we were able to redeem our stickers in order to get the bowl set! haha We had to wait a few days in order to go pick them up, but they are now sitting proudly in our kitchen. Now we are working to get the clock, and I think we are going to be able to get it very soon!

As a side note- Doraemon is very popular here. I always see Doraemon pajamas and slippers being sold on the street and my students talk about it all the time. They actually watched it on the van ride to Bang Saen, but I wasn't able to see it. I decided that I should probably see it since I now own the bowl set, so I went and rented the Doraemon movie last night to watch. haha Unfortunately, it's in Thai, but it's still pretty cute and at least I get to practice my Thai a bit. :)

Bang Saen, Wat Po, and China Town

It has been a very busy week! On Thursday I went with my new class on a field trip to Bang Saen, which is a beach about 1 1/2 hours from here, very close to Pattaya. We took two mini buses and the whole class and Sharon, Note, Bo, and I piled in. When we got there, we went to the aquarium first, which was a lot of fun. The kids loved it! They were so excited that they couldn't even calm down enough to look at everything. They just kept racing through. We had to pull them back several times in order for them to see everything. I saw the most humongous, scariest looking lobster ever, seahorses, cool fish, sharks... the works. Then we headed to the beach so that the kids could play in the sand for a little while. Sharon had a science experiment kit that they played with where you can look at all the tiny particles in the sand. They loved it. On the way back the driver took us to a curvy road which was covered in monkeys! It was the best part of the day (if you ask me)! I probably saw about 100 monkeys just hanging out on this road. They were adorable! My new class in front of the aquarium at Bang Saen! They're cute kids!

Last week, Lannie, Tricia, and I realized we hadn't done a lot of "touristy" things since we had been here. So yesterday we took a river boat taxi ride to the Grand Palace. We ended up not gonig to the Grand Palace because we actually couldn't figure out how to get in. hahaha It was kindof frustrating because we were right next to it and could see it, but the wall was blocking it and we just couldn't find the door... hahahaha We ended up going to Wat Po, which has the gold relaxing Buddha. The temple was beautiful. The thing about a lot of temples is that they are so bright and colorful, and everything is incredibly intricate. It was lots of fun. Apparently Wat Po is where Thai massage began, which I found very interesting. haha It's pretty much the only thing I learned about it. haha

Tricia, Lannie, and I on our way to Wat Po!

Wat Po (for some reason, I couldn't turn the pictures vertical...)

More of Wat Po (turn your heads...hahaha)

Roommate pic in front of the Relaxing Buddha

After touring Wat Po, the three of us headed to China Town. I had been to China Town before, but I went the week before the New Year and everything was absolutely dead. Yesterday it was incredibly crowded. It was hard to get around because their were so many people and vendors and cars. China Town is basically markets. We did some shopping and bought some jewelry. Then we found a Chinese restaurant to go to for dinner, which was fabulous. It had been a while since I had had Chinese food. All in all, a good week! Now I'm off to learn some Thai!

Cool Season

It's been cool season for a while now, a month or so- I don't know. It's been really nice until about a week ago. Most people say it's "beautiful" outside, the weather is "great", it's "too nice" outside to be at work, blahblahblah. I am freezing! haha I'm very upset with Thailand. It's really letting me down. haha It gets down to almost 60 in the mornings and then the high is in the high 70's- maybe if I'm lucky it'll reach 80. I know that doesn't sound cold to y'all, but I love hot weather and I don't have any clothes for cold weather or a heater. Apparently this is very very unusual and it has never been like this before. Hopefully it'll be back to 85 soon.

Other than that, there isn't anything too exciting to update on. I'm really enjoying my life here in Bangkok. My job is fun, but there are a lot more politics then there was at Phoenix, but I just stay out of all that. It's funny what things people get upset about, isn't it? haha I think some of the teachers at work just need to calm down about a few things. They're all very nice though. I get along with the TA's the best. They're so great. Note, Bo, and I just sit back and have a good time and do our jobs. We work really well together. Bo has started taking me home from school and Note can't wait to hang out on the weekends. We are taking our class to the aquarium tomorrow for a field trip and it should be a lot of fun! I'm really excited! haha

Move In

A wonderful thing just happened to me- I was given a bed.

Yesterday was a great day. It was my first day of work at my new job. I work at New Sathorn International School (NSIS) now as one of the Kindergarten 3 teachers. There are two K3 teachers and 21 K3 students. The students travel in-between the two of us, so I only teach 10 or 11 of them at a time. I teach math, computer, and reading centers and Sharon is in charge of Social Studies / Science and Language Arts. It's great. Less preparation and less kids to work with, equals less work. Sharon is an older lady who met her Thai husband in America and moved to Thailand for him about 15 years ago. It's kindof a backwards story. She's really nice.

Not only do I only teach half the students at a time and half the subjects, I still get an assistant. Her name is Note. She's awesome. She's 23 and super stylish and laid back. I can tell we're going to be good friends. We've already arranged it so our lunches overlap. She's Thai but speaks English really really well. It's very impressive. Sharon also has an assistant and her name is Bo. She's extremely helpful. She's been there a long time and knows what she is doing.

My kids are super sweet. They're all sorts of nationalities, except American. I think I have 5 pure Thai's, and then most of the rest are all half Thai and something else- like Greek, French, English, Malaysian, Phillipino, or Japanese. All of their parents are really involved in the school and I already have a few of them who have volunteered to help me every week with reading centers. They're great.

When I got home from work I took a nap. I was exhausted. Afterall, I got up at 5 o'clock that morning. Then, to my excitement, Tricia and I were able to go put down our deposit for our apartment and move in!! We were thrilled to have keys to our own apartment finally!

Moving was incredibly easy. We only had to roll our suitcases down the hall. We are living in the same complex, same floor even, as Ryan and James coincidentally. It'll be a lot of fun to have people around all the time. Our apartment is nice. We each have our own room, bathroom, and balcony. There is a pool and gym on the second floor and laundry machines conveniently across the street. It's good. We are both very excited.

So excited that all of us went out to celebrate for Mexican food last night! It was so incredibly delicious and well deserved! Then we came back and watched Dreamgirls, one of my faves! What a great day!

Having a Happy New Year in Koh Pha-Ngan

Happy New Year everybody!

I am currently living on Ryan and James' dog mat in their living room and don't have internet on my computer, so I apologize for not updating sooner! Hopefully... most likely... (cross your fingers), Tricia and I will be able to move in our new place (which is down the hall, haha) tomorrow! YaY!

New Year's a big deal here, a much bigger deal than Christmas. Everybody gets time off and goes on vacation. Bangkok is kindof quiet right now because most people don't go back to work until tomorrow. They actually call it the Happy New Year instead of just the new year. It's cute. haha

Neither Ryan or Tricia had to work, so the three of us decided to take a little vacation to Koh Tao. We took a night bus the night of the 29th to the pier down south. It was an incredibly long bus ride. We left around 6 that evening and got to the ferry around 7 the next morning. Then we had to take a two hour ferry ride. Actually the ferry ride was supposed to be about 4 hours, but we got impatient and re-routed our trip to Koh Pha-Ngan. hahaha It was a good decision. We'll just have to go to Koh Tao some other time.

Anyways, we finally got to the island around lunch and we called a bungalow place to stay for a couple nights. I was so excited to stay in a bungalow! haha It was great. It ended up being a much nicer bungalow than Tricia and I imagined it to be. We had two beds, a fan, and shower (with bathtub and shower curtain!). We were without hot water and air con, but you really don't need those things here. After we checked in, we went and rented a couple of motorbikes to get around with. Tricia and Ryan each drove one and I was very impressed with them, because the roads were really windy and steep. Points to them. haha

We decided to relax for the rest of the day. That night we went down to Haad Rin and watched them set up for the New Year's Eve party. The beach was beautiful and sky was totally clear. There were so many stars! I had never seen so many stars in the sky before. It was amazing. Plus the sand on the beach was so soft! It felt like we were walking on pillows.

It rained all day on New Year's Eve. haha It was still really nice though. We hung out a lot at the little restaurant where our bungalow was and played jenga and card games. We slept a lot to prepare for a long night ahead of us. We managed to take a long walk on the beach during a break in the storm. It was good.

That night was the New Year's Eve party at Haad Rin. This party was insane. There are about 20,000 people on the beach drinking and dancing and having a good time. People paint themselves with black light paint and drink buckets of whiskey and coke. It's crazy. I myself made sure I got some pink whiskers painted on my face. hahaha We danced and watched the fire show and had a great time bringing in the New Year.

Then we had to journey back the next day. It was not a fun journey. haha The ferry ride took 6 hours on a rocky sea. I was sea sick the whole time and had to sit outside while I got sprayed by the waves. The wave were so rocky that they had to cut the engine a few times so the ferry wouldn't flip. By the time we got off the boat, I was covered in salt. hahaha Then we got to the bus station only to find out that we were scammed and didn't have bus tickets even though we paid for them. Everything was fixed though when we found the government bus which turned out to be a much nicer bus ride than the one through the travel agent.

So anyways, now I'm just hanging out until we can move tomorrow and I start my job! Happy New Year!