Oh Happy Day

Today was a wonderful day.  I started off the morning by sleeping in! I had homemade bread and bacon for breakfast. Moe and I went house hunting with a real estate agent and found 4 houses that we could see ourselves living in.  They each had different pros and very little cons.  Moe posted pictures on his facebook if interested in seeing all the options!  I continued the day with some light school work. We had a great dinner at a place down the street.  Then we got to skype with many loved ones that we miss so much! It was a great day!!

Now for our House Hunters International Knechtel family reveal....... We chose........ House Number

.....one!!!!!!!!!  (Yes I purposely wrote it out so you had to read it and not cheat by looking for the number!)

We put money down on it today. Monday we will send over copies of our passports to get the contract written up and then Monday evening we will sign the contract.  We love this house.  It is right on the Ping River. It has GORGEOUS views.  One of the best views I have seen of the city thus far was from the roof top view.  Yes our new house has steps that lead up the roof for a gorgeous view of the city and mountains!

not a great picture but mountains none the less

This is the view when you first walk in.  There is a couch and 2 chairs to the left.  The kitchen is huge and has a stove, oven, refrigerator, and cabinet space (all of these things are hard to come by!)

This is the patio off of the kitchen.  There is a patio area off of each floor! It is beautiful.  And yes the river is always this brown.  

This is one of the bedrooms.  The other is almost identical.  The third bedroom is bare and will soon become Moe's office. The first 2 bedrooms are on the second floor and the third is on the third floor!

This is the bathroom on the second floor.  It has two separate rooms, one for the shower and one for the toilet and sink! This is wonderful because most showers get the entire bathroom wet. Thankfully we will never have this problem!

It is important to say that this house is potentially within walking distance of school. It is an easy drive to school that is for sure.  We will only have two easy left turns to make and then the right turn into school! It will be wonderful.  It is also centrally located to everything else that we could ever want or need.  In addition it is right down the street from the Principal and a few other school members that could help us if ever there was an issue.  So this is our house.  We will 'officially' move in on September 1st but were told that we could move our stuff in earlier if we wanted....and we do!  

Just a couple other updates.  Moe has been graciously waking up every morning to take me to school.  We leave about 630-645 in the morning to beat the crazy traffic.  He then comes and picks me up about 4ish to head home.  He has been wonderful.  

Back to my classroom.  I have been assessing the students this first week to figure out where they are academically. It looks like and I have been told that my students are on the low side of things. I am honestly quite exicted about this because I feel like I will have the chance to help them grow and achieve more than if they were already very smart and on top of things.  I am looking forward to this challenge.  It has been difficult though because I dont know what is normal and normal pacing for things.  This is definitely going to be an interesting year and a learning year for sure!

Air conditioning is something that is different here as well.  When things or places say they are air conditioned they really mean they have AN air conditioner.  For example, although my 'school' is air conditioned the hallways are open and the cafeteria is open and the bathrooms are open...sort of.  So really it is just the classrooms that have air.  I have realized that one of the things that makes me sad is that the bathrooms are not air conditioned.  They also are rarely ventilated well!  Cement walls with stall barriers that go to the ceiling!  Every time I use the bathroom I instantly start sweating. It is very sad.  Using the bathroom should not cause so much strife.  And the really sad thing is that this applies to school and home and public restrooms.  Which by the way, most 'public' restrooms require you to pay 5 baht to use.  By paying 5 baht you also receive a few squares of toilet paper to aid in your duties.  It is very unique ;) So bathrooms are not my favorite place here! 

Ok I think that is enough for one post.  I am getting tired after such a good day! I will end it by watching an episode of NCIS before bed.  Good thing the internet is here or we would be in big trouble! We watched So You Think You Can Dance today from Thursday.  We love that show and like that we can keep up with it!  Anyway, I am rambling.  Love you all. Night! 

OH yeah, one last thing. Moe has finally started up his own blog about his adventures.  Sometimes we might talk about the same stuff, like today and our new house! But that is because it is extra important!  Other times we will have different stuff.  So if you want to follow him too that would be lovely.  Here is his link: http://sunnydaysinthailand.blogspot.com/