What a week!

We had a very eventful week!  It all started on Monday when I went to the market via public transit.  I did my thing and enjoyed myself wonderfully.  I called Moe to come pick me up and he did.  On the way home we got stopped/trapped in a police trap thingy.  See, I forgot to remind Moe to bring my helmet and he forgot about it too. It's illegal to not wear one.  SO once we got pulled over the officer asked for his license and well we don't have that either!  Needless to say we got a ticket and had to walk to the police station, which was just down the block.  We get there and it is crazy busy so we have to wait a good hour before getting to deal with it.  The original officer told us it would be 600 baht (200 for the license, and 400 for the helmet).  When Moe got to the counter at the station, the man said 200 baht only!! We only had to pay for the license part.  We then walked back to our bike and went home.  While this trip was supposed to take 10 minutes and ended up taking 1.5 hours, we thankfully did not have to pay much!

Tuesday Moe helped me out at school. I had to clean up after summer school, which was probably worse than after normal school, and definitely more depressing! Then we reorganized some things and prepared for next year, which is only FOUR, 4, see (4 in Thai) weeks away!!!!!

Wednesday I went back to school for a few things and back to the market for a few things.  Then I was exhausted and went home and slept! It was beautiful.

Thursday I slept some more! I think I am starting to fully appreciate summer break.  Thursday night I went to the night market with a friend Lindsay who was in town from India, but really America.  She has lived in India for the past 6 months.  In high school and what not we were family friends.  It was so fun to be together again and share our cross cultural experiences.  Some things are VERY similar and some things are VERY different.  It is soo cool to learn about other cultures and compare things.  We definitely had a good time.

Friday I went to a friends house which required high way driving.  I have been driving a good bit in town and to close, familiar places.  While I knew how to get to her house, I was afraid of driving on the highway for the first time.  So, my lovely Moe drove out with me.  He led the way and I followed him.  We stopped to get gas.  I thought I didn't need to get any but Moe suggested I should.  So I pulled up to the pump and pointed to the one that I thought I needed.  I then hear Moe screaming NOOOOOO.  It was the wrong one.  Of course, I chose the one that would terribly damage my bike if mixed together.  Thankfully he caught it in time and no bad gas was pumped!!!!  What a man! Anyway, I made it safely to my friends house.  We were able to talk about life, and school, and families. It was fun to just be with someone else and share life with them.  The rest of the night Moe and I hung out at home and played games.  It was a much needed restful relaxing day.

Saturday requires a post all of its own so that will come next.  Basically cooking class and dinner amazingness!!

Sunday was another peaceful day.  I slept in!! And so did Chico.  I think he is learning about the beauty of weekends!  Moe and I went to dinner at a beautiful restaurant and enjoyed happy hour and delicious food! After that I went to the Sunday Walking Street as it is called with Lindsay.  Sadly we weren't there long as I had to go, but we both got the things we needed.  Then as we were walking to the motorbike it started POURING rain.  We stopped at an overhang for awhile to wait it out.  It slowed after about 5 minutes and we got public transit the rest of the way.  Once we got to the bike it had pretty much stopped.  Lindsay stayed to keep shopping and I headed home.  My first time driving in the semi-rain and it was night time :( It wasn't too bad though. I went through a deep puddle that got me wet.  Then a car drove past me and splashed me. But other than that it was safe and I made it home just fine.

What a week!! I hope you all are enjoying your summer like Moe and I are.  Sorry for the lack of pictures but some stories are better off without time for pictures, only spontaneity.

Chiang Dao night getaway

We had been wanting to get away for awhile.  It had been suggested that we go up to Chiang Dao for a night  to a place called The Nest. They have a "world famous chef who studied in Europe" and what not.  It is an hour north into the mountains. We decided Friday night to hit the road Saturday morning.  We had no reservation but took the leap anyway (I had a back up place though so do not worry!)  Here is our route:

We left around noon and headed up.  Our bums were quite sore but it was a beautiful drive. We enjoyed the scenery tremendously.  We arrived and had lunch right away as we were quite hungry.  Moe had a boar burger and I had a beef burger.  Both were delicious.  Then we asked about rooms.  They did not have any air conditioned rooms available so we got one with a fan instead.  I was a little worried about it, since it is so hot all the time, but it was fine.  Here is the little cottage. It is very simple but cute. 

We then headed out to Chiang Dao Cave, which we passed on our way in.  Here is the entrance.  

We werent really sure what to expect, but figured it would be like surprise cave that we explored in Vietnam... no no, this was still a cave not for people... sorta.  There were a few statues and buddhas and spirit houses near the entrances.  Then we got to a part where there were some Thai women with lanterns and two entrances that were rather dark.  They asked us if we wanted to go in and we said sure... not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.  We were led by a Thai tour guide with a lantern through these massive caves. It was very neat.  BUT then she crawled through this tiny hole and said this way, "we dont come back".  I laughed thinking she was kidding.. no no. She was dead serious.  So I had to crawl on the ground, it was not pleasant.  Plus the cave had bats, and spiders.  I was terrified! But looking back it was very cool. Moe and I enjoyed it a lot.  

Next we went for a drive around the area.  The amazing people at the hotel suggested we explore the area the King has set aside for agriculture.  They said it would smell beautifully and it did.  It also looked beautifully!  We sadly though need to learn our plants.  We only identified corn, rice, and banana trees. My Grandpa Cal would not be pleased!  Here is a picture of the beauty with the mountains behind.  

Then we went to the Thai restaurant at our hotel and had dinner.  Moe had buffalo in a spicy soup and I had chicken and veggies in a palm sugar sauce; both with rice of course.  Both were delicious, even though Moe struggled through his.  He got a bit sun burnt on drive up to Chiang Dao and his sun burn did not like the hot food too much! 

We left our computers and books at home. The hotel only had wifi in the restaurant.  So when we returned from dinner at 730 we did not know what to do.  After about 30 minutes of sitting in our room, we decided we wanted dessert. So we went out to the restaurant and enjoyed it for another hour or so.  There were other guests that were quite entertaining at that point so it was a good time.  We went to bed at 930, which is very early for both of us!  Surprisingly we slept until 8 the next morning! 

We had breakfast which was again delicious.  (I wish this place wasnt so far away so that we could eat there more often!)  We then set out for the monastery which was about 500 meters from the hotel.  Then it was 510 steps to the top.  It was beautiful. These are some of the stairs that we climbed with monks walking.  

 

This picture was taken from a lookout point.  It is the final destination.  

This is looking back down onto the position of the previous picture.  It was so clear and calm up there.  

We thoroughly enjoyed the monastery. After we returned we packed up and headed home.  This was taken on our way home. (Yes, mom, we did stop for the picture!)

We very much enjoyed the trip. We were only gone for about 24 hours, but it was very much needed.  More pictures can be seen on my facebook page at this link  Brittany's facebook album

Making House

This post was supposed to be revealed much earlier in the week but some of you know that I had a fall on my motorbike that delayed things.  I am still not entirely sure what happened to create the fall. All I know is it happened and I am alive.  I know I was stopped at a dead end, coming home from the grocery. I accelerated into the turn and somehow ended up on the ground.  Thankfully I wasn't going too fast nor was it raining.  My arm is scraped up pretty good and I have other cuts and bruises along the left side of my body, but it is manageable.

Anyway, I really wanted to share that Moe and I are finally settling in to our apartment.  While we have almost been here for a year we are just now starting to make our apartment our own.  While we have put in our own clothing and kitchen supplies and what not, we are just now starting to put up our own decorations and pictures.  It is a process that makes me very happy and relieved.

Before I show you pictures I have a slight tangent.... Moe has officially been accepted into university here in Chiang Mai in order to get his Masters.  The program is called Sustainable Development.  It will be in English and with people from all over the world.  Moe and I are both SOOOOO excited.  It is a 2 year program so that does mean that we will be for 2 more years.

Anyway,  here are the things we have done to the house, some being purchases and others being creations!  I hope we (lets be real, I) continue to do things to make our place a little more us!

We bought this beautiful bowl made out of mango wood and hand painted.  Moe and I both love it and hope to add other pieces to our collection!

We also bought this lovely rice container to decorate with.

We bought the vase to match the rice container and hopefully will get fresh flowers in there soon... hint hint Moe!!

Put all of those things together in our Dining Room and this is what you get!

I then made this collage of pictures of our friends and family.  It is HUGE.  Taller than me.  It hangs in our bedroom and makes us happy every morning and night!  

Finally, the piece I am probably the most proud of because it took the most work. I have been loving chevron and wanted something in our house that was chevron.  I noticed that our neighbors (the mechanics) sell spray paint.  So I got crafty and made this beauty.  I printed the letters, glued it on black and then onto yellow popsicle sticks.  Then I did the chevron which took FOREVER! I attached the letters to the board.  I am still hoping to find a better way to hang the picture but for now I approve of it leaning against the wall.

This is our new sitting area at the top of the stairs.  We bought the 2 chairs and the tablecloth.  The other pieces (yes even the flowers) were included in the house just in other locations.  I am very pleased with it so far, though it is not perfect by any means.  We are hoping to get a smaller table and maybe a bookcase for upstairs as well, but that is a little ways away.

Well that is where we are for now.  I have 1.5 weeks of summer school left.  We are hoping to travel here soon, but will keep you posted on that when it comes!

Summer

I made it through my first year of teaching.  I truly can not believe it.  I learned so much this year and am so thankful for all of it.  The journey has been one to remember for sure.  I will forever treasure this first class and the impression they have left on my heart.

But the joys of being a teacher is that a new year is just around the corner and I have already begun planning new things for next year.  I have new goals, new dreams, new plans, new everything! It is beautiful.  I am so glad that even after a semi-crazy/chaotic year, I still love teaching and want to begin a new year.

Anyway, school is over...well sort of.  I am doing summer school so it isn't really over for me.  I had one week off to 'plan' but really I did basically nothing! It was beautiful.  Summer school is not for failing kids but more like school or activities that engage the brain to keep kids occupied.  Last year  was the first year the school did it and most kids were Korean, straight from Korea speaking NO English.  I was weary of participating this year but was encouraged that would not happen again.

When it came down to it, the last week of regular school there were only 8 kids who had signed up for summer school... definitely not enough. So things were adjusted from having about 10 teachers to lead summer school to 2 teachers, myself and another new teacher.  By the Monday after school let out we had 15 kids.  By the following Monday when it was supposed to start we had 19 kids.  It was crazy.  We did get a Thai aid (from our school) to help us as well so that is great.

Summer school is 3 weeks long for kids in grades 1-6.  Each week we go on a half day field trip and a whole day field trip.  We do all kinds of fun things like playing and eating and reading and cooking and games and crafts and stuff. It has been quite enjoyable.  We just finished our first week!! Only two more weeks to go!  We did end up with a handful of Korean students who speak little to no English.  That in itself has been a learning experience for me to figure out how to communicate with them without making them feel childish! whew.  Some of them are very challenging.

On our first field trip we went to the Botanical Gardens.  Here are a few pictures.

As soon as you walk in to gardens! It was beautiful

Large building dedicated to King

Pretty Waterfall

coconut garden.. I think.

The second field trip we went to Adventure Land where we did ziplining, tight rope walking, rock climbing, swinging, animal petting and more.  It was quite adventurous for some of the kids and we had a handful of teary eyes.  But by the end we had lots of smiles and tired kids, which in my opinion is always good!  Here is my attempt at the rock wall... dont judge me!

Here is a link to the blog about Summer Camp if you truly want to know more!  http://blogs.cmis.ac.th/summercamp/

In celebration of me conquering my fears of heights for the day by doing these things, Moe and I went out to dinner to a place we have been talking about going for awhile.  It was very good.  I got potato skins and chicken finger appetizers ;) I have not had these things in SOOO long that it was a beautiful treat.  Moe had a nice burger.  We will probably return there!

Anniversary # 2

Moe and I have happily survived 2 years of marriage.  We cant believe all the changes that we have endured this year and how much we have grown so far.  We are truly blessed!

We woke up to a chilly day. It was cloudy and windy.  It was nice but I was fearful of rain. After breakfast and googling, I had some personal things I needed to do around town.  Moe was quite okay sitting at home playing video games!  I went to school and worked for a few short minutes.  I then ran into a friend and we decided to enjoy the market on the cool day.  It was quite enjoyable.  I bought a new skirt and some things for my crafts!  She and I then went to lunch.   I then headed home...on my own driving the motorbike... It is still scary for me!

Around 4, Moe and I decided to get our date night started.  We began with dessert, mostly because the place closes early but also because we thought it would be fun to have a "mixed up" date night.  We went to a little place called Bite out of Heaven that has amazing desserts, pies, cakes, etc.  I had Red Velvet cake and Moe had Oreo Cheesecake.  Both were DELICIOUS!

We then went back home and watched a movie/tv show.  We were going to actually go to the movies but I was too afraid of getting caught in the rain.  The movie theater is a good 30 minute drive, so we decided not to risk it.

We were originally going to wait awhile until dinner but after one episode we decided we were too hungry to wait longer! I think the dessert got us more hungry.  So, we headed out to Arcobaleno, a fancy Italian restaurant.  We had only been there once, so we were excited to go again.  After we ordered our meal, I asked our waitress to take our picture.  She loved it! It was so cute.  I LOVE this picture too. She did great! I think it does a good job of showing that we are in the tropics!  

For dinner, we started with an appetizer of Baby Clams. It was definitely the Thai version with lots of Thai basil, garlic, and oil.  It was quite good and we were excited to try something new.  For entres, I had chicken cordon bleu and Moe had salmon in fettuccine with a cream sauce.   Both were delicious! Here is mine. It didnt look as appealing but it tasted great!!  Ignore the creepy man in the background ;)

We came home stuffed! We had such a good time.  We talked and watched another episode.  Then I went upstairs and crafted.  I will share my things next time.  In honor of our hopeful tradition of anniversary pictures here is all 3 of our June 11 photos.

Oh and Happy Anniversary to my Grandparents Cal and Dottie Knight.  They are such a blessing to me and I hope that they had a wonderful anniversary as well! We miss you.

Medieval Festivities

Over the past few weeks Grade 4 has been learning about Medieval Times.  This is a huge unit for them and hopefully one they will always remember.  They did lots of research on their own and shared lots of things they learned.  In order to celebrate the learning we had 2 fun events.  The first was a Craft Fair in preparation for our Medieval Feast.

The Craft Fair had 7 stations where the kids made something at each station.  We had AMAZING parents volunteer to help out and run each station.  I was able to enjoy watching the kids work rather than run a station. It was beautiful.  The stations were:  Candle Making, Soap Carving, Mosaics, Stained Glass Windows, Calligraphy, Potpourri Making, and Castle Making.

Here are some pictures from the day.  Most of the students loved it!!

     

Then on Monday we had our Feast.  We used the crafts to decorate for the feast.  Plus in Art the students all made coat of arms that we hung up as well.  We invited the parents to attend as well as some of the administration.  It was a great event.  The meal was as medieval as we could get.  Bread plates (that were sadly a little frozen), thick vegetable stew, chicken pieces, water (no wine for this event), and pies.  The students got/had to serve their families before themselves.

Each kid had to research a role/job of Medieval Times and become that person for the day.  They had to dress up and some presented speeches explaining what a daily routine would look like for that person.  The costumes were so fun.  I myself dressed up as a peasant or farmers wife.  My class was a little disappointed in my costume though, for some reason they thought I was going to be a queen!

Here are some more pictures.

OH I also have to say that the workers at our school are amazing.  They did so much of the prep work for both events and cleaned EVERYTHING up for us.  They are truly amazing and such a blessing! 

We now only have 10 days left of school!  I am pumped. I can not believe I am almost done with my first year of teaching!!

Life Happenings

I finally blogged about Vietnam so now I need to cover from April break until now.  Oh, I forgot to mention that Vietnam was COLD.  And by cold I mean coming from 100 degree weather every day to high 60s low 70s everyday.  I only brought a light jacket and was cold.  So coming back to the 100 degree weather was a shock to my system.  I got sick right away. I wasnt able to go to school the first day back after break.  That was no fun for me or my class.  I felt better enough to go the next day and managed to last through the week.

BUT Sunday my body had different plans. I woke up in the middle of the night with extreme pain in my ear.  I went to the hospital/doctors office in the morning with the help of some friends.  I almost passed out while there but got to see the doctor, got drugs and went home and slept.  I went to work on Tuesday... bad decision.  Came home, ate dinner, and slept for the next 30/35 hours (I had my class figure it out for extra credit!) I was out of work for the rest of the week.

Whatever got me, got me good. I was miserable.  But am thankfully healthy now!  I feel great. Other than the fact that it is still 100 degrees every single day. I am sweaty ALL the time taking multiple showers a day, feeling disgusting all the time.  But welcome to the tropics.  I am hopeful for rainy season and am considering changing my attitude toward the rain.

School has been crazy.  My kids are ready to be done and so am I.  We are doing a Medieval unit which is apparently what Grade 4 is known for so it is a huge deal.  We have been trying to have fun with it and learn lots.  Part of the process is to have a castle in my room.  It takes up a lot of space but the kids love it.  This was taken while some kids were still working on the castles they were making out of cardboard.

Thurdsay we had a Craft Fair and Monday we are having our Feast.  I will share pictures and explanations then.  Hopefully it will all go well.

Moe has been staying busy with subbing, grad school things, and cooking!  He has officially applied to school at Chiang Mai University.  He had an interview with them a couple weeks ago and we are waiting to hear back from them.  He did find out that they are switching to a Western schedule this semester so he will not start school until August like me!  This means that we will have our summers off together and hopefully get to travel some more!!

He has also started cooking bacon from scratch with the help of a friend and is quite excited about it. He is becoming a pro at the market and loves finding hidden treasure places to eat.  He is living the life and loves every minute of it.  I am so blessed by him.

I got my phone working so now have a working phone in Thailand. It only took me a whole 10 months to do it.  I have been practicing motorbike driving but still not confident to hit the roads alone.

I have 3 weeks of school left!!! I cant wait.  But I am also a bit sad. I will probably maybe cry to see these kids leave.  They will always have a special place in my heart, no matter how many days I have left feeling defeated.  They are precious to me.

I will have one week of school off to relax.  I will then be teaching Summer School.  I am teaching about 15 3rd-4th graders.  Its not summer school for kids that failed, but for kids who need some activities and structure in their summer.  We will play games, practice math and writing/reading.  In the afternoons they will have P.E. and other fun things.  We will go on some fun field trips too.  I hope it will be a great time.