I taught another class yesterday this time it was first year students. The students need to learn how to get to class on time! Yesterday I got to watch a couple of my students sprint across one of the commons to arrive almost 20 minutes late...grrrr! The class should be fun though some of them are really talkative. At the end of class the students asked me how old I was and I told them 23 and one of the blinked at me and asked..."43!?" I love how they don't always listen well even when they're the one who was asking questions.

Last night the new teachers were taken out to dinner by the VP of the campus which was awesome. We ate lots of good seafood and talked about all kinds of things. All the food was served family style so I got to try all kinds of things. We had a spicy seafood salad, shrimp puffs, a spicy seafood soup with rice, steamed fish, crab meat with curry, and a gross egg and kale thing. We were at the restaurant for almost 3.5 hours and had a lot of fun!

This afternoon I head to Krabi with the staff for a weekend of relaxing!

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I started teaching yesterday to a class of 26 students who know even less than me about import-export. I think the class went well and I hope my job applications class this evening goes just as well.

Mom left last night to start her amazing trek back to the other side of the world! I hope she was able to sleep this morning on her flight to Japan!

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Well mom and I have been busy since I last updated! After we left Bangkok we went to Surat Thani were I'm going to be working. We got in on Monday and a few of the people I work with took us out shopping to get things for my huge apartment (I think it's a little bigger than the one I had in Laramie). Then on Tuesday I went into the office and they gave me my class schedule and told me that I had 2 syllabuses to create by the time I left for the day. I found out I'm teaching English for Import-Export, English for Job Applications, and English Reading-Writing. Fortunately I got them done so mom and I could go to Koh Tao the next day.

On Wednesday we went to Koh Tao and got to ride on a bus and then 3 ferries! Once we got to the island we checked in and relaxed in our bungalow for a while. The next day we went diving at glorious 6am so we could go see bull sharks! During our dives we also got to see blue spotted sting rays, a baby harlequin sweet lips, sea horses, and a ton of sea cucumbers! Mom and I had a lot of fun even though the dive shop kept going back to the same sites and the vis wasn't the best.

Yesterday mom and I got back to Surat Thani and I start teaching tomorrow morning!

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Today was our final day in Bangkok :( When we woke up this morning Bangkok decided to reveal that there is a sky up there and not just gray clouds/smog. After this stunning revelation we decided to go so some more shopping!

Today we discovered that the malls here are all huge! One of the malls we went to today was seven stories tall and took up most of the block. It was basically a more organized version of the market from yesterday...minus the diseased puppies.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to busy Bangkok the city that has TV's everywhere...in the skytrain cars...on rooftops (so you can watch while waiting for the next train). We're off to Surat Thani to get me moved in!

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Skytrain life lesson:
It is ok to stop mid-proposal if you're offered Tempura!

Today mom and I went to the crazy insane Chatuchak Weekend Market! They sell basically everything you could want from silverware to clothes to pets. Mom wouldn't let me buy a puppy:( They were ADORABLE and had a sign that said not to touch their mouths cause your hand would get infected...who wouldn't want those puppies!? On a happier note we did find a lot of awesome stuff in the madhouse. The market was huge and full of little stalls that were often overflowing with stuff. Mom and I did get turned around a few times but we were able to find our way out even once the rows began to look identical.

Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok :(

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More life lessons from SkyTrain's commercials:
1. Jello cups make girls dance and boys play mariachi music.
2. If you throw a Pepsi in front of a Pepsi truck you'll start a Pepsi party!

Today mom and I finished our tour of Bangkok's temples by visiting the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. To get there we were going to take the ferry but got on the wrong boat so we joined a tour for a little bit. Unfortunately the tour guide was hard to understand so all I got out of it was that a boat ride across the river costs 3 Baht. Mom and I had a great time walking around the Palace grounds. The Emerald Buddha was cool since it's dark green and made out of Jade.

Then we decided to head downtown and do some shopping! We started at some street market and quickly got lost (damn dead ends). After we worked our way back out of the mess we decided to try the fashion mall across the street...little did we know that it was 5 stories crammed full of little shops.

All day we've been hiding out from the periodic downpours. We just made it back to the hotel before it let loose again!

Tomorrow we're going to go to the weekend market and do some more shopping!

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Today was another awesome day! I learned a few things today:

1. The Tuk-Tuk drivers are all smoking crack...but you can always walk away.
2. If you wear the proper eyeglasses you'll get super powers! (Thank you SkyTrain commercials)
3. We all need to bathe in Curex antibacterial stuff because it wards off Swine Flu (Again thank you SkyTrain Ads!)

Today mom and I went sightseeing again. We started our day at Phra Karn Fortress where we walked around. Then we headed to the Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple) which had a large gold leaf Buddha and a lot of amazing architecture.

After spending almost an hour at the Marble Temple we went to the Vimanmek Royal Mansion where the old king use to live. We spent most of our time taking a tour of the mansion which is built out of teakwood. We learned a lot about the history of the Thai monarchy especially King Rama V and his wives.

We finished our day by visiting Wat Pho where the reclining Buddha is housed. The Buddha is huge and is almost as big as the building it's housed in. We area around it was also really interesting with a couple other Buddha's and some really intricate spires. We've learned that the Thai's love flowers and bright colors!

After we finished looking around we walked to the water ferry. During our ride we learned that I'm not always the best at reading maps, since we got off five stops early (oops). Luckily we quickly figured this out (after confusing around 5 street vendors) and got on to the second to last ferry of the night!

Tomorrow we're going to go to The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha...then who knows!

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Today mom and I had a fantastic time in Bangkok. We started our day lounging in the hotel as we worked up the energy to go out and do something. After waking up we hopped on the skytrain and then jumped onto the metro to go to Chinatown were we saw Wat Trimitr which has a solid gold Buddha.

Then as we were walking around a man stopped to help us figure out where we are and he suggested that we go to a couple other Wats since today was a Buddist holiday and there were no entrance fees for the day. So we flagged down a Tuk-Tuk and went to see the Marble Buddha which was the first Buddha statue in Bangkok. While we were there the Tuk-Tuk driver also showed us Ratchanadda Temple where we climbed to the top of the temple and to get a view of Bangkok. When we were on our way to the Marble Palace we noticed that the entrance was blocked off by police so we moved on to the Thai Exportation Center and looked at Jewelry. To finish the day our driver took us to a restaurant where mom got some kind of Chinese soup and I got a noodle stir fry that looked like intestines.

Mom and I had a great time and had a personal tour guide for 4 hours and it only cost 100 Baht ($3). Now it's bedtime so we can be well rested for another amazing day in Thailand!

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Whoo hoo! Mom and I made it to Thailand last night (Tuesday Oct. 13th) around 11:30pm. We had a fantastic 23ish hour flight which felt like forever! Silly mom wouldn't spring for the first class 'pods' we spent our time in lame economy with no foot space. Fortunatly they had some awesome movies so we spent our time watching 'The proposal', 'Night at the museum 2', and 'The Hangover'...Mom may have watched some others but I fell asleep for a while. Now for some pictures from our adventure:

Mom and I at the start of our journey!


Flying over Alaska!


Arriving in Tokyo!

Mom and I this morning! Aren't we attractive :D

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