Bangkok Day 1!

A random TV on a roof that played commercials
while you waited for the next train

Rachanadda Temple

Hallway in Rachanadda Temple

The view from the top of Rachanadda Temple

The Marble Buddha

Hand paintings on the walls of the temple

The Giant Swing

Bangkok Day 2!
The Marble Temple

Mom and I with a cool drum

Throne hall

Teak mansion

More cool hand paintings on the walls of Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Bangkok Day 3!The grand palace

Cool guardian thing

Emerald Buddha
(I had to take this on my tip-toes outside of the temple
with my camera zoomed all the way in)

Elephant!

A long boat
(the Thai people love to ride these things even though you always feel they're going to tip over)

Koh Tao!

Loy Krathong!

The Krathong

The group on the long boat!

Lighting the candle...or not (damn wind)

Me setting the Krothong free

The sky lantern
(it shot up to fast for me to get a pic of it in the air :( )

Krabi!

The hotel

The best restaurant on the island
(according to the sign)

The View!

Chicken Island :D

Me on the swing on Chicken Island

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Well last weekend I was suppose to go see Kelli in Hat Yai but the event the school was going to got canceled so I didn't get to go :( But I did get to go to the jungle with a bunch of people from the school. And since I went with a bunch of Thai people I of course misunderstood what we were doing. I was told we were going to the jungle on Saturday so of course silly me thought that ment it was a day trip. I was later informed...once we were in the jungle and at the camp site...that we were staying overnight. "Oh joy" I only brought the clothes I was wearing and my camera. I also wasn't told that the jungle is actually the lake that was formed from a damn so I also didn't take a swimsuit with me.

Of course I had a great time the others found clothes I could wear to go swimming in and we had an all around relaxing weekend at the floating cabins. They were all happy I brought my camera because they all wanted to play with it. I wound up with over 300 pictures taken by everyone who went.

Me and 2 of the students

My swimsuit!

The floating cabins

Dinner in the jungle!

The other's sleeping outside

The students trying to boat around
the lake (they kept going in circles)

Pictures of the lake/jungle

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I can't believe I've been here for a month already...time seems to be flying by! I still don't know much Thai but I've mastered broken English and drawing bad stick figures to explain things :P I'm loving teaching and Thailand! I've started tutoring a group of young girls (around 7-9 years old) who know more English than my students! One of the girls knows Thai, Chinese, and English at 9 years-old!

Last weekend I was invited to go to a ceremony to watch a couple guys become Buddhist monks. The night before the ceremony there was a big dinner party to celebrate and have fun. I wound up sitting at the same table as the VP of our campus, who's a really funny guy. I wound up getting drunk off the Australian wine that they had. The VP wouldn't listen when I told him no more after 4 glasses! I got home safe and sound and for some reason put my keys in my rice cooker before going to bed.

The next morning I had the JOY of waking up at 6:30 to get dressed to go the temple for the ceremony. The ceremony was very interesting even though I was super hung over and couldn't understand what they were saying. Afterward we had lunch at the temple where I couldn't eat much since the food was too spicy. I've decided if it looks like it's swimming in hot sauce it's bad! Luckily some of the people from the campus took pity on me and took me out to get non-spicy food afterward.

I'm having an amazing time so far and I can't wait for my next adventure!!!!!

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Last weekend I went to Krabi with the staff of my department and Kelli. We had an awesome time talking and shopping. Friday night we went to a bar called "Smile Bar" where they stock every table with a game of connect 4. While we were splitting a bucket of redbull and whiskey we started talking to a Malaysian couple. After awhile we got a deck of cards and after trying to think of a game everyone knew we started playing Go Fish. Sadly none of us could quite remember if you were suppose to make pairs or get all 4 cards. The next day Kelli and I woke up and decided to go out to one of the islands for the day. We wound up at an island called chicken island where we lounged on the beach and played in the water.

On Sunday we had to leave but before my school headed back we went on a day trip to 4 of the islands to swim and snorkle. During one of our stops there was a large group of fish that we fed from the boat before we jumped in to swim. That was probably a mistake because as I was swimming and floating on the surface I began to be ATTACKED by the fish. The little fish decided I looked like food and kept trying to EAT ME! After I got out of the water and away from the phiranah want to be's I sat on the boat and talked to everyone. One of the teachers decided he wanted to try to catch a fish with his bare hands but it didn't work very well, so Collin and I thought up a better way. We caught a few fish by filling a bag with water and throwing rice at the opening and someone drug it throught the water. After we caught the fish a couple jumped out of the bag and we set the rest free.

Last night was Loy Kratong which is one of the festivals here. I started the night by meeting the two little girls I'll be teaching English to...even though at 8 and 9 they already know more english than some of my students. Then after we had dinner we went back to campus to watch the beauty pagent. I made the mistake of taking the seat I was offered up front and wound up being called up to give out some of the prizes including giving the sash to the girl dubbed "Most Popular". Then during one of the student performances I was drug up front to dance with the students. (Note to self: Don't sit up front again :P) The pagent was really fun and I'm glad I got to go. After one of the girls was sashed "Most Beautiful" a bunch of us piled into a car and went into town to go to the river. At the river we all got onto a long boat so we could set our Krathongs (lotus shaped rafts made of banana leaves) free. We couldn't get the candle on the Krathong to stay lit but that was alright it was still fun. While we were out on the long boat we also lit a Khom Fai (Sky lantern...kinda like a hot air balloon) and watched it fly away. According to the Thai people both of these are suppose to bring good luck.

I'm having a lot of fun in Thailand and I am really enjoying learning about thier culture :D

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