Ok so I discovered this weekend that I needed to clean ASAP! How did I figure this out...easy I found a cockroach on my toothbrush Friday night. While the cockroach was disgusting luckily he was small (probably around 3/4 of an inch). But I did discover that while a cockroach can supposedly survive a nuclear explosion and live without is head...they cannot survive 3 sprays from my purple bathroom cleaner. This leads me to believe that my Magiclean bathroom spray is even more deadly than a nuclear bomb...which makes me slightly worried about using it as a cleaner (but it's cheap and has a flying superhero on the bottle).

Watch out cockroaches I'm armed and dangerous!

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Saturday night was a night of Booty shakin’, pelvic thrusts, yelling, screaming, and shimming by the students. But before you get the wrong idea I should say that all of them were dressed in track pants and T-shirts as they yelled and chanted while doing choreographed ‘dances’ in a contest that they call Boom. Now the students have been keeping me awake for the past week or so practicing, which includes beating on a drum to provide the music, and they would practice until about 11pm.

So when I found out that they were going to be having their contest this weekend I made sure to be there. During the performances almost every group did a high kicking version of the bunny hop, one group did part of Shikira’s Waka Waka (It’s time for Africa) dance, some fun drums, and a rendition of Shake Banana.

In-between the Boom Groups they also were doing a Mr./Mrs. PSU award show (aka snooze fest). This contest was only saved by the poorly executed martial arts (come on guys put some power into it) and a dancing robot. Everyone else sang really slow and boring Thai songs.

I left before the contest was really over because it was already 11pm and the LCB students (my major) had fished performing. The LCB kids did an awesome job they had a lot of enthusiasm and were nice and loud.

The Boom Circle!

Crazy drums!

Glitter patrol

The Bunny Hop...Thai Style!

Goofin' off

Makeup check!

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For the past 2 weeks I've been helping Noy with her Elementary school project. We go to a bunch of elementary schools to show them an English program Noy's been making. We also play a bunch of games with the students...one's a vocabulary game where I call out a word and they have to find the matching picture on a plate, and the other is an activity where they draw a picture of a house with different things in it. I really enjoy the second game because I'm trying to explain what to draw with motions and my very limited Thai...The kids in my group really seem to have fun too. We've gone to 3 schools do far and at the end of the activities the children all come up and want everyone's autograph which is adorable. We're going to 1 more school in 2 weeks and they're a really small school so it should be fun.

In other news! We've finished midterms! And my students still can't spell my name:(

I had to get my motorbike fixed recently because it kept dying when I would ride it...stupid thing wouldn't idle! I had to get something in the engine replaced so it cost me around 2000 baht!

Next week is Open Week so we don't have classes but we do have to spend Tuesday doing activities with kids from a bunch of different schools.

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National Park Hiking Trip

Minibus dance party

View from the room/ the tree I climbed like a monkey

Tubing river!

Welcome to the Park

Group shot (all of the girls and Brian)

The big waterfall

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The other weekend was a long holiday here in Thailand for some Buddhist ceremonies. So, I went on an adventure with some of the other foreign teachers in Surat. 10 of us went on a trip to Khao Sok National park, which is a huge park that actually has three parts including the floating bungalows. This time we went to the hiking portion of the jungle. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of the rainy season so it rains EVERYDAY but that didn't stop us from having an adventure!

On Saturday afternoon we left Surat. After we got situated in the guest house we pulled a couple tables together in the restaurant to relax and play Uno.

On Sunday we decided to go tubing even though it was drizzling. We figured we were going to get wet in the river anyways so the rain doesn't matter. On our float down the river the trees were out to get us...Brian, Sunny, and I all got stuck in a tree at some point (I think the trees like to eat foreigners, we must be tasty). About half way down the river we stopped at a rope swing and jumped into the river a few times...we all kinda sucked at it (except 2 of the guys) cause we couldn't jump up high enough on the rope. The tubing went by way too fast and we all wanted to keep going when it was over. When we got back to the guest house Sunny and I went Rambutan hunting...I wound up climbing one of the trees only to find that all the good Rambutan are way out on the branches and I couldn't reach them from the middle of the tree :( We spent Sunday night playing cards again and talking.

On Monday it was drizzling again but we still decided to actually go into the park and hike out to a couple waterfalls. I'm so glad I work in Thailand cause without a work permit it cost 200 baht to get in (foreigner price) but with the permit we got in for 40 baht (Thai price). It's common in Thailand for place to have 2 prices (and foreigner price is always at least double the Thai price). Once we actually got on the trail the sky's decided to open up and start really raining (not pouring but a steady rain). So, about halfway up the trail we took a detour to the swimming portion of the river. That was a blast cause the current in the middle was really strong so you could float down the river! After the rain slowed down a bit we got out of the river and continued up the trail. We quickly got to the first waterfall which was just part of the river but it was still fun to relax on the rocks and take pictures of things. The second waterfall was amazing! It was across the river and huge! Hiking was a balst!

Monday night was Jole's (one of the guys) 23rd birthday so we were going to go out to pizza to celebrate. Unfortunately, the electricity decided to take a 4ish hour break :( once we finally went to pizza the waitress ignored us and when she finally got around to taking our order (almost 3o minutes after we got there and after helping 2 families that got there after our group) she told us they were out of pizza for the night. So, we just went back to our guest house restaurant to eat and play cards by candle light (the power came back at about 10pm).

The trip was amazing and I'm so glad I went! I definitely want to go back to the national park again to go hiking....maybe after the rainy season! Pictures will be up soon :)

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