On Monday I went to Phuket with the students. The trip was a lot of fun even if we were only gone for 35 hours...and 10 of those were spent driving. We took 100 students with us and only 30 of them got to go on the nice air conditioned bus with the teachers. The other students had the misfortune of riding on the fan bus with no TV or music. We stayed at an offshoot of PSU Phuket in a hostel at the top of an office building. When we got there, there were people working in the offices.

When we got to Phuket at 1 o'clock we immediately went into English and Chinese activities. After an hour of English activities Collin, Chris, and I went to our rooms to relax for 2.5 hours. Then we loaded everyone back on the buses and went to the cape to watch the sunset. After the sun set we wet to dinner at a small night market, but we were only given an hour so everyone had to eat fast. Then we finally got back to the hostel. The students had to go into yet another seminar but most of the teachers were allowed to sleep.

On Tuesday we work up at 7am for breakfast and help the girls put the extra mattresses back into the boys room (the girls ran out of beds). Then we had to grab all of our things and pile back into the bus. First we went to Wat Chalong (for an hour) and walked around. The temple was very spread out and had a lot of cool buildings. I climbed to the top of the main building with a bunch of the students. Then we went to Patong beach so the students could interview the tourists. While the students walked around and tried to practice their English we had to 'stalk' them to make sure they stayed safe. A couple of hot Germans from the cruise hit on me for a little bit after they asked what the students were doing. Then I had to run off and rescue one of my students from a belligerent tourist. On the other side of the beach one of the teachers had to save one of the girls for a tourist who thought she was a 15 year-old prostitute. The beach was an experience...thank god we were only there for an hour. After the beach we got back onto the bus to go to lunch and then head home.

We left Surat at 6:45am on Monday and returned at 6:15pm Tuesday it was a very busy 35 hours. Pictures will be up later today or tomorrow.

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Last weekend I went to Trang with the faculty for one of their seminars. When we got there we found out that the meeting was all in Thai so Collin and I got to just relax in the hotel. We got to the hotel on Saturday at dinner time which has some awesome food. I had a roommate for about 10 minutes before i found out that she was actually going to stay at her family house instead. Then I was relaxing in the room, taking a shower, with the door fully locked and bared when there's suddenly someone trying to get into the room. My second roommate scared me! She was a sweet girl who after I got dressed invited me to go out with her friends to a pub. We had what the Thai's called 'the blue' drink which was good...but really weak. Thai people do not put a lot of alcohol in their mixed drinks.

On Sunday Collin and I went to the very beginning of the seminar where they played games but since all the instructions were in Thai we just watched them run around. Then after lunch we were told we didn't have to go to the rest of the seminar. I went back to my room and took a short nap and then decided to walk around the city. I ran into Collin in the lobby so he decided to join me. We discovered that on Sunday almost EVERYTHING is closed and since the beach was an hour away we were out of things to do. On our way back to the hotel we decided to stop in the V mart and buy a bottle of whiskey and some soda water to drink at the pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and drinking until dinner. After dinner they made Collin and I sing some Karaoke, I actually talked instead of sang. Then we all relaxed until 11. At 11pm me, Collin, and a bunch of the other teachers went to the night club attached to the hotel. We all danced and drank and had a good time until 2am. When I got back to my hotel room I found that I had ANOTHER roommate!

On Monday we went to the sea and went on a boat trip to 4 different snorkeling places. I still don't like snorkeling because I keep inhaling water...grrrrrr! At the first stop we went in this cave where we had to hold onto each others life vests (uncomfortable) and be pulled through. We wound up at this really cool lagoon in the middle of the island. The only way there was the little cave since it was a limestone island that is just a giant piece of limestone coming out of the water. At the second stop the water was really deep so after lunch I jumped off the top of the 2 story boat. The Thai people kept freaking out cause they were scared for me since most of them can't swim and I don't like life vests.

Overall the weekend was fun but it would have been better if the city wasn't so boring.

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Monday was Ying's (one of the girls I work with) wedding. The faculty was invited to the reception ceremony which was fun. Wedding's here are a lot different from at home. The actual ceremony only has a few people involved (the families) and takes most of the day. Then a bunch of people show up to the reception afterward. Then people get on stage and give a bunch of speeches (which everyone ignored) while everyone eats a six course meal. They have adopted the wedding cake from western culture but they only have a very small cake and cut off pieces for their parents. After all the speeches the bride and groom walk around the room and accept envelopes of money from the guests. The food at the wedding was delicious and the group I was with were fun. Ying was also asked to speak in English where she also asked Collin and I to stand up and wave to the room (She had to show off her foreign 'pets' I mean friends...lol).

The wedding reception was interesting and the food was great.

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The rest stop!

cementing the pigs bottom

Everyone should eat sticky
rice during a group photo!

After too long in the car

Aom thought my book made a better hat

Noodle time!

Pressing the noodles (this takes FOREVER!!!!)

Cutting the noodles

(thank goodness this thing had a
motor my arms felt like spaghetti)

Aom all ready for bed

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Last weekend was Chinese New Year! I was invited to Chumpon with P-Noy (the woman I tutor for) to celebrate with her family. We left on Friday afternoon and piled into her husbands truck for the 3 hour ride. On the way to Chumpon we stopped at a rest area that according to Noy is a tourist attraction because it has clean toilets. I found that not only does it have clean toilets but it is actually a park type thing dedicated to toilets. They had a couple cement toilets that you could climb through, they were building a sky toilet, and working on a sculpture of a pigs bottom. The kids had a blast running around and playing on the playground.

After we played for a while we finished our trek to Chumpon where we had dinner in the unfinished apartment complex her family is building. Then we spent the rest of the night making Chinese noodles for the next day. I got to be the motor for the hand crank noodle press :P The children also helped me with the crank. We made noodles till about midnight and then it was time to get some sleep before the fireworks woke everyone up at 3am and kept being set off every half hour for the rest of the night.

On Saturday we went back to the apartment complex to cook. During the day Aear asked me to show her how to hula hoop because I could do it for a really long time and her's kept dropping after 3 spins. Then I got kidnapped by a family friend to go talk with her 15 year-old niece who's going to study in Seattle next month. After talking to her and watching a movie they took me back for crab and noodle dinner.

On Sunday we went to the sea to play in the water. When we got there the children only wanted to play in the pool because they were scared of the ocean since they can't swim. After a little bit I convinced Aear to play in the ocean. We went out to where the water hit her knees and played jump the waves. After my arms got tired from lifting her we went back to the rest of the group. Then Aom wanted to play with me so we went back to the ocean. Aom was even more scared so we played tag with the waves. We would run away when they were coming in and then chase them when they went back out. After playing we went to collect seashells. Aom likes to grab every shell she finds and then dumb her cup out. Then Aear joined us until she got distracted by finding and catching crabs.

Chumpon was a blast and I had a great time. I'll put up some pics tomorrow after I download them off my camera!

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Well it's starting to look like October here...All the rubber trees are dropping their leaves for the hot season. While it looks like October it definitely feels like the middle of summer. The weather has been getting hotter and dryer...no more torrential downpours :( I miss the rainy season and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the hot and hotter weather that we're heading towards. I'm kinda wishing I was at home to play in all the awesome snow there. After 5 years in Wyoming you'd think I'd have had enough snow but now I miss it :p Oh well! I'm going to enjoy this topsy-turvy fall atmosphere in March!

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Ugggh! Last weekend I caught a horrendous cold! I was in bed all day Saturday...it took all of my energy to walk downstairs to do laundry :( I also found out that the guy who I was borrowing internet from switched his internet to a password so I didn't have internet all weekend!

Yesterday I was feeling better and I went out to get a wireless adapter thing for my computer. Well what I bought does not produce the High Speed Internet that it advertised...every web page timed out before it could load and Magic Jack does not work at all with it! I bout what the store called an AirCard which I plug SIM Card, from my phone, into and then it is suppose to give my wireless internet. Unfortunately my phone is about 100 times faster than the device. I can load a page in under a minute on my phone and the AirCard took over 20minutes to get no web page. So I'm taking it back tonight I'm going to buy a solo wireless internet thing this time so hopefully I'll have real internet by this weekend.

I'm feeling better and wrapping up my classes...quizes this week and finals for the rest of the month! Yay!! Then I get to go on a bunch of school trips for paid vacation...I'm excited I'll be going to Phuket, Chang Rai, Hat Yai, Trang, and Koh Samui for free this summer!

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