Boating and Temple Exploring

The stairs were so steep as we hiked up Wat Arun.

Of course Bradley found it easy to go down, as for myself

on the other hand, felt like I was clinging to the edge of a 

cliff on my descent.  What is it with brothers and having

abnormally good coordination skills?

Haha, Brad and Dad took some goofy pictures in 

front of the Wat.  However, we didn't realize

there was an overly excessive price to pay...

Brad and I enjoyed the view of Bangkok from the 

highest tier of the Wat.  He looks so handsome here!

The family, except for BEN, on the river boat enjoying

the scenic route.

Floating Markets Round Two

Feeding the elephants was an amazing experience.

They are so smart and their sense of smell so strong!

This thing could smell the ripe bananas and was so picky

about what it ate!  

Our lovely tour guide in the background.  

She doesn't look too happy, I don't think she was!

My mother found this to be very difficult to use,

I on the other hand have become an expert :)

Yay for Family!

Mom and Dad on the bridge before we rode the infamous River Taxi.

We had to cross five plus lanes of traffic

to reach this destination.  The funniest part

was witnessing my mother freaking out about it.

We made our first stop in Backpacker's Alley at a fruit

shake stand.  Both Brad and Dad loved it.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was amazing, even though I was a little restless for home.  It was the best Christmas I could have had, and it's all because of my friends.  I love my friends!  First, Leah and I enjoyed our lovely American breakfast at the magnificent JW Marriott of Bangkok, Thailand.  Wow, this place is as close to heaven as I will ever get...  

Anyways, Leah and I had a huge breakfast, caught up with our friends Ashley and Stephanie and went shopping for the better part of the day.  Markets flooded the streets, we walked and walked and shopped and shopped.  We did a lot of walking and shopping and eating.  We ventured through the hot streets and through the huge malls.

Everything was decorated with Christmas things, there were giant presents, and even bigger trees.  I'm glad I was fortunate enough to be in Bangkok for Christmas, things would not have been the same in Ubon.  

Then, all us girls, plus Amanda, went to see the movie Australia.  It was such a good movie.  Everyone was crying, except for me, I don't know why... but it was a very very good movie.  It was an excellent pick!!! Leah and I were so glad it was in English, the last movie we tried to see was in Ubon and it was all in Thai!  Needless to say, we were happy to understand everything they were saying!

The last thing we did was visit the Hard Rock Cafe for our Christmas dinner.  It was the most spectacular thing we did all day.  The atmosphere made it really feel like Christmas, and sadly the prices made me feel like I was in America.  I really didn't care about spending a lot of money though, I was just glad to be in the Christmas mood!  Colorful lights blinked everywhere, Christmas music filled the background, and the staff were wearing Santa hats.  It was simply amazing.  We enjoyed our food and the GIANT Christmas tree outside of the restaurant.  Mass people were everywhere enjoying the festivities of the day.  Everyone seemed filled with the "christmas spirit"- as leah would say.  

My Christmas day couldn't have been spent any other better way.  I love my friends,

they are so amazing.  They have become my family for the year, and I am so blessed to have had them become a part of my life.

Kanchanaburi Part III: Waterfalls

Leah and I swimming in the freezing water!

We were BEHIND the waterfall, how cool!

Hahaha, this picture makes me laugh.  Stephanie is so funny!

Me on the railroad, showing off my new kick boxing moves!

Our hike was filled with amazing scenery! 

Us four, in front of beautiful waterfalls.

Kanchanaburi Part II: Tiger Temple

Yep, that's right! We visited a tiger temple!  It was a pretty cool thing, but very touristy.  There were tons of people, and I had to wait in a long line to even enter the area the tigers were in.  Once I entered their region, I had to be dragged around by my wrist, like I was some kind of child, to each tiger, where the staff of the attraction snapped a series of five or so shots of me in one pose. 

I touched about three tigers, but it wasn't great.  I didn't get to stroke them or anything, I just laid my hands on them.  It was actually a scary thing.  I was in danger the entire time.  If for any reason the tiger decided to turn around and eat me, it could have!  But, I was lucky to be in the hands of so many caring professionals.  They made sure I didn't do anything that would anger or scare the tiger.  Most of them were really cute.  But there were some that I could tell were on the ornery side.  Yikes!!

At the end of the day, we found a wonderful Indian restaurant.  It made me forget that I was some tiger's territory.  I ordered one too many lassis, which is a smoothie in

Indian language.  But they were so scrumptious.  We all enjoyed our overly sized and overly priced meals.  It was a wonderful occasion.

After I had the opportunity to pose with the tigers, we got to walk with them and pose with them, too.  We were warned, however, that if the tiger lifts it's tail, it would mean it was urinating.  I didn't really pay much attention to this detail, I figured wasn't very important.  But, it was a good thing I heard this because sure enough, I was the very lucky person to receive the

spray of the tiger male.  Leah did, too.  Her situation was worse: she got sprayed in the mouth!! She was right next to me.  It took everything in my being not to react too strongly to what had happened.  It was my turn next, as I looked at the camera man and forced a smile on my face.  I was worried about how I would smell for the rest of the day.

Oh well!!  Ashley was stoked for some odd reason, she really wanted to be the one to get peed on by the tiger.  She's funny. But, hey, I got to touch tigers! How awesome is that?

The end of our day was celebrated by trying some overly priced Indian food.  It was worth every single baht :)

Kanchanaburi Part I

After catching up with our wonderful friends in Bangkok, the four of us (which includes Leah, Ashley, Stephanie, and myself) took a taxi to the southern bus terminal in Bangkok, then caught a three hour bus ride to Kanchanaburi.  It was a long trip, but it was definitely worth it.  It was such a fun first day.  We checked into our one room, which was hilarious because there were three of us staying in one tiny room.  And the hot water that was promised on the pamphlet was not supplied.  It wasn't quite the dream place we imagined, but all was good in the end.

First day we tried to get some motorcycles to ride around the quaint town in, but we realized how dangerous that could be.  Not only are we inexperienced, but we are all used to driving on the opposite side of the road, this would not have been ideal for situations for us to drive!! Yikes!  However, we concluded it would be safest and wisest to rent out bicycles for the day.  It was such a blast.  We rode down to the historic railway bridge.  We had a blast riding,

four crazy girls on 50s bikes... we were quite the public display of weird and crazy.  

The bridge was fun but scary.  We walked across it, and there were no railings with lots of holes in between the boards, it was an easy fall if you didn't look where you were going.  This explains the "boob" picture, where Ashley is almost touching my chest.  I almost fell backwards, but she grabbed me, by my chest, to save me.  I really didn't mind, I was just glad I became balanced enough to not fall from the bridge and into the water below.  

We went crazy with our adventures on our bikes.  Off-roading took place, this part was most fun.  We randomly decided to veer to the left of a road, only to take a dead end detour on a gravel road for ten minutes.  We hollered and screamed the entire time.  We didn't care what we looked like, we were just there to have fun! This was only the first day of our time there,

and it was only the beginning of our adventures!

A Fabulous Bday!

On the train to Bangkok, with Mr. Squiggly in the background :)

On the River Taxi to Backpacker's Alley, crazy transportation!

Us girls in front of one of Bangkok's Universities.

Pausing for a moment during our crazy shopping session.

The Rush

Thursday was a big rush.  If I had to choose a picture to describe it, I'd pick one of those pictures of a busy street with many people, out of focus and blurry...  It felt like the day was never going to end, yet it was over when it just started.

Leah and I cleaned and packed all day, and then we cooked dinner for our party.  The party was a big one, bigger than last term's party.  We cooked a lot more food.  The meal consisted of Filipino spaghetti (which kicks original spaghetti's butt any day), french fries, cake, doughnuts, and chicken.  It was a fabulous occasion.  

I filled up on the spaghetti quickly, it is my favorite food as of lately!! I couldn't eat anything else after I ate a whale's portion of it.  The students were so much fun.  We played musical chairs, which was a big hit.  We used the Christmas Hippopotamus song as the music.  Next, we did a huge gift exchange which was followed by a few joyous Christmas songs.  Finally, the food was the last event we all enjoyed.  I quickly ate as fast as I could because Leah and I had train tickets for 630 which cut it really close to when the party ended.  In fact, we fled the party as soon as we could because we were fearful of not getting there in time!  

John, one of my students, is a police officer and he is so kind.  He drove us to the train station and even bought us some food.  He claimed it was our New Year's present.  How kind he is! The whole day had been such a blur, everything had gone by so fast.  And I could hardly believe, as the train was leaving the station, that our Christmas break had just begun!  

The train ride wasn't as scary this time.  Although it is a little different on the top bunk.  I found my body clinging to the wall of the train in the middle of the night.  I think I was subconsciously fearful of flinging onto the floor.  I did wake up a few times, thinking that we were going to have a head on collision with an oncoming train, and I also woke to the train completely

stopped in the middle of nowhere.  We must have been there, stopped dead in our tracks for a good while before we took off again.  Weird...

I am currently in Bangkok's SDA Language school and it is so surreal that I am here.  My vacation, the vacation I have been waiting and anticipating for a good while now, has finally arrived.  It's a mix of emotions being here.  I'm happy to see the familiar faces of our coffee lady and other, and I can't wait to see our friends, but I'm also really

anxious to see my family!  Yay for break and the holidays!!!!

90 degrees!!

Aw, yes.  90 degree is always welcome.  I find myself complaining about the 60 degree coolness of night, but when I talk to my mom and snow is mentioned, I realize how much of a baby I can be at times!!  Today was no day for me to complain about the cold, it was over 90 degrees!  

Sabbath started early, Leah and I woke to help with children's sabbath school.  I told the children's story in church, which I took from Dwight Nelson :) (it was his penguin story... they're online).  We took off right after church to get as much sun baking in as we could for the day!  We usually stay for potluck, but today was different.  We jumped on the motorbike with Amanda, 3 people on a motorbike is not legal, but oh well, and we drove to Warren County which has an amazing hotel with a beautiful pool.  We enjoyed sunbathing and swimming, it was just us girls for most of the time!  

After sunbathing, we stopped by Moon River on the way home to feed some fish.  I had no idea they were going to be so big!  It was a huge herd of fish moving upstream.  It was 

crazy feeding them because they fought over the food.  I was terrified from all their thrashing, I think I even saw some small sharks in there! Yikes!!

Our last stop was at a hair salon where we had the most amazing head massages.  They washed our hair 3 times, it felt so nice.  The massaging part was nice, but my lady kept scratching my scalp and I thought I was bleeding!  She kept scratching the same spot over and over, I kept thinking "Am I supposed to enjoy this?"  I really tried to keep my face straight, most of the washing felt good, just not the repeated scratching of the scalp!  

While she had been washing my hair, she kept scrunching it.  I don't know if she noticed

that my hair was curly or not, but she definitely  created quite a tangle.  When I got up and sat in the chair to have my hair done, I was astonished at the sight before my eyes.  I have never seen my hair with so many knots in it.  I kept laughing, I felt so sorry for my hairdresser, she had to get them all out before she started doing anything with my hair!  They must have used half the 'tangle-free' spray, poor people probably thought my hair was disgusting.  It took quite a while for them to get all

the tangles out, but they did.  And the end result of everything was amazing. They straightened my hair so well!  I've never had my hair so straight in my life.  It feels really good to be able to run my fingers through my hair. Yay!

Father's Day

Father's Day in Thailand is the celebration of the King's birthday.  And for this holiday, Leah and I enjoyed spending it with one of Leah's students, Peer Pat.  He rented a huge van and took us to a few of the closest national parks, but this took ALL day.  

We started the day off early by waking up at 530.  He picked us up at 630 and we drove for a few hours to some of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen.  We hiked down to the waterfall and got in the water.  It was amazing!  The water was really cold, but it was still fun to get in.  We hiked further through the valley.  Peer Pat and his cousin helped us along 

the way when we couldn't make it over the high rocks or wide spaces.  I had such an embarrassing moment: I was walking along the rocks in the water, and I fell smack on my butt!  I was wearing white pants, so they became very translucent... I was so glad I had a sweatshirt I could tie around my waist!!  

Our second walk was also fun.  We walked through some kind of bamboo forest and then

went rafting on a bamboo raft!!  The water was very calm, so it wasn't a very exciting rafting trip, but was calming and beautiful!  We had some cow pot guy(fried rice with eggs).  Then, we drove another few hours to another beautiful park.  This one had funny looking rocks and Indian art.  There was also a fault line, it was pretty cool.  I was so glad, and the weather was amazing.  There was a constant cool breeze, it felt like the perfect autumn day.  

Our last stop was at Ubon's most beautiful place.  It's the first place in Thailand where you can see the sun rise.  It was amazing!  We were up on a cliff, over looking the river that is the divider between Laos and Thailand.  It was so beautiful.  We also had dinner, which was

amazing!  I felt like I was at home with how much I ate.  There were so many dishes with rice, soup, vegetables,

and chicken... I had a feast.  Those poor guys, they must have thought of me as a pig! Oh well, I was hungry...  

Awful, NO good, very bad day

I felt like giving up, walking out, leaving.

Who would notice if I took off running?

But I knew without a doubt it would be a mistake-

to ruin something I worked so hard to make

I said a quick prayer and looked at my class

Oh if only they'd behave like kids in mass!

Every student made me want to pull out my hair.

I felt like I had walked into their little snare.

"Teacher, teacher!" Everyone wanted me,

yet not one wanted to listen and just be.

One here, one there, little devils everywhere

my head hurt from the loud booming air.

I felt like giving up, walking out, leaving.

Who would notice if I took off running?

She wouldn't obey- wouldn't do her work

Was it all so hard to do for a candy perk?

I helped, she listened, I turned, her attention diverted,

Her page was unfinished, uncompleted!

A simple page, is it so hard to do!!!

Come on girl! Is it so hard to follow through?

He had no books, all others had theirs

and they were working in pairs.

Loud, devious and annoying seemed his goal,

he knew it would make teacher turn an angry bull.

It was like tug of war between student and teacher.

I felt no more accomplished than a broken heater.

James, why do you wish to anger me!

Your unruliness bothers me, can't you see?

I felt like giving up, walking out, leaving.

Who would notice if I took off running?

Such a good student was part of today's parade,

he repeated everything I would say.

Louder and louder my echoes were spoken,

every word made me more angry and sullen.

Cut it out, you're driving me up the wall,

Geez, be quite and go back to your stall!!!

I felt like giving up, walking out leaving.

Who would notice if I took off running?

I wanted to sit down and cry, 

Who knew teaching would be hard to try?

Somehow I made it through the day,

it was simply God, there is no other way.

Volunteer Work

Singing.  Lots and lots of singing.  This is why my voice hurts tonight.  Today and I went to another school to teach for a few hours.  This is our volunteer work here.  The school wants us to volunteer at other schools, which is basically free promotion for our language school.

It was fun, but very tiring.  Leah and I sang every song with lots of motions.  We sang for an hour, we kept repeating every song over and over, the kids learned the songs after about the tenth time of repeating it.  In other words, it was an exhausting experience.

After songs we reviewed some vocabulary by using flash cards.  They actually knew a lot of he words!!  It was awesome.  It was great being around lots of kids again.  I've missed them, we haven't been in an english camp in a long time.  Being around lots of energetic kids is fun and inspiring.  They laugh at everything and it makes me happy to see them happy.  

Unflattering Compliments

Because I've received numerous comments on my "rather large size", I've decided to try and reverse my body's rapid growth of expansion.  So, I've become used to jogging in the park.  I've actually come to love this part of my day.  I typically go at night by myself.  The time of the day is perfect, except for the darkness, that kind of freaks me out!  Other than that, the cool night breeze compliments my raise in body temperature.  Everyone and their brother seems to find this time of day perfect for exercise as well, so it's fun trying to dodge in and out of people walking on the narrow pathway.

Well, this morning was a different experience.  I told myself I would try to jog in the morning because I would feel more safe walking to the park in the daylight.  I did feel safer.  There were plenty of people out on the street and the sun was shinning brightly.  I made it to the park safe and sound, but it was what happened in the park that creeped me out.  As I was completing my first lap, a man starting jogging with me and talking to me in broken english.

I wasn't scared at all, he seemed nice and genuine.  And, I was glad to have a jogging buddy for a few moments, to keep me motivated.  However, he never went away.  He kept jogging next to me and his friendly broken english became unflattering compliments such as "you sexy", "hair beautiful", and other such things.  If this wasn't disturbing enough, he even mentioned his car.  I was in shock, but it kept me motivated to keep running.  I figured if I kept running, he couldn't take me anywhere.  So, I continued to run.

But, he kept running with me.  And he continued to try to convince me to give him my number, or for me to get in his car.  I was getting very annoyed with him.  At first my answers were polite "no thanks" or "no".  But as he continued to persist, my answers were getting louder and angrier.  He was bothering me!!!

In the end, I got away safely. I had a plan to call PNee, the school secretary, and have her pick me up.  But, it was not needed.  I simply walked away and he didn't bother me.  I think this was a miracle.  If he really wanted to, he could have been more forceful physically.  God must have performed some sort of miracle for me that morning.  If He wasn't protecting me, who knows where I'd be now.

Friday Night Disaster

Waiting has become expected when it comes to meeting people here.  Friday night was no exception.  Leah and I waited about fifteen minutes for my students to pick us up for Friday night.  I have both a son and father as students in one of my classes, and their way of thanking me for teaching them was to take me and Leah out to eat.  I really couldn't say no, and it wasn't anything more than friendly.  Taking a teacher out for food, as I've been told, is the Thai way of saying "thank you for teaching us".  I don't really know if I felt the "thank you" vibe that night.

Both John and James were perfect gentlemen.  James, John's son, has autism- at least I think so.  He is really smart in class but his social skills are a little off.  Nonetheless, he is so much fun to be around.  He says the most random things, and they are mostly hilarious!  I enjoy having the both of them in class, but it wasn't them that made the evening awkward.

They took us to a really uppity hotel.  It was new; the walls were a cleanly marble color and there was a soothing ambiance with the piano playing the background.  I was pleased to hear American songs!! Yay!  The piano saved me, it was the only thing that made me happy.  As I took a seat across from the Grandfather of James, I was immediately surprised to hear he spoke good English.  You would think this would be good, that good conversation would occur and pleasant things would happen, but they did not.  

Many things were said that made me feel awkward.  First, he asked me whether I was republican or democratic.  Who asks someone that?  Sorry, I just feel when that is one of the first questions you ask someone you're asking for a debate.  I wasn't really in the mood so I replied with a "I'm in the middle..."  I didn't know what else to say.  I felt either answer would upset the man, who knows.  

I made one of the worst decisions of my life that night: I ordered a salad.  It was simply the worst salad I've ever had.  I can't remember the last time I had a salad so awful (except the one time I ordered salad from Cheesecake Factory, I threw up that night...).  Every bite was awful- there were about ten tiny lettuce leafs with a huge pile of cabbage in the middle.  Who enjoys a cabbage salad??? NOT ME!  You'd think that salad dressing would help, but mayonnaise didn't really cut it and it only added to the constant gagging reflex I had with each bite.  

I forced myself not to show that I wasn't enjoying the evening.  My face hurt from fake smiling the whole night.  Not only was the food awful so was the constant weird conversation from the Grandfather.  I felt jabbed at the whole night with sly remarks about being fat or what I was eating and why.  Do people think I enjoy hearing that I'm big?  Do they realize that my size is NORMAL in America?  Over here everyone is the size of a stick, no wonder they think of me as a fat ferlong (which is foreigner in Thai).  

I'm so fortunate to be here with Leah!  God has blessed me with the girl, without her I think I would be an emotional wreck all the time.  There are times like this where I am so incredibly thankful for her.  God knows how to look out for me :)

Pastor and His Awesome Family

We have one of the coolest pastors ever.  He is so chill about everything.  One of the funniest things about him is his laugh.  During the middle of a sermon he tends to chuckle at himself.  I always laugh with him, his laughter is contagious to me!  He is married to a beautiful wife, she is so kind and one of the biggest sweethearts I know!  

Their kids are some of the most adorable little people ever!  Eden, their girl of about two years, has the most pinchable cheeks.  I don't think I have ever seen her angry!  She is a happy little girl and

 I love her!  Joel, their son of about four years, is almost just as cute! He is at that age where he is smart and devious, he likes to play tricks on Eden.  That poor girl.  But, nonetheless, he is cute as well!  Every time they visit our place, I make sure they are given some candy!

I could not be blessed with better neighbors/friends/... all of the many things that this family is to me :)

Visiting the Orphanage

My butt was getting sore.  I was grumpy and tired, yet we had only been riding in the back of the pick up truck for a few hours.  Every bump and turn reminded my behind that it was pressed against a hard surface.  I had to remind myself that I was not riding in the back of the pickup for me, the purpose of my trip with a few members of the church was to spend time with kids at an orphanage.  

Upon our arrival, the kids seemed guarded and hesitant towards us.  It was like they didn't know what to think of us.  We formed them into a group facing one direction.  From there, we proceeded to teach them a few songs, read them a Bible story, repeat Bible verses, and speak a little English.  The part that was the most fun for me was after the presentation.  I got to mingle with the kids one on one.  It was fun.

The kids were all adorable.  Even though they should have all the reason in the world to be sad (some have AIDs, their parents died, or other such things...), these kids were happy and pleased to see us.  They opened up to me as soon as I opened up to them.  Of course they would be scared of me, I'm a scary looking person with crazy red hair, some probably would think it's on fire!

As I talked with the children more and more, the more they opened up to me.  Their English was okay, we mostly just laughed over facial expressions

or me trying to pronounce words in Thai, which is EXTREMELY hard by the way because there are FIVE dialects!!  I slaughter ever word at least the first 20 times I say it.  

By the time I had to leave I didn't want to.  The kids didn't want us to leave either.  In just a few short minutes, we had bonded.  As we walked down the road to our pickup truck, the kids kept yelling "I'll see you tomorrow".  It was a phrase that made me both happy and sad.  These kids liked seeing us and we enjoyed their company as well.  It was such a good experience.  I hope that we will go back soon!