Tales from Thailand

Run for Relief

2012-03-03T01:15:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday over 300 people from the Chiang Mai area ran a 5k for the purpose of helping those who daily live on the run. This is the 8th annual Run for Relief here- there might be one in your area....

See what the website is saying about Burma, etc http://runforrelief.org/

and check out this video.....http://runforrelief.org/video.html

Yes, we are crazy and we ran in flip flops! There was a special category for people doing the run in flip flops. The point of this group was to show what it is like for many people in Burma, who run with only flip flops. It was great fun and I just ended up using different muscles to try to keep the flip flops on! My feet survived! For those who keep asking; we ran it in 32 minutes. My friend Annalisa ran with me the whole way...she also ran the 10k with me!

For some reason the people running in the flip flop division got a "Oregon Senior Olympics" bib instead of just a plain one. I guess if we run in flip flops we will get old sooner?

The finish line...before the race started....(we had to run by it at the very beginning).

The back of my shirt and the free flip flops I got for running in flip flops...

I picked the orange flip flops in honor of my nephews....

Where is the mountain?

2012-03-01T04:33:00.001-08:00

You were right if you said the mountain was missing....We haven't really been able to see this "mountain" since the beginning of February. We are praying for rain or a strong wind to help with the air pollution. We are surrounded by mountains (or just big hills) and they burn the fields during this time of the year. Some of pollution is of course caused by vehicles, etc.

Until the rains/winds we try to limit outdoor activities for our students, etc.

The Seniors' Robin Hood Carnival

2012-02-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

Every year the Senior class puts on a carnival in January for the school to earn money for their class trip, etc. They pick a movie theme and set up the carnival with that theme and then show the movie once it gets dark around 7pm. This year's theme was Robin Hood (the kid version) and the seniors did a great job! I don't have many photos but I hope you enjoy these:

You could pay money to put other people in jail for a set amount of time...

Here I am with one of the Senior Sponsors- a math teacher in the high school

another Senior Sponsor and she lives two doors down from me...

They even had a jumpy castle thingy

The students all dress up like the characters from the movie

Jousting- we loved the motorbike helmets the kids had to wear

More fun and characters...

Sling shot....

The kids did a great job and I wish I had more pictures of all the fun activities and food!

What is different?????

2012-02-26T06:33:00.002-08:00

Look at this picture very carefully....you can't look back after you scroll down the page to the next picture....

This is a picture I took back in August or September from the library (second floor).

Okay when you feel ready you can scroll down to the next picture

remember no looking back

almost there

So you tell me...what is different?

Thai Lessons

2012-02-15T03:59:00.000-08:00

I haven't talked about my Monday evenings very much but they are full of fun and learning! My roommate, Tami and I have asked one of the Thai teachers from school to teach us Thai once a week. Kruu (teacher) Meow is one fun girl! She is very patient with this tone deaf student and is always coming up with fun things to do with us! We have been meeting every Monday since around the end of September.

This is part 1 of my story that I wrote and then memorized in Thai to share for one class.
I talked about this made up person "Sarah" I said how old she was and what country she was from. I shared what food she liked/ didn't like and where she is going to school. She is studying to be a nurse.

Part 2 of my story about "Sarah." She wants to get a pink house and right now she has a yellow bedroom and green car. She watches TV at night with her glasses on and she doesn't like studying Japanese. :)
Great story huh!?!? Yes, I shared it all in Thai!

Kruu Meow likes having us play games as we review information. She has brought a magnetic dart board (answer a question without help and we get to stand closer to the board). One night she made paper fish that we were suppose to blow across the floor...one blow for each right answer. She loves to compete so she gets to play too....

Here I am trying to blow the fish you can't see!

Kruu Meow...blowing her fish...you can kind of see it...it is light purple

Tami trying to blow our fish...you can see that Kruu Meow is proud that her fish is so much farther than ours....

Here we are having dinner

I am really enjoying the challenge of learning Thai (speaking it...I can't read or write it..). I still am at the stage that I can speak it to my roommates and teacher but am not usually quick enough to think of the correct thing to say when out shopping etc.

Got a Valentine Day package from...

2012-02-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

...my sister, Erica! I don't really like this picture of me...but wanted to get one of Erica in here...

She got me M&Ms, pudding, a granola bar and a little note....

also included in the package were some drawings from two of the nephews....

Love this picture of the family...you can see that "mom" is holding baby Everyn- there is also a great story
about Pikachu who I guess is part of the family too.

Lincoln was sad that he hadn't sent me a picture in the last package- pretty nice drawing!
I think that big brother, Deacon helped as well!

Another one from Linc, thanks buddy!

Boys, the pictures are up by my desk in the library! I smile every time I see them!

Minute-to-Win-It Party

2012-02-04T03:22:00.000-08:00

A few of the girls from school decided that it would be fun to have a Minute-to-Win-It party. Basically there are just crazy things that you have to do in a minute or less. The girls found the games online and they even found a video for each game to show us before we took the challenge! We were divided into 4 teams of 4 or 5 each and one team member had to do each game. We only got points if we completed the task in a minute or less. I don't have pictures of all the games but here are some of the games...

The Purple People Eaters!

In the is game you had to bounce a ping-pong ball into the cup and then put that cup on the
bottom of the stack- until you got all the cups full of ping-pong balls.

Trying to get at least 125 "steps" in a minute...kind of like headbanging...
glad I didn't have to do this one..

Mel moved her whole body and not just her head!

Moving cotton balls with vaseline and your nose

Moving 4 M&Ms up the up on 2 pencils and then getting them into your mouth without your hands

trying to keep the pencils even

putting the M&Ms on...

Getting 12 shoes to land on the table across the room with only your feet-
We only hit the ceiling once...

Kick those shoes...

Rolling toilet paper around your body with no hands...waiting to start

Trying to bounce pencils into the cups-a pencil in each of the four cups

Trying hard...I got one in:)

Shooting rubber bands and trying to knock down 4 different targets of
clothes pins holding playing cards

My wonderful teammate began throwing the rubber bands when the shooting didn't go so well!

Lining up the rubber band in hopes of knocking down a card or two

Balancing 7 cookies on their forehands...

She had two coaches...

"Move it a little to the right, now left...."

Picking up different size paper bags with your mouth-
not touching the ground with anything but your feet.

She's got it!

Future School Site

2012-02-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

Our school has bought some land where we hope to build our school some day:) Right now we are in an old sport club type building that originally was for the neighborhood. It is still open to the public on the nights and weekends. We have also added the elementary building etc. The community would like to get the building back and we need more room and it would be nice to be in a place that is designed for the purpose of a school. This last week we spent an afternoon praying for the future school etc at the actual land.

Enjoy the pictures...

Looking at the future site of the elementary building

looks like we could start classes next week:)

Ready for class!

My roommate- a 3rd grade teacher

The blue team! You can buy these "tiger truck" t-shirts and the
money goes to moving the dirt to level out the land- if you want one let
me know and I can get you! It is a tiger truck because our school mascot
is a tiger.

Rice fields right next to our land

Moving dirt!

Standing in the shade...

looking at the map of the property...where the buildings will be...

This little building is right were the administration building and LIBRARY will be!
Right in between the middle/ high/ elementary schools- connected by a walkway....

So excited!

Smiling for the camera...

The librarians....

Future high school

Roommate and running buddies

Praying together

"Keep on the path- didn't you see all the pictures of the snakes that we have found around here?"
"Shhhh, don't tell, but we already walked through the weeds..."

Thai teaching staff

My good friend who works in the special needs department
and her daughter- one of my students.

Heading out on our prayer walk around the entire property...

Gardening for mom, Heather, and Jenni!

2012-02-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

Just thought that this is a neat idea for worn out basketballs or soccer balls. Reminds me of the Spider plants growing out of dad's old tennis shoes! These plants are in the little garden at the school....

Staff Appreciation Lunch

2012-01-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

This last week was "Staff Appreciation" week. They (the parents/students) did something special everyday for the staff. My favorite days were when parents brought in donuts, when we got a drink (water, tea, coke,) delivered to our classroom, and our special lunch. Friday was a professional development day for the staff, so during lunch the parents (and some students) decorated the poolside to look like a 50s restaurant. We had a VERY yummy lunch and lots of photo opportunities!

Driving into the drive-in!

The tables...

What an amazing band...my roommates are so great!

A view from afar....

Another view...

At the little table outside of the "restaurant" eating pretend ice cream

Yet another picture...

We have such a musical staff at Grace:)

Singing with Elvis! These girls live two doors down from us-
and we spend a lot of time laughing with them!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

On Monday the 2nd and 6th grade classes showed off their dragons they had made for the Chinese New Year. Both classes have been/are still studying about China.

I hope you enjoy the many photos that I took from the 2nd floor!

This and That...

2012-01-14T04:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a random assortment of photos -

Enjoy...

This fountain is in front of the mall and for Christmas they put
Santa hats on the elephants.

When Tami's mom was here we went out to eat with our Thai teacher.
Here we are at the top of a hotel waiting for our meal.

Tami and her mom didn't want to be in the photo-
our supper- yummy

I was going to put this with my elephant riding pictures, but I forgot.
This is my nephew and me riding an elephant together!
It is now hanging up in the library!

Art work by another nephew which is also hanging up in the library!

Some gifts from America! I was blessed with gifts from people in WI, CA, SD, MN, NM
and from Germany this Christmas!
Thanks:)

Pictures that my mom asked for:)

Where I would stand if I was riding a yellow song-thaew and it was too full to sit inside.
This is the red one we ride to and from church every Sunday

This is what I look like when we are driving very fast down the road....
actually it isn't...I am facing the other direction but I am hugging the ladder!
I hope I don't have that facial expression...

If you have any pictures or topics you would like to see/hear about from Thailand just let me know!

Factories

2012-01-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

After the morning at the Elephant camp we went to a few different kinds of factories. We felt a little out of place going into the silk factory and store right after having been hugged by Elephants. They don't always have the cleanest trunks:) I will try to get all my facts right about the silk factory. I had no idea that silk comes from the silk worms' cocoons....

The silk worms at various stages of their lives

The silk worms make cocoons (the yellow fuzzy looking things)

They put the cocoons into boiling water...stir the water and cocoons...
You can see the thin thread coming from the water to the bar and on to the cylinder thingy.

The lady is pulling the thread and laying it into the bowl on the other side of her.

Weaving machine

changing the pattern...

We got there during their lunch break so there wasn't to many people working the looms. They have a beautiful silk store that you can get to from inside the factory.

After the silk factory we went to the umbrella/fan factory. I have never thought of the amount of work that goes into make these kind of umbrellas! You know those cute little umbrellas people put in drinks...they were selling them in the store as well. I didn't see anyone making the really little ones, but I am sure that they do! I am not sure about the order of these photos. We just walked around so we didn't really get to ask a lot of questions about what they were doing.

putting paste on the cloth that is covering the umbrella frame

Making the green umbrellas- green:)

Doing something....I think putting strings around the little wood pieces...

cutting the pieces of wood- I thought that they were going to cut their fingers off

Putting together the umbrella frame

She had a little tool to make the hole for the fans...( Tami got me a fan from here -see my Roommate Christmas post)

Not sure what they are working on

Painting the designs

More painting

Big umbrella

Here I am at the umbrella factory!

Like I said the pictures aren't in a great order, but the people were also just spread out all over doing different jobs and didn't seem to be in any order.

Hope you learned something about umbrellas or silk making. If you want one of these items let me know...but you will probably have to pay for your own silk clothing! I am told it is cheaper here..but wow! Maybe if you just bought some plain silk and made something out of it yourself:)

Roommate Christmas and New Years Eve

2012-01-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

Well we had "Christmas" with the roommates on New Year Eve's day cause I am all about spreading out the Christmas celebrations! My one roommate (Amy) was visiting family in Indonesia over Christmas and so we needed to wait for our celebration.

What's in Tami's stocking???

My turn!

Amy is so excited -we had to quickly put something in her stocking.....what bad roommates !
I guess we missed the memo about Santa not making it to Thailand this year. Amy got it though....

With our gifts! Look at that cute skirt I got...and the beautiful Thai fan...
I got Tami sauerkraut cause she really wanted to keep her family tradition of
sauerkraut on New Year's Day.

After roommate Christmas...we cleaned up and welcomed about 16-20 people into our home for NYE. We had teachers and staff from Grace and then also some singles who work with other organizations.

We had a great time and even saw fireworks! We DIDN'T see the ball drop...maybe it had something to do with the fact that it didn't drop until 12 hours later in NYC. I guess it means I am getting older faster here in Thailand!

Ticket to Ride: US

Charades...I think..

Some game...

Four on a Couch

Four on a Couch- blue shirts against everyone else...

Some people did puzzles all night long...

Elephant Camp Hugs

2012-01-11T01:41:00.000-08:00

We fed the elephants bananas and they ate them, peels and all! They were really quick so we only got one picture of feeding them. Then they were ready to give us hugs, etc:) Some of us were not that ready for hugs from elephants, hehe! Good thing these people had a great friend in me- I helped them enjoy the hugs!

Feeding the elephants

"oh the elephant is hugging me" "Look out- there is a hat coming...."

These elephants love me!

Got a hat put on by an elephant...he tapped it many times to make sure it wouldn't fall off!

Tami didn't really want to have an elephant touch her, so I helped her overcome her fear...by dragging her to the elephants! I was a good friend and stood next to her the whole time.

I didn't even mind that the one elephant was breathing on my head- even though it did feel weird!.

"See Tami- they are nice elephants"

If you need to face your fears of elephant hugs come to Chiang Mai and I will help you overcome all those fears! Tami's life was changed and yours can be too.

Elephant Camp Show

2012-01-10T01:33:00.000-08:00

While we were at the elephant camp we also got to see them take baths in the little creek and they had a little show for us to watch as well.

Taking baths...

The start of the show...

Elephant train

Showing ways to get on and off of the elephant

Elephant taking off the trainer's hat and then putting it back on

The elephant goalie- he was very good:)

Trying to score....they put up a net so we wouldn't get hit by the ball (it was huge)

Thai massage

Playing basketball...he could be on an Upward team:)

Basketball

Time to paint....

painting some flowers....

all done and carrying away his supplies...

The elephants also showed us their strength by lifting logs and piling them on top of each other. One more post is coming with pictures of elephant hugs:)

Elephant Camp- Riding the Elephants

2012-01-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

One morning Tami (my roommate), Sue (her mom who was visiting), Ginny (our neighbor) and I went to an elephant camp. It is about an half hour away from our house. We hired a driver and he picked us up and took care of buying all the tickets, etc. When we got there the 1st thing we did was to get on the elephants and go for a little ride:)

Tami and her mom having fun...the scariest part was going downhill you felt like you were going to slide off the elephant.

Right after I got on my elephant- Gina called me to tell me that it was going to be Christmas Eve that night:)
1st time riding an elephant- 1st time talking on a cell phone while riding an elephant!

The elephant train:)

Their elephant trainer got off the elephant and took this great picture! I love his ears!

We went into the water with the elephants...

Our elephant trainer was very funny and was always laughing- of course I couldn't understand a thing he said:)

Someone got some food to eat!

Don't be sad- there will be more elephant pictures coming soon! Look forward to elephants painting, playing sports, etc!

Camping part 4

2012-01-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

After coming back down from the nature trail about 8 of us headed out again to see the actual highest point in Thailand. I had bought Gina this angry bird hat because she likes angry birds, but of course she wouldn't wear it in public, so I did!

This was the first sign we saw- we hoped we would find a better one!

This one was more what we were looking for...Gina was happy- I don't know about Andy.

Yes, we made it to the top...driving! Woohoo

Some history for you about Doi Inthanon

Proof that it was cold...this was the morning temp

After we left the highest point we had to stop at this place we had seen on the way, because there was a sign that said:

How could we NOT stop! Who wouldn't want to see the most beautiful toilet!

It was where the military built one Chedi for the King of Thailand's 60th birthday and then they added a second for the Queen's 60th birthday. It was very beautiful, but also very Buddhist. A Chedi is a building that contains Buddhist relics. I didn't go into either of them but we walked around the gardens which were beautiful.

I believe this one was built in honor of the King

They had stairs and an escalator to get to the top of each one

The view

The Queen's Chedi and gardens

Queen's Chedi

Looking out and thinking (actually talking on her phone)

Bob and Marcia are really there...you can barely see them!

just look at that sky!

We did see the bathroom....here is outside of it.

The sinks are kind of cool and it is open to outside as you can tell by the mirrors.

It looked very clean...no TP as usually though...

So there you have it- My camping trip to the highest point in Thailand. It was a great time of fellowship and enjoying God's creation. It is wonderful that we can praise the Creator of heaven and earth wherever we go whether in Thailand or around the world.

Camping part 3

2012-01-06T00:15:00.000-08:00

The second day camping we (about 30 of us) drove farther up to go on a nature trail hike. We had to pay to have a guide go with groups of 10. You didn't really need a guide to go with you, but I think it helps them make sure people don't destroy things and also a way to earn money. It was a beautiful hike! Here are some pictures from the morning.

Two of my favorite high school girls and our cool hats- waiting to start the hike!

Josh had a "great" idea to climb down these HUGE steps- but then we had to climb back up!
This was before we even started the hike!

View from the parking lot- overlooking another packing lot

Start of the trail

If you make this photo larger you should be able to read the info about the
tropical cloud forest- it occupies 0.3% of the earth (land) surface

The fence to keep the barking deer off the trail?!?!

almost to the top

Look out point where we ate lunch

We had separated into groups- but we joined the second group at this point

I had this great idea for a photo...but it didn't really work

Walking along the edge

"I am sure it will be fun to roll down the hill, girls!"

sometimes there were fences...sometimes there weren't

This sign was laying on the ground- we were "among the wild" but I am not sure if it was referring to us or the forest!
We had to have someone stand in just the right spot to make a shadow so you could read the words!

"Oh, put your head on this sign it is so cool and it feels good!"
Crazy girls!

You can kind of see two men in this photo- they had put cement blocks on their backs and were
hiking up the trail to improve the path...they had been doing most of the time we were hiking.

Camping part 2

2012-01-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

The 1st day we were at the mountain about 8 of us went hiking to two waterfalls. One was just 5 minutes away from our campsite and the other one was about a 30 minute hike from camp.

Just hanging on some vines...

I thought these spiders' webs made it look like there was snow on the branches:)

The second waterfall we walked to was the highest one in Chiang Mai and the 3rd highest in all of Thailand.

again these flowers reminded me of snow!

3rd highest waterfall in Thailand...you can't see the top or the bottom in this picture...
(notice how I am showing 3 fingers to help us remember that it is the 3rd highest)

I guess this one was just to show you all that I am crazy...

Yes, Gina and I are that cool! This is at the little waterfall.

Don't worry I didn't really drink the water! Just made Gina and I think about our trip to Maine!

Playing on the rocks

Gina was so excited to make shadows....

More to come...

Christmas Day 10k

2012-01-03T02:50:00.000-08:00

On Christmas morning at 5:15am 5 ladies from school piled into a car. There was an Elementary Librarian, an ESD teacher (helping home school families), a web master, an ESL teacher, and a Speech teacher. Two had run 10ks, two had never raced, and one (me) had only run 5ks.

We were tired, but excited and nervous. We arrived near the starting line and parked our car. We then proceeded to find the starting line and look for a restroom- we found one at the near by McDonalds! Then we headed for the starting line. The marathon runners had started at 4am and the half marathon runners started at 5am. At 6am we were off! I ran the whole way (I never had run more than 6k at one time!) and beat my goal time by one minute arriving at the finish about 69 minutes after the race began. The route took us around and in the moat that goes around the old part of the city.

The square is where we ran...I live down by the airport

The route....

The bib, shirt, and medal...along with the green string they gave us after our last corner.
This helped them know what race you were running or something...

The back of the shirt...it says Chiang Mai marathon...woohoo...only ran a 4th of one...

Here we are before the race started...right in front of a temple...I guess it just proves that we are in Thailand!

One of the ladies is married and her husband took his motorbike around and took photos
of us- this is at about 8k I think

Here we are with our medals! We finished!

I just went to Gina's and she let me take some of her Christmas Day photos (pretend Christmas on Saturday)

Brunch on Saturday morning was great!

Opening gifts

decorating the cookies...

Josh joined in the fun and I closed my eyes...

This was by the start/finish line. A Christmas tree made out of big water jugs??!?! Hmmm interesting

Camping at highest point in Thailand part 1

2012-01-02T04:04:00.001-08:00

I think that I should probably take a class in how to blog...it takes me forever to get the pictures in a good order so usually I just give up and there are just so many other things I would love to learn. If you know any helpful hints- please let me know!

Ok so back to what this post is suppose to be about: Camping at the highest point in Thailand! Doi (means mountain) Inthanon was named after the 7th ruling prince of Chiang Mai (1870-1897). It is 2565 meters above sea level. It was pretty cool as the high one morning was 4* C.

We were a group of about 60 people all families from the school, either teachers or parents. The youngest there was 4 years old and the oldest was a grandpa who was in his 70s. The people in charge have been doing this for about 10years, so they had a wonderful plan and it made camping with 60 people look easy! Every family group was part of a team that was in charge of one of the six meals that we had while we were there. Everyone brought their own dishes and they washed them as well. During the day people read, played football, volleyball, talked, went on hikes, etc. At night it was more of the same in addition to roasting marshmallows, singing by the camp fire, playing table games, trying to stay warm, etc. It was wonderful!

These pictures were all taken at our camp ground which included 4 cabins that we could sleep in.

My meal team made chili- can you tell these men aren't use to the cold!

Time to eat

Serving the food

Breakfast of scrambled eggs and....

French toast!

There used to be a fire there...

Pictures inside the cabins

the beds were hard!

Girl cabins

Boy cabins

Some people decided to bring tents....

American Football

So happy

Making sandwiches for lunch- we brought our lunches on a hike, etc

Stay tuned for pictures from my hikes to waterfalls, the highest point on the mountain, the nature trail hike, and the most beautiful toilet (no really I took a picture of the sign)!

Royal Flora

2011-12-29T00:35:00.001-08:00

The Royal Flora first opened in 2006 to celebrate the King's 60th year of reign here in Thailand. It has been open since that time but it is a big deal this year because the King turned 84 in December. I went with a few friends to visit it over our Christmas break. Enjoy the photos that are out of order (just warning you!)!

It is close enough to bike too...so Annalisa and I took our bikes and we parked
with the "bikes." Yes, we are tough biker chicks!

I borrowed Annalisa's umbrella to have fun with the Thai ones!

Elephants made out of plants...

Took this picture for my dad- we are true Danes! I also had frozen yogurt
at the same place.

Orchid gardens

yes the three orchid animals

A prize for the 1st person to comment and tell me why I took this picture
and mail from Thailand for everyone who guesses as well!

The cows reminded me of the Snoopys in St. Paul
-at the Netherlands garden

As Annalisa would say "No wonder we have trouble buying shoes here!"
-at the Netherlands garden

The sign by the exit...always reminds me of Toy Story

The entrance by the sun and water guys...we even wore the right colors!

There were many gardens from different countries...so the Canadian had
to have a photo by the Canada sign- in her Canada shirt!

Not sure what this was....but it was interesting...

The interesting tunnel with gourds hanging down from the vines!

Christmas with the Templetons

2011-12-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

I was able to spend Christmas with a family that I spent Christmas Eve with in Brasil! What a blessing. Andy is already planning another Christmas on another continent with me. I guess it is pretty neat that I have had Christmas in three different continents and two with the Templetons. Since we had already spent a Christmas Eve together Gina was able to help me make Rommergrot, yummy!

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year we decided to start celebrating early. After riding on an elephant (watch for a post about that) on Friday morning I packed my bag and went over to the Templetons' for an early Christmas Eve. We made the Rommergrot, Lefsa, etc and the boys got one present- beanbags. After that we watched a movie and cleaned up the kitchen:)

"Christmas" morning was on Saturday for us. We opened presents and then had brunch, Gina had made a yummy egg bake and we had cinnamon rolls. Then it was clean up and cookie time. Gina, Josh and I decorated sugar cookies. We played some games and got a late dinner/ early supper ready. We had chicken enchiladas with Andy's sister and brother-in-law. Then more clean up and games!

The real Christmas morning I ran a 10k (more about that in another post:)) and then got to church on time. After church I went out to eat with the Templetons and then back to their house for more games! We love Ticket to Ride: Europe and Bohnanza:) In the evening I chatted with my mom (6am her time) and played more games at my friend's house. The next morning I got up at 6am to skype with the family- it was fun to see many of the relatives! So that was my 1st Christmas in Thailand. Here are some photos of the fun!

Eating Rommergrot

Family photo?!?!

Mom and Erica...Josh loved his catalog and would love for you to save the others when you get them!

Nate enjoyed looking through it as well...I bought that cool angry bird hat for Gina!

I think this was the 2nd and last time she has worn the hat...
I gave it to her to wear when we went camping...
she didn't- I did haha

Andy can't wait for crazy hat day at school....

Nate got an angry bird from Josh....

Christmas Day and a new bike= only time you can ride it in the house!

Beanbags and a new Wii game- they were happy all morning!

Look at those beautiful cookies!

Christmas in the Park- December 10, 2011

2011-12-28T02:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas in the Park has been going on for a few years now at Grace. We decorate the elementary building with lights (I helped with that top row of lights) and put up a stage in the elementary playground area. The neighborhood, etc is invited to join us for an evening of music, food, little message, etc. It is in English and Thai. It is a great outreach in the community. After the program they played a Christmas movie if people wanted to stay and watch one on the big screen:) This year they played the Polar Express and served popcorn.

getting food, etc before the program started

Korean fan dance

Christmas Carols....

MCs for the evening, Kruu Meow (my Thai teacher) was the Thai MC for the night. She did a great job!

I think my favorite part was when they sang Silent Night in 7 languages...they took turns singing different sections. The school itself has over 27 nationalities represented, so I guess we could have had even more languages...

English and Thai (if I remember correctly)

I believe this was Norwegian and Karen (a hill tribe language)-
this man is our custodian for the elementary building and he often checks out books from the library!

All the languages: Norwegian, Thai, English, Korean, German, Karen, Burmese

(not necessarily in the correct order)

Watching the movie....

The rest of these pictures were taken during the day so you could see things!

Aunt 5 times over!!!

2011-12-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am happy to announce that my sister had her 5th baby on December 26th in the evening! The boys are thrilled to have another sister and I am pretty sure that at some point in her life Berean will be happy too. :) She might not be too happy about it at first...hehe Enjoy the update and photo on my sister's blog:

A new baby girl!

I had a nice Christmas and will be updating my blog soon with different activities I have been doing since we don't have school right now! I have been busy with lots of fun things.

Agape goes to the Zoo

2011-12-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

Agape Orphanage, which I have shared about before, had an outing with their "big brother/sister" from Grace to the Zoo in December. I was in charge of a group of amazing girls and their buddies!

Remember this little elephant from the first time I went to the Zoo?

He has grown from the last time! Here is my group with the elephant!

Feeding the elephants!

I just love the baby elephant!

This lucking girl gets two buddies!

Here is one of my TAs who is not going to help in the library next semester:(

She is a senior this year and a lot of fun! I will miss her!

Don't you love this little boy! His buddy bought him this hat.

All the Grace kids bought a gift for their buddies. They were so excited!

You can't tell here but his buddy is super tall and he is so little.

Eating pizza in the Zoo- yummy!

Christmas Decorations from Johanna, etc

2011-12-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

My friend Johanna sent me a package of different Christmas decorations and fun stuff! It helped me to decorate the library. We are done with school on Friday, so I will take down my decorations from the library and bring them home to add to the decorations at home!

Here is Johanna with me in Brasil! I can't wait until she comes to visit me here!

The kids have LOVED the window clings that are oh so sticky! They are always standing at the doors touching them.

The little green Christmas tree helped to decorate the Christmas book display.

Close up of the tree.

The snowman and snowflake window clings are also fun to touch!

She sent me this amazing Rudolph nose that lights-up. I put it on during part of the Elementary staff Christmas party. Unfortunately, it fell off my desk and the battery got put out of place- so it doesn't light up anymore:(

This is my roommate who teaches 3rd grade.

My table at the party.

Around town....

2011-12-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

I thought I would just show some random pictures of things around town and help you see how I travel!

People always ride in the back of open pickups! I have done it a few times as well.

The picture on the left shows a red songtaw and a yellow songtaw (stopped on the side of the road). I ride a red songtaw to church and if you want to go around town you can pay to ride on a red and tell them where you want to go. The yellow songtaws are more like a bus- I often ride a yellow that goes back and forth on the Hang Dong Road. You pay 10 baht (about 30 cents) to ride a yellow. On the Hang Dong you can get to 3 different Wal-Mart type stores (with groceries, etc). You can also get to one of the malls. It is about a 15 minute walk to the road from my house, but sometimes I ride my bike.

Another picture- from above! If it is full they still pull over and
you just hang onto the back...I have had to do that a couple of
times.

On our way to church- this red songtaw is paid for by our church
and it also stops by a local University to pick up international
students. The seats are two benches that face each other.

The river- it is closer to the downtown area.

My roommate thought that I should really take a picture of all the different kinds of rice! This was at one of the markets- I have no idea what you call all the different kinds, but it all is rice! When people say they are going to eat they literally say: "I am going to go eat rice" instead of I am going to eat dinner or something like that. I have rice pretty much everyday for lunch at school.

Pictures for my mom and Erica (and everyone else)

2011-12-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Look Mom, you could knit a nice cover for your car so that it won't get so cold. I am thinking about that poor van sitting outside in the snow all winter long!

Erica, every time I see something that is decorated like a strawberry I think of you! I have seen some cute hats...but figure you could make one. Anyway on my 17 MILE (yes, 17 miles) walk last Monday I saw these strawberry fields and thought of you- so I took a couple of pictures.

And now a note about my blog....I think I have now made it easier to post comments on my blog. I didn't realize that I could change some settings, so now you have no more excuse to not comment! Maybe if you do leave me a note...(so I know that I am not writing to myself)...I will mention you in my blog! haha

Thanksgiving

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

When you work at an international school you don't always get your country's holidays off. This is now the 3rd time that I have had to teach on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving night a bunch of the singles from the school and other missions went to a family's house for a Thanksgiving supper. This family usually has all the singles over on Tuesday nights, so they just switched the nights that week.

On Saturday some of the staff from the school got together for a Thanksgiving potluck. We had yummy food and great fellowship! There were mostly people from the states, but we did have families from Korea, Canada, and South Africa join us.

I helped with the set-up and amazingly enough I was the one that knew where to get flowers and how to get there!

My lovely roommate helping the men carver the Turkeys! We got real Turkeys even though they are very expensive here!

Enjoying the food!

The MC trying to tell funny Thanksgiving jokes.

What would Thanksgiving Day be like without some American football? One of the men taped the Lion/Packer game and they played it on the projector screens. Unfortunately I had already heard who won, but I still cheered hard for the Lions until half time when they turned off the game.

King's Birthday

2011-12-03T01:35:00.000-08:00

Everyday this last week we were able to hear different groups perform different Thai songs in honor of the King of Thailand who has a birthday on Monday. He has been the King for over 60 years and will be 84 years old.

This is the ROTC group at the school. They are Thai students in the high school. They sang for us one of the days this week.

On Thursday we gathered as a school to celebrate the King's birthday together.

The many balloons

Coming out to the field by class

Before the last song all the students and staff got a yellow balloon....

My Thai teacher is leading the singing...

The Thai staff

There go the balloons....

My friend Annalisa let me wear one of her Thai skirts!

The Thai and King's Flags on the ramp....

If you want to see more pictures go to

http://www.facebook.com/gisthailand

Loy Kratong

2011-12-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

There is a Thai holiday in November called Loy Kratong. I have attached a link about the holiday if you are interested:

http://www.thailand.com/travel/festival/festivals_loykratong.htm

We (my small group) sent some 'khom loy' (floating lanterns) up a few days after the holiday. We of course were not trying to send our misfortune away...

11th grade girls and of course I am there too!

The boys....

Almost hot enough to let go...

There it goes!!!

Library and Book Fair Fun....

2011-11-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

We got this big bulletin board in the library...so I had to think of a way to decorate it. It is really high (above the book shelves) so I needed part of it to be something that didn't have to change all the time. The top part with the clocks will probably stay up for a long time, but hopefully I will think of many creative things to do on the rest of the board. I started with a simple one and just let students share their favorite book on little paper books to display.

Here is the whole bulletin board...we have many more "book recommendations" now on the board.

I didn't have real clocks so I just set the clocks to show what time it would be other places if it was 9:30am in Thailand.

The second graders had been learning about habitats in their classes, so they asked if they could display their "habitats" they made in the library for a couple of weeks. They were so creative and all very different. The other classes loved looking at them when they came into the library.

Book Fair!

A book store from Bangkok came to our school for two days. The books were in English. We had the fair in the commons area of the secondary school building. The elementary classes enjoyed coming and looking at books and even buying a book or two!

Making Lefse in Thailand

2011-11-26T06:30:00.000-08:00

So the new blog posts will not be in chronological order, but that is just the way life is sometimes...

Last weekend I was invited to make lefse for the first time in my life. Now I am a good Norwegian girl so I have enjoyed eating lefse at Christmas time, just have never made it. Usually my Grandma has bought it or we buy "Mrs. Olson's Lefse" at the local grocery store. I should back up and explain what lefse is for all you non- Norwegians out there....lefse is a Norwegian flatbread that you cook and then put butter and sugar on it before rolling it up and eating it. Yummy! Here is the process that started on Friday night:

You have to boil potatoes... (I didn't really do this job...they just wanted me in the picture!)

Then you mash the potatoes....

They had decided to try this new way to "mash" them...instead of by hand...

This is one of the 3rd grade teachers...mixing the potatoes with butter...

Hmmm....they don't look like they are doing much work! The lady in red is a Special Ed. Teacher (and it was at her house- her husband is the Norwegian professional lefse maker:)) and the lady in blue is the head librarian and works mainly in the Secondary library (she's my boss).

Here I am mixing the potatoes and butter...then we put it in the fridge over night.

I was late the next morning because I had a Thai class for 3 hours...but when I got back to the house they were still working. I missed the step of putting in the rest of the ingredients, but was able to help with the rolling, cooking and cleaning up.

Here is one "station" of lefse making..the rolling out and the cooking.

Another station....

Here I am about ready to bring my uncooked lefse over to the griddle to cook it. You have to be careful when carrying it. Behind me is the professional lefse maker! He is the Norwegian in charge...he has been making lefse for a long time and grew up on a farm in ND.

Rolling out that lefse with lots of flour and my special rolling pin.

Ready to flip that lefse!

I now have lefse in the freezer for Christmas!

Hume Lake Camp in Thailand

2011-11-19T04:38:00.000-08:00

I have been waiting until I could get some really good pictures of the middle school camp...but I have run into some problems with getting them onto my computer so here is a start and I might add some more later.

In this game there were two teams...you couldn't touch the garbage can and you couldn't let go of the cloth. If you did either you were out. The last person in was the winner.

Camera guy trying to get a good picture by standing in the garbage can- it was great until he started to fall!

Spider ball- trying to get balls from your side into the basket in the middle first.

Girls pulling as hard as they could...you can only get ball at a time and you can't throw them. You can hand them to another person to run it to the basket...while everyone else keeps pulling towards the balls.

My small group of girls!

Pretty view and that is my small group meeting after one of the chapels.

Cheering on the Wild Bears!

Another game...can't remember the name...

Time alone

The Human Slingshot

The people across from each other switch places and then the next two go.....etc.

My team the Bears one first place in all the games and so we all got nice t-shirts. I can't find a picture of our winning team wearing their t-shirts. We had a great time playing, talking, relaxing, eating and most importantly learning about God. We spent time praying, singing, reading, etc. The students left understanding the importance of filling their lives with God so that they can serve Him with their whole lives. Continue to pray for them!

Our last day and a half in Phuket

2011-11-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

On the last full day we walked to a beach about 20 minutes away from our hotel. We were hot, sunburned and really didn't want to get more burnt so we walked down the street with towels on our heads. It kind of worked to keep the sun out, but we didn't do it for too long.

The other beach...we liked Kata Beach the best...

Dinner at a restuarant near Kata Beach the night before we left.

Annalisa always was talking about coffee and needed to have at least one cup every morning. This was actually in the afternoon when we got back to the hotel near the airport, but she can have coffee anytime!

Ok so the pictures are again not in order...on the way back from Karan Beach we saw this "dino park!" Laura is a scary driver!

I am not sure why I am trying to close the dinosaur's mouth...it doesn't seem very smart to me, but they told me to do it.

Annalisa's lunch...they served us and then came back with ketchup and made smiley faces on the sandwiches?!?!

We went to a little beach that was not a tourist attraction near the airport. It was beautiful but not as cleaned up as the other beaches.

No comment

Looking for shells

Watching the waves come in

Sirinath National Park was right by (maybe even a part of) the Thai beach we visited on the last day. We just walked through it on the road. It wasn't that big, but had a camping area and lots of nice places to have a picnic. It is a national park because sea turtles lay their eggs there, so they are trying to protect it for them.

They had a fitness park that reminded me of the parks in Brasil. You can see the stumps and logs in the background- that was pretty much the fitness park!

The sign for the national park- that is a sea turtle above Laura's head.

Another sign...

This picture is for Kristel- They really need a Smokey the Bear in Thailand!

Annalisa lived in Korea for about 5 years so she was excited about the Korean restaurant we found near our last hotel. She taught me how to eat all the different foods. Laura had visited Korea, so I was the only one that didn't know what was going on!

Phuket was kind of like a little Europe, because of all the foreigners that were at the beaches. I don't even think I saw another American there. We think that all the Thai's liked us because we could speak English well (which is the language they use to communicate with the foreigners) and Laura and Annalisa knew some Thai as well.

Good-Bye Phuket back to the north we go....

Kata Beach and Raya Island

2011-11-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

As I looked through my pictures and my friends' pictures I realized that I will probably take more then two blog posts to show all the pictures of my trip. It is just so beautiful and I believe that a picture is in fact worth a thousand words.

We were about a 10 minute walk from Kata beach and we went and enjoyed the water the first day we got to the hotel. It was beautiful out and so much fun to play around in the huge waves. I don't have any good pictures from that day since we were too busy jumping the waves and trying to not get pulled under the salt water. I actually had my back turned to the waves and one hit me really hard on the back of my head! It hurt like someone had just hit the back of my head with a soccer ball or something. It reminded me of the power of water! We went back to this beach in the evening the next day and just enjoyed watching the sunset over the bay.

We never really saw any great surfers, but it was fun to watch them try to get up!

The sunset and the waves!

Trying to not look like tourist by giving the peace sign just like the Asians would do...

Look at us holding the sun...

Jumping for joy...I won't show you all the tries it took to get this picture....

Here we are...We were a wonderful travel group as we were all flexible and helped with the big decisions (like where to eat, etc)!

Raya Island
On Sunday we went on a day trip to Raya Island. We got a discount on the trip from the people at our hotel and we decided that it was probably worth going in a group since we got a ride from our hotel to the boat dock, speed boat ride, lunch, snorkeling stuff to use, snack, and a ride back to our hotel.
We got to the place and realized that we were actually going on a "princess" tour! How fun is that, haha! They had us divided into groups and each group had a tour guide. We were in the red group and our tour guide was crazy! He would give a cheer and we were suppose to answer back. We had to practice on the boat ride. It was about a half an hour ride to the island and we were sitting in the front of the boat. Let me tell you we were flying over waves, waves were coming over onto the boat so we were holding on for dear life! I guess I would rather go fast then rock back and forth. Once we got to the island we dropped off some people that were spending the night and we went to another bay to go snorkeling. We got to the other bay, rocked back and forth before they decided it was too rough...we went to another bay after another 10 minutes they decided that was too rough. By this time Annalisa was not feeling so great. We went back to the main beach and went snorkeling there. I really wish they would have let us touch dry land first, but they didn't we went straight into the water. It was fun to practice snorkeling and the water was beautiful, but after awhile Annalisa and I both went on to the boat and tried to calm our seasick selves! As soon as we touched the ground we were so happy and felt much better! We went to eat on the island and then we were free to do what we would like until 3pm. Ok this is too much talking- I am going to stop, so you can see pictures. They are all out of order because I just am not that good at blogging.

Love the color of the bay!

The guy in the gray shirt was our tour guide. Nice white sand!

We went to a look out point on the island and were warned about a big "lizard." He walked across a path right before we walked back down. I am thankful that Laura saw him before I got too close!

Picture of our boat on the way back from the island. I don't have a great picture on the way there when we were in the front.

The sign that said we were going on the "Raya Princess Tour"

Ok sorry but I just love the color of the water and cool little boats.

At the lookout point- look at that water!

Searching for shells and other cool things

So when it was about 2:50pm the tour guide for the blue group started walking around the beach yelling that the blue group had 10 minutes before they left. Now you have to understand that this is Thailand. We got picked up from our hotel about 15-20minutes after the latest time they said they would pick us up. Anyway our tour guide was loud and we hadn't heard him yet. We started getting ready to leave, etc but we weren't too worried. Then we saw him walking towards a boat on the other side of the beach- so we started walking that way, too. As I reached the water (I was the 1st of the 3 of us). I saw the boat start leaving! I tried to go really quickly over the rocks and a guy yelled at me that I was going to fall....well I was going to be stuck on the island if I didn't run! Our tour guide finally saw us and they stopped the boat and we waded out to the boat. There was no apology or anything from them, we just said "sorry we didn't hear you tell us it was time to go." As we continued to pull away he started counting people! Great idea!

We went for about 10minutes and our boat died, they worked on fixing one of the 3 motors and then started going for about 1 minute before it died again. They finally got it fixed and we were off for good this time. Our tour guide then started laughing about how we were running to catch up with the boat and his excuse was that there were other boats that needed to get in. Oh well, I guess you just need to be ready at anytime.

Our boat

October Break...heading to Phuket, Thailand

2011-11-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am actually updating my blog with some pictures of my October break in Thailand. When we got to the airport we did everything that we were told to do....

We love it when they say silly things in English...yes we know they wanted us to take pictures by the beautiful flowers...but it is more fun to take pictures by the sign that says "Snap here!"

I went on this short vacation with two girls that work with me. Laura was in the first picture and she is from Iowa and has been here for about a year. Annalisa is in the picture with me and she has been here for a couple of years. They also both live fairly close to me.

After a long day at school and then landing in Phuket at 1am this is what greeted us...nice golden sheets and little fabric hearts on the beds...Wow! We were ready to go to sleep so I guess it wasn't that bad!

The next day we left for the next hotel. We decided that we could be tourist on this trip- you should always "wai" those older than you first...

Laura and I enjoyed being just like the statues at the front of our hotel. I know the Iowa girl and Minnesota girl really look Thai!

The bathroom in our hotel had a huge window (that you couldn't see through when closed) it was funny when you first walked into the room and you could see right into the bathroom! Of course we had to take a picture...ok so it was my idea...but you probably already knew that....

This was the pool that was at our hotel.

Another view of our hotel room....we loved this hotel and would recommend it to others!

The beds are pretty close to the ground and this one had the same bed frame but two beds...

The next post will have the pretty and fun pictures of the beaches that we visited and a story about our crazy tour boat trip to a little island....that reminded me of a song..."a three hour tour, a three hour tour"

French toast and motorbike helmet...

2011-11-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

I was looking through my photos for pictures from my trip to the beach and I came across these ones. I am such an amazing cook that I made french toast for my two roommates and two friends (the ones I went to the beach with).

Look at those happy faces! Clockwise around the table... my plate of french toast, Laura, Tami (roommate), Annalisa, Amy (roommate)

They made me get my picture taken as well...look at that amazing maple syrup bottle! Also what is french toast without peanut butter!?!?! I am soooo happy that they have PB in Thailand!

Good food, company, and conversation!

I don't have a motorbike, but I found this helmet on clearance at a store and thought that I should probably get one. It will be good to have when I need to get somewhere and the only way is on someone's bike. I also liked the light blue color.

My GOD is so BIG

2011-11-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

I have been going to a local orphanage with some of the high school students on Fridays. It is suppose to be about two times a month, but we have only gone two times so far this year. It is one of the ministry opportunities that the students can choose to participate in through the school. Two seniors are in charge with an adult helping them as needed. It is kind of like a big brother/big sister program, as each student gets paired up with one of the children at the orphanage. They play for a while and then have a time of prayer with the students.

Here is their website if you are interested in learning more about the orphanage:

http://www.nikkisplace.org/about.htm

Here the students are pushing some of the kids in a cart.

I was able to go and visit the toddlers in their room (they don't come outside with the older students). They were so cute and we played and played. I think this is where I will be most of the time as I am not assigned an older student and it is easier to play with kids who don't care if you don't speak Thai!

They have verses and songs up in the room in English and I noticed the song, "My God is so big." I started singing it and the kids laughed and laughed (I know what you are thinking...and I don't think they were laughing because of my terrible singing), but by the end they were doing the hand motions with me! Here is one of the girls helping sing, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty..."

I am BACK...kind of...

2011-11-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

I know that you have all been waiting and waiting for the blog updates about my two trips...they are coming, but you just have to wait a little bit longer. I had a wonderful time on both adventures, but the last one with the middle school students left me not feeling so great. I think it was due to the fact of eating at different places for too many days. Don't worry, I self-diagnosed what the problem was, treated it, and I am feeling MUCH BETTER! I am back to living at the library and I am loving it!

I do have a link for you if you are interested in learning more about the camp that came from the States for our students' camps during this break (I went with only the middle school).

http://www.humelake.org/news/2011/10/hume-international-thailand-2011/

The above link will take you to the Hume Lake Christian Camps' news page and the posts that the staff put up of their time with our students. You can even watch the videos! Enjoy!

Gifts for Merit

2011-10-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a street of different little shops....

This shop has all different things you can give to the Monks for merit.

There are pre-packaged gifts of food, etc for the Monks. The Monks go around the neighborhoods every morning collecting their alms. I am told that when they go around the neighborhoods they usually receive rice, etc for them to eat that day.

When I was at one Wat it looked like a bunch of Easter baskets were stacked up in the corner. I learned later that they are just the gifts that people bring the Monks.

I am so grateful that I know the Savior who has already paid the price for my salvation!
I don't deserve the free gift of salvation and I never could earn it, yet because of God's great love for me I only need to accept the gift.

Food....a very important part of the Thai culture...2

2011-10-16T03:51:00.000-07:00

Here is where I get a lot of my meals, especially when I lived with Gina and family. This "food court" is in the market area and we would eat there at least once a week. When your meal costs 1 US dollar you might as well eat out as it is cheaper than cooking your own food.

One of my favorite meals- Cashew Chicken. They eat their food with a fork and spoon. You use the fork to help get the food on the spoon and then you actually eat with the spoon. I now eat this way as well except when I am trying to eat salad...the lettuce just won't stay on the spoon!

Here we all are for Lucas' birthday lunch. Some of the people didn't really want their pictures taken, oh well!

This was my first "real" meal in Thailand, but we forgot to take a picture so we took one another time we went out to eat there. It is called Khao Soy and since it has noodles they do use chopsticks. It is more of a northern Thai dish.

This is a lamyai (longan) tree in the school yard. This "fall" they would pick them off of the trees for lunch and they also sold them at the snack shop. I really enjoyed their unique taste.

Here is one open...you just the clear part and there is a seed in the middle that you have to spit out.

This is me showing off the whole bunch of lamyai that I got from school. I am also reminding all you Packer fans that I am still cheering for the Vikes even though they aren't doing so good and I can't watch any of the games because they start at midnight my time.
GO VIKINGS!

Food...a very important part of Thai culture...

2011-10-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

I thought that you would all be interested in seeing what kind of food and drinks I am having here in Chiang Mai. We all love to eat, right? This will be a two-part blog as I don't want to give you too many pictures all in one. I am actually enjoying the food here even though my mouth has been on fire for a couple of hours after eating a few dishes. The school serves lunch for the staff and students every day. Three days it is Thai food with a salad bar and the other two days we have some "American" food along with a Thai option and a salad bar.

These first four pictures are taken at the market that is 5-10 minutes away from my house.

They use fans to keep the flies, etc off of the meat.

You could buy your supper here at the market- they sell a lot of food in bags. It kind of reminds me of how you take home your gold fish from the pet store.

Fish anyone???

Now believe it or not these next two pictures are not from the market.....

As much as I really wanted to buy this pig head I decided it wouldn't fit in my freezer at home.
There are a number of big grocery stores that when you are in them you can almost forget that you are not at your local grocery store in the US. That is what I was feeling until I got to the meat section and saw the heads and then the legs (picture below). While I tried to take these photos without anyone noticing, Gina proceeded to put on a glove and pick out pieces of chicken from a big tray and put them in a bag. I forgot to take a picture of that, but it made me smile as she picked out boneless chicken pieces for me to eat.

When my roommate and I were at the market I was told that I HAD to try this tea. It is called chaa yen and is made up of orange tea and milk. It is cold and as you can see the bag is full of ice. Oh and yes it comes in a nice little bag with handles and a straw! In case you were wondering she was driving and taking a picture of me...perfectly safe!

Old Pictures...from a birthday party at a Wat

2011-10-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

One of my roommate's birthday was at the end of August and I was able to attend a small party for her. Yes, these pictures are from August, I told you that they were old! We had picnic on the patio right by a Wat (a Buddhist Temple).

The view from where we were sitting! We can see this "mountain" from the school and you can actually also see some of the Wat on a clear day.

You can go on a little road...or up these stairs to get to the Wat.

Here we are with some dogs around us. There are a lot of stray dogs around.

The view before we left.

I actually walked up to this Wat on Saturday with some people from school. A group of people (one of them is my roommate) walk up to this place every Saturday. It is about 7k round trip. There are some really steep parts as you climb the "mountain." It is a good work out.

My New Home

2011-10-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that I was living with some friends until I could move into my new place where I will be living for 6 months. One of the girls that rents this place is on home assignment, so I get her room for the time she is gone. I have two wonderful roommates (but no pictures of them in this post).

Hope you like this picture walk through my home:

The front door- the red bike is mine but it is a little small so we are trying to figure out how I can fix that (and yes I did try raising the seat)

The little garden that we have- it is to the right of where my bike is...

You must always remove your shoes before you enter a home. The elementary students don't wear their shoes in their classrooms.

The view from the kitchen...you can see the front window and door.

The view from the front door (see they are all out of order but I just can't figure out how to get this one to move)

The dining room

The kitchen and back door to our washer and stove which are both outside in a covered porch. There is also a bathroom across from the fridge.

Upstairs

Down the hallway...the door straight ahead is the bathroom. The door that is open is my room.

The view the other way...and the other two bedrooms.

I have a very little porch off of my room but this is the view so I probably won't be using it much:)

From the doorway of my room...

The bed....

The door and the bookshelf...no these are not my books...but I can read them.

Another angle of my room- the fan is very important! Oh and that orange thing...I can't remember what it is called but I made it in one of the Thai modules all the new teachers have to take.

My wardrobe and the door to the little porch that I will not be using :)

Ok so I realize that I have no pictures of the bathrooms or the back porch thingy...those might come at some point...but they were not that exciting.

Road or River?

2011-10-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the roads turn into rivers during the rainy season. This is the road and gate outside the elementary school. I waded through the water and made it in:) I don't know if you had heard, but parts of Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas had very bad flooding the last week or two. It had been raining a lot and they had to release water from the dams before they broke. It took a few of our cooks 3 hours to get into work one day last week. This all happened closer to the center of the town, so most of the school staff was not affected. Some families did have to stay with people closer to the school so that they would be able to get it in to school. I am told that traffic was terrible! People were using boats, etc. The flood waters are down now and hopefully we won't have any more large storms.

Video

2011-10-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Just thought people might be interested in learning more about the ministry of the school. The video gives a good look at what some of the families do and how the kids serve the area as well.

Link to the video on youtube...or watch it from here

We interrupt our regular post to bring you this...

2011-10-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

I got a package today! It was SO exciting!

It came all the way from Bemidji, MN! It took a short 2 weeks!

Who knew that a shirt and oatmeal could make someone's day.

Look at this wonderful stuff! I would have taken a happy picture of me...but I didn't look the best today...so maybe another day:)

Can you guess who it was from? That is right...I want to be able to sing the National Anthem as good as this girl can! I want to save trees like her, too!

Look at how great she is at making a smoothie with a huge knife...I guess our spoons were packed or dirty.

She can walk across the mighty Mississippi River!

Here we are with friends...We are that ~~crazy~~ amazing!

THANK YOU KRISTEL!

Zoo Part 4 and hopefully the last- Penguins, etc

2011-10-02T03:12:00.000-07:00

These penguin pictures are for my nephews who love penguins...at least they use to love them. I am not sure if they are still on the cool list or not....

I think this is a gumball machine or maybe a bouncy ball one...I can't remember.

Penguin rug on the way into "Penguin Ville"

"Penguin Ville" we loved it because of ~~the air- conditioning~~ all the cute penguins. I couldn't get a good picture of them...so no live penguin photos.

Nate was the only one that would climb up this fake tree stump with me to see the amazing view from the top. It really looked like an old stump.

Here are those ~~lazy~~ fun-loving people down on the ground. It started raining after we got out of Penguin Ville.

So excited to finally be at the top and loving getting his picture taken.

Hippos at the zoo. I don't think I have ever seen them up so close. Actually I don't know if I have ever seen Hippos in person. They are huge!

Beautiful flowers and cute little Panda.

Zoo Part 3- Elephants

2011-09-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

When we were at the zoo we saw the cutest little baby elephant! He was about 28 days old. Elephants are very protective of their babies. They were always making sure that he was right there with them.

You could buy a basket of sugar cane to feed the elephants for under a dollar. I didn't get any good pictures of me feeding them, but here are the boys feeding the mom and dad.

Dinner time- come and get it!

Yummy

Like I have said before elephants are everywhere....here are some elephant water fountains in the zoo.

This is just a random picture of me in a little tipi thing in the bird place...it has nothing to do with elephants...but I thought it was a great photo of me. There were actually 3 of them all next to each other, but no one else would go in them with me. I thought it would look cool if we were all in different ones and looking out at each other....maybe I will get that great photo when I go back to the zoo with other people.

Oh and Jenni and Mom see my Upward water bottle?!?! You should send the picture to Upward and maybe I will get a free t-shirt or something for advertising about Upward in Thailand:)

Tiger Pride Week...

2011-09-24T01:45:00.001-07:00

This week the students could take part in "Tiger Pride Week" and do something each day of the week. Normally the students wear a uniform, but this week they could do some different things.

The 1st day was hat day (students still had to wear their uniforms but they could wear a hat)

Another day was Disney day and I was Jessie from Toy Story.

One of the 5th grade teachers dressed up like Boo from Monster's Ink.

Crazy hair day.... half is straight and half is curly. "Now that is crazy hair" said a 3rd grader.

I ride into work with this lady (4th grade teacher) and her daughter everyday.

Motorbike AAAHHHHH

2011-09-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

So EXCITED for my first motorbike ride!

Actually I wasn't that excited....but I knew that I had to try it sometime.

Why not try it riding around the neighborhood with a 15 year old :)

After a short ride I was told to try driving it. Um I wasn't quite sure about this....but again...I guess needed to at least say that I tried.

I am SUPER careful and even carry an extra helmet in the basket. haha

I survived my first time driving a motorbike. I was really bad at it and couldn't really turn well. I haven't practiced for almost a week but I did take a longer ride on the motorbike the other day. It is still really scary! I haven't gone on any major roads yet and that is OK with me!

School....

2011-09-23T07:44:00.002-07:00

I thought I would just keep changing blog topics to keep you guessing...the motorbike and elephant pictures will come at a later date. I am here to teach and work in the library, at a Christian International school, so I suppose that I should show some pictures of where I work and spend most of my time! This is the ramp that goes down to the secondary building. It ends around where you see that green roof. I will try to get some better angles of it at another time.

The picture above is my desk and below you can see the computers. Behind the computers we have some supplies and the work station for getting books ready to be put on the shelves (stamping, covering, etc)

The younger grades sit on the green rug for their library time. The older students sit at the tables. You can see the story cupboard where I put different things that relate to what we are learning about in the class. For the kindergarten class this week I had a medal in the cupboard. We were learning about the Caldecott Medal, so one student got to hold the medal during our lesson and story. Also two kids get to sit on the beanbags during library.

The books that have won the Caldecott Medal....

New books...I tried to make some of the origami to go with our two new origami books. I just managed to make the paper cups. So much for Easy Origami :)

Transportation....

2011-09-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

I decided that you might be getting tired of pictures of the zoo....so I thought a post about transportation might be fun. There will have to be two parts to this one as well because I need to add the photos of me riding and then "driving" a motorbike. So enjoy this first look into my transportation/parking experiences in Thailand.

This picture shows you how I have gotten to church every Sunday. There is another boy in the back of the truck, but the rest of us like the A/C.

Gina likes driving on the wrong side of the car and road! They don't like it when I say "wrong" it should be on the "other side" or "different side" or the left side of the road....right side of the road, etc. The major roads are separated so you sometimes forget that you are on the "other" side of the road. You have to make a lot of U turns to get to where you want to go....

Elephant stuff is everywhere! Here are some little bushes that were trimmed to look like elephants. One of the malls is in the background of the photo. I know that this isn't really about driving...but elephants can be a form of transportation and I see elephant statues, bushes, etc all the time when I am in the truck.

The motorbike parking lot at the mall. There are so many bikes everywhere. I will try to get some pictures of them driving down the road with 3 or more people on one bike. They will be holding little babies, etc.

In parking lots and ramps the cars will park like this photo shows. The cars that are parallel parked are just pushed out of the way if someone who is parked in a "real" spot needs to get out, etc.

Zoo Part 2

2011-09-20T07:56:00.001-07:00

When we were at the aquarium there was a school group that thought it was pretty cool to get their picture taken with a foreigner. It took us probably twice as long to get through the exhibit (or maybe we were the exhibit??). It was very fun and the students were so excited. One girl had a piece of paper which she read to me: "Excuse me, can I have a picture with you."

Here I am with some other students, still stopped in the tunnel getting pictures taken...too bad you can't really see the fish!

We had to walk up a huge hill....but the view from the top was amazing.

This snake was just out in nature, not part of the zoo, he caught a little gecko while we were standing there looking at him. You can see it's tale hanging out of the snake's mouth. It is also pretty neat how the snake kind of changes colors when he curls up.

The monkeys were very loud and active when we were visiting them. I think they are a lot more happy in these zoos then in the zoos in the States.

The only rhino in Thailand or something like that....he was tired.

I will probably have more pictures of the zoo in the next day or two....

Oh and in other news- I got my work permit today! I think I have one more step and then I just need to check in with immigration every 90 days.

Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium

2011-09-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here I am with the family I am living with and knew from Brasil. We went to the zoo to celebrate a 12 year old's birthday!

The boys took a really boring picture in front of the mural on the wall before going into the aquarium, so Gina and I had to show them how it is done. The pictures I took inside the tunnels didn't turn out that great, so this is all I will post of that part of the trip.

Just happy that they are not this big in real life. Why is a taranchula in the aquarium? I have no idea!

Feeding the sting ray....

The picture in the header is of the elephants that we feed at the zoo. The baby elephant was about a month old! We didn't get to feed the baby.

I will post more pictures in the next post.....