Chandelier

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi, yeah, I am still here. English disappeared for a while on Blogger and since reading Thai is not really one of my skills----well, anyway, I'm back.
School is almost over for the first semester-I can't believe it. I am going to Koh Chang for the break and then up to Nongkai to visit Emily and then we will all go over to Lao. Can't wait.

Life has been pretty busy here-here is a few things I've been up to.

1. Going to the Thai Cultural Center: We have been two times this year-we saw Madame Butterfly (below)and this great ballet called Pedro and Ines. For the last one we had amazing seats (that we didn't have to pay for) and got to see the Thai Princess. Most of the ballet took place in a shallow pool on the stage. It was fabulous.

Rochelli and me.

2. Taking an Art Class: I just finished my 5-week drawing class. It was taught by a Thai artist with a translator. I think I will be taking another one in January with some of my friends.

3. Visiting Weesalut in the orphanage: I volunteer with a little boy at the Pakret Babies home and this is the little guy I am hanging out with. I think he is about 1. He is pretty sick a lot so we spend a lot of time in the clinic.

4. Teaching teaching teaching: yeah, I actually spend most of my time at school. Here are some of my students and their amazing math projects. Some were serious about it and some were not so much. Thanks to Cheryl, soon my kids will have Canadian pen pals. We can't wait!

5. It's been raining so much-almost every day. I can't wait for winter! The rain cools things down but makes it so humid. This is the walkway just outside my apartment.

Hello, is anyone there?

I am the worst blogger ever. I am sure everyone is tired of seeing a post from 2 months ago. Well, I guess you have to start somewhere, so here is a photo montage of my first month in Thailand and a promise I will be a better blogger----sorry everyone, facebook is such a hard habit to break. :)

We went to Koh Chang last long weekend-these are some pictures I took around the island. As you can see, it rained a lot. We thought we might get stranded, but no such luck :( We rented a car which was a great experience---it's much easier than it looks. Although I kept wacking my hand on the door every time I wanted to shift into reverse. And the windsheild wipers kept coming on when I wanted to signal. But other than that, it was good.

Here are the people I went to Koh Chang with.

This is the view from our guest house.

Heidi, Daniel and I kayaked out to a deserted island. Daniel took these last two pictures. (He also took the first picture).We climbed along these cliffs on the East side of the island. Shhhh, don't tell my mom.

Hi...again.

I have become a terrible blogger. In Canada for two months now and not once have I touched my blog. I did get a new computer which has really made my life so much easier (and has wasted a great amount of time!). So here I am, apologizing for not completing the second half of my trip---to Isan. Since it seems so far away, I will just say that it was an amazing experience to celebrate Song Kran in Thailand's version of Delia. Song Kran is the Thai new year and it is celebrated with parades and a 3-day water fight. No joke---the whole country! Here are some pictures to show you what I mean.

Andrea and I stayed with some of her family in Kalasin. We stood by the side of the road and threw water and powder on passing motorists. It was a great way to spend a weekend.

I met this lady and her cows on a walk through the rice fields one day. We had a little conversation about the weather (mostly because I'm pretty limited in my Thai) and about how I should be wearing longer sleeves to keep my skin from getting too dark. I said we Farang like the sun! She just shook her head.

(Can I just say again how much I love the new computer. This post took half the time of the others.)

Malaysia

I have been away from blogging for a while but I thought I should really update you on some of the events of the last month. I'll do it in two posts so that you will have something to look forward to:)

After school ended, I took a short flight to Malaysia with my friend Jill to visit her aunt and uncle. They live on the island of Borneo in the city of Kuching. I had a nice time relaxing and exploring the city. There is a great museum there that was first opened in the 1800's. In it there was an exhibit of how the headhunters lived, complete with real skulls.
Kuching has a large Chinese population so there were many Mandarin signs and Chinese temples throughout the city.

Jill's family took us to a cultural village to see the houses, dances, foods and lifestyles of the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. My favorite purchase was this blow dart gun. It really is shocking what a 10 year-old I am.
Jill's aunt and uncle make Kaya jam in their home. We helped package it one day. I think the other workers were a bit annoyed that they had to come and check what the silly Canadians were up to. Hopefully not messing things up too badly.

We took a trip out to the country to visit Jill's grandma for a night. She lives on a lovely farm with a yard full of fruit trees. Those are star fruit in the bags and no, they don't grow that way.

One of the highlights of the trip was little Justus. He is two and the son of Jill's cousin. The little guy knows 2 languages already and was working on English while we were there. He called me Heidi JJ which means "older sister Heidi". To communicate with Jill and me, Justus had to be pretty creative. He used his hands most of the time because we were a bit too dim to understand Mandarin. The other highlight of our time together was when he peed on my flipflops. I think we really bonded.

One of my goals for my trip was to see an orangutan in the rainforest. We took a trip out to a national park where we were lucky enough to see a mother and baby literally swinging through the trees. They would climb to the top of one tree and then bend it down to the next bunch of trees, letting the first snap back as they moved on. We saw a few other monkeys as well as crocodiles at the rehabilitation center.

Lhasa and Pok Piah where my favorite breakfast foods while we were there. Lhasa is a spicy curry soup served on noodles with some veggies and meat. Pok Piah is a delicious roll filled with veggies, noodles, etc. and dipped in a great sauce.

I will end there and say that Malaysia is a beautiful

country that I can't wait to visit again!

A Thai post for Mink!

สวัสดีมิ้งค์ คุณเป็นคนเดียวที่จะอ่านออก

วันนี้เป็นวันสุดท้ายของ โรงเรียน ทุกๆ คนเศร้ามากๆ ฉันพึ่งตัดผมมา ฉันเสียใจมากสำหรับเรื่องนี้ ฉันะไปมาเลเซียในวันจันทร์นี้ และมันคงจะสนุก! นักเรียนที่รักของฉัน ดิวและแอล แปลภาษาแล้วเขียนให้ หวังว่าคุณคงสนุกในการเดินทาง บาย!

(just in case the rest of you don't read Thai, this says "Hi Mink, you are the only one who can read this. Today is the last day of school. Everyone is very sad. I got my hair cut and I'm very sad about that. I am going to Malaysia on Monday and that will be fun! My lovely students, Dew and Elle, translated this for me. I hope you have fun on your travels. Good bye!"

Things That Live in My Room, part 1.

This is Chirp the geko. He lives in my room. He woke me up this morning. I'm not sure but "he" might be several gekos, I can't tell. I let him stay because he eats mosquitos and ants (a few other creatures that I share my room with).