The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Yesterday I finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. This is his 5 book in his Chronicles of Narnia series. This book is about how Lucy, Edmond, and their cousin Eustace find themselves back in Narnia, this is the first time for Eustace. They travel with one of the main characters from the last book, King Caspian, to find out what happened to some men Caspians uncle had sent away from Narnia, before Caspian took over. They are on a voyage to islands of the east and find themselves at the end of the world.
I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. This was one of my favorites so far out of this series. I thought it was very well written and had a lovely message of how God is always with us no matter where we go.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

The book I read last week was Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. He is the same guy that wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. You may all know this title as they made a great musical based on the book, although I hear a lot of it doesnt take after the book. Im going to give a little shout out to that book, as I absolutly loved it, its a 5 out of 5. This book was basically the story of Cinderella told from the view of one of Cinderella's stepsisters. I really love Mr. Maguire's style of writing because he takes fairy tales with people you hate and tells their view points where you soon have empathy for them and somewhat dislike the normally beloved main character. This version of Cinderella is based in Holland. Its nice because it gives you some historical background about the country. I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I really liked the book, so why a low score you may ask? Well, it took me half of the book to get into it. Wicked took a few chapters as well, but this book took far too long, which is partly why I didnt read more last week. Even though it was an awesome story, I dont think any book should take half of it to get into the story...yet it does need a lot of the boring bits and background so that the ending comes together. I would for sure recommend it, as I really like his style of writing. But, read Wicked first!

Ko Samet

Last weekend I went to the island Ko Samet for a Thai Youth Theatre conference. It was a lovely place to have a conference and very relaxing. Here is a picture of a bunch of some of the volunteers that came....from Left to Right: Sarah, Me, Merissa, Katie, and Becky. We are at a cafe on the beach.

They were building a statue on some rocks by the beach where we were staying. It is of a Thai mermaid and a person summoning her with an instrument. The intricate statues they make are truely beautiful.
The above picture is of my volunteer friend Liesbeth and I. We, and some of the girls, took a hike through the woods and found this beautiful cove at the end. The bottom three pictures are of a fire show. Every night, many of the cafes on the beach would have fire shows where they would set sticks on fire and spin them about. The first picture is of a boy doing it. He was really really good. The last picture is just creative. I love how they are spinning the fire so fast they just show up as blurs in the pictures.

Old Man Cats and Giant Spiders

These two pictures are thanks to Becky...they are also on her blog...but look at them here because my blog is better, just ask Beckys mom;)

This is a picture of Mr. Ruth sitting on my lap. He looks just like a cratchaty old man. I like to call him fatty because thats exactly what he is.

You have all heard me talk about the giant spiders in this country, that I get in my house often. This is a picture of one of them next to a business card, dead( thankfully) and all curled up. Now imagine the thing with its giant legs all stretched out and it chasing you across the room...you would be scared too!

The Kite Runner

I just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It is about life presently in Afghanistan and life before the Taliban gained control. It has a basic storyline of a boy and his father escaping into America and later on going back to let some skeletons out of his closet, so to say. I cant say too much about it as it would give the surprises away.
I give this book a 5 out of 5. It is just an awesome book and I recommend it to everyone. I think it gives a much more positive light on the Afghani people, as its more the Taliban that are the bad people. It also tells how bad it is there and how much help is still needed. Definitely moving and just a great story. The first couple of chapters are kinda slow, but after that I couldn't put it down! I suggest everyone get a copy of this awesome book!

Mere Christianity

I have finally finished C.S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity. This is a book of his thoughts on Christianity as well as Theology. This book is not C.S. preaching, it is merly his thoughts. I was reading this book, along with his chronicles of Narnia to get a better idea of his concepts of Christianity. This is not a book you can read cover to cover, as I quickly learned. Take it slow and read it while you are reading another book.
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I give it this low a rating for many reasons. One, he uses a lot of colliquial phrases that I dont understand because they are old. As a good writer, unless you are writing a novel you should totally avoid any type of colliquial phrases(thanks Julia).Two, hes a very conservative christian and I definitly am not. A lot of that can not be helped as this book was written in the 1940s and most christians were conservative. He did make a lot of points I did like and learned from. I also like that he says you can skip some of the information in it, if it doesnt help you...but most of that actually did. I also liked that he converted to Christianity from Atheism. This is definitly talked about in the book and shows his devotion and faith...which I really liked. He definitly led me in a good direction in my journey as a Christian and fed me in my definite need for education about Christ here...which I dont really get as Thailand is a Buddhist country. Thus, Im happy I read the book.

Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian is the 4th book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. This book is about how a year after the 4 children Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy have left Narnia they get sucked back in. They find that hundreds of years have passed and a new Narnia ruled by humans with the old Narnia, the magical creatures, are in hiding. Prince Caspian, the nephew of the present king and the rightful crown to the thrown, has learned about the old Narnia and wants to bring it back. Thus, he has brought the four children, along with Aslan, to help overthrow the king and bring Narnia back to its old fashion.
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. It has a good story to it, but it is a lot of just conversations, which I kept wishing would be over. It definitly is not my favorite out of the series, but if you are going to read the series its important to read and adds a lot to what you know about Narnia already.

Silkworm Pizza

Yesterday, I was seriously craving some American food. My town amazingly has one pizza restaurant. I don't ever go there because its not very good and its about a day and a halfs salary for one pizza. But, I was totally needing it yesterday so Becky and I went anyway. I had never looked at the menu very well because on it Becky noticed they have silkworm pizza. I decided to take a picture of it in case someone didn't believe me. I would like to see a pizza place in America that has that as a topping selection!

Mother's Day

Mother's and Father's day, in Thailand, depend on the day of the King and Queens birthdays. Yesterday was the Queens birthday, thus yesterday was mother's day. They had a lovely celebration for the queen in my town. Here you can see a giant picture of her with Thai flags flying to her left, and flags with the queens symbol on it flying to her right.
All of these people are wearing yellow and blue shirts. Blue is the queens color, and since this year is a special year for the king people could wear yellow, the kings color too. Each day of the week has a color assigned to it. The queen was born on the day of the week that is blue. Thus, that is her color and why everyone wears blue shirts.

Here is Becky and I in our new blue shirts.











This is a picture of my supervisor and I. He is the one who arranges everything for me and helps me set up any big projects I may have.
At the end of the night they had a candlelight vigil for her majesty where they all sang the kings song and a song about the queen. It was truly a beautiful moment and shows just how much they really do love their royalty.

I want me a Piggy!

Friday I went to visit my friend Julia who lives beside some Pig farmers. They just had some baby pigs...and if you know me well you know how much I LOVE pigs!

Here I am getting to help the piglets feed. They are only 4 days old. Raising pigs is really hard as you have to feed the piglets every 2 hours, at first, and for the first few weeks keep them seperated from the Mom. You have to keep moving the pigs around because they will waunder off and the Mom will only let them feed for a few minutes, until she gets tired. So you have to make sure the piglets are feeding the entire time.

Here I am getting to hold one of these cute little guys. Im sweating like a pig, no pun intended, in this picture.
This experience just reasured my asperations to have a pig one day. If I could have taken one home I totally would have.I want me a Piggy!

Home Made Herbal Remmody

This is my Yai (Thai Grandma). Here she is showing off some of her herbal medicine that she goes out and picks in the field, across the street, and makes. She turns it into some sort of tea and then drinks it. She says its for stomach problems. I thought it was interesting that there are people who still make their own medicines.

Fabulous Mannequin

This Mannequin is in a store for braces and health supplies in my town. She is saying..." I may have a broken back, a sprained wrist, knee and ankle, and a back problem....but Im still fabulous!"

19 ฿ cat

I thought this picture was really cute. I was walking through my town and saw this cat lying in a pile of cd's for sale.

The Horse and His Boy

Yesterday I finished The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. This is the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia. It is a journey about two children who are escaping to Narnia with their talking horse friends. On the boy hears of a plot to take over Narnia and the friendly Archenland. He quickly comes to fulfil his destiny and save the day.
I give this book a 5 out of 5. I really loved it and Im surprised that the other books in the series arnt as well known as the second book. It has a really lovely arabic feel to this book as the main characters come from a land similar to india or arabia. All around Great read!

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Today I read The Lion,the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. This is the second book in the chronicles of Narnia series. Most of you already no this story, especially with it recently being made into a major motion picture. If you dont, it is about how 4 children venture through a wardrobe to find the magical world of Narnia. It is ruled by the evil white witch Jadis. With the help of the great Lion Aslan, and other woodland and mythical folk, they kill the witch and bring Narnia back to its proper state of being. It is also a bit of an analogy to Jesus and the death and resurrection.
I give this book a 5 out of 5. I dont always understand why a classic is a classic, but after reading this book there is no doubt why it is called classic literature...because it is sure to stand the test of time. Its a great book for both children and adults alike. You may have seen the movie, so get the book if you havn't. Its a fun short read.

The Magician's Nephew

I recently read The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. This is the first book in the 7 book series of the Chronicles of Narnia. It is about how two lonley children come upon their crazy uncle's study. The uncle then cons them into going into other worlds, until they find a blank world that soon becomes Narnia, the magical land these books are about. The children also bring with them an evil into the world, the white witch Jadis, that they found in a world about to die. It is basically a storybook analogy to some of Genisis...the creation story, Adam and Eve, and the devil.
I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. It is an excellent book and fun to read as most people have only read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you are a christian and have children, its a great way to teach about Genisis.

Prankratai Peediacomb

This is a picture of my third school. I work here on Wednesdays. This is a high school and is called Prankratai Peediacomb. A lot of schools have campuses, and this one isnt any different.

The top floor of this building is the English department and where I teach my classes. I teach 7th to 9th grade English at this school.

The above picture is a picture of the four teachers I co-teach with at this school. They are all really nice and their English is great. From Right to left they are Nan, Goong(means Shrimp), Not really sure, and Nitipa

This picture is a picture of me teaching a 9th grade class. It is a few months old.

Baseball and Football with a broom and a half deflated volleyball

Today I taught about sports. We basically just went over some pronunciations and then the rest of the day was a cutltural day. They either got to choose between baseball or American football. Three out of 4 of my classes chose baseball. It was really fun, especially since they learned how to play baseball with a half deflated volleyball and a broom. This was just such an authentic experience(sarcasm), but at least the kids had fun.


The kids played flag football, as thats a little less dangerous. They also learned to play football with a deflated volleyball. Im glad that only one class chose this one because its very chaotic to teach and play football with 8th graders in a half hour. Neeless to say, baseball went over a little better.

Big Cleaning Toilet Day

On July 21st of this year there was a holiday I completly missed. That Thai holiday is called Big Cleaning Toilet Day. I was riding my bike to school this morning and saw a sign for it and HAD to take a picture of it. Remember a clean toilet is a happy toilet...CHECK!

NoyNa

This is contestably one of my favorite fruits in Thailand. In Thai it is called NoyNa, but in English they are called Custard Apples. They look scaley and a bit like what I imagine a dragons egg to look like. The skin just scrapes away, no peeling necessary, so they are easy to eat. Inside there are seeds about the size of a sunflower seed all through out the sugary white fruit. Unfortunatly, this fruit has a very short season, so I buy them every time I see them.

Chinese Acrobats

This past week a troop of Chinese acrobats came to my town. They were perfoming with Giant lion puppets on my street. These guys are super agile and amazing dancers and gymnists.












































This guy was in a traditional chinese costume and was swinging a string of fire crackers. The fire crackers were coming off and exploding on everyones feet. It was really fun, but a little frightning. There was also a pit of hot coals and fire that people were running across, but I didnt have time to take any pictures of that.

Angels and Demons

Today, I finished reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. This book is about what can happen when a deadly anti matter bomb is placed in the Vatican during a conclave for the Pope. Its a wild chase with very little time that left me constantly on the edge of my seat.
I give this book a 4 out of 5. Even though it was really good, and I read it very quickly, I felt I was reading The Davinci Code only in a different setting and a different plot. I feel like Mr. Brown found a style that fit him and basically molded many books from the same plot...not to say it isnt good because I loved it! It was also a little too fictiony( is that even a word?) for my taste. If its going to be this crazy I like there to at least be more of an element of fantasy than was actually written in. Although, I did learn a lot about the Vaticican, great art, the papacy, and anti matter. Over all its a great book and a good read.