Wesley In Thailand

My Last Blog Entry

2007-03-27T17:10:00.000+07:00

Hey All, this is my last blog entry...why because its my last day in Thailand! That's right...I leave for the states in about 14 hours. Ive thought a lot about this last entry and have kind of put it off. I wanted to come up with something thoughtful and reflectful...I don't know how good it is going to be, but here goes. So do I regret the decision to do Peace Corps...absolutely not! Many times I thought I had, but this has been such a fantastic ride and I have met so many wonderful people I couldn't possibly wish I had never done it. A lot of volunteers walk away from their service wondering if they made a difference. I'm not sure how much of a difference I made, but I know its there. From this experience I will take away a new out look on life and the world. I have come away with some wonderful friendships and knowing some fabulous people that I wouldn't have met other wise. The old Peace Corps slogan..."its the hardest job you will ever love"...is one hundred percent true. I love this experience and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I feel like I come away from my service as a more confident person and a person ready to face the world fiercely and independently. The picture above is of my language class and our two Thai language teachers Chaterone and Peesuit. The volunteers are Ryan, Natalie, Emily and I. We are at the swearing in of group 119, and the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps in Thailand with one of the princesses, as my group closes its service. So before I end this blog I have to give a shout out to all of the other volunteers in my group...Thank you...and thanks to everyone that kept up with my blog and supported me while I was here. I cant wait to see you all very soon. Sawasdee krup prahtate Thai! Pohm rok kuhn!

I LOVE YOU ELEANOR!

2007-03-17T10:38:00.000+07:00

So this blog is about one of the most important things in the whole world to me and something that has been with me for most of my expereince....my blue point siamese cat Eleanor. I have to first recap my story of Eleanor. I got Eleanor from a siamese breader when she was 6 months old. She had been kept in a dark cage with several other cats. For the first 7 months of her life she was very timid and wouldnt let anyone touch her. She didnt even like to be in the same room with other people. Then last April, I think it was, she gave birth to two beautiful kittens. I had decided that after she finished nursing I was going to find a new home for her. So I gave the kittens away and litterally the next day she became incredibly loving. I dont know if it was the knowledge that she was going to be leaving or if it was just a chemical change, but she became the sweetest cat. This all happened at about the same time Mr. Ruth stopped coming inside and adopted my land lords family, so she became my real baby. She follows me everwhere, every time I sit down she jumps up on my lap or sits down beside me, and the one that sleeps with me every night. She is always there to calm me down and just be with me after a hard day, or any day. Tomorrow, she is going to go and live with Becky. I had played with the idea of taking her home with me, but decided it would just be too hard on her. She is the love of my life and I am going to miss her soooo much! I love you baby!

The real Goodbye party

2007-03-16T11:49:00.000+07:00

So this past week my Co-teacher Ajjan Kanong organized a goodbye dinner for me with both co-teachers, his family (who I knew pretty well), my supervisor who retired in October, and my landlord Dr. Samboon and his wife who I call Bah or Aunt. It took place down at the Ping river and was just wonderful. It was a lot of good conversation and we all said good things to each other. In the end they gave me...of course, more flowers. Thus, I can now open my house up as Wesley's flower shop because of the hundreds of roses that are sitting in my house. The evening was really wonderful and a perfect ending to my relationship with them. I will go over to their houses and say goodbye one more time, but it was really nice to have them all together with me before I leave. These are a lot of the main people that really made a difference in my experience here. We had a lot of great conversations and they made me frustrated on many occasions, but in the end I really am sad to leave them. I may have only worked with them or been their neighbor, but its hard not to form a relationship with people after two years of being with them. Saying goodbye is really hard.

Good-Bye Anuban Prankratai

2007-03-16T11:33:00.000+07:00

Thursday was my last day at school, and my last day at Anuban Prankratai School. I arrived to find that all of my students were waiting in the auditorium. Each student gave me a rose, cards, and sometimes gift. It was really so very nice. I then made a speach telling them how much I love them and how I will really miss them. I will really miss this school. This is because I have gotten to know these students and these teachers the most. Its the only school I stayed at for the two years of my service, and the one I was at the most. It will always hold a place in my heart. So around noon all of the teachers took me to a place for a goodbye lunch. On the wall read...Goodbye Mr. Wesley Have a time good so long. I looked at it for a moment, thought thats nice, and sat down when my co teachers jumps up and changes it to say have a good time haha. You know Ive been here too long when I dont think anything of signs in Tinglish. Notice, the carved Native American head above the sign..a little out of place huh? At the end of the dinner the school gave me a king dress shirt that generally only principals or important male teachers would wear. This shirt is made of thick polyester, has giant shoulder pads in it, and is bright yellow. They asked me if I liked it, "oh I love it, its just wonderful" I said. Then they asked me if I could wear it in America...I said "of course I can". What I didnt tell them was that I can probably only wear this shirt as a halloween costume. Well, its the thought that counts. So ends my teaching in Thailand. Its been a long journey, but one I will take with me for the rest of my life.

Im unofficially a Buckey!

2007-03-15T10:00:00.000+07:00

Ok everyone....as many of you know I have waited for months and months and months to hear from OSU about graduate school. I started working on my application letter back in August and had everything sent in by the end of September. The due date for my application was not until December 1st. Well, December came and went...and so did January, February, and half of March. I was starting to get really nervous as my friend Emily had found out she got into Yale at the beginning of February....which by the way congratulations girl!( There is a link to her website under peace corp blogs...she is going to become a midwife!) So Ive been griping about not finding out for months now and my anxiety level has slowly gone up. I had already changed my address from Thailand to my home address, with worries that I would get the letter and I wouldn't be here anymore, and had told my Mom to keep a look out for any letters from OSU. Today was my last day at my last school and I was preparing to leave when I got a phone call. It was my Mom. Now this is very unusual because she usually calls me on Tuesday evenings...never on Thursdays and never in the morning. She called to tell me she had called OSU and they still hadn't sent out the acceptance letters, but that I had been accepted! Hallelujah! This has been one of the biggest stresses in my life. One, because I had only applied to one school....and if I didn't get in, what would I do? Two, I didn't want to come home to everyone asking me " So Wesley what will you be doing now" and my answer being " Well Ive applied for a masters program at OSU". So as you can believe I was jumping for joy! My major will be foreign and second language education with an emphasis on English as a second language. What that basically means is I will be learning how to teach people English who come to the US and are non-native English speakers. So watch out OSU...cause here I come...GO BUCKS!

My Last Day at Yang Reung School

2007-03-12T19:53:00.000+07:00

Today was my last day at Yang Reung School. The children here are so sweet! Each one gave me a rose and wished me luck. I really enjoyed teaching at this school. The teachers and students were both very kind. I will truly miss them!

Picture 1: My 5th, 6th grade students, and I

Picture 2: My preschoolers saying goodbye. Every day each one runs up to me about 5 times saying hello and then stretching out their little hands for me to shake it. If they cant shake my hand then they will just shout out Krue Wesley and give me a big smile.

Picture 3: Some of my students giving me roses.

Picture 4: The last lesson I taught. We reviewed numbers;)

Picture 5: The many roses I received

This saying good-bye thing is starting to become a full time job...I don't really like it;(

Oh, for those of you who don't know...I come home on the 28th of March

GOOD-BYE BOM!!!!!

2007-03-12T19:14:00.000+07:00

This is my best Thai friend Bom and one of my best friends in the whole world! Through out my Peace Corps service he has been there for me to vent to, give me guidance, and just let me be myself. Last week Bom moved to Chiang Mai for a new job. I was a little sad that he moved two weeks before I leave Kampangphet, but Im really happy he got this awesome new opportunity. This past weekend I went up to Chiang Mai so that I could spend one last night with him. It was really fun and full of laughs and tears! I will miss him more than anything else about my life in Thailand. I know God puts people in your life for a reason, and he definitely gave me Bom because without him I don't know if I would have made it through the tough times here.

Pagoda Inn

2007-03-12T19:00:00.000+07:00

These are pictures of my favorite guest house in Thailand. Its in Chiang Mai and is a lovely gem! Its rooms are cheap, clean, and are really well decorated. I love it because its like a maze with lots of different levels, hall ways, nooks, and crannies. This weekend Becky and I stayed in a room that had the bathroom and shower in an outdoor courtyard looking area! So if anyone goes to Chiang Mai...look up this place because not only is it nice, but centrally located.

crowded bus

2007-03-12T18:38:00.000+07:00

In Thailand, there is not such a thing as too many people on one bus. If there isnt room, then you get to stand in the isle. Ive been on buses so crowded I had to stand for two hours, until someone got off and I was able to sit down. Here are some pictures of the Bus I took to Chiang Mai this weekend. Remember this is a 5 hour bus ride. The people in the second picture, in the middle of the isle, are sitting on little plastic stools. But what can I say...sometimes you just gotta get some place..and if its the last bus of the evening you often just dont care how comfortable you are.

Valentines day is the day of HIV/AIDS education

2007-02-14T16:47:00.000+07:00

OK, so if you have visited my blog since January you will know that I just did my HIV/AIDS education camp. Well, this is the follow up blog to that camp. Today is valentines day...which as my co-teacher says..."is the day of love"....thats why it was the perfect day to teach about AIDS. A few of the schools have already had their camps, but 4 of the schools had theirs today. I visited two of them. Some of the schools did booths, like at a fair, but the ones I visited did a day camp. These are just a few pictures of the students teaching their fellow students. The pictures at the first school taught their peers in their own grade and the students at the second school taught 7th grade. Both schools did a great job. Becky and I were really excited about the second school. This school didnt have money to put on the day camp, but the community liked the project so well that they funded it. We also found out that this paticular school liked the project so well that they are going to do it every valentines day. Im really really happy that not only did this project have a positive effect, but it is also sustaining for the community;)

.... so the one funny thing that happened...I guess when Thai kids think about AIDS they think sex...and there must be no better way to portray how people get AIDS than home made drawings of people having sex..The students at the second camp had made posters about AIDS education and posted them on the trees. Most of the pictures basically looked like Japanese anime porn. Well, at least along with being educated about AIDS they get to develop their art skills as well;)

Good Bye from the Rajhiphat gang!

2007-02-14T16:35:00.000+07:00

Last night I went to have a dinner with the gang I always see at the Rajhiphat university in my town. I have gone to Rajhiphat since I moved here to do projects for them like English camps and teacher trainings. I also go there to use the internet and upload my pictures onto cds to send home. Bom and three other teachers from the English education department are leaving at the end of this term, as well as me next month, so we went to a buffet place to have a big good-bye dinner. It was really fun and also a little sad to start my good-byes already.

Resume Building/Philosophy of Education

2007-02-14T16:04:00.000+07:00

A few weeks ago I did a project with my friend Bom at the Rajiphat, which is like a community college. Bom and I designed a workshop for English education majors where we showed them how to make a western resume in English and how to make a Thai resume in English. The difference between a Thai resume and a western resume is a Thai resumes put a picture on it and tells personal information like religion, sex, and hobbies. Its basically not as specific either...which made it very easy to teach. The students were shocked to learn that on a western resume you wouldnt put personal information. Ive learned that a lot of people in their older years here often have trouble finding a new job as they have to put their age and picture on a resume, and employers will often want younger people for many jobs.

I also taught about philosophy of education. This is something they didnt know about and is something the schools here are really pushing. If you walk into any school here you will see a philosophy of education posted on the wall. I basically wanted to teach this to them to make them more marketable as a teacher. This is because if they have a personal philosophy of education they will have something that will set them apart from other applicants. We also helped them to translate this into English.

I couldnt have done this project without my friend Bom. He was really amazing and is a really great teacher!

Photography by Jamison Litten

2007-02-09T16:36:00.000+07:00

These pictures were taken by Jamison "Jamie" Litten. He is a Peace Corps volunteer in my group and is planning to go to photography school when finished with his service. These are two pictures he had taken with me in them....arnt they really awesome?! Both pictures were taken right before Christmas in Lampang. The first picture also has Katie in the background and the second picture is of me in the back of a truck...I was hiding from the wind;)

The Poop Conference

2007-02-07T13:37:00.000+07:00

So you will all be glad that there are no pictures involved in this post. Right now, my Peace Corps group is having what we have dubbed the poop conference. The poop conference is where all of group 117 has been sent to Bangkok for three days so that we can poop in a cup everyday. This is so that they can check and see if we have any parasites before we go home. I have gained a few pounds in the past couple of months so unless there is a fat parasite...I dont believe I have one. They have given us all a bag full of three cups, three popsicle sticks(to collect the poop with...you only need to put a bit in the cup), three plastic bags(to put the cup in), and three paper bags( to put the see through plastic cup in...even though we all know whats in the paper bag). This is the first day of the poop conference. We are all sitting around the head quarters volunteer lounge talking about....none other.... but poop. Some volunteers are talking about how it was easy and they had their regular morning poo, while others are talking about how they are having poop gitters and cant seem to squeeze one out on cue....we have to have had a poo by noon everyday, so that they can send them to the lab to be checked....yet others are talking about their techniques of how they got one out, or even their catching of the poo techniques. I have to admit that I had a little bit of the poop gitters...but, I went to McDonalds and had a cheese sandwhich, a super sized fry, a large coke, and a hot coffee. Like clockwork, an hour later I had to go to the restroom. This had to be one of the happiest poos of my life. I rushed out of the bathroom, paper bag in hand, and shouted success! I think this is the first time in my life I have ever announced that I had a poo. I then rushed it downstairs to the nurse who tole me.."just in time, we are sending them to the labratory now". There are some volunteers who just havnt been able to get one out yet...cross your fingers everyone!...My friend Jamie just came upstairs to announce "if you want to turn in a poo, 5 minutes left"...then my other friend Christina got up and headed to the bathroom with a depressing "Are you kidding me, I dont need this kind of pressure". All I have to say is....one day down, two days to go;)

Kids and Motorcycles

2007-01-31T15:58:00.000+07:00

In one of my past blogs I talked about motorcyclesand how in Thailand it is not uncommon to see children driving them. I had mentioned how, even though it is against the law for children to drive motorcycles, it almost always goes unnoticed and unenforced. The other day I was walking home from one of my many trips and saw one of my neighbor kids driving a motorcycle with his baby brother...and no that is not a white child, this little boy is albino and really loved by the community. I took this picture partly because I wanted to show how children drive motorcycles and partly because every time I see the older child he yells at me to ask me where I am going and where I have come from. The little boy driving is still in elementary school and is only 9 or 10 years old. I often times complain of living in a country where there are no rules...its because many of the ones that they actually have are really never enforced, so people ignore them. I dont mean to say that all rules go disreguarded, but a lot of them often do.

Theatre Festival 1

2007-01-31T15:32:00.000+07:00

I have had one BUSY week! The day after my HIV/AIDS camp Becky, her Mom (who came to visit), and I all headed off to Korat for the 4th annual Theatre Festival put on by the Peace Corps Volunteers. Korat is in the region known as Issan, a very dry and large area of Thailand to the east. The festival was 2 days and had 250 students from about 6 different provinces attend. I didnt bring a group this year, but I helped with teaching and planning of the festival and made all of the red and blue Thai Youth Theatre t-shirts . I made 300 of them and they were really fun (sarcasm) to take on a 10 hour bus ride where we had to keep taking them on and off as we changed vehicles. The first day of the festival we did workshops about different aspects of theatre. Emily and I taught about theatrical make-up. The second day the children actually got to perform the plays. This year the festival was held at a high school for the performing arts. It also had a national theatre on the campus that all of the students at the festival got a tour of and had the chance to see a professional production there on Sunday. The festival was very successful this year, and we leave the project in the capable hands of group 118.

Photo 1: When the students arrived on Friday they were all really tired and pretty much went straight to bed, so they were ready for the next days activities. Here is a picture of a little boy that took a train all night from Chiang Mai. He was plum tuckered out!

Photo 2: For every meal the students who actually attend the high school did performances for us. Here are a few doing traditional Thai dancing from Issan while an orchestra plays Issan music in the background.

Photo 3: Here is a student doing a make-up design at one of the workshops.

Photo 4: These students are learning about costuming with Bryn.

Photo 5: These students are getting to actually practice using theatrical make-up. Im pretty sure this students inspiration is drag queen...what do you think?

Theatre Festival 2

2007-01-31T15:13:00.000+07:00

The Productions Performed by the students!
Picture 1: This is Merissa's group from Chiang Mai. They did a dramatic play about a woman and a soldier who fall and love and have a baby. Then the woman kills herself leaving the child with his father and his new wife. It was very creativly done and they made wonderful masks, one of Merissa's specialties.

Picture 2: This is Sarah from 118s group. They did a story about a queen and her subjects who plan a party for her. They comes from down south, where the majority of Thailands Muslim population live, as you can see from the girls who are wearing the head scarves. It made for a wonderful cultural mix at the festival, since most of Thailands people are Buddhist.

Picture 3: This is one of Liesbeths group. They did a really fun production of " The Wizard of Oz".

Picture 4: This is one of Katie's group. They did the story of " Cinderella". The costumes were really big and frilly...which were perfect for a Thai production of " Cinderella".

Picture 5: This is another of Liesbeths groups. They did the story of " Snow White and the 7 Dwarves". The little boy with the dark blue hat on played Sneezy the dwarf and was so cute as before he said a line he let out gigantic sneezes.

Picture 6: This is Robert from 118s group. He did a take off of "Cinderella" called " Spiderella", as all of the characters played bugs. It was really adorable!

Theatre Festival 3

2007-01-31T14:48:00.000+07:00

Picture 1: This is the play Katie did. She directed a traditional Thai fable that comes from her province of Pitchit called "Chalawan". Its about a crocodile who can turn into a man and steals two girls for his wives. It was really fun to watch.

Picture 2: This girl is from a group that Liesbeth invited to the play, but was entirely produced and directed by Thai people....which is awesome considering they dont have much dramatic theatre in their culture! I did this girls make-up. She told me she was Dracula when in reality she was playing the ghost of Christmas yet to come in " A Christmas Carol". I guess thats not too far of a stretch, but I might have done it a little differently if I had known that was actually the part she was playing. At least I didnt put blood marks around her mouth.

Picture 3: This group comes from Chumphon Province, down south. They had a volunteer at their site 4 years ago and have continued to do plays since he left! They did Macbeth, which was so amazing. It is a community group of high school students that make up this group and their performance was almost professional! The sound affects and sets were just very well done!

Picture 4: These are some of the volunteers, watching the plays, that either helped get the festival together or just came to watch. From right to left Bryn, Merissa, Emily, Natalie, Tara, and Becky.

Picture 5: This is a picture of most of the students that attended the festival. Unfortunately, they didnt get all of them in the picture. There were about 250 in all. Instead of Where's Waldo think Where's Wesley;)

Super model Poses

2007-01-31T14:32:00.000+07:00

At the Theatre festival Emily and I did the theatrical make-up workshop. At the end of the day we decided to be goofy and do each others make-up. My inspiration for her was a rainstorm... because I gave her lots of blue make-up and way too much eye liner. She nick named me jack because after she finished it looked like someone jacked me up. Then we did a montage of super model poses.

AIDS/ Leadership Camp 1

2007-01-24T17:37:00.000+07:00

As many of you know Becky( another Peace Corps Volunteer in my province) and I have spent the past 5 months of countless hours and stress preparing for and developing an AIDS/ Leadership camp for high school students. Well, it finally happened. It was a 3 day camp taking place on the 22-24 of January. Ten students and 1 teacher from 7 schools in my community came to participate. The premise of the camp was basically to help build students leadership abilities, teach them about HIV/AIDS, and then have them take the information they learned and go back to their schools to peer teach. The camp was ran by teachers, nurses, and community members. We wanted to do this type of camp because children generally listen to their peers more than their teachers and we thought it would be the best way to get the information to a lot of people on a small budget and with little time. We couldn't have asked for the camp to go better or smoother, but I guess thats what happens when you have a great community helping you and have spent the past 5 months working on it. We worked really hard to get about 1000 dollars by writing grants to the United States Government through Peace Corps and through community donations to be able to pull this project off. We were able to create a camp that was almost completely taught by Thai people so that we could facilitate and not have to worry about the children trying to understand our accents. This was also wonderful because it will help to show Thai people in our community that they are able to do projects like this on their own in the future. HIV/AIDS is very misunderstood in Thailand, but with programs like this it is slowly becoming more understood and people are better able to prevent themselves from contracting this disease and help the people that do get it.

Picture 1: This is a picture of our sign for the camp. Yes I know it is grammatically in correct. It was suppose to say Kids Teach Kids in Kampangphet, but the printers messed it up. Just think Tinglish people!

Picture 2: This is a picture of me helping to explain a leadership activity called the matrix. This is an activity where the children have to figure out how to make it through the grid with no talking.

Picture 3: A nurse at the school introduces the topic of HIV/AIDS to the students, how it is contracted, what it does to the body, and how you can prevent it.

Picture 4: The students do a game where they pretend to be penis's and condoms. Can you tell me apart from the students??

AIDS/ Leadership Camp 2

2007-01-24T17:18:00.000+07:00

Picture 1: The kids learned about how you can get HIV by sharing needles. They used eye droppers and food coloring to help demonstrate this process.

Picture 2: This is a leadership activity where the kids get into groups and have to work together to keep the balloons in the air. More and more balloons kept getting put into the group so it got harder and more fun as time went by.

Picture 3: A nurse at the hospital helped the kids learn how to use condoms. They each got a partner, a condom, and a cucumber and they practiced putting the condom on and then learned how to properly take it off.

Picture 4: My friend Bom came to help with the camp to teach the kids how to teach. They did two sessions where they learned the basics of teaching...Plan, Practice, and Perform, as they will be taking the information they learned from this camp and teaching it to their peers. This is the second day after Bom gave each group of kids a topic about HIV/AIDS. Each group made a plan, practiced it, and then taught their topic to the rest of the students.

Picture 5: This is a picture of P. Keeow ( a nurse at the hospital) and two members of the community. One has HIV and the other has a family member with HIV. They came to tell their stories with the students and then answer any questions that the students had after they finished. These two women are extremely brave to do this as this is not a disease understood in rural Thailand and by their community knowing about them it can lead to bad outcomes. We wanted to show the kids that people with HIV/AIDS can look just like everyone else, that they aren't scary, and are still wonderful people.

AIDS/ Leadership Camp 3

2007-01-24T15:57:00.000+07:00

Picture 1: This is a picture of Bom blowing up a condom. We were preparing to play a game called Condom Time Bomb. This is where you blow up condoms, like balloons, and put a statement about HIV/AIDS in the condom. The students all sit in a circle and pass around the condoms, one at a time, to music and when the music stops the person with the condom has to pop it, read the statement inside and say if its true or false and why.

picture 2: From left to right this is Bom, Becky, Julia, Arnold, Me, Conner, and Maeve. These are all of the Peace Corps volunteers, and Bom, that came to help. It was really fun to blow up the condoms. We were all making jokes while we were doing it. The only bad thing is the condoms were lubricated, so we had to wipe them off before we could put them to our mouths.

Picture 3: This is a picture of the kids actually playing the Condom Time Bomb game.

Picture 4: This is a leadership activity called Points of Contact. The kids had to work together in groups and only have so many body parts touching the ground. For example, if we said 4 the group of 8 would have to figure out how to only have 4 points of contact touching the floor. So if you are standing, you have two points of contact on the floor because two feet are touching the floor...and with 8 people thats actually 16 points of contact.

Picture 5: This is a leadership activity called human knot. This is a game where the kids all reach in and take someone elses hand and have to unwind themselves to make a circle without ever unlocking hands. This is really fun to play with Thai people because its impolite to step over anyone in this culture, so they think this game is really funny and strange.

AIDS/ Leadership Camp 4

2007-01-24T15:40:00.000+07:00

Picture 1: At the end of the camp the health teachers of the schools that came, the nurses, and the students all sat around to make plans of how they were going to take the information they learned with them back to their schools to teach their peers.

Picture 2: Each school got up and presented to the other students when, how , and what information they were going to teach to the schools. Some schools decided to teach in their health classes and some schools decided to have day camps similar to this one.

Picture 3: This is a picture of Becky, P. Keeow, and I. P. Keeow is the nurse in charge of the HIV/AIDS program at the main hospital in my province. She was an awesome and indespensable helper for this program and without her Becky and I couldnt have made it what it became.

Picture 4: This is a picture of all of the students at the camp and a few of the facilitators and nurses.

I am so happy with the turn out of this camp. I dont think I could have asked for it to go better. Everyone told us how impressed they were and happy we did this camp. In a few weeks the kids will teach the information they learned at their schools. The nurses, Becky, and I will go and help them...or just observe. Im really kind of sad this camp is over after months of planning...And in the words of Becky......." Wesley, what will you and I have to fight about and put termoil into our relationship now that we dont have anything to work on together?" My answer...." Nothing Becky, its just pure love from here on out;)"

Happy Birthday Welly

2007-01-19T20:56:00.000+07:00

This Past Tuesday was my 25th Birthday. I have to say this was one of my favorite birthdays in the past several years. I woke up to my land lord giving me a birthday cake. It said Happy Birthday Welly. Now to give him credit my name is really hard for Thai people to say. The Thai language doesn't use the "s" noise in the middle or at the end of words, only at the beginning...so most people pronounce my name Welly instead of Wesley. This definitely put a smile on my face and seemed very apripo to see my name written this way for my last birthday in Thailand. Then in the middle of the day my Yai(grandma) came over with a garland of flowers for me to wear. She even dressed up to do this. She is sooooooo cute! Giving people garlands of flowers to wear is normal for weddings or any special occasion really. This past weekend I had bought some tortillas in Bangkok and brought them back. My friends and I made burritos, or really Thai/Mexican fusion food...as I had to substitute a few ingredients. No one had ever eaten Mexican food before, so that made this night even more special. Here is a picture of Ink trying his first Mexican food. He wasn't really sure what to make of it or how to eat it. Then at the end of the night we got out the cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. Ink even learned how to sing the happy birthday song in English for the occasion. My landlord and his family was there and so were Bom and his family which made the night extra special. Now let me tell you something about cake in Thailand. It is generally really goddy and usually looks very delicious. In reality, it almost never does. Thai people have yet to learn the art of making frosting. This frosting was 100% made of pure butter. I ate it anyway;) This was the perfect last birthday for me in Thailand!

Tinglish

2007-01-19T20:45:00.000+07:00

Thailand is well known for its TINGLISH. This is basically where something is printed and it either makes no sense, the spelling is wrong, or the grammar is just really bad...In other words, Thai and English put together. Here are a few great examples of things written in Tinglish. First is this sign in Pai, where I went for New Years. It Says Caution, Be slip down. This sign was posted at a waterfall where people can crawl over the rocks and up along the side. What it means to say is Caution, Slippery. The second two pictures are my favorite pieces of Tinglish ever! While in Lampang I spotted this shirt. Merissa thought it was so funny that she had to buy it! It says "Conquer Carry On Dancing Truly Madly Deeply Pinky Pinky A Frenzy Sayonara". This makes absolutely no sense. We think its basically just a bunch of song titles that they thought would go well together on a shirt. In reality its just ridiculously funny.

The Gibbon Experience, Laos 1

2007-01-02T14:01:00.000+07:00

This year I had the most unique Christmas of all time. My friend Liesbeth, another Peace Corps Volunteer, and her brother and I went to the country of Laos on Christmas to do the Gibbon Experience. This is a conservation effort to help raise money to protect the black gibbons, which were thought to be extict until the 1970s where they were found again in the area of Laos known as Bokea. They were also recently found in China. In Laos there are now more than 400 individual black gibbons living there. Basically what we did was spend three days and two nights in Laos living like the gibbons. The local villagers have set up zip lines all across this part of the jungle. You get to trek through the jungle and every hour or so you come across a zip line where you zip line over the jungle. Then at night you stay hundreds of meters off of the ground in tree houses that would make any American child jelous! They dont advertise this project as they dont want the wrong kind of people coming and trying to exploit the gibbons and the project. The word of mouth is so good for that they are never lacking for people, which is how I heard about it...through backpackers. We spent the three days in a small group of 7, us three and a German and British couple. They were really nice and we had a really awesome time with them. We never actually got to see any gibbons, except for one that the villagers had found abandoned by its family...but we did get to hear them singing to each other when we woke up each morning.
The first picture is of a group of monks crossing the river from Thailand to Laos. We had to cross a boat like this over the border. The second picture is of the road we took to get from the border to the Bokea reserve where we did the gibbon expereince. It was rediculous as it was nothing but a dirt road into the mountains for 2 to 3 hours. They are trying to develop a road, so hopefully in a few years there should be an actual road there. The third picture is of the village we started in. The people in this village are an important part of the project as they provide a starting point and guides to help lead you through the jungle. It was so different from my town in Thailand as there were naked children running around everywhere. The fourth picture is of Liesbeth. We started our trek going through corn fields. It was more corn than I have ever seen in my life. The last picture is of us in the jungle. Sometimes there was a path and sometimes only the guides could see the path. It was really cool to be around all of the bamboo and different types of plant life.

The Gibbon Experience, Laos 2

2007-01-02T13:36:00.000+07:00

These are pictures from inside the treehouse. It actually had plumbing! There was a squat toilet, shower, and several different sinks with water that is pumped up into the tree house. The water comes from a spring and is so clean that you can actually drink it with out purifying it first. This was so awesome for me as I have spent the past two years drinking all of my water from bottles. The bathroom in this treehouse was the coolest ever! Since there were no walls or windows there was just this beautiful wide open view of the jungle and mountains. It was so weird to be naked showering hundreds of meters up looking at this amazing view! For meals they zip lined food into the treehouse. They even zip lined hot tea in. It was so funny to see a guy zip lining into the house with a big kettle of tea. Talk about tea time! There was also a big chest of food in the tree house, for when we got hungry, full of nuts, bread, and Lao sweets. There was no electricity inside, so we just used candles for light. When it was time to sleep we all slept on mattresses and had blankets and mosquito nets covering us. It is really cold that far north right now, so needless to say we were all bundled up so that we could go to sleep.

The Gibbon Experience, Laos 3

2007-01-02T13:09:00.000+07:00

The first picture is of one of the first tree houses I stayed in. The second picture is of one of the views as I was zipping along. The third picture is of what it looks like down as I was dangling from the zip line. The last two pictures are of me as I crawled back out onto the zip line for a photo. With the last picture you can get a really good idea of how long the zip lines are and how high up I really was. This was absolutly one of the most amazing and beautiful experiences of my life. Im so blessed to have gotten to experience it. The people running the gibbon experience are doing an amazing job and are really doing their part to help preserve the black gibbons.

Sledding, Thai Style

2007-01-02T11:45:00.000+07:00

The weekend before Christmas I went up to Lampang to do some Christmas festivities with other Peace Corps Volunteers. We baked cookies, listened to Christmas music, and ate lots of good holiday favorites. The coolest thing we did was go sledding. You may ask, well how did you do that if there is no snow in Thailand? Well, in Lampang they have this great hill that is very steep and covered in grass. The thing to do is take a cardboard box, position your self on it and slide on down the hill. So no, its not exactly like sledding, but its the next best thing and it sure was a lot of fun!

Another episode of bathroom battles. On this week: Toilet Hose VS. giant lizard

2006-12-19T12:55:00.000+07:00

Exhibit A

exhibit B

So last night I came home from Chiang Mai. I had wanted to take a shower and Eleanor was in the bathroom looking under the water basin. I thought... oh no, now whats in my bathroom. I started to take a shower and nothing came out from under the basin, so I just forgot about it. This morning I had to drain the basin, as sometimes dirt deposits start to form at the bottom...when a lizard, refer to exhibit B, about a foot long pokes his head out from under my water basin. Im was not sure how I was going to get him out of my bathroom. So I do the first thing that comes to my head. I get my toilet hose, refer to exhibit A, and moved the water basin a bit. I started spraying water everywhere trying to get this thing out of my bathroom. Finally, after about a half hour I manage to corner the lizard. I carefully open my bathroom door and blast it until it crawled into my kitchen. I then closed the bathroom door hoping that it wont be able to get back in. Final score: Toilet Hose 1, lizard 0.

My Grandma dances Hip Hop

2006-12-18T18:06:00.000+07:00

Last week I had just sat down to a nice steaming bowl of mama noodles when my Yai, the Thai word for Grandma, came over to give me a bowl of fruit. I had just come back from Bangkok and had bought the new CD by the hip hop artist Fergy. She has this popular song out right now called fergilicious. Its a bit obnoxious, but I really like it. I think the title fergilicious should say it all. Anyway, I had just started playing this cd and she comes over and says " Oh I love to dance", walks over to my cd player and starts grovering her behind and waving her arms to the song fergilicious. Now she has come over to my house and started dancing before, when I had music playing, but this time it just seemed really funny. While trying to hold in my laughter, I wipped out my camera so I could get a picture of her while she was dancing.She may really annoy me sometimes....but she will often do something like this that will really make me smile! The funniest part is...she wasnt half bad. For an old lady, she can get jiggy wit it.

Sex and Juice Boxes

2006-12-18T17:54:00.000+07:00

Advertising in Thailand is sometimes a little strange. Sometimes they just aren't sure of their clientele. Take this advertisement for instance. Its up all over the country advertising a juice box. In America we would generally advertise for juice boxes with a cute little kid with maybe a grape juice smear over their upper lip. Not so in Thailand. Here they advertise it with three sexy women in sexy dresses seductively drinking out of their juice boxes. Ladies....when was the last time you went out to the club and ordered up a nice apple juice box?

Doi Suthep

2006-12-12T12:14:00.000+07:00

The last day I was with my parents we did something every tourist to Chiang Mai does. We went to Doi Suthep. This is a mountain with a famous temple on top of it. To get to this temple you take a long winding song tau ride up the mountain. Doi Suthep is known for its famous snake stairs made of ceramic tile. Once you get to the top you climb these stairs up to the actual temple. There is a picture of my Mom and Dad in front of one of these snakes. Notice the many heads. There is a snake on either side of the stairs and its body winds all the way up the staircase. You see this type of snake on many temples around Thailand. Once in the temple there is a giant golden chedi and a model of the Emerald Buddha. There is also a beautiful view of the city of Chiang Mai from the top. My favorite picture is of my Mom in front of the Mom statue. There were these strange giant lizard statues in the temple that had a sign below them that read Mom. My Mom decided to bend down and make a face just like the lizzard. Luckily, she doesnt have to try to hard to look just like it! Haha just kidding...I love you Mama!

The Pad Thai Cookery School

2006-12-12T11:34:00.000+07:00

While in Chiang Mai my Mom and Dad and I took a cooking class at the Pad Thai Cookery School. There we learned how to make traditional Thai food such as mangoes with sweet sticky rice, pad thai, cashew chicken, green curry, and spring roles. For the vegetarians they taught us how to exchange all of the meat for extra vegetables and tofu and what you can exchange for flavor substitutes. We started out by going on a tour of a Thai market. This wasn’t especially interesting for me, as I do this all the time, but my parents enjoyed it and I did learn a few new things I didn’t know previously. Then we came back and spent the day cooking with an assortment of people from all over the world and two quirky and very funny Thai chefs.

Royal Flora Ratchapruek

2006-12-12T10:41:00.000+07:00

This year is a very special year for Thailand. Not only is it the 60th anniversary of the king’s accession to the throne, but last week it was also the king’s 80th birthday. In honor of his birthday they are having a flower show called Royal Flora Ratchapruek in Chiang Mai from November to January. If there is one thing that Thai people are really good at, it is flower arrangements and horticulture. This show is amazing! Everyone in Thailand is talking about it. Every school and office are organizing trips to Chiang Mai so their employees can go and see it. This past weekend was a three day weekend and more than 60,000 people went to Chiang Mai this weekend alone to see it. If any of you are from Columbus and can remember AmeriFlora, it is comprable to that only bigger. My father absolutly loved this show and must have taken hundreds of pictures here alone. My favorite part was the topiary winding purple dragons in the third picture. This flower show is a real life seussian world come to life.

Mae Hong Son

2006-12-08T19:21:00.000+07:00

A week before my parents left we all went up to the city of Mae Hong Son in the northern province of Mae Hong Son. Mae Hong Son is located about 6 hours, through the winding mountains, from Chiang Mai and about 11 hours from my site by bus. Mae Hong Son is a really beautiful province as it is set in the beautiful mountains of Thailand. The architecture here is a bit different. Many of the buildings have tall steeples with terraces that get smaller and smaller climbing to a point. You can see a great example of this in my first picture. The second picture is of the most famous temple in Mae Hong Son. It is set around a busy night market, selling beautiful hill tribe goods, over looking a beautiful lake.

Hill Tribes of Mae Hong Son 1

2006-12-08T11:29:00.000+07:00

While in Mae Hong Son my family and I got to do something I had wanted to do since I arrived in Thailand. We went to visit some traditional hill tribe villages. Hill tribe people are not actually Thai. They live in the mountains of Thailand, Burma, and Laos. They are a distict group of people that typically only live in the mountains. Now they are gaining citizenship, if born in Thailand, and many are moving out of the villages. There are still many villages that function just as they traditionally always have. These people are very happy and choose to live this life style. This set of pictures is of a Meo village that builds their houses off of the ground on stilts. We got to sit and chat with a few of the women in this village. After that they sold us some of their handmade crafts. As is everything, this village is globalizing and developing. About 3 years ago this village got electricity for the first time.

Hill Tribes of Mae Hong Son 2

2006-12-08T11:12:00.000+07:00

This tribe is a Meo tribe that builds their houses directly on the ground with dirt floors. The first picture is of a school. It was so beautiful as it was on a mountain cliff over looking the village. Even though the hill tribes each have their own language, while going to school they are taught in Thai. The second two pictures are of some hill tribe children. Traditionally you will see children carrying their little brothers or sisters on their back like this girl. The fourth picture is of the inside of one of their houses. The 5th picture is my favorite. Our tour guide said he wanted us to meet a very close friend of his. After being invited into his house this old man pulled out a gigantic bong and began to smoke marijuana in front of us. The last picture is of a Meo woman making some of their traditional cross stitched goods.

Hill Tribes of Mae Hong Son 3

2006-12-08T10:57:00.000+07:00

The last part of this trip was my favorite, We went to visit the village of the Long Necked and Big Eared Karen. These people are actually refugees from Burma living in Thailand because they can make a better living for themselves here. There are two reasons that the women will put so many rings around their necks, but no one knows the true answer. One is that they said traditionally it protected them from tigers biting their necks. The second, and probably the more realistic, is that it shows off their beauty and differenciates them from other tribes. It also is to show how much wealth a family may have. These rings are made of very heavy brass. I love the picture of my mom and the girl. She had my mom dress up like a traditional long neck Karen and then pose with her. This trip was absolutly amazing. It was so interesting to learn about a very interesting and totally different aspect of Thai culture.

Close Of Service Conference

2006-12-08T10:46:00.000+07:00

This past week my Peace Corps group had its close of service conference. Im not coming home until March so why am I having it now in December? Its basically a time to reflect back on your service and start preparing for when you come home. It was really nice to see all of my friends. The second picture is a group picture of us all. Sorry its so blurry, but it was taken at night. The last picture is after a dinner we all got together to play a game of taboo. This was a very unique experience as I would like to direct everyones attention to the couple dancing in the background. The hotel seemed to be crowed with Norwegian tourists on holiday. This paticular group sat behind us and sang, with no music, and waltzed for the entire time we played our game...which was about an hour.

Parents drilled for questions

2006-12-01T10:17:00.000+07:00

The week my parents came to stay at my site with me I took them to school with me so they could see where I worked. This gave my students a great chance to meet some of my family and also interact with other native English speakers. I had the students think of questions for my parents to answer. The average questions consisted of "What color do you like, what animal do you like, or what is your name?". My Moms favorite question was " Who do you love the most?" While she was in the room with both my Dad and I she kind of fudged her way through that question.

Hell Fire Pass and the Bridge Over the River Quai

2006-12-01T10:01:00.000+07:00

During my parents and I's tour of Kenchanaburi we went to see Hell Fire Pass and the Bridge Over the River Quai. During WW2 the Japanese took over parts of Thailand and captured thousands of prisoners of war from Thailand, America, Australia, England, and sevearl other countries. They forced them to build a railroad over an ubelievable stretch of land in the hot, mosquito infested jungles of Thailand to ship cargo to other Japanese forces in remote areas. During this time thousands upon thousands of POW died from exastion and disease as the prisoners were only fed two small meals of rice and vegetables a day. It took over 20 months to build this railroad and it was used only for 17 months because it was bombed. In my pictures you can see actual railroad tracks built and the hardest part to build known as Hell Fire Pass. This is the ravine of rocks you see above that was pretty much chipped away by hand. You can also see the famous bridge of the river Quai. This was also built by the POW. Although, I dont know why people really flock to see this bridge because in all, its just a bridge. I really enjoyed this experience because its a part of history that we as Americans dont really learn about in our school history classes.

Erewan waterfall

2006-12-01T09:36:00.000+07:00

While in Kenchanaburi with my parents we went on a tour that took us to some very beautiful waterfalls called Erewan. It is named after a three headed elephant because one of the waterfalls at this park looks similar to an elephants head. This place was absolutly amazing. It is the cleanest place in all of Thailand as when you walk into this national park you have to give a deposit of 10 baht for any waterbottles you have and you get the change back when you come back. This is so you dont throw your trash on the ground, which is common for Thai people to do. This waterfall had 7 different tiers. You hike along this path to see the different tiers of waterfalls. The water was so clear and crystal blue. It was amazing. You can even go swimming at the waterfalls. My Dad and I went swimming at the one called " The big breasts". You cant see it very well in my picture, but this waterfall is composed of two big rocks that look like breasts. My Dad and I had fun sliding down them as they made great natural water slides.Unfortunatly all of the pictures of him sliding down them are on my Moms camera. You will have to ask them to see it for more pictures. There are also lots of fish living in the pools of water. They kept nipping at my feet when I would be waiting around the rocks. My Dad liked this, but I didnt at all.

On a side note...there will be lots of pictures from November to come. I have so many that I dont want to overwhelm everyone with all of the cool things I got to do with my parents. So keep checking my blog because I plan to update it about twice a week for the next couple of weeks.

The noodle festival

2006-12-01T09:18:00.000+07:00

In my town there is a new festival every few months. Most festivals revolve around the one thing Thai people like to talk about the most....food. Examples of festivals are the banana, vegan, fish, som tom, or chili pepper festivals. Thai people like to talk about food so much a common question from perfect strangers, while I am eating, is " is it delicious?". I have become very careful of my answer to this question because if I say yes I may wind up with whatever it is I am eating as a gift everyday for the next few weeks. While my parents were visiting my "Yai", the Thai word for grandmother, brought my family and I at the minimum of 5 plates of food a day. This usually consisted of fruit or some kind of Thai sweet. My mothers comment was " does she think we can actually eat all of this?". Right now my town is celebrating the noodle festival. I love this festival because it means lots of my favorite Thai food...Pad Thai. Pad Thai is a fried rice noodle dish made with eggs, sugar, long beans, and dried baby shrimp( but I have them make mine without that). The middle two pictures are of a pad thai stand at the festival. The top picture is of a holding case for ingrediants at a typical noodle stand. Inside you will see red pork, tofu, vegetables, and various types of rice noodles. The last picture is of the festival itself. I took this picture in the early afternoon so there arnt really any people there yet. In the evenings it is packed with people, sellers, noodles, loud live music, and traditional Thai dancing performances.

English Comprehension

2006-11-30T12:02:00.000+07:00

Being a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand as a teacher is really hard. My program is designed so that we work with teachers to teach them about student centered learning. To do this we co-teach in English classrooms. The problem with my program is we usually work with more than one teacher and in several schools. I work with 6 teachers in 3 different schools from grade 1 to grade 9. Only one of those teachers do I actually get to see more than once a week. Thus, I am not with any one student more than an hour a week sometimes not more than an hour every two weeks. Now the problem. The problem is there is no follow up with my students. I cant give my students homework because they have a whole week to do a homework assignment and they generally forget to do it or have forgotten the lesson by the following week. Homework is not counted for points in the grading system, like at many schools in Thailand, and a lot of times I have no idea if my co-teachers actually go over the homework or collect it at all. For the most part, the teachers I work with try to seem interested while I am with them but then when I am away don't continue my lessons and go back to their old teaching methods, thus never actually learning anything new. I know this because the students I work with never remember anything when I am back in their classroom the following week. Your question for me may now be...then why do the teachers you work with want you to teach in their classroom with them if they dont actually want to use the method you are trying to show them? This is because if a teacher can manage to get a foreigner at their school it will boost their order in the hierarchy of things, hierarchy in Thailand is very important. Thus, it doesn't matter what or why I am in the schools, only that they have this smiling caucasion face working at their school. I do have one great co-teacher that I have continually taught with two days a week for the past two years. He is genuinely interested in my work and actually finds importance in me working with him. I have watched him use a lot of my methods, which shows me he is actually listening and finding use to the student centered method I am trying to show him. I am prefacing my excitement with this knowledge to show that I generally don't get to see many results, it is very frustrating for me, and I often feel a lack of use as a teacher and Peace Corps volunteer. Today, I had not one... but two amazing things happen to me with the co-teacher that actually finds importance in me. Usually when I ask my students how are they, they just say "I am fine". This is what all Thai students are programmed to say when asked this question in English. A few months ago I had taught my students about being sick and what to say if you are sick. I have one little student in 6th grade I absolutely adore because he is always trying and always has a big smile on his face. Today, he came in and said "how are you?" to me...like he always does. I said "I was good" and asked him how he was and he said "I am sick". I asked him why and he said "I have a cold". Not only did he say something other than I am fine, but he gave me a clear answer to my question of why he was sick...which shows English comprehension. Then, in the same class, we were working on creating sentences. I had been reading about new techniques on how to teach this last night, as it wasn't really working last week, and had come up with a new method of making the sentences for the children... only scrambling the words and have them put them in an understandable order. Not only were they able to do this, but I watched several of them write a sentence, read it to themselves, and then self correct themselves. This is absolutely amazing! Self Correction is a very good sign of English comprehension. Then after a few goes, I gave them the word butterfly and had them make a sentence using their own words. Almost everyone in the class was able to make a sentence on their own. I feel like such an amazing proud teacher today!! I had to share this information with everyone because this is one of the first times I have actually felt validated in my primary program objective as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Noah at 6 months

2006-11-30T08:54:00.000+07:00

Ok everyone....here is my Nephew Noah at 6 months. He is getting so big I cant believe it. Brandi just took him to the doctor and he weighs 21 1/2 pounds and is 28 inches tall! I thought these two pictures were really cute of him. The first one is of him swinging and the second one is of him laying with a tv remote on Shawns arm and their dog Beans looking over them.

The Tiger temple

2006-11-27T17:22:00.001+07:00

Two weeks ago my parents and I went to Kanchanaburi in central Thailand. There we went to a very special place known as the tiger temple. It is a temple where some monks take care of some abandoned tigers. It was so amazing! My parents and I one by one got led around to touch and meet the tigers. They were so cute that I wanted to play with them like I do with Eleanor. Unfortunatly, these guys could do a lot more damage to me than Eleanor could. This was absolutly one of the coolest experiences I have had while in Thailand!!

Wat Phra Keo

2006-11-27T17:05:00.000+07:00

A few weeks ago, while in Bangkok, I took my parents to see Wat Phra keo (Temple of Emerald Buddha). This is the temple that houses Thailands most precious Buddha statue. It was originally thought to be made out of Emerald, but in reality is made out of jade. This tiny little Buddha has its clothes changed three times a year, one time for each season, by the king. You arnt allowed to take pictures in the building where the Buddha is, so my picture is a picture from outside in. Apparently, this is ok to do. I also have taken pictures of the royal palace and the three jedis that are right beside wat Phra Keo.

Cambodia 1

2006-11-15T18:15:00.000+07:00

Last week my parents came to visit me! I was so very excited to see them after being apart for almost 2 years. The day after they arrived we went to Cambodia. We went to the city of Siem Reap where the famous temples of Angkor Wat are located. Angkor Wat is said to be the world's largest single religious monument. These temples were built over a period of 300 years, between 900 and 1200 AD. The city has more than 200 temples in it. They were rediscovered by the western world in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, many of them were destroyed during the time of the Khmer Rouge. Also, many of the statues were beheaded by the starving and impoverished village people and sold to other countries in the 1980s. They are simply the most amazing temples I have ever seen. They are unbelievably huge and detailed. The top picture is of my parents and I posing in front of the most famous temple known as Angkor Wat. It is massive! The second picture is of my parents in front of one of the many gates. The third picture is my parents sitting in a window of one of my favorite temples known as Preah Khan. It was incredibly destroyed, but it was a maze of door ways and passages. Once inside this temple you were kept cool from the heat outside. The last two pictures are of my favorite temple known as Bayon. This temple is covered in over 200 of these large stone faces depicting Lokeshvara, a Buddhist deity that projected benevolence outward to the four directions.

Cambodia 2

2006-11-15T17:50:00.000+07:00

The top picture is of a little Cambodian boy playing and searching for crabs at one of the temples. The next picture is of my Mom and Dad posing in front of some elephant statues. There was a very long terrace of these statues and elephants carvings that stretched for about a quarter of a mile. The next two pictures are at a temple known as Taprohm. Many huge trees had grown over this temple making for a very beautiful and interesting site. The people are very proud of this temple because the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed here. The bottom picture is of me sitting under one of the trees. That should give you an idea of how huge they are!

Cambodia 3

2006-11-15T17:29:00.000+07:00

The top picture is that of one of the many gates to the temples. Notice the many faces at the top. The temples of Cambodia were simply covered in intricate rock carvings. Each one was a beautiful piece of art. It was so sad to see so many of them faded and destroyed. The temples also had many children surrounding them selling postcards and handmade goods. Above is a picture of a little girl that sold my mom 10 postcards for a dollar. Something interesting about Cambodia is that they prefer American money to their own currency of Riel. One dollar was equal to about 3,800 Riel. All of the temples had children who were constantly trying to sell products to you to help support them and their families. The last picture is the saddest. The last day of our tour we went to a land mine museum. There we saw some land mines that they found and were able to deactivate. The museum is run by people who have lost limbs from land mines. It was in an area of town where the streets were destroyed and never repaired by the mines. Poverty was everywhere in this area. The saddest part is after almost 30 years there are still many mines that have not been discovered and wait for victims. In the picture I am sitting beside some of the bigger land mines. Cambodia was both an eye opener and amazingly beautiful. Its sad to know that these people in the 70s were devastated and almost all of their educated people killed. The country is still unfortunately covered in poverty. There was a striking difference between the current construction of the town and the existing poverty. In all, Cambodia was amazing and a must see when going to Asia!

Bonn Om Teuk

2006-11-15T16:56:00.000+07:00

Last week my Mom and Dad came to Thailand. Then the next day we went to Cambodia. We arrived in Cambodia on a major holiday known as Bonn Om Teuk. For my Thai friends, they have the same holiday in Thailand only they call it Loy Gratong. This is basically a holiday to give thanks for water and the rivers. I found it interesting because this holiday differs a bit in Cambodia than it does in Thailand. First you go and buy, or make, a floating basket that has incense, candles, and maybe candy or coins in it. In Cambodia they are made out of plastic, Styrofoam, or paper....and in Thailand they are made out of banana leaves and flowers. Then you light the incense and candles and you take it down to the river and say a prayer for thanks. Then you give it to a child that is waiting and they swim the basket out to the middle of the river. This was really fun to watch because in Thailand you just set the basket on the river by yourself. The kids really seemed to enjoy this! By the end of the night the river is covered with lots of floating luminaries going down the river. Its truly a wonderful and stunningly beautiful holiday.

The Fellowship of the Ring

2006-11-04T08:55:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I finished The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien. This is the first in the Lord of The Ring trilogy that follows the Hobbit. Bilbo ends up leaving the shire leaving Frodo, his nephew, behind to keep the ring he found. Gandalf the wizard finds out the ring is the powerful and the dangerous one ring that is being sought after and sends him on a quest, with some fellow hobbit friends, to go to the elves in the wood. On his journey he is pursued by 9 black riders. When he finally gets there a meeting was held to figure out what is to happen to the ring. They decide to destroy the ring and a fellowship of 9 people, including the ring bearer Frodo, set out on the first part of the journey.
I give this book a 4 out of 5. It was very exciting, but there were many boring parts in the book that were difficult to get through. Regardless, I am excited to read the second book in the series. If you can get through some of the boring parts this book is really awesome!

The Soi Dog

2006-10-29T20:51:00.000+07:00

Time for another creature feature! The pictures above are a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailands greatest foe. This is the soi dog...soi meaning street in Thai. These are perfect stereotypical examples of what a soi dog looks like. Sometimes they are bigger, smaller, a different color, have longer or shorter hair....but they are always mangy, always filthy dirty, and are almost always stray. Thailand is infested with dogs! Most of these dogs are homeless and the ones that arnt are allowed to run around free. Thai people almost never fix their animals. Thus, they are always breeding with each other increasing the ever growing population of dogs. I often times see dogs mating with each other, dogs locked together( which is really sad because no one helps them), and mama dogs with saggy teats. The reason they are especially a nuisence is because they are usually very mean. Unless an animal is a lap dog, dogs in Thailand are treated as nothing more than a guard for homes. At night they are especially vicious and will often times form packs. I have more than once been chased down by a pack of dogs, one time half of my sandal got bitten off. Its also not uncommon to see dogs wandering around with muzzles if they are known to have bitten someone. Kicking and hitting dogs is not something to be ashamed of or thought of as mean here...its often times a matter of survival!

Where the Heart is

2006-10-28T19:13:00.000+07:00

Where the Heart is by Billie Letts is a story about a 17 year old girl who gets pregnant by her boyfriend and then they start a drive to California. In Oklahoma Novalee, the main character, has to use the bathroom so her boyfriend stops at Walmart and leaves her stranded there. She then lives at the Walmart until she eventually gives birth there. She becomes a star over night and makes friends that truely love her. She starts living and working in the town where she learns about friendship, life, and love.
I Loved this book! I couldnt put it down. I give it a 5 out of 5. It really reminded me of home a lot. Its so personal and so well written. I felt like I really knew the characters and feel like Ive known people like them in the states. I think anyone can identify with the people in this book....Its a great read!

A Cure for Homesickness

2006-10-26T14:56:00.000+07:00

This last Tuesday night I was feeling a bit homesick...as I do from time to time. I called Bom to tell him and he invited me out to a Pub with a few of his friends. This past week I have done nothing but sit in my house and read, as school is still closed, so I said sure why not. This picture is of Nu, me and X.
This is the infamous three....Nu, X, and Bom. These pictures were taken at about 2 oclock down by the river. It was such a fun night that definitly cured me of my homesickness.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

2006-10-24T18:28:00.000+07:00

This week I have read The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. It is the story of a father who delivers his wifes fraternal twins into the world. The daughter is born with downs syndrome. He gives the girl to the nurse helping him and asks her to take her to an institution, telling his wife the girl died. The nurse runs off and raises the child on her own. The story is basically about the parallel lives of the two families and how the father deals with the guilt of it all.
I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. It is such a beautiful book with often times very poetic writing. I really enjoyed this book and think any mother, teacher, or person who knows a mentally disabled person would really enjoy it.

MMMMMM Tastes like chicken!

2006-10-24T18:22:00.000+07:00

I keep meaning to post a picture of an insect food stand. In almost every city and village there are stands that sell deep fried insects. These are delicacies to Thai people and go for quite a hefty price per kilo. I have only eaten a silk worm one time. Basically fried insects just taste like fried anything else. It all just has a fatty fried flavor. Only this fatty fried flavor sometimes comes with wings, legs, and eyes!

The Vegan Festival

2006-10-24T17:56:00.000+07:00

Right now my town is having what is known as Tesegon Jay...or the Vegan Festival. In Thailand, it is a very highly respected thing when people are vegetarians, but very few people actually are. They respect them because its part of the Buddhist religoun. Monks are suppose to be vegetarians, but very few actually are. At any rate, at the end of every October, for two weeks, my town celebrates veganism with a festival. All over town there are food venders set up selling vegan food. In this picture you can see the yellow flags.
The yellow flags mean they are selling food with no meat or animal
bi-products.
This is a picture of some of the awesome vegan food being sold. The last time I posted pictures of food I got a lot of people saying...that looks discusting. Looks arnt everything. Thai food is awesome because of how flavorful it really is. As a vegetarian myself...I love this time of year because I dont have to give off a list of things I dont want them to put in my food. Generally if I tell them I dont want any meat, they think that just means pork and go ahead and put chicken in my food...thus, I have to give them lists of all the possible meat that they cant put in it, unless its a place I go regurally!

The Hobbit

2006-10-22T12:14:00.000+07:00

The Hobbit...There and Back Again is by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is about a little hobbit that goes on a journey with a group of dwarves to recover the treasure that the dragon Smaug has stolen from their family years and years ago. Lots of adventures happen on the way with elves, giant spiders, goblins, and men.

I give this book a 5 out of 5. It was really captivating from beginning to end. Its a literary classic that truly deserves being called a classic because its a story that is written so that anyone at any age and in any period of time can enjoy this book.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

2006-10-21T17:18:00.000+07:00

One Hundred Years of Solitude is by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is a very hard book to describe what happened because it is not mearly one story, but what seems like hundreds. The umbrella story is about one family and their struggles of helping to start the new town of Marcondo in Mexico.
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I really did struggled through this book. It all comes together in the last chapter, literally on the last page and makes the book wonderful. Once I finished it and had read the whole book, along with that last page, I had a great appreciation for this book. But to actually get to that last page took some real work and a lot of just reading for readings sake. This book is the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1982, thus it is an important piece of literature.
Marquez's writing style is really wonderous. He is truely a master of storytelling. The only problem is that there are too many stories and too many characters in this book. I constantly had to kept flipping through and figuring out who each character was, as it is about a family who grows to be very large and its about a family for a hundred years. Even though it was a hard book to read it had a lot of really good, interesting, and well written stories within it.

India 1

2006-10-16T16:21:00.000+07:00

One of the great thing about being a Peace Corps Volunteer are the great holidays you get the chance to go on. The first two weeks of this month a fellow volunteer, Becky and I, went to India. Here are just a few of my pictures. This picture is in Dehli. It is a picture of the spice market.

These are bangals. Indian women will often wear many of these around their wrists. I particularly like this picture because of the homeless woman sitting behind this brighly colored jewlery. Its a perfect example of the amazing amount of poverty there.
This is a picture of boys bathing in the streets. If poor people are lucky enough to have homes, they may not have proper facilities inside. Many of the streets in Dehli had pumps on the streets for bathing.
This is a picture of Humayun's Tomb. This is the tomb of a Humayun. It is made out of red sandstone and white marble. It was really amazing.
Another interesting thing about India are the cows. There are cows everywhere! Cows are considered sacred here and thus not eaten or owned by anyone. They just roam the streets free as you please.

India 2

2006-10-16T15:59:00.000+07:00

This is Udaipur...my favorite city I visited. It is known for its many palaces, especially those floating in the center of the lakes.

We happen to come to India during its holiday season. There were many festivals and parades going on while we were there. This is just one of the many parades.

Here is a picture of the castle known as city palace. It was really beautiful inside with lots of history. There were also lots of monkeys running around in this city.
While we went shopping, one of the shop keepers dressed us up in traditional Indian wear. Below is a picture of Indian women in a procession at night.

India 3

2006-10-16T15:17:00.000+07:00

This is Pushkar. This city was absolutly magical. Its in a valley surrounded by mountains and the desert. It is one of the holiest cities in India. People come from all over India just to bathe in the lake in the center of town. The picture below is also in Pushkar. Becky and I got to go on a camel safari in the desert.

This picture is totally worth of national geographic! This is Beckys guide and her camel at a rest stop.
We would often times be surronded by children that would say one photo...befcause they wanted you to take their photos. Then they would often times ask you for money or a pen. Lesson: if you come to India, bring lots of pens to give to the many children who beg.
This picture is in Jaipur. Jaipur is known as the pink city because it is a law here that all buildings must be painted pink. This is the Hawa Mahal. It seems very ornate on the outside, but is complete bare and boring on the inside. It was designed so royal women could look through the many holes in this castle at the street, without being noticed by the public.

India 4

2006-10-16T15:01:00.000+07:00

These are tombs for some kings and his family over looking the tiger fort....this is in Jaipur.

This is the Amber fort. This place was just huge! We were there for like an hour and a half and got lost lots of times. We had only seen a small portion of it by the time we decided to leave.
Here are some women in the Amber fort. They were doing construction inside and these women were carrying rubble out of it. This is how most people carry large loads in India.
Here is Becky in Agra pretending to climb the Taj Mahal.
Here I am in front of the Taj Mahal. This trip was amazing, but you definitly need to have a thick skin to go here.

The God of Small Things

2006-09-25T15:39:00.001+07:00

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is several stories within a story. The story takes place in India. Its a story about love between a touchable and an untouchable. Its a story about a nun who fell in love with a priest. Its a story about two twins made to be a part most of their live and what happens in their childhood together, and its a story about a father whos English ex wife and child come to visit him and his child soon dies by accident.
I give this book a 4 out of 5. Its beautifully written where things are detailed with such paticular, unusual, and beautiful descriptions. Although, with that said, one small event takes forever to happen in this book...thus the books main story, which stretches out throughout the book, only really takes place in a matter of a week or so. Its a bit of a slow read, but a beautifully sad story.

Running with Scissors

2006-09-19T19:01:00.000+07:00

Today I read Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. This book is the memoir of a Augusten's childhood. His parents divorce leaving him with his mother who is mentally ill. His mother can not handle him and soon signs him over to her psychiatrist to be his legal guardian. This house is nothing but a psychiatric ward itself where the many children of the family are allowed to do as they please by the age of 13. One example of the craziness of this family is how the father, Dr. Finch, at one point believes God is sending messages to him through his balve movements and saves them to dry on the picnic table in the back yard.
This book is funny, sad, and just plain astonishing all at once. I give this book a 5 out of 5. It is definitely in the running for my favorite books list.
I feel like I cheated my mom with this book in a way. My friend had recommended this book and I asked my mom to send it from America for me. Im sure she intended it to give me at least a half a week of entertainment, where in reality it only gave me one day. Its the kind of book you just cant put down. I started last night and every free moment I had, in between classes and after school, I spent reading this book. In short it is just awesome and will give you the sense that you're family could never even compare to this guys family.

Birthday Boy Bom

2006-09-18T18:08:00.000+07:00

Two days ago was my Best friend in Thailands birthday. Bom turned 25. I joked with him because now he is my P. In formal situations you call someone who is older than you P and someone who is younger Nahng. He doesnt like it when I call him P Bom...but I do it just to get a rise out of him. Last night I gave him a little party. I got him a little cake, made him a sign, and a hat. Then we had some beers. It was a really fun night. He especially liked his birthday hat. On it I wrote Birthday Boy Bom. He thought this was really funny.
Here he is with his sign I made. It says Happy Birthday Erny. Erny is the English nick name I gave him.

The Great Train Robbery

2006-09-18T18:01:00.000+07:00

This weekend I read The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton. It is based off of true events taken from Victorian England when the train was being developed. It is basically about an impossible one year planned out robbery that takes place in the mid 1800s. It uses a lot of cool criminal jargon, from that era in England. This is called the great train robbery because it was so impressive and such an impossible to believe happening, that it is just plain amazing, or great!...for that time period of course.
Out of 5 stars I give this book a 3.5. I dont know if it was me or what, but it took me a week to get into the first 20 pages of this book. After that I read it in 2 days. I had been putting this book off for a while, but am glad I read it. It was very historical and interesting. Its a decent enough read.

The Rhinoceros Beetle

2006-09-08T19:07:00.000+07:00

Its time for another creature feature. These pictures are of the rhinoceros beetle with some of my students. My students will occasionally bring them to class with them in their pockets or in little jars as pets. They look scary, but are actually very slow and easy to pick up. The children will feed them sugarcane as their food.
They are really fun to watch interact with each other because they really do fight each other with their big horns. A quick fact about this beetle: They can lift up to 850 times their own weight. To put this into perspective, if a human of average height and weight had the strength of the rhinoceros beetle, it would be able to lift a 65 ton object

The Last Battle

2006-09-08T18:49:00.000+07:00

Today I finished The Last Battle which is the 7th and last in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. It was basically a play on revelations. It is about how an ape (or the anti-Christ) found a lions skin and dressed his friend the donkey in it to deceive the people of Narnia into believing that it is Aslan the lion. Since none of them have ever seen a lion, they are misled. The ape is in cahoots with the Calormen, people from a neighboring nation, who the ape is preparing to sell the creatures of Narnia into slavery. The king of Narnia then asks the real Aslan for help who sends Eustice and Jill from the real world back to Narnia. Eventually, everyone that has been to Narnia from our world, except Susan who chooses to believe it was just childrens play and is truly an adult, comes back. Then Aslan comes back and divides the creatures of this world into those who believe in him, who go to his right, and those who don't, who go to his left into darkness. Then Aslan ends the world before everyone's eyes and they find they are in the real Narnia, or heaven. They realize before they were only in the shadow of what they thought was Narnia. Here they find they are strong and healthy and meet all of the creatures they loved of Narnias past. In the end the characters from our world find they have been in an accident and their greatest wish has come true, they are there to live with Aslan in the real Narnia forever.
I give this book a 4 out of 5. I thought it was very clever how C.S. uses it as a play on revelations. I think that the Chronicles of Narnia are truly a piece of classic art and should be part of every person's childhood, be them Christian or not. I really enjoyed each and everyone of these stories!

The Silver Chair

2006-09-08T08:33:00.000+07:00

The Silver Chair is the sixth book in the series The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. It is about a prince that gets enchanted and is held captive down under the earth by a giant green worm witch disguised as a woman. Aslan calls fourth Eustice, from the last book, and a new character Jill to go across the mountains into Giant Land with a Muddwuggle, a creature who is very negative but nice, and go under the earth to find the Prince and only eir to the throne.
I give this book a 4 out of 4. It was a lovely tale. This is one Ive always been interested in reading for some reason. At any rate its a very good read!

Memoirs of a Geisha

2006-09-04T16:28:00.000+07:00

My latest book is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. This book is about the secret life of geisha, and one geisha in particular. It is basically how her father must sell her into the life of a geisha where she does the last thing a geisha is allowed to do and falls in love with a man. Her whole lifes work is only to get closer to him. Many of you have seen the movie so you know the story line.
I give this book a 5 out of 5. I have never read a book before where I was immersed into it from the moment I started reading. I learned so much about life in Japan and geishas. If you liked the movie you definitely have to read the book, because as always it is much better. I thought they had cut and changed appropriate things in the book, for the movie, up until the last hundred pages. Then I realized they changed quite a bit of the ending of the book. The same idea is the same, but a lot of the ideas and characters have been changed. Also, the movie ends where the book goes on to say what happens to the Geisha Sayuri after she has received her lifes goal. I am most impressed how Arthur writes a book about another culture, and about a topic many people with in the Japanese culture dont know such intimate details. As my friend Merissa says, Im also impressed how well a man can write so well about the female mind. This book is awesome and is a wonderful read for anyone!

Pitchit Boat Festival

2006-09-03T10:52:00.000+07:00

This weekend I went to my friend Katie's site Pitchit for an English Camp. This was also the same weekend of a very famous boat festival in her town. As you have seen from my pictures, many festivals and celebrations revolve around the water in Thailand because it is such an important part of their daily lives. Below are some pictures of the opening ceremonies. These are all replications of royal boats. That means these are the type of boats that in the past might have carried the king when he went to travel by river.

The boat above is my favorite boat. You see this paticular boat in a lot of pictures in Thailand.

The pictures below are of the opening ceremony. I was in an area where officials were meant to be, so I got very close to the action. These pictures of the men are of them doing very high and deep "wais" ,or bows, to the king, while the kings song was being played. The last picture is basically what most people come to see at the boat festival...the boat races. As you can see these boats are very long and thin and hold many men. Its a bit like crew on more canoe style.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2006-08-29T17:46:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-27T21:17:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-25T11:08:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-17T17:37:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-17T15:46:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-15T17:26:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-15T17:13:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-13T11:18:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-13T10:59:00.000+07:00

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!

2006-08-13T10:47:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-13T10:44:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-13T10:41:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-13T10:38:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-11T08:40:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-08T19:31:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-08T19:12:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-02T14:45:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-02T14:30:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-02T14:21:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-02T14:11:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-02T13:31:00.000+07:00

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

2006-08-01T20:44:00.000+07:00

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.

Doi Mae Salong 1

2006-07-30T17:22:00.000+07:00

This is Doi Mae Salong "a city in the clouds" as you can see it really is in the clouds. Its on top of a mountain deep in the northern province of Chiang Rai. Its an amazing place that isnt really very discovered yet by tourists. This jungle covered mountain is laced with corn, tea and rice fields. It is truely like being in a postcard.

This city is well known for its tea. The city has many tea shops where you go from shop to shop tasting the tea that is served in a chinese tea ceremony. All of tea is grown on this mountain and when you are finished you usually buy some of the tea. Here is Katie, Lindsey(a new volunteer that lives up in Chiang Rai) and Merissa in the first tea shop we stopped at. Notice the very interesting cups. First, they make the tea then they put them into a small long cup and cover it in a wider bowl and turn it upside down on the table. Then you pick the taller cup up, put it up to your nose to smell, and put it over your eye for healing. Finally you enjoy the wonderful ginger, orange, green, oolong, etc...flavored tea.

Most of the tea shops are owned by Chinese people. Many Chinese people moved here and have now formed a very interesting culture that is not exactly Chinese, Thai, or hill tribe. Here is a picture of a door covered in Chinese decorations.

This is just another beautiful scenic view on top of the mountain.

Doi Mae Salong 2

2006-07-30T17:04:00.000+07:00

Doi Mae Salong has mainly chinese and hill tribe people from the tribe of Akha. There are like 7 or 8 different tribes in Thailand. Here is a picture of some hill tribe walking up the hill.

Here is Merissa, Katie, and Lindsey in front of a tea field

This is a picture of some workers working on a terraced tea field.

Here is Merissa and I pretending to be tea pots in front of this tea store witha window in the shape of a tea pot. Think Im a little tea pot short and stout!

Here I am in front of a this beautiful mountain backdrop! This trip was amazing and I will forever remember this as one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Motorcyle Chicken

2006-07-30T16:55:00.000+07:00

Sometimes you see animals doing really funny things in Thailand. This Chicken was just perched on top of this motorcycle. I thought it was really funny, so decided to share it with you all. Some facts about motorcylces in Thailand: You will often times see women riding side sadel, a dog riding in the front seat, families of 4 or 5 riding on one motorcycle, even children as young as 3rd or 4th grade driving a motorcycle, and even chickens trying to get in on the action. Its a whole different world here with different laws of safety!

Snail

2006-07-30T16:49:00.000+07:00

Thailand has a lot of interesting animals. Another animal it has is the snail. You dont see them very often. This snail I saw at night. They are really large. This snail is probably 7 inches long. I know there are snails in America, but Ohio doesnt have any, or at least any with giant shells like this...so I find them really interesting and fun to watch.