Yeah, I'm Hanging in There

Hey faithful readers (all 4 of you), sorry for leaving you all hanging for so long. I really was planning on posting a lot more than I have. You know, teaching takes a lot more work than you think. I think it would be a lot different had I known exactly I was going to teach and had a few weeks to get some preparation done. As it is now, I'm pretty much planning the next days lesson the night before -- hence the lack of posts. Hopefully, I'll be able to get ahead a bit but who knows. Overall, I' but grade four is pretty bad. I've already handed out about 10 detentions in two weeks. I'm really loving it here though. It's hot and I'm sweaty all the time but I LOVE being in Thailand. I just miss Kristen and Trea. I've only been gone for almost three weeks but it seems like Trea is learning m enjoying it. I'm teaching Math and English to 3rd and 4th graders. Grade three is pretty goodso many new words in just that short time. I got a cell phone and I talk to Kristen just about every night. She found some company that specializes in calling cards to Asia and she can call me for like three cents a minute so it's pretty nice that we can talk and hardly spend any more than we would be if I lived across the country.

Seemed like I had a million things to say but I never wrote them down so I'll just ramble. The school that I teach at is just an elementary school (with kindergarten) and nursery. I would guess that they have maybe 350 kids total. It's a private school and most of the kids come from families with money and are therefore pretty spoiled. My house is behind the school. It takes me like 20 secs to get to the school grounds and maybe a minute and a half to get to the teachers' room.
Here's a picture of the students(only the elementary students) lined up for our morning flag ceremony. You can see the far end of my townhouse building on the right hand side of the picture. The kindergarten director lives in the older style house behind the basketball standard. She's one of the owner's daughters and will be Kristen's boss. She's pretty cool.

Okay, I think I mentioned posting some pictures of our townhouse. I don't know if you've seen but Kristen beat me to the punch and posted some on her blog but I'm going to post some here anyway.

Here's what the place looks like from the front. Here's a shot from just inside the front door.



















And here's what our bedroom looks like.
















Yeah, the formatting of these pictures isn't the best but whatever. I've got a lot more pictures (not just of the place) but uploading them is kind of slow and I want to finish this post so maybe I'll just do another post after this one.

Last Saturday I went to an activity with the branch here. We met at the branch house at 8:00 and didn't get home until 5:00. I knew it was going to be an all day thing so it wasn't any surprise. We went up to a park near a dam and tried to find clues and do things along the way there (we were split into five teams in five vehicles). We couldn't find most of the things on the way there but we had a good time. The park was really pretty. It's differernt going to these kind of things and only being able to catch a few things here and there. I've been to church twice and I learn a TON of Thai but by the time it's over my head just hurts.

So, on Thursday of this week (two days ago) I was scheduled to see the kids off after school. (I do this every Thursday). Anyway, the Thai teachers had the front end taken care of (get the kids into the right car when their folks show up) so I was just supposed to walk around and make sure nobody is doing anything that will get them hurt. So, I play soccer with some of the kids for a while and then a bit later some of the kids ask me if I want to play basketball. I say okay and we start playing. About two minutes into the game I'm driving toward the hoop and roll my ankle. It didn't seem too bad but by the next morning I couldn't put any pressure on it at all. Fortunately, I had noticed upon moving into our new place a pair of crutches in the storage space under the stairs and I took those to school yesterday. Haven't even been at the school two weeks and I'm showing up injured. I'm feeling a bit better now. I can walk on it at least. Kind of a funny walk but whatever.

I love how you find different products made by American companies in different countries. I'm sure most of you have seen this to some extent. They have Lays potato chips here but they have flavors like Nori Seaweed, Grilled Lobster, and Salmon Teriyaki. I've tried them all and they're actually all pretty good. Why don't they have fun flavors like that in the States? I guess probably because there's not a great demand for them there.

Well, I'd better be going. Kristen should be calling soon.

Alive and Kicking

I made it!! Here is my first post from Thailand. The flight was actually pretty good. It went by rather quickly and I was able to get probably 4-5 hrs. of sleep which is pretty good for me. I watched King Kong and thoroughly enjoyed it too. I spent the night in Bangkok and then we travelled drove up to Khon Kaen today. I got here this afternoon at about 2:30. I have met with some of the teachers at the school but should meet most of the rest tomorrow morning.

The townhouse is pretty good. It's about what I expected. It's pretty basic but will meet our needs. I took some pictures and emailed them to Kristen. I'll have to post some of them here for all to see (I don't have them with me right now or I would).

It's great to be back in Thailand although I of course miss Kristen and Trea. I can't wait until they get here. Then the fun is really going to begin.

I have to admit that I'm still a little nervous about teaching. I think it's just one of those things that I think I will just have to give it a little while and then I'll get into it and be comfortable. The nice thing is that everyone here at the school is so friendly and helpful so I should always feel like I can go to them for help with teaching. From what I've heard it sounds like I can go to them for help with just about anything.

Anyway, just a quick update before I head home and crash for the evening. I haven't had a whole lot of jet-lag this trip which is nice (knock on wood).

I Hope to update often.

Catch you on the flip side.

So, here it is . . . my last post from the USA. Wow, I don't even know what to say other than this is totally surreal. I can't believe that this moment has finally come. It's now 9:45 PM Sunday and I am just about eight hours away from flying out of Reagan Intl. Airport headed for New York and then on to Bangkok.

These last few weeks have been really nice. I've had a lot of time to spend with Kristen and Trea -- taking walks, going shopping, to the park, playing in the yard, etc. I can't decide if in the end it will make being away from them harder (I've been around them so much and kind of got used to it) or easier (because I at least got a lot of time in before I left). Either way it's been nice.

For those of you who haven't heard, I now know that I have an allergic reaction to something. I haven't a clue as to what it is but something got me really good. I'd never had hives before this past week and at one point I think I had them covering 2/3 of my body -- very unpleasant to say the least. I did get in to see a doctor on Thursday and he prescribed me some Prednisone (sp?) and it's working miracles. I was imagining having those aweful hives on a 17 hour flight. That would have been hell. Anyway, I'm basically back to normal and ready to go.

This time over I'm going to try anything and everything to see if I can sleep. My last flight to Thailand (May 2002) I think I slept for like two hours (out of 23 or something). It was aweful. I've got a neck pillow, eye mask, ear plugs, and Tylenol PM. I'm gonna look rediculous but my sleep is more important. I just hope it all helps. Also, I don't think I'm going to go to sleep tonight.

The other day I found a trip report from a guy who had taken the same flight that I'm taking (direct from JFK to Bangkok). Here's a picture of the route over the north pole. Just reading the trip report got me excited -- Thai Airways is awesome.

Kristen has been practicing learning the Thai alphabet. In just the past three days or so, she's learned all 44 consonants. I'm really impressed!! I have a lot of fun seeing her learn Thai.

Anyway, I will probably be busy for the next week or two settling in, etc. but after that hopefully I'll have all kinds of fun and interesting stuff to post about. Oh yeah, Kristen found some info the other day that it may be possible for us to get DSL in Khon Kaen for like $25 a month. It all depends on if we have a land line or not. I'm praying!! Posting would be so much easier from home with a fast connection.

So, I'll catch you on the flip side.