Better late then Never...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!

21

WORLD WATCH OUT

Work it, Work it

Looks like you celebrated right dear little sister

You make me proud. So proud.

Have not forgotton about you

Oh what a lovely few weeks we have had.  I am going to have some catching up and picture posting to do once we get back to Bangkok.  Some things you all should know....

I AM IN LOVE WITH EVERYTHING ABOUT HONG KONG

I want to live there. If my path never brings me there with my belongings I have to go back to get my fix. Had this feeling in my gut that Hong Kong was saying...

"don't leave me!"

HK, I didn't want to leave you.

We are sitting in a coffee shop playing facebook, gchat, skype, youtube and blogging. It is a rainy down here in the islands but my crispy skin is saying prayers of thanks.  We have been sunbathing, beach running, reading, San Miguel light sipping, and applying aloe vera on our backs and legs. Whoops.

Sun2

Rachel's 0

Two more days down in paradise then back to BKK for a few more markets.  Rachel thinks she is leaving Aug 1st. Little does she know I am not joking when I say I am trapping her on my deck in rice paddy land and will fed her cigs and leos between classes. Muha hahaha

Proctoring Pitstop

After a great weekend in Chang Mai we are back in Bangkok! One of my favorite things I have probably done since I have been in Thailand was the cooking class we did on Saturday.  I will tell all about it with pictures once Rach gets back to Chicago and loads them up to her computer. We also checked out Chang Mai's Sunday market which was sooo awesome!  Tons of really great things!

We got back in Monday morning and spent the day downtown BKK. After a nap and some coffee we went to the Grand Palace, took a little boat ride, went to one of the biggest malls, Siam Paragon and had lunch (Michigan Ave and some packed into a  mall), then went to this great little beer garden and had a beer on ice before heading in for the evening.  How productive were we yesterday!?

Today and tomorrow I am proctoring midterms while Rachel roams around and explores more of Bangkok....It is Rachel's birthday today so depending on what time she gets back up to the rice patty's we will either go out for some drinks or have some beers on my balcony and toast to her! 

We are headed to Hong Kong on Thursday night...jeez it is expensive there!  All the hotels seemed to be hundreds of dollars and the cheap ones are not in good neighborhoods and sound kinda nasty. There is this website called Air B&B and we found a guy that rents out a room in his condo.  Since there are two of us we feel comfortable and all his reviews were good!  Check out where we will be staying!  http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/50647  

I have never done anything like this before so it should be a fun and interesting weekend!! What a great way to add to the Hong Kong experience don't you think!!??

From HK we fly down to the islands....busy bees!  

I spilled....

Probably two words I will be using a lot in the morning!!   Rach and I have a date with a market, a kitchen and a women named Boom.  She will be teaching us how to whip up some Thai dishes...I am hoping she does not mind us having a few adult beverages in hand while we learn to cook....

9AM to 4PM we will be shopping, cooking, drinking, cooking, taking pictures, cooking and of course eating.....We have no one to blame but ourselves I guess if we get sick tomorrow night...

amen

wish I could have you all over for dinner

I will keep ya posted on if I get asked to host my own Thai cooking show....

don't hold your breath

Refresher.....holiday flashback 2010..I mean 2009

My last post I said I was going to pick up Rachel from the airport tonight!! Just in case for those of you who do not know Rachel.......she was the one behind last years Christmas card.....

Who stole Santa???????

Ms. Schrader and her Christmas cocktail. So stylish! Don't you think?? 

I think our next photo shoot will have an Asian theme

perhaps a setting of

tropical islands

lush mountains

appropriate night life

BKK or Hong Kong city life

maybe, just maybe a shoot in each place!!!!

How fun would that be??  I really hope she packed wigs......

Rachel x 2

Right this very second Rachel is on her way from Chicago, IL to Thailand!!!  I am so excited I can not even sit still. She arrives at 9PM and we have nothing but fun and trouble planned from the moment of touch down.

Chang Mai tomorrow, Hong Kong the following weekend and then a week in the islands!!! Whooo hooo. The blog will be hoppin' with new stuff!!

One of my loyal blog readers...also my toughest blog critic ( "You sound like a brat. In a good way"  "I want to see more pictures" "Enough all ready of the sappy, emotional, blah blah blah stories") Mike has requested a few things. More pictures, less love stories, and more shout outs to Chicago.

Pictures--no problem I will take the camera out and about more and to class. Easy!

Mushy stories....ehhh. Sorry, but as long as I got a boyfriend that sends flowers from one continent to the other..I will keep talking about that sexy singlet wearing boyfriend of mine!

Shout outs to Chi town....I miss it all the time. The city, my wonderful friends, the el, the cold and windy winters, expensive rent, parking tickets, traffic.....ahh no, I do miss Chicago.  I do! Chicago spring 2011, I shall return. 

Mike- my dear, sweet, friend, Monday manager, Babylon loving, pimp daddy ho, marathon training, hockey playing, I love your sister and miss seeing her at the gym and talking gym "hunks", Wx2 partner and moral supporter, helper in finding teaching connections, drunk pizza eating, bike ride planning but never doing...buddy old pal........I will try my hardest to fulfill your requests. Please take your sister out to dinner and ask her if I can play at the LP zoo with her and the gorillas on my return to Chicago next spring.  Also, please buy Lex 5 shots of whatever she wants and put it on my tab AKA the comp tab.

Alright, that is all for now....time to go work off some of this excitement and clean my room before going to pick up Rach from the airport!

Manic Monday

"Just another manic Monday, wish it was Sunday, cause that's my Funday"

--The Bangles  Manic Monday

"It's been a hard days night, and I've been workin like a dog!! It's been a hard day's night I should be sleeping like a log! But when I get home to you I find the things that you so make me feel alll right"

--The Beatles It's a Hard Days Night

"Tumble out of bed, and stumble into the kitchen.  Pour myself a cup of ambition.  Yawnin' and stretchin' and try to come to life"

--Dolly Parton 9-5

"You get up every morning from the alarm clocks warning. Take the 8:15 into the city........taking care of business, everyday! Taking care of business every way!!!"

Bachman-Turner Over Drive  Taking Care of Business 

"Thank God it's Friday night and I just, just , jusssssssssssssssstttttttt got paid!!! 

N'SYNC  Just Got Paid

What in the world is this. It is English III conversation presentation week.  All these songs relate to the work week and my students had to tell me how! There were some stellar presentations today.  Here is what they had to include in their presentations.  

-One song per group (Some groups had the same song... because one song I chose ended up crashing and burning so I had to toss it and double a few up. Live and learn)   

-How does this sound relate to "the work week"

-Pick 3 quotes from the song and explain what you think they mean

-Choose ANY song you want compare or contrast it to the song that was assigned to you.  It can be about a school week, about the weekend...another perspective of the work week.....you pick kiddies

There were skits, lip singing, wonderful explanations or text analysis (hehe), pictures, power points, poster boards, YouTube Videos.....it was a fun day.

Some of the best songs they chose to compare/contrast

The Bagles/Just another Manic Monday  VS Katy Perry/ Last Friday Night

BTO/Taking Care of Business VS Another Brick in the Wall/Pink Floyd 

Beatles/ Hard Days Night VS Vitamin C The Graduation Song (this was a stretch but they made it work somehow) 

I really loved my JOB today.  Most of them made me sooo proud.  There were a few that really had us all rolling around laughing. A few even gave me goosebumps because there were times when the whole class would be singing along.  One moment we had today, I will probably never forget as long as I live.  At one point one class was all singing (with the group that was presenting, there were also going acapella  ) 

Que sera, sera 

Whatever will be, will be

The future is not ours to see

Que sera, sera

A Lovely Day in the Neighborhood

What a marvelous day. Seeing I fell asleep before 10PM last night I was up with the birds at 6AM this morning. Making coffee, eating yogurt, planning for classes, flipping between BBC and CNN,  and of course playing on the internet.

Some important lessons were learned today in English Conversation I.

 Sheet, as in I can not find the sheet of paper.  Is not the same as Shit.  I understand they sound a alike my wonderful students...but they are very different. Why on earth would I be shuffling papers around on the desk, in my bag and through folders looking for "that shit of paper" !!?!?! Work with me!!!

When I say, "what the heck" usually it is after I realize I have forgotten something at home or remembered something I need to do.  I just say things out loud in the middle of class or exclaim things...today they thought I was mad and saying...."what the hell!!!"

No! No!  Your teacher does not have a potty mouth, truckers mouth or does it need to be washed out with soap.  These confusions were all with the same group of kids.....A. Rachel really brought home the lesson this morning. Sheet Vs Shit heck Vs Hell......tune in next week for truck VS???? grass VS????

Minutes after this class ended I be- bopped over to my Academic class. Where we talk parts of speech, vocab, essays, outside reading books.....I was just trying to be a good teacher today. Well, ok I try everyday...but today extra hard, I was wearing heels people.  As I turned on the overhead projector and got them all pumped up for correcting sentences I realized I needed to pull the white screen down so they could see the projection. BOOOOOOOM it FLYS off the WALL and swings down missing me by centimeters!!! I am just happy I am here to report the story back to you. It was a close one.  After I recovered by making some jokes about how they almost had a dead Ajarn on their hands, I got a helpful student to kinda, sorta, put it back up.  The class must go on and it did!  I informed the next teacher about the issue and we got it taken care of so nobody would be taken out....

After a nice little afternoon workout I saw one of my academic students, Jin, in the gym playing basketball. Last week I taught him how to play PIG....you all know this game...I shoot he misses he gets a P  first person with P-I-G losses. Well, we played a round of PIG then a game of Around the World.  Next thing I know I was playing 2 on 2 basketball!  Oh man! I can't say I was very good, but I did make some baskets, I stole the ball, definitely flinched a few times and worked up a sweat.  There was one other girl playing, she was short, fast and aggressive. Someone I feared back in the days of traveling basketball.  Turns out she played VARSITY basketball at some school in South Carolina....ha! I need to start recording day to day activities out here this really could be an entertaining TV show.

The rest of my day I have blogged and streamed episodes of Mad Men....I finished both seasons of Modern Family!!  It is almost dinner and maybe a movie...then it is Friday, Friday, Friiiiiday. Whoooo hooo  Tomorrow night. Thai Beetles Cover Band...need I say more??

OVerTiMe

That's right folks SIX weeks into the new semester I got added two more classes. Wednesday was my day off and I will now not just be twirling my hair and using it as a prep/laundry/movie/sleep-in day but another teaching day!  Super simps!  I got two English 4 conversations sections which puts me at 21 hours of classroom time a week and a few extra Bahts in the bank account.

Things have been going great!  We had a 4th of July BBQ with sparklers and everything.  I even had my students do a dictation about what the 4th of July was and how Americans celebrate it...I was feeling festive! There are some pictures of the BBQ floating around so I will be sure to post them when I find out who has them!

When I called my mom today on skype I got a surprise skype session with Dana and Joan.  Dana and Joan are good friends and neighbors on James Avenue....they had gotten into some wine and man I was jealous! Ladies, it was great to see you!!! I wish I was there to sit on the deck or your back patio and sip some vino. Tell Paul HI!!!!!!  Next summer...BBQ...let's invite the Foley's too!?!??!!

Thursday

I don't have much to say about this picture. It is worth sharing though, don't ya think!  Just another Thursday night in Bang Na.  Matt was having a whiskey and a shave, I felt left out so I joined the party.