A day in my life.

I thought it would be fun to show you what a day in my life looks like. 

Each morning I begin my day with 2 cups of instant coffee and fruit. 

Then I jump on my trusty bike and head off to school.

On Mondays and Tuesdays my ride to school takes about 13 minutes and I absolutely love it! 

My desk at my small school.

The calm before the storm.

Teaching.

After school I usually play a game or two of volleyball with the students then head home. The ride home takes longer because it is H O T. But it is still beautiful.

Once home I drink about a gallon of water and cool down, read a book in the hammock, cuddle with the kittens, just relax until about 5 pm. This is the hardest part of my day... deciding what to have for dinner. Lately I have been cooking for myself and usually I have to go to the market to get supplies.

My Market! 

The stands on the outside are cooked food. There is grilled chicken, a noodle stand, a couple places that make Thai dishes (curries, vegetable dishes), a pork salad stand, a few fruit stands and the best dessert stand in Thailand.

Inside you can buy fresh veggies, raw meats, eggs, garlic, sugar, fermented fish, and all sorts of things you would never think to eat.

Live frogs.

I buy my veggies from this beautiful lady. 

This guy makes the absolute BEST desserts. 

My favorite is these little green balls with a sugar sauce on top. The one in the middle.

She makes thai dishes and sometimes I buy them but mostly I go to her to buy sticky rice and chili sauce. 

Ahhh fruit. I pick up some fruit. Mangosteens are my favorite the purple ones 3 fruit back. 

While I was taking pictures of the fruit this nice man asked if I would sit and have some dessert with him. 

The dessert ended up being green and purple jellys with ice and milk.

I cook and eat my food. This one is my current FAVORITE bamboo with chili sauce, fried egg and sticky rice. 

I do the dishes.

After dinner I usually go over to my neighbor Aunt Nang's house and sit with her while she cooks. Some times I have a second dinner and sometimes we just have fruit. 

I spend some time with my favorite person, Mein.

I shower and then pour myself into bed around 9pm.

My New-ish House

My sister has been bugging me to put up some pictures of my new house and I have finally done it. Sorry I didn't clean but I figured you would want to see the REAL thing.

My front door opens up do my living room.

Where I do all my work.  And sometimes on the weekends my students come to play games.

Another work station.

The Kitchen

One of the best things about the new house is it has a sink! 

My fridge covered with pictures of the people I miss the most.

Stove.

The Bathroom

Absolutely the worst thing about me new house is the squat toilet. To use it you must squat and aim... I have gotten better at it but NEVER will I EVER choose to use this kind of toilet over a good ol' western toilet.

The big basin is what a Thai person would use to shower. They fill it up and then use a bucket to shower. I did it for a week and had my fill.

My hot water heater came after a week of "bucket showers."

The Upstairs

The stairs made for babies. The stairs are about 4 inches wide so I walk up and down them sideways.

The upstairs is made of wood and gets really really hot during the day which is prefect when I do laundry!

My bedroom.

Poochie snoozing on my bed.

The tape on the wall is to patch up the holes in the walls.

The reason for the move. 

Yo Yo What's Up MAN?

Whenever Stoney comes to my site I try to get my students to say this for him and they NEVER will. Frustrated I made a video of them saying it to show Stoney. I thought I should share it with the world. 

SNAKE!!

So one day while my students were suppose to be working quietly one little girl was staring out of the window. It was then that she noticed a snake in the tree. She screamed and I thought she was saying there was a snake in the classroom so I jumped up on my chair....She calmed down and explained where the snake was. 

I was hoping we could then go on with the day but the students had other plans. They needed to knock the snake out of the tree from the safety of the classroom...I watched until the groundskeeper walked by and we explained about the snake. He then got the snake out of the tree and hit it on the head. 

He was about to dispose of it until I stopped him...I thought, when else I am i ever going to have this opportunity again? So I asked if I could take pictures with the snake. The scary thing was it wasn't dead, it just had a broken head so it was still moving when i picked it up and put it around my neck. Scary but fun.

Poor guy.

Freaked out because the snake kept moving.

My students were terrified of it. Even after it was dead.

Headbands!!

I put a headband on to go to aerobics and Nung Mein thought i looked funny so I put one on him. I thought it looked so cute so I needed a picture but he wouldn't open his eyes. Next he wanted to take a picture so I pulled his little eyes closed routine. I thought it was worth a blog post.

Graduation!

School ended this March and it meant my 6th graders were graduating from their village school and will be heading to the high school next year. I am going to be very sad to not have them next at school. 

The kids! 

11 of the 12 6th graders I have taught for the past year. 

The audience. 

Only Moms came.

I made all the students graduating a book of pictures I had taken. Like a mini photo albums.  The kids liked them but the other teachers at the school liked them more. 

The DANCERS

 

The pre-schoolers danced for everyone. They were sooo cute.

The first graders also graced us with a traditional Thai dance.

And it wouldn't be complete without a blessing. We tied strings around all the 6th graders wrists. The mothers also did this for me but they all asked that I be blessed with a nice Thai man so that I would never leave Thailand.

New Buddha

One day I came home from school and my Aunt Nang announced they were building a new Buddha at the temple. I decided I would check it out the next day and take pictures of its progress. But seriously guys this guy went up in a DAY. And it is HUGE!

They tell me it isn't finished yet because they are going to paint it gold but I like it how it is.