The Christmas Season is Here

Hard to believe that Christmas is around the corner.  I sent round one of Christmas gifts yesterday. I think it will take a miracle for them to arrive before Christmas.  Round 2 leaves on Monday hopefully.  It should arrive in Jan I'm thinking.  Its definitely a busy time of year.
In the past month......

I moved.  Actually I moved 6 days ago to a one bedroom apartment with a nice balcony.  I love having the balcony.  Even though my cats have managed to explore more than just my house, they always return.  Also because my balcony is enclosed with bars(not actually like jail), I can leave the sliding door open even when I'm not home.  I'm also on the second floor and thief would have to have bar cutters and great climbing skills.  Its smaller than the last place but it has a few more amenities than the last place.  Like the fact that I now have a coffee maker and cable is included in rent.  I'm also closer to more people which was something that I really wanted.

My choir had another concert.  I sang a solo/duet.  I've done a solo before but not a duet.  Although I was nervous, it went off well.

I turned 40 last month.  Hard to believe.  I still feel 30.

Vacation starts in less than a week.  I plan to stay home for the first few days til Christmas.  Then I head back to Ao Nang for some R & R by the beach with friends.  I also hope to finally get a face-to-face with the school that I've been pursuing down there.  If I can get a job that doesn't actually exist yet at that school for next year, then I'll be moving down there next summer.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Its November and No Sign of Fall

Its the time of year where leaves should be falling somewhere and the air is cooler in other parts of the world.  In Thailand, the only evidence that the season is changing is that I don't always need my fan on through the night and I need a jacket to ride my motorbike to work.  However it usually heats up when the sun comes up and my jacket rides in my basket on the way home.
We are into our second quarter at school and things seems to becoming more routine.  My schedule doesn't change almost weekly anymore.  I'm currently house hunting.  My lease is up next month and I would prefer not to renew it since I don't know where I'll be in 6 months.  I actually want to move closer  to House of Hope.  I think it will be easier to build a relationship with the kids outside of work if I'm not so far from them.  Its actually harder than I thought to find a place though because I have cats.  But there is no way that I'm going to leave my teddy bear and the cute one behind.

My kitties on top of the cabinet

My Thai is slower than I would like it to be but at least now I can read slowly and get most of the pronunciations correct.  I'm working on being able to read the screen during worship so I can stop singing in English during church.  I'm also trying to look for opportunities to use new words.  At least now with the reading component in place, if I have the opportunity to read something that I want to say, I can correct or remind myself of the word I mean to say.  I know it all takes time but sometimes I wish I could inject the Thai language into my system and suddenly know everything.

I think I have a new realization this week.  When I'm in America, I get comfy and I blend into the background-so totally a pro at this.  But here its different.  Last year, I realized that being the only special ed teacher on the elementary side, people actually wanted to know what I thought about stuff.  This year, I became proactive and I've been trying to step into that roll of someone who might actually know something.  Its actually cool when people think my opinion means something. So this year I started an elementary drama club and I actively do my job.  And I actually think I might know what I'm doing.  Its stressful on some levels but on other levels it makes me feel confident. I'm so in my element now. :)

Women's Retreat and Other Thoughts

I realized that my blogs are getting farther apart.  I'm not sure if its me getting too busy or something else.  I just got home today from a women's retreat here in Chiang Mai. I love going to these things.  I always get something out of it.  This weekend, I ended up with  2 roommates which is actually uncommon.  But it turned out ok since my roommates were really fun people to be around.  Figuring out who had the key the first day or so was a little challenging but it got worked out.  Since both ladies are local and actually fairly new to Chiang Mai, I  am hoping to see more of them in the future.  I also met other lovely ladies and hopefully finally got connected to a group that I can hang with in the near future.

Whitney, me and Allyson- my lovely roomies at the Women's Retreat

I must say that going overseas is awesome. However, finding people to talk to when things are hard or life challenges happen, is tough.  I discovered several months  back, that I didn't really have much  as far as support here and the realization was hard to deal with. I have a couple of people that I can confide in but sometimes they are busy. 
 But this weekend, I think I finally made the connections that I needed and hopefully all will change.
I have discovered that when comfort zones are missing, I really have 2 choices. I can isolate.  I am totally a pro at this. Or I can meet new people.  I'm working on this one.  I was actually supposed to have my own room at the retreat by default but I'm really glad I chose not to go that route.

Summer is Over

       Summer officially ended last Wednesday when I headed back to work for 3 days of meetings and getting my classroom ready.  But it was not before I headed south for another short trip to Ao Nang.  After I returned to Thailand, I got a babysitting job for 3 weeks.  I used the money from the trip to go down for a short Southern Thailand vacation of relaxing, hanging out with friends and spiritual counsel.
       It was actually rather timely though.  July was the beginning and ending of a trial that I have been waiting for for the past 1 1/2 years.  My last year at Alisal high started out rather intense with a school shooting and a month later my coworker and mentor was brutally murdered.  I've been waiting to see closure and finally at the beginning of August, her killer was brought to justice.  At the end of the month he will be sentenced.  I found the trial itself to be intense although I was only able to follow it through newspaper articles.  Newspaper articles can use a lot of details sometimes.  I was grateful to be able to talk to a friend in Ao Nang about it.

Riding the elephant in Ao Nang

    I'm really glad to be back at work and have a routine again.  This week I'll be establishing who my current students are and getting a schedule going.  Goodbye sleep!

Back in Thailand

My niece Stella and I

Returned to Thailand a couple of days ago now.  It was easier than I thought to return to life here.  The trepidation that I had about driving in the USA when I first arrived there, didn't exist here.  In the USA, I was worried about getting onto the wrong side of the road mainly.  Even when I was a passenger, I was mentally telling myself that I couldn't make a left turn on a red light and to make sure that I always drove on the right side of the road when I did turn.  Back in Chiang Mai, it was natural to get back onto the left side.  I still know how to get places and my motorbike doesn't freak me out.
I don't really have a routine to establish yet here as my regular work schedule doesn't begin for a month.  I will actually be taking on a babysitting job for the next 3 weeks.  Turned out to be perfect timing as I wanted to head to southern Thailand before the summer was out.  Now I will have the extra funds to do it without having to use existing funds.  While I did carefully budget my money to get me through the summer til my next paycheck in Thailand, I didn't budget as well for the USA portion of the trip.  As a result, I need to wire home money to my account sooner than later.
It might seem weird to some people that I refer to Thailand as home.  I generally refer to anyplace where I live primarily, as home.  Right now, I feel like Thailand is home to me.  Its the place that I'm building relationships, making new friends and trying to learn the language so that I can do all of the latter more easily.  It would be really easy to live here in Chiang Mai and never bother learning the language.  I work in an English speaking school.  I have English speaking friends.  The Thai church that I regularly attend, usually translate services for me or I could opt to only go to English speaking churches.  I could isolate from my neighbors so I don't have to try to figure out how to talk to them and I could have a small English speaking world of my own.  But realistically, that's not why I'm here.  I'm here to immerse myself in the culture, build relationships and let God use me for however long he has me here.  Yesterday, my neighbors told my landlady that they liked me as a neighbor.  I have really like having them as well.  My neighborhood accepted me from the very beginning of moving here and have been helpful in different ways.  I still don't know who fixed my gate when I first moved in.  I don't know who has been cutting down the weeds that grow up around my gate and make it difficult to open and close from time to time.  But it keeps happening.  I once heard the phrase "Bloom where you are planted."  This has been my motto since I arrived in Thailand and continues to be almost a year later.  I will embrace life here as long as God has me here.  So how long will I be here?  Who knows?  I'm here til I'm not.

California Visit

Just over a week ago, I left Chiang Mai and headed to California to start my vacation.  The travel plans actually started getting more complex right before I left when I realized that I need to revamp my family plans to include a trip to Arcata.  I had originally thought my parents could make the drive to my grandpa's house in Jackson and was hoping to make only one stop for the family visit.  It ended up being 3.  The bummer deal in that was that it was short at everybody's house.  The good part was that I saw everyone one of my CA family that I was trying to get to.
First I left Chiang Mai and hopped a 5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea.  After exchanging money and briefly thinking I was rich, I went to get coffee which was first priority.  In Thai time, it was supposed to be the wee hours of the morning so I was quite tired.  My realization that I wasn't rich happened when I looked at the cheapest size mocha and discovered that the prices were all in the thousands for Korean Won($$).  I had exchanged the equivalent of 500B and now had about 17000 won, 4,000 of which were quickly spent on that much needed mocha.  Then I started walking around the airport looking to see what they had.  Since it was before 8am their time, there wasn't much.  I found a cart for my carryon which was getting heavier by the minute and started looking for a place to plug in my computer.  I discovered that their plugs while the same voltage as Thailand, did not have 3 prongs like my computer.  So I went hunting for an electric store which I quickly found.  They had an adapter which was nice and so I was able to get that and return to where I saw a plug.
Now with coffee in hand and a plug, I could hunker down in a random quiet waiting room and use the internet and watch some episodes of 24 which I had uploaded to my computer.  I was able to kill a few hrs just doing that.  After that, I went to look for lunch.  I found lunch at this place that served multiple cuisines.  I decided to be simple and get a salad which I was sent upstairs to the tables to retrieve.  After watch the numbers after mine start to show up, I inquired about my lunch.  The cafeteria people pointed to the other end of the floor and told me to get my lunch there.  I headed to the other end of the floor and couldn't figure out what counter they were talking about so I asked.  The person at the new counter sent me back to the original food pick up.  That person sent me again to the other end.  I tried again to figure where on earth I was supposed to be since there didn't appear to be a pick up counter.  I ended up giving up and asking for help which sent me back to the original counter again.  By this time I was frustrated.  Finally another worker decided to be more helpful and went and retrieved my lunch.  I made a mental note to choose someplace less complicated next time I eat in the airport.
I did finally board a plane approx. 8 hrs after I arrived in Seoul, and headed for SFO.  Approximately 10 hrs late we hit San Franscico airspace.  We were supposed to land but ended up in a holding pattern for nearly 45 minutes.  A holding pattern that was otherwise known as slow figure 8's in the sky.  When we finally landed, I was grateful to be an American in my home country for immigration as our line was quite short and fast.  After retrieving my luggage and locating mom who apparently didn't want to park so she drove around for over an hr waiting for me.  She didn't know of the delay because she never came in to the airport.  We finally headed north for Arcata.  But not before we missed our turnoff and attempted and succeeded to find another way around through the city so we could rejoin 101.
I spent a little over 2  days in Arcata and then I flew on flight #2 to Sacramento.  That flight was quite delayed and when we arrived I was surprised to see my luggage already waiting for me.  Made me wonder which flight it was on.  Then my aunt who picked me up, drove me to Jackson for a little over a day visit with her and my grandpa.  After remembering that I knew a friend in Sacramento, I made plans to meet with Selima who I know from early Coastland days.  I had lunch with her and her husband and 14 month old son. She drove me to my sister's new home since my sister had moved the day before and we were close by.  I was able to spend a day and a half with my sister and her husband and 4 year old son.

Yesterday, I hopped an amtrak train from Sacramento to San Jose where I met up with my hostess Jenny and another good friend Ana.  We had a lovely lunch and coffee and headed to Santa Cruz county.  Final destination at the moment is Watsonville at Jenny and Doug's house.  I'm quite grateful to be able to stay in one place longer than a day.  More info to come........

End of the Year

      In 2 weeks plus 1 day, I will be on a plane back to the states.  I will be coming following the end of my first school year in Thailand.  Its hard to believe that its this time of year.  It seems like the year just flew by.  I look forward to starting the next school as an old timer.  Someone who can make a place for new people and actually know where things are.  I don't have to start over for once in teaching.  I get my same classroom.  A lot of same students.  Same coworkers, same house and same familiar environment.  I can't wait!  Its a first for me.  Normally I have a new job because I was laid off of the old one.  The closest I have gotten prior to this year to having the same job was having the same school but different type of students.
      Looking back on this past year, I can see some changes that have taken place in me.  But I suspect I won't know exactly how much has changed until I'm around family and friends and they notice the difference.  Or I notice the difference in the way that I respond to things or interact with people.
I will be in CA mostly this vacation with a short trip to MT to see my sister.  I haven't seen her in a couple of years or more and I've never met my niece who is 2 1/2 yrs.  
        I will also be taking part in VBS at my church and just hanging out with people.  Can't wait!
I will return to Chiang Mai in July with my kitty Lily in tow.  Excited about that too.  I hope to make a short trip down to Ao Nang, same place that I went to for spring break.  I made connections with people down there and I love the environment.  If a job ever opens up there, I plan to apply.  Have you ever just felt like you belonged somewhere?  Santa Cruz will always be that to me.  But now Thailand is that.

12 days to go!!

Post Vacation

Vacation officially ended on Monday.  While its painful to get up early, it wasn't so bad to be back in a routine.  I did love my vacation especially when I left town.  I went down to the small town of Ao Nang on the province of Krabi.  It is not far from Krabi town.  The beach is nice and fairly quiet as beaches go.  There was another beach close by that was totally peaceful. I could easily do a quiet time there on a regular basis.  I enjoyed getting to know my friends Zina and Doc better and meeting new friends.  Zina and Doc have a Muay Thai ministry and a small expat church.  Muay Thai is thai boxing that includes kickboxing.  Its a thai sport but other countries have picked it up.  My friends are professionals in this sport and use it as a launchpad to evangelize.  They haI cve an open air church that recently started meeting at a spa resort.  Previously they met at their house and McDonalds.  It was really great to see how people are just going for it in the Lord down there.  Ao Nang is nearly all  Muslim whereas Chiang Mai has a large Buddhist community.  I have to admit that I loved it down there and hope that a job will open up for special education. 

Phi Phi Island Tour

I really did climb all those steep steps

View from the top of Watthamsua

Don't get me wrong.  I love my job at CMIS.  I enjoy being able to have ideas and people are actually interested in them and I'm not just one member of a dept but someone who can actually contribute to change.  I normally don't mention ideas or have any.  But I really feel like I'm in a place where I can grow and have grown.
I can't say it hasn't been hard in Chiang Mai.  I think its hard to relocate to a country in general.  But as a single person it seems more challenging.  I have to really look for people to talk to when things are tough or I need help.  My neighborhood has been good to me and helpful.  I'm the only one who isn't married with kids but the kids come to my house to play with the cats.  Some days it is so stretching be cause I'm tired and I don't want to monitor the kids and they have so much energy.  Also thai kids are on summer break right now so they are home all day.  But there are days when I just find myself having energy that I didn't know I had like today.  Paeng from across the way dropped by.  At first I was annoyed   because I was tired and so hot.  The temperature is in the 100s most days now and my house doesn't cool down very well.  But we went outside and she asked for the notepad that I have.  I bought some notepads because I noticed that the kids like to write thai and pictures.  She wrote some of the English ABCs that she has been learning and practiced her colors.  It transitioned into her doing hand over hand to show me how to write thai.  Then she started play acting like in a restaurant where I ordered in thai and she pretended to be entertainment.  When the rain showed up, things changed.  My sala is  covered so we could stay outside.  But we were able to see the girls next door having a blast in the puddles and the rain.  Clearly I'm not the only one who thought it was hot.  Eventually the younger kids joined in and Paeng pulled me in to jump as well.  We jumped in the puddle outside my house and ran down the street and jumped in other puddles.  It was actually fun.  The kids had a blast as we were also joined by the 2 young kids who live next door to me.  I'm glad I decided to get away from my computer and have a little fun.
Approximately 5 weeks til I arrive in the USA again.  I plan to be in the states for a month or so.  Hard to believe that so much time as past.  I can't imagine how things will look after being gone so long.

April and Spring Break and Life in General

My school year is nearly over.  Its hard to believe that its April.  Everything feels normal and routine but boy am I ready for vacation.  My students are not difficult so I don't have that fatigue.  But I miss the 3 days weekends that normally happen in February and the extra long winter break.  Come April, we really feel it.  We are on break for 2 weeks in exactly 1 day.  For the first week I will stay around Chiang Mai.  My motivation was Easter and Songkran.  I will spend only one day here for Songkran because I think I will be done with it after that.  Songkran is quite popular in Chiang Mai and people come from all over just to celebrate it here in Chiang Mai.  Songkran is basically a giant water fight and no one is safe especially if you're a foreigner.  I think the roots have something to do with washing away sin but in the Buddhist religion.  Its become a huge water party.  Tonight I saw one of my neighbor girls trying out her water weapon. I let her experiment on Ya Ya and then she got me.  But the adults were not so excited.  I think they were worried that I might be upset.  I'm roasting hot with the humidity and heat right now so I didn't have a problem with it. Figured I'd be dry in the hour. 
For my second week of vacation, I will head south to Ao Nang.  It is located by the beach on Krabi.  I met some people at the Foursquare convention in the fall and they have a ministry down there.  Figured I could relax and hang with them.  I'm totally looking forward to it.  They are actually putting me up in an apt next door to them for a really cheap price and setting up fun activities.  Lately I've been feeling a bit homesick so I'll be glad for the distraction.
I'm beginning to nail down my plans for June.  I will be in CA on June 4.  I will spend the first week roughly with my family.  Then I will head to Santa Cruz area to complete a health class-part of clearing my credential and visit with friends.  I'll be around for VBS also so I can catch some of that.  I will spend the last part of June with my sister in MT and then head back to Thailand with my Lily cat in tow shortly afterwards. 
 I'm already set for my second year in Thailand.  I'll actually get to do the same job 2 years in a row for once.  In teaching, I haven't been able to do that due to layoffs.  Finally!

Its March!!

Its March and it seems like time is flying.  I will be back in CA for the first time in nearly a year in only 2 1/2 months approx.  I've never been out of the country this long.  I literally haven't even left Thailand although I hope to next month for a short vacation. 

Our quarter ends this week.  Everyone is busy with report cards or comments or in my case, learning support plans.  I did a much better job with my plans this time around.  I actually got the due date correct and all of my plans are done and being review by my immediate supervisor.  After that they go to the principal for final approval and then given to parents.  Next quarter will be busy as I'll be testing most likely every week and wrapping up the plans for my departing students.  Some will return to their home country and others off to secondary school.

This week also marked the end of my drama club.  We were required to run a club for 5 weeks.  I wasn't sure what to expect so I picked drama.  Shockay! Right?  I co led the group with a  co-worker although she left most of the leading to me.  I had a group of 10 girls from 5th grade and 1 from 6th grade.  They learned monologues and a short play.  Although we didn't have enough practice time to have a polished production or even get all lines memorized, they still did an amazing job and had a lot of fun.  My goal was to make it fun and low key after all, they picked the club because they wanted to act.  We had a small performance yesterday.  We had hoped to use the stage but a scheduling conflict in the 11th hour made that impossible.  So we relocated to the music room when the Elementary music teacher offered to let us use it.  We had a small audience of parents, an administrator and the dance club.  I think everyone had a good time.

This week also marked other exciting news as well.  I am part of a community choir called the Chiang Mai Community Choir.  We perform twice a year.  I joined in the fall after hearing about it from a co worker.  Shortly afterwards, I found a private voice teacher and have been getting my singing fix covered.  For our June concert, our director mentioned the possibility of solos but never gave any more details.  One of the songs I knew we were doing, I was hoping to get the solo from but when I finally got up the nerve to ask, it was already spoken for.  However my director surprised me when he asked me to come early to practice this week.  He wanted me to do an impromptu audition for part of Sound of Music.  We were supposed to do a medley from the musical but it was nixed.  However my director revamped it and kept the Hills are Alive part and one of the other songs that were in the medley but not from the musical.  Long story short, he gave me the Hills Are Alive solo and I'll be singing with a mic for the song that comes immediately afterwards.  My first solo with a choir and I'm excited.  I'll be nervous later.

February

Hard to believe its February already.  Time flies.  Our 3rd quarter ends in only a couple of weeks.  Boy have I been busy.  This seems to be a popular time for teachers to realize that their students need more help.  Its nice being in a position where I can make changes and be the expert even when I don't feel like one.

Scottish Tug O War

Last Friday our school had an International Day.  We had booths representing different countries including demonstrations, games and food put on by the parents.  There was also a variety of food to choose from at lunch representing several nations.  I had a Chinese/German lunch.  I'm a sucker for dumplings and sausage.  After lunch, the students dressed up in their natives costumes and had a parade.  It was a lot of fun and the students seemed to enjoy themselves.  The day concluded with a performance where different classes and students sang and danced to songs from different countries.  Its amazing how many different countries our school represents.



Parade

Latin Dance

German Booth

Happy New Year!

     Its a new year and a new semester.  Its amazing that I'm halfway through my school year now.  My little kitties are growing and are quite popular with the neighborhood kids.  Unfortunately they haven't yet figured out that if they don't want to be puppets, they should run to the roof when the kids come to play.  Smokey has made friends with a girl cat in the neighborhood who thinks she lives here.  Ya Ya has made it clear that she doesn't like her.  Ya Ya told another cat in the neighborhood the same thing.  Funny thing is, although they are at least twice her size, they know she means business.
      I'm feeling pretty settled here in Chiang Mai.  I've begun meeting more neighbors.  I have a pretty family centered neighborhood.  Its interesting the freedom that the parents give their kids though.  In the states, parents would never let their child hang out in a stranger's house.  But the kids in my neighborhood come in-apparently walking right in is normal to them, and sometimes they come on their own.  I only see their parents if they want their child to come.  But mostly the parents just call and the kids return home.  I'm trying to use the little thai that I've learned so I can remember it better.  But they don't always understand me.  Some of them speak some English though.  I think they feel comfortable with me.
    Just recently I was given a great offer.  My professor from grad school asked me if I wanted to do an article with her on special ed in Thailand for a journal.  So very cool!  Not to mention great experience.  I can't wait to see how it turns out. Keep you posted.

Traditional flowers presented to the teachers at the ceremony

Secondary teachers being presented with flowers

Secondary teacher presentation-the 4th graders are coming in on their knees

    Last week was teacher appreciation week.  The Korean parents brought us lunch one day.  The PTG brought snacks another and the Thai parents brought lunch another day.  The weekend ended with a half day which included an assembly.  In the assembly, the teachers were presented with a traditional bunch of flowers in banana leaves brought to us by the fourth graders who walked on their knees.  It is a sign of respect when someone walks on their knees.  Its done in the temple as well.  We had short little conversations with our 4th grade presenter and gave them a blessing.  They walked off-on their knees.