Happy Birthday Jared!

Last week, we celebrated Jared's birthday with a bunch of friends. His birthday fell on a Wednesday night, and the climbing guys insisted we celebrate that night. We started with dinner at a meat restaurant, followed by hitting some balls at the bating cages conveniently located across the street from where we were eating. Then we continued on to a makalie house (rice wine), then to a hof, which is a place that usually has closed off booths and serves alcohol, but you are supposed to order food too...mostly snacks. They gave us "service" (free) sausages, fruit, and chips. It was nice of them, and we never did order food. Overall, a fun night. Jared had many friends come support him!

While spending too much money recently, we have gone to a baseball game in Busan, the beach a few times, saw Inception (loved it!), keeping up with karate 3-4 times a week, and have been eating many social bbq dinners with friends. I have been pushing my running time up and last week did 80 minutes one night. I have been running with a good friend, Ann, who is training for a full marathon, and running with someone else is so much more enjoyable than running alone.

School is going well. Our morning classes (5, 6, and 7 yr olds) are now practicing for open house, which they do in about 3 weeks. They spend a full month practicing the same thing every day-a couple songs, a poem, and a skit. Then they perform it all for their parents. We have been and will continue doing this in the mornings, pretty much until we leave, which for me makes the day much less stressful. We don't have to try to teach them phonics, or get them sitting down..it's much more fun.

So after open house in 3.5 weeks, we are pretty much out of here. Down to 28 days here, but only 20 days teaching. Wow, getting nervous about what to do at home and putting many thoughts that direction now.

My mom asked me to think about the first home cooked meal she would make us when we get home. I know I want fresh bread and corn on the cob, but I'm still developing the main meal. It makes my mouth water to think that we will be able to eat cilantro, pesto, black olives, feta cheese, and fresh bread and pizza in just about a month!

I miss Thailand!

Last week, we went to Thailand, and I wanna go back! The food, beaches, massages, and shopping are stuck in my mind.

We arrived in Bangkok on a Sunday night. After taking a taxi to KhaoSan Road, the foreigner block, it was after midnight, but we were so excited to be there. We walked around a bit..the night was going strong-people all over the streets, food and clothes being sold, and everyone seemed to be happy. We found a quieter side road, had a beer, then found a room for the night.

The next day we took a 6 hour bus south east to a small, sleepy town called Trat. We found a room, then walked around this tiny town. We had the most amazing green curry and chicken pad thai at a cute place called Cool Corner. We then went to check out the night market, but it started downpouring, so most things closed up. Instead, we found a indoor jungle-type place, and had a few drinks..

The next morning, we took a ferry to Koh Chang, the second largest island in Thailand. We walked down a long shopping strip, spent hours looking at endless amounts of clothing and doo-dads before stopping for some delicious naan at an Indian Restaurant. After that, we deciced to take a taxi further down the coast to a less touristy strip for the beach. Our co-workers had recommended staying at some beach huts, so we went to check them out. We ended up getting our own bungolow literally on the beach for $20 a night, which is a lot of money to spend on a room in Thailand, but we kinda splurged..We rented a scooter and rode down the coast further, checked out some other beaches, and took pictures of elepahants. When we got back, we had dinner at a Thai place, run by an ex-Jamaican seeming guy. We had wonderful Curry and Pad Thai, and spent a long time hanging around there. The man was the cook, his wife preped the food, and their 7 year old (maybe) son served the tables. They were pretty busy, and it was fun to watch the boy. He even poured people shots, and delivered beers...I guess Thailand doesn't have an age restriction for serving alcohol!

We spent the next day on Koh Chang, taking a mini hike to check out a waterfall, swimming, eating delicious food, and getting amazing Thai massages on the beach. It was also a wonderful sunset that night, so we walked the beach and took tons of pictures, and collected shells.

The next morning, we took a scary 2 hr. boat ride (quite big waves-had a family of 5 with us on the boat, and the twin 3 year olds were crying and throwing up the whole time!) to a very small island called Ko Maak. We heard that most things would be closed since it was the rainy season, but we found a place to stay at Monkey Island Resort, a cool place on the beach run by a bunch of dread heads. Again, we had a bungolow on the beach, but only paid about $12 for the night. We spent the day walking on the beach, getting massages again, and checking out the tiny town strip, made up of 4 buildings. The beach wasn't as nice at Koh Chang because it was the time of year when the currents bring trash up, and only the resorts that were open cared to clean. But it was nice to walk the beach and not see anyone else for a long time. We collected lots of cool shells!

In the morning, we took an early boat back to mainland, then the 6 hr. bus back to Bangkok, getting us to the foreigneer street with enough time to drop off our bags, get a quick delicious dinner, then head off to a night market...where we shopped for a few hours. Everything is so cheap, it's hard not to buy it all!

After sleeping a few hours, we got up early and headed to the Weekend Market, which has between 9,000 and 15,000 stalls. We spent many, many hours walking around, shopping, until our feet were hurting and we could officially say we were tired of shopping. We headed to a large famous temple, the Wat Pho, and saw the big reclining Buddah, amoung a bunch of golden buildings. Afterwards, we headed down to the riverside, and had dinner cross river from the Wat Arun, another famous temple. The sun set behind it, while we were eating, and it was a lovely, romantic dinner. When we finished, we only ahd about 3 hours til the bus was coming to pick us up for our flight, so we quickly headed back to KhoaSan Road to do last minute street shopping. We shopped until the last possible minute, before heading to our room, quickly packing, then catching the bus to the airport. We left at 1am and got back to Kora, via Beijing, at 1135A Sunday. We had Sunday to nap, unpack, and mentally prepare for 7 more weeks of school.

It's been almost a week since we've been back now, and we are down to 6 weeks. We ahve sent home 4 big boxes of stuff, and have at least one or two more that we still need to pack up. We have spent today cleaning things out, and making piles of things we need to send back. I know we still ahve 6 weeks, but our weekends are packed, and I'm sure time will fly between now and leaving.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!