New Blessings in a New School Year

After six weeks in our new apartment, we are still without Internet, so I'm going to stop putting off writing this post and just do it! Sorry for the delay! :)

We are three weeks into the new school year at Kasintorn St. Peter School. John is loving third grade. He has a wonderful Thai teacher to help him with classroom control, and his kids are really great. After his struggle with his fifth graders last year, he is so glad for this pleasant teaching experience. There is a great support system among the teachers at our new school, so he is becoming friends with our coworkers and they like to bounce ideas around. It's so refreshing to work in a creative environment this year. I am still plugging away with my Preschoolers. I really love the kids and the K2 teacher from the other class, but the system is frustrating and stressful. The poor kids have to complete worksheets and workbooks all day long, and don't have time built in their schedule for play or for conversation. I am doing the best that I can, but I would appreciate your prayers.

We have met some wonderful people through the school, and are really enjoying having people over for dinner and getting to know them better. We have become friends with a great Christian couple, and they invited us to their church last Sunday. They are connected with a small Thai church. They have a Thai service and an English service separately, but they meet in between for lunch together. We felt very much at home and will definitely go again. We have also started attending a Bible study at a Philipina teacher's house. There are four people (plus us), three of which are our colleagues. That group already has been a big encouragement to us. We are so grateful for these people God has brought into our lives.

Another incredible blessing has come through the form of one of John's students, Alan. If some of you are thinking the name sounds Hispanic, you are right. His Mom is Spanish and his Dad is Thai. We got together with his folks and him last Sunday and spoke rapid Spanish for four blissful hours. They have a cute Castillian accent and are wonderful people. Even the Dad speaks Spanish. What a random, awesome blessing for us!! We miss speaking Spanish, but more than that, we miss being able to communicate with people! We are slowly building up our Thai vocabulary, but still, our Thai is limited to taxis, markets, and food. Honestly, once you've said "hello, how are you, I would like one phad thai with chicken and lime, how much is it, thanks" you don't feel like a life-long friendship is forming, especially when you know that the next time, you will only be able to say the same thing again.

On another note, another exciting thing for us is our motorbike. We "bought" it from a friend who was moving back to the US, and we have saved a ton of money on transportation already. Plus, it's just a lot of fun. Maybe more for me than for John, since he has to deal with driving in traffic, and I just have to sit on the back holding our stuff and enjoying the ride. But seriously, we love it! For the boys reading this blog, I better say that it's a Honda Wave, 110cc, I guess they don't sell them in the US, but this sort of scooter is the minivan of Asia. We have actually seen up to five people, a dog, and a bunch of groceries on these things. For the girls, I can mention that it's a cute red color.

Last weekend, we made a trip we never would have without the bike. We went 50 km away to a place called Nakhon Pathom. It claims to be the oldest city in Thailand, and according to our Lonely Planet guidebook, the chedi at the temple is the tallest Buddhist monument in the world, rising to an impressive 127 meters.

That's enough for today, I think. I still haven't brought you up to date, but that gives you something to read, and I'll post more later, including some pictures. We love you guys and hope you're doing well. Stay in touch!

A Month in Thailand: A Random Assortment of Events in the Sullivan Family

Sorry for the delay in posting. We have been without Internet for a month, and are still trying to get it installed at our new apartment... It's just part of living in Thailand. But although we haven't written, we've sure been busy. Here's what we've been up to:

We successfully moved to a new area of Bangkok. We were sad to leave Muang Thong, but we really like our new area: Bang Yai. We have been living in our new apartment for 3 weeks now, at The Square, and it's a beautiful upgrade. It has a nice living room, a separate bedroom,

and (drumroll please) a KITCHEN!!!

We bought ourselves a little toaster oven, and have been having so much fun. Quiche for dinner tonight. We have shops nearby, and a movie theatre literally 100 steps from us. Here's a view of our street.

Yes, it is a lot more urban than last year.

Since John is sick of hearing me sing Kindergarten songs in the evenings, we decided to get some alternate entertainment. What did we get? 2 dwarf rabbits! We named them Yai

and Lek,

literally "Big" and "Little." They are so much fun!

For the past two weeks, while poor John has been sitting at home bored out of his mind, I have been teaching Summer School at our new school: Kasintorn St. Peter School. After two crazy weeks, I now consider myself a real Kindergarten teacher. Actually, I teach K2, which is the equivalent of second year Preschool in the US. Let me show you the difference in size of my students from last year and this year...

I am in charge of 28 four-year old students. I teach English, Math, Science, Art, Cooking, Singing and Games, and many other things. I am in the classroom with them all day, so I help take them to the bathroom, eat lunch, take naps, and everything else. I have two Thai teachers in the room with me most of the time, and I'm so glad to have them to help me, as the students are quite a handful, and they speak virtually no English. It has been fun thinking of all the songs and games that I used to play when I was little and/or when I was teaching Sunday School. I've forgotten so many! I would love any comments with suggestions of games, songs, or activities.

I am collecting some great stories. For example: The first week, we took the students on a field trip to the Bangkok planetarium and science museum. I was solely in charge of 8 little kids who spoke very little English, who look exactly like all the other hundreds of kids in the place and are all wearing the same uniform!! When we got to the planetarium, there were only 5 seats left, so I fit my 8 kids into 4 seats and sat myself at the end where I could keep an eye on them.

As soon as the lights went out, one girl started shrieking and crying and trying to run out the door. So I took her on my lap and tried to get her to calm down. It was an hour-long show, so two boys got bored and kept getting out of their seats. So I added another one of my lap. Half way in, another girl burst into terrified tears; while still holding the two children in my lap, I stood up, trying not to be too obnoxious in the front row, and walked over to pick her up too. Needless to say, I thought the hour would never end!! We finally got back to the van all in one piece, only to have to clean up the worst nose bleed I've ever seen!! Yikes!!

On a different note, we've enjoyed exploring a new area. Here we are in colorful India town in Bangkok with a couple of teachers from Kasintorn.

And, just for fun, some pictures of our new fruit market near our house. Piles of coconut,

mountains of Durian (The Thai national fruit: smells exactly like rotting garbage. Yum!),

and everything else imaginable...