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...
I really miss you guys! I love all of your pictures. :) Any chance you'll be near Oregon next May???
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