Proud Teacher

Hello family! It has been too long since I last updated. I cannot believe that I will be home in four days. This semester in Thailand has gone by so fast! Coming home is bittersweet. On one hand, I cannot wait to see my family again but on the other hand, I'm going to miss my students so much. The school carnival and performances were on Friday night. My class performed "Shake it Off" so well for their parents in the audience. Chester, who is usually so quiet and shy, did the best singing and dancing in the class. I was a proud teacher. I have to admit that I started crying during their performance. These kids definitely have a special place in my heart. The last three days I have with them are definitely going to be very emotional for me. I've had many adventures during these last 4 1/2 months in Thailand that I will definitely never forget. However, I think my favorite and most rewarding part of this experience was teaching my wonderful kids. Thank you Basia, Nest, Moo Pee, Sun, Tiger, Pizza, Chester, and Yibso. You have forever changed my life!

Quick Update

Hello family! There is not much to report on. We are celebrating Thanksgiving tonight at Tang's house. I also have my third cold in 3 months, so my nose is stuffy and my voice is completely lost. Oh well! We are also going on vacation with the Thai teachers this weekend at the floating market near Bangkok. The Thai teachers have become such good friends over the last few months. They are the funniest and nicest ladies ever. There's also only 3 1/2 more weeks until I come home. I miss you all and hope you all are well!

Hell Breaks Loose in Chiang Mai

Hello family! I would do a recap of all the amazing things I did in Chiang Mai, but words can't describe how amazing it was to hang out with elephants, tigers, and to do some pretty scary ziplining through the Thailand jungle. Instead I'll write about what happened at the very end of our Chiang Mai trip. After visiting Tiger Kingdom on Sunday morning, we decided to go and see the koalas and pandas at the Chiang Mai Zoo. I had been looking forward to this for months. We got ice cream at Tiger Kingdom and I had just finished my cone in the tuk tuk on the way to the zoo. All of the sudden, there was deep rumble in my stomach and a queasy feeling came over me. The bumpy tuk tuk ride with 6 other people also didn't help. "I think I need to throw up," I said suddenly. Everyone suddenly leaned away from me. I don't blame them. I clutched my stomach and bent over the rest of ride, but I actually didn't end up throwing up. We got to the zoo and I felt terrible, but I still wanted to see the pandas. We bought our tickets and I stopped in the bathroom before going in. I kept thinking I needed to throw up, but I couldn't. The rest of girls went into the zoo and Kim stayed behind with me. After 10 minutes of waiting to throw up, I concluded that I wouldn't. Kim and I headed toward the pandas, but I began to feel really weak. I felt so weak I didn't even think I could make it to the pandas. I sat on a bench and broke down in tears, I felt so sick. Kim was so sweet and just sat with me while I cried. Tanner and Lindsay arrived at the entrance but decided they weren't going in and were just going to wait outside for us. I didn't want Kim to miss out on the zoo, so we decided that I would go sit with Tanner and Lindsay. I felt so weak, I didn't even think I could make it to the entrance. On the way to the entrance, I felt something coming up. Kim handed me a 7-11 bag and I puked into it in front of dozens of staring people. Then I couldn't stop. I made it to the bathroom at the entrance and continued to puke into the disgusting toilets. When I could catch my breath, I started crying again. I was so sick, but had no home or hotel to go back to. I only had a 7 hour bus ride back to Phichit that night. At some point, Courtney came in to check on me. After a couple hours, I emerged. The 7 hour bus ride to Phichit was terrible. It was long and bumpy and I felt like I was going to pass out. Poor Kim had to sit next to me the whole ride. The illness lasted until Tuesday night. The only benefit was that I didn't have to teach for 2 days. Don't worry Mom! I'm all better now! So that was my adventure in Chiang Mai. Thailand is definitely making me stronger! I hope all of you are well!

Krabi

Hello family! We are leaving for Chiang Mai at 4 AM tomorrow morning so I better recap Krabi before we leave for our next vacation! I also realize that all my posts lack photos. Please just look at the photos on Facebook and when I get them all together on my computer, I will do a big post with pictures! Now onto Krabi. We flew into Bangkok from Cambodia on Tuesday, October 28. We met up with Michele's mom, Anita, at the airport. She is such a nice and fun lady. We caught our flight to Krabi and took a bus to our hostel. We then changed into our swimsuits and took a tuk tuk to Ao Nang to hang out on the beach. It was beautiful and looked like it came straight out of a postcard. There was also a colony of monkeys wandering around the beach. They were very used to humans and even climbed onto a man's shoulders and didn't even flinch when people took pictures with them. The next morning we took a 2 hour ferry ride to Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi Island was one of the craziest places I have ever been to. The entire island was filled entirely with American and European tourists. The only Thai people on the island were people who worked there. It was almost all young people too. The entire island was filled with bars and clubs. People there just party all night long. It is practically desereted during the morning. We met several Scandinavian young people who live on the island. They work in the bars and just party their lives away. We met a nice Danish guy named Anders who worked in one of the bars. He said we were probably the only adults on Phi Phi Island who didn't drink. Despite the party atmosphere, Phi Phi Island was the most beautiful place I have ever visited. We spent Wednesday just hanging out at the beach. On Thursday, we took a longboat tour of the islands around Phi Phi. We also went snorkeling. Yes, even I went snorkeling! I still don't know how to swim though. I just wore a life jacket and stayed by the boat. Our boat driver gave us bread to attract the fish. Seeing all the pretty fish underwater was breathtaking and a once in a lifetime experience. On Friday, we hung out at the beach some more and did some more shopping. That afternoon we took the ferry back to Krabi. On Saturday we took another longboat tour around the Seven Islands. The water was so shallow you could walk from one island to the next. There was also a giant rock that you could go rock climbing on. When you get tired of rock climbing, you just jump off the rock into the ccean. I was too chicken to climb the rock, however. We had a barbecue that night and went snorkeling again to see the glowing plankton in the water at night. On Sunday, we flew back to Bangkok. We took the Skytrain into the city and did some more shopping at one of the megamalls. We took the night bus to make it back to Phichit in time to teach the next morning.

Cambodia

Hello family! We just got back from our two week vacation to Cambodia and Krabi! I will just recap our Cambodia trip in this post. It was a crazy experience! We left early Thursday morning October 23rd. The van picked us up at 4 AM for the 5 hour drive to the Bangkok Airport. We flew Bangkok Airways to Phnom Penh. It was the nicest airline I've ever flown. We got served lunch even though the flight was only an hour long. We got to the Phnom Penh Airport and bought our visas on arrival. We took a tuk tuk to our hostel to drop off our stuff and then we went to the Killing Fields. It was such a humbling and sad place to visit. Cambodia lost almost a quarter of its population under Pol Pot's regime. They had an amazing audio tour with stories from survivors. The Killing Fields was an amazing place to visit. We went back to our hostel and that was when the trip took an interesting turn. We found out that our hostel had visa renewal services and that they could take our passports to the Thai Embassy to get our new visas. Since we no longer had to go to the Thai Embassy the next day, we had no reason to stay in Phnom Penh and decided to ditch our hostel and take the overnight bus to Siem Reap. This is when it got sketchy. The tuk tuk driver who had been driving us around all day took us to this travel agency to buy our bus tickets. We bought tickets for the 11 PM bus to Siem Reap, but we didn't have enough change to buy our return tickets. We went to a restaurant for dinner and one of the girls (definitely not me) wanted our tuk tuk driver to eat with us. He was friendly but semi pervy. I was rolling my eyes at the rest of the girls who wanted him to eat with us. Then a guy from the travel agency appears out of the blue and sits down at the table with us. He actually followed us to the restaurant. He pressured us to buy the return tickets and promised us free transportation in Siem Reap if we bought the tickets. I was skeptical of this because of all the rip offs in Cambodia and sketchy travel deals. However, we ended up buying the tickets from this travel agency guy while the pervy tuk tuk driver was flirting with Courtney. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us knowing we were being taken advantage of. I had no idea what we were getting into. The woman at the hostel had never heard of the bus company we had bought our tickets from. To make a long story short, everything worked out. It was a legit bus company and the travel agency guy delivered on his promise of free transportation in Siem Reap. I will never do that again though. The overnight bus was a crazy, uncomfortable experience filled with interesting characters. It was something I'm glad to check of my "life experiences" list, but I never want to take an overnight bus in Cambodia again. We got to Siem Reap Friday morning and took a cooking class later that day. It was a lot of fun and we made yummy curry. We also got fish foot massages that day. On Saturday, we saw Angkor Wat at sunrise. It was beautiful and all the ruins around Angkor Wat looked like they came right out of a movie. On Sunday, we went to a temple and a waterfall on Kulen Mountain. It started pouring rain and we got soaked. It was beautiful to see all the water rushing down the moutain. However,I didn't have that good of a time though because I wasn't feeling well that day. We took another overnight bus back to Siem Reap and got back to Phnom Penh Mondy morning. We got our passports and new visas and that was a relief. We also visited an orphanage. We had heard of the scam orphanages in Cambodia that charge money but we found a legit one online. We went to an orphanage called Lifhouse Society and it was so much fun to hang out with the kids. There were mostly teenagers there during the day. They were very nice and painted our nails for us. We also bought some bracelets that they sell to raise money for the orphanage. We spent one more night in Phnom Penh and flew to Krabi on Tuesday. Cambodia was a nice trip, but I like Thailand much better. I will do a post on Krabi next!

Mini Vacation Before Our Vacation

Hello family! This weekend we FINALLY made our way to Sukhothai, the ruins of the first capital of Thailand. We have been meaning to go for two months now, but Sukhothai has been flooded so we finally got to go this weekend. We left Saturday morning and took the train to Phitsanulok. We then had to take a tuk tuk to the bus station and take a bus to Sukothai. It was about an hour away from Phitsanulok. We had originally planned to rent bikes and bike around Sukhothai, but we were already tired when we got there. We ended up taking a tuk tuk tour around central Sukhothai. Our driver took us to all the major ruins and the tour lasted about 3 hours. The ruins were awe-inspiring and were in the middle of a beautiful park! Our driver took us back to the bus station and we took the bus back to Phitsanulok. We all pretty much slept the entire bus ride. When we got back to Phitsanulok, we walked to our hotel and checked into our rooms. We hadn't eaten anything all day, so we made our way across the street to the Big C. I had pizza and Dairy Queen for dinner and it was glorious. That night we were going to go see the new Dracula movie in English at Central Plaza, but Courtney, Michele, Kim, and I were too tired to go, so only Lexy and Leanna ended up seeing it. The next morning, we went to church. We ran into the ILP girls teaching at the school in Phitsanulok, so we decided to leave after sacrament meeting and go hang out with them at their school. The girls in Phitsanulok were so nice and fun to hang out with, we wondered why we haven't hung out with them before. They have already taken their vacation to the islands, so they gave us lots of good advice on what to do there. I also grew a little jealous of the Phitsanulok girls. They only have to teach 10 hours a week while I have to teach 20 hours. Their coordinator also seems a lot cooler and less flaky and cheap with them like Tang is with us. However, I had to remember how blessed I was to be teaching at the Phichit school. If I was at the Phitsanulok school, I never would've met my awesome kiddies. I can't imagine being with any other kids besides Nest, Pizza, Moo Pee, Sun, Basia, Yipso, Tiger, and Chester!

Hump Day

Hello family! Tomorrow is Wednesday so that means it's hump day! Not only are we already half way through the week, we are also officially half way through our stay in Thailand. We've been here for nine weeks and have nine weeks left! It has been a little hectic this week with finishing winter camps and getting ready to leave for Cambodia and Krabi next week. Mom and Leanna also leave for Boston this week to visit Katie. I'm so jealous you guys are having a vacation without me! Eat delicious food for me.There are only nine more weeks until I see you guys again!

The Boy Named Name

Hello family! I finished my third day of teaching winter camps today. It is so much harder teaching the winter camps than my usual classes. The kids are just so little that they can't pay attention and it's not like they understand anything you're saying anyway. I literally had to hold one boy's hands down the entire class because he wouldn't stop touching everything and getting out of his seat. To make matters worse, one of the Thai preschool teachers dramatically quit today. She stopped showing up to work on Monday. We saw her crying and fighting with the other Thai teachers last week, so that probably contributed to her quitting. That means there is one less Thai teacher to help me handle the preschool kids. I had to pull up a boy's pants today while he stenched of poop. Not fun friends, not fun. I miss my kindergarten class and the bratty elementary kids! However, there is one boy who makes my day better. His name is Name and he is the son of one of cooks. He's coming to winter camps to learn a little English. He's around 11 or 12 but he's stuck in class with 4 and 5 year olds. He is so nice and friendly. He is always smiling and is so willing to learn English. He is the only one who listens and rolls his eyes at the crazy little kids. It's too bad he can't come to school at Imperial because the school is only preschool through second grade. We're thinking of giving him private English lessons when winter camps are over because he wants to learn English, but doesn't have the opportunity to do so. I'm going to stop here before it turns into another Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. I hope you all are well!

First World Problems?

Hello family! We started winter camps today. It's so crazy teaching the really little kids. They are only 2 and 3 years old! I just held one boy the entire class because he wouldn't stop bawling. We didn't even get through half the craft we were making today because the kids were just staring at me not understanding any English. I will get used to these new kids but I miss my usual kiddos. I won't teach my normal class again for a month! On another note, it has been so hot these past few days. I was really tired on Thursday and wanted to take a nap, but it was too hot to even lay on my bed. I've also been dreaming of food other than rice. I was wishing last night that my pillow was a donut! I guess these are just first world problems, but Lexy and I were discussing whether they were still first world problems while we're living in a third world country? I guess not huh? I love and miss you all!

My Birthday

Hello family! My birthday on Monday was definitely one I will never forget. I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed on Sunday night. We had just gotten back from Bangkok and everyone was tired. I didn't expect my birthday to be a big deal. On Monday I was in for a big surprise. I walked into the school in the morning expecting it to be a normal day. I then saw balloons on the staircase leading up to my classroom and all of my students excitedly waiting for me. I walked in and the entire classroom was decorated with balloons and banners. One of my students gave me a a beautiful bouquet of Thai flowers. The kids then gave me a card that said Happy Birthday in Thai on the front. Inside, the kids all signed their names and drew pictures of me. They sang to me twice during opening. I was so touched and had tears in my eyes, but I didn't know the most touching moment was still to come. I was teaching later in the morning and Teacher Lexy came upstairs asking my class and Teacher Michele's class to come downstairs. I honestly had no idea what was going on. I brought my students downstairs and almost the whole school was assembled in the opening room. All five preschool and kindergarten classes as well as Tang, the security guards, and the Thai teachers were waiting for me. Teacher Kim invited me to the front and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me in English and Thai. Afterwards, all the kids, including the ones I don't even teach, all swarmed me with hugs saying "We love Teacher Jessie." We then took a group picture and the Thai teachers brought out a cake they bought for me at the bakery. I was in full blown tears at that point. This was definitely one of most special birthdays I've ever had. Teaching and living in Thailand has been anything but easy, but moments like that make it all worth it. I cannot tell you how much I have learned these past two months. I know that there is love and kindness in the world. I love all the kids and teachers at the school and am touched by their love for me. This experience has definitely made me stronger and has helped me better love and appreciate everyone at home. I can't wait to see you all again!

We Went to Bangkok and Only Got Ripped Off 3 Times

Hello family! We just got back from our weekend Bangkok trip. The weekend was fun, but went by so fast! On Friday, we left for Bangkok right after catch-up. Ton drove us to random store where the "bus" would pick us up at 5:30. It turned out to be a tiny van carrying a dozen people to Bangkok. The five and half hour drive actually went by really fast, but he was a crazy driver! At one point, he was driving on the wrong side of the road, but I think he was actually just trying to avoid potholes. We got dropped off on the side of road at around 11 pm and caught a taxi to our hostel. That was the first time we were ripped off. Our taxi driver claimed his meter was broken and overcharged us. Our hostel was very nice and though we were staying in the mixed dorm, we didn't have any other roommates. We got up early the next morning and walked to the Skytrain station to go to the Grand Palace. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a little breakfast on the way. We got lost a couple times, but finally made it to the river. We got ripped off a second time by taking a more expensive longboat to the Grand Palace instead of the public ferry, but it was fun riding in the longboat. We made it to the Grand Palace and walked around the beautiful grounds. We saw the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was fun but very hot in our long skirts! On the way back from the Grand Palace, we stopped at another temple to see the Reclining Buddha. We then decided we needed to get a little lunch. We took a tuk tuk to a megamall called Station 21. It had over 10 floors and each floor was named and themed after a world city. We got Mexican food on the San Francisco floor and walked around the London, Paris, and Istanbul floors. They even had H&M on the Paris floor! It was definitely the most crowded store in the mall. After the mall, we got Thai massages at a massage parlor near our hostel. This was my second Thai massage and a guy did it. Unlike the woman at the massage parlor in Phichit, he did not massage my butt. This morning we went to the bus station and bought tickets back to Phichit. We rode an actual bus back to Phichit with comfortable seats and TVs onboard. This bus even came with an attendant and free drinks and snacks. It was also actually cheaper than the van. So that was our weekend in Bangkok. It was a nice getaway. We also have only one more week teaching our normal students before they go on winter break. I hope you all are well!

Still Alive

Hello family! I am still surviving Thailand. I know I was supposed to do a post about my students, but I am still working on it. There is just so much to say about my little kiddos! The girls and I will be going to Bangkok this weekend! We decided on a whim today and booked our hostel for Friday and Saturday night. The only things we have planned so far are seeing the Grand Palace and going to Krispy Kremes. I will give you an update on our Bangkok trip as well as my birthday on Monday. I miss you all!

A Weekend in Phitsanulok

Hello family! We spent the weekend in Phitsanulok to get a break from Phichit. We took the 9:57 A.M train Saturday to Phitsanulok and got there around 11:00. We immediately got a tuk tuk to Central Plaza. It was the biggest mall I had ever been in and had five floors with an arcade and mini amusement park on the top floor. It was very Americanized. They had Abercrombie and Fitch, an international market, and a large department store with Clinique and Bobbi Brown counters. They also had at least 10 restaurants. We decided on Mcdonald's for lunch and Dairy Queen for dessert. The cheeseburger and fries tasted exactly the same as in the United States, but this Mcdonald's also served noodles and rice. We then took a tuk tuk to another mall called the Big C. We didn't have hotel reservations, but Lindsay told us there was a good hotel across the street from Big C. We found the hotel and got three rooms. Kim and I shared a room that cost five dollars each and we each had our own bed. The hotel also had air conditioning and hot water which are things we have been living without. That night we got pizza for dinner and went to the night market. On Sunday Kim and I went to church with Lindsey and Tanner while the rest of the girls traveled two hours away to go on a hike in the national park. I'm so glad I went to church instead of going on the hike! The girls ended up getting lost and without transportation. They ended up hitchhiking and getting a ride with two random women back to Phitsanulok. One of the girls almost had a mental breakdown she was so worried. So the moral of the story is go to church! After church, Kim and I ate at Mcdonald's again and took the train back to Phichit. Basically all we did in Phitsanulok was eat American food. We were talking over dinner tonight how sweets taste so good in Thailand. Lindsey explained it perfectly: "Sweets taste so good because you're used to your body being deprived of all goodness." And that summarizes living in Thailand.

Kim's Birthday

Hello family! It has been too long since I have updated. On Tuesday we celebrated Kim's birthday. She turned 24 years old. The night before, we were making decorations in the supply room and the Thai teachers came in asking what the decorations were for. They were so excited when we told them it was Kim's birthday. They went out and bought her a cake and at midnight the Thai teachers and security guard came into our apartment and we all sang Happy Birthday. The Thai teachers were so nice to put that together. They even put trick candles on the cake. The next day, the kids all sang to Kim and the Thai teachers ordered us all drinks from a local coffee shop. It was chocolate milk in ice that you sip out of a paper bag. It was so good. The Thai teachers are seriously the nicest ladies ever. That night we taught the adult English class and went out to the Swiss steakhouse with Ton and Tang. The steakhouse was not as good as I expected, but at least it wasn't Thai food. I even got French fries! Kim's birthday was so fun and it makes me excited for mine!

A Weekend of Dancing

Hello family! This weekend was full of dancing. Some of the girls have been wanting to go dancing and they've been asking Tang about it. She said we couldn't go unless we found some men to go with us or else guys would be hitting on us all night. Ton and Ake agreed to take both the American and Thai teachers dancing. There is one nightclub in Phichit called Crocodile Rock. Tang doesn't like her teachers going to that nightclub. I guess in the past some of her teachers have done questionable deeds at that club and parents have seen it and gotten mad. So we had to go to Phitsanulok to go dancing. Ton and Ake picked up us and the Thai teachers at 9:30 pm Friday night. Tang made it clear we couldn't drink or talk to men. We were shocked when we saw the Thai teachers all dolled up for a night on the town. We're all so used to wearing our ugly teacher uniforms with our hair pulled up with no make-up, it was shocking to see everyone all made up. We drove an hour to a fancy nightclub in Phitsanulok called The Castle. We went into the club and immediately saw weird Thai dancers up on the stage who were probably strippers. They weren't up there for long though. A terrible rock band played. They sang English songs but didn't know English so it was just a bunch of gibberish. The music was loud though. I couldn't hear for hours afterward. The Thai teachers gulped down alcohol and the American teachers were forced to the kid's table with just water and Pepsi. We also got French fries! My first fry in almost a month was glorious! We then didn't get home until 2 in the morning! Today we went on a free tour around town hosted by local high school students. We visited two temples, a beautiful garden, the mayor's house, and a little town outside Phichit. When we arrived at the small town, they were having a celebration! Women pulled us in and we started dancing. I had no idea what I was doing. We then watched some local kids perform. Everyone wanted to take their picture with us. We're like celebrities here! It was so much fun! A random woman even bought us barbecue chicken! We were also called out my the emcee before the performance. We definitely won't be treated like this back in the States!

Boarding School Life

Hi family! If you didn't know this already, the school that I teach at is a boarding school. There are about 80 students total at Imperial School, but 6 of them live at the school Monday through Thursday. We supervise their playtime every night. Two of my kindergarten students, Moo Pee and Tiger, live at the school. I have a lot of fun playing with them at night, but I can't help but feel bad for them. I couldn't imagine living at school away from my parents when I was only 6 years old. There are 2 full time Thai teachers who take care of them at night. They even sleep in the same room as the kids in bunk beds. One of the boys who lives at the school, Mee Poo, had his 7th birthday last night. We celebrated last night with birthday cake and Oreos. After cake, the kids were sent to bed and we were hanging out with the Thai teachers. Then, all of the sudden, a giant tarantula the size of a soccer ball came out into the hallway. All of us, including the Thai teachers, started screaming and freaking out. The kids were upstairs getting on their pajamas, but ran downstairs screaming at the spider and laughing at us. Eventually, Tanner (the husband of one of the English teachers), came and killed it. Living in Thailand definitely has its challenges! I hope you all are well!

When There's Nothing to Report

Hello family! Not much has changed in Phichit, Thailand. This weekend will be the big boat races and Tang is taking us to the Buddhist temple. We went to the market this weekend and they had pretty much everything. I got a yummy donut, but I have yet to purchase any gifts. Let me know if you want anything in particular. Teaching is going well. I will have to do a post about kids one day. I hope you all are well!

Everything's Going to Be Alright

Hello family! I reached a turning point this week. I finally came to peace with the fact that I'm going to be living in Thailand for four more months. When I first arrived, I had an initial bout of homesickness and culture shock. I wanted to hop on a plane right back to Utah. When I first came to the school, I had no idea how to interact with little kids, deal with the heat and humidity, the bugs, the girls, the food, etc. A lot has changed in the last two weeks. I have become good friends with the other girls. We can laugh and tell each other anything. They give me a home away from home. I have come to love my students even the elementary kids. At first I thought they were brats but we had a lot of fun playing a game on Thursday and they seem to really listen to me now. I have a lot of fun talking with them. I still love my kindergarteners and I also joke around with them. I think they sometimes can't understand what I'm saying, but always laugh with me. Whenever I see my students outside of class, they always say "Hi Teacher Jessie!" and give me a good hug. Teaching also seemed daunting at first, but it doesn't seem as scary anymore. My head teacher, Courtney, did evaluations this week and I got very high scores in all categories. I finally think I can do this. It also helps that everyone at the school, our coordinator, and Mom and Dad do such a good job taking care of u. The cook is such a nice lady and though she doesn't speak a word of English, she really tries to make good food for us and meals that we will like. She made us a Thai omlette today that was delicious. Our coordinator, Tang, also does such a good job helping us with teaching and adjusting to living in Thailand. She has helped us with our Thai and gives us tons of good ideas of things to do around town and is helping us plan our vacations. Her brother, Tan, has also been so helpful. I told him the other day that I didn't like my bike and he took care of it right away. He took it to the bike shop and it came back today with new brakes, tires, and a basket to put my purse in. We went to Mom and Dad's garden home today and they spoiled us as usual. They gave us chips, ice cream, nachos, and Krispy Kreme donuts. We also finally met Tang's husband, Ake, today. He graduated from BYU and said that Provo is the best city he has lived in. I have also gotten used to the heat and humidity. It doesn't even phase me anymore. So everything is going to be alright you guys! I hope you all are well!

Vacation Schedule

Hello family! We got our vacation schedule at our in-service meeting yesterday. From October 23-Nov 2 we will be spending a few days in Cambodia where we will also renew our visas. We will then spend the rest of the time in Thailand at the southern beach towns. We are going to Phuket or Krabi. We will go back to Phichit for 3 days and then we will go to Chiang Mai from Nov 6-7. Chiang Mai has everything I want to do. It has the elephant riding, Tiger Kingdom, and zip lining. That weekend is also the lantern festival! We will release lanterns into the air just like in Tangled. We will spend Dec 5-7 in Bangkok. I also have the option of extending my trip and going to India at the end of our stay with some of the other girls. I could go to India from Dec 18-22 and fly back to Utah on the 23rd. I would be charged a $300 flight change fee. I still haven't decided on that yet, but going to India would be awesome and I'm only four hours away! This weekend is also the big boat race festival in Phichit and next weekend we are going to the ancient ruins in Phitsanulok. Thinking of vacation gets me through long days of teaching. I hope everyone is well!

Hanging in There

Hello family! I just wanted to give a quick update. I am hanging in there when it comes to teaching. Even though I only teach 20 hours a week, I still spend most of my day preparing lessons. My kindergarten class continues to be amazing and my elementary kids continue to annoy me. I would be very happy if I just had to teach kindergarten. I definitely do not see being a teacher in my career future. I also have to supervise playtime once a week. I actually really like the little kids. I thought I was crazy when I left because I have never really interacted with little kids at all. I now know I do pretty well with little kids. I am also learning to be patient with the elementary kids. On another note, I am getting eaten alive by mosquitios even with repellent. Various creatures roam our apartment including flies, mosquitos, crickets, cockroaches, lizards, spiders,and geckos. There are about five dead lizards in our window and we can hear the street dogs fighting at night. This stay in Thailand is definitely making me stronger and helping me expand my comfort zone. Yesterday was a lot fun! We went paddleboating at the crocodile park, went to the aquarium, got ice cream at the fancy ice cream parlor, went shopping, and then went to a soccer game. The soccer game was a lot of fun. We got our pictures taken with cardboard cutouts of the players and that night our picture was front page on the team's website. I hope you all are well and I hope Leanna has a good first day of school at our beloved USU!

A Good Day

Hey family! I'm still surviving in Thailand. I've only been here a week and a half, but I feel like I've been here a month! I found out today we won't have our vacation until October! I just want to go to Chiang Mai to ride elephants. I also am still suriving teaching. I love my kindergarten class. They are so sweet and smart. My elementary kids are bratty. They are already functionally fluent in English and we need to be doing harder activities with them than what we're currently doing. Since they know English, they never shut up! Friday was a good day. I did not have to teach elementary and we went to the crocodile park and got shakes that night. Today we did lesson planning and went swimming at Mom and Dad's. There is also a freaky Danish guy who lives close to the school. He started following us on his bike on Wednesday asking where the summer girls were. We told him they left. He then said something really creepy. He talked about how he liked braids on girls. He then followed us to the music festival down the street. This morning some girls went running and he started following them. He then tried to slap one of the girl's butts! Who would've known the creepiest guy in Thailand is an old Danish man? I'm glad we live in a gated school with 24/7 security!

First Day Teaching

Hey family! I'm going to make this post short and sweet. Today was the first day teaching. It was not as bad as I thought. The kids were well-behaved for the most part. I teaching reading and an activity to kindergarten kids M-F and teach health and social studies to first graders on Tuesday and Thursday. We also moved into the apartment today where I found a hissing cockroach in my suitcase! I now really appreaciate the clinic house. I will keep you all updated!

Church and Phitsanulok

Hi family! On Saturday we explored Phichit a little more. We went to the grocery store and the mall. The Thai are very into bras. At both the grocery store and the mall, they had huge bra sections with rows and rows of bras. At the store, a woman was even trying one on right in the middle of the store! At the mall, we also saw the movie theatre with all Thai movies and we're thinking of going to see one sometime. I bought a strawberry Fanta that actually tasted like a carbonated cherry cough syrup. Later that day, we walked to the train station. The train station was in the poor part of town and it was the first time I had seen true poverty with crumbling houses and street dogs running around everywhere. The train station was also where we saw a group of kids playing soccer in the parking lot. We challenged them to a game. It was so funny, after the train came in, a huge group of people gathered around to watch. I played horribly as usual, but it was a lot of fun. Those boys beat us 3-2. Afterward, we took a group picture that is on Facebook. It was so cute that the kids were so excited to see us. We played with the kids afterward. The little girls made us paper crafts with their names on it. That craft will probably be one of the best gifts I get in Thailand. We decided we are going to buy them a new soccer ball when we go back. Now I'm going to stop here before this turns into a cheesy Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. On Sunday, we took the train to Phitsanulok to church. Phitsanulok is about 45 min north of Phichit. We took a tuk tuk to the church. It was so interesting to see the an LDS church in Thailand. The ward members were very nice. A woman held my hand and told me I was pretty and the woman who sat next to me during sacrament gave me candy. We also talked with the missionaries who were white boys from Utah. It was funny because a girl in my group actually knew one of the elders from middle school. We wore headsets and listened to them translate for us. The talks were from recent converts. It was so nice to talk about Jesus and charity in church as opposed to just the evils of gay marriage and modesty that the Utah church is preoccupied with. After sacrament, a few of us walked around Phitsanulok a bit. It is a bigger city than Phichit and actually has tourists because it is close to ancient ruins. It was very hot and sunny. It got freaky when a truck started following us and the man wanted to give us a ride. We said no and bolted before we got kidnapped into a sex trafficking ring! We went to a fancy restaurant for lunch. I got pad thai. The noodles were in an egg shell that I had to cut apart to eat the noodles. A girl in my group got American rice that ended up being white rice covered in ketchup with a drumstick on the side. That is not how Americans eat rice! When a girl used to the bathroom she also found what she was pretty sure was a brothel upstairs!

The 32 Hour Journey

Well, after a 32 hours in planes and airports and an additional six hour layover and five hour drive, I have finally arrived in Thailand. My ankles also swelled up twice its normal size in the process! The long journey began at 4:00 in the morning when we arrived at the Salt Lake Airport for our 6:00 flight to Minneapolis. A poor ILP employee had to be at the airport at 4:00 in the morning to give us our passports and visas although the check in counters did not open until 4:45 so we were left waiting for 45 minutes. When we finally got to our gate, we saw that Elizabeth Smart was on the same flight as us. A couple girls in the group wanted to go and say hi to her, but they chickened out. We saw her in the first row as we got on the plane, but she had her head down like she didn’t want anyone to talk to her. After the flight to Minneapolis, we had a six hour layover. The group of girls going to Phitsanulok immediately headed to the gate, but my group decided to eat some breakfast at Chile’s. Almost the whole time, the girls just talked about their boyfriends waiting back home. I stopped paying attention halfway through this as I find relationship talk one of the most boring topics of conversation. The rest of the layover, we spent waiting at the gate with a tiny seating area surrounding it considering the hundreds of people on the flight. The flight to Tokyo was very comfortable as I had an aisle seat and there was no one sitting next to me on the other side. Then after spending two hours in Tokyo, we boarded our final six hour flight to Bangkok. When we finally arrived in Bangkok, we collected our bags and met up with the last two girls in our group. We did the five hour drive to Phichit in the middle of the night so I couldn’t really get a good look at Bangkok or anything else on the way. The streets were very narrow and we almost hit a couple street dogs on the way. We finally reached the clinic house where we will be staying for a week until the summer girls move out of the apartment at the school. The clinic house belongs to the parents of our coordinator Tang. We even call them Mom and Dad. They are very nice and quite funny. The housekeepers are also very nice and made a wonderful lunch and dinner for us. Today we walked around the city of Phichit. It was hot and very humid! We stopped at the 711 to get water bottles on the way back. A large water bottle in Thailand is only 40 cents and comes with its own straw. The dad then drove us past the huge crocodile park and to the school. The school is huge and is surrounded by a beautiful garden and fountain. It was modeled after Hogwarts and has a Christmas tree in the lobby year round. We met the Thai teachers who were all very nice. Some of the kids ran out to us yelling “teacher!” They were so cute, but we played with them for a little bit this afternoon and they were all so crazy! I’ll have to work on dealing with that. We also met the summer teachers who were all very nice and gave us a lot of tips and advice. We also saw the apartment we will be living in and while it is nice, I’d rather stay at the clinic house! I’m sorry for the lack of pictures and I promise I will post pictures of everything soon!