Pics of Ko Chang

Back at work, but dreaming of the beach
A proud graduate!
This picture was taken yesterday at the kindergarden graduation! Me, Boong and Dew

BEACH!!!!

Ray Ban knock offs!!!! Love them

Romantic supper on the beach! "Another romantic moment wasted on Misty" -Jodie
Little Thai girl selling these puengmalais

Jodie and I....sunburn and ALL!!!

A little boy Jodie played with in the water. Quite the little trouble maker

Good Place, Nice People! Enough Said
View from further down the beach

One of restaurants on the beach

Pic taken by Jodie on our long bus ride to Ko Chang
View from our hotel, the evening we arrived
View of the island of Ko Chang from the Ferry!

Pictures are more interesting than words. So a short recap of the weekend starts now. We took a bus to Ko Chang, we attempted to catch the 7:45 bus, but missed it by minutes, so we had to wait at the BTS until the 9:45 bus. The bus trip was 5 hrs long. We were actually about an hour away from Cambodia. Pretty cool eh?Ko Chang is an island, so after our long bus trip, we had to take a ferry across to our final destination. At this point in the trip, it is not really that warm and I am scared that the weather isn't going to cooperate. I am also tired of travelling and all I want is the beach, but the sun is setting and we still have to find our hotel. So the trek continues... Jodie and I get on the back of truck with other tourists and we begin the steep climb up and over the mountains that cover the island. My first reaction was, this island is beautiful!!! So my mood begins to change and I realize that I'm thrilled to be away from the hussle and bussle of Bangkok. The taxi driver drops us off and continues on with the rest of the tourist. We assume that we are near our hotel, so we proceed to ask for directions and of course, find a way to get lost. We eventually find our room and we ask the hotel manager if he wants a deposit and he replys "No, you can pay when you leave" We were a little shocked but were surprised

On to more important details about our room. In our luxurious room, there was a SHOWER....including a shower nozzle! We also had cable TV! What more could two girls ask for?? We went swimming immediatley and went on a search for yummy western meals. That seach continued for the rest of the weekend. Rice wasn't on OUR menu for the weekend.

We spent all of Sunday on the beach. Yes, we wore sunscreen but no, not enough! So the result my friend was a nice lobster sunburn. Jodie got especially burnt because that fair skin of her's hadn't seen the sun in months.

A few shockers of the trip

-Saw WAY to MANY old old men with young young Thai girls(60 year old man, 20 year old girl)

-Saw a few too many topless old ladies

Both of these just come with the territory, but still a shock for these two young canadian girls.

We shopped a bit, I bought 2 pairs of knock off Ray Bans which was exciting. One for Tiffany, one for me. Then on the way home, one pair broke. So now, I am left with one pair, in hopes that Tiffany will fly here and buy a pair herself.

The rest of the trip is just mundane details that will probably bore you. We laid out more, we ate more and travelled home. All and all, a great weekend. We saw a whole new side of Thailand and got to sit back and relax for a short time.

Anyways, if you are looking for more, check out Jodie's blog

http://jodieinthailand.blogspot.com

Sending love from Thailand,

Misty

Recap!

The Fire we went chasing but never found!
Boong(top), Dew (bottom) Resting after a long fay of walking

Galong watching Mr. Bean. Check out the look of fascination on his face!
Dew and Boong (Our University Prep Girls)

Last Friday we spent the afternoon with our university prep girls. The plan was to let them go and explore Klong Toi, taking pictures and then we would create a imovie to document their experience. While we were walking we saw smoke and heard fire trucks, so we decided to hunt down the slum fire. In the end, we did a lot of walking, but the fire was out by the time we got there. Here's some pics from the afternoon. During our lunch break we watched Mr Bean's Holiday with Galong and a few of the kids. Galong was in awe of Mr. Bean and it was hilarious to watch him mimic everything that Mr. Bean did.

Back from beach, 90% tanned, 10% burnt!

Okay I will write a more detailed photo filled post later but I just wanted to inform you all that Jodie and I have returned safely from our weekend trip to Ko Chung (the beach).

My near death experience

Last night Jodie and I stayed late at the office teaching and chatting. So at about 9 we decided to take a taxi home. We were both already nervous because we had never been out so late here in Bangkok and all of the other Mercy staff had left. Eventually the security guard at Mercy helped us flag down a taxi. It was evident that the taxi driver didn't now where he was going, so the security spent more than 5 minutes explaining in Thai the directions to Soi 40. We proceeded to get in the car and shut the door. The moment I stepped into the car, a strong smell of alcohol sweeped over me. My heart started racing because I knew that he was quite intoxicated and the drivers here are already CRAZY! He began to speed through the streets and then proceeded to pull out in front of ongoing traffic, where we almost got hit by a large truck and 2 motorcycles. The large truck flashed his lights at us as he slammed his breaks on. It was at this point that my body froze and I started saying a little prayer in my head. I looked at Jodie and in the moment we looked at each other and shared a terrified glace. At one point we came to a stop light and the taxi drived proceeded to shift the emergency break on and took a drink of what appeared to be a water bottle, filled with water or alchol of which we are not sure. Throughout the drive he talked on his cell phone while swerving in and out of traffic recklessly. All I wanted to do was jump out of the car, but I couldn't. We finally arrived home, anxious and stunned. Once out of the car, I looked at Jodi and said, "I've never been so scared in my life" Jodie replied "I think I am going to throw up." A few minutes later she did.

The End

Chan Tong Karn pak-pon ( I want to relax)

Last night we moved a mini fridge and microwave into our room from upstairs. We are living in quite the luxury now. The only luxuries missing are internet access and warm showers, but you take some and you leave some. We bought our supper from a street vendor, and it was okay. Buying from a street vendors is typical for most Thai's, but it is a struggle for me and Jodie. My mind is racing the whole time, wondering..."is this meat cooked?" "are these dishes clean?"
"am i going to get sick?" My mind is flooded with negative thoughts and letting go of those inhibitions is really difficult. Anyways, we returned home later in the evening and watched a movie and ate popcorn and drank pop. It was glorious.

Today, i spent the morning and early afternoon teaching and Jodie and I hope to visit an area affected by a fire yesterday. Its is very common for fires to occur here in the slum of Klong Toi. It may be a simple candle that starts the blaze, and many times spreads like wild fire in the compact housing units.

After we are done teaching tomorrow we are planning to head to the south of Thailand and go to a beach for a couple of days. I'm super stoked and am thrilled to get away from the busy city. Bangkok is conjested to the max and I would love to breath in non-polluted air for just a moment. Anyways, enough complaining. I hope you are all doing well and that you are surviving the latest snow storm.

Sending love from Thailand
Misty

Leow Sai (turn left)

Yesterday I started teaching my adult class. I have 5 students that are all staff here at the Mercy Centre. They have strong foundation in English and are looking to practice and learn more converstational skills. In the afternoon I worked with the university prep girls. After our classes were finished we went to our haven also known as Tesco. We had a list of 5 things to pick up but left stocked up for days. We purchased milk, bread, coke, apples, pinapple, popcorn, blank, huge gallons of water, cups, a spoon and a fork and a little treat for ourselves. For Jodie, it was peanuts, for me it was chocolate of course. The total of these luxury goods was 26 dollars Canadian. We grabbed a taxi on our way home, and enjoyed a humerous loud ride home in a cab blarring Techno music through the slums of Klong Toi. At one point we just looked at each other and broke out our best dance moves. Speaking of dance moves, on our walk out of Tesco, we again walked out to see aerobics in the parking lot. It seems to be a daily event there and Jodie and I hopefully will one day gain the courage to show up and show off our own dance moves. I can picture it now, 2 huge, tall white girls wearing hot pink spandex, maybe a matching head band in a sea of short, tiny Thai women. It would be funny, that's for sure.

Today I had my usual morning class with the adults and then Jodie and I led 32 Thai childen in recreation. Now that was a challange. Not only were we not expecting that many children, but we were not prepared enough at all!!! Oh yeah, and there is the challenge of explaining a game in English, when everyone around you speaks Thai. I think Jodie summed it all up when she said "that was the longest hour of my life" haha. We held rec in the cafeteria which is quite large, but its no soccer field or baseball field. So it will be interesting to see how creative we can be with the little to now equipment. Thankfully, we only have rec once a week and some of the kids will be off to camp next week.

Later today, I will be teaching the university prep girls in research skills and technology. The plan is to teach them powerpoint here in the computer lab. So although I complained earlier that we have no equipment for rec, I am grateful for the bounty of other resources that I have access to, like this computer lab that has approximately 25 Mac Computers.

So off to lesson planning I go. I am really starting to settle in here now, it is truly beginning to feel like home. Jodie and I are hoping to leave the city this weekend to travel to a nearby beach which should be fun. I don't really have any pics from the last couple of days, so I will just post a some older ones.