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.

The Night Bazaar

Last night Jodie and I travelled to the night Bazaar. This place has hundreds of little shops full of Thai treasures. Jodie went for lunch there and shopped for hours. One of my favourite stories of the evening involved Jodie trying to show off her Thai to a store owner. She said, tail ry ka (sp?)
which means "How much does this cost". A look of bewilderment swept over his face, so we both just assumed that we had pronouced it incorrectly. He replied by saying "I don't speak Thai", the look of shock on our faces I'm sure would have been priceless. This type of thing has never happened to us, it was quite the role reversal.

Jodie and I living in such close living and working corridors has finally taken its toll. Jodie is feeling the effects of a cold, which I had a week ago. She attempted to buy some cold medicine at a local drug store in the market but we changed our mind when the pharmasist attempted to negotiate the price on us. We just didn't like the idea of bartering for drugs in the market, can you blame us?

Since I don't have much else to say, I will share some interesting facts about Thailand with you

Here are some Facts of the day about Thailand

-All children wear uniforms to school, even university students.
-The military and the gov’t here are run separately. In Thailand’s history, military coups often occur. In the last few years, the military staged a coup against the previous president because the Free Press here in Thailand exposed the Presidents corruption and as a result the President was sent into exile. He has recently returned from Britian which has been big news here in Thailand.
-There was an election here yesterday, and on Election Day, no alcohol is served! It is believed that people could use bribe votes with alcohol.
-The King of Thailand is EXTREMLY important and Thailand is currently morning the death of his sister. They have morning for three months and as a result everyone is supposed to wear dark colors. It is not overtly visible to the naked eye, but if you look closely, you will notice most people wearing a lot of dark colors and quite a bit of white. Not a lot of bright colors are worn.