Christmas classes!

This week I am only having two days of classes (YIPPIE!) so last week I told my students to prepare presentations about Christmas. I gave them A-LOT of flexibility on the presentations and pretty much told them they can do whatever they wanted as long as they 1. Spoke English and 2. It was Christmas related. WOW. My students rock! One group taught us how to make Christmas trees- which I later wore as earrings...haha. I swear my students probably think I am a nut case.

Some students sang Christmas songs, some talked about the history of Christmas, we also played some games...we played Christmas bingo, a Christmas picture memory game, and a Christmas trivia game...Can you name all 9 reindeers??? **Answer will be at the bottom of this post** One group of girls even got to class a half hour early (kicked me out as I was prepping for the next class) and locked the door...they hid 25 red pieces of paper around the classroom and each paper had a gift associated to it. The more papers you found the more gifts you received...AWESOME! How thoughtful.
And then one kid, Tae, went up to the front of the class and read a little speech. "I have this chocolate as a representative of a Christmas gift to the teacher. The reason I choose chocolate is because it represents the love and care from me to the person I give. It might not be anything very special or expensive but I am very sincere. Finally, I think Christmas presents do not matter about the price, but it matters about how sincere you are." Awe. What a nice kid. MMMM I love chocolate.
Also worth a mention is that there are several Christmas trees around campus and I took a picture of my favorite (now I am defiantly not a white Christmas tree person but this year apparently I am). One of the reasons it may be my favorite is because I added a personal Chicago touch to the tree...Can you see it?


Ha Ha yup its a Chicago Cubs Christmas Ornament!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

**The 9 reindeers are: dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, and rudolf**

Ko Tao

Beautiful! This is definitely one of the most gorgeous islands in Thailand and I didn't even explore all that much. I headed to Ko Tao (Turtle Island) for a 5 day vacation with me, myself, and I. I loved loved loved every minute of it. I did absolutely nothing and had the time of my life. I took an overnight bus to Chumporn and then a 1.5 hour ferry to the island. While on the ferry it was raining and I was bummed but upon arriving the sun was peaking through the clouds. I quickly disembarked the boat and headed for the hills. I bypassed all the "taxi drivers" and hiked it on foot. I had no idea where I was going so I couldn't really get lost. I walked around aimlessly for a good 30 minutes before finding a cute little place to call home for the next 5 days. I immediately changed into my beachwear and strolled along the beach with a smile on my face. I found a cozy spot and literally laid on the beach for the next 4-5 hours. It was perfect in every sense....I got to people watch, swim, listen to music, read my book...not all at once or in that order. Later in the day I found a seaside resort to have dinner and watch the glorious sunset. An FYI, if you don't already know this about me but I think sunsets over water is one of the most beautiful things on this earth. I love them.

After sundown there was a movie playing on the beach so I stuck around and watched. After the chick flick movie I headed to my room. Lame I know but I was worn out...a long day on the beach is really tiring. I was in bed by 10pm and miraculously I slept 12 hours ...until 10am the next day. WHAT? Wild. I can't remember the last time I slept 12 hours. Holy crap batman. Perhaps I needed it? WOW. At any rate, in the morning, I hightailed it to the beach for more hours and hours of doing nothing. Man, this is the life. I finally had to give in to my hunger pains and chose a cutesy Thai place for my meal and low and behold there was a TV on...and it was playing one of my all-time favorite movies growing up...WILDCATS with Goldie Hawn. Well you know I had to sit there for 2 hours and watch it. haha. The next day I forced myself not to be a slug on the beach and took a longtail boat over to the next set of islands, Koh Naang Yuan. I went to the top of one of the islands for a stunning view. I stayed up there longer than necessary just staring at this beautiful sight. I got lost in my thoughts. I mean how could you not with such a backdrop?
Finally I headed down and parked my behind --yup, you guessed it...on the beach! The next day I was determined to explore more of the island but when I woke up the sun was shining and I wanted nothing more than to swim in the ocean and lay on the beach and that is just what I did...with a smile on my face nonetheless. I'll explore the next time I go...which will be in early January- during midterms! YAY!

Thanksgiving and the Monkey Party

This year for Thanksgiving a group of us headed to Siam City Hotel for their thanksgiving buffet. It was a plethora of international foods including TURKEY!!! I was a happy little camper...even though there were no mashed potatoes...ho hummm it was okay though, there was plenty of other food. Good food, good friends, decent wine...sounds like a great holiday to me. I was tempted to get another plate of turkey to stuff in my bag for Friday (for a sandwich)...but opted not to...foolish foolish girl! Going to work on Friday was tough as I was still in a food and wine coma but alas I pulled through. I tried to teach my students about the Thanksgiving holiday and we went around the room saying what we were thankful for. I said I was thankful for Thailand as it has opened my eyes to appreciate the little things in life. I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and ate your weight in turkey.

On Sunday, Brenda and I took a train north to Lopburi (about 150 km from Bangkok) for the annual Monkey Party. Lopburi is also known as "Monkey Town". It was quite the comical event to witness. Hundreds of monkeys eating food and running around looking for more. There was a monkey pulling on a woman's skirt as she had some chips and the monkey wanted them...there was also a monkey trying to take an old woman's hat. In the past, I have heard some of these creatures could get violent for food but I think on this day they were so fulfilled with food that they seemed content...kinda like me on thanksgiving.

BKK Film Festival

Last night Shannon and I headed back to Siam Center for the closing ceremonies of the BKK Film Festival. Last year we saw Shine a Light (Martin Scorsese film about The Rolling Stones). This year we saw the film Rocksteady: Roots of Reggae. Same like last year the movie was outdoors for all too see and was free. As if that is not cool enough there was free beer! Yep, free Singha beer! Nice! Needless to say Shannon and I felt good after the movie. Today on the other hand I wasn't. And in one of my classes this morning a student had a bag on her lap and as I went to help her out on her assignment I noticed a box with holes in the bag...I questioned if there was an animal in there and indeed there was. Well that's a first for me, an animal in my class. Oye. What kind of animal you ask? A baby squirrel. A teeny tiny...size of the palm of my hand, baby squirrel. I asked if I could hold it. She obliged. I held it and stared at it intently wondering why in the world someone would want this as a pet. I walked around the room with it and tried to start a conversation with my students about exotic animals and asked the class if they could be an animal what would they be...I first got some wide eyed stares and no one talked but they finally came around and they told me they would be lions, eagles, fish, and even a pig! What a mixture. It was an interesting class to say the least! Its these kinds of classes that bring a smile to my face and make me happy to be right here right now...its these out of the ordinary, not the same run of the mill, day to day shenanigans that I love!

New and Ae

New and Ae are two of my close Thai friends. We have a custom of heading out to to the Ekamaii clubs together and last night was no different. We decided to check out a new club called Demo. It was perfect. I was able to drink my whiskey and dance my butt off. Sounds great for a Saturday night in Thailand! I am going to miss these girls when I leave...I wonder if I can fit them in my luggage?

1 week down, 14 to go.

The first week was a success! I don't want to jinx myself but so far my schedule has not changed once! Perfection. Still have Wednesdays off. Right now I am teaching one academic class (English I) and 7 conversation classes. I dig. However after the 4th conversation class I get tired of repeating the same stuff. And by the 7th class I am delirious with giggles as I have memorized everything we are going to be doing. I am under the assumption that my 6th and 7th classes think I'm nuts....which I am totally okay with...actually I think all my classes think I am crazy. What?!? After my first week of not so hard work I thought it best to head to the beach...I am feeling alittle pale...oh yeah...Ko Samet! Gawd, I love that place.

Pictures from HOME

For those that have not seen my pictures from home...