Parsnips and Homesickness

Today I drove my new ghetto car (future post, i PROMISE) to TOPS, the grocery store. While I was perusing the aisles, my mind wandered. I started thinking about my mom's birthday, which is October 1st, then I thought about I started thinking of October, which led me to think of Halloween, and then November, which got me thinking of Wyatt's birthday, and Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday of the year. It is not celebrated here, of course, because the Mayflower didn't land here, it landed at Plymouth Rock. As far as I know, there isn't one of those around here. :) Then, as I continued to think of our wonderful Thanksgiving, I thought about the special parsnips that Grammy would make just for me. She would grow them faithfully in the ground and then after the first frost, she would dig them up and we would have them fried up with butter, salt and pepper. I even grew some when I had my little community garden in Seattle. It's funny how little memories like that trigger such a response. But there I was, in the middle of the freezer section, when I looked down and saw a frozen bag of parsnips. And I did the only thing reasonable in this situation: I burst into tears. Right there in the middle of the frozen section. Then I looked around, and saw how ridiculous this might seem from an outsider's point of view and I started to laugh. So there I was, laughing AND crying in the middle of the frozen veggie section of the small grocery store. I'm sure anyone walking past thought I had just gotten out of the loony bin, but I didn't care. I bought those parsnips and they are now happily in my freezer whenever I need them again.

Coulda been worse.....

So tonight I kinda had a little bit of a scare...

I was working on some things on the computer....okay not really. I was on Facebook. Because I am addicted to Facebook. Anyway, I kept smelling something burning. Not like a toast-in-the-toaster type of burning but like a plastic-wire-in-an-outlet type of burning. I looked all around and then after a couple of loud crackle and pops I realized that my outlet was shooting out sparks through my power cord strip that my computer was plugged into. I turned off the wall power and unplugged the cord, surprisingly nonchalant about it all...guess I've been in Thailand a little too long....

Everything is fine, but the cord is a little, well...toasted. I'm just thankful I was home. It could have been a LOT worse!

A List of my favorite things....

So tonight at Sunday night Sushi dinner with my dear friend Diana, I decided that I needed to make a list. A list of all of my favorite things. Because I have been known to say "ohhh that's my favorite" on more than one occasion, I decided that I'd start an on-going list of my favorite things.

In no particular order:
1. Sushi on Sundays
2. Dancing
3. afternoon naps
4. Thunderstorms
5. Gerber Daisies
6. Elephants in the wild
7. Laughing until I cry
8. being Green
9. Mamma Mia
10. making cookies with Wyatt and Abby
11. My Mama's Kitchen
12. huckleberry picking
13. Floating the river
14. holding ANY baby
15. Tillamuck Pepperjack Cheese
16. fireworks
17. a good book
18. speaking in any accent
19. Guitar Hero
20. Rummy
21. Pinochle
22. Cribbage, especially when playing with a grandparent. :)
23. house parties
24. Friday afternoons
25. muppets
26. comfortable shoes

My dad reminded me of some more of my favorite things...thanks Daddy!!! (the best thing about lists is that you can keep on adding more!!!)

27. cartwheels in the backyard
28. camping
29. Ruby
30. Roadtrips
31. Feeding Giraffes
32. Sunflowers
33. Magic Mike (my portable karaoke machine)
34......



feel free to add your favorite things in the comments section. :)

Bike Tour around Bangkok

I have two wonderful Dutch friends, Christo and Lieke. They are my favorite for a couple of reasons. But probably one of my favorite reasons is Christo's wonderful ways of finding new adventures for us...and boy they usually are adventures. I call him our OnStar because whatever we want to do, he can figure out how to get there or knows someone Dutch who knows someone..you get the picture. Well, yesterday Christo planned an adventure bike tour around Bangkok. Fourteen of us toured Bangkok on off road bicycles. We went through small villiages, slums, across rivers, through a park, small trails along the klong (small rivers that you DEFINITELY don't want to fall into). Overall it was a wonderful experience. Here are some totals:

Total people: 15 1/2
Youngest rider: Sasha, age 3
Total Hours riding: 5 hours 35 minutes
Total Kilometers: 25
Total boat rides: 2
Fish Fed: a zillion...I swear!
A day of fun: priceless :)

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!


Christo and I are pretty excited!




Diana and Pascale are READY!!!




Ridin' on the Street, yes, it's true...no helmets...not even a option...




a "slide" in one of the slums in Bangkok...as one of my friends pointed out, it would be just as fun in the rain...




On our longtail boat crossing the Chao Praya river...fun times!




This is along the klong, at times the path was about 4 feet AND a motorcycle or a person would be on the path coming the opposite direction...YIKES!




A ZILLION FULL fish...they get PLENTY of fish food




Pascale and I had a blast together...it's rare I get my dear friend all to myself...It was such a fun day with her!




Posing in front of some Chedi's...the place people bury their ancestor's ashes.

Back in Bangkok

Dear Friends and Family,

I haven't written on my blog in over 3 months, and for that I do apologize. I will update the past three months soon, but I just wanted to post some pictures of my first two weeks back in Thailand. My friends Cecily and Miriam came back with me this year, and I have to say it really helped ease me back into the swing of things a lot more easily. We had a great time, traveling to Koh Samet, Chiang Mai and celebrating my birthday weekend in Bangkok. I had some firsts as well...I saw my first Muey Thai fight, which was quite fascinating, and I ate my first fried cricket...it was actually pretty good...Miriam compared it with a roasted pumpkin seed, which was a pretty accurate description.

I am back at school now, and am really enjoying my class so far (knock on wood)...I have 18 first graders and their names are very unique. I'll print them out on the next post so you can see them.

Here are some pictures of our recent adventures;

My birthday

I had a birthday bash at the Major Bowl near the mall bangkapi. It was such a blast...what could be more fun than disco bowling with great music, black lights, and wonderful friends! I had to make it a theme, even though I think themes might be dying away this year, and it was crazy hat night. Cecily and Miriam and I dressed in our craziest hats, which I just happened to have lying around my apartment. Pascale made a wonderful chocolate bowling cake and all the kids were excited about eating the bowling pins off of it. I really had a blast and it was so great to have so many fun people celebrate my special day with me. Here are some pictures of my bowling birthday bash.

I CAN'T WAIT....

to come home!

Sure, there is always the crazy end of the school year with parties, report cards, good bye books, year books to be signed, and major cleaning to do of all aspects of my life.

But all that said, I'm packing EARLY (this weekend!) so I can have time to spend with my friends here before they head all over the world next year. That is the one sad thing about international teaching and no one really mentions it: the fact that friends come and go more quickly in this line of work...

So...these are the reasons I'm excited about coming home...

#1: Wyatt and Abby (of course they are NUMBER ONE!)
#2: New babies are arriving: Baby Bacon Bit, Baby Nale Zarelli, Baby Reider, Baby Milo
#3: Mama's home cooked meals - YUM!
#4: Spending time with family and friends
#5: Playing cards with grandparents...get that cribbage board ready Grandpa! Double Skunk here it comes!
#6: Washington Mountains and the Puget Sound...ohhh I miss the mountains and the clean, breathable air! AHHH!
#7: Tillamuck CHEESE! YEEHAW!!!
#8: Taking a trip to PA
#9: Relaxing and being able to wear a hoodie again, hopefully by a campfire
#10: Three Buck Chuck Wine and Trader Joe's

HAPPY MAMA's DAY, MAMA!

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry I can't be at home to make you breakfast in bed and snuggle under the blankets with you while figuring out what chick flick we are going to watch on TV.

You are the bestest Mama in the WHOLE WORLD and I love you very much.

This is a picture that I took in Koh Tao right after I got my diving certification.

I miss you and can't wait to see you in three weeks!

Love,
Katie

People and Places in Burma

I just came back from Burma this past weekend. It was one of the most amazing opportunities that I have had since being here in Thailand. We only had four days there so we stayed in Yangon for a day and then decided to take another flight up to Bagan, a quaint little town full of over 4,000 pagodas, 2,000 of them have been fully restored. We were in Bagan for two days and then flew back to Yangon in time to fly back to Bangkok. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was completely amazing and I am excited to share what I saw with you.

Burma has been under an oppressive government and it's official name is Myanmar. The true leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, won the nobel peace prize, and is now imprisoned in her own country, leading a resistance from her captivity. For more information about the current politics of Burma, click here. The government does not allow any one who is a journalist into the country, and a wise traveler tries extremely hard to support the people of Burma instead of the government. The government will jail their own people for talking about the current government situation, so we could not ask anybody any questions about their life or their opinions about the current government situation. We tried our best to give our resources to the people, and shyed away from giving any sort of support to government sponsored hotels, restaurants, tours, etc. We always looked for ways to spend our money in support of the people..

Bagan was an amazing place,and my favorite part of the whole trip was hanging out and talking with the horse cart driver, Pyi Zone (Pee Yo Zo). He was very open to talking about the oppressive government and we had many wonderful conversations. I will post more later, but I'd like to get some pictures up for you to see. It was an amazing time and I would love to go back!
To see the rest of my photos please click here

It really was... THAT BIG!!!!!

Everyone has a fishin' tale to tell. And everyone USUALLY exaggerates how big their fish REALLY is. But my tale might be a little different. We really DID catch fish THIS BIG! (hold out hands as far as you can!)

We went to a fishin' hole that is only about 20 minutes away from Summakorn. One of teachers at our school organized a Mekong Classic Fishin' Derby. There were a BUNCH of us that went, probably at least 30 people. Supposedly the biggest catfish lives in these waters. I wouldn't doubt it!

So we arrive, and we get escorted to our bungalow right on the water. It's an open aframe of a bungalow with some areas to sit and relax and we even had a TV as well. A guide was included...it's funny that he was called a guide, because we didn't GO anywhere, we just sat there and fished and drank beer all day. Our guide packed our bait on the lure, the bait he packed was about as big as a softball, and then he would cast the pole in for us. When we caught something, then we would reel it in, but sometimes the reeling would take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. There was a battle between the sexes in our bungalow, and while we were neck and neck with the guys all morning, we had 3 big ones get away, and they took the lead in the end. We ended up catching 15 fish all together, the boys caught 9 and the ladies caught 6.

Here are the pictures of my fishin' tale....seeing IS believing!!!!

This is our bungalow, it was a great place to just relax and fish the day away!




This is me, reelin' in a BIG ONE!





WHEW... I GOT IT!




Bobbie and Me with our beautiful Mekong Catfish




Andrew and Dan




The longest fish of the day was caught by Dan, even though a dispute is out whether it is the heaviest or not....(I still think mine wins in that category! :) )

Blowin off the dust....

Dear Faithful Readers,

Hello! Yes I'm alive and I'm finally blowin' the dust off my blog. I moved and then was setting up internet and all that jazz, so I haven't been even remotely faithful at blogging my life as before. Please bear with me as I post some past events through the last couple of months. Here are some highlights really quickly. Pictures will come soon, I promise!

December
* Went to Chiang Mai on a volunteer trip with fellow friends and teachers. We got to hang out with a village of Hmong people and learn about their life in Thailand. We also had a little misadventure with an airplane flight and ended up taking a taxi 8 hours back to Bangkok. That's a blog story in itself!

*Cambodia - I went to Phnom Penh and Siam Reap for 5 days. I really enjoyed my time there, but it really made me think. The devistation of Phnom Penh and the genocide that happened 30 years ago is still very prevelent. More on that later...

* Christmas away from home - I wasn't sure I would be able to be away from home for Christmas, but I did it! Thank goodness for Vonage and Skype and Webcams! We opened up our presents via the webcam and Wyatt was excited to see his Aunt Katie on the computer. It was fun, but really hard as well. I am so blessed to also have Pascale and Kevin as my adopted family while I was here, and it was fun to be with their kids for Christmas as well.

*Visit with the Drapes - I had a blast playing hostess to my friends the Drapes. Chris, Chrissy, Matty and Andy. They are a super fun famliy that took a year off to travel around the world, and they just happened to stop in Bangkok. We toured around and saw some things I haven't even seen yet...Bangkok's Grand Palace, a boat tour of the Chao Praya river, The Ancient City, and even Bowling! We had a great time together, and it was fun to have some friends from Seattle to play tour guide to.

January

*School started and we had a trip to Koh Samet to ring in the new year.

*We took a trip to Bang Saphan, Jah's hometown. It was such a relaxing and fun time together!

February
* Moved to a new little apartment (my 3rd move so far...I think I'm staying here this time!)

*Started going to a gym near school. It's the nicest gym I've ever been in, it even has a sauna and a steam room in the bathroom. Gonna get healthy! whoop whoop!

*Went fishing Thai style and caught 15 fish in a giant stocked lake...pictures are coming shortly...

Ayutthaya and the Summer Palace

Ayutthaya (pronounced eye you tee ah) was the second capital of Thailand before Bangkok. It is an ancient city full of ruins and beautiful architecture. Go here for more information if you are curious about Ayutthaya's history.

It is a beautiful area about an hour or so away from Bangkok. My really good friends Zak and Piedad were going up to show Zak's mom around and asked me if I wanted to come along too. We also stopped at the Summer Palace, and I really thought that was absolutely beautiful. I thought of my grandparents, especially Grammy and Grandma backeast would have especially loved this area. There were flowers all over, it was a cool yet sunny day, and the wind was refreshing and wonderful.

We had a great day. Here are some pictures of the Summer Palace and of Ayutthaya. The funniest part was taking a picture of a lady in 4 inch leopard stiletto heels walking around ancient ruins. Only in Asia would that happen. SOOO funny! Guess I forgot my stiletto ruins walking shoes at home....shoot! :)