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! :)

One of the coolest cultural experiences I've had

was being invited to my friends' father's Mecca party last weekend.

Dah and New are my massueses in the moo baan where i live. They happen to be Thai Muslim, which is not very common in the Land of Smiles, where 98% of the people are Buddhist. They not only invited me to their father's party on Sunday, but they invited me to come to spend the night with them on Saturday night before the party. I was a little bit apprehensive, but for the most part, just curious. I admit I know nothing of the Muslim religion, other than they worship Allah and they have some of the same Biblical characters thanks to Sarah and Hagar. I figure my life here is to experience things that I would never experience at home, experiences to stretch me and push me out of my comfort area....

I arrived on Saturday night with my camera and my backpack and immediately met her family. Her mother and father have had 9 children, spanning quite the age range, so there are many grandchildren and family members running around. I helped the women on the big, flat bamboo porch, sitting criss cross cutting massive amounts of vegetables for the various stews and curries for the next day. I chatted as much as I could in Thai, as no one really spoke English, but one of her uncles. I smoked a Hookah pipe, don't worry, it was just a flavored tobacco product, a sour apple flavor, but it's like a cigar, you just puff it but don't inhale...(hmmm i sound like a former president....) This is what a Hookah pipe looks like.



The men at this time were stoking up about 5 huge fires to put extremely large cast iron pots on to cook the various stews and curries. It smelled wonderful and it cooked all through the night.

Speaking of night, that night I slept in the "great room" with everyone else. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and then it was New, Me Dah and her father. I still don't know where her mother was this whole time. But everyone just slept on the floor on huge rugs. I was actually quite comfortable and had a good night's sleep.

The next day we had a very fun time, we were the only white people there, and we ate very delicious food. I am proud to say I helped chop the carrots and onions for some different stews and the Massiman curry was the best Massiman curry I've ever had!

Here are some pictures from my adventure in Min Buri with Dah and New's wonderful family:








This is our little trek over the rice fields....my friend Heidi and her two kiddos Parker and Bella.


One final picture of Dah and New's guests from Moo Baan Summakorn. It was a wonderful day!

Break a Leg REALLY means good luck!

Where's Miss Katie?????



So my school put on the most gradious production of the Wizard of Oz. The production was supposed to happen last May, but due to construction delays of our new Godbout Hall, the producers (yes, you heard me....producers) postponed it to this week in November.

My kids were just perfect for the role of the Munchkins, so all elementary school students were able to join who wanted to be a part of it. I had 7 munchkins from my class. There were four different performances for each school section, so each morning I would tell them to "Break a Leg!".....needless to say they were a bit confused until I told them that it really meant good luck. They did a fine job but hey, any little being that is about 3 feet tall wearing colorful clothes and singing is bound to be adorable, right? Here are some pictures from the show, and I'm uploading a video of the final song to show you as well.

Hope you enjoy it!




My friend Dennis played Farmer Joe and my friend Ryan played Dorothy's Uncle....(anyone? I can't remember his name....)




The cast did an amazing job, my favorite was the cowardly lion. He should be bound for Hollywood, or Broadway...




This is one of my former students, Zoe. She played a munchkin, but also there was a surpise part in the play and she was a "mini me" version of the Wicked Witch and went running across the stage. It was quite funny.

My Weekly Schedule

My cousin Heidi just emailed me and asked me a good question, "what is my normal schedule like?" As I was writing back to her, I thought it might be interesting for my devoted readers. So, although "normal" is all relative, but here is what I usually do during the week.

5:30am - wake up
5:45 - call a taxi
6:00am - taxi shows up, car pool to school with Kelli, Natasha and Diana (A taxi costs 100 baht a day, which is 3 bucks)
6:30 - arrive at school, check in, check email, get ready for the day, etc.
7:10am - kiddos come, I usually have them 6 out of the 9 periods of the day. So that means I usually get about 2 hours each day devoted to prep and planning... :)

2:35 - school ends,

monday is thai class for me, and then I tutor for a little girl named Luk Glao. Their "driver" comes to pick me up....sooo high so! (short for high society, meaning upper class) :)
tuesday is swimming after school and tutoring for the same little girl.
wednesday is usually staff meetings and then tutoring for a different family with two kids.
thursday is thai class and walking with Pascale
friday is whatever i want it to be, usually involves a nap. :)

And then weekends, if I stay around Bangkok, I usually hang out by the pool, go to the market, and then go explore the town on Saturday night.

If I'm not around Bangkok, then I'm traveling or doing some other sort of adventurous activity. :)

If Vonage were a man....

I'd marry it.

Seriously.

It's the BEST thing I've ever owned. Move over iPOD, colby jack cheddar cheese, reeses peanut butter cups and Yellowtail Merlot.

I have a new love...

my new Vonage plan.

I've had messages (in this order) from Andrea, Aunt Jo, Mom, Jen, Christy S, Mom, Christy VK, Miriam, Mom, Mom again "just because I can", JT, Dad, Mom and Mom again.

I think my mom loves my new love more than me. :)

Another great thing about Vonage is that it sends me a WAV file of the messages left. So if I am at school I can check my new messages, or listen to old ones if I need to. Cool, huh?

The Story About an Adventurous Woman and her Hero

So, my friend Christy asked me what was on my foot in my previous blog entry. Funny Story. It starts like this.

One day, a very adventuresome woman jumped out of a wooden long tail boat and headed inland towards the beach for dinner, as one usually does on the peninsula of Railay Bay. Suddenly, she felt a huge pain in the heel of her foot. Unfortunately, she was in water up to her knees so she couldn't figure out what had bit her, pinched her or stabbed her. So she hopped on one foot all the while screaming to her dear friends Meika and Josh, "THERE'S SOMETHING ON MY FOOT!!! OHHHH GOSH!!!!! GET IT OUT!!!!"

The woman then noticed that what she thought was a pinch was actually a SHELL stuck in the side of her foot. I...um... I mean....ah um...the adventurous woman begged her friend Josh to pull it out, not knowing how long the shell actually was. Upon further inspection, right as Josh, the hero in this story, was about to take the shell off of her foot, out pops the head of a CRAB!!! There is a HERMIT CRAB attached to her foot! All of a sudden she starts laughing and shouts, "STOP! Don't PULL it OUT YET, TAKE A PICTURE!!!! TAKE A PICTURE!!!"

So the adventurous lady and her hero Josh, take pictures of the implanted hermit crab. Finally, the hero pulls the hermit crab out of the woman's foot and then they took more pictures.

They treaded carefully into the water that evening, but never again found a hermit crab attached to their heel....

Moral of the story: crab happens.

Watch out IRON CHEF!

Here is a video of my adventures in Chiang Mai over my October break with Meika and Josh. We had so much fun, we learned how to cook the following things:

1. Spring Rolls
2. Som Tam (payaya salad, one of my favorite dishes)
3. Phad Thai (fried noodles with veggies and chicken)
4. Phad Kew Maw (called "Drunkard noodles" because the Thai people usually add a lot of spice....this is what I am cooking in the video)
5. Tom Kah Guy (coconut with chicken) This is one of my favorites
6. Panang Guy (Panang curry, usually a red curry, and chicken)
7. Gang Kee Wan (Green curry)
8. Chicken and Cashews (This is what Meika was cooking in the video, very delicious!)
9. Kaw Neao Met Muang (sticky rice with mango, my favorite dessert!)

I even got a cookbook, so don't worry, I'll definitely cook for you when I come home!!!!

I hope you enjoy the video...it's a tad bit long, but it's kinda funny...don't worry! We didn't have to call the fire department!

XO
Katie

Parrot Video

I'm experimenting with video blogging. I hope you can get this. Let me know if you can see it. Just click on the title "Parrot Video" and check it out!

This was last year at Safari World, when I fed the giraffes.....

:)

KT

say wha????

Can you understand this???? This is an email I recieved this morning. Just thought it was a little funny. XO KT



Dear all

Due to Submarine cable was cut some international portion. It may cause IIG traffic facing high latency with some destination in Asia. Also
We‚re experiencing international upstream via C&W (England) problem, due to local transmission in England fail, it may cause of high latency between Thai-Europe for several destinations.
This is a report from CAT (Thailand gateway) , so our internet in some destination will slow - slowest.

Regards.,
Tech Dept.

Trick or Treat.....x3

I need to recap the whirlwind of a week. I have always enjoyed Halloween in Seattle. When I was growing up, we didn't have very many trick or treaters where we lived because it was so far out in the country. I loved going to my church's harvest parties and dressing up.

For some reason, Halloween ended up being a whole week long event. It's funny, because Thai people have just assimulated Halloween into their culture. They would not celebrate it if they had never met a farang (foreigner) who would explain this silly holiday of dressing up and begging for candy.

So, we dressed up at school on Wednesday, I was Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing. We paraded around the school, the admin building, the middle school section and the high school section, and then we headed over to the preschool houses. The kids had a great time. Their teacher was pretty tired by the time the parade was over and it was only second period! (we have nine periods a day!)

Then, about 30 little people came over to my house after school in a song tao (a big truck) to trick or treat. Kelli and I decorated the entrance of my house, and the kids all had a great time going around to teachers' homes to trick or treat.

That night my friends and I headed to a local pub downtown, appropriately named The Witch's Tavern. The music is always so fun, and of course the high light of that night was Bobbie and Andrew stealing the show by jumping on stage. i have crazy friends!

Then, Friday night we had a costume party in our moobaan. That was a lot of fun, we had some amazing costumes! We ended the night with some karaoke on my new karaoke machine....but I finally shut the party down when Andrew tried to sing Carolina for the 5th time.

Trick or Treat!

Deep Breath

okay, I've finally had time to breathe. I'm just going to quickly recap my October because time just flew by, between report cards, conferences, my first guests! which involved playing tour guide (loved every minute of it!), Thai cooking school, elephant rides, beach combing, snorkeling, and relaxing pool side, I've just been swamped. I will write more later, but tomorrow is Lil' Katie's first birthday...

I can't believe how time flies!

And Halloween is Wednesday night, and about 35 little batmans, mermaids, fairies and other superheros are comin' a trick or treating to my house....

needless to say, I'm a little busy.

But it's all good.

Here are some pics. I PROMISE I'll write more soon! I need comments! Please respond!

XOXOXOOXOXOXOX Katie