Thailandish Weekend Warriors

Soooo, we just got back from yet another sweet weekend in the town of Kanchanaburi. Prior to the weekend we had another busy week helping with spelling bee word pronunciation, feeding puppies, and eating an amazing dinner hosted by our new friends James and Taygan (local falangs, the Thai word for foreigners with white skin, who we are soo happy to meet!). The range of emotions I have felt (and that I know Graham has felt) since we got here has been really all over the map. Last week was hard because English teachers are being shuffled all around, and we never know what exactly we are supposed to be doing. I feel like I am already pretty go-with-the-flow, but seriously after this I could be a Taoist teacher. Either that or I might turn into a water puddle, I'd go with the flow so much! Life in Dan Chang is treating us well overall though.

First Week Of School and Weekend in Bangkok

Last week was our first one teaching, yet it already feels like a lifetime has passed since then. We were picked up by our coordinator bright and early that Monday morning, with the expectation that we would be given a tour of campus and get some paperwork sorted before starting our classes on Tuesday.  When we arrived at school our first impression was that it was a lot bigger than either of us imagined. There are a total of 1400 students who go there, all in grades K-6th, making it by far the largest school in town. Most of the infrastructure is basic, but there are obviously a lot of buildings and facilities to host that many students, and most of the campus is very green and beautiful.

Ayutthaya: The Capitol of Siam

Hi Everyone!

Again, so so much to report! We had the most amazing weekend visiting the ancient capitol of Siam, the city of Ayutthaya. After taking a couple days to explore our new home, Dan Chang, and the area around where we live, we decided to take advantage of our long weekend and take a vacation from our vacation. One of our new friends, Ben, and our coordinator, Dick, drove us there on Friday morning, which was very much appreciated as it meant not having to figure out the buses.

Finally Settled In

Graham and I have finally settled into our new home, and I have to say that I am STOKED! We are living in a cabin campsite and each have our own little room and shower. But, the best part is that we are right on a beautiful (and currently very fast-moving, as there has been lots of flooding around Thailand the last week or so) river, and the grounds of the place are beautiful, complete with hammocks, outdoor eating areas, and lots of picnic tables and plants and trees. We are a bit out of town, but it is nice to get away from the city a bit, where we live feels very rural. But our little city is great too.

Beijing and First Days in Thailand

Hello!!!!! Finally was able to find a decent internet connection, so I wanted to update, although I only have about 10 minutes till this place closes. The bottom line is that Natalie and I are having an amazing time! Thank you to our families for sending us off in such great style. We miss you all a ton. (Meghan, the camera you got me is amazing, as you will see in the pictures, and thank you Lynn and Jim for taking care of Gazzette, our cars, and for our going away party and for driving us to the airport! The leftover cake lasted us a couple days, and was always a nice treat)

We plan on writing with more detail once we are more settled, but quickly:

Beijing - Amazing modern city with not a single car that was more than a year old. Our couchsurfing host, Darlene, showed us the best time ever, and we saw way more than we ever could have without her. The Forbidden City was definitely up there with the Vatican, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc. as one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Everyone we met was super sweet, and overall just an awesome time, even through our dreary eyes.

Thailand: Amazing - we have already met so many cool people and eaten a TON of good food. The program is fantastic and we feel like we are getting a lot of great training and being very well taken care of.

They are shutting down so thats all for now!  Check out the pictures though, and will write more soon!

Beijing Debacle

As mentioned previously, we planned a 24 hour layover in Beijing on our way to Bangkok. We were going to see the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and hopefully even the Great Wall. All preparations instantly snapped to a standstill however when we discovered that even to just leave the airport, you need a Chinese visa. Our first reaction was to try and change our flights – total cost: $300. Next we looked into staying in a hotel inside of the airport – total cost: $120, and a depressing way to start our trip. Finally we decided to just bite the bullet and pay $140 each for Chinese visas that we will only be using for one day. Luckily we have been very fortunate to find a couch surfing arrangement, so the good news is that we will have someone local to point us in the right direction, and a free place to crash (thank you Darlene!) So Beijing, here we come!

Other than that, preparations are going sooo smoothly that we both keep worrying there must be something we are forgetting. My last day of work is on Thursday, and I am still in a complete state of shock; the fact that I will not be coming in on Friday because this era of my life is over, and I am about to travel to the other side of the world to a place I have never been, and teach students whose language I don’t understand, in a little village that has monkeys scampering and elephants stomping though the streets…..it just hasn’t sunk in. I will let Natalie speak for herself, but I think it might have set in for her, poor girl J!

Anyway that’s it for now. Thank you to all of those who are following our adventures- we will do our best to make it interesting!

I'm a (half) blogger

I have been an avid journal writer for years, and here I am writing a blog, kinda weird for me! Having an audience. I better work on that GRE vocabulary....

Anyways, I am hoping that I/Grahamalie will have an interesting story to tell. I hope so for your sake, I don't want to bore you to death with we'vehearditbefore stories, but also for my sake. It has been pretty overwhelming getting everything ready for this adventure. We bought our plane tickets, and Graham was all excited and giddy jumping around like a school boy, and there I was, sobbing, holding on to my growling cat, like the true cat lady that I (kind of) am. But seriously, the thought of being away from my loving family, and all of my amazing friends, and our animals, and my beloved oakTOWN made me almost want to back out of this whole thing, something I have been dreaming about for years. But, all tears aside, I am insanely excited. I am figuring out car insurance holds, banking abroad, living situations, and work, and it all seems to be falling into place. Everyone so far has been so supportive. I guess this really is the right time.

I have had a few people ask me about the program that Graham and I are going with, and why we chose Thailand as our temporary home. Well, we are traveling with an organization called CIEE, which our good friend Susan (sup Susan!) recommended to us. She also taught in Thailand, and I spent some time looking at her pictures and being really jealous, and inspired to do something similar, (or exactly the same, in this case. Well, not really, we will be in a different town) in spite of my reservations about leaving a great job and a great situation. In order to do this program in Thailand, we did not need to speak Thai, all we needed was a college degree and some good recommendations. It also seemed like a good length of time; enough to really experience something new, and soak up a new culture, but not so long that we will come back grandparents or anything. Just enough to get our feet wet, so to speak. Also, and maybe most importantly, it was something we could afford, and Graham and I have had Southeast Asia TOP on our list of places to travel to for years. Everyone just has the most amazing things to say about the area, and Thailand.

On an entirely different note, we just got back from Burning Man, and it was incredible. It was by far the most exotic place I have been to. Mars, seriously, has nothing on Burning Man. Unless mars is inhabited by seriously insane Martians. Wow, my first post and I am already writing about Martians. Either this blog is going to be highly entertaining or flat out senseless. I am hoping the former. If you have not seen a perfectly welded statue of a woman dancing that lights up at night, or a remote controlled car has never driven up to you with a "Have a beer" sign on it (and a beer, naturally), or if you haven't experienced 1 ton of explosives blow up an entire art installation, you have not lived. Trust me on this one!

So, to sum this post up. We are not in Thailand yet (one month) but we have my amazing friend Traci watching out for stuff while we are gone. We are getting all of our ducks in order (is that the right saying? Or is it...oh, ducks in a row! duh!) and spending some treasured time with some of our incredible friends and family who we are going to miss so much. And, of course, I am spending some time relaxing in my beautiful sunny apartment, with my adorable cat, (and beta fish and frogs too of course!) reflecting on the past phase of my life (which I designate as the time since I have graduated from college until now, pretty much) and the one yet to come. I hope everyone enjoys reading this! I wish I could see each one of you on a daily basis, it sucks missing so many people all of the time. I love you guys and miss you already, even though I haven't even left.

I guess I need to get better at developing a "thesis" and sticking to it. OOps. OXOXOXOXOXOXOX