January birthday in a warm-ish climate! That's a first!

Last Friday afternoon I had a half day at school to celebrate Wai Kru (teacher appreciation) so Fuad & hopped a minibus (15 people including the driver) and headed to the town of Pai, a lovely spot nestled in a valley.  We'd heard that this 3 hour ride can be miserable because of the 762 turns up & down & around the mountains and since I tend to suffer from motion sickness, we popped some pills and hoped for the best...it was awful. Without a doubt it was one of the worst rides I've ever experienced!  The nature of the road is one thing, but the driver of the van was taking the turns (some of them hairpin turns) at such high speeds, I actually thought to myself "We're going to die," and I turned to Fuad and said "I don't want to die like this." His response was "me neither!" We were on the same page...the last leg of the journey was the worst; it was dark, there was hardly a stretch of road that went straight and I felt like I was in some sort of torture experiment, but we arrived to our destination in one piece. I could hardly wrap my head around the fact that we were going to have to take the return journey in a few days.
We loved Pai! It's a small charming town jammed with both Thai tourists & backpackers alike. There's nature to be seen, nightlife with live music, a walking street market and good food! After sleeping in the morning of my birthday we grabbed some brunch (where we experienced the Passion Roll @Witching Well) Delicious!!! Mangoes wrapped in a pancake with passion fruit sauce on top! Then we got a short ride just out of town to soak in a mineral hot spring! Fabulous!!! After relaxing in the spring, we came back to town and got coconut oil massages! Incredible!!! By then, we were so relaxed, we needed a nap : ) Back in our room we rested & watched a few episodes of Lost (we're in the final season now). By the time we got showered up and headed out the door for dinner, the temperature had dropped significantly! It was freezing, like see-your-breath freezing!
I've always wanted to celebrate my birthday in warm weather, since I was born in the Winter and lived in the Mid-west my entire life...I finally got to do that (at least during the daytime). It was like the best of both worlds; a hot, sunny day, and a cool night.
Fuad & I plan to return to Pai next year, not for my birthday weekend but perhaps for the the weekend following, which is when they have their annual reggae festival.
Overall, a wonderful birthday weekend!

Wai Kru-Teacher Appreciation in Thailand

January 16th is designated as teacher appreciation day or Wai Kru (Wai means to bow and Kru means teacher) and throughout the week we were treated special! One day lunch was provided by the mothers of our Korean students, another day by the mothers of our Thai students. (Both lunches were delicious!) One day my Assistant Principal sent out an email stating what she appreciates about EVERY person on her elementary staff! Before we were dismissed on Friday for a half day in honor of this occasion, we had a school wide assembly where the tradition of the Wai Kru was explained and a special ceremony took place. I'm including some videos below...

For me, the most unique part of this entire process was the Wai Kru itself. All of the elementary teachers were asked to sit on the stage and 4th grade students crawled on their knees holding a bouquet as an offering for the teacher. The students offered the bouquet to the teachers, and in return the teacher was expected to place their hand on the child's head and offer a blessing. Some of my colleagues are not comfortable with this tradition, and I can see why but coming from a place where so often the teacher is not respected, I found this experience to be quite moving.

Here is a little more history from the Lead Thai Teacher at my school and some videos from the assembly...including when the 4th grade students entered to honor the high school teachers, the special Wai Kru dance, high school students speaking on the history of the day & the high school choir singing the anthem.

Eating Well.

Fuad & I did a juice fast 2 weeks ago and here's my confession, I've never fasted a day in my life. We did some research, borrowed a juicer & spent a Saturday drinking our meals. I will admit, it was extremely challenging for me...the hunger pangs, the headache, the drowsiness. We lasted a day & a half and we're now figuring out how this can become a habit in our lifestyle. I haven't analyzed & thought this much about my food in awhile...which meals to juice, which ones to eat, how it works into my teaching schedule and so on...I do know that you make time & space for the things that you care the most about, and what we put into our bodies is worth caring about.

Yesterday I encountered the video below (well worth watching by the way) and I felt the timing was perfect as I'm currently in this process of food reflection. What she says is true, in the States eating a wholesome diet is exorbitantly more expensive than eating fast food. Eating fresh fruits & vegetables takes time & effort, eating at McDonald's is fast & convenient. I'm willing to put in the time after seeing how this lady went from using a wheel chair to taking 18 mile bike rides from changing her diet! Lucky for me, in Thailand it's not expensive to eat fresh, wholesome foods and to demonstrate my point...

I went to the local market today (see picture at the top), which is open 7 days a week from early morning until about 10pm. As you can see I got a variety of mostly fruits and just a few veggies. 4 carrots, a portion of watermelon & pineapple, 1 kilo of clementine oranges, the smallest bananas I've ever seen, 1 kilo of passion fruit, a large piece of ginger, greens, broccoli & small potatoes (taste like sweet potatoes.) All of this was 200 baht, which is exactly $6.28. Not bad, not bad at all!

As I walked through campus today...

I walked through campus today and made a comparison between CMIS and all the other schools where I've worked...and I realized I haven't done that in awhile. I read on-line that making chronic comparisons is part of acculturation and it's early in the process, we're almost 6 months in and I think I've finally moved to the next phase. Since my classroom is at the farthest end of campus, I make one trip a day to the main building to sign in and check my mailbox, during my trip today I took note of how many backpacks are left unattended outside the classrooms while the kids are in class. No one bothers these bags and I've never heard a teacher or student report that their stuff has gone missing. "It's so amazing", I thought, this is something that would NEVER happen in Chicago. Then my mind gets rolling...all my students leave their shoes in the shoe cabinet outside my classroom before class. Some kids are barefoot, and some wear socks, the entire time I'm teaching I'm not wearing shoes and I rarely wear socks here. No one EVER makes nasty comments about the condition of your socks or your feet and no shoes ever go missing. Again, this would not fly in Chicago.

Then, I realized that I haven't blogged in awhile...I think I'm getting so used to things here that I think I don't have anything to report!

But really...I do.

So I'm gonna go ahead and say it, I love it here.

I love our house, which feels more & more like our home. We have a compost up in the yard now and I'm excited to see how it progresses. We have outdoor seating space on our front porch, complete with a hammock. We have candles & good things to eat! This weekend we made Nutella dipped frozen bananas! Yum!

I love the weather during this season! The sun is shining 99% of the time and at night when the sun goes down, it gets cool. We can sleep with our windows open (or closed when it's gets a little too chilly.)

I love my job. The children are a delightful pleasure to teach. They're respectful, they're curious, they're incredibly diverse, they're innocent...

To celebrate my birthday this weekend we're going 3 hours north to a small town called Pai. I hear that the joke about Pai is how many turns you make on the winding mountain road to get there. Here's an interesting travel blog which claims there's 762 bends, we won't be taking the scooter, we'll be riding in a van! I'm excited to see yet another small corner of this beautiful country.

We've decided to take a "media fast" while we're there. No computers...no iphone, no facebook...so I'll see you on the flip side with more stories to share.