One More Post About My Orientation Adventures!

Hello again! I have officially been living in Thailand for 12 days now! I hope that once I get a routine in place, these blog posts will become much more frequent!

During our new teacher orientation, we took a trip down to Konchanaburi. First, we went to the River Kwai Bridge and explored all that was around it.
This very beautiful place has some very dark and disturbing history. During WWII, the Japanese Empire forced South East Asian civilians and Allied POW's to build the Burma Railway and also the River Kwai Bridge. Hundreds of thousands of Thai people were harshly worked to their deaths in this area.

Looking at this beautiful, serene, and majestic river, I had a very hard time imagining what life was like for these poor workers. On the other side of the bridge, there is a Chinese temple with a large statue of Kwan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion. Many believe she was placed there to "cleanse" the river of the many deaths it has seen. The bridge was teeming with people and life has seemed to begin anew in a place that use to only harbor sadness.

On this bridge, I also met my favorite Thai person thus far!

 This little lady was playing her guitar and singing her head off on the bridge. Her little tip box told me she was raising money for her education. I stopped to listen to her silly singing, and I began talking to her on one of her song breaks. She told me all about her mom, her family, and what she likes to play at school. She told me she dreams of being a teacher and being able to one day drive her own motorbike like her dad! When I told her I was a teacher she immediately exclaimed, "Oh you teacha?? Teacha I LOVE you!" and then enveloped me in a giant hug! In the second picture, she is offering me the flower that her mama "carefully put in me hair." I couldn't believe that this little girl was so willing to share what little she had with me, just because I am a teacher! I am so in love with the kindness, and helpfulness of Thai people.

Later that night, we went on a casual dinner cruise on a different part of the River Kwai. Three HUGE open air barges were tied together to accommodate our huge group. This tiny little tug boat came to pull our rafts, and believe it or not, he successfully did! We all loved the beautiful view, but it just kept getting better and better as the sunset went on!

The pictures I am posting on this post DO NOT do this sunset justice! I feel as though I have seen many beautiful and magnificent things in my life, but nothing compared to this night.

I love this photo with the Thai flag on our tiny little tug boat with the Burmese mountains in the background!

Ok bear with me! I know this post is long, but I wanted to get totally caught up :) 

Last blurb and photo! When we got to our hotel in Kanchanaburi that night, we didn't really know where we were, we just knew we were in the middle of nowhere. In the morning, I opened our hotel curtains to a beautiful and natural wonderland. Just take in these photos and get a feel of how perfect this view from our balcony was.