A Blonde With a Backpack

Hey guys! Many of you saw my pictures from Loy Krathong, so I wanted to take a minute to write a blog post all about what we did. Loy Krathong (pronounced cra-tong) is a festival that takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar; hence, the exact date of the festival changes every year. In the Western calendar this usually falls in the month of November. This year, it was November 14th! Krathongs are made out of banana leaves, flowers, cauliflower, carrots, and even cucumbers! Incense and a candle are put on the top of the krathongs.  The krathongs are released into the river for many different reasons, depending on who you ask. They are released to thank the river goddess for giving the people water and to apologize for polluting her waters. They are also released to carry your past troubles and heartaches, and also your hopes and wishes for the year ahead. At school, krathong making is a BIG deal! My students spent...

Hello! So many of my friends have been asking me about what my room looks like here in Thailand! I live in a three bedroom, two-story home. I live here with another teacher from America. Her name is Marly and she is from Boston. Downstairs, there is a Korean teacher from the high school in our town. We are a 8 minute walk from school, or a 5 minute motor bike drive! We have an outdoor style Thai kitchen. Appliances in that kitchen include: a fridge, a microwave, a hotplate, and a sink that shoots straight out into the backyard! Our kitchen is "well equipped" here and is obviously VERY different from typical American kitchens. My room is connected to that beautiful balcony upstairs! My room is quite large and I feel so lucky to have this pretty balcony. This is the view of my neighborhood from the balcony. So here is my room tour! (I included a close up of my desk because it has two awesome things on it! That camera is my dad's old Minolta that I brou...

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 te...

Hello my wonderful friends and family! Today I have officially been in Thailand for  week! The time has flown by and I just finished up my week long teacher orientation in Bangkok. Tonight, I'm moved into my house, but tomorrow all of the unpacking begins! This week I was able to do so many incredible things! I will write a few blog posts about what I did since it was so much, but I will start with two things below 😁 These two pictures were taken from our hotel in Bangkok. We stayed on the River of Kings and our view was so very breathtaking! Every day was filled with training and classes, but we had time to try fun restaurants and bars together at night. These set of pictures are from a river cruise on the Kings River! We had a great time doing karaoke, drinking Thai beer, and eating delicious food. Our boat went by this wonderful bridge and the Royal Palace. All of these pictures in this set were taken in Bangkok! My friend got to feed...