A Blonde With a Backpack

This week is our last week of school before summer break. (Summer break here is March-May since it is 105-110 degrees with 80% humidity during that time). We have finished finals and now comes the hard part; GRADES and individual reports for each student! My students graduate this year and head to mattyom, or high school. High school here begins at age 12, after P6. High school is VERY important in Thailand. Whether or not you attend a "good" high school largely helps to determine the rest of your life path. My students have been taking tests for weeks to get into good schools and subsequently to enter the English Program at these schools. Two of my students were gone for 2 weeks straight to attend tutoring facilities to better prepare themselves for these tests! Needless to say, they have a lot of pressure on their little 11 or 12 year old backs! So, we are spending our last few classes together having fun! We have been watching American movies, making Summer bucke...

While my family was visiting; we took a trip to Northern Thailand and to Southern Thailand. In Northern Thailand, we were able to visit many temples (called Wats), watch traditional Thai dancing, eat wonderful Northern food, and play with elephants. The elephants have been rescued from captivity in riding facilities; so this establishment helps to rehabilitate elephants trust with humans and the mahoots (elephant care takers) truly care for the elephants. In Southern Thailand, we stayed right on the beach! Our beach bungalow was only a few steps away from the beach and we had a wonderful time. Although it rained a few times while we were in Koh Samui, we had a wonderful time. I'll include pictures from both trips below. Northern and Southern Thailand were both wonderful trips, but the trip was truly made because of my family. I had truly missed seeing them and I was so excited that they were able to join me here! Northern Thailand ...

My wonderful family came to visit me for two weeks over Christmas! We had so much fun and I was so sad to see them go. The first stop they made was to visit my class in Saraburi. My students were THRILLED to meet my family and immediately made a circle around them to greet them. They had each prepared questions to ask my family, and I loved seeing two groups of people that I really care about interacting together! my class had been working on the song "You're a Grand Old Flag" to specifically sing for my family when they came. My class proudly sang the song and my family loved it :) My mom brought so many Christmas cookies and presents, she made it feel just like Christmas at home! We then embarked to Ayuttaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. We had a wonderful day exploring temples that were built in the 1520's and enjoying cruising on the beautiful Chao Praya River! This year we traded tinsel for temples, and I couldn...