And so it continues

 I found my phone cord so I got the pictures from there!

Hong Kong airport

The white fruit on the top is the one I wrote about. It's called a dragon fruit. 

Another shot if the flight attendants clothes. 

Singapore Airport 

Feeling exhausted as I headed into the 4th flight or my trip.

My first purchase! Kiwi popsicle and water.

 Yesterday was a good day.  I didn’t get to go to church, but I did listen to some conference.  I slept until around 7:30 and got up and got showered and set for the day.  I wanted to get outdoors a bit so I was going to walk around the grounds.  When a got outside the guard, Bin, was trimming the bushes and came to check on me and talk to me.  (They have a little guard station by the front gate.  There is a guard there 24 hours.)  He speaks a bit of English so we talked a bit.  He gave me a tour of the school, took a picture of me in front of the school sign, and pointed out the sanctuary and city water supply station across the road.  

The School

Since our conversation was in slightly broken English I can’t be totally sure, but I think the sanctuary across the road houses some Monks and they perform cremations there… I think…(I confirmed this today.)  He took me to the kitchen and showed me where the volunteers will stay.  It’s a big room with a table and bunk beds.  There is a room next to that which is a good size and currently acts as a storage room.  That is going to be made into a bedroom for me.  In the mean time I am in a dorm room upstairs. 

my current bedroom

After my tour I came back to my room to do some writing.  Tang (the school director) came over around 10:30 and brought me breakfast.  It was a hot ham and cheese sandwich, big cold bottle of water, and a drinkable yogurt.  It was all delicious.  She needed to go talk to the construction workers and I joined her.

I got to see the building progress and get a tour.  They started this school as a nursery school with just preschool and kindergartens.  The kids that started the program that first year are now 8 and I will be teaching that group and the group just younger.  Because they are a growing school they are building that new building to accommodate the growth.  The piece of land they have is big enough to build 2 more buildings with classrooms, a sports complex, and have a pool and soccer field.  The new building will have the level one and level two classrooms with my classroom in the middle.  When it is time for their English class they will walk to my room.  The bottom floor also has a bathroom and gym.  Upstairs the layout is the same but the rooms will be used as a dorm for the students who board at the school and instead of a gym there will be a library.  They are planning on getting that finished before school starts up on the 14^th.  Then the workers will start working on my living area.

I stuck around the construction site for a bit then got the internet password!  When I got online Tanner was on Skype and I got to video chat with him.  It was really good to talk to him and ‘see’ him.  The morning hours had felt long and a little lonely so it was good to talk to someone and have access to the internet and not feel so disconnected to my life back in the U.S. (I’m going to try and now write ‘back home’ because this is going to be my home for the next year.  I think writing with that mindset will help me transition easier).

By that time Tang was done and came to get me to go to her house.  She drove me to her home and I got to eat lunch, meet her family, and hang out.  They drive on the left side of the road here and the driver side of the car is on the right.  Every time I got in the car yesterday my foot automatically tried to find the break pedal!  My mind is so strongly wired to thin that when I get in the front left side seat I am going to drive.  That will take some getting used to. I met her husband (Ake) mom, dad, brother, 4 month old baby, nanny, and house keeper.  They have a big yard with lots of trees: decorative and fruit.  We had a tasty lunch of rice, soup, pork with mushrooms (long skinny mushrooms that look like noodles), and green onion with meet.  We also had fresh mango and papaya.  After lunch I hung out there chatting, fighting off my strong desire to take a nap.  Around 5:00 Ake took me for a drive around town and pointed out some useful places.  He showed me the Swensen’s ice cream shop, best grocery store, the small building where this school started, an open market (I can’t wait to get back there!), and some good food stalls. We stopped and got 2 things.  We got some grilled pork on little skewers that came with a peanut sauce for dipping  (they call that satay [pronounced like sautee]).  I took that back to my room and had it for dinner.  We also stopped and got a treat called roti (row tea).  They start with a piece of dough the size of a ping pong ball.  Then they press it into a circle and flip it and putt it until it’s really thin.  Then they fold it a couple times and cook it in butter and oil (you can probably already tell it’s going to be fabulous—butter and oil!).  After it’s cooked they cover it with dried coconut and sweetened condensed milk and roll it up.  It’s almost like a crispy crepe… sort of.  It’s really delicious!

By that time I was really tired so I came home, read some wonderful blog comments and went to sleep at 7:00! I slept until 6:30 this morning.

This morning I got up and unpacked.  Then I got to facetime my family! They were {almost} all at family dinner so it was delightful to ‘see’ them and talk to them.  We chatted for over an hour and it was rejuvenating. 

Tang and Ake came to the school around 11.  They brought me a delicious fresh juice.

It had apple, carrot, beet, and something else.  We then spent the next couple hours going over the curriculum and lesson plans. At 1:00 we headed out to lunch.  We ate at a middle eastern restaurant which is right behind the school.  We had liver (I didn’t eat that), papaya salad, chicken, rice, and fish.  They brought the fish out whole! I asked what kind of fish it was and they said “river fish”. He tasted like the river to me. 

As we ate we talked a lot about the American education system and Thai culture.  I’ll write some of those interesting things later.

After lunch we spent some time at the construction site.  At this point in the day I started feeling pretty weak/lightheaded.  That persisted the rest of the day and was incredibly annoying. 

A trip to the store was next.  They took me to Happy Plaza.  It has a huge store called Tesco which is similar to Wal-Mart.  That plaza also has a doughnut shop, KFC, Swenson’s, and a few other places.  I was feeling really crummy at this point.  I walked around a bit and found a few things I needed.  I bought a razor (I left mine in the shower in AZ), some soap, some cashews and almonds, some apples, and chocolate dipped cracker type sticks.  I also snapped a picture of a dragon fruit.  That’s the black and white fruit I ate on the plane. 

Tang and Ake were still shopping and I felt like passing out so I checked out and went and sat down in KFC.  When they finished with their shopping we went to their house.  Tang worked on dinner while I sat in a recliner, drank water, cooled down. And talked to Tang’s dad about Buddhism.  I started watching Man of Steel.  By that time I was feeling much better though not 100%.  Dinner was great.  It consisted of rice, 2 kinds of soup, pork ribs, boiled eggs in come kind of batter, and a broccoli, mushroom, pork dish (that was my fav).  We had ice cream in honey toast for dessert. That brings us to the present.  I am trying and feeling incredibly tired.  Night!