More Bugs

This place grows bugs really well.  I wish they would excel at something different, like making the best hamburgers or fluffiest beds, but alas...

This grasshopper was about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long.

This guy was small, but had a fancy pattern.

Creepy Crawlies

The humid, tropical weather here creates the perfect environment for bugs.  Mosquitos THRIVE over here.  The bathrooms are outside and they really love it in there.  They get more dense during rainy season and I once killed 25 during a shower!  

There are also tons of ants, flies, bees, lizards crickets and such.  Here are some of the guys I have encountered:

praying mantis

(with my finger so you can see how big it was)

dead frog (there are lots of live ones, but I thought this dead one looked especially gruesome so I took a picture)

giant grasshopper

With my hand once again for scale.

big dragon fly

This creature is some type of lizard, but it moves more like a snake with legs.  I walked into the bathroom one day and saw the back half of one slither under the trash can.  I swiftly turned and used a different bathroom!  In Thai it's called ching len.

Tanner got a video of the ching len moving/walking/slithering:

Big 'ol crickets  (Read about my first interaction with one of these HERE)

I have no idea what this monstrosity is called.  I am really glad that Tanner found and killed this one when I wasn't in the room!  He said it was crazy fast too. Yikes!

There are lots of millipedes.  This was one of the biggest I've seen here.

I also saw a centipede but I didn't get a picture.  I just went and got Tanner straightway so he could kill it.  The centipede was probably 8 or 9 inches long.  I thought that was REALLY big.  When I told Tang and Ton about it they said that was a small one!!! When I told my students they confirmed that that was small for a thai centipede.  Yuck!  I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.  It took Tanner a good 7 smashes with a shoe and one good chop with a shovel to kill it.

There is also a bug here that is a mix between a spider and a scorpion.  I don't know what it's called.  I found one month and month ago and when I got the guard he said, "Oh.  Bad." and killed it--which kind of a big deal.  Bhuddists don't typically kill bugs unless they are harmful.  Once I called Joj because there was a huge cockroach (I despise roaches).  Joj just guided it outside with his foot...  Well, until last month I had only encountered the spider/scorpion that one time.  A couple weeks ago when I came out of the bathroom there was one right by the door.  (The bathrooms here aren't my favorite.  I am really looking forward to a completely closed, indoor, air conditioned bathroom!)  I just quickly jumped over the creature and went back to my room.  Well last week one appeared in my room.  I yelped and woke Tanner from a nap to get it.  He smashed it real good.  I tried to get a good picture but that devil was fast and I couldn't risk a) getting too close or b) risk letting him escape.  So I didn't get a very good picture.

Thailand is really strong in the bug and creature category.   Not the best strength to have in my opinion, but it is what it is.  I'm so grateful Tanner is here to be brave and kill them for me!

Market, Temple, and Karly's Birthday

Karly’s birthday was a couple weeks ago.  She wanted us to go to the town temple and dinner and the as a celebration.  Around noon we headed out to the temple.  We went to pull in and park our bikes and were blocked by a market.  We thought that was great!  We locked our bikes and walked through the market for a couple hours.  Apparently they have markets that come for a couple weeks and we just stumbled upon it accidentally.  It was a very happy accident! 

They had clothes and dishes.  They were selling hedgehogs and bunnies.  There were terrible roasted bugs and frogs.  There was delicious coconut water. 

Abby and Lindsie ate the a maggot from the tray on the bottom left in this picture.

Holding this huge, nasty bug was enough for me.  I did NOT eat any of them. 

They have these types of foods everywhere.  None of them look or smell appetizing to me at all.

A game called Cookie Run is VERY popular over here.  All my students adore it!  I got it on my iPad, but I don't love it the way they do. 

Little figurines.

These guys were cutting coconuts, pouring out the water, and carving out the flesh.  They the lady in front was selling the coconut water with shavings of fresh coconut is a big cup of ice.  It was so refreshing and light.

After we had seen all the market had to offer we headed over to the temple.  

We had been told that we needed long skirts to be respectful.  I had one in my backpack that I just slipped on over my shorts.  The girls that hadn’t brought one were provided with one there.  We went inside and there was a monk, some candles and a very large Buddha statue.  We didn’t know what we were supposed to do and was was allowed and what was frowned upon so we watched the natives to see what they were doing.  Some of them prayed, a few knelt and recited with a monk, one make noise on an instrument of sorts and a lot of them were taking pictures.  We felt that since we aren’t Buddhist the best/only thing we ought to do was take some pictures.  We snapped a few in front of the large Buddha and headed outside again.   We were inside for less than 5 minutes.  We wandered around the grounds, took some pictures, and looked at the river/canal that holds early river racing.  Apparently people come from all over the country to watch the races.  

Around 3 we headed home.  I stopped at the bank and Tesco with 2 of the girls and everyone else headed home. 

That evening we hopped back on our bikes and headed out for dinner and Swensens.  We went to the Swiss Steak House.  About half of the girls got steak and they said it was divine.  I got a veggie omelet that was okay.  When we go back I will most certainly get a steak!  Swensens after was delicious as usual.  I got the Oreo brownie Sunday in a waffle bowl. 

It’s always nice to get out of the school for a bit and experience the town.  And of course it’s always good to eat ice cream!

The next day we had cake for Karly’s birthday.  There isn’t an oven here at the school, so we ate microwaved cake in cups, which was surprisingly delicious.  We also didn’t have any candles, so Abby putted up a cake with candles video on YouTube. 

A bug's life...

Last Tuesday night at 11pm this conversation went down on Skype:

Lindsey Layton:
THE WORST THING JUST HAPPEN!
i was in bed
and i should have been asleep
but i was watching a movie and wanted to finish it
and it's late
and i don't want to be tired tomorrow
and i was so sleepy
but u was just going to finish it and drift off to sleep
and then i saw something move by my head
and i used the light form my iPad to look

Tanner M: oh no....not a bug

Lindsey Layton:
and it was satan in humogous insect form
SO SO big
like 3 inches
and i jumped out of bed
and i didn't want to turn on the light to see how terrible it really was
but there was no way i could just let it be
so i turned on the light
and he was terrible
and I got out my tennis shoe
and threw it at him
while my heart was raging
and i missed!
and luckily he didn't move
then i had to get close to smash him
and i crushed him
and his body fell between by bed and the wall

Tanner M: you defeated the satan spawn

Lindsey Layton: and now adrenalin is rushing through my veins
and i don't think i can to go bed
because what if his family comes

Tanner M: lol

Lindsey Layton: and what if i didn't really get him all the way dead
and IT'S NOT FUNNY
!!!!

Tanner M: :|
I think you will be ok now

Lindsey Layton: i don't know...

Tanner M: well you have two options
go to bed

Lindsey Layton: die or sttay up all night

Tanner M: or make sure he's dead and go to bed

Lindsey Layton:
if i look to see if he'd dead then i have to see what he really looks like
and see the other bugs that i am SURE are between there
it's so bad
and I'm gonna start crying...

Tanner M:
:(
I'm sorry

Lindsey Layton: I'll just sit at my desk
you go get on a plane
and come take care of me!

Tanner M: ok

Lindsey Layton: it was so so horrible
and now i'm a wreck
and i'm going to be tired tomorrow
and fail

Tanner M: but think of the story you have on your hands now

Lindsey Layton:
NOT worth it!
i checked
he's dead
at least I'm 95% sure
there is a plastic bag back there

Tanner M:
Now you can sleep
he is dead
take a picture
brad loves dead things

And then somehow I was able to go to sleep on the 1/3 of my bed furthest from the wall...
                                                          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A couple pictures just for good measure:

These lizards make a clicking noise.  They click 3-5 times and it's surprisingly loud for such a bitty thing.  The first night I was here it really scared me!

Train station Buddah

Next up: Pork chops, Thai friends, scooter rides, church, tuktuks and a train ride.

Mister Donut

May 13, 2014

The volunteer teachers are here!!!  It’s really wonderful having other English speaking teachers around.  I’ve had the chance to get to know them and they are delightful.

Sunday morning (Saturday in AZ) I did face time my brother.  He just happened to be at dinner with our parents, his wife, two other brothers and another sister-in-law!  They were out eating Mexican food and I got to talk to each one and pretend like I was really there.  My mom ‘fed’ me a chip with salsa on it through the phone.  I may have cried when I didn’t really get to eat it… I miss Mexican food fiercely!  A couple days ago I was craving a Chipotle burrito bowl.  I would have given just about anything for one.  My mouth is watering just writing about it! 

Speaking of food, Karlie this is for you (my sis-in-law has requested lots of food pictures):

Some kind of meat with carrots and bean sprouts.  It was REALLY tasty!  Tonight we had chicken with snow peas and a dumpling sort of thing on the side.  Lunch was green cauliflower with ground pork.  They eat a LOT of pork here.

The volunteers got in around 2am Sunday morning.  I was really hoping that they would get back sooner and we could go to church together.  I found out that in order to get to 9:00 church you have to leave the school around 6:20.  I haven’t ever been to the train station and didn’t feel comfortable riding there alone that early, finding my way to the church from the train station, and everything involved with that!  So I watched some general conference and took notes.  It was really nice.  

When the volunteers went in to town to the Tesco to go shopping I passed.  So I felt like under the circumstances I made good Sunday choices even though I didn’t get to a sacrament meeting.

Yesterday evening I rode into town with the volunteers.  A lot of people stopped to watch 7 Americans pass on bicycles.  It was like a mini parade for them!  LOTS of people look/stare at us.  In the store I caught 5 pairs of eyes locked on us at one point.

They have parking areas for the scooters and bicycles. 

In Happy Plaza there is a donut shop called Mr. Donut.  We got some delicious donuts!  I got two.  One was a Bavarian crème with powdered sugar on the outside.  The other was a twisted one which they had cut in half and filled with custard and crème (on the left in the picture.  it's called Flocky Chou...).  One was 25 baht (about $.75)  the other one was normally 15 baht on sale for 10 baht (about $.30).  We also found an ice cream stand that had ice cream for 30 cents a scoop.  I got double chocolate. (I feel like I should inform you that I didn’t eat my donuts then, I saved them for the next day…)

 Me, Stevie [the head teacher], and Karly

Geneva, Here are the grocery store pictures you requested:

dessert cakes

 Some kind of spiky fruit

 More fruit

 Veggies

Yucky looking packaged meat

Apples that look like noses

 Pringles.  I was amused by the flavors.

Almost all the chip type snacks came in seaweed flavor

The meat section....  ..... 

We were amused by the model in these packages 

I'm glad that's not spelled with one l 

 This is what I bought.  Well, this is what I tried to buy.  They wouldn't let me have the asian pear... The took it and set it to the side.  Two other girls tried to buy one and they took those away too!  We figured that we were supposed to have them weighed in the produce department or something. We'll try again...

 Watermelon seeds!

Cute little cracker/frosting snacks 

I spent a lot of time today planning and getting ready because…..TOMORROW I have my first day of teaching.  I am equal parts excited and nervous.  I hope it all goes well.  The building where I will eventually be teaching isn’t done yet, so we are in a different building and I don’t have a room.  I’ll just be going into the Thai classrooms.  It’s not ideal but it’ll be just fine.

Last night I was walking back to my room and Megan was walking to get her laundry.  We were walking along when we saw something bad!  We thought it was a scorpion, but he didn’t look exactly like one… He was like a spider-scorpion hybrid.  Megan grabbed a big stick and tried to hit it off the sidewalk into the dirt.  She didn’t hit it quite right and that devil started running.  He was quick.  He ran.  We screamed.   He lifted his tail like he wanted to strike.  We were fine, but he was still on the sidewalk.  It was pretty close to the volunteers’ room and we thought it would be best for him to  be gone.  We decided that it would be best to get the guard and let him take care of the little brute.  I went and fetched Bin while Megan kept an eye on the dirty creature.  Bin came, took the stick, and crunched that bugger.  Yuck.  I get the creeps just thinking about it.

Apparently there are centipedes here.  There was one by the girls room the night they got here.  I saw it the next day once it was dead and being eaten by ants.  I do not look forward to seeing those alive.  I DID see a millipede, but that wasn’t bad.

The school gave me a call phone today.  Nothin’ fancy, but it’ll be good to have in case of an emergency.  I like that it has the squiggly Thai numbers.

We have AC in our rooms, but they don't want us to run it all the time.  I want to offer to pay for it so I can run it all the time!  I think that when I get back to the states I'll either feel really grateful for the constant AC or I'll be used to the heat and feel frivolous running it constantly.  They ask us to just run it from 7:00pm to 7:30am and 2-4 in the afternoon.  We are supposed to set it at 25 degrees celsius (77 degrees fahrenheit).  That with a fan feels really good.  Today it got up to 99 with 70% humidity! Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 97 but feel like 111.  I get sweaty really easily and usually shower more than once a day.  The Thai people almost all shower twice a day.  Tang's mom showers three times everyday!  I wish the shower water would get a little colder.  I hope my body continues to adjust to the heat and humidity.  My hair is pretty much always up and I plan to keep it that way!

I think that's all.  Until next time! (And remember, I'd love for you to leave a comment!)