New School

The new school is coming right along.  I went by with Ton before we saw Mockingjay as he had some business to attend to.  We were there for a couple hours so I took pictures of the progress and read my book.  I also got a picture of the huge billboard/poster at the front of the school.  I feel like I'm the face of this school.  Haha.

The makeshift bridge over the trench.  It felt about as safe as it looks.

The library has tile!

The wiring in the ceiling is getting done.

The front of the school and Ton's truck.

This thing is seriously huge.  I'd say it's about 10 feet by 25 feet.

October!

I realize that we're half way through November, but here is a recap of October.  A lot of the time I feel like things here are the same 'ol, same 'ol and there isn't much to report.  When I look through my phone I'm glad that I have pictures to show that some things HAVE actually happened :)


We had a salsa night with the girls.  Tanner and I had to check in at the immigration office in Phitsanulok.  While we were there we went to Macro and got ingredients for salsa, cheese, beans and tortillas! (Cue angels singing).  The girls came over to our place (and by that I mean that they walked down 20 feet to our 10' by 12 foot room :) ). We turned on Ratatouille and set up a bunch of chopping stations.  the 9 of us took turns chopping tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic, limes and chilis.  By the end of the movie we had about 4 gallons of salsa!  We had quesadillas and bean burritos and felt like we were in heaven.  The girls were so happy to be eating something NOT Thai!  It was a fun night and there were leftovers that lasted about a week.

Thai schools are closed in October so we have an optional "winter camp".  They use the word 'winter' loosely around here.  Don't be fooled--the high is still 93.  We studied dinosaurs, the Olympics and did all sorts of crafts, games, cooking activities and the like.

Balancing robots

Auto

Wigrom

Pom

Pom

Phuvit

Post

Ioon and Noth

Ioon

Our last day of camp before a week off we had a Halloween party.  We played games, dressed up and got to go trick or treating.  Halloween in generally one of my least favorite holidays... but we had a good time.  I dressed up as a black cat.  I also generally hate cats as well, but it was an easy costume.

Our school is expanding and will open a location in Phitsanulok in May!  Tanner and I hadn't seen the school property since the ground breaking.  We went with Tang and Ake and saw the progress.  The school is modeled after the style of this school.  It's looking good.  They reminded me that I am more than welcome to stay for years and run that school.  Once again I thanked them and declined.  Haha.  I'm grateful for the time we've had here, but I miss the US of A!

Tanner and I were sad to see that all the space above the second floor was being wasted! There is easily enough room for a third story.  Tang said they don't have a way to insulate it... so it'd be too hot...  Thai and US construction and thinking are so very different.

Tanner and I celebrated out SEVEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY!  It seems like it's been shorter and longer than that all at once.  We've had our share of ups and downs, but it's been a great 7 years.  We got pizza and watched a movie to celebrate.  Then when the girls got back from vacation we treated then to anniversary ice cream at Swensen's.

I've been baking a lot.  I have discovered that I quite enjoy baking.  I think I like baking more than eating the goods.  Tanner and the volunteers are always happy to eat what I make though.

Banana muffins!

They love their MSG here!

We had a little cooking class here at the school with Tang.  We made 2 of the dishes that I still enjoy eating: Panang curry and cashew chicken.  A year and a half or Thai food all day, every day gets old.  I'm pretty sure that that when I get home I won't eat rice for a looooooooong time.

Also... They put in a Dairy Queen!  It's kind of a big deal!  I was there on Friday evening and it looked like this.  I as there 24 hours later and it was up and running!  The ice cream sizes here are very different that in the US.  The smallest size is 6.5 ounces.  That's the one I've been getting.  I could easily eat more, but I feel like that is such a good, responsible size.  Plus they're only $.60 cents right now.

We're about to start the 3rd week of my last semester here!  Kind of crazy!  We have now been here more than a year and a half.

Well I think that's it for now!

Animals at the mall

The ground floor of the mall in Phitsanulok is large and open.  There are always booths and shops down there but they rotate.  Recently when we went there was an animal fair.  There were animals to look at and buy.  

Prairie dog

Saturday night out

Ton (Tang's brother) is a fun guy and Tanner and I enjoy hanging out with him. He also likes us, so that's really great.  We love when people like us :)  He invites us to the movies fairly regularly. We saw Maze Runner, The Fast and the Furious and a few others with him.  He was supposed to go to Bangkok this weekend but it fell through. Saturday morning-ish he called to see if we wanted to go see a movie with him. We had talked about how Tomorrow Land was coming out and I wanted to see that.  Sadly that is only showing in Thai. He said San Andreas was playing (and informed us that it was pg-13.  We told him early on that we don't watch r-rated movies so now he always checks for us beforehand :) ).  

We decided to go to the 3:40 showing and eat dinner afterwards. It takes about 45 minutes to drive up to Phitsanulok so we left around 2:30.  There was a bit of traffic but we got there just as it started. A couple things about Thai movie theaters.  1) They play the national anthem with a video of the king before the movie starts. Everyone stands up for that. They recently made a new one and the photographs change into line drawings with water colors. I like this version a lot better than the old one. 2) they do assigned seating. When you buy your ticket you select your seats. I really like that.  ton has a small bladder and always has to leave a couple times during the movie so we always get 3 seats on the end. Ton on the end, then Tanner then me. The movie itself was well done, but I felt really anxious and edgy the whole time!!! So many earthquakes and destruction. At one especially crazy/intense part I turned to Tanner and said, "I don't like this one bit!" I think action movies are not my favorite... But I do like getting out and going to the theater, eating popsorn and having it be in English!  

After the movies we went shopping. They have a store called Macro and it's sort of like a Thai Costco.  They have things in bulk and it's less expensive than other places. They also have some things you can't find anywhere else.  They have SO MUCH CHEESE!!!! We bought a wheel of Edam cheese and a block of Cheddar cheese! They also had refried beans (we bought the 5 cans they had).  We had seen packaged tortillas before.  I don't care for packaged ones much though. I have learned to make them and that's what we have been doing. In the frozen area we caw frozen tortillas! We bought them and had quesadillas on them today. They are really good!  We also bought some cream cheese and banana muffins. There was ground beef too!  We even found some pickles.  Needless to say we were in heaven.  Living in Thailand has made us realize how much we miss food!  There was a section of interesting meats: whole frozen snapping turtles, big frogs, shark, ostrich, boar, and a few others that I can't seems to remember. We bought ingredients to make homemade salsa.  We made about 50 oz of salsa yesterday afternoon. 

Some people go on vacation over 3 day weekends, we buy and make Mexican food!  Haha!  We met and older man there who teaches English at the university. We talked about Mexican food with him, then listened as he talked about how phony this country is... I think he liked speaking to other white people.

After shopping we had worked up an appetite for dinner.  We went to Oshi Ramen.  I got pork ramen with boiled egg.  Tanner got some fried noodles with veggies and pork.  Ton got fried noodles with no veggies and a side of battered octopus.  It was good and I would eat there again.  There is another Japanese ramen place we have been and I like the other place a little bit more.

Ground Breaking

Tang and Ake are building a new school in Phitsanulok.  It is set to open next May.  They recently broke ground. Before they started leveling the ground and building they wanted to have a ground breaking ceremony.  Tanner and I needed to take care of our visas so we went along and made a day of it.  Tang, Ake, Tanner and I met Tang's friend there.  Tang said he has a sixth sense of sorts, so he was there to act as an intermediary with the spirits of the land.  Tang make some food and money offerings.  She also burned some incense and prayed.

After the symbolic money was burned and the incense burned all the way down Tang's friend said the land spirits gave their approval to start building.  Tang and Ake used a shovel to move the first couple shovels of dirt.  Then when we finished the crew came right in and started to clear and level the ground.

This dog was hanging around and I was amused by his shirt.

There was a farmers market around the corner so we walked through that and bought some veggies and fruit.  Then we went to a temple in town.  It was incredibly bright which made it hard to get a good picture.  You may also notice that I am wearing a sweater.  We left at 6 in the morning and there was a slight chill in the air (this was back in January).  I could have done without the sweater, but I've only worn it 3 times in the 13 months of being here so I thought I'd take advantage of the chance to wear it.

After we checked in at the immigration office and got our visas stamped we got lunch and headed home.  At lunch I tried 6 new things!  Some of the volunteers recently reminded me that it's good to be adventurous with food.  I feel like I used to be better at that but over the years I lost that desire or started to prefer the safety of sticking to what I know I like.  Anyways, I have been making a point to say 'yes' to trying new foods.  I hated one of the things I tried (an incredibly bitter vegetable that looked like sliced green bell pepper), felt indifferent about 2 of the things and really liked 3 of them.

A Weekend in Pitsanoluk

 This past weekend we went to Pitsanulok. We went Saturday on the 10:00 train and came home on the 1:45 Sunday train.  We thought we’d go see a movie in English and go to the night market!  We were excited about both of those things.  We didn’t end up doing either… I’m getting ahead of myself.

At the train station we ran into a group of soldiers.  We got a picture.  There are more soldiers around.  That's the only difference I have noticed since the political unrest--more soldiers.

When we got off the train we looked at the map they have there at the station.  We knew that there was a movie theatre that the volunteers in that city had seen.  They told us it was by the Tesco.  The problem we faced was that there were 2 Tescos and we didn’t know which one it was by.  We stood there discussing what to do for quite some time.  We talked to someone who knew a little English and they thought our best bet was going to Central Plaza—a mall and shopping center.  We thought that sounded like a good idea, but weren’t sure about the movies there.  The English teachers who had seen a movie has specifically told us they had gone to the theater by Tesco.  We stood by the map debating for another chunk of time.  After trying to decide for far too long what we should do a man approached us.  “Do you need help?” he asked us in perfect English.  YES!  We told his that we wanted to see a movie but weren’t sure where to go, that we thought it was by Tesco but other people had told us that Central Plaza would be a better choice but we weren’t sure about the movies being in English.  He said he wasn’t sure about the movies, but asked some Thai teenagers nearby and they said Central Plaza was the place to go!  We bargained a price with the tuktuk driver.  He thought the price was far too low, but when we decided to just take the bus instead and walked away he agreed (unhappily) on our price.  We got to Central Plaza and just looking a the signs of what awaited made us incredibly happy: McDonalds, Dairy Queen, The Pizza Company, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels!  Western food and treats make us really happy.  

I love fun bathroom signs!

We walked in and it was big and clean and cold and full of delicious foods.   We kept wanting to stop but we decided it was best to go check on movie times before we did anything else.  We went to the theatre and the line was sooo long! Stevie pulled out her phrase book and opened to the ‘entertainment’ section.  We asked if the movies were in English or had English subtitles.  After a lot of pointing and finding another English speaker we got the information we needed. They were showing 2 movies: Spiderman and King someone (don’t remember).  Spiderman is what we were hoping to see.  It was dubbed in to Thai and did NOT have any subtitles.  The movie about the king was in Thai and had English subtitles.  We didn’t care to see the movie about an ancient king (it’s the 5^th in a series) and weren’t thrilled about reading subtitles either.  So we left the theatre and decided to have lunch.  There were a lot of tasty choices and we settled on The Pizza Company.  It.was.amazing!  I got a garden salad (they don’t really have green salad here) and shared a Hawaiian pizza with Lindsie.

After lunch we window shopped until we had enough room in our bellies for DQ.  I got a medium chocolate brownie blizzard.  The large blizzard here is about the size of a small in the states.  I think it was 12 oz and cost between $1 and $1.50. 

There was a market on the ground floor of the mall (The mall is 4 stories tall) and we spend time there wandering, looking, and sampling.  The brownies and rice/caramel treats were good.  The egg yolk sticky treat was horrible. 

 The second from the top is crabs--still in the shells.

There they are up close.

Look at eyes on this mannequin! 

So scary!

They have a store that looks and feels just like the Apple store.  It was labeled as an apple retail resale store called iStudio.  We sent in there and looked around.

This phone case was at the iStudio store.

Then we walked around a little more and a couple girls got soft pretzels and lemonade from Auntie Anne’s.  

We wanted to go to our hotel but we weren’t sure where it was.  Van (the school director of the school in Pitsanoluk) booked the hotel for us.  It belongs to her aunt and all we knew was it was her aunt’s hotel and it was old.  I had really low expectations and thought it’d be like one of the review we read online of another old hotel: “used to be in a nice field by a pond, but now it’s a mosquito filled swamp.”  We sat around for far too long waiting.  We had called Van to get the info about the hotel.  We had facebooked the girls at the other school to see if they could have Van call us.  We sat at the movie theater for about an hour waiting to hear back about our hotel.  After an hour Megan finally realized that was what we were waiting for and said, “I have the information about the hotel!”  She didn’t know that’s what we were waiting for.  We headed back to the Apple (not Apple) store to use the computers to get directions to the hotel.  While we were in there a worker come over and asked us to play a game with her.  She had an exercise app she wanted us to use.  You hold the iPhone and do 20 squats.  It times you to see how fast you do them.  They gave us pins for participating and entered us in to a contest to win a couple prizes.

The app screen for the squatting game. 

Our hotel was actually pretty good.  It cost us $5 each and was clean AND had AC!  

We checked in, relaxed, and rested our feet for about an hour.  Then we thought we would grab a bite to eat and head to the night market!  We were SO so excited about that.  We ate at a plaza across from our hotel called “Big C”.  I got corn soup, Caesar salad, chicken and fries. Surprisingly the soup was the best part of the meal.  After we ate we went to take a tuktuk to the night market.  Is started to drizzle and the tuktuk driver wouldn’t take us.  We gathered that maybe it was cancelled because of the light rain. But we weren’t sure…  We were feeling disappointed since that was the MAIN reason we were there.  We were also frustrated because we weren’t totally sure that it was cancelled.  I threw my head back and loudly said, “Does anyone speak English?!”  Not 10 seconds later someone walked over and raised their hand.  Thank you universe!  He let us know that they close the market if/when it starts to rain.  We decided that since we couldn’t go to the market we’d go walk around Big C.  There was a store and shops inside.  Most of them closed at 9:00 and we headed back to our hotel before 10:00.  The girls and I stayed up talking for a bit then headed to bed.  

The next morning we didn’t have to leave until 8:30 (we usually have to leave the school before 6:30 on Sunday to get to church).  Church was lovely.  There was a baptism.  We took the train home and it was a good weekend even though it turned out differently than we expected.