Pranks!

Our lovely German class!

Kata Beach in Phuket- the water is much clearer than I expected!

Julia and I teaching the Moken kids (sea gypsy village)

at Khao Lak Lamru National Park

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  I think we've been watching too many episodes of the Office. We've been in a mischievous mood, and so we decided to play some pranks on Ton last Friday evening. P'Jeab invited us 

over for dinner. While Ton was in the kitchen, I stole his bag and hid it upstairs. Then I took his cell phone out and hid it in my purse, and Julia called it. He was looking around for a while before he realized where the ringing was coming from. I took his phone and hid it and called it two more times that night, but the best time was right in the middle of an intense Ligretto game- with 8 people playing (we taught the Thais how to play.) I hid his phone in a laundry basket and called him during the game. He totally fell for it again! The problem is that Julia and I can't keep a straight face, so we were trying our best not to crack up but mostly not succeeding. But Ton didn't even notice until we were getting ready to leave that his bag was missing. 

  Somehow the cell phone trick didn't really get old, because his reaction is soooo funny to watch, and he takes it well. So we did it again on Sunday, but one time while Julia and I were talking to the mayor of Takuapa and his friend, a psychiatrist (who had been invited over for a special dinner at Step Ahead). I thought I'd be pretty sly and call his phone (which I'd hidden on the stairs) while talking to the mayor, so that I could keep a straight face. But it didn't work; especially when the psychiatrist, whose name is coincidentally also Ton (!) started looking around for his cell phone. He must've had the same ring tone. Ton said, "you two again!!" and put us both in a headlock. But the pranks didn't stop there. We also got him a small brush and bottle of shampoo (because he loves his long hair), which we wrapped in shiny gold paper and gave to him, and we put a fork and a toilet paper roll in his bag on Tuesday. Julia made a blunder in Thai that led to another prank also. She learned how to say "how old are you" which translates literally as "age, how much?" But when she wanted to ask Ton how old he was, she just said "Ton, how much?" We burst out laughing. And then I said "10 baht" (about 30 cents or so). So the next day I put 10 baht in an envelope and asked Momay to write "how much? 10 baht" on the outside, and  stuck the envelope in Ton's bag.  I don't know who's going to help me pull pranks when Julia's gone!

A Day's Work

In class on Wednesday, we were talking about jobs, and one girl said she does odd jobs in the low season, such as picking fruit to sell. She told me what kind of fruit she picked, but I'd never heard of it (even after nearly a year in Thailand, I'm still discovering foods and fruits that I've never seen or heard of before.) In the evening, before we left for cell group, my student showed up at Step Ahead with a HUGE bag of fruit- her whole day's work! It was about 2 1/2 kilos. I don't know the name of the fruit in English. But I sure was impressed by her generosity.

Julia and I confused our German students with a whole bunch of vocabulary about the reception at a hotel, but then when we played hangman at the end of the hour, they had so much fun that they stayed after for almost half an hour to continue playing!

Mother's Day

Ton practicing songs with the kids before service

Julia, Dinay and I enjoying a good lunch!

Giving flowers to a lady who couldn't come

Have you ever seen kids so cute?? Seriously. 

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  I'm so behind on blogging! I can't really catch up, but I'll tell about a few things. Well, first of all, Megan left (we miss you, Megan!) and Julia came to help me teach German. German class has been so great this time! The students are all still attending class each time (unusual b/c they usually drop off around the middle of term), and they are the sweetest and most fun students! Julia and I could nearly laugh until we cried sometimes in class. I've also started teaching at Chong Fah Resort, which has a really nice swimming pool that they let us use. That is my biggest class- 18 students, which is a bit chaotic, especially since we meet in the restaurant! It's fun though. Oh, but I saw my first cobra since I've been in Thailand- it slithered across my path right on the steps leading to the hotel! I thank God that I didn't step on it, because it literally went right in front of my feet. 

  We've played a LOT of volleyball at the beach w/ our friends who work at La Flora (hotel) and then a few random Germans. We made friends w/ 4 Germans actually, and ate dinner w/ them once  and had them over at Step Ahead for lunch. The guys at La Flora gave me a Thai nickname- "Chabah"- which means hibiscus flower! I like it. Some people told me it's an old name and that Thais always like to give farangs old names (and names of flowers), but I don't mind. I like the way it sounds; it's better than some of the other funny names I've heard here, and it doesn't mean "frog" or "rat" or something similar. :)

   A few Sundays ago we had a special service at church for Mother's Day (the queen's birthday). Ton did special songs w/ the kids, and they each presented jasmine flowers to their moms. Well, I was lucky enough to be a stand-in mom for a really cute little girl whose mom wasn't there! I was happy to do the job. She hugged me for a long time, and I just wanted to cry because she was so sweet. Actually, the whole service, I think, was the nicest one I've been to since I've been here. Some of the moms of the kids from our Saturday kids class came too, which was cool. 

   Last weekend Julia and I went on a short trip to Phuket to see Pia and for Julia to see some of the city. The other girls who are either staying at or hanging around Amber's house are so sweet and so much fun! We went shopping at the night market and had a girls' night on Saturday. On Sunday Julia and I went to Kata Beach, where the water is surprisingly- amazingly- clear. We didn't swim; we just walked around and then found a really nice coffeehouse called "Summer." Then we got on the wrong bus (because when I asked the bus driver, he said that the bus DID in fact go to Bang Niang...), got off, and got on the right bus to go home.