September... a delayed post!

with the kids at Happy Home in Cambodia

Playing Simon Says with giving directions at Chong Fah (I made a mistake as soon as we started the game!)

Games with the kids at church

Poi Pet, Cambodia

New pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann

Somehow I forgot to actually post this entry...but here is a brief summary of September! I went to Bangkok and Cambodia for my visa and passport and came back. I got to visit an orphanage called Happy Home in Poi Pet, and although it was such a short visit, I was shocked by the difference between Thailand and Cambodia (if you look at my pictures on Picasa you'll see why.) I survived the crazy political situation in Bangkok and Phuket. There have been protests going on against the government for months. The old prime minister has stepped down, but Thaksin's brother-in-law has replaced him, so the protestors are still unhappy. (Thaksin is the old PM who was ousted two years ago due to charges of corruption.) The airport in Phuket was closed because of protests when I was supposed to fly to Bangkok, but things were semi back to normal when I flew back to Phuket.

While in Bangkok (and a bit before), I suffered from some major dizzy spells that lasted for more than a week and was diagnosed with BPPV (vertigo), which also explains my extreme motion sickness. The first few days back here, I still felt dizzy and very tired and had a hard time teaching because once or twice, I felt like I'd have to throw up while I was standing in front of the class! But praise God, I've been feeling A LOT better lately.

Classes at Chong Fah and Ramada were really good; it's been so fun to have some variety in teaching by getting outside of Step Ahead to see other places.

End of class term and Julia's visit, & political instability in Thailand

Julia and I made Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian pancakes) for our students on the last day of class

students from Chong Fah

out to dinner with John. Julia and I bought the same dress. :)

Paul making friends with a water buffalo at the Moken Villae

German class

with the Ramada class

Helmets are very fashionable

Benz & Julia at the sticky rice restaurant- girls' night!

  I just can't believe how fast this past month went by, and Julia's already gone! :( We had so much fun together; I'm really going to miss her. This is what I find so difficult about being here: people are always coming and going constantly. It makes me tired.

 Yesterday it was uncertain that Julia would even be able to fly out of Phuket, because there have been some major protests against the government going on in Thailand, and the demonstrations have escalated over the past week. The protestors succeeding in shutting down the main airports in Thailand for a few days (though not for international flights from the main airport in BKK. I was supposed to fly from Phuket on the same day as Julia, and then it looked like we'd have to take a bus instead. So we bought bus tickets, but praise the Lord- late Sun. afternoon we found out that Julia would still be able to catch her flight to Bangkok! I couldn't get on my flight though, so I'm leaving in about an hour to catch the overnight bus. I'm not really looking forward to going to BKK and Cambodia because I'll traveling by myself again. I've been a bit worried about the situation here too, but Kim Quinley assured me that it's still safe to travel to BKK. I think I'll have a good time once I get there; there's always lots to do in BKK. But I also have a lot of things to take care of.

  The end of our class term was great; I think that these classes (except maybe my evening class) have been the best ones for me at Step Ahead the whole time I've been here. For our last day of German class, Julia and I made Austrian pancakes and ate breakfast w/ our students. Then they offered to cook lunch for us on Saturday at Step Ahead! One of the guys from Baan Khao  Lak (hotel) is the restaurant supervisor, and I think he can cook really well! But unfortunately, he ended up having to work, so we went out to eat instead to save time. It was still a lot of fun. On Friday night, some of our students from Chong Fah invited us to hear live music, and Julia, Paul and I were so impressed! I didn't expect the music to be that good, but it really was cool.  They were kind of a reggae/ country band, and they let us request songs. On Friday we also went to the Moken village again to teach, but this time it was me, Julia, Paul and Benz, and we had so much fun together. I'm starting to really love that village and the sweet kids. 

  It's raining now. Julia was very lucky to have so much sunshine during her stay here! Now I think it'll rain just about every day, as it normally does in the rainy season.