Merry Christmas!

I will be blogging soon about our school camping trip and Phuket, but for now Happy Holidays!

My 4's Class (10th Grade)

Catie's 5's class (11th Grade)

My 1's Class (7th Grade)

Koh Chang/Half Moon Party

Well this past weekend, Catie and I met up with some friends in Koh Chang. It's an island off of Trat which is in Southeast Thailand on the coast.  It took us about an 1 to get to Bangkok, then a 5 hour bus ride to Trat then another half hour ferry ride over, but we had friday off so leaving on thursday wasn't bad. We ended up getting to Koh Chang at 7am Friday morning. We spent all day friday beachside. The water was clear blue, you could see your feet even at about 100 yards out.  Friday night, we stayed near this bar right on the beach and a most of the CIEE program participants were there. It was nice to see everyone since we left orientation.

Saturday we got up and took a little hike to a waterfall pretty close by. It was really cool to see and the water was so fresh and felt so cold compared to the ocean which felt like a bath. The rest of the day we laid on the beach and relaxed. That night, we got some food and headed to a half moon party on the beach. They had a DJ on the beach with dancing and a fire show. Sunday, we woke up, got some breakfast and headed out as early as we could. It was quite a hike home, which ended with Catie and I having to take a cab from Bangkok to Suphanburi since there were no buses left. Overall, it was a very relaxing weekend and it's nice to see paradise once and a while.

Action Packed Weekend

Well the last weekend in November Catie and I had plans for an action packed weekend. Friday, we didn't do much because Saturday we had to wake up early to help judge a competition at another school close by. We finished around noon and a group of us from our EP program rented a minivan for our weekend activities.

Saturday, we left around 4:00pm and headed to Kanchanaburi. It was the reenactment of the WWII bombing of the bridge over the river kwai. We shopped for a bit then sat down, ate dinner, and watched the show. There were fireworks, and lights covering the bridge and a little show they put on although it was narrated in Thai so we didn't really know what was going on in the show part. After the show was over, we drove back to Suphanburi, which is only about an hour and a half to two hours away.

Sunday, we woke up around 7am and had a long day ahead of us. Our first stop was Lop Buri for the monkey festival. There is an ancient ruin in the middle of the town and most of the monkeys live and play there, but tons of them roam the streets. For the festival they had tables of food waiting for the monkey to feast. It was quite a sight. After the monkey feeding we headed to an ancient palace pretty close by. 

We got to roam around the grounds from building to building. It was a pretty interesting

 place.  After the palace we hoped in our van and headed to the sunflower fields. There were about 200,000 - 300,000 sunflowers and fields just covered the grounds. We walked around in them and bought some delicious sunflower seeds. 

Our last stop was the giant buddha in Suphanburi. The buddha is about 97m high which is about 320ft.  When you first walk in there are statues and scenes set up to portray hell. They are pretty descriptive and intense to walk through, but once you walk through them you come upon a giant sitting buddha. It was quite an exciting weekend.

Pictures

For all of my pictures from Thailand so far, the website is: http://picasaweb.google.com/annacunningham1 . You can copy and paste it the website address from under my user picture in About Me. And feel free to comment on pictures and blog posts!

Hua Hin

So I totally forgot to write about my weekend in Hua Hin. Catie and I met up with Heather and Sara in Bangkok, the weekend of Nov 14th. We took a bus from Bangkok to Hua Hin, about a 2 and a half hour trip. We arrived Friday night around 12:30, found our hotel and passed out. We woke up Saturday morning and headed straight for the beach! We spent all day at the beach Saturday, and grabbed a bite to eat at a steakhouse! It was delicious, and tasted like home food. 

Sunday we wanted to grab another beach day but it rained all day so we got some breakfast and walked around town, went to some bookstores and caught a 4:00 bus back to Bangkok! All in all it was a great weekend! Very relaxing! 

Hua Hin beach

fresh pineapple brought to you on the beach. delicious!

yes, we found a McDonalds. Ronald wai's to you, so we had to wai back.

more beach. they serve you whatever you like, whenever you like

Matti's Birthday

Well this weekend Catie and I hung around Suphanburi. Friday, was Matti's birthday dinner. The whole village got together and made dinner. We ate outside, music was playing, Thai dancers came, and at last, Thai's favorite activity, karaoke.

 our homemade dinner

 me and UB, one of the many village dogs

our outdoor kitchen

Today is Thanksgiving here, and since my students know what Thanksgiving is, but don't really know the story about Thanksgiving, I'll probably use that as my lesson today. The US exchange students were supposed to leave tomorrow but with the situation in Bangkok I think they might be staying an extra day or two. 

We haven't heard much about the situation, other than don't go to Bangkok this weekend. Today another airport was closed by protesters. They have already seized and closed down Suvarnabhumi Airport.  Tuke, one of the translators and teachers in the office, was saying that apparently this protest is supposed to be the biggest because it is their last one so they want to have their point made. Something like 1600 protesters have turned out for this one. Our program has emailed us saying 

"There has been a lot of press coverage in local and international news sources. Of course, you should be aware of the situation as it is constantly changing. Nevertheless, the majority of people in Bangkok and Thailand are not enthusiastic about either group of protesters and have expressed apprehension with their tactics. Life in Bangkok, aside from the protest areas, goes on undisturbed with only minor annoyances."

That's all for now, I'm safe and all is well here in Suphanburi, possible trip to Kanchanaburi for the reinactment of the WWII bombing of the Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lopburi for a monkey festival.

loy krathong

Well November 12th was Loy Krathong. It's a festival of lights and everyone in thailand celebrates. You create these little rafts and there is a candle and incense on it. You light it and send it off in the river bring new wishes in and old out. 

At school, all the foreign teachers had to perform a dance in front of the whole school of about 3,000 students, teachers and parents. They told us the day before of course and we had one dance lesson to learn the loy krathong traditional thai dance in traditional thai dress. It was pretty embarrassing but the kids loved it. 

After school, Mr. Wat and his two kids, Boez and Bam, Kai, and her two kids, Nong and Song, Matti and Kati and Matti's parents who were visiting from Finland, all went to the town loy 

krathong festival. They have a big buddha statue, with a river where you can launch your float and dancing and music. Kai pulled us into one of the dances and we danced with a few of the 

older Thai women there. 

After the town festival we stopped at a carnival on the way home and went on some rollercoasters and rides with the kids. Boez and Bam are both in the english program and speak english really well. Boez is in 10th grade and Bam is in 7th, they're really great girls. Catie has Bam as a student also. Nong and Song (which means one and two in thai) are also at Sanguan Ying but not in the english program, they speak a bit of english but they're also really great.

 Mr. Wat and his daughters, Boez and Bam

Dancing at School

Teacher at the school, Kati, Kai, Me, another teacher, and Catie