Anybody want to join?

Tomorrow Copplestone and I are going to ride an elephant. If you want to come, meet us at my school at 10 am. See you there.

A round of applause?

Yesterday, as I was finishing my run at the reservoir in town, I passed a group of older men that were streching after their run, and one of them stopped stretching to clap for me. He literally gave me a round of applause and clapped loudly enough for me to hear him over my iPod. It wasn't even in a creepy way - just totally well-meaning and congratulatory. I think it might have been because I'm a woman and Thai women don't ever go running, but I'm not quite sure. I've gotten used to being stared at everywhere I go, but if the Thai people go and up the game and clap at me wherever I go, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Not a bad way to end a workout, though.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Today is Teacher's Day in Thailand and we have a day off from school to celebrate. After last week, where I had to break up a fight by physically removing/carrying a student out of the classroom and deal with the aftermath of a boy in 5/4 pulling a knife on a girl in 5/1, this is a much-needed day off. On the agenda for the day - cleaning my room because Copplestone will be in Nan in one week! He will bring the blonde population up to a solid 2. I'm dying to post pictures of the Asian Forbes Family Christmas, but my laptop power cord is broken so that will have to wait until a new one arrives from America.

In the meantime, enjoy this video of my roommate, Steph, teaching her fourth-graders, "I Feel Good" by James Brown. Yes, that really counts as an English lesson, and yes, I really get to teach kids that are that cute (you know, when they're not threatening each other with knives).

Also, I think I've finally stopped being and dumb and figured out how to do links in here, so family member who aren't on facebook, enjoy the following albums:

July vacation to Ko Samet

A trek we did with some friends

A trip to a temple with the 6th graders

Kindergarteners

5th Graders

6th Graders

Back in Nan, Safe and Sound

I've heard about the bombings in southern Thailand, so I just thought I'd report that I'm fine, though a little sad to return to normal life after some amazing travels. Details and pictures to follow. Sawat dii bii mai ka! (Happy New Year!)

Some Exciting New Developments

1) I've started studying muay thai. I go to this training camp that's basically in somebody's backyard and former champions strap on a bunch of pads and let us kick them. It's AWESOME.

2) Tomorrow night, I'm going to Laos with my roommate, Katie. We're headed to Vientiane and we've decided to travel low-budget, which means we'll be on a bus for at least a good 14 hours, most of which we'll hopefully be asleep for.

Is anybody else in total disbelief that it's December?

Thanksgiving, Thai-style

a.k.a. my first thanksgiving with chili sauce and fireworks





and while, sadly, there is no turkey in nan, we still had quite a feast.

Just how does one celebrate a birthday in Thailand?

I know you're all wondering this. So allow me to walk you through my birthday.

With school finished and a month off ahead of us, my roommates and I went to Chiang Mai the day before my birthday. That night, I was presented with a gift that allowed me to start my birthday off right - a Starbucks gift card! Considering that the prices in Starbucks here are comparable to home and that I can spend as much in one Starbucks trip as I do on a week's worth of dinners, this was very much appreciated. I opted for the skim iced latte with sugar-free vanilla syrup and an apple walnut muffin, both of which were HEAVENLY.



Katie came with me. You can't tell from the picture, but we're sitting on the outdoor 3rd story of the Starbucks. Yes, there's a Starbucks in Chiang Mai that's 3 stories tall.

Then Katie and I got Thai massages. When you get a Thai massage, they give you fishermen's pants and a shirt to wear and then they sort of do yoga to your body for you. Despite that terrible description, they're actually enjoyable. We were very happy and relaxed after.





Then we met up with Steph, my other roommate, for lunch. Note our matching $4 fake Ray-Ban aviators.



I got a chicken cheeseburger and a pineapple shake. After a brief nap, we went to Central Airport Plaza, a mall that was so Western, I felt like I was in the Garden State Plaza. Steph and Kate hit up the gym while I got my hair did. Note my hairdresser's impossibly trendy Asian hair.



After copious amounts of Auntie Anne's, we went back to the guesthouse and got ready to go out. We had a delicious Italian dinner (with mozzarella and pesto!), got an after-dinner drink, and then hit up Warm Up, a bar where all the cool kids hang out. We randomly ran into the Chiang Mai PiA fellows and met up with Chad, another Nan English teacher who was in Chiang Mai for the weekend. At one point in the night, Chad and I were getting a beer at the bar when he suggested we could drink it by doing "that thing with the straw", to which I replied, "A STRAWPEDO!!!" That's right, MHC participants, I strawpedoed a beer on my birthday, and while it wasn't Moosehead, I thought of you all while I did it.

Our last stop of the night was a place called Chiang Mai Land. We took a tuk tuk to get there. This is a tuk tuk.



This is me calling Meg from the back of the tuk tuk to Chiang Mai Land.



Chiang Mai Land felt like being back in Nan because we were literally the only farang there. After listening to the live band play a bunch of Thai pop songs, they suddenly started playing "Happy Birthday" in English! Turns out my friend had talked to somebody and had convinced them to play "Happy Birthday" for me. After getting serenaded in English by a Thai pop band, I figured there was nothing that could possibly top that, and we called it a night soon after.

And that is how I celebrated my 23rd birthday in Thailand.


Update on today: I am at the Internet cafe, wearing jeans at 1 pm and not sweating. Hooray for the end of rainy season and the start of cold season! Plans for the night - dinner at Aj. Ari's garden house, where we might fish like we did the last time we visited.