Kanch...

Life here is such a roller coaster- One moment is absolutely thrilling and the next is down right scarey and the next you feel throwing up-- literally and just down right sick of things. What a cliche saying 'Life is like a roller coaster' . Mostly I've felt like it's been on the down part where you're afraid of going back up only to come back down again. But I refuse to let my last week (probably the second worst week of my life) and today--also not a great day interfere with what I love about here.

-The palm trees on the way to school
-Little fish outside of the library...
-Going to Kanchanaburi for the weekend AMAZING... we RODE elephants (in the river!), climbed a 7 tier Water fall which was absolutely amazing, it had rained the night before so the waters were pretty murky. What a climb- not for the faint hearted-- up and up we trekked, some in sandals, most in shoes and I in shoes and barefeet on the way down. The trail consisted of rocks and roots and puddles and lots of exercise! There were 8 of us girls that went away for the weekend. We ended up staying in a beautiful bed and breakfast and on Friday when we arrived we booked a tour (about $30) for Saturday. The tour included the 7 tier waterfall, a bamboo raft ride down the river, elephant ride, lunch, trip to see a cave used in WWII as a hospital, The Bridge over the River Kwai (Built by POW's during WWII) and we went on a train ride.

Sunday consisted of purchasing a book about an Irish Man who got wrongly accused and imprisoned for 10 years in a Thai prison- an amazing and scarey read.... Also 2 hours of massage, first a Thai foot massage-- amazing, so I returned for a back and shoulder massage- also good. Then a lie by the pool all after a hearty bacon and egg breakfast of course.

The weekend was MUCH needed and of course created many many memories, including hanging out at ''Tony Bar'' and singing/ dancing the night away under the straw roof on the dirt floor...to many English tunes. It was GREAT to meet new people and chat the night away (both Friday and Saturday) and solidfy friendships with the girls here that will last a lifetime.

The elephant ride was great- our elephant was lazzzzy and loved to eat..and our elephant guide wasn't much help keeping him on track- but it was fun..I'm looking forward to washing an elephant next time around.

Although my day today was once again frustrating I got to go on a nice long run, eat a great supper for 20 baht (about 75 cents), chat to Shaun and now finally update my blog a bit. The pictures don't do it justice but here are a couple to show just a bit about the weekend. Hope you're doing good...hey ZEKE! don't grow up too much without me- okay? And don't worry your aunty is just a little bit crazy.

(Ps. crazy story-- today at school it was pretty frustrating and this morning I realized I have been bowing to how students seem to learn best-- more so a dictator direct teaching style.. but this afternoon-- I decided to try something new and played a wonderful round of spelling word bingo- this went over well except when the word Temper was drawn and I said it in a sentence-- raising my voice for effect and slapping a students ruler on the desk- Not only did the ruler shatter to pieces, but the Thai teacher raced to the door -she was marking in the hallway-- with a worried look on her face. I later assured her I was just crazy -- but at least the kids won't forget what temper means:) I guess maybe sometimes the 78 steps I have to take to get up to my classroom are worth the walk.

It takes a LONG time to upload photos onto a blog, so I think I'm going to try and look for a picture viewing alternative- Any ideas? Here is a little taste... Good thing we have pictures- I think we missed a lot of the beauty due to immense amounts of sweat and GIANT stairs to climb! :)

Dancing for the Band at Tony Bar---- Mai Bin Lae-- Mai Mai Bin Lae--Lindsay where are you?


DUe to Technical Frustrations- I will be figuring out a new place for pics- any ideaS?