Around the Village

Hey, Hey!!!

Three posts in two days is pretty remarkable, if you ask me. This one is kind of random with photos that I've taken at the village community center. It has a path around it where I like to walk. It is across from the school. There's a clinic, a volley ball net (well, it used to be), a water purification contraption, a preschool and a petanque area. When I go walking, there is usually this cute little old lady who sweeps the leaves. We have moved on from simply smiling to wai-ing each other. I want a picture of her! I will have to stop walking and try to talk to her one of these days and take my camera with me.

So here are the pictures I did take. They are in no particular order just around the little area. I tried to get artsy with some of them.

There are some chillies growing. You can't see them too well, but I like the bamboo.

Another little fence with some vines.

An I was there picture! :)

More wood and greenery.

Dad, these are for you. It's some sort of water purification. The students don't know and my Thai isn't good enough yet to read the sign.

This is the back side.

Another fence. There are two dogs who live in this house. They don't bother me any more as they think I carry rocks with me. It's a good think they never test me because all I have in my fist is air.

Same fence from the other direction.

This vine is growing on a dead tree stump. It looks so cool when it's covered with the little white and yellow flowers.

Flowers :)

More in color

A little rustic shelter

I love this light. It's attached to this old tree. There are usually two birds that sit on the top of it.

One more gate to finish these photos with.

The next two pictures I find absolutely hilarious. In Thailand as most of you know the weather isn't terribly cold. Though sometimes I feel like I'm freezing. For the most part it's fairly warm. This year is warmer than last year. Anyway, Thai people are afraid their dogs will get cold so they put shirts on them. As if this isn't funny enough already, there was one dog who had socks on!!! Really?!?! Socks! Don't believe me... take a look.

I would like to introduce you to Murphy the sock wearing pooch. (I named him Murphy. He's always around the community center and if I'm going to take the poor thing's photo, I thought I'd name him. :))

Murphy!

And his buddy, "Shaggy" who I named as well. :)

Poor little guys. I walked by one day and they were trying to chew off the shirts. I just had to laugh!

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed my random photos from around the village. This is probably the last time I'll post before our trip to the beach, which I'm sooo looking forward to. Between now and then, I'll be doing homework. In fact, I may not post until after the new year. If that's the case, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of 2009! Take Care!

Much Love and Hugs,

Lainy J.

Midterms and Snakes, I mean... snacks!

Hey Everyone!

I'm alive, but now the internet is alive too, which is nice. I have been disconnected from the world outside of Legacy making it hard to post anything on here over the last month. This is not to mention homework, lesson planning and test making, which have been taking up all of my time. We just finished up our classes for the first half of the semester. We are now on winter break. Maybe it should be called cold season break over here. :) We get three weeks off from teaching, which we are all excited about. 3 weeks sounds like a lot, but it's totally not especially when you're trying to cram as much into that 3 weeks as I am. All good things though. :) This includes finishing up my first classes at APU. I am trying to accomplish this before the other teachers and I head off to the beach for a few days.

Here are some photos from this past week.

Kolaches are a family favorite and I didn't think I could get all the ingredients. I found most of them and was able to improvise the rest. I was very excited to make them, but not nearly as excited as the other teachers were to eat them. All 5 dozen were gone in 2 days flat!!

Putting in the filling

Rolling them

Getting them out of the oven

Looky, looky! They came out! :) I was very happy!

We have study hall twice a week where we are available to answer questions and help with homework. Sometimes students just come and chat, which is a lot of fun too.

Everyone came since we had midterms and I made them cookies, which disappeared.

Peto, Erika and Amy

Surachai, SomPorn and Samuey

Fon, Maliwan, Boorerung (looking scary), and SomPorn(he and Maliwan are siblings).

WiChai, Atiwat and Uaorawet(Japur)

WiChai and Japur are my boys. I teach them English as well as Fon who joined our class.

Dani and AhJar

I have a few English blunders that I found funny.

Many times, the students will say snake instead of snack, hence the title of my blog. They have a hard time differentiating the sounds.

A couple more that happened during study hall.

Why are you funny? = why are you laughing?

Accuse me. = Excuse me

Book home= Library

Aj., you play computer good= You type well

Everyone knows when someone is singing something and you want to joke around and tell them to stop you ask, "Who sings that?" Well, here's how it went down in Mae Sa Luang.

WiChai belting, "You're Beautiful..."

Aj Nathan: Who sings that?

Student: WiChai

Aj Nathan: No, who sings that song?

WiChai: I don't know Ajan. Some guy you can look it up on the internet. Type in You're Beautiful.

JOKE= Failed!

Well, that's all for this post. I have one more coming your way with some photos from around the village. I hope this finds you well. I miss everyone very much. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in April when I come home.

Love and Hugs,

Lainy J.

Marching to Your Own Drum

Greetings!

I would like to introduce to one of my students. His name is Atiwat. He got married while I was at home this past summer to another student, Fon. There were gone for a while, but are back. He works taking of the garden and misc. projects. He is very talented musically. Choir class has changed to small groups practicing songs. They were practicing a song and wanted a drum beat to go with it. They were using a bucket, but Atiwat thought this just wouldn't do. He asked us for various items and told us he was making a drum. About a week later it's finished. Not only does he have a drum, he made a complete drum set. I think it's pretty cool! Unfortunately our neighbors don't think so. So, they are back at the farm. Nevertheless, I think they are really cool!!!

Atiwat with his creation.

The drums!

By far, my favorite part! It's so ingenious!

Atiwat showing us his skills.

It was a fun Friday afternoon. Choir class ended up being a jam session, which went on for a few hours. It was a lot of fun!

Lainy J.