A Thai 4th of July

 Independence Day or Interdependence Day?
 

A thought to ponder…

 How it works......... IN THE USA

John Smith, an American started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 am

While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA)

  was perking, he shaved with his electric razor

(MADE IN HONG KONG)

He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA),

designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE)

           and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA)

                 After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet  (MADE IN INDIA)

             he sat down with his calculator

             (MADE IN MEXICO)

to see how much he could spend today.

   After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN)

to the radio (MADE IN INDIA)

he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY)

filled it with GAS (from Saudi Arabia)

and continued his search

for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

 At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, checking his DELL Computer

(made in MALAYSIA),

John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL),

poured himself a glass of wine

(MADE IN FRANCE)

   and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA),

     and then wondered why he cannot find

   a good paying job in AMERICA…

  AND NOW HE'S HOPING HE CAN GET HELP FROM A PRESIDENT - MADE IN KENYA!  

  I was lucky enough to find a job teaching in Thailand where age is respected, wisdom honored, knowledge appreciated, and education is a priority.                      The Thai elections were held first weekend of July and so the teachers at our school decided to celebrate…a combination of the American 4^th and a newly elected FEMALE Prime Minister in Thailand.

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. The King is still King and very much loved by the people of Thailand.  

Pala Beach seemed like the perfect place for our all American traditional picnic and BBQ, complete with hot dogs, potato chips, and marshmallows to roast. The Thai teachers also brought yummy Thai food to add to the feast. The calm water glistened in the hot afternoon sun as we successfully gathered driftwood and twigs for the fire.

The first round of cooking and eating was almost finished when we saw that an ominous black cloud was forming as the ocean turned dark, gray, and angry. After all it is the rainy season and not wanting to fool with Mother Nature we quickly packed up, and headed to one of the teachers carport, arriving just as the sky opened up with a heavy downpour. The pelting rain continued and so did our celebration, just minus the singing around the campfire and fireworks!

Hoping you had a magical and brilliant 4th of JULY in AMERICA

Sending bright starry lights & BLESSINGS from THAILAND 

 

Thai Tiger Kingdom

From Elephants to Tigers...

After a long exciting and exhausting day of elephant trekking on Saturday, we had a quiet relaxing dinner of yummy traditional Thai food, blah (fish), som tum (papaya salad) and of course white rice.  Sadly they were sold out of one of my favorite desserts, sticky rice and mangos with coconut milk. however the food we ate was delicious and the view of the river at dusk was just wondrous as we planned our Sunday adventure.

We began the morning with a Thai omelet with rice and fruit Then we hailed a red "Taxi" which was really just a pick up truck with two bench seats in the back. After a bit of negotiating we settled on a round trip price to take us on the 45 minute ride to Tiger Kingdom just outside of Chiang Mai.

What follows are some of my favorite Tiger photos... from baby tigers to medium and very large.
Needless to say I fell in love. Something about the expressions, "sleeping with the tigers" and "I've got a tiger by the tail," made us all laugh.

SMILE... smiles are everywhere in Thailand which is known as "the land of smiles." Baby tigers (four months old) and mamas alike were happy to show their toothy smiles!

The Tigers seemed to have so much fun swimming and playing in the water. I guess it must get boring taking photos with tourists all day but they don't seem to mind. They all have their own personalities and are incredibly gorgeous creatures, big beautiful cats!

We ended the visit sitting with our feet being eaten by Garra fish... why??

Well the Dr. Fish Spas say to be young and beautiful of course. Only four crazy American women would believe that!

It was nice to have the driver waiting to take us back to the city because I had an overnight bus to catch back to Ban Chang. Another 14 hour bus ride and I arrived at 6am, with enough time to shower before I began my day of teaching.

In gratitude I send blessings, and may you be happy and healthy. 

Chiang Mai Elephants

The amazing adventure continues...

The next Friday, June 17th, after teaching all week, I took an overnight bus (14 hours) to Chiang Mai to meet my sister, Lola and her friend. The plan was to go Elephant trekking on Saturday morning, continue on a hike to a hidden waterfall and then after lunch experience bamboo river rafting ... on a raft of long pieces of bamboo tied together with twine. We were told to leave our stuff on the van and no cameras, unless they were waterproof. So no photos. The chant became, "its not fun if your not wet." WE got soaked!

The elephant Rita and I rode was seasoned... just like us! Really, I guess the word is old, but that just doesn't sound as nice, and "BO" agreed, that was his name and every so often he would just stop and wait for us to feed him some bananas, which of course we did. Bo also did not go along the path with the other elephants, he trudged along to his own beat as we swayed in the rickety wooden seat. I tried to take some video but the bumpy ele-motion made it impossible.
The day was beautiful and the forest incredibly lush and green. It is rainy season now in Thailand, so we did have a downpour at lunch.

Bo also took the short way down to the river. Why go the long way around if you know the shortcut? I guess that is one if the benefits of age, wisdom! After he led the other elephants into the river, he decided to walk along the bank, another senior perk.

 We were lucky enough to have a baby elephant trek with us, he was just adorable and stayed very close to mama. I promised to ride an elephant and so another one gets checked off the list!  Buddha Blessings

June Joy

Happiness is visitors from the USA!

 

When Thai Airways landed on June 10th it brought my sister Rita, and her daughter Lola along with her friend from Alaska, to Thailand. What a joyous time we had together.


I met them in Bangkok the first weekend and we had dinner at "Cabbages and Condoms"... yes that is the name of the restaurant. It was started to promote awareness of birth control in Thailand.

The decor is amazing, clothes on the mannequins are all made from multicolored condoms. Light shades, and flowers in vases are made from condoms. One is even served with dessert!

  The restaurant souvenir store has handcrafted works from the Hill Tribes in Northern Thailand which help the women in the villages earn money for food.

On another day in Bangkok we took a small ferry boat to Kho-Kret where they still make pottery by hand. An almost lost art, the elders still carve intricate cut out designs in the damp clay before they fire the pots in large stone and mud caves. 

The island visit would not be complete without the traditional young and beautiful Thai Dancers in their colorful jewel encrusted Thai silks.

In stark contrast to the young and beautiful, very old Wats (temples) and ancient Buddha figures dot the little island village. You can always discern      a Thai Buddha by the position of the hands and pointed headpiece.

                                Buddha Blessings from Thailand

School begins in May

A New School - A new school year... from May to March.

The schools website is www.repsrayong.com/

New students and a new age to teach... from High School to Kindergarten. The students had fun creating their name tags and I enjoyed the freshness of young exuberant children so eager to speak English. Many of the children have one Thai parent and one Foreign parent so the bi-lingual school with half Thai and half English is a perfect learning environment while maintaining the traditional Thai cultural heritage.

Memories of days gone by when I taught Art classes... the kids still love to paint and we even made clay spiders in a web because we all learned to sing and do the actions to "itsy bitsy spider."

So I love the new school, the kids and all the teachers... three are even from Wisconsin where I grew up!

The beach in the town where I am teaching even reminds me of "up north" with pine trees and the cool blue lakes... except the beaches in Thailand have the benefit of cooling ocean breezes and warm water.

May you also enjoy the beauty that I see here in Thailand.
Buddha Blessings 

April in China

Springtime in Shanghai.

The flight to China was an easy four hours, it just took another four hours to get to the airport...
first by motorbike taxi, then by bus, and then a shuttle bus, all just to get to the Bangkok airport from my new location in Ban Chang. Upon arrival, I was met by Mr. Woo, holding a large sign with my name. The best part, it was hand written by Aidan and Taylor, my grandsons, and decorated in multi-colored glitter!

The weather was cool and we needed sweaters and jackets when we went downtown to see the Shanghai skyline, but the warmth of family love and laughter totally warmed my heart.

Aidan at one of his a soccer games.

Astronaut Taylor at International Day

The pictures that follow are sightseeing and typical "grandma photos."

Master Taylor

Master Aidan

My last night (until next trip) with Carrie and the boys, was especially fun. 

We had a matching jammy party and the boys did their Kung Foo moves!

 I am sending Buddha blessings from both China and Thailand.