Last Day Of School

Contract complete. It has been an amazing year in Thailand. Teaching has been alot of things at different times, and I think at the end of the day the children will be missed the most. The last day of school couldn't go fast enough. Like we say in America, it was alot of busy work. After school, Teacher Emily and I went for our last 40B wine night. Last time to be surrounded with way too many old men and way too many young Thai women. Oh, Pattaya.... 

We planed a going away party for ourselves at an all you can eat buffet place we like called, "The Fish." Teacher Emily and I stopped on walking street for one last attempt at 100B sunglasses before backpacking but ended up walking away with Russian hair flowers instead. Not a total loss ;)

Play dough time!!!

K3 Graduation

Set Lao!

Me and B

One happy teacher :)

Yippppeeee

YaYYYYYYYYY

WHoooo HOOOOO

"Can you believe me made it a year?!?"

"Noooooo, I Can't"

Ahhhhhhh

Vaca time!

Brian smelling the roses!

WHOA. 10 B tooo much!

Som Tam Makin'

It was exciting!!!

Next day - a 14 hour bus ride to Phuket leaving at 6 p.m. A.K.A. the start of a 4 year dream to backpack Asia would commence.

Almost time to go!!!!!

Random Photos...

that I forgot to put up and/or blog about :)

We had a wine and cheese Party. It was AMAZING. Soooo good!!! 2 bottles of wine. 1 from a couch surfer who came to visit us and 1 from Brian's student (w/ pate). Cheese compliments of Brian's mom along with crackers and sausage. It was like a Superbowl party minus the game :) ... though the Superbowl was on before I went to school at 6 a.m. :)

The Spoils :)

Real Wine!!!

An excited Teacher Emily!!!

Random...

Fail

Too Cool for School :)

WTF

had to get "penciled in" by my own boyfriend to have a conversation with him.

someones working too hard.

not amused.

Getting Older...

This birthday will be remember as the day of transportation and unrest.

After waking up on the floor of our friend's Bangkok apartment, we went to breakfast with the Issan teachers. It was actually really nice because we took the BTS to another stop we have never been too. We found ourselves in another big Bangkok Mall looking for an art gallery. We ate a delicious breakfast overlooking the city and walked around the free exhibits. After our goodbyes, Brian and I headed over to MBK mall to look for some sunglasses.

On BTS

Birthday Breakfast!

Last time Brian was in MBK he didn't buy a pair of sunglasses he really wanted, and this has haunted him for months. He has been dreaming of coming back just to buy them. So, we had to go!

Plus, he had a meeting at 2 p.m. so we had to stick around. As time slipped by, his meeting got canceled. So we left for Pattaya a little after 2 p.m. Usually it only takes a little over an hour to get home, but you can never tell with these mini-vans. For example, this mini-van had enough passengers to detour to Srircha before Pattaya. So we didn't get back to our apartment until 5:30 p.m. (that includes the baht bus we had to hop from downtown Pattaya to Jomtien Beach)

It was a mad rush to get ready for my birthday dinner at Cabbage and Condoms. I really wanted to catch the sunset since the restaurant is on the water, but it was in vain. We ended up arriving at 7 p.m. - well after the sun had set. However, before we left our apartment, Brian and Emily did surprise me with a birthday cake!

Brian put 62 :)

Yum!!!

Dinner was great. The show started at 9 p.m. so around 8 p.m. we left to head downtown. We parked our bikes and hopped a baht bus downtown on the main street. It is really only a 15 minute drive, but for some reason it took an HOUR.

At dinner with Teacher Emily!

First the mini-bus now the baht-bus! 26 was going to be the year of patience!!!

We barely made it in time for the show. In fact, when we sat down there were already performers on stage welcoming everybody. That's how close we made it by! Ugh... sigh of relief FINALLY.

Anyway, the show was fun. Exactly what a Thai produced ladyboy show should be. It had alot of bad songs and lip syncing with over the top costumes and no story line whatsoever. The show was packed full. They even opened an additional show after ours! I think it was then that I realized we must still be in high tourist season. It took another hour to get back to our motorbikes!

Some of the Ladyboys

More lady boys in extravagant costumes!

Me and Brian :)

We didn't go out afterwards to Brian's dismay. I'm glad. At 62 years old, I was tired! Haha.

All in all, it was a very very busy good day.

Magha Puja Day

So we have been planing since our meditation retreat to go back to our temple for Magha Puja day in Pathum Thani just outside of Bangkok. We had the day off at school and it fell on a Friday. Perfect!

Dhammakaya Symbol

The day commemorates the first sermon Buddha preached. Apparently, they all reach enlightenment - I think that's right. I'm sure there is more to the story, but that's the bare basic summery.

Anyway, Brian and I caught a mini bus to Victory Monument around 11a.m. for 100 baht each. Within an hour and a half we were in BKK. SCORE! We wondered around the mall until it was time to meet up with our friends. In this spare time, I took the liberty of getting my nails done! After all, it was my birthday the next day :)

We met our friends eventually at 5 p.m. at Mochit BTS station. I thought the ceremony started at 4, but they thought it started at 6. Trying to coordinate everyone was a nightmare. Needless to say, we were running late. Four of us took a taxi while the other two came a little later. Wouldn't you know the other two actually beat us to the temple. Our taxi driver was lost. ERG! At the time we were all freaking out, but we didn't miss much. More importantly, we didn't miss the actual ceremony. We didn't get our own individual candle for the ceremony because we were in the back :( But that's okay, it was still an amazing experience.

Victory Monument

Waiting for the BTS. We hauled those bags around with us for 2 days. Good practice :)

Riding the BTS home AFTER the ceremony. Love the white :)

I think there were over a million people there. It is the biggest gathering in Thailand. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Masses. A complete circle. This is only part of the circle too!!! Each candle represents at least one person. There are way more than one individual around a candle however.

Brian getting the shot! We snuck upstairs so we could have a birds eye view ;)

Why you ask do they have this huge compound? Because just like Buddha they are hoping to enlighten everyone. How you ask? Well, they are trying to get enough monks to reach enlightenment... I think the goal is 1,000? Enough to encompass the UFO shaped thing anyway. So once this magic number is reached, you can throw in 1 million people at a time to meditate with the enlightened monks. Apparently, meditating with enlightened individuals helps the process. Buddha was able to enlighten everyone with his first sermon, so their thought process is sort of the same. Why the UFO shape? I have no idea. I feel like they addressed this at the retreat, but I forget.

Right after the lighting

Of course there was tons of fireworks too!

Some of the many lantern thingys

Close up

The never ending line of fire

Top of the main temple

Its comprised of thousands of gold Buddha statues. Suppose to enhance meditation by merit :)

 These are our glamour shots.

 

After the ceremony we went out to dinner. It was really nice meeting up with everyone from the retreat. Brian and I didn't stay out to party. We were tired. I know technically it was my birthday at midnight, but this granny was tired :) All in all Magha Puja day and my birthday were very busy days filled with traveling, friends, and fun.

Meditation gals.

All of us. 'merica and teachers represent!

<3

Walking the empty grounds to the "spaceship" temple in the center.

Sip'n on some nam (water). Good thing about this temple - Free beverages :)

Another UFO temple at entrance to the Temple grounds. This is the one I went inside after Brian fainted. It is only opened on certain days... the day he fainted being one of them. I had to leave his bedside lol. It's very pretty inside. A beautiful fountain in the middle with a huge circular area around it to meditate on. Very peaceful.