This morning I woke up to birds chirping on my windowsill as sunlight streamed through the windows rousing me from a great nights sleep. As I drowsed under a light sheet I dreamed of waking up during a beautiful summer's day on Cape Cod and wandering downstairs to find my family lounging on the porch with fresh brewed cups of hazelnut coffee while my dad cooked up a batch of pancakes. I dreamed of the normalcy of life at home and a day spent with family. All I wanted was a day lounging on the beach collecting sea glass, teaching my niece to swim, and spending time with those I love. After waking up and shaking of this nostalgia for home I stumbled sleepily downstairs and got ready for the day.

Instead of the day at the beach I imagined, I spent the morning teaching English to High School students. They were crazy and out of control, but somehow we made it work and ended up learning and having fun at the same time. On days when I miss home, spending time with the kids and being surrounded by their enthusiasm and excitement keeps me going. It's been a slow few weeks at site as I try to get a few more projects started. It's very hard to begin planning projects here, so at this point I don't know if any of the projects I have recently proposed will actually happen. It's a waiting game as plans get approved and budgets agreed on. But if I simply sit back and wait I will go crazy with boredom and the projects will never happen. If I've learned anything in the past year it's how to be pushy. I write meeting times on peoples calendars so they can't say they forgot, call people to remind them to be somewhere, talk to the boss myself, and force people to get things done. If I didn't do this I can guarantee I would not have completed a single project in the last year. To keep myself busy I've been spending more times at the schools and health centers. I even have two new projects I hope to plan with one of the schools and new projects with the health center. Now I just need the green light on one of my proposals so I can get to work.

In other news, two weeks ago I spent a week with the newest group of Peace Corps Thailand trainees. I couldn't help reminiscing about my 10 weeks of training last year and how many things have changed since then. They are excited, energized and ready to go. It was great to be around them, teaching them about life in Thailand and leading some sessions about teaching English and Sexual Reproductive Health. They reminded me of what my group was like last year and made me miss language classes, biking home with friends, and the craziness of PST. Fortunately, my group will be reunited in Bangkok next month for our midservice conference and medical checkups.

I'm planning on writing a few blog posts about more specific topics like food, temples, and family life so if you have any suggestions or anything you would like to learn about life in Thailand let me know! I also took a few videos of the kids learning to make s'mores with some marshmallows I found in Bangkok, so maybe a video will be appearing one of these days if I can figure out how to shrink the size.

Update and Vacation Pictures

The last few weeks at site have been surprisingly rewarding, productive, and fun. I thought that transitioning back to life in my village would be challenging after my parents departure, but fortunately I had plenty of things to keep myself busy. Last week I taught an 8 day English conversation course for the informal education office and had an amazing time. My students were all adults who were eager to learn english and excited to come everyday. By the end of the program most students could hold basic conversations about their age, birthday, job, time, daily routines, emotions, and places. They learned to ask and answer questions, and learned nearly 200 vocabulary words. Everyday we began class by reviewing all of the conversation we had already learned, which I think really helped them put it all together. Hopefully some of these students will actually go on to use what they learned. With ASEAN coming up soon and Thailand falling behind and lacking English speaking people, there is a huge push throughout the country to learn English.

After the English course was over I taught a one day baking course. Most Thai people have no idea how to bake, and after news of my baking expertise spread many people expressed interest in learning how to bake a few simple things. I taught ten women how to make chocolate cake, white cake, chocolate frosting, buttercream frosting, and snickerdoodles. They all whipped out their notebooks and wrote down everything I said. Ideally, some of these women will purchase a small oven together (they are about 30USD) and start a business selling cakes and cookies in the market to raise a little extra money for their families. 

This week I'm busy preparing lessons for the newest group of Peace Corps Thailand trainees who arrived in Thailand last month. I was lucky to be chosen to help with their training and am excited to meet the new group, be inspired by their excitement and energy, and spend a week in a hotel with hot water. I'll be heading to their training site next week (a 14 hour trip) and will teach them about Sexual Education in Thailand, Gender Issues, and Teaching English. The neighborhood kids are already complaining about me leaving again so I've been spending plenty of time playing with them and going on long bike rides after work.

I didn't take any pictures of the two projects I completed this week, but here are some pictures from my parents vacation...

Bus ride on the way to meet my parents. It was several hours long, no air conditioning, and I didn't have a seat. After standing for the first 2 hours I couldn't take it anymore and sat down on the floor surrounded by the smell of sweaty feet. Not sure why I look so happy...

Boat trip on the way to the Island we stayed on. Excited to begin our adventure.

 Sitting on the floor for dinner. Typical Thai style sitting, but at a pizza place!

 Check out that baby bottle of milk.

Mom and dad got to meet a few of my Peace Corps friends and we took a kayaking trip around the limestone cliffs.

Sunset from a small island in the middle of the sea.

Sitting in a cattle car to take our luggage down to the beach as we headed off the island.

 Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. After a very long, very windy ride sitting in the back of a truck to the top of this mountain, the highest point in Thailand, we finally arrived.

Elephants!

I thought for sure my mom was going to wimp out, but she surprised me and acted like a pro (sorta).

Short hike to a massive waterfall in Chiang Mai. You can't see too much of the fall in any of the pictures.

A man in his barley field.

Hanging out in a field of lavender.

Mom and Al acting goofy.

"Soo Quan" ceremony to wish my parents good luck, safe travels, and health. Notice the massive amount of string tied on our wrists. My little house was packed with the village elders all sitting on the floor while the kids and younger people sat on bamboo mats outside.

Mom and dad trying to make heart shapes with their hands... dorks.

Dancing down the street to the temple for a monk ordination.

Dad impressing the kids with his height.

Making a birthday cake with the neighborhood kids.