The Austs' Adventures

Dad's Visit

2012-01-07T10:08:00.010+07:00

My dad was here for the past two weeks. For sanity purposes, he came at the perfect time, as I had been dangerously close to applying for jobs in stateside for both Mike and me. I always get a bit Thailand stir-crazy and homesick around the holidays, but this year was worse than usual.

We celebrated Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve with friends. Dad was a trooper and tolerated being dragged from one party to the next, quickly making friends with people that even we didn't know. Dad took in the sights, sounds and smells of Bangkok, visiting the Ancient City, JJ's, China Town, Saturday Market in the King's Park, and The Jim Thompson House.

We traveled to Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) and went fishing, saw a very entertaining elephant show, held monkeys and watched a monkey show at the monkey training center, and went zip-lining through the rainforest with the Flight of the Gibbon.

We also traveled to Koh Samet and enjoyed the beach, muddy motorbike rides, good books, fresh coconut smoothies, fresh sea food on the beach (literally on the beach... our flip-flops had to be saved from being swept away be the water forever).

We watched movies (and watched Dad get a good laugh out of the movie Elf, when he goes up the escalator for the first time), played 12 games of cribbage in which Dad trashed talked us (and rightfully so since he won 7 of the 12 games). His laugh, "thinking about which card to throw into the crib song" and whistling crashing airplane sounds somehow made it hard for us stay mad at him for beating us to a pulp (and skunking us several times) though. :)

Dad loved Thai food, especially green curry. Mike and I ate as much non-Thai food before he came, gearing up for 2 weeks of pretty much straight Thai food, but surprisingly found that we didn't get sick of it during his visit. I even found myself eating Thai food over American food for breakfast.
Mike (as he observed me eating rice & green curry for breakfast instead of french toast, waffles, or omelets) said, "You're going all Asian on me!" Probably not, especially after eating muffins for breakfast this morning, but hey, it's progress. :)

I didn't take a ton of pictures because Dad did, but here is a little selection from his visit.

MBK artist

In Chiang Mai with Christmas tree made out of CDs

small market in CM

Khao Soi-- typical northern thai cuisine: curry noodle dish made with chicken (or beef or pork) and served over Chinese Bah-mi flat egg noodles and topped with crispy fried noodles. It's delicious.

Prune brownies, anyone?

**Oops, sorry about seeing my jeans, several times, I thought I had pressed pause during that time, but apparently had not!

Maesa Elephant Camp near Chiang Mai

Monkey Center near Chiang Mai

Fishing in CM

China Town

Koh Samet

An example

2012-01-05T17:52:00.000+07:00

My dear, 91-year old Grandma Ruthie passed away this December. Unfortunately, as overseas circumstances dictate, I won't be able to be present at her funeral. But as my dad says, "Funerals are for the living to remember, not the dead." So remember, I will. This will be read at her funeral in my absence.

Grandma Ruthie was one of the kindest, most loving, and generous people that I have known. Her lavish love for her family was evident in her words and actions. She was quick to read her grandchildren stories, play a game of “cooties,” “peanuts,” or dominoes on her kitchen floor, send care-packages, write letters, send cards on Halloween or Valentine’s Day, take us shopping for a new Christmas outfit, or treat us to homemade goodies or a dove bar.

Holidays were always Grandma Ruthie’s forte. She would bake several homemade pumpkin and pecan pies for Thanksgiving and fuss over making lump-free gravy and perfectly sweetened whipped cream. When she lived in Plymouth, we would overwhelm her house with people and noise on Christmas Eve. The grandchildren would rave about “Grandma’s peas,” which were simply frozen peas coated in tons of butter, but we didn’t have them on any other occasion, so they were always “Grandma’s peas.” She baked so many treats for us, especially during Christmas. Every Christmas, each family would receive a tupperware and tin filled with goodies, which we often affectionately named after her, calling them, “Grandma’s date bars,” “Grandma’s gooey bars,” “Grandma’s caramels.” And the thing is, they really were “Grandma’s”; despite having her recipes, no one else can seem to make them like she did.

Some of my favorite memories of Grandma Ruthie include:

· What a die-hard Minnesota Twins fan she was.

· When she laughed at how shocked I was the day I discovered that she kept her Christmas tree up in the basement all year round.

· How her freezer and refrigerator doors were covered in family photographs, drawings little ones had made, and her magnet collection from different trips that either she or family members had taken.

· Family Friday night dinners at Bakers Square, where she’d always order the club sandwich and strawberry rhubarb pie alamode, and then proceed to fight my dad for the bill.

· My last time seeing her—after several visits where she was tired or not very talkative, I was blessed to catch her on a good day where she reminisced about her childhood and other family memories.

· How she would laugh each time a grandchild would send her a letter addressed to “Grandma Ruthie,” and she would marvel at how the postman delivered it to her house with no last name.

Grandma Ruthie was loved dearly and is missed, but will continue to be an example of loving deeply and giving generously.

Hahaha

2011-12-16T16:10:00.001+07:00

Oh, how THIS VIDEO of a bearded dragon "playing" Ant Crusher on an i-phone made my day. It sure made me miss Dino & Geico, our two bearded dragons, though!!

One of the reasons I loved going to Spain this summer...

2011-12-10T20:40:00.001+07:00

... was that it made for some awesome, awesome classroom decorations/bulletin boards.

Fun with friends

2011-12-10T19:18:00.002+07:00

Missing Holly-head... but her heart was with with us.

Dear, dear friends.

Whoever heard of such a thing!? :)

Hello December!

2011-12-10T19:13:00.001+07:00

Making Christmas cards

Doesn't it look exceptionally festive with our green wall? :)

Big Red has been pretty busy...

I think I'm in love...

2011-12-10T19:07:00.000+07:00

Meet "Big Red." She was a gift from my generous husband.

These are a few of my (new) favorite things...

2011-12-10T19:05:00.000+07:00

Lentil-filled quesadillas

Pineapple, banana, passion fruit smoothies

Dishes

2011-12-10T19:02:00.000+07:00

This one is for my mom... she was wondering what my dishes look like.

Why I Hate to Wait #5

2011-11-20T20:45:00.001+07:00

As I wait, I love listening to this song. I love how it speaks to my heart and encourages me every single time I listen to it.

Why I Hate to Wait #4

2011-11-17T16:17:00.002+07:00

In His loving kindness, God has been showing me how impatient and self-sufficient I am. I like to get from Point A to Point B quickly and efficiently, and I like to think that I can do it by myself, on my own strength. And to be honest, when that doesn't happen, I get frustrated. I get frustrated because my expectations are so different. I get irritated because I think I know what is best. I get irritated because the situations are out of my control and I simply have to submit and wait on the Lord (and in case you haven’t figured it out by now, I HATE waiting!) I get frustrated essentially because I am not getting what I want, when I want.

Now try telling our SOVEREIGN Lord that He’s not providing what you need, when you need it. Try telling God, who created the heavens and the earth and in whom all things hold together, that He’s wrong. Try explaining to God, who created YOU and who’s timing is perfect, that you know what’s best for you and that waiting isn’t part of your plan. Try telling our perfect God that you should be in control.

…{sigh} Yep, pretty much been there, done that… not necessarily through my words, but definitely in my actions and thoughts.

God has been so gracious and patient with me as He has been molding me, as a potter does with his clay, to make something beautiful. And a beautiful mess it has been. He certainly is giving me beauty for ashes. And He's showing my tunnel vision- efficiency craving-TO-DO list loving, Type A-ISFJ- meticulous-steadfast-personality that getting from Point A to Point B isn’t always important…sometimes just the journey from Point A to Point B is the more important thing.

But it’s hard because I’m like one of those annoying little kids on a long journey that keeps asking, “Daddy, are we there yet?” and “Daddy, when will get there?” and “Daddy, how much longer?” I remember asking those questions to my own dad when we would take long car trips and his response was usually, “In a while. Why don’t you just look out the window and enjoy the scenery?” {sigh} God’s saying the same thing to me, “Karly, my child, I promise we’ll get there eventually. Right now I just want you to soak up your surroundings. I want you to bask in my love. I want you to take comfort in ME. If I quickly take you from Point A to Point B, you’d miss out on an incredible journey. You’d miss out on seeing ME. Have patience, my child; we’ll there eventually… we’re just taking the scenic route. You might not see it yet, but the scenic route sure is beautiful.”

This morning I read again from "A Shelter in a Storm," which are meditations on Psalm 27. I read another meditation on verse 14 which says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.” Part of the meditation that really resonated with me said, "Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life. Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what the child will receive at the end of his wait. No, waiting is much more purposefully, efficient, and practical. Waiting is fundamentally about what we will become as we wait.”

So waiting is for my good and for God’s glory. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but there is a purpose behind God’s plan to make me wait Him.

Lord, thank you that you love me enough to walk with me during this time of unknowns and of waiting, as you continue to mold and shape me to be able to better serve and love you. Help me to be grateful for, and take to heart, all the things that you are teaching me on the journey, instead of always waiting and looking to see if I’ve arrived at the set destination. I know I have nothing to offer you… my life is ugly and my heart is full of sin, but I know that you can make something beautiful from the mess that my life is as you continue to sanctify me. Though my heart aches for answers, for immediate responses, for answered prayers, for crossed off TO-DO lists, I know you are doing a mighty work in me and transforming my heart as I wait on you, the giver of all good gifts. Give me beauty for ashes, oil of joy for my mourning, a garment of praise for my spirit of heaviness… that You might be glorified (Isaiah 61:3)

Why I Hate to Wait #3

2011-11-16T20:36:00.000+07:00

According to the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, I am an ISFJ.

I am an (I) introvert; time to myself is high on my priorities, I recharge by myself. When I am around people, I prefer a few close friends instead of many acquaintances.
I am (S) sensing. Other personality tests would say that I am a "concrete-sequential." The abstract is difficult for me, and I have a hard time seeing the big picture since I am usually so focused on the details.
I am a (F) feeler. I think with my heart instead of my head, which often time defies logic.
I am (J) judging. I know that sounds bad... but it means I like predictability. Change is hard, the unknown is hard... I like schedules because I like to know what to expect.

My friend tagged me on FB on the below grid; I found it rather humorous. Despite being an ISFJ, I will admit, that I definitely identify with the comments for ISTJ, INFJ, INTJ, INTP ESFJ, and ESTJ. {sigh}

I find that the INTP, "Lord, help me be less independent, but let me do it my way" probably best describes what my life has been like recently. God is teaching me to trust in Him, to find my strength in Him, to let Him have His way in me, and to give over the control ~~that I had~~ that I thought I had.

It's a daily battle, but I choose joy. Joy in knowing that God's plans are infinitely greater than mine, and joy in knowing that the journey from Point A to Point B has a purpose. I choose faith. I choose to walk in faith, trusting and believing that even though waiting on God is hard and sometime hurts, that God is up to something ridiculously good... I just don't see the whole picture yet (since I'm an ISFJ and focus on the details so I can't see the whole picture) :)

What Meyers-Briggs Type are you? What is God teaching you? How do you deal with the testing of your faith?

Praying, dear reader, that you choose joy and faith, even when it hurts.

Why I Hate to Wait #2

2011-11-16T17:09:00.002+07:00

I'm waiting. {SIGH}

I'm waiting to hold my new nephew
I'm waiting to see my dad this Christmas
I'm waiting to see how this whole flood situation will pan out
I'm waiting to hear if we'll have make-up days for school and if/how that will affect our summer
I'm waiting to buy tickets to the US this summer since we don't know if/how our summer will be affected
I'm waiting for God to answer prayer requests (for myself and friends & family alike) in big ways
I'm waiting to go home this summer and squeeze my family and friends... 2 years is a long time!
I'm waiting to see how to best assess and give grades to a new student that just joined my class this week (who has never had a Spanish class before)
I'm waiting on finances
I'm waiting on God's timing and promises
I'm waiting...

... and I sure don't like waiting!

I am all about efficiency. I like to get things done in a timely manner and I like to do things well the first time. I struggle with, what I like to call, "tunnel vision." I set my eyes on my goal/task and I just keep going until it's done and I can check it off my TO-DO list. There is no stopping until it's done. This can be a very positive thing often times... I start a stack of papers, and I keep going until they are graded and put into the grade book. I start planning for the next unit for my classes and I don't stop until I have made all my photocopies made. I start a book or a movie, and I don't give up on it, even if it's horrible because I have the hope/expectation that it will get better (exception: Tree of Life... definitely gave up on that movie after 15 minutes).

I follow through, I check off/cross off, I get it done. So waiting is VERY hard for me because waiting means I can't do it on my own time. Waiting means being dependent on others/God. Waiting means not knowing when it will be accomplished. Waiting means I can't just cross it off my TO-DO list. Waiting means being suspended and having to face the unknowns. Waiting simply goes against the grain of my tunnel vision, TO-DO list lover, Type A, meticulous, steadfast, Meyer's Briggs ISFJ personality.

Needless to say, all this waiting has been hard. But man alive, has God been doing a lot in my heart lately! More to come in the next post... (I'm keeping you waiting)

Why I Hate to Wait #1

2011-11-15T19:40:00.000+07:00

I've been going through a book called, "A Shelter in the Storm" by Paul David Tripp. It has 52 meditations on Psalm 27 and is a book I highly recommend. The book has been such an encouragement to me, as God has been teaching me a lot lately. He is definitely doing some major heart re-construction on me as He has been providing ample opportunity for me to grow in patience and trust, as I wait on Him. He has been stripping me of my self-sufficiency and teaching me to walk in faith. It's been very humbling.

I loved this meditation that Tripp wrote on Psalm 27:14. Man, was it a good reminder!

"Why I Hate to Wait"

"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" -Psalm 27:14

"I hate to wait;
I have places to go
I have people to see
I have things to do.
I love me
and I have a wonderful plan
for my life.
I hate to wait
I don't like obstacles
in my way
or people that disagree
or processes that take too long
I hate to wait.
I don't like lines
or traffic
or delayed appointments
or tardy people.
I hate to wait.
I wake up every day with an agenda.
I know
what I want to accomplish.
I know
how I want it done.
I know
where I want it done.
I know
when I want it done
I know
who I want to do it
I know
why it has to be done this way.
I hate to wait
because
I am the one having to wait.
I don't mind
thatyou have to wait
but I don't want to have to
wait with you.
I hate to wait
because
I tend to put myself
in the on place
I am never supposed to be
and
I tend to want to be
the one thing
I should never crave to be.
I hate to wait because
I want to be
in the center of my universe
and I want to be
my own sovereign.
When I forget Your plan
When I lose sight of Your will
When I begin to think
that my life belongs to me
When I fall prey to the delusion
that I am wiser than You
and
my way is better than Yours
Then I hate to wait
and
I curse the obstacles in my way.
But You are sovereign
and You are
God
and loving
and gracious
and kind
and mighty,
filled with compassion
overflowing with mercy.
You bought me
with the price of Your Son.
You forgave me
and the cost was His death.
For all my attempts
at independent wisdom
and self sovereignty
the truth is
that my life does not belong to me.
So
once more I fall to my knees.
Once more I open my hands
and
give my life back to You
and say,
'You do in , with, and through me
what You think is best
and I will follow
and when
Your wisdom and grace
require it,
I will be willing
to wait.'"

Played

2011-11-14T20:12:00.000+07:00

My Spanish 2 students keep asking me, "What does PLAYED mean?" At first, I couldn't figure out why they were asking me that since we're currently in a clothing/shopping unit. It didn't take me long to realize that they really want to know what PLAID is (I guess plaid isn't in style...). Man alive, pronunciation of the English language is so difficult!

Who's your daddy?

2011-11-14T20:08:00.000+07:00

We often see little kids around our apartment complex, particularly in the early evening when a lot of Thai play groups seem to take place. The other day when we were on our way out, we were walking behind a mother who was holding a child that was around a year and a half, and from what we could tell, was most likely an Asian-Caucasian mix. Mike smiled at the child as we walked by, and got a good laugh when the child responded to his smile with, "Papa!?" So funny. While Caucasians often think that "all Asians" look alike, this just goes to show that Asians can think that "all Caucasians" look alike too. :)

Thailand just got THAT much better

2011-11-05T09:55:00.000+07:00

Look what just opened 3 days ago! Located only 5 minutes away from where we live & JUST LIKE the one in Bloomington, Minnesota! It was a taste of "home" and an escape... we didn't even feel like we were in Thailand as we ate our Sweedish meatballs & filled our big yellow bags with home organizing things (and napkins). :)

10 things not to say...

2011-11-03T04:58:00.000+07:00

I enjoyed this article... maybe because I'm in that stage of life right now, usually on the receiving end of #1 and #5. A few things I would have to add to the list of what not to say include: "You're biological clock is ticking." "You've been married for 6 years and you still don't have kids?" "Don't you want kids?"

People's questions are well-intentioned, but it can sometimes be difficult to be on the receiving end of it, especially when put on the spot. I also find myself feeling very awkward when people I don't know very well steer the conversation in this direction... it's a personal thing.

I'm sure that parents could come up with 10+ things that their childfree friends shouldn't say too... like when I am the one that jokes saying, "Thanks for the birth control!" when their child wipes his/her poop all over their bedroom walls (or something of that nature).

I guess all this to say that we really ought to be sensitive to other people's circumstances and feelings. May our words be edifying and well-seasoned with salt.

High & dry

2011-10-30T13:36:00.002+07:00

We haven't floated away yet, or even had to build a creative raft... it has actually been pretty dry here, except for a few thunderstorms in the evenings. After October break, school was supposed to resume on Wednesday, Oct. 26, but due to the flooding & potential flooding in our area, we are off until November 7, as mandated by the Ministry of Education (MOE). We've actually heard that the newest mandate by the MOE is that schools are to be off until Nov. 15, but we haven't received that news from our school yet. (It depends on whether our school appeals to the gov't [and the gov't accepts] to continue school or not because we are located in a non-affected/minimally affected area).

Despite, the extended break from school, there is no day lacking of work, as teachers are required to do e-learning with the students (which always ends up being MORE work than just normal teaching), in the hope of not having to extend the school year into our summer. But if school does get cancelled through November 15, then our summer will definitely get cut short. :(

Saturday was potentially supposed to be the worst day of flooding, due to the high tides, amount of water already in rivers & canals, and possible breaking of barriers/dams, but things are looking okay for now. Click here for a recent article on the current situation, and here for some pics by YWAM Thailand from the flooding in other areas that have been greatly affected.

The gov't declared a national holiday from Friday through Monday so that people could get out of town and escape the flooding; thousands of people have left the city. We're staying put for now, and currently sitting high and dry. Thanks for partnering in prayer with us... may our hearts be surrendered & may our gaze continually be directed to our sovereign and holy God in every circumstance.

Pray for Thailand

2011-10-21T09:00:00.000+07:00

1/3 of Thai provinces flooded, with over 9 million people affected.

Two very good news articles. Click here and here.

What you don't want to hear...

2011-10-20T20:54:00.000+07:00

"Government sacrifices eastern Bangkok"

...what you don't want to hear when you live in eastern Bangkok.

Click here for news article.

We've been fortunate not to have much rain the past few days, but rain or no rain, all the water from areas that were hit hard has to go SOMEWHERE. Our 4-day October break weekend, just turned into a 5-day weekend. ICS will be closed tomorrow due to the potential flooding & terrible traffic due to flooding as the water makes it way to the Gulf of Thailand, and is routed through Eastern Bangkok. I think it was a wise decision... we ran a few errands at the nearest mall/grocery store, and walked out this evening to pouring rain. As everything is already quite saturated, the canals high, the dams/dikes on the verge of collapsing, after 15 minutes of hard rain, the streets around us were flooded to the ankles.

We're headed up to Chiang Mai with some dear friend for the October break. While we're looking forward to a much needed break from school, it's hard not have a heavy heart for Thailand & to worry about what things will be like in Chiang Mai, as well as what things will look like where we live when we come back.

Please keep Thailand in your prayers. We'll post more updates soon on the situation soon.

Even the elephants aren't safe...

Flooding

2011-10-17T15:33:00.000+07:00

Click here to see some pictures of what is going on in Thailand as of late. Please pray for Thailand.

Women!

2011-10-17T15:17:00.000+07:00

My mama and auntie are crazy and I can't handle the craziness

Calling all Spanish teachers #2

2011-10-11T19:29:00.001+07:00

We all know what LOL stands for, but do you know what LSHMSFOAIDMT stands for? Well you should... add it to your repertoire for something more than a LOL.

Thanks to my co-worker Aimee, for the awesome find. :)

Calling all Spanish teachers #1

2011-10-11T19:25:00.002+07:00

If you're a Spanish teacher, or if you know anything beyond 1st semester Spanish 1 grammar, you'll appreciate what I got a kick out of today...

Student tries to write: Elena studies a lot.
He writes: Elena estudia un mucho.

I laughed aloud.

Apple Invasion 2011

2011-10-11T19:21:00.002+07:00

3 Macs & 1 i-phone. They just needed to be listening to their i-pods & contemplating buying an i-pad...

Before & After

2011-10-11T19:03:00.001+07:00


Exhibit A

Exhibit B


Nice new tabletop. "All the better to play games on, my dear," says Mike.

Lovely changes, wouldn't you say? I feel like our apartment feels a) more homey and b) more cheerful :)

Highlights from Alicante

2011-10-02T15:53:00.006+07:00

After a few days in Madrid, we made our way to Alicante. Man, was it good to see more friends and introduce Mike to life in Alicante! Alicante was a little crazier than normal in that it was during a time of festival. Mike got a good taste of Spanish night life. He had to get used to staying up late and getting up practically in the afternoon.

Some of the things we saw and did in Alicante:

Learned a lot of new Spanish words, as I was forced to speak in Spanish/translate a lot. Plus, my friends really helped push me to learn more.
Ate a lot of good food
Met up with lots of friends after 11 years
Went to Hogueras events: mascleta & parades
The beach
Paella at Casa Domingo
Castillo de Santa Bárbara
Bodega: Francisco Gómez
Reunion dinner at David & Natalia's flat
Port
MARQ: museo de arquelogía
Looking at the different monuments created & visiting the Hogueras museum

I had remembered the Hogueras festival differently from 11 years ago so we had plans to leave in the middle of the festival, thus missing the last day of the festival when they burn all of the monuments. We had reservations to go to La Alhambra in Granada, so we ended up leaving mid-week, going to Granada, and then returning to Alicante to be present for the Cremada. I'm so glad that our plans were pretty flexible and that we could come back to experience the last night with friends.

** As always, you can click on the collage/pic to see a bigger version of it. :)**

Great friends

Paella at Casa Domingo

Hanging out before heading to the beach

At the beach. We introduced our friends to the art of jumping pictures. They had seen the one of us jumping on the beach in New Zealand and thought that was so cool, so wanted to do their own one in Alicante. :)

Castillo de Santa Bárbara

La Bodega

La Bodega. I love this series of pictures; they make me laugh every single freakin' time because Mike is showing us his booty practically the whole time. In his defense, he didn't know that a series of 9 pics was going to be taken and that we were only planning on doing a booty picture 1-2 times. Pobre Mike.

La bodega

A reunion of HS friends at David & Natalia's place. It had really been about 10 years since all of them had been together. Unfortunately, we were missing Silvia, who was in Madrid. :(

Late night/early morning shananigans.

Mike got to try horchata and hang out with David's little birdy. The other two pics are views from the great terraza that David & Natalia have.

Hogueras. They spend practically all year planning for this festival, all for it to end quite quickly. They create these huge monuments to enter in to a competition and then on the last night there's the cremada, where they burn them all.

The beginning of the cremada. This was the first hoguera to be burned. In the above collage, it was the one in the bottom left corner that looks like a palm tree.

This was Natalia's sector's hoguera.

It almost looks like riots. The people scream to be sprayed by the fire hoses to cool down.

Last night


Trying to get a good view and not get soaked by the fire hoses.

Last night... out dancing after the cremada

My love.

We had such a great time. Thanks for hosting us, David & Natalia!

Highlights from Madrid

2011-10-01T22:20:00.003+07:00

So... we're here. :) I guess year 3 in Thailand has been marked with not as many firsts; therefore, not as many new blog posts. I still have yet to really update the blog with Spain pictures though. So as not to overwhelm myself (or my readers) I thought I'd kind of go city by city and give you the highlights and a few favorite pics or collages to give you a snapshot of things we did.

We started and ended our trip in Madrid, staying with my high school friend Silvia, her bf Alex and their ginormous dog, Munch. Poor Silvia picked us up from the airport (1.5 hours from her flat) bright and early in the morning, only to realize that our flight had been delayed 3 hours in Beijing... she was a champ about it though and was still smiling when we walked off the plane. How nice it is to arrive in a new place and be greeted by a friendly and familiar face. Silvia had requested the day off, so we were able to spend the day catching up with her. Throughout the rest of our time in Madrid, Silvia and Alex had to work at varying times, so we would go off and explore during their work hours, and then meet up with them later.

Some of the things we saw and did in Madrid:

Tapas
Palacio Real (outside)
Plaza Mayor
El oso y el árbol
Mercardo de Miguel Hernández
Met an Asian dude at a small grocery store & talked to him in Spanish to find out where to buy stamps (Mike found this rather hilarious that 2 Asians were speaking speaking Spanish to each other.)
Rose Garden
Teleférico
El Retiro
Estadio Bernabéo Tour
El Prado Museum
Ate asado at an Argentine restaurant (and though of you, Fernando & Kelly)
Plaza de toros
Rented a car before making our way to Alicante

** As always, you can click on the collage/pic to see a bigger version of it. :)**

Plaza de toros

Around Madrid

Rose Garden

El Retiro

Estadio

Around Madrid

Precious friends

Next stop: Alicante (where I did my study abroad my junior year of high school).

Things that...

2011-09-15T15:44:00.001+07:00

... make me laugh/smile:

Q: If your name is on the board, what does that mean?

A: You have make-up work to do or Mrs. Karly needs to talk to you about something.
Student's answer: Mrs. Karly misses you a lot and wants to see you.

Student wants to say "Never mind" and comes up with: "Nunca mente"and "Nunca cabeza"
Student asks if the same word for oil (on the face) is petroleum.

...I love:

Homemade Cinnamon Raisin bread by one of the parents at the school
Ukulele lessons
Thailand rainy season thunderstorms in the middle of the night
Dear friendships
Hearing my students speak in Spanish when it's not even Spanish class and saying, "It's so fun!"
Having a student ask me, "Why was the quiz so hard? You should make it easier." Then telling him that I could be a hard teacher, push him, and have him learn a lot, or I could be an easier teacher, give him an easy A, and he probably wouldn't learn very much. When given the option, he said he'd rather have me be a harder teacher with an added comment of "Besides, Spanish class is so fun even when it's hard." ::sigh:: THIS is why I teach.

... I could do without:

Waves of homesickness
Spending my weekend correcting papers
Having a class (or even a day) when your lesson plans blow up in your face and everything you planned goes nothing like how you envisioned (successfully).

... I wish happened magically without any of my help:

New blog posts
Learning Thai
Correcting papers

I might be biased...

2011-08-26T22:37:00.000+07:00

...but I think he's pretty stinkin' cute.

Welcome to the world, Bennett Davidson Aust!

Signs of life...

2011-08-26T22:24:00.001+07:00

So.......... it's been like a month and a half since my last post.

[Sigh]. My excuse is that I know I should post pictures from Spain, but I just have no motivation to go through a bazillion pictures and wait for blogger to laboriously upload them at a snail's pace. My second excuse is that school is in full swing again. At the start of every school year, I always forget how time-consuming and tiring it is to be a teacher. I was just telling Mike the other day, "I forgot how dumpy our apartment gets when we are working & coaching full time again." It's easy to come home, dump our things on the counter or couch, and do nothing really productive since we've expended all our energy on our students during the day. Already in the past 2.5 weeks of school, I've gone to bed at 8PM several nights... and I FORCED myself to stay away that long; I could have easily gone to bed at 7PM if I had allowed myself to do so.

So here's a quick synopsis of the past month and a half:

Got back to Bkk after an amazing trip to Spain
Had 2 weeks of freedom before school meetings began on Aug. 1
Did a lot of work setting up my new classroom
Mike was busy taking a class, trying to get as much finished before the start of the school year
A lot of new teachers this year... which has been fun, but also a hard adjustment since they have replaced the positions of a lot of our dear friends that have left ICS.
School started Aug. 9
Had a three-day weekend for the Queen's birthday and went to Koh Samed with our great friends, Grant and Carolyn
Roof started leaking in our apartment, just as the rainy season started ramping up.
BTS skytrain FINALLY opened and comes all the way out to Bangna now (Wahoo!! We've only been waiting 1.5 years!!)
Roof finally got fixed... yay for no more loud dripping sounds & holes in our ceiling.
Became Uncle Mike & Auntie Karly to Bennett Davidson Aust (Thanks Ben & Emily)
Found out that my brother Pete & gf Sarah will be our X-mas 2012 visitors

Prayer Requests

Health: Mike's a bit under the weather right now. I don't think I ever went back and blogged about why he was wearing a boot during our trip to Vietnam either... Mike was wearing the boot because he was having trouble with his foot, namely his toe. The Dr. thought it would do him some good to stay off his foot for several weeks, which actually didn't help the problem at all because in the end he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. Arthritis... quite the news/diagnosis for a young, otherwise healthy, extremely athletic person to swallow, but he's been a champ and has been taking it in stride. Psoriatic arthritis affects tendons and joints particularly in the hands, feet, and lower back, which explains all the years of low back pain for which no MRI could ever detect cause. It's actually an autoimmune disease, which means that his body's immune system works against him and actually attacks his tissue, instead of efficiently attacking infections. So basically when he gets sick, his immune system goes into overdrive to ward off infection, but ends up attacking his tissue even more too. Because of the psoriatic arthritis, his white blood cell count is naturally lower, which also means that he is more likely to get sick, which results in his bad immune system kicking in and... well, as you can see, it's a viscous cycle.
Contentment: It's hard to be away from MN with new changes to the family... we certainly would love to be an uncle and auntie that can hold their new little nephew.
Peace & Rest: The school year & sports season is always a crazy-busy time. Pray that we would find down-time to bask in His goodness even during these busy times.
Light: That we would be Jesus' hands and feet here in Thailand; that our students and the people of Thailand would know His love and their need for a Savior.
Friendships: That new friendships would be formed with new teachers & that older ones would be strengthened despite distance and time.

It's been a whirl-o-wind month and a half... well, it's actually been a whirl-o-wind past 2 years here in Thailand! God has been so gracious to us & we can't wait to see all the amazing things He has in store for us this year in Thailand and at ICS. Thanks for your support & prayers.

Spain Sneak Peak...

2011-07-16T19:26:00.011+07:00

I'm overwhelmed by how many awesome pictures from our trip to Spain I have to choose from!

Here are a few collages to appease our ~~parents~~ readers. More pictures and details to come...

**Remember that you can click on the collage to see a bigger version of it!

Awesome "Feria de Toros" that we got to go to in Pamplona during San Fermín (The Running of the Bulls)


Some of my favorite pictures of us during the trip. The guy in the red sweatshirt in the second picture is Txema. He was so kind and helpful, and became a dear friend to us during a short time in Pamplona.

Some of the amazing food that we got to experience in Spain and Portugal.

Treasured friendships

2011-06-23T21:23:00.001+07:00

What a great week and a half it has been in Spain. We spent 3 days in Madrid with Silvia. 4 days in Alicante with David (and were fortunate enough to spend a significant amount of time with Melina, Ana, Marga, Irene, Esther, Manolo, Vero (M´s gf), Natalia (David´s gf), Damian & Francis. What a treasure to be able to catch up with some wonderful friends after 11 years!

Alicante is in a time of fiesta right now. They are celebrating Hogueras de San Juan (Bonfires of St. John), which is a very young tradition of only 83 years. Similar to Las Fallas in Valencia, huge monuments are created by the 91 different precincts & judged for first prize. Then on June 24, all of the monuments are burned during la cremada. During the week, there is much fiesta, including many parades, las mascletas (fireworks & rhythmic explosions), as well as going out in the evening. Mike got has gotten a taste of Spanish life, staying up until 4 in the morning and then sleeping until 12 noon. :)

But really, we haven´t just been partying it up. We went to the beach, visited the castle of St. Barbara, got a tour of a bodega, visited and archeology museum, and have had a lot of great conversations over delicious food with some generous & hospitable friends. :)

I´ve been slowly losing my English, particularly in Alicante where I´ve felt a little bit more in-between worlds than ever-- hearing Spanish in one ear, English in the other & having to translate one way or the other. It´s been good for me to be immersed so deeply again. In fact, as I write this, I find myself translating from Spanish to English in my head, and my dreams are all in Spanish again...that´s when you know you´re in deep. My friends have been patient, explaining and teaching me unknown words that I hear or read. I have a book that is full of words and definitions. Glorious. David teases me saying that he feels used for his Spanish... I´ll take advantage of him all I can. :)

On Wednesday morning we headed off to Granada to see La Alhambra. We had already pre-ordered tickets for Thursday morning and needed to make sure that we got there. However, we changed our plans and instead of going to Malaga & Gibraltar, we´ll be heading back to Alicante for Friday & Saturday to celebrate la cremada of the hogueras. Despite wanting to be go to those two places, I am grateful for more precious time with my friends & also some more amazing pictures of Hogueras to be able to show my students. From there, we´re off to Seville for some famous flamenco & more yummy tapas (of course). :)

Anyway, all this to say that we´re having an amazing time. I´m so grateful for the opportunity to share this with Mike, to be able to live life with my Spanish friends again, and to experience new things. It´s been a fun adventure and wonderful to be in a country where I can actually speak the language (despite wanting to speak a little bit of Thai every now and and again).

Pictures forthcoming.

Dear friends

2011-06-13T09:43:00.000+07:00

We love you guys. You will be dearly missed.

Worlds Collide

2011-06-10T23:45:00.000+07:00

Real conversations:

Californians: Have you guys ever gone ice blocking?
Minnesotans: Ice blocking? What's ice blocking?
Californians: You go to the store, buy a big block of ice and then go sliding down a grassy hill while sitting on the ice block.
Minnesotans: Yeah... we call that sledding.

*Google ice blocking and you'll find all sorts of information & youtube videos! :D

German: I stayed in a wood house. It was made all out of wood and it was in the middle of the woods.
Minnesotan: Uhm... that's called a cabin.

Market Run

2011-06-10T08:19:00.001+07:00

On Saturday mornings, a few of us ladies would run about 3 miles to the market to pick up fresh (and cheaper than the grocery store) fruits, vegetables, juice, flowers, and whatever food tickled our fancy that morning. Tuan & Mike started to get into the habit of playing games on Saturday morning and then driving to the market to meet us & find some yummy food too.

It took a long time for me to finally want to join in on this routine because I kind of covet my Saturday mornings and enjoy sleeping in past 6:30 on a Saturday morning, but time with great friends, a quick little run, and the market drew me in.

Squinty-squint

At the fruit vendor

Yei... 15 baht orchids (and yummy, fresh-squeezed passion fruit juice... delightful!)

Nothing beats fried bananas & pretty flowers

Cute dimpled lady that sells pork & red sticky rice... so so good!

Half Marathon

2011-06-10T07:24:00.002+07:00

4 of us ladies rocked the "Hua Hin Heavy Half Marathon" at the end of May. It was quite the feat, as "heavy" indicated ridiculously steep hills for about 1 km. K-dub placed first in under 2 hours (Crazy girl! I swear she's built like a gazelle). Krista trained it up hardcore beforehand and finished in about 2.5 hours (plus she ran about an extra km in the wrong direction and had to turn around!) And Gaby and I stuck together and trotted in at just under 2:45... neither of us did (hardly) any training, which probably was quite unwise, but we accomplished our goal of finishing while simultaneously not dying. I can check a 1/2 marathon off my bucket list now.

Extremely real fear... what have we just signed ourselves up for?!

The ride up to the top of the massive hill where the half begins

Starbucks reward for finishing, thanks Tuan & Mike

I definitely don't look as tired as I felt... I was just happy to be done.

Yei!! We finished!

Happy to be done... and now, cue the 3-day soreness over SALT trip for Kdub & me, where stairs were our greatest enemy.

Gazelle-girl

Kdub won this massively heavy trophy & a microwave.

Success!

The shirts they gave us were ridiculously ugly... so Gaby and I bought new ones that better represented us. Unfortunately, as it was the end of the year and everyone is busy returning home for the summer, we didn't get a picture of the four of us together in our new shirts, sorry Krista!

OMG, you're hardcore!

Can't seem to get enough...

2011-06-10T06:50:00.000+07:00

This lovely dish has been a favorite around here recently. It's called, winged bean salad and it's eaten with rice and a hard boiled egg. The green slices are the bean that look like 4 pointed stars (or wings) and it is mixed with shrimp, purple onions, lots of spicy peppers & some yummy sauce. It's delightfully good and I think I'm addicted...

New Doo

2011-06-09T20:45:00.001+07:00

Mike has a new doo. It started last Saturday when we participated in a murder mystery dinner & he was, Sandy Beachbum , a surfer dude. I liked it so much that he has continued to keep it up.

JUMP!!

2011-06-09T20:11:00.004+07:00

We decided to try to get a picture of everyone jumping...

It was more difficult to do than we thought...

...but we kept trying anyway...

It's harder to coordinate 5 people than it looks!

We definitely didn't do well, but it sure was fun...

I got the giggles & we started getting really tired of jumping...

...but we knew we had to get a good picture eventually, so we kept saying, "Just one more time!!!"

So close!!!

Success! (After about 30 minutes & 50 pictures...)

6

2011-06-04T23:47:00.000+07:00

6 years ago today, I married my best friend.
And it's been the best six years of my life.
Love you, Mikey.

Apples & pears

2011-05-21T09:53:00.000+07:00

My friend Kdub (Kristi W.) and I had the joy of running a couple of times in NZ. I wasn't the best of company with a bit of a cold, but enjoyed it while I could. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the cold, crisp air. Quite the change from Bkk, needless to say and I definitely found myself running longer/farther because of the lack of humidity. It was glorious. We took a nice long run through Christchurch our first morning together and saw how the earthquake had impacted the city.

Our second run together was the most memorable though. We stayed in Arthur's Point and took a run along Coronet Peak (well, more of a walk due to my raspy lungs from my cold, the altitude, and well... it was a nice big old hill going up to a skiing area!) I think that this run/walk was one of my favorite times of the trip. The scenery was beautiful, we found apple & pear trees on the side of the road to pick, and since we didn't have any pockets, we had to shove all of our goods down our shirts. We laughed so much, took some funny pics, and got stared at as we made our way back the hotel. Those delicious apples & pears were baked in the most incredible crisp that I think I have ever eaten in my entire life; it was delightfully amazing.

climbing the apple tree

apples...

shirt full of apples...

NZ #2

2011-05-21T09:00:00.002+07:00

Tasman Valley, Tasman Glacier

Tasman Glacier: One of the largest glaciers in the southern hemisphere & the largest one in NZ. Don't believe me? Click on the picture & you will see a TINY yellow boat. Perspective.

Chai tea... sooooo goooooood.

Day 2: Queenstown

T-shirt with Kiwi lingo

T-shirt with Kiwi Lingo

FALL!!!!!

Thunder Creek Falls (on our way from Queenstown to Fox Glacier)

Tasman Sea

NZ #1

2011-05-21T06:19:00.001+07:00

I know you've been patiently waiting for these. These are only from the first 1.5 days. It was beautiful... and amazingly hard to narrow it down to these photos for just the first day and a half! Hopefully beautiful pics are boring to you. :)

Mini-hike to Lake Tekapo to watch the sunset

This sums up the guys on the trip: find a target, find rocks, throw rocks at the target.

Morning at the Possum Cottage

Tame deer that wanted the pom-poms of Kdub's shoes

Ian (owner of Possum Cottage) & Bernd

Sunrise

As Tuan would say, "SHEEEEEEPS!!"

Headed to Aoraki Mt. Cook Village for nice long hike

And again... back to throwing rocks. :) Target= stone tower.

Re-do

2011-05-04T17:28:00.001+07:00

Bad news & good news:

Bad news: After going from -8.00 eyesight, the day after getting Lasik, I had 20-20 vision. Unfortunately, my eyesight has gotten progressively worse and I'm at a -1.25 in one eye and a -.75 in the other. :( This is one of the risks of having Lasik, but I guess I didn't think it would happen so quickly.

I was feeling rather discouraged, as Lasik is quite an investment. The hospital promises to do the procedure again for free within 6 months of your initial Lasik surgery, but it's easy for them to promise that when most people's cornea aren't thick enough to endure another surgery!

Good news: I had my eyes re-tested to see if I could get the procedure done again, and I can! I'll do it in June as soon as school is out so that I'm still within the 6 month time period for the hospital to do it for free.

I'm sad that I have to do it again, as it is a process for the eyes to heal, but I'm thankful that I get a "re-do." Hopefully the second time around it will stick.

A sneak peak...

2011-04-16T21:24:00.001+07:00

... of how much fun we had in New Zealand. :)

Boo-yah

2011-04-09T10:06:00.000+07:00

9 days of spring break (many of which will be spent in New Zealand!)
22 more teaching days.
5 days of finals.
4.5 days of SALT trip.

And then we get to spend the summer in Spain!! :D

I don't quite know where the year went this year!?!?

Pedro

2011-04-09T09:56:00.001+07:00

Happy birthday, Pete!

We sure do love you and are blessed by you. We hope you have a great day. Love & early birthday hugs from Thailand & New Zealand. :)

¡Olé!

2011-04-09T09:43:00.001+07:00

Tortilla de Patatas. Just gearing us up for our trip to España this summer! :)

29

2011-04-09T09:36:00.000+07:00

The weekend after our nice little get-away to Vietnam, we had a little birthday party for Mike with some of our friends. Mike's requests are pretty much the same every year: pizza, friends & games. He usually doesn't care too much about what the dessert is, but this year he did request German chocolate cake, which actually has nothing to do with Germany, but rather, an Englishman who's last name was "German" (in case you were wondering).

So celebrate we did with homemade pizzas with Gaby's famous dough, rootbeer floats, homemade hummus & pita bread, veggies & dip, Texas caviar and salsa, and a homemade cake. It was delightful. :) We whipped out my new game that I got from Mike for Xmas called, Dixit, which was a really entertaining game as well.

The morning first started out with some great buttermilk blueberry pancakes and just got better after that. :)

Crowding around the food table

Root beer float staches

*Sorry, I know the pics aren't the best quality; they were from my P&S. :(

New favorite

2011-04-01T18:11:00.000+07:00

Click HERE for the youtube video

Lord I come, I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
Without You I fall apart
You're the one that guides my heart

Chorus:
Lord, I need You, oh I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
And where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me
Yes where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

Bridge:

So teach my song to rise to You
And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You
Jesus You're my hope and stay
And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You
Jesus You're my hope and stay

Wishful thinking

2011-03-31T18:41:00.001+07:00

We've had a few colder than normal days here in Bangkok, which has been amazing. The last 3 days, I have enjoyed wearing pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks, & closed-toed shoes to school. I've also enjoyed having my windows and doors wide open, instead of running the air-con.

I think my Spanish 1 students have finally perfected saying, "It's cold" in Spanish as they come into class shivering. They have also been taking advantage of this crazy opportunity to wear their fake letter jackets (more on this later).

The "cold" spell has made for some funny comments from the students, my personal favorite being, "Do you think it will snow? That would be so great if it did."Sorry dude, pretty sure 66-70 degrees isn't cold enough for snow. Nice try though. :)

Vietnam Part 3

2011-03-25T21:58:00.000+07:00

After the day and a half on the junk boat, we travelled back to Hanoi and returned to our first hotel. We meandered around Hanoi again, found a place that sold coffee, picked up my custom made shirt, and ate at an amazing Spanish tapas restaurant.

It was a short but certainly sweet trip.

Heaven on earth...

Delightful Vietnamese coffee. Ignore the color difference of our coffees... hehe

Tapas

Vietnam Part 2

2011-03-23T20:46:00.003+07:00

We had arranged to do a junk boat tour of Halong Bay through an agent. The bus picked us up in the morning and we had about a 2 hour bus ride to the bay. We had quite the eclectic crowd on the boat: Mike & me, a 30 year old single guy, originally from Seattle, who is a lawyer and currently lives/works in Singapore, and a Canadian gay father who was without his partner, but was in the company of his two ten year old sons. Eclectic, indeed.

Halong Bay is beautiful and we enjoyed the tour a lot. We had great food, had time to play a lot of cribbage & banana grams, and time to talk with the other guests on the boat. We also had the opportunity to go kayaking in the bay and tour a massive cave.

On the 2 hour van ride out to Halong Bay, we took a pit stop at a crafty place...

This is how I pictured Vietnam... beautifully green rice fields

Halong Bay

Our bedroom on the Classic Sail

Quite the fancy-shmancy bathroom. I would have never expected this marble bathroom from the looks of the outside of the boat.

Mike on the bow with our friendly dragon

Famous rocks of Halong Bay. You see what you want to see, but these 2 rocks are known as the 2 fighting cocks.

Sorry for the graininess... you can tell this was taken on my point & shoot instead of the SLR. I think it might have been in a plastic ziplock baggie at the time too. :)

Kayaking through the bay and in some caves.

On our way to Sung Sot Cave

Sung Sot is a famous and beautiful cave, belonging to the protected zone of Ha Long Bay, which was trice recognized as a world natural heritage for its aesthetic values and its geology geomorphology by UNESCO.

Here's our group: M&K, Matt (the lawyer), Harry (the dad), Pierce (white kid) & Evan (Vietnamese kid). Granted, Evan is ducking down a little bit, but he actually is older than Pierce by a few months. Vietnamese people are pretty petite!

Coming out of the cave, this was the spectacular view...

Back to our boat

My favorite picture all trip (well... aside from all the funny kayaking pictures of Mike)


Pierce, Evan & Matt... saying their farewells.

Matt and our Vietnamese tour guide, Mike. Mike sure is a man of short stature... even I was taller than him!

Vietnam Part 1

2011-03-22T19:03:00.003+07:00

We used our personal days and took a mini vacation/birthday trip to Vietnam. We left really early in morning on Mike’s birthday and flew into Hanoi. We had a taxi from the travel company pick us up to bring us to our hotel (about 40 min away), and enjoyed the rest of the day in Hanoi. We walked around this nice lake, ate some yummy baguettes, had some traditional Vietnamese Pho, saw a water puppet show, got measured for a custom made shirt, spent a long time amazed at the traffic of Vietnam, and watched people literally GAWK and do a double take at Mike’s air cast (more on that later).

Enjoying some Pho

Sidewalks aren't made for walking...

We went to a water puppet show that was pretty entertaining. See the pictures and a few videos of our experience...

Water Puppet Show

Want to learn more about water puppetry? Click HERE to find out more!

Birthday dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant

Fresh spring rolls

?? Something delightfully delicious, but I don't remember what...

I found this sight a little humorous... these big guys sitting on tiny little chairs.

Granted, it was cold (60's), but cold enough for ear muffs??!

How many balloon vendors can be on one street? Well, at least 3! At one point in time we saw 4... and they were all huddled up next to each other. What was the funniest part was that people would actually be flying by on their motorbikes, decide they needed a balloon and would stop to buy a balloon. It was like watching a drive-through fast food restaurant serving balloons. Bizarre.

Organized chaos...

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in Vietnam was that people use their horns a lot more than in Bangkok; now I understand why. :)

Dong

lamps, anyone?

Bootlegger... I mean, boot wearer.

Unrecognizable

2011-03-17T21:21:00.001+07:00

Who is this guy that's wearing a hooded sweatshirt?!

We went to Vietnam and it was downright ~~freezing~~ CHILLY! And by chilly, I mean *cough* 60-something degrees *cough* Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up all you Minnesotans, but after the 90+ degrees & the humidity of Thailand, it REALLY is chilly. We welcomed the chance to wear hooded sweatshirts, NF shells and socks... all without getting nasty sweaty. Did I mention that we actually had to use a space heater at one point in time?! Wow-za. It was delightful (and so was the scenery... pictures to come in subsequent blog posts only if you stop laughing.)

Cricut Creations

2011-03-17T21:02:00.002+07:00

Some of the fun and snazzy things my cricut has been making lately...

My two favorites are the brown and turquoise square shaped cards. All of them were from the Cindy Loo cartridge, except for the dinosaur one, which was from the Create a Critter cartridge

"Purse" basket that I made to hold a gift. Both flowers & basket were created by the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge

Darn tough

2011-03-17T19:07:00.003+07:00

Just got a (belated) X-mas package from my brother, Peter. Check out the fun socks he sent me! And they came just in time for the 66 degree day that we had today that had me shivering. :)

Don't cha' just love the brand name?!

Thanks, Pete!

Kayaking picture series

2011-03-17T18:44:00.001+07:00

We went kayaking in Halong Bay, Vietnam. This series of pictures first started with Mike not noticing that I had taken a picture, but it went downhill (and fast) after that... :)

Did I mention that I was taking these pictures (without looking) over my shoulder so every picture was a surprise for me? {sigh} I love my crazy husband.

It was the fish food!

2011-03-13T17:06:00.002+07:00

It's a known fact that I am notorious for talking in my sleep. I ~~weirded out~~ ahem... impressed... my friends on our weekend Khao Yai trip with my speaking abilities & mystery-solving skills.

We went to Chok Chai Farm on Thursday afternoon & Tuan bought some fish food to feed the massive carps in the pond. Later that evening, as we were settling into our room, Tuan reached into his pocket & pulled out an empty plastic bag. He couldn't figure out what the bag was from & made a passing comment about the bag in his pocket. End of conversation. That evening, while the other 4 stayed up to play games, I conked out. However, in my sub-conscious, I was somehow able to determine when they were done playing the game because I sat straight up, scowled (in typical Karly fashion), pointed my finger at Tuan & said, "It was the fish food!!" (Referring ~~of course~~ to the mysterious plastic bag in his pocket from earlier in the day). I then proceeded to lay back down in bed and was fast asleep as if nothing had happened. They all immediately knew what I was talking about, but couldn't believe that I was asleep the whole time! Mike asked me, "Karly, are you sleeping?" and I apparently tried very hard to open my eyes & then gave up.

Just call me Sherlock Holmes, mystery solver extraordinaire, who can unravel the most difficult clues even whilst sleeping.

Khao-yippee-yai-yai-yay.

2011-03-13T17:04:00.000+07:00

February 18 & 19 we took a quick trip to Khao Yai with 3 other friends. We enjoyed parts of the Khao Yai National Park, some hiking in the rain, & 2 amazing meals at Chok Chai Fram.

Here are some pics from our fun trip with K-DUB, Gaby & Tuan.

Yummy hamburger lunch at Chok Choi

Tasty Milk

Milkshakes

Feeding the fish

Hiking to the watch tower

Tuan, AKA: Rafiki

Tuan, modeling for us.


Lots of little monkeys

Palio... a little Italian area

Getting ready...

to do a cartwheel...

... just like the statue.

at the beginning of our hike in Khao Yai to the Haew Suwat Waterfall


Beware of crocodile & no swimming (just in case you were tempted to do so, despite the crocodile warning)

More than enough

2011-02-12T12:38:00.000+07:00

Sometimes it is easy for me to think that I know what's best for me. I mean, who knows me better than me, right? WRONG! God knows me better than I can ever know myself. But I get caught up thinking that I know what's best and when it would be best... and I lose sight of what the Father's rich, sovereign and not fully revealed plan for His daughter might be.

This morning I was listening to some music while correcting tests, and the song, "Enough" came on. The lyrics made me think about how I like to tell God what I need, when He already fully knows my needs and desires, and how He will provide for those things when He sees fit and in the way that He sees fit. But the song also reminded me that as I wait, or even if God doesn't fulfill my needs/desire in the way my human mind can comprehend.... He is not only enough, but MORE than enough

"All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
....
More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me"

25 big ones

2011-02-12T11:14:00.009+07:00

What can approximately $25 get you?

6 honeycrisp apples
3 pacific rose apples
1 bunch of asparagus
2 bunches of lettuce
3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes (depending on the size of your hand)
2 big carrots
3 packages of cut and ready to eat pomelo
2 large bottles of fresh passion fruit juice
1/2 a kilo of red grapes
1 bell pepper
2 bunches of pretty flower
5 bananas
2 freshly made belgium waffles
a 2 mile run with good girlfriends
a sweaty taxi ride home :)

most expensive things:
1. grapes: about $4 for a 1/2 kilo. Yikes. Expensive, I know... I vowed I wouldn't buy grapes here and I didn't our entire first year, but I've learned that there are expensive things here that you just simply decide to spend your money on because you want/crave them... like grapes and cheese. But there are plenty of inexpensive things here that balance everything out, like 30 cent pineapple from fruit dude.

2. honeycrisp apples: 6 small ones or 3 big ones for $3. Pretty equivalent to how it would be in the states, I suppose

3. fresh passion fruit juice: 2 big bottles for $4. I've grown to love this stuff and definitely look forward to the refreshing tartness of it after a run.

This is what fresh passion fruit looks like (since the juice looks like mustard or some other nasty thing)

You just can't beat these prices though:

1. pretty flowers for less than $2

2. 2 hot belgium waffles for about $1.50

Guess who...? #2

2011-02-09T17:29:00.001+07:00

Remember THIS POST?
Answer: I'm sure that it may come as surprise to many, but the answer is: Karly

And now for Guess who...? #2:

#2: Guess who loves scrapbooking?

Get in my belly!

2011-02-09T17:21:00.001+07:00

Delightfully Delicious Dinner

Dumb plant

2011-02-09T17:12:00.002+07:00

Remember THIS POST?? Well, that dumb plant still hasn't figured out that it's living with a plant killer. Granted, the flowers have died off, but the stupid thing has decided to THRIVE and sprout new leaves. It honestly must be because the plant was given to Mike as a gift, not me. But either way, it has truly been neglected by the both of us. We jokingly said to one another, "we must be ready for children if we can keep a stupid plant alive longer than 3 days. " HA!

Is it racist...?

2011-02-08T20:50:00.000+07:00

It is racist to give the Asian chopsticks to eat his brownie when you run out of forks?

For all you cribbage lovers...

2011-02-07T19:24:00.003+07:00

I started out 34 points behind Mike in this hand, and 44 points away from winning. My only goal: not get skunked (or spanked, as we like to say), which meant pegging 13 points, or hoping that Mike wouldn't get the 10 points he needed to finish the game off. Needless to say, a near impossible feat...

It was my crib and I had kept a K, 5, 5, 5 in my hand... 14 points.
Mike had: K, K, K & 5... 12 points

Pegging round 1
Mike: K
Karly: 5 (for 2)
Mike: 5 (for 2)
Karly: 5 (for 6)
Mike: can't go
Karly: (for 12 & a go for 1)

Pegging round 2:
Mike: K
Karly: K (for 2)
Mike: K (for 6 & a go for 1)

This put Mike "in the stink hole" (last peg hole before winning). He got to count first (he won since he had 12 points in his hand), but I didn't get skunked! I unbelievably pegged 23 points!!! We played out the rest of the hand just to see how I did...

Pegging: 23 points
Hand: 14 points
Crib: 6 points
I finished in "the stink hole"after we played the rest of my hand out. :)

Needless to say, I gave Mike a bit of a run for his money. Now if only that hand had come earlier in the game...

Busted

2011-02-05T13:48:00.000+07:00

Don't judge... you know you've done it before. :)

I walked in on Mike cleaning out the brownie batter bowl with his finger... but when I went to get my camera, he hammed it up by smearing chocolate on his face and dramatically licking the bowl out. I think this guy loves chocolate more than I do...

Homesick

2011-02-05T13:30:00.003+07:00

After an eventful week and looking through a dear friend's pictures on FB of her growing baby boy and the orchard last fall, I was suddenly feeling rather homesick. This morning I woke up at 6:30 to go on a little run to the park with some girlfriends, and then pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables after our run. The fruit vendor that I went to last Saturday morning was selling, of all things, HONEYCRISP apples. Honeycrisp apples, people!!! Those apples are bred in MN at the U of M! And not only that, but they are my favorite kind of apple. They unfortunately were not in season when we were home this summer either, so we haven't had them since the fall/winter of 2008/2009. What a surprise to be able to find them this morning! It was a good reminder to me of God's provision and faithfulness. It felt like He was saying, "Yeah... I know you're homesick. I know you feel like you're missing out on seeing & doing these things in MN, but I can bring MN to you! I will care for you!" So I happily bought some honeycrisp apples and then had a fun and encouraging conversation with said precious friend who has a beautiful baby boy. God is good.

Precious friends

2011-02-04T15:01:00.002+07:00

Do you ever have those days where Satan whispers in your ear, “You’re worthless…your ministry is ineffective… you are terrible at what you do… you should just quit.”? Yesterday was one of those days for me. Despite being bombarded with so many positive voices, I listened to the one negative one and suddenly found my identity in it. I was swirling around in wallow-land because of one parent’s idea of me and I suddenly lost sight of my purpose.

I am so grateful for precious friends that speak truth into my life and who are able to encourage my burdened heart when I start believing and finding my identity in ridiculous things. My sweet friend, Holly, gave me a note of encouragement with 1 Corinthians 15:58 in it: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I think I read that verse about 15 times throughout the day (and may or may not have gotten teary eyed 10 out of the 15 times I read it...)

Praying that you, my dear reader, find your identity in Christ alone... and that you have dear dear friends to encourage you and speak truth to you at all times, but especially when you can't do it yourself.

The happy and the crappy...

2011-02-02T15:32:00.002+07:00

My day looked like this...

The happy:

Making a student laugh so hard today that he was literally crying.
Seeing my students be creative and come up with fun ways to demonstrate vocabulary words
Watching my students interact with each other in Spanish
Students clapping & cheering for one another during a review game

The crappy:

Disciplining a student
Missing so many students due to the Chinese New Year (and they're not even Chinese for cryin' out loud!!)

Thankfully the happies outweigh the crappies.

What's your name?

2011-01-31T21:15:00.000+07:00

It seems that every Thai person has a nickname of some sort. Sometimes their nickname is a Thai word, but more often than not (at least at ICS), it is an English word. We're not quite sure if it's because their Thai names are difficult to say or if it's just a cultural thing, but I will say that when we first arrived in Thailand, the nicknames sometimes they caught us off guard. Some of our current students are named the following: Bright, Ice, Pop, Candy, Sand, Land, Birdy, Meme, Naim (pronounced like Name), Twinkle, Binx (formerly known as Jar Jar Binx, but has decided to go by just Binx now), Annikan, Sea, Hill, Proud, Folk, Happy, Winnie, Pun, Perm, Cream, Deer, Ping, Pong, Tik, Guitar, Punky... and the list could go on...

Names don't really have shock value to us anymore; it seems pretty normal to us to have students with names such as these. In fact, when I was trying to think of names that might have a little shock value to my readers, I mentally went through my seating charts and thought several times, "But that's a pretty common name!" Needless to say, I've acclimated to my surroundings. :)

Mike has a little 4 year old student (Cream) who was telling him about her babies one day and how she likes to sleep with her babies (AKA: dolls). Mike asked her if her babies have names. To which she responded, "Cookie and Cream." Of course... a natural choice if you are from Thailand. So cute.

I wonder what a "Thai Baby (Nick)Names" book looks like!?!

Guess who...? #1

2011-01-23T16:56:00.002+07:00

This is my sister-in-law, Emily.

For kicks, we're starting a new little series in the blog that will pop up every now and again. It's titled, "Guess who...?" In other words, is it Emily or is it Karly?

So here's the first one. We'll start out with an easier one for you...

#1: Guess who is ~~Oriental~~ Asian?

Guess who...?

2011-01-22T10:53:00.000+07:00

Gold star for you!

2011-01-20T20:48:00.013+07:00

So for Xmas, my generous parents and grandma got me an amazing gift that is any scrapbooker's/card maker's dream: The Cricut. It's a personal cutting machine that can do... well, pretty much anything and everything. It's freaking awesome. I haven't even played around with it that much and I still think it's freaking awesome.

I've made a couple of cards with it, but my first little "project" was a gift for my AP Spanish students. We have joked about "Estrellas de Oro" (Gold Stars) in class since the beginning of the year. It's usually used as "punishment" when a student doesn't speak in Spanish, and so another student will usually say (in Spanish) "Give me a gold star, " while holding out their hand for the imaginary star and tskking them for reverting to English. So I decided to make my class of 3 girls a box full of gold stars.

Yes, one of my student's nicknames is Twinkle. Have I ever blogged about nicknames here? I don't think I have. I will have to save that for another post...

Shades of gray

2011-01-20T20:35:00.001+07:00

Not to brag or anything, but can I just say that I've set a major record?

See this little plant?

Go ahead... ask me how long I've kept that sucker alive.

6 stinkin' weeks. 6. That's like 6X longer than I've ever kept any plant/flower alive. Seriously.

I didn't inherit my grandma Heidi's green thumb, but maybe there's hope that my jet-black thumbs won't remain forever black, and perhaps are turning shades of dark gray.

Get in my belly!

2011-01-20T20:28:00.002+07:00

Look what just came out of my micro-griven tonight...

Shepherd's Pie (don't worry, it didn't come out of the oven partially eaten... I just forgot to take a picture until it was partially eaten). :)

Apple Cinnamon Scones (from scratch... yay me!)

It was my first time making the apple cinnamon scones... and let me tell you, they are DELIGHTFUL. Not only do they smell amazing, but they are actually pretty healthy and they taste so good. I actually ate 2 after dinner since they were SO good. Mike couldn't keep his hands off them either. Needless to say, I think they will become a breakfast staple in this house.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

2011-01-18T20:49:00.003+07:00

Remember THIS COMPETITION?

Well, a winner has been named. Only a handful of people participated in the competition, but I definitely had a few good laughs!

Winner: Ben
Runner-up: Emily

You're prize will be mailed to you in the next week or two! The only stipulation is that you need to take a picture of yourself with your prize(s) & send it to me so that I can update my blog again. :) DEAL???

Do you hear what I hear?

2011-01-18T20:36:00.002+07:00

Spanish!!

I was delighted to hear native Spanish speakers in Cambodia... they were from Barcelona. I think I was drooling over their native Castillian-lispy accent; it was phenomenal. :) And then, if you can believe it, the other day when I went to the grocery store here in Bangkok, I overhead a mother and child speaking in Spanish. I did everything I could to prevent myself from barging in on their intimate conversation.

Additionally, I have been hearing more and more Spanish in my classroom. Now that it's second semester, I always challenge/force my kids to speak more in Spanish. I love hearing them speak in castellano, trying their best to express themselves, struggling to find the right vocabulary... and then suddenly having everything click. Those AH-HA moments are what I cherish as their teacher. Needless to say, it's been a great start to the 2nd semester.

I also am thrilled to say that we will be hearing more Spanish this summer, as we are planning on taking a trip to Spain! I can't wait to brush up on my Spanish, use vocabulary I probably haven't used in ages (and maybe even don't remember that I have filed away somewhere), and see my friends that I made back in high school at good old Cabo de Huertas when I did my year of foreign exchange (I can't believe that was 11 years ago).

I feel like I'm coming back full circle. Life is sweet.

Team BUST in CAMBO

2011-01-18T20:22:00.000+07:00

I didn't update the blog after we went to Cambodia. We had a 3 day weekend back in December before the Xmas break, so we took advantage of it and took a quick trip to Cambodia with our friends Grant and Carolyn. We named ourselves "Team BUST" (Buma & Aust), albeit Buma actually being pronounced Bue-ma, like the word Cue. We had a blast. We are grateful for fun new friends who love crazy adventures, who roll with the punches, and who know how to laugh and have a great time. :) We had a great time in Siem Reap, visiting Angkor Wat. Here are of my favorite pics from our adventure.

Is that a pig on the back of a motorcycle, you ask? Why yes, it is.

Our taxi driver got a flat tire. He didn't have a spare in his trunk, but kept flagging down other taxi drivers who did. They must all work for the same company since he didn't seem to bother to get the other taxi driver's name or number.

Strike a pose...

Shorty-pants...

Climbing in trees we definitely shouldn't have been climbing in... but it made for a wicked awesome picture, don't you think?

Yahoooo.

In case you have any complaints about Cambodia, particularly the immigration office, just stick a comment in the "to blame box"

Sawasdee kah

The library

You're just as weird, lady.

2011-01-18T19:02:00.000+07:00

I know you can't see her very well... but there is another Asian lady is this picture that my brother-in-law, Pete, took when we were at our cooking class. Pete & I were the only Americans in a class of probably 12 people. You tend to chit-chat with the people a little bit and get to know at least where they are from and what they do. The other Asian lady in the picture works for BMW and her native language is actually German. I ~~kind of~~ did a double take when I heard her speaking in German.

Anyway, one of the guys in the cooking class was a PE teacher from Australia. So naturally, I started a conversation with him about teaching and told him that I was a teacher in Thailand. And as every conversation like this unfolds, of course he thought I taught English. I explained to him the nature of ICS and that I actually teach Spanish. At this point in time everyone seemed to be listening to our conversation, so the Asian-German woman overhead and expressed her surprise about me being Asian but teaching Spanish. I literally wanted to say, "Dude, look who's talking! You're an Asian who speaks German!" I guess I don't know which one is more odd...

Playing Catch-up

2011-01-18T18:51:00.001+07:00

The last month...

We had 4 visitors: Mike 3 brothers and sister-in-law.

His 2 younger brothers came to visit us first. We took a beach trip to Hua Hin and also had some fun around Bangkok too. Pete (the one in the blue shirt) is a photographer and a lot of these pics came from him. It was fun to see Thailand through his eyes through his camera lens.

We definitely enjoyed eating Rotee, particularly ones with banana & nutella and were drizzled with sweet and condensed milk. Amazing good, but wretchedly bad for you? OF COURSE! :)

Pete & I took a cooking class together

Making SomTom

We talked to family on Christmas and even opened presents together while video-skyping.

Even managed to get some reading in at Starbucks

Then, Mike's older brother, Ben & his wife, Emily came.

Headed to Phuket to enjoy Patong beach

It was a rough life: we read, got massages, ate, sunbathed, slept. Vicious cycle. :)

Name that photo

2010-12-26T17:01:00.007+07:00

This was a picture that Mike's brother, Pete, took on Christmas. It was so funny to me that I decided to make a little "name that photo" contest out of it. Post your witty title for this picture as a comment on the blog or FB note and perhaps you will be the lucky winner. The winner will get a prize sent to them all the way from Thailand! Good luck!

Want to see the picture better? Click on the picture to enlarge the picture (if you're on the blog, not FB).

Merry Christmas...

2010-12-26T16:54:00.001+07:00

from our house to yours...

Mission Accomplished

2010-12-18T07:08:00.002+07:00

X-ray vision successfully attained.

...and I'm lovin' it. :D