Every now and then...

... I feel like Phoebe.

Click HERE to watch.

But all I can honestly do is laugh because learning a new language can be wicked hard sometimes.

Brothers

What a difference 6 years can make!

This first picture was taken the week that I first met Pete and Joey. After I graduated from college, I spent the summer working for Youthworks, a youth missions organization that essentially organizes and leads a mission trip for youth groups. Basically the youth director just has to get the kids to the site and help with chaperoning, but the staff members on site do the rest. YW has sites all over the US, Mexico, PR and Canada and I had the privilege of being 1 of the 4 staff members at the New Orleans, Louisiana site. Pete and Joey's church youth group came down to NOLA to serve for a week, and I was blessed to meet them. Little did I know that I would marry their older brother the next summer, but apparently Joey did, since during the course of our week together he told me a) that I should meet his brother Mike and later b) that I should marry his brother Mike! Needless to say, we owe him big time. ;)


This second picture was taken this summer, the day that we left MN to return to Thailand. Isn't it fun that in both pictures we are standing in the same order!? I'm pretty sure that I was poking them in the bellies or squeezing them extra hard to make them laugh/smile.

I am so blessed to call these two awesome dudes my brothers! Love you Pete & Joey!!!

Tones & fashion sense

Karly's funny story of the day:

My Spanish 1 kids are learning some basic Spanish words/phrases/questions right now. Some of these words carry written accents:
¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono?
¿Cómo te llamas?
¿Cómo se dice...?
¿Qué quiere decir...?
¿Cómo estás?

Anyway, one of girls came up to me after class, pointed to the accent over the word "número" and asked if she had to remember the tone. I had to laugh... only in Thailand would my students refer to an accent as a tone.


Mike's funny story of the day:

Mike wore a band-aid on his neck today...

Student: What happened to your neck? Oh, oh... uh... are you wearing it for fashion?
Mike: No, it's not for fashion. I got a bug bite on my neck or something.

Ten cent tour

Our first year in Thailand we lived in the commercial building, on-campus apartments. Living right on campus was very convenient, but it was hard to ever feel like we 'got away' from ICS, especially since kids would sometimes hang out at school until 5:30-6ish. Additionally, when there were school events (dramas, lock-ins, worship evenings, and so forth), we felt a little trapped. We had the option of living on campus again this year since there were enough rooms to do so, but we would have had to give up our two studios and [gasp] move to an actual 2 bedroom apartment. We decided that if we were already going to have to move, we might as well move to a place where we could stay for a while to minimize the moving. Plus, we wanted a place that we could really call home... we hardly decorated or did much to our on-campus apartment, knowing that we would probably have to move at the end of the year. So we made the big move down the street to the "Parkland Apartments," which is still conveniently only a 5 minute walk to school (nothing really can beat the 30 second walk from the commercial building though)! Our new apartment really does feel quite homey, and I think it feels like us too. :) We were happy to find a place that has a washing machine, 2 bathrooms, lots of storage space, and a more western style kitchen. Best decorating decisions ever: a) bought sheets to cover our couch and b) instead of buying prints from the store, we had our own photographs blown up!

Here's the ten cent tour:

Welcome!

Entrance

Massive amounts of storage in the entrance area

Main living & eating area

Kitchen/main bathroom

Main bathroom

My very western looking kitchen (lots of cupboards and counter space... not just a hot plate)

Yes, that's a washing machine in the kitchen... dishwashers are practically non-existent here, and since I have the washing machine in the kitchen, that means we have 2 functioning showers!

Kitchen and second bedroom

Yes, those are bunk beds! (single bed on top and double bed on bottom)

This bedroom is currently acting as a storage room. I guess we'll have to clear it out a little bit more when we have people visit this Christmas. :)

It also doubles as the tie rack room

Looking back into the main living area from the kitchen... you can also see part of the master bedroom. We have a funky curved wall... at least our funky curved couch matches our funky curved wall though!

Master bedroom and balcony

The bedroom storage area wraps around curvy wall. Most places don't have such amazing storage... we are blessed. That funky shaped thing on the balcony is my eliptical; it's just covered by a sheet so that the birds don't poop all over it. :)

Kind of an awkward cupboard in the very back, but it's a good place for putting things you don't use very often... like suitcases.

Our bathroom... it even has a shower door, which is rare to find in Thailand!

We are so happy to live where we do and feel blessed to have a place to call home!

Oh no, not you too!!!

Mike and I went to Kanchanaburi with a few friends for the 4 day weekend that we had. One night, in the wee hours of the morning, Mike must have woken up to go to the bathroom. He came back to bed and I must have stirred enough to make him feel bad about waking me up a little bit, so he said, "Khor toht krap" [core tote cop], which means, "excuse me" (or I farted... depending on which tone you use). Anyway, I found it rather humorous that he was speaking to me in Thai and thought he was just trying to be funny so I asked him about it in the morning. He denied all claims to being conscious and simply said, "I guess I must have thought you were Thai." Seriously honey... not you too!!

From the mouths of babes...

Q: When you think of the word "Spanish," what comes to mind?

• Cowboys and tacos
• Spanish people with big hats
• Salsa (I'm pretty sure this student meant the food, not the dance...)
  
• Mrs. Karly
• Guitars and giant sombreros... oh yeah, burritos too
• Spain... Madrid...tap dance
• Hola & uno
• Mexicans
• Flamenco dancers
• Those singers with big hats, banjos, and maracas
• Something beautiful
• Food
• My name because it means something in Spanish (Sol)
• Taco Bell
• Soccer/FIFA/2010 World Cup champions
  
• Passion & red colored dress wearing women dancing
• Quesadillas
• Dance-y, happy people & Mrs. Karly
• The colors red & yellow
• Love
• Flags
  
• Festivals & food
• Upside down question marks & stuff
  
• Guitars and sombreros
• Fun
  
• Music that Mrs. Karly plays in class on her i-pod
• People who talk really fast
• Bulls
• Adiós
  
• Doritos

Yum

Look at the yummy pizza I made in my rockin' micro-griven!
Can you guess what these are? I had never eaten them until I came to Bangkok... and now they are one of my favorite things!

Worlds collide

When we were home this summer there were a couple of things that really took us by surprise:

1. Obesity
2. Price of food
3. Portion sizes of food (refer back to #1 now)
4. Green grass and trees everywhere (we were finally out of the pavement jungle)
5. Fresh(er) air, particularly in the BWCA
6. Cost of gas
7. Driving on the right side of the road
8. Drinking water from the tap & not having to have a water bottle in the bathroom to use for our toothbrushes & rinse water (I can't tell you how many times I looked around for a water bottle in the bathroom)
9. Actually having to drive everywhere instead of being "chauffeured around" by a taxi
10. People's names weren't objects, places, or movie characters ie) Pop, Top, Ice, Jar-jar Binx, Sand, Land, Guitar, Candy, etc.
11. Lack of humidity, despite many Minnesotans complaining about how hot/humid it was (as I was wearing jeans and long sleeved shirt... it's all relative)
12. Name-person confusion... read the following phone conversation:

Me: Hello?
Friend: Hey, this is James
Me: James? (thinking: James, the MS computer teacher in Thailand??) Uhm... how'd you get this number??!? (we had just recently bought a temporary phone)
Friend: From Eric
Me: Uhm, ok. Wait, James who?
Friend: James K. Is Mike there? We want him to play softball on Sunday.
Me: Ooooooooooooh! Softball MN James!
Friend: Uhm... yes.
Me: Yeah, hold on, here's Mike.

13. The 80's apparently being back in... stretch pants, side ponies and all.
14. Bathtubs... not that I took a bath or anything, but it was nice not to have water go ALL OVER the bathroom floor and then have to squeegee it down the drain
15. No one thinking that I'm Thai and never getting some foreign language menu handed to me.
16. People putting the emphasis on the same syllable as me. For example, I would say "tower" with the natural emphasis on TOWer. Thais, however, would say, toWERRRR (and really draw out the "ER" part.

How to make a Thai person laugh...

1. Looking Thai but not actually being Thai
2. Looking Thai, trying to speak Thai, but thoroughly botching up the Thai
3. Looking Thai but perfecting saying "I am not Thai. I do not speak Thai" in Thai
4. Looking Thai, not being Thai, and being a Spanish teacher
5. Making faces when Tong Soo, the fruit dude, gives us pieces of fruit we've never had before... only to realize how sour they are.
6. Stomping on a cockroaches outside our apartment tower
7. Paying for 16 baht worth of water in 1 baht coins
8. Pretending to force open an elevator door from the inside as it opens, not realizing that there are people on the other side of the elevator waiting to get on

Safety first