Here are some pictures from my last weekend away

Our wonderful elephant carrying Jess and I across the River Kwai. He was so great! When Jess's soap fell out of her bag on our journey the elephant stopped and picked up both the soap and the case with his trunk! Our guide , "John" was great also! He made us both of the sweet hats that you can see us modeling on our ride. They were made from leaves, sticks, and flowers that he and our elephant procured along our ride.

The River Kwai.

Awesome cave at a waterfall we were visiting. The waterfall was not very full, so we got to climb around in it and see this cave!

Hellfire pass. POWs carved this pass by hand.

A beautiful memorial and view of the whole valley. The Bridge over the River Kwai

Other than that, I have just been busy doing a ton of grading and making midterms. I am going on a mini vacation to Phuket next week as we have Thursday and Friday off. I am so so excited and can't wait to relax on the beach for a while!!

Kanchanaburi

Happy belated Fourth of July! We had a very fun celebration here. We took over a Thai friend's restaurant, and made hamburgers (porkburgers), puppy chow and potato salad! It was so fun to share American traditions with Thai people, and of course to celebrate the Fourth of July!

Last weekend, I visited Kanchanaburi. It is only about 90 km away from Suphanburi, but takes about 2.5 hours to reach. There are no speedy minivans that make the trek, so to get to Kanchanaburi you have to take a dreaded bus. These busses have no ac and possibly the most uncomfortable seats I have ever sat on. However, they are exceptionally cheap, and the ride was absolutely gorgeous.

We arrived Saturday night,and checked into a little guesthouse. There were huge plumeria trees, and the whole place was very peaceful.

We then went to get some delicious pizza. I have begun missing cheese and bread an insane ammount, but Kanchanaburi is enough of a tourist destination to have semi delicious pizza, so I capitalized on this. After, we explored some different bars on the backpacker's street. In the morning, I woke up early and we got on another bus to the Erawan waterfalls. I have decided that these waterfalls are where I want to live. They were so, so beautiful. The falls are 7 levels, and you hike to each level. You can swim and take breaks on the way. Each fall was a little different, and gorgeous in its own way. We encountered a lot of wildlife, from a monkey troupe to sucky fish (fish that suck on your toes; Thai people sometimes pay to put their feet in a tub of these, apparently it is similar to a pedicure?). The monkeys were adorable, they were swinging from tree to tree and playing. Sometimes they would get a little too rambunctions and fall into the water! After the hike we made our way down the mountain for delicious fruit shakes and meat on a stick before heading home. Sadly, when we got to the bus station we realized that we had missed the last bus by about 10 minutes. However, Thai friends proved once again how incredibly generous and helpful they were by finding us a taxi to return home in. So we rode home in style after a wonderful hike!

Teaching has been going well. I still struggle with understanding the Thai education system, which freely condones all types of copying and cheating, but am trying to just focus on giving the kids fun and interesting lessons. I try to reward those who are trying and giving unique and different answers. Some of these answers are very funny. I have also discovered that ALL Thai children seem to be amazing artists, and have been incorporating more drawing into my lessons. The kids continue to amaze me with how sweet and funny they are. One of the boys in my M-6 class (12th grade) has many "designer" bags that he likes to bring to school. One is the same as my blue longchamp purse. I showed him this similarity, and all the kids in the class began shouting "TEACHAAAA COPY COPYYYY" to let me know that his was not in fact real. This has become a class joke, and each time he brings a new item, the class makes sure to show me, and let me know that it is a "COPYYYYYY". Last week, the school had a scholarship ceremony in which the former Prime Minister's daughter came to distribute scholarships to 20 students. As a part of the ceremony, the school wanted a welcoming speech in Thai, Chinese, and English. I helped to write the English speech and worked with the girl speaking! Here she is practicing with her "microphone". It was a lot of fun and so great to hear her speaking in front of the whole school!

Other than that, I have just been experiencing so much delicious Thai food, some wonderful Thai massage (for between $4 and $10 depending on how luxurious I feel haha) and having so much fun!! This is me and my new friend, Passion! She is the dog at the coffee place and is SO sweet!!

Elephant on a walk!