Bangkok: First Day

Eating at a Thai restaurant. Beautiful!

Okay, so it's not a good picture, but I wanted to show you that we were right on the water (it's a new camera...I'm trying to get the hang of it).

Here are some of the scenes from the city as we walked to the see the Golden Buddha.

Tok-Toks and pink taxis everywhere!

Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles". Everyone was very friendly.

Produce market

An altar in a tree I passed.

At the temple for the Golden Buddha, New Year's preparations were underway. Women were putting together flower arrangements, people were burning incense, and and crowds were everywhere. These strings were set up outside the temple for a New Year's gathering of Buddhist monks. My understanding is that the people that attend the ceremony each get to hold one of these strings. Each string is interconnected with other strings, thus symbolizing the interconnectedness of people.

Outside the temple.

The Golden Buddha - made of solid gold, this buddha was once covered in concrete and supposedly came up out of a river. When it was being moved to a new location, a piece of concrete fell off it's hand and the gold underneath was discovered.

To me, Bangkok smells like incense. When I got home, all my things smelled like incense.

This is a female Chinese Buddha statue found in Bangkok's Chinatown, which is supposedly the biggest Chinatown in the world.

Noa and I ride in a Tok-Tok (pictured earlier in this post).

The enormous Reclining Buddha: I took this photo from one end of the Buddha. The entire temple (inside and out) is so elaborate and orante. The wall of the building are about 200 years old and hand painted. Even the bottom of the buddha's feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

The head.

Here's a picture of proportion - Noa stands by the armpit.

Giant toes!

Outside of the temple, Noa had me climb up to the fertility altar. By making a wish and touching this, um, object, one is supposed to be blessed with children.

Noa and our tour guide, Michael, bring "care packages" to be presented to a local monk. The items are used by the monks during the rainy season.

Here's the monk and a funny story to go along with this photo. During the little presentation ceremony, Michael, our tour guide, kept telling me to "hold his hand" as I brought up the care package items. I was so confused because I was told that monks are never allowed to touch or be touched by women. So, as I brought up the items, I reached out to the monk's hand - the monk kinda looked at me with uncertainty and I quickly pulled away, as Michael and Noa gasped at my sudden movement toward the monk. So I crept back, never actually touching him. Thank goodness too. Michael meant that I was supposed to hold Noa's hand while presenting the items to show that they were from both of us. Oops.

Buddha, buddha, buddha....

Lastly, this Buddha is located in one of the most decorated temples, which is designated for the royal family. More about the royals in later blogs....

Lap of Luxury

Well, Noa and I just returned to Bangkok from Hua Hin and we're feeling good. We've been living the good life for the past few days: stayed at a sweet resort, lounged around, and got a bunch of massages at the spa. Yep, it's been fun to get spoiled. Surprisingly, though, both of us are starting to get sick of "vacation mode". We're ready to get back to work, eat PB&Js for dinner, and just hang out in a familiar place. Not to say that we haven't enjoyed our trip - on the contrary, it's been wonderful - we're just ready for things to wind down and return to the familiar.

We fly back to Oki tomorrow and you can be sure to get a large sampling of photos from the trip. It's funny how we now consider going back to Oki as going back to our "home". How quickly one's perspective shifts!

Goodbye Bangkok, Hello Hua Hin

After several days exploring the city of Bangkok, Noa and I are packed and ready to head to the coastal city of Hua Hin. We're taking the train this morning - which I'm sure will be an interesting experience - and then plan on spending the rest of the day on the beach.

Bangkok has been a learning experience and I have enjoyed my time here. Both Noa and I are fine - we were not affected by the recent bombings that occurred here on New Year's Eve. In fact, we would not have known about them had it not been for the morning news on tv. Originally, we were going to celebrate that night at the World Trade Center, but decided instead to forgo the crowds and stay at the hotel. Good decision - that's where one of the bombings took place.

Our time in Bangkok has mostly involved sightseeing, as we spent our day visiting temples and castles. The people here have been extremely friendly and good-natured. It's a busy time in the city and it's flooded with tourists now, so we've met people from all over the world. Even when we are in our hotel, we encounter so many interesting people. You never know what language the other people riding in the elevator will speak. So, we go with English and wish them a happy new year - it usually works.

I hope to blog one more time from Hua Hin, but I'm not sure what kind of internet options will be available there. I've taking a ton of photos already with my new camera so there will be lots to share upon our return.

Oh, and happy New Year to you!

Holiday

Here's our version of a "white Christmas". This photo was taken Christmas morning.

I get a full 2 weeks off of school. Lately, I've been spending most of my "vacation" time at school to catch up on old work and prepare for next month. Also, I'm limited on planning time this break because Noa and I have decided to go on vacation! I think he figures it will be the only way to keep me away from school. :) Seriously though, we wanted to take advantage of living in Asia and see other parts of the world we might not ever see.

So - we're off to Thailand tomorrow! We'll be gone for about a week. We'll spend some time in Bangkok and the head to Hua Hin, a beautiful beach community about 4 hours south of Bangkok. I'll be sure to get lots of photos with my new camera too! So, I'll be back to the blog in about a week.

Christmas in Oki

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Our friends, Joe and Meg stayed at our house to celebrate with us.

We began our day with a big breakfast - compliments of Noa and his new griddle! His secret is using the chopsticks while cooking with it. How innovative.

After that, we opened stockings. We decided to stuff each other's stockings - including the dogs.
Meg and Joe put a whole bunch of crazy Japanese candy in our stockings - we've yet to sample all of it. One of the items we put in theirs was a set of wine charms made out of Mah Jong pieces. Mah Jong has become one of our new favorite games to play together. Megan, however, found another use for the charms -
Noa and I also opened up gifts from our families. Even though we are thousands of miles away from "home", my dad did not disappoint this year with the traditional "Lego set in the stocking" gift that he gives every Christmas. I got a green truck.
I think Noa was happy with his gifts this year. One of the gifts I gave him was the 3rd season of Arrested Development - one of his favorite tv series.
Noa completely surprised me this year with a new digital camera! It's a Nikon D50 - great for the novice photographer, but it has plenty of features for me to learn and take great photos. I love it!

Meanwhile, Sadie and Gunnar found a great napping place as we finished opening the gifts.

Here's some of our decorations from this year. I brought very few decorations from home and we bought our 1st fake tree this year. Joe and I made paper cranes in honor of our first Christmas in Oki.

Thanks for the wreath, mom - doesn't it look great with the nativity scene?

After lounging around for a bit, we all got ready for our big dinner party. We had about 10 people here and had a traditional feast with turkey and all the trimmings. Everything was delicious and now our fridge is bursting with leftovers.

Hope you had a fun and memorable holiday too. Noa and I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

Lights, Outlets, and Ice Skating

In the couple of days leading up to Christmas, Noa and I enjoyed some of the holiday festivities and activities on the island. One of those is the annual light decorations and show at the Botanical Gardens. The gardens get decorated with thousands of lights for and elaborate holiday display. The workers are dressed in some crazy costumes (including polka-dotted reindeer and colorful bumblebees - see photo below) and there's also a light show complete with fireworks. Here are some photos from the event.

We also saw some lights in Naha at the outlet mall here in Okinawa. It was oddly comforting to be in a shopping situation that reminded me of home. However, we didn't buy anything - mostly because the stores were still too high-end for our tastes. I did fall in love with a $5,000 Valentino dress and made Noa pose by it. We loved the food vans - old vans or trucks in the courtyard that sold snacks, like crepes or ice cream.



This sign cracked me up. I had to take a picture. Are they implying that dogs are not allowed to eat ice cream? Or maybe dogs without a leash running around may not have ice cream? Maybe it's saying no dogs with ice cream allowed. Sorry, Sadie - I gotta take that vanilla cone away from you if you want to come here.

After the outlets, we attempted to find the local skating rink. After a few turn-arounds we found it and Noa attempted to teach me how to skate. He did a great job teaching me until one point where we both crashed to the ground. Thankfully, I broke his fall (!). Like our white gloves? They won't let you skate without gloves here. You could also rent helmets and these metal walker chairs to push someone around on the ice. We especially enjoyed watching the little ones fall, uh, skate, I mean. Seriously though, we had a great time experiencing a traditional winter activity right before Christmas even though it was only 75 degrees outside.

Christmas Everywhere

Sorry I've been away from blogger for awhile, but I was having trouble signing in. Anyway, I have lots to share.

First, here are classroom photos of our Christmas/Holiday decorations. Although the month was so busy at school, I really enjoyed all the holiday projects and activities.

Our stockings were hung by the "chimney" with care.

Our bulletin board - there are little beds at the bottom with all the kids posing on a pillow, pretending to be sleeping.

Elf portraits

Our Christmas tree and stained glass ornaments in the windows.

The students made these Christmas tree hats and in the background is a holiday pattern quilt.

Triangle trees

On the last day of school, the students made gingerbread houses. Notice how some of the houses became huts.

I have a lot more holiday blogs to come, so stay tuned.

And Merry Christmas to everyone - we're thinking of you!

Convenience

There is no reason that the universe should be designed for our convenience.
John D. Barrow


Today the universe surely wasn't designed for my convenience. I'm trying to finish up a hundred little things before school closes down for the winter break. I needed two very holiday-themed items: candy canes and peppermint extract. The grocery stores here, on our bases, are called commissaries and they carry pretty much the same things as you would find in the states. However, I do find that there is sometimes a limited selection (for instance, they don't carry many brands of yogurt) and they don't carry many specialty items (not much of a whole foods section). Around the holidays, the commissaries ship in tons of the items needed for holiday merriment, such as turkeys,all the fixings, baking items, etc. The huge stock that arrives usually gets placed in front of the store where the throngs of shoppers can easily grab and go.

So, one would think that something like candy canes would be a big seller around Christmastime, right? Well, apparently they underestimated the need for these confections because they are plum out. There are no candy canes to be found on this island, at least none that I can find. Frustrated, I tried to shrug off this little inconvenience, but I also found out today that they don't carry peppermint extract, which is a necessary ingredient for my peppermint play dough that I'm making my students. Now that I'm out, I'll need to find a substitute and I don't think they'll be pleased with the other options: almond, rum, or anise extract. Guess I'll be making glittery, unscented play dough this time around.

Play

This past weekend, the dogs got to have their first playdate in Okinawa. Our friends, Rob and Liz own 2 IGs, Fiona and Gamine. They also have a fenced in yard. The iggies had a great time getting to know each other.

Here's the group: Gunnar (back), Gamine, Sadie (in front with red collar) and Fiona (right side).

Sadie and Gamine look a lot alike. I call this the "twins" picture. In reality, Gamine is darker and a little bigger than Sadie, although their faces are strickingly similar.


On the lookout (for what - I don't know....) - Fiona, Gunnar, and Gamine.

Sadie playing one of her favorite games.


A cute shot of Fiona -


Finally, Gunnar always finds a stick although it looks like Fiona and Gamine are plotting a way to steal it from him.