Beautiful Thailand

So I'm finally staying put for a while - in Thailand! After spending a lovely 10 days in Southern Germany with James, I headed from Frankfurt to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket. There was a driver waiting at the airport to take me the 1.5 hours North to Takua Pa where the orphanage Baan Tharn Namchai is located. Once I opened the car door at the orphanage, I got my first real blast of Thailand air – now after more than a week here, I like to describe the air as “blow-drying your hair in the same bathroom that you just had a hot shower in.” It doesn't sound nice, but its actually brilliant after coming from a long haul of dry winter! I never need to use moisturizer!

The Thai people are incredibly hospitable – I eat very well (and they respect my vegetarianism as they are a Buddhist orphanage), everyone is always smiling and the children absolutely adore me and so I get to play games and sing songs whenever I want! I once heard a great quote, “Only in childhood is insanity not only permitted, but expected.” This also rings true for those who teach children! It's great! I live in a 2 bedroom bungalow on the orphanage grounds and in the afternoons I open my front door to at least 30 kids playing in the park on my front “lawn.” This is my favorite time of day because the sun has shifted in the sky so it's not too hot and all of the neighborhood families come out to use the park as well! There's dozens of adorable Thai babies bumbling around just waiting to be held and kissed!

Each morning I teach at a day care about 20 minute scooter ride away from where I live (good thing I learned to ride a scooter in Taiwan! - except here I'm getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road). There is a volunteer, Fiona, who will be here for 2 months and she has offered to come with me each day as well. This has turned out to be a godsend as there are 45 children all under the age of 5! We're a very strong teaching team and have more or less got them under 'control.' We also have lots of fun together while teaching – it's so wonderful to have another foreigner here and we're becoming good friends quickly! There are so many funny things that happen each day and having someone else to laugh with really helps keep me sane!

In the afternoons I do some English tutoring with some of the staff here (only a few speak some English) and some children as well. There's a handful of kids from the orphanage who are sponsored to go to England in May and so I'm teaching them key phrases that they can use while there. There's a building contractor who wants tutoring as well and he's giving me some Thai lessons in exchange. I'd like to think I'm grasping the language fairly well! Any free time (which isn't much!) is spent either playing around with the kids here at the orphanage or in the computer room trying to maintain some contact with the outside world! It's easy to get lost in time here – I had to buy a clock for my house yesterday so that I know when to actually leave for work – not just when the kids start eating breakfast.

I won't make this update too long, but there will be many more – likely hilarious – coming your way. In short, I live in a tropical paradise surrounded by good food and the happiest children I've ever met. Even though most of them lost 1 or both parents (and siblings, family and friends) in the tsunami (we're about 10 minutes from where the wave first hit land), they've got incredible endurance and now embrace the fact that they've got 50 new brothers and sisters. I want to share as much as possible with everyone and so here is the link to my facebook photo album:

Thailand Photos!

and I've opened a YouTube account to show off my wonderful videos! Click below to see a video of my students greeting Fiona and I in the morning! It's only a little over a minute and it will bring a smile to your face!

Kok Kein daycare!

In Frankfurt - en route to Thailand!

Well the time has come to settle down! At least for 3 or so months... I'm flying to Thailand tonight! James and I have spent the last 10 days exploring a few places in southern Germany. We met up in Nuremberg and stayed with his family friends for 3 nights. From there we took a train to a small town called Fuessen – it's only 1 km away from the Austrian border and nestled cozily in the alps. After spending a wonderful few days drinking delicious Germany beer and eating rich German food, we journeyed to Frankfurt. I say 'journeyed' because it ended up being a tiring 9-hour affair involving 6 different trains and 1 bus. It could have been simple and under 5 hours, but we were trying to save money with cheap trains. At one point we got on the wrong train and had to pay 25 Euro (around $40 Canadian) to get off at the next stop! Expensive 15 minutes! We've been taking it really easy in Frankfurt. Neither of us are very interested in seeing the city (largely preferring German towns) and so we've found some good coffee spots and have been catching up with some work. We also visited a girl (Alex) who I couch-surfed with in London last month (she was home in Germany to have her wisdom teeth removed).

After Estonia and Latvia, Germany has been such a breath of fresh air for me! People here are so much friendlier and happy to be walking around during the day instead of just popping over to the store to pick up some vodka (though, the climate has a lot to do with this). All of the small towns are simply gorgeous! In Fuessen, it didn't matter where I pointed the camera, every shot was like a postcard! You can see the photos by following the links I post at the bottom of this update. James and I both feel so comfortable in the small German towns, we'd love to live here for a while! Taking the train was the best way to get a feel for how Germany (at least Bavaria) is laid out. There are very few places that would constitute as 'cities' and the rest are these lovely small villages surrounding a church steeple. All of the villages are separated by miles and miles of farmland – its all very picturesque (I can't stress this enough!)

Today I'm moving on to Asia and to my job. I'm excited to be heading towards another contract – this 3 month stretch is the longest I've gone (since I was 14) without working! I have no idea what to expect – all that I've been told is that I'm living on the grounds of the orphanage and teaching in the town at a day care facility. My employer doesn't even really know what I'll be doing. I'm to 'assess' the abilities of the children there and report back to Australia with suggestions for what I can do during my 10 week contract. I'm excited for another challenge and also for a stable place to live for a while! As for James, he's going to spend a week now in Berlin and then he's flying to Iceland for 3 weeks to visit friends. After that, he'll be joining me in Thailand and he'll start working on a contract that he's got with the Australian government – developing tsunami prediction software (good spot to do it!)