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Showing posts from 2007

My kids are so entertaining

My kids never fail to entertain me. John's been working for a temp company, and the other day I took him to work after lunch (he's close enough to come home for lunch on this assignment) and went back in the afternoon to pick him up after work. As we were driving over, Trea asked where we were going. "We're going to pick up Daddy," I said. Slight pause. "He fall down?" She also has been watching a lot of Dora, and she wears this little pink backpack all over the house. She keeps asking me where her map is. I'll have to work on that. We're really enjoying being around all of our family (I even got to see my parents over Thanksgiving). Trea thinks cousin=instant best friend. Luckily she has nice cousins who indulge her for the most part. She's also doing great at church, going to nursery and making friends. Adia is thisclose to crawling on all fours, and I will miss the inch worm imitation she has done so well. She has six teeth and is such a s...

I suppose I should post something

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We've been back for a few weeks now. The first two weeks were crazy. No one was sleeping well or often, and we were just coping and trying to get adjusted to the time change. We're doing better now. Trea is loving all of her cousins and nursery friends, and all the other little kids in the neighborhood. We had a great time traveling with John's parents before returning to the States. It was fun to show them why we love Thailand. This Halloween was Trea's first time trick-or-treating. She got the hang of it really fast, and kept saying things like "I have lots of candy" and "go get candy? go to houses? go to lots of houses?" I think she thinks we've been holding out on her this entire time. People will give you candy, all you have to do is put on a dress and knock! Who knew? We are excited to see everyone near us; we'll be in touch with y'all soon. And, of course, pictures of my beautiful girl in her Halloween costume. Aunt Ashley made it ...

TIALFTITUS, Part IV (The Conclusion)

Living in Thailand as a farang has given me a small taste of what it is like to be a minority. I don't claim that it is the same as being a minority in the States, but there are some similarities. It’s odd to not be able to find hair products that work for fine hair (Thai hair is coarse) or a facial product without bleach. It's hard to get a decent haircut, because the techniques are different. All the cosmetics are the wrong colors for my skin. Clothes are too small; only a handful of stores carry my size -I’m a ten in the U.S. - and even then the clothes are cut all wrong for me. If you’re Thai and my size, you’re really fat. The shirts that button comfortably on me are also baggy around my waist, and the pants that fit me through the hips need a belt to stay up. We get stared at wherever we go. Many people assume we are rich and don't speak Thai (which is true for me but not for John, and even I can sometimes understand that you are talking about me). People have asked u...

Five years!

Today is my fifth wedding anniversary. That's crazy. We went out and did a little shopping and had a nice dinner to celebrate. I wonder if in 20 years, I'll still feel like I just got married?

Things Change

Yesterday I had a woman tell me I look 19. She wanted to know how old I actually am; I guess I threw her for a loop talking about my (almost) three-year-old. I get a lot of these oh-you-look-so-young kind of comments. I used to hate it, especially when I was working full time. I hated that how I looked might make people perceive me as less professional or less competent, and I had more than one supervisor/co-worker try to treat me like their child. One of my bosses actually sat John down at an office party and gave him the third degree about his future work plans. It was funny, in a way, and also weird. John resisted the urge to tell him that 1) he wasn't my father and 2) we were already married, so it was too late to change my mind. The comment yesterday didn't bother me a bit. Somehow the fact that I'm almost 28 with two kids is making me more receptive to being perceived as young. Funny how things change.

TIALFTITUS, Part III

I’m a fairly independent person. Not extremely independent, but I’m certainly capable of doing things on my own. At least in the U.S. I am. Here, I am not as independent, and what independence I have involves far more effort. This is all because of the language barrier. My last post notwithstanding, my Thai is extremely limited. I can have an entire conversation about my kids, because I've heard it all many times, but outside of that topic I'm pretty useless. And my pronunciation, while improved, is still not that good. I didn’t realize how limiting not speaking the language would be until I was on study abroad here as a student in 2001. I had already been to Guatemala at that point, but at least in Guatemala I spoke a little of the language (though not as well as you might think after four years of studying it. . .I did get proposed to so I must have said something interesting!) It is VERY limiting to not speak the language here. If I can’t find an item I’m looking for in a s...

And miracles shall never cease. . .

The impossible has happened. I have been complimented on my Thai . Not once, but FOUR times! The first time, it was a total stranger. He stopped to admire Adia (totally cute baby that she is), and said, in English, "Lady or. . . .?" So I responded in Thai, "Girl." He said, "Where are you going?" I said, "The university." And he said, "Oh you speak Thai really well." As I have said before, it doesn't take much to impress Thais with your efforts to speak their language. The second time, I was asking my neighbor if I could buy some water (she gets it delivered in bulk, and we buy it from her). Her daughter, who speaks fluent English, was very impressed that I had learned how to say "buy water" since she had last visited. The third time, Jick complimented me on my pronunciation when I said "we're going home." The fourth time, Earn told John I was starting to understand a lot more. So, you see, give me fourteen mo...

Adia

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We finally blessed Adia last Sunday. We had a dress made for her from Thai silk (which sounds extravagant but cost less then I would have spent making it in the States). It actually isn't exactly what I described but it's still really cute. I would have done the sewing myself, but I don't have a machine and they don't sell patterns here. Also, she cut her first tooth. Bottom front, others shortly to follow I'm sure.

TIALFTITUS, Part II

I cooked a lot this weekend. I made chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner Sunday night, plus I made two no-bake cheesecakes (not the cheesecakes my friend Ariana referred to in a comment, but still very tasty). I miss having a real kitchen. I miss having an oven, and all the things you can do with an oven - roast, broil, bake. I miss counter space, and cabinets. I miss having a real, full-size refrigerator and freezer (my refrigerator is shorter than I am, and has a little freezer compartment). It makes it hard to keep an adequate supply of food on hand. Most of all, I miss having an enclosed kitchen that is really part of the house. Our kitchen, as I believe I have mentioned before, is an afterthought. You go out the back door into the little lean-to type room that is my kitchen. It's tiny. There's open space between the top of the outside wall and the roof. We have a loose wire grill over the open space now, which keeps out the birds, frogs, etc. (which keeps them from poopi...

Things I am looking forward to in the U.S., Part I

I think this will be a new (and short-lived) series for my blog. It will probably sound like I don't like it here, which is not true. I do like Thailand. Sometimes I love Thailand and wish we weren't going home. And at other times, I wish we were leaving tomorrow. One of the things I am really, really looking forward to in the U.S. is hot water. We have a little electric hot water heater in the upstairs shower, but that's the only hot water in the house. And unless it's a warm day, the water doesn't get that hot. In the cool season, the water barely gets past lukewarm, and the house is 60 degrees. Not fun, especially for little kids. I'm really looking forward to a long hot shower on a chilly evening, or soaking in a tub full of hot water. And then there's the hot water from the tap. The only time I wash dishes in hot water is when I boil it on the stove. It's going to be so nice to just turn on a tap and get hot water to wash dishes. (Even better, we mi...

College in Thailand

I'm almost done with my first (and, for the immediate future, last) semester of teaching college. I like it. It suits me far better than teaching kindergarten. I am fascinated by the English language, and the process of learning language, and I love the challenge of trying to help others master it. Or at least learn to pronounce words ending in "l." I have realized that there is an entirely different expectation of college students here. I felt, as a college student, that I was an adult, and most of my instructors treated me as one. College students here are still treated like children most of the time. My boss addresses the students as "children" even though I have several students in their early 20s. They don't schedule their own classes; you pick a major, and the university tells you what you will take and when. They don't get homework, unless it's reading, because they "won't do it anyway." It's frustrating to be trying to finis...

I've been tagged!

My sister Erin tagged me. . .so here goes. 4 Jobs I've Had Server Executive Assistant Test Development Coordinator English teacher 4 Movies I Love: Armageddon What Dreams May Come The Princess Bride Beauty and the Beast 4 Places I've Lived: Maryland Provo, Utah Salt Lake City, Utah Thailand 4 TV Shows I Love: Grey's Anatomy The West Wing (we've been watching it on DVD) Lost House 4 Things that Make Me Happy: My family Good books Baking Traveling 4 Books I Love: The Shadow of the Wind Ender's Game The Bonesetter's Daughter Harry Potter 4 Foods I Love cheesecake chocolate chip cookies chicken fettucine alfredo baked ziti 4 Vacations I Love: The Beach Visiting Family anywhere I can get a massage anywhere Trea has fun I'd Rather Be: sleeping 2 People to tag: Ariana John

It's Official

We're coming home in October. We have tickets and today John told his boss. We wanted to give plenty of notice, since it's not easy finding farang teachers. I will tell my boss this afternoon. I'm a little overwhelmed by the idea of having to totally re-establish a household, but excited too. John's parents are coming and we are going to travel with them for ten days before heading back to the U.S. We will be staying with them for the holidays, and using that time to figure out where we want to settle. I'm going to try to blog a lot in the next couple of months so I can get in all my thoughts about Thailand, but I doubt I'll be able to get it all down. Also, check out John's blog for a link to our family snapshots online. Lots of cute ones!

Growing up

Trea is pretty much potty trained. I say "pretty much" because she's had one accident (in the middle of a tirade) in the last week or so, and she wears underwear all day. She's still wearing a pull up for naps and at night, mostly because we co-sleep and can't deal with the idea of nighttime accidents getting all four of us up! She's growing up so fast. . . .

I know it's shocking, but. . .

Dear Student, Cheating is not allowed in my class. It's wrong, it's unfair, it circumvents the learning process. . . it's just a bad thing to do. Plagiarism , copying, getting answers in advance of a quiz, these are all forms of cheating. Please don't do them. If you are going to cheat, please be subtle about it. Passing your quiz paper to your friend across the aisle from you WHILE I AM LOOKING AT YOU is not subtle. Coming into a listening quiz that's half over and scoring a 9/10 on the first half of the quiz - the part you DIDN'T HEAR - is not subtle (and no, I don't believe you are just a lucky guesser and you're still not getting the points). When I give you a writing assignment for homework, don't plagiarize the encyclopedia. Since you can't normally conjugate the past tense (of any verb), it's pretty obvious you copied when you start using words like "undulating" and "topography." It's also not a good idea to us...

Bravely Conquering the Open Roads

Or, more accurately, “cautiously navigating the narrow and crowded sois.” But “conquering the open roads” sounds better. I’ve learned to drive in Thailand. It’s strange, with the whole driving-on-the-left thing. Also because I think traffic laws in Thailand are a lot like the pirate’s code in Pirates of the Caribbean – they’re more like guidelines than actual rules. Consider the following: - If you are turning right, you yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. Unless you can jump the light faster than the oncoming traffic. Or unless there’s a gap of at least one meter, and you can intimidate oncoming traffic into stopping. Then you and the five cars behind you can all turn right. - Traffic in a traffic circle moves clockwise. Unless you are a motorcycle, or you don’t see any traffic coming, or you see traffic coming but *think* you can make it in and out of the traffic circle without a collision. - Turn signals and headlights are primarily for decoration. Especially headlights, alt...

More about the munchkins

Yesterday Adia was lying on our bed, and Trea walked over to her and started slapping her hand. "Trea!" I said. "Don't hit Adia!" Trea looked at me with these big, innocent eyes and said, "I'm giving Adia high fives." Oh. Well. In that case, since Adia seems to think it's funny. . . .carry on.

A Generic Update

Been really busy lately. I'm teaching part-time at two different universities, and really enjoying it most of the time. There's still the occasional student antic that drives me batty, but far fewer than the kindergarteners (who somehow are so much cuter when I say hi to them at school now, than they were when I was with them all day!). John is enjoying teaching kindergarten. Still not his dream job, but a much better fit than the fourth graders from you-know-where that he taught last year. I'm finding that I really love teaching, and I love the English language. It's fascinating to me that most people master such a complex communication system with minimal effort. I'm not a naturally gifted language teacher, but I'm ok, and I think I could be really good with experience and practice. I teach a variety of majors at KKU, but at Rajamangala I teach English majors. I prefer the English majors as a group, because they're really motivated, but I have some great s...

Thoughts for my friend

A good friend of mine recently found out she is expecting her second child. She's excited, and scared, and wondering, I think, how this new little person will fit in her family. It seemed inappropriate to leave a novel as a comment on her blog, but this is MY blog so I can do what I want. I think all mothers, when they find out they are pregnant with a second child, wonder if they can possibly love this second one like they do their firstborn. Because your firstborn is the only person you've ever felt that incredibly protective, mama-tiger type love for. It's a totally different love than what you feel for your parents, or your spouse, or anyone else. And the truth, for me, is that on the day Adia was born I didn't feel the same about her as I did about Trea. But I was comparing my feelings for a newborn with the relationship I had with my two-and-a-half year old, who talks, and whom I know. Within 24 hours I started to know Adia as well, and within two days I realized ...

Praew

A little girl we knew died two months ago. She passed away from leukemia ten days after Adia was born. I saw Praew and her mom at the hospital the day I gave birth to Adia, but John wasn’t with me and I don’t speak Thai, so we just exchanged greetings. I didn’t realize how sick she was. She’d been sick since before we knew her, and we never heard that she was really getting worse. John just came home one day and said she had died. She was nine. Her mom, Teacher Mam, was one of Trea’s nursery teachers when we moved her, and her sister lives across the street. The two of them have helped us with Trea so many times. Now, they take care of the infants and toddlers. I had to leave Adia for a few hours last week to go teach. Teacher Mam and I were alone in the room, and I was nursing Adia. I asked how she was; she responded, but I didn’t understand it. I caught her daughter’s name but that was the only word I understood. A few minutes later another teacher came, and Teacher Mam repeated what...

Censorship

Just so all of you bloggers know, your blogs are being blocked in Thailand. We lost access to all blogs hosted by blogspot a couple of weeks ago - couldn't get to them at home, school, nada. But, John has found a way around the censors. Ha! Take that, oppressive regime! It's weird to think that I live in a country where these things happen but I guess that is life under a military junta.

Pictures of the vacation

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I need a vacation from my vacation. . .

We are back from our vacation. You know, it's a little ambitious to go on vacation with a toddler and a one-month old. Especially in a developing country. And most especially if one of the parents breaks an arm. Wait a second, maybe I should back up a little. . . The trip started out great. The school had one of their drivers take us to the train station in a school van (gotta love the chauffeur service). The train ride was uneventful, enjoyable even. And that's saying a lot for an eight-hour trip with a toddler and a baby. Trea loved riding the train, and loved being able to get up and walk around. There were four kids sitting behind us, all between the ages of 8 and 15, and they entertained Trea much of the way down. Our first night in Bangkok, we stayed in the Twin Towers Hotel and ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Awesome food - nachos, Tuscan chicken salad, and a brownie sundae! All things that are scarce in Khon Kaen, if not non-existent. We even caught the last half-hour...

Where did the time go?

Our "summer" vacation is almost over! John has to go back to work the second week of May; he doesn't actually start teaching until May 21, but he has to show up for orientation and planning meetings. I go back to work. . .oh, wait, I have to find a job first! I have a few leads though, and I don't think it will be too hard to find something. I just need to work 10-15 hours a week, hopefully in chunks so I can be home to feed the baby most of the time. This month has been very hot - high of 102 degrees - but overall, not as hot as I expected after hearing everyone talk about April. Maybe it was just unusually mild, I'm not sure. We've had some rain, which cooled things down, and we've actually been able to get out of the house a few times without melting within minutes. We bought Trea a kiddie pool the end of March - the day I had Adia, actually - and she has really enjoyed that. We decided on Adia Nicole. It's official. Getting the birth certificate wa...

One week update

I can't believe it's been a week already. We've decided on a name - Adia. For now, it's Adia Nicole, but we haven't registered the birth yet and I reserve the right to change my mind about the middle name. I still kind of like Adia Grace. . .Trea actually was the deciding vote. We asked her which name she liked - Adia or Amelia - and she said "Adia." After that, it was Adia this, Adia that, Adia's blanket. . .we really didn't have a choice! She says it very clearly too. As an added bonus, the Thais can say it as well. We've had a busy week. Sunday, we had a follow up visit at the hospital, and they decided to admit Adia to be treated for jaundice. We spent two nights. Lucky for us, this time they had a private room available. John was able to come and spend a lot of time with me while Trea was at nursery school. She had kind of a hard time with me being gone, but she did pretty well for her age. Adia responded well to the phototherapy treatment...

Pictures!

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At last!

Our new baby finally decided to make an appearance! According to the doctor, she was 16 days late. I personally think the due date was off, perhaps by as much as a week, but it's not important now. I just didn't want to rush her. She's 7 lbs, 15 oz, and a beautiful, healthy baby. We're still deciding on a name, but right now we're leaning towards Adia Nicole. Our other front-runner is Amelia Grace. . .feel free to cast votes. Since a variety of people may read this, I decided to do a short version (immediately below) and a detailed version (which follows the short version). I left out what I consider to be the gory details. If anyone actually WANTS all the gory details, feel free to email me. I just didn't want to embarass any of the guys! Here we go: The Short Version I think (looking back) that I was in early labor late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning. I went into active labor Thursday morning sometime between 11 and 11:30 am. Got to labor and delivery ...
I know you're all thinking I haven't posted because I'm busy with a new baby (that is, if you even think about whether or not I post. . .) Wishful thinking. I haven't posted because there's NOTHING TO POST ABOUT! No baby here. Just one very large, very pregnant woman trying to not get anxious over the fact that the baby isn't here yet. To make things even more fun, my doctor left town two days ago for a nine-day trip. Wow, glad I spent three months searching for the perfect doctor, so he could be somewhere else when it's time for me to deliver. Oh well. He referred me to a colleague of his, who is also a natural childbirth specialist, and we'll go to see him tonight. Hopefully his English will also be passable - otherwise John will need to brush up on medical terms in a hurry. John thinks we're cursed when it comes to health care providers and pregnancy. The midwife I saw throughout my pregnancy with Trea was unable to deliver her due to other commit...

Nothing much

Nothing much happening here. . . still no baby (I was due yesterday, so anytime now). School is wrapping up. It is very, very hot. Hot weather and being nine months pregnant do not mix in my book! We did have an interesting experience last week, in that we got into our first car accident here in Thailand. John was making a right-hand turn when a motorcycle traveling the same direction crashed into his side of the car. The motorcycle had been behind us and told us he didn't think we were going to turn, because there was a truck coming, so he tried to go around us. There was plenty of time for John to make the turn, the accident totally wasn't his fault. Still, the unwritten rule here isn't about who's at fault, it's whoever has the most money. Since we were the farangs driving a car, and he was a Thai on a motorbike, we obviously were going to have the priviledge of footing the bill. We've also heard that it's best just to settle it between the two parties ...

The Visa Saga, Part III and General News

John returned to Bangkok last Friday (usual drill, overnight bus late Thursday night, arrived early Friday morning). We have visas! For all three of us! The funny thing is, it only took about 45 minutes - the Immigration office opened at 8:30 am, and he called at 9:15 to let me know he'd been successful. We were especially relieved that he was able to get mine and Trea's, thus saving us another trip. AND he brought home Subway again! Saturday we got more good news. Two weeks before, when we'd visited my ob/gyn, he was concerned about the baby's size. He sent me for an ultrasound and the baby was measuring quite a bit smaller than expected, about four weeks behind. Apparently some babies just stop growing for various reasons, and when that happens, it's in the baby's best interest to be born sooner rather than later. That often means a C-section, and a small and sometimes premature baby. After giving birth naturally to an 8-pound baby, I was not eager to have a 4...

I am Trea, hear me roar

John told Trea she was a monkey the other night, which he does on a fairly regular basis. Usually she just giggles, but that night she was indignant. "No! Trea lion!" she told him. And then she roared for emphasis. Heaven help the man who marries her!

The Visa Saga Continued

John returned to Bangkok today, as stated previously, in an attempt to repair our visa situation. . .alas, it was not to be. He was missing a critical document, a letter from the local Ministry of Education giving authorization for him to have his visa changed. The school is responsible for obtaining documents such as this and they thought they had done everything required, but they overlooked or misinterpreted this particular requirement. The good news is, it's an easy letter to get, especially since the school recently translated a bunch of materials from Thai to English for the local Ministry of Education. It means John has to go to Bangkok AGAIN, but he also said that the immigration official he talked to was extremely helpful and seemed knowledgeable (two rare qualities among government workers worldwide, and especially in Thai Immigration). The guy even gave John his name and cell phone number, and called the school to let them know exactly what was needed. Also, when John ex...

Return to Bangkok

It's Thursday night. John is leaving for Bangkok in a couple of hours, to try once again to get his visa. We're hopeful but still partly expecting something to go wrong, or be missing or incomplete. Right now he's in the shower with Trea, singing U2's "Elevation." Trea fills in words when he pauses and joins in for the "El-uh-va-tion!" She loves that song. I'm 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I feel like a large punching bag, this baby can really kick. Trea was five days early, and if this baby were to come five days early I would give birth five weeks from today. So at least it's almost over. I can't wait to NOT be pregnant, and to hold my baby, and find out if it's a boy or a girl. . . Hopefully I'll have good news tomorrow!

Christmas update and The Visa Saga

We've had an interesting month, so forgive the long post! First, a quick update on our trip home at Christmas: It was great! Even with the horrendously long flight, and the reappearance of my "morning sickness," and the jet lag, and a nice stomach virus my family passed around, it was great. It was wonderful to see our families, and we got to visit John's grandma, who is just amazing. Best of all, my brother got married to a woman he's completely in love with, and that means everyone in my family is happily married. I know being married isn't necessary to be happy, but a good marriage is such a wonderful thing, it makes me happy to see all of my siblings happy. And even though we tease my brothers about having married above themselves, I think my sisters-in-law are pretty lucky women. My brothers-in-law too! Trea was actually really really good on the flights. Take a look at this travel schedule: Khon Kaen to Bangkok: 55 minute flight Bangkok: hour and a half ...