New Pictures

Fellow PCV's at our second training about a month ago.

Getting silly after a few weeks togther! Note: that is an Italian, table cloth shirt with an array of colored dragonflies...sweet.

Me with a student at a school where orphans and battered children can go to received a full education through high school. The school also helps with specialized skills (like agriculture) or funding if a child wants to eventually go to college. I think this girl was terrified of me.

The bridge over the river Kwae. Yes, it does exist.

I CAN AND WILL USE THIS BUTTERKNIFE.

Teaching kids English about parts of the body. This was at a three-day English camp where kids had different sessions to study different areas of English. We usually try to make these camps as fun as possible to get the kids excited about studying foreign languages.

Same camp. Th students were divided up over the three days into "colored" teams.

Me, with PCV Prema (far left) and her supervisor (middle) who had her hand suspiciously close to my butt and kept rubbing my arm hair.

This was a picture from our PST 2 (second training). James, the PCV wearing the red shirt in the middle, is an awesome teacher and was leading an activity that day.

This is a group of us that all live in the region of Thailand known as "Isan." We decided to have shirts made that read, "Proud to be Isan" and have a list of 10 things that say, "You know you live in Isan if...." Isan seems to be pretty similar to the Midwest in the U.S. Lots of farmland and good ol' boys. Isan is also a region where a lot of people speak Laos, which is similarly sounding to Thai, but has all different vocabulary.

Myself, Somneuk (friend and English teacher) and fellow PCV John at a different English camp in my province. It was funny, the name tags we received for the camp read, "Smart Kids Einglish Camp".

Same camp with the kids up and dancing to a song called, "The Banana Song," which I think I will remember as long as I live!

Trainer and student dancing to a "Singin' In the Rain."

My awesome co-teacher, Renu, and our sixth-grade class at Ban Nong Pak Wan School. This school is really small with apprx. 180 students.

Hamburgers! This is the son of my co-teacher, and he came over to my house to help me make hamburgers. They were delicious, and I think we even used some sort of steak meat (it's hard to tell).

Wat Banpet in my town. This is really one of the most beautiful temples I've seen so far in Thailand. This is the same temple as from a previous picture. It sits out in the middle of a small pond and has murals and tile work all around the structure.

The Buddha outside the front door to the temple. Looks like a few birds were trying to enlighten themselves and forgot to go to restroom.

At the temple, they have these little doors that hold the remains of the cremated. During special holidays throughout the year, family will go and pay respects to the remains. This is usually done with a string ceremony, where the family and monks hold a piece of string tied to the ashes and pray for the deceased. They also light incense and place it in front of the shrine.

Another English Camp! Teaching about directions and having fun with the students. They're trying to lead their friends through an obstacle course by only using the phrases, "Go straight, turn left, turn right, go back and stop."

Handsome fella. You'll see a lot of kids "framing" their faces for photos. I'm not too sure where this came from.

Me at a national park near my site. It's called Pa Hin Ngam, which translates to beautiful, stone forest. These stones were supposed to have formed hundreds of thousands of years ago when this part of Thailand was an ocean. There are also a huge cliff and fields of this special flower known as "Dog Gateow."

I watched this man climb up this coconut tree and begin to cut off all the top branches and leaves. I was later told that they do this because after about ten years a coconut trees' fruit isn't as good as it was from the ages 2-5. He then proceeded to cut down nearly all of the trunk of the tree too!

These are rice fields near my house where I go jogging. During the hot season they are dry and brown, but lately they've all turned beautiful and green. Throughout the fields are these little shacks where rice farmers will eat lunch and take breaks.

Me with teachers at a parade to celebrate the candle festival, which is a religious day in Thailand. There was a float covered in wax with a huge candle on it made entirely out of wax.

Students from my school carrying a banner and Thai flags. The yellow flags are for the king of Thailand as yellow is nationally his color.

My co-teacher Renu at Pa Hin Ngam. I love the outfit. It's no joke.