Zoo Part 3- Elephants

When we were at the zoo we saw the cutest little baby elephant! He was about 28 days old. Elephants are very protective of their babies. They were always making sure that he was right there with them.

You could buy a basket of sugar cane to feed the elephants for under a dollar. I didn't get any good pictures of me feeding them, but here are the boys feeding the mom and dad. 

Dinner time- come and get it!

Yummy

Like I have said before elephants are everywhere....here are some elephant water fountains in the zoo.

This is just a random picture of me in a little tipi thing in the bird place...it has nothing to do with elephants...but I thought it was a great photo of me. There were actually 3 of them all next to each other, but no one else would go in them with me. I thought it would look cool if we were all in different ones and looking out at each other....maybe I will get that great photo when I go back to the zoo with other people.

Oh and Jenni and Mom see my Upward water bottle?!?! You should send the picture to Upward and maybe I will get a free t-shirt or something for advertising about Upward in Thailand:) 

Tiger Pride Week...

This week the students could take part in "Tiger Pride Week" and do something each day of the week. Normally the students wear a uniform, but this week they could do some different things.

The 1st day was hat day (students still had to wear their uniforms but they could wear a hat)

Another day was Disney day and I was Jessie from Toy Story.

One of the 5th grade teachers dressed up like Boo from Monster's Ink.

Crazy hair day.... half is straight and half is curly. "Now that is crazy hair" said a 3rd grader.

I ride into work with this lady (4th grade teacher) and her daughter everyday.

Motorbike AAAHHHHH

So EXCITED for my first motorbike ride!

Actually I wasn't that excited....but I knew that I had to try it sometime.

Why not try it riding around the neighborhood with a 15 year old :)

After a short ride I was told to try driving it. Um I wasn't quite sure about this....but again...I guess needed to at least say that I tried.

I am SUPER careful and even carry an extra helmet in the basket. haha

I survived my first time driving a motorbike. I was really bad at it and couldn't really turn well. I haven't practiced for almost a week but I did take a longer ride on the motorbike the other day. It is still really scary! I haven't gone on any major roads yet and that is OK with me!

School....

I thought I would just keep changing blog topics to keep you guessing...the motorbike and elephant pictures will come at a later date. I am here to teach and work in the library, at a Christian International school, so I suppose that I should show some pictures of where I work and spend most of my time! This is the ramp that goes down to the secondary building. It ends around where you see that green roof. I will try to get some better angles of it at another time.

The picture above is my desk and below you can see the computers. Behind the computers we have some supplies and the work station for getting books ready to be put on the shelves (stamping, covering, etc)

The younger grades sit on the green rug for their library time. The older students sit at the tables. You can see the story cupboard where I put different things that relate to what we are learning about in the class. For the kindergarten class this week I had a medal in the cupboard. We were learning about the Caldecott Medal, so one student got to hold the medal during our lesson and story. Also two kids get to sit on the beanbags during library.

The books that have won the Caldecott Medal....

New books...I tried to make some of the origami to go with our two new origami books. I just managed to make the paper cups. So much for Easy Origami :)

Transportation....

I decided that you might be getting tired of pictures of the zoo....so I thought a post about transportation might be fun. There will have to be two parts to this one as well because I need to add the photos of me riding and then "driving" a motorbike. So enjoy this first look into my transportation/parking experiences in Thailand.

This picture shows you how I have gotten to church every Sunday. There is another boy in the back of the truck, but the rest of us like the A/C.

Gina likes driving on the wrong side of the car and road! They don't like it when I say "wrong" it should be on the "other side" or "different side" or the left side of the road....right side of the road, etc. The major roads are separated so you sometimes forget that you are on the "other" side of the road. You have to make a lot of U turns to get to where you want to go....

Elephant stuff is everywhere! Here are some little bushes that were trimmed to look like elephants. One of the malls is in the background of the photo. I know that this isn't really about driving...but elephants can be a form of transportation and I see elephant statues, bushes, etc all the time when I am in the truck.

The motorbike parking lot at the mall. There are so many bikes everywhere. I will try to get some pictures of them driving down the road with 3 or more people on one bike. They will be holding little babies, etc.

In parking lots and ramps the cars will park like this photo shows. The cars that are parallel parked are just pushed out of the way if someone who is parked in a "real" spot needs to get out, etc.

Zoo Part 2

When we were at the aquarium there was a school group that thought it was pretty cool to get their picture taken with a foreigner. It took us probably twice as long to get through the exhibit (or maybe we were the exhibit??). It was very fun and the students were so excited. One girl had a piece of paper which she read to me: "Excuse me, can I have a picture with you."

Here I am with some other students, still stopped in the tunnel getting pictures taken...too bad you can't really see the fish!

We had to walk up a huge hill....but the view from the top was amazing.

This snake was just out in nature, not part of the zoo, he caught a little gecko while we were standing there looking at him. You can see it's tale hanging out of the snake's mouth. It is also pretty neat how the snake kind of changes colors when he curls up.

The monkeys were very loud and active when we were visiting them. I think they are a lot more happy in these zoos then in the zoos in the States.

The only rhino in Thailand or something like that....he was tired.

I will probably have more pictures of the zoo in the next day or two....

Oh and in other news- I got my work permit today! I think I have one more step and then I just need to check in with immigration every 90 days.

Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium

Here I am with the family I am living with and knew from Brasil. We went to the zoo to celebrate a 12 year old's birthday!

The boys took a really boring picture in front of the mural on the wall before going into the aquarium, so Gina and I had to show them how it is done. The pictures I took inside the tunnels didn't turn out that great, so this is all I will post of that part of the trip.

Just happy that they are not this big in real life. Why is a taranchula in the aquarium? I have no idea!

Feeding the sting ray....

The picture in the header is of the elephants that we feed at the zoo. The baby elephant was about a month old! We didn't get to feed the baby.

I will post more pictures in the next post.....

Retreat Part 2

Our home for the night- I was on the 2nd floor.

They are very creative when it comes to cutting fruit-

yes the watermelon is the shape of a heart.

On our walk up the hill we found a spirit house. They are all over Chiang Mai, but it seems like most are white and gold. This one had a dress hanging from it which we had never seen before. Usually food and small gifts are just left by them.

"Retreat"

This last weekend we went on an elementary staff retreat. We had meetings all day on Friday and also on Saturday morning. The retreat center was very nice and had beautiful gardens, etc. It was fun to get to know the team better. Right before supper a few people walked around the gardens with me and so I took the time to take some pictures.

Of course if you are with Karla you have to take some crazy pictures!

It was hard to pedal that bike.

My future roommate- no, she is not as crazy as I am...it was all my idea...