Staff Appreciation Lunch

This last week was "Staff Appreciation" week. They (the parents/students) did something special everyday for the staff. My favorite days were when parents brought in donuts, when we got a drink (water, tea, coke,) delivered to our classroom, and our special lunch. Friday was a professional development day for the staff, so during lunch the parents (and some students) decorated the poolside to look like a 50s restaurant. We had a VERY yummy lunch and lots of photo opportunities!

Driving into the drive-in! 

The tables...

What an amazing band...my roommates are so great! 

A view from afar....

Another view...

At the little table outside of the "restaurant" eating pretend ice cream

Yet another picture...

We have such a musical staff at Grace:) 

Singing with Elvis! These girls live two doors down from us-
and we spend  a lot of time laughing with them!

Happy Chinese New Year!

On Monday the 2nd and 6th grade classes showed off their dragons they had made for the Chinese New Year. Both classes have been/are still studying about China.

I hope you enjoy the many photos that I took from the 2nd floor!

This and That...

Here is a random assortment of photos -  

Enjoy...

This fountain is in front of the mall and for Christmas they put
Santa hats on the elephants.

When Tami's mom was here we went out to eat with our Thai teacher.
Here we are at the top of a hotel waiting for our meal. 

Tami and her mom didn't want to be in the photo-
our supper- yummy

I was going to put this with my elephant riding pictures, but I forgot.
This is my nephew and me riding an elephant together!
It is now hanging up in the library!

Art work by another nephew which is also hanging up in the library!

Some gifts from America! I was blessed with gifts from people in WI, CA, SD, MN, NM
and from Germany this Christmas!
Thanks:)

Pictures that my mom asked for:)

Where I would stand if I was riding a yellow song-thaew and it was too full to sit inside.
This is the red one we ride to and from church every Sunday

This is what I look like when we are driving very fast down the road....
actually it isn't...I am facing the other direction but I am hugging the ladder!
I hope I don't have that facial expression...


If you have any pictures or topics you would like to see/hear about from Thailand just let me know! 

Factories

After the morning at the Elephant camp we went to a few different kinds of factories. We felt a little out of place going into the silk factory and store right after having been hugged by Elephants. They don't always have the cleanest trunks:) I will try to get all my facts right about the silk factory. I had no idea that silk comes from the silk worms' cocoons....

The silk worms at various stages of their lives

The silk worms make cocoons (the yellow fuzzy looking things)

They put the cocoons into boiling water...stir the water and cocoons...
You can see the thin thread coming from the water to the bar and on to  the cylinder thingy.

The lady is pulling the thread and laying it into the bowl on the other side of her.

Weaving machine

changing the pattern...

We got there during their lunch break so there wasn't to many people working the looms. They have a beautiful silk store that you can get to from inside the factory.


After the silk factory we went to the umbrella/fan factory. I have never thought of the amount of work that goes into make these kind of umbrellas! You know those cute little umbrellas people put in drinks...they were selling them in the store as well. I didn't see anyone making the really little ones, but I am sure that they do! I am not sure about the order of these photos. We just walked around so we didn't really get to ask a lot of questions about what they were doing.

putting paste on the cloth that is covering the umbrella frame

Making the green umbrellas- green:)

Doing something....I think putting strings around the little wood pieces...

cutting the pieces of wood- I thought that they were going to cut their fingers off

Putting together the umbrella frame

She had a little tool to make the hole for the fans...( Tami got me a fan from here -see  my  Roommate Christmas post)

Not sure what they are working on

Painting the designs

More painting

Big umbrella

Here I am at the umbrella factory!

Like I said the pictures aren't in a great order, but the people were also just spread out all over doing different jobs and didn't seem to be in any order.

Hope you learned something about umbrellas or silk making. If you want one of these items let me know...but you will probably have to pay for your own silk clothing! I am told it is cheaper here..but wow! Maybe if you just bought some plain silk and made something out of it yourself:)

Roommate Christmas and New Years Eve

Well we had "Christmas" with the roommates on New Year Eve's day cause I am all about spreading out the Christmas celebrations! My one roommate (Amy) was visiting family in Indonesia over Christmas and so we needed to wait for our celebration. 

What's in Tami's stocking???

My turn!

Amy is so excited -we had to quickly put something in her stocking.....what bad roommates !
I guess we missed the memo about Santa not making it to Thailand this year. Amy got it though....

With our gifts! Look at that cute skirt I got...and the beautiful Thai fan...
I got Tami sauerkraut cause she really wanted to keep her family tradition of
sauerkraut on New Year's Day. 

After roommate Christmas...we cleaned up and welcomed about 16-20 people into our home for NYE. We had teachers and staff from Grace and then also some singles who work with other organizations.

We had a great time and even saw fireworks! We DIDN'T see the ball drop...maybe it had something to do with the fact that it didn't drop until 12 hours later in NYC. I guess it means I am getting older faster here in Thailand!

Ticket to Ride: US

Charades...I think..

Some game...

Four on a Couch

Four on a Couch- blue shirts against everyone else...

Some people did puzzles all night long...