Session Two!

You smell like a "Fa-Raang"!!! (Western Foreigner:)
This photo brought to you by Jonathan's amazing photography skills

Hello friends!

They say time flys when you're having fun... and we're having fun....and time is F.L.Y.I.N.G! We are constantly busy here, so the last few weeks are a little blurry :) It is very hard to believe that the first week of session two is done! I will do my best to give you a recap of the last two weeks.

Session one successfully finished and session two is well underway. We are having a great time making new friends as we learn together. I have 2 Level 1 classes and Jonathan has a Level 2 and an Advanced class. Because Jonathan is teaching level two, he has four of my Level 1 students who graduated from my class in the first session. We are having a great time getting to know our new students and we continue to build relationships with our former students! It's great!

Traveling adventures (to update our visas) in the last few weeks included Malaysia and Cambodia. First, we went to Malaysia for the weekend to update our 30 day visa. Then, we had a week long break between class sessions so we took the opportunity to leave again to Cambodia which enabled us to have a valid 30 day visa for the rest of our time in Thailand. Both trips where wonderful experiences in different ways. I shared a few shots of our trip below but we look forward to sharing stories about our trips when we return!

As you can imagine, life is rarely dull in the food category. “Different” is “normal” now so we're starting to loose track of everything interesting that we ingest. :) Food adventures for the past week included something big and hairy with many legs, (scroll down to see the pics), a chicken foot, lots of sea food, MANY new fruits that Minnesotan’s wouldn't recognize as fruit, crocodile, rice pops, bamboo worms, curry puffs (like a pastry with chicken and curry in it), genuine Thai grown steak, and many more semi “normal” foods that are very different for our bodies :).

We've had MANY great outings with our students in the last few weeks which included the beach in Pataya, the gulf of Thailand, Asia's biggest dairy farm, the World's largest crocodile farm, the Jim Thompson Museum, the Bangkok Zoo, several MAMMOTH malls downtown (makes MOA look wimpy), Chinatown, Siam Museum... and the list continues! There is an endless list of things to do and see within 3 hours for Bangkok. We're having a blast spending quality time with our students. Tomorrow after class we headed to the beach again with students to eat sea food. Life in Thailand is always an adventure with a Minnesotan stomach! :)

We're here in Thailand for 2 more weeks and then we plan to visit a friend in Myanmar before traveling to Indonesia to visit Jonathan's old study abroad host from 2006. I'm so completely thankful that I get to travel with Jonathan. Seriously, Jonathan makes my traveling life way to “easy”. Traveling with your best friend/husband is the best way to go. I highly recommend it.

That's all for now folks. Thanks for listening. We think of home often and hope that you are all very well!

Saw-wa-dee-ka! (Good bye!)

Lucky Liz and her traveling super hero

Bowling with our friends! Side Note: Thai bowling balls have VERY little finger holes. I do not have Thai hands :)

At a GREAT 'open zoo' where (some) animals roam free. Unfortunately, the tigers and elephants were fenced in :)

Two of Jonathan's wonderful students helping us experience Thailand.
Those are bamboo worms. We ate them. They taste like a potato chip... sort of.... (with a wormy aftertaste)

Penang Malaysia sunset on our visa run

Mr. Croc, meet Mr. Stomach. It tasted very good. Seasoned well. A little bit like rubber chicken in texture though.
You really have to work to get that stuff down... sort of like chewing on the sole of a shoe or a rubber band.
As Jonathan says, "it tastes... bouncy." :)

My students are the best!!! This is pre- banana boat mangle where we all almost died.
Not quite. It was fun.... in the whip-lash on a balloon sort of way.
No really. Six people on a five person banana tube in the wavy ocean is the best idea ever.
We all survived!

Phenom Phen, Cambodia: Monument commemorating the deaths of millions of people in Cambodia during
 Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979.  Extremely heart breaking to visit the mass graves and prison camp.

More evidence of Cambodia's pain.

What is that?! Check below...

Yep. 'Nummy'. New favorite snack. We will bring some home for all!
Seriously... our driver pulled over and said (in broken English) "you see spider here"
Moments later, we were met with a barrage of young girls peddling fruit... and tarantulas!
We were NOT going to eat one.... until Jonathan woke up and realized "we HAVE to do this!"
We took a video of the crunchy/hairy consumption :) 

One more shot with our new furry friend.

Cambodian cargo vehicle. (That is a motorcycle under there) I'm not entirely sure where the driver is.
 This is a load of rice pops which is a very tasty snack that I really enjoy.
During this trip we also saw a heard of pigs on motorcycles (two grown pigs per motorcycle)
and entire flocks of chickens and ducks hanging upside down from the handle bars. The things we see here!

This one is for our farmer friends... This is a Cambodian "tractor". Basically a wagon with an engine on the front.

Cambodian soccer mom. Car seat? Seat Belt? Air bags? No Thanks! SE Asia is AWESOME! Take notes America.

Rockin' out our shadow statues at Angkor Wat (8th wonder of the world...used to be on the top 7 :)

Angkor Wat... Location of one of the Tomb Raider movies

The "face" temple (as we have come to call it) near Angkor Wat.
The entire temple was covered in stone faces... really cool!

My favorite temple of the day....
the trees have taken over the whole temple and their roots are all over!

More cool roots and temple

Headed to a floating village on the biggest lake in SE Asia!

Seriously... it is a FLOATING village. Everyone lives on the water.

Floating school!! Way cool to visit. We got to help by bringing the kids the big bag of rice in the front of the pic.

Fishing anyone? These fisherman are AMAZING! 

Watching silk be made at a silk farm in Cambodia! Such and amazing process!

The last activity of Heide's Birthday celebration in Cambodia... fish 'massage'!
The fish eat the dead skin off of your feet.
 It is REALLY weird and tickles like the dickens! 

Hanging out with our friends Pram and her sister Pong and our newest Thai friend... Mr. Python.