On Thai Time: A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today Jonathan said to me, "You know we live in Asia right?" and I very quickly and defensively responded, "Yeah." I thought he was calling me stupid and assuming I didn't know Thailand was in Asia. What he was actually trying to get at was how unreal it all still is. It doesn't feel like we live in Asia. Not really. Its more like we just live where we live and thats normal. I think the reality of the situation will really dawn on me when I get back to America.
The year of the horse is upon us! Chinese New Year came and we still had a normal day of school which was a huge bummer. Hello! This is Thailand! We're supposed to celebrate every holiday in the world! Well the next day we get to school and all the thai teachers are down at the daily morning assembly while the foreign teachers remain in the language department, as usual. After about 10 minutes, one of the foreign teachers informs us that first period is likely to be canceled because the assembly is supposed to go longer. I was incredibly surprised (which thinking back is surprising because this happens like A LOT). Then 5 minutes later I remember that yesterday was Chinese New Year and of course there is a celebration.

So we decide to go down and watch some of the assembly. Some of the students performed songs and some performed dances. They were all excellent and had beautiful costumes on. The director gave money away out of his own pocket as usual. Theres a running joke among us foreign teachers that he makes the people give it back afterward.

This was the first time I was kind of bummed about my class getting canceled. You see I was informed that we get Valentine's Day off at school. Valentine's day is on a friday and the friday after that is the first day of final exams. So I have to give my students their final exam next week! Guess when I found this out? Oh you know just the week before. So the class that was canceled will not even know that the exam is next week, nor will they have learned the one lesson I was able to teach since midterms ended. So I have to make a final exam based off of a single lesson and it has to be next week. Thrilling news in disguise actually because that also means that all of my seniors who have classes after I give the final get free days and I don't have an many lessons to plan.

Look how cute they are

My lovely little students

Aside from this small celebration, not much has been happening around here. All the teachers and students are very aware that the end of term is arriving so soon and everyone has taken an even more laid back approach to teaching. Their laid back approach is closer to the approach I take on a normal basis. In other words, my youngest kids (7th graders) have become exceptional at word searches.
I walked around a bit near my apartment to get some pictures today. Went down a couple roads I hadn't gone down before and saw some neat things.

Love these colored houses

The power lines in Thailand look super safe

These flowers grow like weeds here

I wish I remembered every flower's name like my mom does

Gardens on the side of the houses

Hey cutie!

Laundry day

I still hate monkeys... even stuffed monkeys

Delicious looking offerings for Buddha

Such a cool little gated garden complete with barbed wire

The protests have been exaggerated upon a bit in the news. Well perhaps not exaggerated upon, but those who write the news articles sure know the impact some dramatic word choice can do. Bang Bon hasn't really been effected by the protests much in the sense of danger. I still feel safe here. The protestors came through once the other week. I got kind of nervous when they all drove past, but it was just a bunch of people walking and some guys in a truck with a megaphone. Nothing too scary. People do have to vote here too though and on our brief walk we realized we were walking past a location for voting. It was all very calm and casual. A lot of people actually were very happy to see us.