Hello all!! For the last few days we've been soaking up the sun on Ko Lanta, one of the islands near Krabi in the famous Andaman Sea. God knows we had to stay active, so we've done a ton other than just lying on the beaches! We went hiking past elephants in the national park to a waterfall dwindled by the dry season, then explored the island by moto to the old town, sea gypsy village, and less developed southern beaches. One of them only had six other people on it! The Thai food has been incredible and the white sand [View Full Entry]

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My father takes pictures of everything. Yesterday, my mother and I waited outside a Khmer temple for him for a full half hour. Doesn't sound long, but when street kids are pestering you to buy post cards and guide books and the tuk-tuk drivers are trying to look down your shirt, it can get trying. He's distracted, I'm bossy, and my mother's forgetful. Most of my friends thought I was crazy. "Three weeks with your parents? I'd die." However, with a positive attitude and a sense of humor, we've been having a blast. Our biggest fight so far has been about [View Full Entry]

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So today was a classic China day: I tutored seven seven year olds in the morning, which was hell because we were doing clothing and they were bored after the first ten minutes. I revived them with designing the clothing on paper dolls, and lost them again when we went back to the book. Got them back with my "find the tshirt/trousers/socks and get it/them on faster than the other guy" race, and lost them with the fill in the blanks in the book. It kills me. Afterwards, I had two delicious meat filled baozis (steamed bread with meat and green [View Full Entry]

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Hello loves!! News: I didn't get one of the three CTLC Associate Coordinator jobs like I had hoped; however, they offered me a compromise. Over 1000 people applied to be in CTLC next year, so they think we'll be up to full capacity (which barely ever happens-- people don't get on the plane, they don't make it through training, or they freak out after seeing chicken feet for the first time and hop on a plane during their first few weeks.) SO, the head of our program offered me a position coordinating the month long training session for the new teachers [View Full Entry]

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Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes! I've found that I always have low expectations for my birthdays abroad, probably due to a lack of mail year round, but following suit with my best birthday ever (the one in France), this year's birthday was better than I thought it could be. From e-cards, emails, messages, and wall posts, I was sent love from all my friends at home as well as my friends here. We had a big March birthday party for the 11(?) of us with birthdays this month on Saturday, which was a little boring because it was [View Full Entry]

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I'm doing a lesson on being in a restaurant this week where the kids make up their own restaurant and menu and then practice ordering from it. One group named their restaurant "Lead you into a trap restaurant." This is how I feel about most restaurants in China this week. I got food poisoning in Yangshuo (google that shit-- Yangshuo, not the food poisoning-- it's incredible! We bought a new memory card for Cody's camera and it was JIADE. Fake...all of the pictures come up on the camera but not on the computer. So sorry, no photos to upload.) I haven't [View Full Entry]

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Home sweet Chinese home. Instead of understanding nothing I understand single words or phrases with no context...ultimate frustration. It's actually good to be back though. We had a meeting this morning at school where the headmaster spoke for an hour an a half about the new semester. I understood nothing, but when I asked, everyone told me it was nothing important. I'm always amazed at how long Chinese people can give public speeches about nothing. I realize that it's because of my lack of listening comprehension and my colleagues disinterest in interpreting mundane details, but the frequency of these nothing speeches [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia smells of sandalwood and mosquito incense coils; as it is the dry season, it smells of dust. We just arrived in Sihanoukville from Siem Reap and the famous Angkor temples. I'll get back to that some other time. (They are incredibly amazing. That is all for now.) Sihanoukville is a sleepy beach town that ex-pats get sucked into for months. There's all kinds of delicious western food we can't find in China, and boat rides out to untouched islands. Our room faces the beach and the bed rests under a pink mosquito net (that barely keeps them at bay.) Tomorrow [View Full Entry]

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I made it to Cambodia!! As I've been far too enamored with my surroundings to post anything about Vietnam, I'll have to go back to it with the help of my pictures once I'm back in China. Brief overview: Vietnam smells of incense, smoke, and dirt-- people burn paper money in the streets to pray for wealth and incense burns under every tree and in every family shrine. The cities smell of exhuast-- hundreds of motobikes whiz by you at every intersection. For tourists, Vietnam sounds like Abba-- every restaurant and transportation hub the tour agencies herd you into plays the [View Full Entry]

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It’s been awhile—the holidays were a blur here as I went to Beijing for Christmas and Hong Kong for New Years with my friend Sulava from college. Here’s a somewhat brief overview from the last few weeks. Christmas in Shenzhen: It was very strange being away for Christmas. Not many people celebrate it here, and the lack of Christians assures unbridled commercialism without any of the “true meaning of Christmas” stuff. Communism at its finest. My Christmas lesson was fun with the kids. We sang carols and designed stockings, and I got more Christmas cards than I knew what to do [View Full Entry]

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