Thailand Sneak Peak!

I feel like summer is flying by and it does not have my permission to do so! My mom's family got together for a family reunion at Myrtle Beach, which was awesome. It took us three family photos to get everyone in a picture...and still there is not one picture that captures all of us at one time! haha It was a great time hanging out, eating, tanning, and finding lots of weird critters in the ocean!


I finally got my laptop back today...even though it isn't fixed yet....thank you Bangladesh for doing quite a number on my laptop! and I was feeling inspired to look through the hundreds of photos I took in Thailand and Malaysia in May! I thought I'd start by posting a few of my favorites that stuck out as I sorted through photos today.

Young girl in one of the long-neck villages

 at a temple in Bangkok

 Koh Tao!

 Chiang Mai temple (don't ask which one....we went to a million!)

I don't know why but I really loved these hot water kettles at our breakfast on our overnight hike to a hilltop tribal village outside of Chiang Mai

So This Is Summer...

Well, I had the ideas for a great blog in my head earlier today but now I'm just flat out exhausted...blame jetlag or the fact that I worked out for the first time in a loooong time or the fact that I was totally defeated while shopping in town today...

Here's how my day shaped up
7am -- Day 1 of the couch to 5k run program! Loving the app! It tells you when to do what...week 1 = 20 minute run/walk intervals with a 5 min warm up/cool down. I don't know if my early wake ups can be attributed to jetlag or not but at least the run was a lot cooler at 7am! Let's just say that now that it's the end of the day my legs are pretty tired! Hopefully I can keep up the motivation and commitment to finish the 9-week training program!

Spent the morning shopping in town for craft supplies for a few projects for my room....I haven't lived at home since high school and I thought I'd spruce up my room a little - including massive, massive cleaning/organizing! *Note: my room has been a dumping zone for the past 8 years...after college, after Germany, and now mid Bangladesh!* Perhaps I'll post a few before/after photos when my craft projects start to look a little more promising (today was a fail on craft shopping....so looks like I need a bigger crafts store!) and when I'm feeling like I will have enough energy to muster through the piles and tupperware boxes in my room. Oh! Let me tell you about the wonders of the GPS....in brief, why can't it just say "turn right now [you idiot]" haha - seriously - it always seems to be one step behind me and I'm staring at street signs and wondering "Is it this road or the next?" maybe I'm the only one with this problem but I doubt it...."recalculating" ahhhhh

"Installed" mom's new baby....and her and dad's evening entertainment.....pool cleaning robot. He was a little crazy if you ask me - I had to keep pushing it under water because it would spin its wheels and come up to the surface and climb the walls of the pool....of course it worked perfectly when mom came home and wanted to see it do it's thing. Go figure. Well, hopefully it keeps working (it did a great job cleaning the parts it did roll over) so I don't have to have my old job of pool cleaner back! Spent the afternoon supervising the robot, tanning, and reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The evening was spent making homemade banana ice cream and mapping out my day for tomorrow....eye appointment in Richmond so I'm going to try to do some shopping before the apt!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and had a wonderful Monday :)

HOME

Well, after a month of traveling around Malaysia and Thailand and making the long journey (30 hours) home I am finally here!! I was greeted with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and hugs and kisses. Since home I've been doing the usual hunt for new things...so far I've discovered the new fridge (kinda obvious....the old one was well, old, and white...the new one - spiffy and black! It even beeps at me when I stand staring into the fridge for too long...oops!), new dishwasher, I'm thinking there's a new grill (not sure if it's new or if I've just been away for too long to really remember what was here before), new dishes, new silverware, mom's newest and first quilt, and I'm sure a few other things I still haven't discovered.

Much to my surprise the new fridge was actually filled with food! Usually the fridge is bare-boned empty when I get home. Thank goodness it was full because I'm not sure if I'm ready to conquer the roads where people don't honk, drive on the right side of the road from the left side of their car, and don't swerve in and out of traffic. hehe what will I ever do without all the chaos?! Anyway, thank goodness there was cheddar cheese in the fridge! I have been devouring the cheese ever since I woke up this morning (bright and early at 7am!) I'm guessing I'll crash early this afternoon considering I went for 40+ hours on minimal sleep/airplane napping! The fridge also happened to have a container with one of my fave mom dishes -- 3 bean casserole :) yumm

Lucky for mom I was too tired when we got home last night at 11:30pm to empty my suitcase and show her all of my latest purchases including several gifts for her. Yes, usually this is my ritual that as soon as I walk in the door I start emptying the contents of my suitcase! Last night I was so tired I didn't even want to shower but forced myself based on the sheer fact that I was disgusting after traveling from Bangladesh to Abu Dhabi to JFK to IAD to home....in 30 hours...

Well, I'm going to get back to enjoying the TV (there's so much going on!! funny how facinating the TV can be after not watching tv for a year!) and my pictures from Thailand and Malaysia, which I will post soon enough :)

Send me a message, email me, call me, etc. if you want to get together this summer while I'm home :) xoxo

Leadership Adventure Day

Below is a lovely poem written by one of my students for all of red group to read at the start of their Leadership Adventure Day! Such a proud moment!

Gratitude to AUW from all your dearly daughters
Still the words are less, even many more we utter.
Smiling forever and caring are our teachers,
Helpful and understanding with unique features.
We are the women with a dream to gain,
Inspiration from AUW makes us work in a chain.
Proud to know AUW, the way of dreams and hopes,
In a very challenging time,we have learned to cope.
~Kalpana, Nepali student (red group)

la la la Sri Lanka

March 10-27, 2011 Spring break in Sri Lanka!! A much needed vacation from the long hours of lesson planning, grading, teaching, student meetings and having no social life. OK, don't get me wrong - I love my job - but I'm not a machine!

A few faves from my wonderfully amazing vacation in Sri Lanka!! :) More pictures here. 

I was blessed to meet two of my students' mothers. Wasana's mother, Nima's mother, and a family friend while showing me around Colombo.

Elephant Orphanage outside of Kandy

adorable!!

waiting for our train, taking pictures of other trains going through the station in Kandy

on the most beautiful train ride from Kandy to Ella...I sat in the doorway with my feet dangling out the door most of this train ride - one, for the fresh air. two, because I kept giving up my seat to cute little old ladies that needed to sit more than I did.

this was one of those ladies who i gave my seat up to :) 

gorgeous country side.

storm rolling in!

Our awesome tomato farmer that led Michelle and I up to the top of Ella's rock, barefoot. Apparently we looked lost as we tried to read our scribbled down directions from our lonely planet guide. Thank goodness for him and his machete that was to protect us from the wild boars (?!?! yikes!)

Unawatuna!! <3 

 

Unawatuna was such a lovely way to end our vacation! I loved our guest house/hotel that we stayed at -- secluded at the end of the beach with slotted doors allowing the sounds of the waves crashing to soothe us to sleep every night! :) 

Happy International Mother Language Day and Happy Birthday to Kristen

February 21, 2011 Another day off of school for a national holiday. As has been the case lately, holidays and weekends do not necessarily mean a day of rest and relaxation. School is in full swing and has been busier than ever, meaning lots of fun and exciting activities (and academic work). International Mother Language Day was a wonderful experience that I'm glad I woke up early for :) Students gathered at 7am (yes, it was optional and yes, students didn't actually start showing up until closer to 7:30....we should have known better!!) at the university gate - all dressed in black and white ready to walk to the national monument in Chittagong where we would donate our flowers. Along the walk, students sang songs to show their Bangla pride and purchased Bangladeshi flag headbands. The students had told me we would walk barefoot, which I contemplated but wasn't sure if I would actually walk the streets of Chittagong barefoot....I later found out that in Dhaka there is a special walking area and people do make long walks barefoot (on painted pavement adorned with flowers). Without those special arrangements in Chittagong we walked to the monument before removing our shoes (thank goodness!).

After the International Mother Language Day ritual/ceremony was complete, the students seemed to quickly scatter. It was about 10:30 by the time we made it home....time to eat breakfast/lunch and nap! The nap was necessary because we had a student-faculty basketball game at 4! The faculty won 38-14 but the students scored 12 points in the second half!! Of course, what do you do after any team sport, win or lose??? Eat ice cream, of course! So we treated our students to ice cream after the game!

After the basketball game, it was time to freshen up and cook some bruschetta (Michelle and mine's contribution) for Kristen's birthday celebration! It was a delicious night including bruschetta, pineapple pizza calzones, hamburgers and french fries, and chocolate cake with bounty bars!

Here are some pictures from the day....enjoy!

My students, past and present....Nusrat (white group), Khadiza (red group), and Saika (orange group)

 Vietenamese students showing their multiculturalism

 

One of the students with a hat she made - it was intense, blood and all! (ok, fake blood)

 Tien and another student with the spirited Bangladeshi flags! The whole city is green with red dots -- the CNGs are green and now they have all painted red dots on them to show their pride on National Mother Language Day.

 Intense face painting!

Once we made it to the monument (a 40 minute walk) we took off our shoes before visiting the monument and donating our flowers.

 The students and our flower arrangement

 AUW on International Mother Language Day, February 21, 2011

 

Everyone was showing their Bangla pride!

  

A group of cheerful boys

Happy Birthday to Kristen!!

yummy birthday cotton candy! :)

 

All those years that I played basketball (and dreaded practice)...who would have ever thought I'd be playing basketball in Bangladesh!!

 

Celebrating with ice cream!! :) 

Fishery Ghats

February 12, 2011 I finally made it to the fishery ghats! Claudio, AUW's professional photographer, graciously donated 6 SLR cameras to the photography club because last time he was here the photography club had NO cameras!! After the symposium he has been at AUW teaching groups of students how to use the cameras and leading them on trips to document the Saraswati Puja. This past weekend he took the photography club to one of his favorite places in Chittagong, the fishery ghats. For the best photos and most action at the fish market we left early, early, early (6am) Saturday morning. It was so worth it! There was so much happening - building ships, unloading fish, transporting huge blocks of ice, selling the fish, drying the fish, etc. I even boldly climbed up a flimsy ladder with 2 students to explore a ship being built - we found out that it only takes them 3 months to build the ships - crazy, huh?! Big thanks to Claudio for an awesome field trip and for renewing my love of photography! Oh yeah, and donating cameras to the photography club so the students can finally be little shutterbugs!

Here are a few of my favorites from the day....enjoy!

2011, where did you come from???

Somehow 1/12 of 2011 is already over and I haven't even begun to think about my goals! I thought I'd start this year by reviewing last year's goals that I so conveniently blogged about. It's funny how in one way or another all of my goals from 2010 got accomplished...similar to Under the Tuscan Sun, my goals may not have been accomplished in the way I expected to accomplish them but reflecting back on 2010, I did achieve them! For 2011 I want to keep it pretty simple....

1. Be happy. Who doesn't want to be happy?! I'm a happy girl but really want to reflect on what and who makes me happy because when I'm happy, I'm more energized and I want to feel this happiness and energy everyday!
2. Be appreciative. There are so many things that we take for granted everyday. I want to be more appreciative for everything and everyone I'm lucky enough to have in my life. 
3. Be selfless. As I learned this past week at the Chittagong Grammar School's conference, "Closing the Gap" I was fortunate to have been born into a family that was able to send me to school and take care of me. Not everybody has this same fortune and we all have gifts (not necessarily monetary) that we can offer to other people. This even means sharing the last cookie in the package! Even if I don't want to!
4. Be patient. This is a great characteristic that Michel, a french traveler we met in Nepal, was working on through his travels. I also feel the need to improve this sometimes - whether it's with friends, students, strangers, or travelers. Everything will work out in the end - so why not have a pinch of patience along the way.
5. Be healthy. Everybody always says they're going to work out, diet, whatever....this year I'm focusing on taking better care of my skin! Wearing sunscreen everyday (especially on my face) and figuring out how to get rid of the mosquito bite scars all over my feet...thank you Bangladesh...

Happy New Year from Udaipur!!

Hiking and Paragliding in Nepal

December 22, 2010 Our last day in Nepal...After too many days in the big city of Kathmandu, Michelle and I were ready to see the esteemed mountains of Nepal. Since it was almost Christmas time I was feeling especially nostalgic for the Alps and this was the perfect cure!! In fact, I think the Himalayas might be more beautiful and breath taking than the Alps! (crazy, huh?) It was absolutely gorgeous hiking up to the city of Sarangkot and watching the sunset from the mountain side. We went to bed early - one, because we were exhausted; two, because it was freezing and curling up in bed was the warmest option! The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch the sunrise (unfortunately with a million other people who didn't even make the effort to climb up the mountain...yes, there's a road that takes you right to the top). After the sunrise it was time to paraglide down the mountain!!

Sunrise from Sarangkot

Pokhara Valley

 Paragliding Start Point!

 And we're off!! Looking back on the Himalayas and our starting point

Igor, my awesome Russian pilot, and I mid flight!

Looking down on all the other paragliders -- Igor was awesome at finding thermals and keeping us high up in the air! I had wanted to go parahawking (the pilot looks for the hawks in the air and follows them because they find the thermals and float around - not losing altitude) but there's only one pilot that does this in Pokhara and he wasn't flying that day....but Igor naturally did this - AWESOME! Sometimes the hawk would be flying right beside us!

Beautiful!!