Summer Vacation Extravaganza: Thailand Edition (part 2 of 2)

This is a continuation of the post above.


5 days in Thailand: Bangkok and Chiang Mai


First things first: Get to a hostel and find a kitty, stat.


Our hostel in Bangkok was right on the river.


Second thing on the to do list for Bangkok: Find a creepy teddy bear themed bakery in which to eat breakfast. Check.


Chris and bears. Any guess as to what AACP is?


Now that the important stuff is out of the way, we saw some really opulent temples and palaces.


Like this huge reclining Buddha.


Buddha's feet.



A line of Buddha statues.


Shrimp pad thai worth the entire cost of the flight, but only about 50 cents.


Soups 2 die 4.


Chris got a straight razor shave from a giggly Thai man. Luckily he was able to keep it under control enough to hold the razor still.


I met a deaf guy from Bangkok who knew fluent ASL. He showed me a picture of an American woman who's the love of his life but she left Thailand and they lost touch. He told me I have to go back to America and find her. I'll probably run into her at the next meeting of young Americans who have been to Thailand. Shouldn't be too hard to find.


Here starts Chiang Mai: We took an amazing 6 hour cooking class where we learned to make about 10 different dishes and got to eat even more than that.


Couples curries.


Chris is a natural.


We saw a Muy Thai (Thai boxing) fight.


A video of the Muy Thai fight.


These are girl Muy Thai fighters...probably about 14 years old.


At half time there was "blind boxing".



We went on a hike through the rainforest to a waterfall.


And we rode elephants!



Chris drove a motorcycle, with me death-gripping his love handles behind him, up a mountain to this temple.


Chiang Mai's signature dish.


Mom! <3

Meow

I am thinking about fostering a cat for the 5 months I have left here in Korea. Today I asked some of my students for suggestions on what to name her. Here is a (very) abbreviated list.

Rooney

Naughty

*Nancy

Malaysia

*Kicky

McDonald

Magical

Ghost

Sandwich

Zombie Cat

Pandora

Christmas

Dime

Jelly

Lucia

Leeny

*Ham

Grandma

Bessie

* names I'm actually considering.

What do yall think?

*UPDATE: Meet the newest (temporary) member of the McCoco family: Kicky!

The McCoy Siblings Visit

This July we had some awesome visitors come all the way from America to hang out with us and experience Korea for 2 weeks. Chris' brother and sister, David and Jessica, were so much fun to have around--we hated to see them go! They did so much while they were here-: visited our classes, saw a baseball game, visited temples, and all four of us even spent one weekend in Busan, a beach town in the south part of Korea.

Here's a picture story of what we did:



We read on the beach.



We acted really normal in public.



We hugged it out on the beach.




We were stared at by Korean children who, when caught staring, pretended to be sleeping.



We ate delicious Nowon ribs with gloves on because we are civilized people.


We whispered sweet nothings to our marinated ribs.



We rubbed Buddha's big belly for good luck.



We bravely ate live octopus at a fish market in Busan.



We ate some delicious street food (with tongs apparently) in the early morning hours.



And of course we did karaoke.

Thank you to David and Jessica for visiting--you are welcome back any time!

Drama Festa

We're back! After a long and unnecessary hiatus. We hope you are all enjoying your summer, wherever you may be. Chris and I are teaching summer camp right now, but in 5 days we'll leave on a 2-week vacation to the Philippines and Thailand.

But before that, we have a lot to catch you up on!

The first semester at Sangmyeong Elementary always culminates with a Drama Festival--a 30 minute play put on in English by each grade, directed by the English teachers. Third grade performed the story of Cinderella. There were eight performances (8 different classes) of singing, dancing and cross-dressing. Here are some pictures and video of the event:




Will as a mouse.



Mouse and Prince hanging out.



Richard, Chris, and some kids.



Playing in the pumpkin carriage.



Cinderella and the (not so) evil stepsisters.



Mice.



The audience patiently waiting.



Laura and 2 fairies, Cindy and Andrew.



The costumes got a little hot.



A perfect fit! "I ____ you. Will you ____ me?"