A Journey... Panta ta ethne: December 2018

It's been a crazy 2 months and I can't believe Christmas is already over and it is the eve of a new year! In short, these 2 months have been busy, fun, super challenging, rewarding, emotional, and led to new adjustments and transitions to come in the new year. But I will save that for the next post. This post will just include some highlights.
I returned to Ranong in November after semester break and began teaching full time.This was both a stressful and fun thing. I enjoyed teaching the students, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out better ways to teach and how to help the students remember better. That was basically how I spent most of my time in November: thinking, lesson prepping, and teaching. After a morning of teaching, I spent Thanksgiving alone. I was a little sad about it, but still cooked a Thanksgiving meal for myself and then went out alone to the Loy Krathong Festival for a few hours of wandering and people watching. December in Ranong was short because I had to make a visa run to Singapore and we had our Christmas activities in the schools early to break for Christmas. I went to Singapore with my best friend and we had a great time. Getting my visa was no problem at all and super easy. Singapore is a very expensive country though so our activities were limited to eating and free sightseeing. Even still, we enjoyed the sights and each others company. I came back and taught one weekend and then helped with the Christmas activities we did at each school. For my Christmas break, I had already made plans to spend it with my best friend visiting her family in her hometown. I decided to head to Bangkok a little earlier than originally planned and stayed with her for a week before we left. I got to enjoy a few Christmas activities and sights before we headed out of town such as helping to decorate for a Christmas party at my old language school and attending the party there. I even got to hang out with another American family and see some Christmas displays together. Currently, I am staying with my best friend at her childhood home visiting with her family and doing a little sightseeing. It has been fun to get away from everything and the stress of every day life. My friend is a constant support for me in every day life so it's been good to stay with her during this season of transitions. Plus, I've really enjoyed living life in a very Thai way this past week. Lucy has also enjoyed sightseeing with us at the beach! Now, enjoy some pictures!

Lesson Plans and activities: