Every Day

So, many of you know that I started a job as an after-school teacher. Im working with the littlest ones: K3's. Some of you go "awe!" others who know me more go "eeech..." They are a handful, thats for sure... Plus we have the biggest class and managing the tiny ones in large groups is one of the hardest things ever. Its like herding cats that have no idea whats going on. I had to learn names real quick just to remind them to walk down the hall. I also started another day job this week. It takes me an hour to ride public transportation to work and Ive gotta be at work at 9 so that means Im up at 7am. Long days and for the first time ever its because of two jobs. So anyway, I get to work #2 today (the K3 gig) and its beautiful out so Im in a pretty good mood. (The weather pretty much dictates my mood, sunny and warm = happy, rain and cold = sad) The kids are a little crazy but because Im in a good mood I just fly around and make sure they've got everythi...

Yesterday, I had a shit-eating grin as I was winding through local streets, pedaling and feeling the warm breeze in my hair. I recently, in the last month, moved to the DC area and have been struggling to fit in and find my place. This month, Ty and I got our own room in a place that we share with a few others that are our roommates in our new town. But there are still so many things that are missing in my life. I need yoga, rock climbing and freedom to get around on my own. On Tuesday afternoon, I took that first step at transportation freedom in the form of a two wheeled vehicle. I took the metro to Virginia which is a bit of a ride from my new home on the Maryland side. I stopped at one of the last metro stops and walked out into the sunny, nice weather. I was meeting someone from craigslist who was selling a little, red Schwinn bike. I exited the station and immediately saw the little red bike being held up by a sweet looking, older man. I introduced myself, took the bike for a...

Travel day two. We started our day at 9:30 pm on Saturday. We drove to the airport with Justin so he could get to his flight at 1 am, ours was at 3 am. The airport was packed for that late. It's weird how most of the flights out are in the middle of the night. We walked around and found Justin's flight but couldn't find ours. I guess they only open the check in counters two hours before the flight which is inconvenient. So we figured out where our counter was going to be and looked for a spot to chill for the next two hours. Sitting on some luggage by the counter was a young couple that looked like they were waiting for the same counter so we walked up to them and said, "china eastern?" They nodded and said they have been waiting at the airport all day. Then we started talking about how both of us had huge issues with our layovers in China (can't be in China for 24 hours). This couple showed up at the airport the previous night and were told they couldn...

Thursday was our last unplanned day to explore Phuket and we wanted to soak up the sun! Brookie sent us to Karron beach nearby. When we got to the beach it was a very very hot day so we decided to walk along the shops side of the beach to catch what little bit of shade there was. You guessed it, I bought more sarongs (addiction) and the more you buy the better deal you can get! I also decided that this day was the perfect day to get the local ice cream. The ice cream is prepared right in front of you on a cold plate and there are very simple ingredients, your flavoring and cream. There were dozens of flavors from fruit to candy to chocolate and of course I wanted the Nutella flavor (another addiction of mine). They put your flavor on the cold plate and then pour the cream on top and try to contain the liquid. After a few seconds, the cream begins to harden and thats when they start scooping up and mixing the ice cream. Some of the "ice cream makers" have a rhythm that mak...

The evening after our snorkel trip in Phi Phi, Ty and I were pretty tired. We also decided that some alone time would be nice. So I went to get a pedicure while Tyler went to grab a massive meal (even though we had a late lunch on the boat lol). It was so nice to just sit on a comfy chair and scroll through Facebook while a woman did my nails. It was quiet and calming. Afterwards, I felt like a new woman walking down the main walkways of Phi Phi with my beautiful toenails! I did a great job of averting the glances from the people in the local bars trying to get people to go in. I just wanted to meet up with my Ty and see how his night was going. I found him at a restaurant slurping down clams and looking very happy. That boy loves his food. After he paid, we decided to walk a different way that we had not explored before, away from the craziness of the main part of the island. We wandered into many little art stalls with beautiful pieces (and relatively cheap too!). We both wishe...

We started off our day waiting for our shuttle to the ferry just like Saturday except this day our shuttle didn't show up on time. We sat on the corner of our apartment complex and watched the minutes tick by and the vans drive past. We started to get nervous and thought we might need to get a GrabTaxi to the ferry. At a half hour until our ferry took off, and looking on the phone for a GrabTaxi, our driver was waving at us from the median. We ran across traffic like frogger and hopped into the van and hoped we would make our ferry. We made it in time, about 5 minutes early in fact and watched more Mr. Bean on our 2 hour boat ride to Phi Phi. Once we got to Phi Phi, it was nice already know what to do. We had our 20 Baht ready for our entrance into the island and we knew to look for our hotel on the many signs that people were holding on the dock as we walked in. We didn't find our hotel so we took a map and wandered in the correct  direction. Once we got to our place, we w...

Monday we took our time getting up and moving and then went to breakfast at this local place. Ty had two breakfasts and I had a smoothie, fruit and toast. All this food was around 7 dollars for both of us! Around noon, I jumped on the back of Brooke's scooter as Ty drove behind. We wanted to check out some of the local sights. First, Brooke took us to the kathu waterfalls. It was a beautiful spot for locals. There were stairs up to the first falls which were constructed into pools for people to wade and swim in. In its prime it was probably very beautiful but now it was a bit run down. We walked up to the second and then third levels of small falls and waded in the water and climbed on the rocks. The water was the perfect temperature. Not too cold but cool enough that it was refreshing. After our pool time, we hopped on the bikes to head to our first temple of the day. It was a beautiful temple that didn't have many people. We walked around and then lit insense and pray...