Survivor Island: Borneo, Malaysia

25 teachers from our school flew to Kota Kinablu for an International Teachers' Convention, EARCOS, for 6 days. While we were there, we ejoyed the beach, jungle, hills, and the experience of another Asian country. Oh wait, we enjoyed the conference too!

Terra, myself, Maile, and Annet enjoying our walk from meeting to meetingSutera Harbor - Sabah, Malaysia
The view of Mt Kinabalu, 13, 500 ft. Tallest moutain in Southeast Asia.
5.5 hours up, 5 hours down
Sunrise at the summit
Canopy walk through the jungle
A Malaysian delicacy: cooked fern!

60 days and counting!

Thai time has been ticking and we’ve been continuing to see and learn new things, take more trips, have more visitors, make lots of memories and sweat! The temps are rising as we get into the ‘hot season’ of April and May. We’ve been extremely busy with tons of visitors, school events and living it up in Bangkok! February: We’ve had fun weekends around here getting to know our co-workers/friends better and on the week days imparting knowledge while juggling all of the extra-curricular activities our school has going on weekly. March: Kristi and Montana flew over from Texas for a week. I went with them up to Chiang Mai as well has showing them all around Bangkok and Ko Saumi. They enjoyed cooking classes, shopping, elephant rides, temples, and an exciting taxi accident we all got into (no worries, we’re all fine). Daniel had some friends pop over for a quick weekend visit after being in India for 2 weeks. They went down south for a climbing and enjoyed the rocks and water. I also had a girl’s weekend away to Hua Hin where we did nothing but sit by the pool over-looking the beach and relaxed. As we start our 4th and last quarter of school, we still have more to look forward to! We are so excited about coming home and are anxiously waiting to see what is in store for us when we arrive on American soil!

What is a country, city and an island?

SINGAPORE! We had the great pleasure of going and visiting the Ferrells in Singapore for a long weekend. We were very curious about seeing what an Asian, non- third world country was like. Our curiosity was pleasantly enlightened by how Singapore is so civilized, modern and beautifully clean. We had a great time hanging out with Annika, Keith, and their two adorable kids. We went swimming, mountain biking, running, exploring the large malls and Chinatown. We toured the island of Sentosa, enjoyed good food and seeing the melting pot of Asian cultures. We were shocked at the amount of English we heard on the streets and well as the clean and friendly atmosphere of the entire country. There were times we had to remind ourselves that we were still in Asia.

Elephant Island

Found near the boarder of Thailand and Cambodia, in the Gulf of Thailand, is an island called Ko Chang, Elephant Island. We were so happy to have Wendy visit us from the states, so we thought we'd try out a new island that was only a 5 hour bus ride and 20 min ferry trip away. Making our hotel arrangements online, you never really know what you're going to get. Luckily, when we got there our resort was fantastic and we knew it would be a great weekend! Wanting to soak up as much of the resort's beauty and amenities, we spent our mornings lazing around. Our three days there were full of laying on the beach, kayaking, eating, and travling around on rented mopeds.

7th grade Campout

If you attended a SDA church or school, then you remember Pathfinders! Marching, the lovely colored t-shirts, class-A uniforms, honor patches, ‘Oh we are the Pathfinder strong…’ then you know what I’m talking about. As for you non-SDAs, Pathfinders is a community service oriented youth organization of our church. A.K.A….boy scouts!
Well, here at EIS, all students, grades 3-8, are required to take Pathfinders as a class. Once a week, my 7th graders dress up in their uniforms: pants, socks (with logo), black shoes, sash (with logo), belt (with logo), dress shirt (with logo and lots of pockets), and practice their drills, marches, pledges and various other activities to help move them up into the next ‘class’; Eagar Beaver, Busy Bees, Adventurers…
Anyway, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s 7th grade Pathfinder Campout. One thing different about this ‘Campout’ was the fact that we stayed at a really nice resort in the eastern part of Thailand. The resort had tons of activities for the kids to do and use to earn their honor patches. I was in charge of the biking honor, which was a treat for sure! These kids grew up in the city, so for a lot of them, this was one of their first exposures to hills, dirt roads, and physical activity. I quickly learned that their hyperactivity level only lasted half-way up a hill and about 5 minutes into a ride. Other than bike riding, they got to run through a challenge course, climb an artificial rock, kayak, swim, hike to a near by waterfall, explore a cave and play lots of campfire games.
All in all, it was a great time. I mean, what beats inspecting girls rooms, making sure they’re all in bed and not sneaking around late into the night/morning, traveling on a bus with 115 hormonal 12-13 year olds, all while wearing a Pathfinder uniform?! TIT…This is Thailand!

Floating Market

We had the pleasure of traveling around Thailand for about 10 days this month with Wendy, our dear friend from the states. One of the many places we took her was the ever-so-famous Floating Market. Everything floats in Bangkok, considering this city is built on a swamp. However, the floating markets are especially interesting. The klongs, narrow-water-ways, wind through the city and are full of wooden long-tail boats and locals selling fruits, vegetables, spices, trinkets and various Thai products. As we floated down the klong that Saturday morning, we requested several times that our boat driver stop and let us purchase multiple kinds of fruits and tasty Thai treats (generally fried) as well as buying some souvenirs…at the cheapest price possible. Wendy’s goal was to try to find something with “Made in the U.S.A” written on it, but couldn’t. We’ll keep looking for her!