Visiting grandma

Last week I went to see grandma. She lives in one of the province in Thailand. It's about 3:30 hours from Bangkok. Grandma's house is on the beach. She is 69 years old. Overall she is still very active.

My grandma has decided to renovate the old building to be a new house.
She did a lot of work on it. She wants this house to be a place that all the family members can fit.
The house is still in process.

My grandpa cooked me deep fried pumpkin. It's my favorite dish here because I can't find anyplace else in Thailand. Nobody sells it. It's really tasty. All of my friends who try it before, they all love it too.

I spent a day taught my grandma to use chat application on her iPhone so she can send me an updating picture on the house. She did it! She is now able to type, send a photo and send emotions or stickers. She keeps sending it. Non stop!

George and I were thinking about buying a house and renting it. I told  grandma about it and she told me I can took the house on the other side of the beach and renovate it to be a renting house.

That's a great idea actually because I don't need to buy a new house. I just have to fix the one I have. And the sea view house can make more money than the a renting house in Bangkok.
I am very excited about this. We're now saving up money.

Yesterday George went to see the dentist about his implant that he has been working on for a year. They charge him 1000$ for a crown!

We thought we paid everything already and we didn't expect to pay for this. 900$ for a crown is really expensive compare with other hospital. But the worse part was they told us when we paid for the whole process back in December that we're done. We don't have to pay for anything anymore.
It made us feel like they're cheating. They didn't even say how much it's gonna cost before they did it.

Oh I was so mad and angry as same as George. George still has to put the other crown again next week. After he gets everything done next week. I will go to the consumer protection broad and report them about all this. This is very annoyed. It ruined my day-off.

The weather is still very hot. It starts to rain also. I think Bangkok will be cooler soon. I hope :S

I'm melting!

Hellooooooo,
It has been almost a week since we came back to Thailand. We're so busy, catching up on Game of throne, Grey and Hannibal. Hahaha I'm kidding. We're busy cleaning the house and get rid of bugs plus other disgusting animals. Also we unpacked our suitcase, mostly George's stuffs. Hahaha

How is the weather?
Well, I already forgot how wonderful of living in a country 105F. It's FREAKING HOT.
 I spend all day in the room, any room with air condition. I actually went to work super early so I don't feel guilty turning air condition at home all day AND I don't have to face the sun at noon which is more powerful. Good thing about this hot weather is it makes me work harder. Yayyyy

One thing I can't forget to tell, when I was in Wisconsin, the air was very dry. It made my skin very dry too. I did put a lot of rich lotion on but It's getting worse and it's the worst when I am in Thailand! I started to feel really itchy. I mean very much that you wake up at night. Sound like a nightmare? BUT even worse, I have to put those jelly petroleum instead of just normal lotion because it makes my itch better. With the hot weather and sticky jelly petroleum, it really makes my day. George doesn't understand because he thinks his bad stomachache is worse. Hahaha

Jet lag
First two days we're here we slept at 5 pm. and we kept sleeping until 5-6 am. in the morning. It's fine for me because I love to sleep. The next day we tried sleep at 7 pm and next day we slept at 8 then 9 pm. Eventually we get over jet lag.
I didn't really feel sleep so much but I felt like my body is shutting down and felt uncomfortable. George's jet lag was worse than mine because he likes to wake up at night and play game or watching YouTube.

Work
We started to work normally since Monday. I worked on Homestay video. I almost done. I just need to put subtitle and my lovely sound in there. It's a lot of work tho. I also prepare everything for the center this weekend. We're opening again! Yay Also, this weekend all the kids from our homestay program will come in to take Toefl Junior test. I will see them again...Ohhhh noooo


I'll update my blog again soon, maybe once or twice a month or more.
Bye bye


 

We're leaving!

Today we woke up really early at 6:30 am. We ate breakfast fast and moved all the bags downstairs.
The boys moved all the big one already when the girls finished eating and dressing up.

The hotel has an airport shuttle bus. We have to be the first in the line because we have a lot of suitcase.
I felt sad for the other customers. They came later and they had to wait for another round.
We got to the airport at 8:30 am. Korean airline opened the counter at 9 am. We checked all the bags without problem. I was a little bit scared at first when I saw they weight the carry-on bag. But I think they just wanted to know the weight.

We got to the gate at 9:30 am. We had a lot of time so we let the kids run around for 2 hours. June, Didi, Carrot, Dada, Fah went shopping and got more stuffs back.

While we're waiting, the Thai girl who works in the airport offered us to check our carry on bags because today the airplane is full and they wanted to save the bin's space. All the kids checked in their carry on. It's quite useful for us because we don't need anything in their. 

13 hours flight, is a long time. I watch 2-3 movies and 1 series movie. I felt so hot in the airplane and it made me feel sick. And a small space made me feel even worse. I sat with George and Japan. I just realized that Japan has 2 brothers today. He never talked about them before. He doesn't like to talk about feeling, specially a good feeling. 

George couldn't sleep at all (again) because the seat was too small. It was uncomfortable. I didn't want to go back to Thailand but the flight makes me want to get home as soon as possible. I miss my bed. 

Now we're at Korea airport. We only have  30 mins before broading time. We're leaving soon. And another 6 hours we will be home! Su su! 

Lincoln Park Zoo, Magnificent Mile, Thai Food, Jazz Concert

I woke up early today. George went to drop the van at the airport and I get the kids ready for touring. We left the hotel around 9 am. George forgot his hotel key card so I took it and gave him at CTA. 

George went back to the hotel, I and the kids went to the zoo. I was the leader today hahaha. 

We get off from CTA and took the bus. I should have got off on the different station. We had to walk a little longer haha. We took bus 151 to the zoo with no problem. The zoo is under construction. We had to get in at the different gate. We saw the Spring Flower Show so we went inside. It's very hot and beautiful. We ate some snack and ice-cream and we walked around together to see animals. Top three of animals today are 1.Polar Bear 2.Meerkat 3.Cockroach. Hahaha we spent 20 mins taking photo with Polar Bear in the background playing in the water. 

We ate quesadilla for lunch. It was too big for most of the kids. They didn't finish it. We were late so we ate it as quick as we can. I didn't remember how to get to the same gate we got in. We walked around the zoo a couple time and asked two guys who sell popcorn and hot dog but they point to different direction! 

Finally we found people who wear zoo shirt. They must work there. We all ran to them and asked for Rino cage. We saw Rino cage when we first came it. The zoo people took 3 minutes to understand the word 'rino'. It was so funny because all of us say it for a couple time. They gave us a map and direction. Finally we found the way out. The kids were tired hahahaha. We had to run because we wanted to be at the Loop as soon as possible. We saw the bus151 but we couldn't catch it. We had to wait for another 5 minutes. 

We got off at Magnificent Mile. It's shopping street that we visited last year. George met us at Disney's shop. He scold me for being late and didn't call. But I was really busy! Haha

We walked and shopped for 2 hours. And we had a nice dinner at Thai restaurant. All are Thai staffs. The owner has living in America for more than 40 years. He seems happy to see us. The kids ordered KhaiJeaw, Padkapao, Padthai. George ordered Mussamun, Labmoo. We ordered a little bit too much because we couldn't finish Padkapao.

I like their Padthai most. I didn't expect this good but it's really good. Best Padthai in USA so far. 

We went to watch Jazz concert after dinner. I felt sleepy. Some of the kids felt it too. We're too full. We watched it for hour and we went back to the hotel.

We packed and weight all the bags. Tomorrow we're leaving from hotel at 8am. Our flight is around noon. Pheww I'm tired. 

The Bean,Giordano's Famous Chicago Pizza, Dairy Queen

George woke up so early because he had to pick up the van at Gurnee Mills.
I came downstairs to eat breakfast with him. I made another waffle.
After breakfast I came back to the room and get the kids ready.

We moved all the suitcases to the van. June, Win and I went on the first trip.
We took most of suitcases with us. Holiday Inn O'hare is 40 minutes from the first hotel.
We arrived early around 10 am. but the hotel let us check in early. That's cool because I didn't have to sit with all the bags at the lobby.

June, Win and I stayed at the hotel and George went back to get the the rest of the kids.
George and the kids arrived around 12:30 pm. I think moving this time wasn't tired. We're experienced. Everything went smoothly. After we put everything in place. We took CTA to downtown.

We took the blue line from Cumberland to the Loop. It takes about 40 minutes.
We walked to Cloud Gate, Crown Fountain and around the Millennium Park. We took a lot of photo.

We saw a new building near by. We didn't see it last year so we walked to that building to see what is going on in their. It looks like art space for kids and gallery but it isn't done yet. 

While we're exploring the building, I heard Japan said something rude (basically to me and George) with bad attitude again. I had a talk with him and George had another serious talk with him again. After that he seems to behave better.

We went to Chicago Culture Center. There's an art gallery about blue music. It's about the old building that Blue musicians lived in. There're many big picture of the building both inside and outside.

We had a reservation at Giordano's Famous Chicago Pizza for 6 pm. We had sometime before we eat so we stopped at the book shop. We bought some games and books.

Giordano's Famous Chicago Pizza has been operating for 200 years. It's Chicago Pizza. It's very big and thick. The kids love it! Dada ate 2 pieces. Didi ate even more. I can only ate one. I like the garlic lemon chicken wings.

We had ice-cream for dessert. They still can eat it! 

We took CTA back to the hotel around 8 o'clock. Tomorrow we're going to Lincoln Zoo and we will come back to Millennium park to watch Blue concert for an hour, then we will go shopping at Magnificent mile.
We have to pack and ready to go tomorrow night because our airplane leaves at noon. We have to be at the airport before 9 am. I can't believe we're going home!

Six Flag Great America

I work up at 6 o'clock today because Dada's iPad kept making sound. She didn't turn the sound off.
We went to ate breakfast at 7:30 am. at the hotel lobby. I made waffle by myself. I was so proud! hahaha.

We was happy until we came back to our main hotel room and found that Pooh and Japan leaved the room without closing it (AGAIN!) and all of important stuffs like passports, money, phone, vdo camera, digital camera were in the room on the dressing table right by the door! George almost had a heart attack. He couldn't speak to them himself because he was really angry. We didn't think that after a big bomb in Wisconsin when they left the van's door open, they would let it happen again! and this is CHICAGO, BIG TOWN! omg, we're really lucky that George and I ate first and we came back to the room 2 minutes after this guys left.

Eventually, we were ready to go at 9 o'clock. We walked to Six Flag. We thought it's gonna be a long way but it wasn't. It took about 15 minutes. We saw many car from far away at the junction. I told George that it looks like people parking but maybe it's red light. But when we got there. It was people who drive to Six Flag were waiting for the opening. Wow they came so early.

Around 9:30 am. the guard opened the gate and we walked inside. The cars have to go to the other gate to get into the parking lot. That gate wasn't open until 10:00 am. We're the first in the line.

We let the kids choose to spit their group. June, Didi and Carrot went off by themselves.
The rest of them wanted to stick together. George and I went with them.

The first ride we went on was to lame. It's sky Trek Tower. You can see the view from up there.
After that we went to Superman rid e which is pretty fast and fun. Pooh and In didn't go on.
It took us an hour because the ride had some problem at first. And that is a good lesson for Pooh and In "not to wait, just go!" Hahahha

While we're waiting for the girls, we played a game outside and we got a cute hat. 4 of us!
And when we're on the big ride, these guys were playing Crazy Cup.

Dada, Fah and In went on The climbing thing. In is "Miss Say No" It's really good that she is with Dada because Dada can manage In to join a lot of ride.

Fah and In climbed for a few minutes and they get bored. They said it was to hard. They didn't even move to the higher story. Dada went to the top. It was so high.



(In the circle is Dada)

After Batman indoor dark coaster), we kind of spit. Win and I went to all the big coasters (sometime Japan and Pooh went with us) and Dada, Fah, In only went on the baby rides.
I think Dada, In, Fah are in the middle. They're not old enough to like roller coaster and they're too old for baby rides. But they had a lot of fun tho.

We met June, Didi and Carrot sometimes. They went on A LOT of rides. They're so fast.

We're done at the park around 6 pm. We went to eat and hurry back to the hotel because it's cold.
We didn't really dress warm enough.



I gave George massage because he worked hard today and I played all day haha.

Tomorrow, we're moving to Holiday Inn, Chicago. George rent the van for the day to move all stuffs.
We hope we can move all the suitcases by 2 trips. After moving, we're going to The bean and walk around downtown and we're going to eat Chicago Deep Fried Pizza.
It's gonna be another long day.

Says Good Bye, Gurnee Mills

Today all the kids come back to us. Their host family dropped them off at 10:30 in the morning. We had a lot of cry. Carrot, Didi and June cried A LOT. I almost cry with them. Pooh came late because he forgot something at home and he went back again.

We moved all suitcases to the bus. That was a lot of work. And we leaved Wisconsin around 11 am.  2 hours later we arrived at Laquinta hotel. We moved all suitcases, put it on the carts and brought it up to the room on 3rd floor. Soooo tired! 

We put all suitcases in boy's room. George told all kids we have 30 minutes to unpack Chicago bags and watch TV. 5 minutes later we went to June, Didi and Carrot room. They didn't answer the door. I walked around on the floor but I couldn't find them. Finally I found them at the pool on the first floor. I was upset because we already told and mention about don't leave the room(yet). I brought them back and found that they didn't unpack which is what they supposed to do before doing something else. I gave them a hard time about it. They made me tired already.

We went downstairs to wait for the taxi at 3 pm. But the taxi didn't show up. George called them again and it came out that they thought we need it tomorrow at 1 pm! George was upset about it. He told them to come now. The taxi came but only one taxi! We called for 2 minivan taxi. George was really upset about them. He told the taxi to go back and we got the other taxi company.

We left the hotel at 4pm! We were hungry and tired! We ate Mc donald for dinner and we gave the kids 2 hours to shopping by themselves. Japan, Dada, In and Fah walk with me and George all time because they're too young to walk by themselves in this gigantic mall. Japan was kind of upset about it. He thought he should be with Pooh and Win. We think Win can take care of Pooh because they're brother. If Pooh were here alone, he would go with us too. We had a talk with Japan about his attitude and he was better after that.

We took taxi back to the hotel around 8:30 pm. We put all stuffs they bought in our extra bags. They will get it in Thailand. While George was talking about our meal plan, the kids talked and laugh to each other so George had to turn to cranky George to quiet them down. It's been a long day.

Tomorrow is going to be another long day. I want to cry :S.
We'll be in Six Flag Great America all day.