THAILAND

It's a loooong trip to Thailand. I was so tired.

We took a  car to Boston airport. Checking in the bags and took the plane to Chicago.

After 2 hours, we arrive Chicago Midway Airport but we have to take another plane to Narita at Chicago O'Hare Airport.

We took the train cross the town. It's the hardest thing in this trip but we did a really good job.

Kids help each other and be very strong. Finally we arrive at O'Hare on time!! Unbelievable.

We took the plane for 12 hours to Narita airport. Sadly that we don't have time to shopping there.

We had to take another plane to Bangkok for another 6 hours.

And finally, we arrived Bangkok! We're so smell at this point. Geroge didn't take a shower for 3 days.

It's a long trip. Kids met their parent and hug each others.

Lin was the only one who cry :P like we bet! hahaha.

Every parents said George looks fatter than before.

Hahahaha I'm so happy. He didn't believe me when I said that and now he's still thinking that I emailed parent to say that.

We was home at 3 O'clock.

As always, the taxi at the airport wants more money to take us to town. They don't want to do meter.

George went to Tourist Police Station but they didn't help. They wanted him to fill the paper and they'll send it to the airport. Police can't do anything with the criminal taxi. They don't want to and they're annoyed that George has a problem with that. That's why the plane to Bangkok was not full.

The first thing that tourist meet is criminal taxi. At last, we found a taxi that do meter and we put all the suitcases we had in 1 taxi. It's amazing!

Yesterday I spent all day sleeping. My eyes are so bright at the night time and I'm so sleepy at the day time.

I had a jet lag and I don't know when will it end. We woke up at 11 AM. go eat and I came home to sleep around 2 PM. George came home to sleep around 3 PM. and we woke up again 8 PM. hahahaha

What's a day!

It's a good time to go out and meet our friends and family.

We went to Tease Gallery but nobody was there. They were there yesterday. It's Oun Birthday party.

We missed it :(

Jane was talking about they're gonna miss each other on the way to Bangkok.

I think she's the one that gonna miss her friends a lot, also Erng but she didn't say it :P

Erng and Jane always stay together.

Everybody is gonna miss each other. It's a month that we lived together.

I'm gonna miss you guys too.

I proud of Erng. She was so diligent to use English. She tried to talk with Sarah and everybody. She always make me feel like ..."Aoww Woww"  and she was a big sister for Jane. 

She always talk with Jane's host family to make sure she's ok and didn't make any problem. hahaha 

That's cute. She's actually a little bit older than Jane hahaha. Erng takes thing so serious. George can't joking with her because he will make her confusing. You have to see when George taught Erng how to bowling. She moved her arm like a robot. Hahahaha By the way, Erng is kind of in fashion. She love to dress pretty.

Linn and Jane are the big eater. They ate everything we have.

Jane is too young to hide her hungry but Linn is not.

She tried not to show what she eat. While everybody is busy with something, she will bring something out and eat it. If we turn our face to look at her, we will got her! Jean is always teasing Lin.

She was worry about her weight but you know, she doersn't mind with what she eat at all. Jean always give her some high calories food and tell her about calories later. Linn love playing card. It's the her best skill.

Jane like to eat a lot. She spent all her money with food.

She eat everything! We have to stop her sometime. Everybody has fun with convincing Jane to eat something. hahaha It's always work! She has an idea that she is the most beautiful girl in the world.

We're so sick of it. 


Jane is so young so she is the one that George and I taught her a lot.

She gets mad sometimes and then she forget it.
I can see Jane is improving a lot of English skill.

She was so shy and had a hard time with understanding at first but in the end of the trip she is always joke around with George. When I was teasing her in English, She can explain the truth to George. She's teasing Erng in English with George. It's kind of hard to survive in our group without English. 
They're gonna tease you! 

Baifern is a mother hen. She is kind and mature. She takes care of everybody like their mother.Erng and Jane love her because she's never teased anybody. (Actually, she's sometimes tease Jane but she didn't know that)  
 didn't recognize that we've ever complained anything about Baifern (also Linn). They're too good to be kids. 

Jean is the Joker. He makes fun with everybody, everything with his stupid joke.

Sometimes it's really not fun but we have to laugh a little bit to cheer him up. He's teasing everybody.

He made me and George smile when we saw Jean gave his backpack to the girls and let them carried.

He sat in the seat and let the girls stand. What's a man! Hahahahha

He's really worry about his look, his weight. He's be careful to eat food and love to eat vegetable. 

He's also love to cook and help in the kitchen. His host family told us that he's a man when he was in their house.

He tried to help the girls to get thought home sickness. He didn't have one. 

It was really hard to be teenager parent. It's hard to keep them in the rule.

Sometimes, you have to be very stick but can't be toooo stick. Sometimes, you have to give them freedom which actually not really freedom. :P Sometimes they're annoying and make you have to be mad.

Sometimes they're so innocence that make you laugh.

These kids have make me confuse about having kid.

And even we complain a lot, we want you guys to know that you're really good kids.

I think that's why they take the trip with us. If they're bad, their parent wouldn't let them go.

I think I'd have so much fun if I can be friends with them.You're fun and full with joke.

So please keep in touch. Bangkok is not so large. I think we can have lunch or meeting together!

Packing Day

We spent all day packing and preparing to go home.

Kids were waiting for the day that they don't have to go out for long time.

We didn't let them stay home because it's only 7 days in Boston so it's better to tired because of traveling hahaha.

George and I took the train to rent a car. I didn't want to go but I afraid that he will be lonely so I went with him.

It's so far and I had a headache :(  I really want to stay home... in bed hahaha

The car was really big. I like it. We stopped by at supermarket to buy more carry-on bags.

We didn't have enough bags for all stuffs that we bought and the bags that the kids brought with them were too small. It's almost not enough for their stuffs! 

We came back around 1 PM. I cooked lunch. We ate and then took a nap. 

Everybody were sleeping at that time hahaha. They're so lazy. 

George and I didn't done with shopping yet. We know too much people so we went outside to buy more souvenirs. I didn't want to go either but I did go hahaha.

We came back around 7 PM. I cooked dinner and sandwich, pancake for tomorrow.

We're gonna leave around 2 AM. to Boston airport. 

After 8 PM. I took a nap until the time came. Danny woke us up. I was the first passenger who came with all the bags. 

Quincy Market, Pin Bowling

It's raining all day long but we're still go outside! It's our last day in Boston.
We actually had a plan to go the park near by the Newbury Street but because it's rain we had to change our plan.

We went to Quincy Market. It's tourist area so there're many thing for tourist.
There're so many kind of food. We ate Sandwich for lunch and  clam chowder.
Clam chowder is a famous food in Boston. It's a delicious soup. I like it, also the kids.

After eating, We let the kids walking around the market by themselves.
There're 2-3 places near by. George and I were waiting in Cheer restaurant.

It's a place that they make it from famous series.

I saw the kids walking around in the rain (Don't worry, we made them wear a hat)

Erng came back with Godiva Chocolate Shake and Jane came with a box of Godiva chocolate.

Lin and Fern bought nothing! They're such a good saver kids.

We went to Faneuil hall together. It's a museum about America.
It told all the story about America in the past. I was surprise that Jean seems to be interested about it. 

He curious about Indian and American. George gave a lot of detail about American History.
It's kind of same like Thailand before we became Thailand. We had many different group of people and we fight each other. finally, we become country. Same like America :)

We went to Central Square to continues shopping. 

George bought some books for the kids at school. Linn bought Fasion Design book.

We spent like an hour in the book store and the kids started to complain again! Such an old people. 

I think I'm a big complainer but they're bigger complainer. 

We found second hand cloth shop. I like it. I want to buy it all!

It's a shop that people bring their old brand name cloth to sell.
The shop will give them money when they sold their cloths. 

It's cool!

After that we met Sai and had dinner together at Redbone BBQ.
It's famous restaurant in Boston. We ordered a lot of food. No actually not, but the plate were really big.

Food was tasty! I like it. I was so full.

It's not too late to go bowling so we went to bowling.
It's not a normal bowling, It's pin bowling. It's a lot smaller and the ball is also small.

You're not gonna find it in anywhere else in the world.

It's only in New England. So it's good that the kids have a chance to play it in Boston.

It's kind of Boston culture hahahaha.

We played 2 games. It took 1.30 hours. and then we went back home.
Kids really like it. They had so much fun joking about their play. 

Newbury Street, Boston

Newbury Street is a shopping street in Boston. Boston's people don't like to shopping in the mall because it's lo-so! So people are more like to walk in the street, sipping coffee in the nice coffee shop.

(we're having coffee at AU BON PAIN)

We went to shopping in the Newbury Street today. We leaved the house after lunch and took the subway.
It's really good that you can take subway to any place you want.
It's fast and cheap. Jean was the one that seem to be happy. He had the lists of what he wants and it's on Newbury Street.

Jean bought Nudie Jean. Erng, Jane and I bought some cloths from H&M.
Lin and Fern didn't buy anything. They're really good saver.




We walked around and taking pictures. Jean bought Nudie Jean. Erng, Jane and me bought some cheap cloths at H&M. Lin and Fern didn't buy anything. Lin found Fashion design learning center. She was interested so she took a photo with the shop:|

We finished shopping at iStudio. George bought AppleTV for his friend.
After that we went to Chistina and Robert House. Kids was complaining about getting tired all the way to their house but they didn't complain when they're shopping!
It's not that far. You know I'm the weakest person in the group and everybody does the same thing, eat the same food so if we can do it, they can do it too!

We had dinner at Chistina house. She cooked a lot of food by herself. It was so amazing!
She had 3 yo boy and 4 months baby girl and she was home alone!
I have no idea how could she did that. It was a lot of food that we couldn't finished. I'd need a maid for that.

Before we came, I talked to the kids that they have to interact with Chistina and Robert.
They rarely talked with Danny and Tracy at home. It's not good. They should talk with people in English not talking to each other in Thai.
It's kind of impolite if we will sit and talk to each other in Thai and they will not have a chance to talk with us.

Anyway, they did it again so we had to remind them and put them a little bit.
Chistina is a professer. She's teaching student English, specially student who come from another country.
She taught the kids how to pronouse the word and how to understand about the essent.
It's a good thing to get.

By the way, the kids tried to make we go home early because they felt tired. It's only 9 PM! They're talking and watching Thai drama movie until 12 AM. last night that make me angry but not so long.
I think we're like a family. We went home around 9.30 PM. Everybody went to bed and sleep immediately. Long day~ 

Weekend in New York

We went to New York on Saturday morning. We leaved Boston around 9 AM. and we arrived New York around 2 PM. We went to our hotel straightly because It's too late to do anything so we get rest and wake up early tomorrow to travel around New York.

We had dinner in the hotel. We ate 2 pans of pizza and we also play pool in that restaurant.

It wasn't my first time but I'm still be a newbie. After dinner, we talked about a lot of things. It's all funny thing in the room until late of night. Around 11 PM. We went to bed and tried to sleep.

We woke up really early in the next day around 6 AM. but George and Jean were in another room and they woke up late so we leaved the hotel around 9 AM. We went to Liberty State Park to see the statue of liberty.

It's very big in my eyes but it looks really small in the camera.

We took a lot of photos there and having fun with binoculars. We also saw New York city from this park. It's really nice.

We park our car in the parking. It's very expensive about $19/hour week days and $13/day for weekend.

From the parking we walked to the Freedom Tower. 

The building that they built instead World Trade Center near by the old World Trade Center area.

George tried to explain about the building but the kids get really bored. 

We found out later that they have no idea about World Trade Center and 9/11 things that made him shocked.

It's the most important history in the world so tomorrow he's gonna tell the story about 9/11 to the kids. 

The buildings are very tall and new. It's different from Boston and I like Boston better.

We took the subway to Time Square around noon. 

We walked together to see how it likes and then we had lunch together and we let the kids go take a walk by themselves for an hour.

I bought some postcard and sent it from New York to my friends, family and myself.
Time Square is really nice. A lot of light is all around. 
I forgot to tell that New York has a bad traffic like Bangkok but Bangkok is worse.
The air is still fresh even there're a lot of cars. You can open the window to get some cold air.

I wonder how much money they spend with electricity bills.  

We leaved New York around 4 o'clock and we stuck in New York for a while because of traffic. 

We arrived Boston around 8 O'clock.

So tired, so everybody is in bed now.

Bunker Hill, China Town

I woke up late today because I've worked late last night. I actually wanted more sleep.
It's a walking day and it's very windy. I felt so cold all day long. 

We walked a lot. We walked to Bunker Hill. I was soooooo tired after I walked up to the top.

After that we walked to USS Constitution. It's a place that you can see the oldest battleship in the world.

We walked around and taking pictures. There's a navy introduced us about the boat and history.

We took the bus to downtown and walked around. It's really nice city.
We had dinner in China town. Food tasted so goooooood!
I really like it. George met his old best friend there. 

We took the train and walk a little bit back home.
So tired. 

Harvard Square

We woke up late today. I felt pain all of my body because of the suitcases yesterday.
We went to Harvard Square by the bus. The bus here is a lot better than the bus in Thailand.
It's not so crowded and it's really stop at the bus stop. It's stop and low down a little bit so customer can get down easily and if you're in a wheelchair or you have a baby, there's an automatic ramp for you. It's cool!
Also you can check the time that the bus will arrive real time by checking GPS of the bus. So cool!

We walked around Harvard University, It's really beautiful and big.
There're so many people walk around. We bought some gift for friends at the COOP.
Erng was so excited about it so she bought many things. 

I found my family and I favorite chocolate but it's hard to bring it to BKK.

We walked to the river, feed gooses and take a photo. Suddenly, Linn wanted to go to the toilet.
So we walked back to Harvard Square and find a toilet for her. 

After that, we met Danny and his wife at the meeting point.
We took the bus back home together. I and George went to the market to buy vegetable to make salad.
We cooked Macaroni Cheese and Salad for dinner.

Boston

We woke up at 1 AM. to go to Chicago Midway Airport for the flight to Boston at 7.15 AM.
Goriteway came to pick us up at Dan and Sarah's house. I almost cry when we were saying good bye to them. They become my family and I feel sad to leave. YY

It takes 3 hours to the airport and 2 hours to checking bags and go to the gate.
We had to unpack and pack the suitcases again and again because of the weight and finally we made it with out losing anything.

We arrived at Boston Airport around 10.30 AM. It actually takes only 2 hours to Boston but Boston has 1 hour ahead timezone. So we arrived at that time then we carried all the bags with us to take a bus and train and train and bus. We knew it's gonna be so tired but it's better than I thought.

Danny, George's brother met us at the train station and he help us to carry all the bags to his house.
We carried it up to the 3rd floor. (Most of bags was carried by Danny, House's owner hahaha)

Danny's place is big and nice. He and his wife just bought it.
Kids love the color and style of their house. It's a lot better that they're imagine.
Because when you heard the word apartment in Thailand, you'll imagine a small little place, dirty and difficult to live but it's not this one. We're so scare to make their house dirty.

(Jean's headphone was broken, also his Mac Book screen. Bad luck)

(I got the bed this time!)

After touring around the house, we unpack our stuffs and put the bags together
We're so tired at that point but we made it! Yeahhhh
Kids took a rest. I cooked Mama Noodle for lunch because we were so hungry and it was the only thing we can find right now. I cooked a bit too much. We couldn't finish it :(

After lunch, all kids and me took a nap for a couple hours. George had a long conversation with his brother.
They've met for 10 years I guess. America is too big to often see each other.
Many people in Wisconsin have never been to Bonton. We're so lucky to be here. It's very really far!

Danny loves to cook so he cooked our dinner and I cooked rice.
We ate grill chicken with rice. Jane ate a lot of chicken.



(They have 2 old cats. It's 14 and 17 year old. Another one is really fat.)


So first day in Boston we're only eat and sleep, bring back energy.
I'm out of battery right now. I'm gonna to sleep.
Good night everyone. 

Last day in Wisconsin

I have enough sleep today Yeahh.
I woke up at 8.00 am. before all the girls.
I cooked scramble eggs, bacon, ham and cereal for breakfast.
It was a lot of food. I couldn't finish it so I leave some for George.
He complains everyday that I make him fat.
Jean also cooked scramble egg. He said he knows how to cook it from his hosfamily.

After Jean and I, Erng and Jane cooked bacon and some how they made all the house full with smoke. It took all day to let the smoke out because we don't open the windows or the doors. It's cold so they've never opened it.

After breakfast, We packed all stuff in the luggages and brought it to the first floor. We're now ready for Boston. We have a lot of food hahaha.


I cooked lunch without heating. Sarah told me that I'm better cook it by myself. I cooked rice and fish can with a lot of chilly.
I heard that Lin love spicy so I made her try US chilly. It was spicy.

In the evening, we went to Hobby Lobby. The kids was so excited and they're really like it. Especially, Scrapbooking area.They couldn't stop shopping and confuse about buying things. We took a long time in Hobby Lobby.
We came out with a lot of stuffs and spent a lot of money.

We went to Jean's hosfamily house. They just came back from Las Vegas and they wanted to say good-bye Jean. They also had a little bit tear. They gave us the gifts from Las Vegas.
After that we went to the library, update our blogs and went to the Game shop near by.

George was playing game when we arrived so we waited him for 5 minutes and he lose!
We ran back home because we're really hungry. We made pizza and ate it fast.
After that we told the kids to be relax because we're gonna have a longggg day tomorrow but it's hard for them to calm down. They're quiet about 1 hour before we leave.
They're gonna be so tired then.

I'm kind of sad that I have to leave Wisconsin.
I love to stay here with Sarah and Dan. They're fun and they're so good to me. I know that they're also really like me too hahahaha.

And I'm gonna be more sad when we leave Boston :(

Cranky Day

Today is a long day for me. I slept very late last night about 1.30 am. George and I was talking with P'Cherry at the center and because our time different and Cherry went to work late so we had to sleep late :(
And sadly that I have to wake up early :( I work up around 7 am. It is hard for me to sleep less.
I was really up set and not in the mood to work at all.

We went to Valders kidergarten to observed the class so we can adjust to our class in Thailand.
Our class and American Class is exactly the same. We teach the same way as they do.
Teachers assign the proper work for each students. The class is a small class size. It's about 20 kids in a room.
There's many stations in the classroom. First 15 minutes, Teacher told the kids to do things differently. 5 kids studied phonics with the teacher, 5 kids read a book separately and  4 kids may drawing things they like, 1 boy listening the story with CD player and book by himself.

Every kids has things to do and then they changed the stations or get together in the middle.
Kids missed difference skills so they can't just study same things. Some might need to practice something else so they can catch up with other kids. Kids can't study the way an adult does. They learn by playing. 

So It's a great thing that we took a video of their class so we can show to the parents who have a hard time of understanding what we do to see and hope that they will understand the way we teach. 

There's a room that the kids can play role to be a doctor and it's so cute when the kids say and do the exactly what they see from the hospital. 

Teacher read the story and asked the kids to compare 2 stories so it there's any kids have a problem, teacher would know it and they will fix it by kids personal assignment. That's cool! 

You will see the kids wrote almost every word wrong but they can write! 

Thai kids wouldn't be able to write the sentence by themselves because Thai education doesn't teach the kids to know the sound of the letters and teach them how to mix it together. I saw some Thai kids at kindergarten levels can wrote but only some words like.. Father, Mother etc.. to make parent happy but they had no idea why that words read like that, write like that. And if you told them to write the different words, sentence. They couldn't do it. They don't really understand what they're doing but they're memorize.

Here, kids don't have to know the right word by this time but they're be able to write the word by the sound that they talk everyday.  If you look at the picture, you will see that they wrote from understanding. That's cool! 

I was so tired and sleepy. We went back home to had lunch and then came back to school again to observe their reading class. Every classrooms have a reading corner and they have reading hours that kids will read or try to read both by themselves and couple then they will compare the story together. That's cool!

After we finished all of work, we came home had some snack and I took a nap for 2 hours.
It made me feel better. I was so cranky when I was sleepy and George knows that I really need a nap.

I cook rice soup with bread for dinner. I put a lot of garlic because I like it but some kids don't like it so it's their problem hahahaha.

Tomorrow, we have a meeting with the school again. They will give us the information as much as they can give.

I start to pack my stuffs. Tomorrow night we will fly to Boston. I showed the kids my scrapbooking and explained them about Hobby Lobby. They love it! So tomorrow we will take them to Hobby Lobby my favorite place. It's awesome. There're everything about hobby. I wish Thailand would has a place like that.