Random shots

A night shot of our local City Pilar Shrine, always beautiful, no matter the time of day.

Elephants really do walk down the street. We took this photo on the back of a "bus" we were on as we drove around the elephant. Behind the elephant you can see the other typical form of transportation in the area, a bike taxi.

Amye with one of her classes. The peace sign for photos is a BIG thing with Thai kids.

The inside of a mangosteen. Range in size from golf ball to baseball, with a hard purple outer shell, bright red inside with white fruit that literally melts in your mouth... mmm, so good!

One of the many fruit vendors on the streets of SiSaket. In the foreground are just two of the MANY motorbikes that line the streets by the market at night. Both of the fruits for sale are common to the region. Durians on the left and rambutian on the right.

A close-up photo of the rambutian fruit. It looks prickly, but the green spikes are soft and the inside holds a white jelly-like fruit.

The view of rice patty fields from the train. This was on our way to Ubon from SiSaket.

Getting ready for some time by the pool during our trip to Ubon.

The sunset in Ubon from our hotel room. Sunsets here are always incredible, especially when there are some thunder clouds on the horizon. --Pictures cannot do it justice--

Spending some time by the pool in Ubon.
Amye walking by the pool in Ubon.

Corn: not just a vegetable but a sweet used in many desserts. Take for example, the Corn Sundae (yes, really) at KFC.

Working hard for the Baht

First of all, sorry for the long time since the last update!! All is going great here in Thailand and we're enjoying ourselves immensely. The typical week is 5 days at school and teaching about 18 hours a week. On the weekend we try and travel to a nearby town or city. We've been to Ubon Ratchachani (to the East) and Surin (to the West), both by train. Surin is known as the Elephant City and hosts the annual elephant round-up in the Fall. Although we did not see any elephants in Surin, we have seen 4 on the streets of Ubon--although only from a distance, and one baby elephant up-close and personal in front of our hotel during the Sunday night market.

It's hard to believe that we've been in Si Saket for over a month already, and we're amazed at how many people we've come to know. It's already hard for us to walk through town without people staring and parents pointing out the foreigners to their kids, but know we know people when we're walking through town.
The group of foreigners in town is not overwhelming, but we have the ability to spot them in the crowd easily. We've already found all of the European/Western type restaurants for our go-to when we're just not feeling Thai food, or we need something to get our stomachs back on the right track--if you know what I mean. We have found a unique variety of packaged foods available here that just aren't available elsewhere. Examples include Pepsi Green, Pringles with Garlic and Basil, and shrimp flavored chips. And something that Amye loves, is the availability of locally grown sweet corn. Although available on the cob, it is most often served with shaved coconut, vanilla sauce, or as a dessert item like the Corn Sundae at KFC.

Last week we were treated to the first teacher-appreciation dinner at our school. It was complete with an 8 course traditional Thai meal, which was great. The beer kept flowing all night, as did the karoke singing. The director of the school (the big kahuna) very much enjoys talking to the two of us and making sure we're happy. He spent quite a bit of time at our table and sang us a karoke song. Touching as it was, it was humorous when he finished and then asked us to sing him a song. Well, the next English song that came up on the screen was "Tears In Heaven" .... we'll just leave it at that. Here is a photo of the two of us with our boss in the Foreign Language Department (Bob) and the Director (the Director). Neither of them caught on to the fact that we were acting up:

One final note of this posting... to Amye's sadness, my beard is now gone and as she says "you look naked." More photos to come soon. We're having difficulties with the internet at work right now and we're having a hard time uploading.