Ticket to Africa

I am stoked! I just bought my ticket to Africa! (Be prepared to see a lot of exclamation marks in this blog. I am too excited to sleep even tho its almost 3am.)

Last week I decided to go to Africa. I bought the ticket tonight and the flight leaves in 10 days!

Yeah, I know I am already living in a vacation destination and I would have been perfectly happy traveling around Asia for a couple weeks before going home, but.....its Africa!

After years and years (at least 2 decades now) of wanting to visit this amazing continent,  it is about to become a reality. It's going to be a short trip, but I will squeeze in as much as possible....don't worry.

The plan is to fly into Johannesburg and hopefully get out of that city immediately. A few biggies on the list of things to do include a trip to Kruger to see a giraffe and any of the other amazing animals living there, then head over to Mozambique to enjoy some diving and beach time in Tofo (hopefully swim with a whale shark or tiger shark or hammerhead or any other big fish with gnarly teeth) and then get down to Cape Town and southern South Africa to play with some penguins and great whites. After writing it out, it appears the goal of this trip is to see Big Animals!

A friend from my hometown is living in South Africa and I am hoping to meet up with her. Another friend in the states has introduced me to one of her friends living in Johannesburg and she is also trying to convince me to go to Botswana! It won't take much to convince me. I have no idea what will happen when I get there, but it should be a good time!

Looks like I might be able to get all 7 continents into one passport! I love my life!

Make A Cell

A fun science lab for my 10th graders. This was one of my smallest classes with only 3 students - Wat, Eric and Mac. When we were covering cells and organelles we did this lab. Best tasting lab of the semester!

Adding the cell wall

Wat, Eric and Mac

Eric's mom made a cheesecake that we used as the base for the plant cell.
They did a great job! And it was delicious!

Pizza animal cell and cheesecake plant cell

Bangkok 5K



PunPun, Aum, Sun, Ham, YoYo
Pop, Ann, Earn, Me



I have done and seen some amazing things since I have been over here in Thailand, but this was my favorite!

I teach Health to a bunch of kids from 7^th grade to 11^th grade. Since a few of them could use some bonus, I offered bonus points to anyone who participated in the Bangkok 5K. On the Friday before the race 9 kids decided to participate.

I was shocked that any kids would want to give up their weekend and actually meet at 5am on Sunday morning in order to make it to the race on time.

All 9 of them showed up Sunday morning! We piled into 2 taxis and took off for Wat Phra Kaeo where the race started. By the time we arrived the area was packed with runners and the race was about to start.

It was really hard keeping a group that size all together and we were constantly on our phones trying to regroup. I am pretty sure the race was starting when we finally made it to the baggage check area, but it really wasn’t about winning the race. We did manage to get one group picture before taking off.

Everyone jogged for the first little bit and then  our group spread out over the entire course. A couple of the kids ran the whole thing! It was awesome to see especially since they did nothing to prepare! Only one of the kids had actually run in a race before.

I tried to run/walk with everyone at some point and would go back a couple hundred meters to meet each kid as they came across the finish. It was a great morning!

A few of the kids stuck around with me and cheered on the others as they came by. We took a lot of pictures and ate the free food and drank the free drinks. McDonalds helped sponsor the race. (Crazy and ironic) At the end of the race they were giving away free chicken or pork sandwiches. I am not going to lie. I did eat one of the chicken sandwiches. First time I have eaten McDonalds in years! Definitely the last time I will eat it, especially after running- I felt sick for a few minutes.

Once everyone was done and we made it back to our bags, I handed out the t-shirts and medals.  No race is complete without a t-shirt and medal. Especially the first one.
                  

One last thing I forgot to mention. While Ann and I were talking, she said she saw ‘a man shitting along the course.’ I was kind of taken aback at her choice of vocabulary and the fact that the man didn’t just find a toilet since there were plenty. How do you reply to that? I think I said something along the lines of ‘Oh, well, that can happen during races, but usually people will find a toilet if there is one available.’

Clearly I didn’t get it. She said something else about him cutting or not going to the turn around point and then I realized what she was trying to say à She saw a man cheating! So of course I started cracking up asked her if she knew what she just said. I got a shaking head and blank stare. I repeated what I heard and she started laughing and saying ‘No teacher, no!’ When I asked her to say 'cheating' it still came out 'shitting'. Hilarious!

Turns out almost all the kids say shitting.
 

On Monday I had 7^th grade English class and that’s when we worked on pronunciation – specifically the difference between CH and SH. It was the Cheating vs Shitting lesson and they did get much better by the end of the week. It was the funniest class I have taught. Without realizing it, one of the words I put up on the board for them to say was Chat..... Ahhh, good times!
 

The race was a blast and it was a morning I’ll never forget!