Chinatown Bangkok

Click the slideshow to see full sized images.

V8 Diner

Home sweet home circa 1950 in the heart of Bangkok.

Kinda miss the whole HOA concept...

Merry Christmas

Nothing says Christmas like Heineken. They are still playing Christmas music in the stores over here. Don't know if they just don't get it or if they don't realize that it is Christmas music. Either way, it just does not seem right.

Free Pizza?

On Friday night, we decided to check out an expat favorite, The Witches Tavern, for drinks and FREE pizza. I was expecting a frozen pizza or 4" personal pizza. I was delighted when four of these excellent pies showed up at our table. But I was ecstatic to see Pure Blonde Lager on the menu. It is really hard to find a decent beer or wine selection over here.

Wat Thammongkol

I have shared before that the apartment has an incredible view of Wat Thammongkol.  Monks live and work here, growing and raising some of the food they eat and exchanging blessings in the community for prepared food, transportation and anything else they may need.

Wat Thammongkol Boasts Thailand's tallest Chedi which was built about 20 years ago and is topped with 17 kilograms of pure gold and 1,063 diamonds. The temple houses the worlds largest jade statue, depicting Buddha in the Lotus posture. The statue was carved by an Italian master in 1990 from a 57 ton block of jade that was mined from Kings Mountain in Western Canada.

This photo is from: http://bangkoktour.biz

Happy New Year from Bangkok

    Hey everybody! We had an amazing trip, the worst part about it was Chicago's O'hare airport. What a joke. The entire international concourse is closed from like 9:00PM till 6:00AM. No shops, a food court with one vendor who bothered to be open and I think the employee(s) were on some kind of work-release program. They were no more happy to be there than we were.
    We Landed in Bangkok at around 9:00PM (7:00AM Saturday in Colorado) and have already had some great realizations. First, big cities smell a little different and big cities in SE Asia smell really different. Not bad just different. Okay, sometimes it just pain stinks, but it is not overbearing. Our Taxi ride from the airport took about 30 minutes and cost less than $6.00. Shortly after arriving at the apartment, I realized that Skype has a kind of Dr. Who effect. It can make tiny spaces look MUCH larger than they are in reality. Picture a dorm room with really nice amenities, like marble floors and a nice sized walk-in showers, but still just over 450 Sq Ft. Tiny, but very affordable at just over $300.00 a month.

   After changing and freshening up a little, Colleen took me out for beers and dinner at new night market that is located just 3 blocks from her place and opened while she was stateside. A huge open market with food and beverage vendors, a full size concert stage and scantly dressed beer girls (at least they looked like girls). We had a half pitcher of beer and an order of Shrimp Pad Thai(heads and legs included) for less than $11.00. How much does a pitcher cost at the Grandview? Oh, and a carton, not a pack, of Marlboro Lights, under $20.00. It seems that there is a 7-11 every 50 yards, and oddly enough the door chimes sound exactly the same over here as they do in the states.

I can not wait to see the city in the daylight. hope you all do not get tired of photos and stories. Just remember I'm not trying rub it in, I'm trying motivate you to get you asses over here. Cheap, friendly and exotic, what else are you looking for in a vacation destinantion? And thats the city, wait till you hear about the beaches.

New Pics

Thailand

I have internet again!!!!!!!! So I have added some photos to the Thailand photo album. I went wake-boarding at Club Taco and one of the Thai teachers took me on a tour of one the many floating markets in Bangkok. Click the Pic.

Every silver lining has it's cloud.

Colleen moved into the place with the great view yesterday. Loves the view hates the roosters. Oh well,  if roosters are the worst of it, we are doing pretty well.
She will be without internet for up to 14 days. She says hi.

First Week at School

Hello from Bangkok!

I'm sitting here watching an amazing lightening storm over the city, so beautiful. And I realized that I haven't blogged in a while. My first day with children was Aug.5th. I had one day to set up the entire classroom, before children arrived. Even while I was moving furniture, windows were being installed. It has been a whirl wind week. With lots of tears, mostly from new toddlers, but some of the tears were mine. I'm trying to bring Montessori to a land where children are allowed to do whatever they would like. A culture where I can't put out  pretty breakable dishes because they aren't safe. However, children are allowed to run around in cars without car seats, seat belts or even just sitting down. The idea of what is safe and what isn't safe is completely different here. Children don't feed themselves, nannies and maids chase them around with a fork; I call this the floating fork. They don't sit down to eat, and I'm not just talking about children of privilege. This is hard because Montessori is about independence. Does this work in culture where children will live their whole lives in the family home until their grandchildren are taking care of them? What do you think?

I have three students. One a french girl, who has been in a Montessori school before in Bejing, two, a Thai girl who has never been to school, and three the granddaughter of the owner. The diference between them is amazing. They are all wonderful and learning to explore and concentrate without stupid grown ups being in the way. I have given very few formal lessons, choosing to sit back and observe. I only jump in when:

1. They might hurt themselves

2. They might hurt others
3. They might hurt the classroom materials

The storm is over, I'm listening Pasty Cline staring at the city lights. I can't wait to see what next week holds.

Love,

Scooter

That's a View.

Colleen put a deposit on a new apartment yesterday. She thinks it will be large enough for both of us. Who cares, the view is perfect. The sun sets behind in the city and the temple or what the Thai call a Wat. Nice work baby. Love you, miss you.

Education Expo

So, here we all are at the Education Expo, at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center in downtown Bangkok. It is a very small convention center for Bangkok. The Expo ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-7. I worked the whole day all three days, so tired by Sunday night. Luckily, today, Monday is a holiday in Thailand, so I have the day off to rest and catch up on life. Nobody can tell me what the holiday is about, just that it is a Buddhist holiday.

The Expo was very exciting and gave me a chance to talk to many parents from around the world. Even the ones who didn't speak English, which was most of them, wanted to talk and find out more about Montessori. Montessori is old and new here. Let me explain. They use many blended curriculums in schools in Asia. So, many schools say they use a Montessori curriculum, however there are no trained Montessori teacher in these schools. So it isn't a true Montessori school or program. And since some of these school have been in Bangkok for quite sometime parents here think they know Montessori. They want to know what is unique and new about Montessori Academy of Bangkok. Well, for a start we are a true Montessori School, with trained teachers in each classroom.

Plus we are a tri-lingual program, English, Thai and Mandarin. That was what most parents were excited about and me too. I told Kent we should have done this when Kristina was 1 year old. Then she would have the gift of three languages. We aren't very good in states about teaching languages to our children. Most people in Thailand speak at least 2 or 3 languages. And I'm the only teacher at the school who does not have a second language. However, I am a native English speaker, this is very important to all of the parents. This may sound strange, but parents over here like that I look very western. At times in Colorado, I felt that if I wasn't blond and blue eyed I would have been able to go farther at schools. Because they are struggling to find diversity here my appearances are an asset. I am the diversity. Strange feeling.

That was close

She made her connecting flight with 9 minutes to spare. only 17 hours left.

Colleen's new blog

http://thai1on4me.blogspot.com/

Follow her adventure, drop her a note or just check the weather.

Day one

Colleen made her flight without any problems. She will land in Bangkok at 9:05 on Friday morning.