A good day.

Today has been a good day. A really good day. It all started last night when Koreana and I began planning our upcoming trips. We began researching all of the amazing places throughout Thailand that we want to visit. We have a two week break at the beginning of December, and we must start planning. We also have a long weekend for the new year and we are deciding which island and full moon party will be best. Gosh, it's hard being me.After we planned a little, I was exhausted. I knew I would pass out the second my head hit the pillow, but I was wrong. Instead, I lay awake in bed. I whipped out my book, and finished it! I only had about a hundred pages left, but I finished it. There was a nice little spin at the end, and I really enjoyed it. By now I knew I had to sleep, and I did.I woke up this morning dreading a cold shower. Luckily, the city cooled off a little last night, and I wasn't dripping in sweat when I woke. I forced myself out of bed and got into the shower. And somehow, I had hot water! This is only the third time since I have been in my apartment that my hot water has worked. It was a miracle. Today was off to a good start.

Koreana made it out of the apartment on time and jumped on our favorite songthaew, the number 9, and made it to school bright and early. The coffee was good, the kids were good, and it wasn't hot. The morning was awesome. While at the parade

two of the older students approached my Thai teacher and had a short conversation before we were told to follow them. As we walked away Teacher Lawan said, "you be on TV evelyday." What?! Sure enough, we were on television. The school has televisions in every classroom and does morning announcements from the TV studio.

Koreana and I were told we had to introduce ourselves to the school. The show is not broadcast in the English Program, so we knew no one would understand us. We basically just rambled. We talked about our favorite colors, our families, whose dog is cooler and our favorite foods, including pork on a stick. Yeah, we said pork on a stick. And we said it more than once. We even licked our lips a few times. We stumbled out of the room laughing hysterically. Thank goodness no one could understand us, we sounded like fools.

Twenty minutes later, one of the Thai teachers approached me and asked me to teach her daughter English. Score!

My wonderful day continued as my tricky visa situation was fixed, as though it was nothing. When I entered Thailand, immigration didn't see my visa in my passport. I was automatically issued a 30 day tourist visa. I would need to leave the country tomorrow. Luckily, one of the Thai teachers took me to immigration in town and everything was fixed. I have until January 17 to have my work permit and visa solidified. Plenty of time.
And as though my day wasn't wonderful enough already, my kids were actually good! We had fun. They listened. I didn't have to scream. And, I wasn't dripping sweat all day. The temperature felt cool at 83! The photos today are from the photo shoot we had during snack break. As you can see, school is a bit of a shit show. (That was for you, Mom!)
On our way home from the gym this afternoon Koreana and I went for dinner. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely delicious. We had pork on a stick from our favorite people, but we also had chicken and rice with a delicious chili sauce. Everything about it was amazing. And, we completely avoided fish balls- bonus!

When I returned to the apartment I decided to call my mom before she left for work. While I talked her through the process of logging in, she and I were able to Skype. I saw her face while we talked! That is huge. It is one thing to be able to hear someone's voice, but I saw her expression as she laughed about Lazy Sunday and my teacher saying "runch." I was even able to take her on a brief tour of my apartment. I recorded a tour for everyone, and that is the video below.

Now, I am going to continue to procrastinate. I really need to make a few worksheets, but I think I will make a few more phone calls. If you are on Skype, my name is meaghandooley, let's chat!

PS- If you want to laugh, check out this video. It is on fail blog on youtube. Basically, there are all sorts of things where people simply fail. Dancing, playing wii, driving, you name it, people fail and post it. This one is especially funny, and the skateboarders just happened to be in the right place at the right time.