home sweet home

i got the call last night and t has arrived in mississippi. the grueling part of his trip is over. i hate flying home. coming to the east side of north america usually means 2 stops and a very long day in uncomfortable airplane seats. now if i can just get through these next 4 days quickly, i'll be in a plane on my way to mississippi!!!

mae sot......cont'd.......

(top) this is a typical dinnertable spread....we have a meat and sauce dish........soup......salad.....(this only happened once----thank goodness!!) deep fried crickets!!!.....and the rice has yet to arrive......yes, the rice........lots and lots of rice! (bottom) this was my going away dinner......you can see fried eggs......there's also every kind of meat (chicken, fish and beef)......various other things (salads and soup).........



















this is a typical market in mae sot.......this one has mostly food but the bigger market downtown sells everything!......

this is just a photo from one of our visits to the monastery...........i think some burmese-american kids were being ordained into the monkhood for 10 days during this ceremony (burmese buddhists believe that men should serve about 5 terms as a monk---typically lasting 10 days for those who choose not to make this their permenant way of life)........

this is a photo from my favorite burmese friend's school..........she teaches children of migrant workers who are some of the poorest people i've seen........i was too shy to take a photo of how they live and would have felt intrusive for doing it.......whenever i think life is becomming hard for me i think back to how i saw these people getting by and life seems almost perfect for me.........these children were a blessing to visit........they were happy, bright and excited to have us there (i visited with my volunteer friend---stuart )........their teachers are from stuart's class (some of my favorite burmese friends)

mae sot

finally! here are some pictures from mae sot. i'm not one to take many pictures when i travel, so there are only a few worth posting here. also, due to the security issues with my burmese friends and family.....they have asked that i don't post their pictures on my blog. (feel free to visit me anytime before nov. 1st and i'll show you my burmese family and friends if you want!)

this is the apartment that i lived in with my two burmese brothers and the bike we used to get around town.......

this is the room just inside the front door where the uncle and nephew slept, where we spent endless hours talking, playing cards and scrabble and our dining room as well.......

this is looking down the hall to the kitchen corner..........

this is looking thru that door on the right.....my bedroom........

this is the worst part.....the bathroom!!! and i hate bathrooms to begin with!! i learned how to take the fastest showers known to mankind! the tank to the immediate left held the water we washed with and the smaller tank beside that was water for flushing the "toilet" which is a "squatter" next to the back wall.......

help!!!

if anyone out there knows how i can display my profile info instead of it saying "contributor" at the top right...........please let me know. thanks!

ooohhhh......friday the 13th

maybe i can use this (friday the 13th) as an excuse to stop the job hunt. it's not very fun. i have no idea how to choose the right job. i really only want to work with preschool kids. i'm willing to go pretty much anywhere after christmas. i had such a great time teaching english in korea and i want to be just as happy in my next job. if anyone out there has heard of a nice preschool that needs a native english teacher with 5 years experience.....let me know.

november 1st!!!! 3 weeks to go!!!!

t finishes teaching in about 2 weeks and in 3 weeks i meet him in mississippi! the ticket has been purchased. it's final! the time can't go fast enough for me. i miss him like crazy and 3 months is too long to be apart. i hated it the first time (when i was in thailand earlier this year) and i don't like it any better this time. but hey.......after this he says we never have to be apart again. awesome! we still plan to be in mississippi 'till their thanksgiving (nov. 23rd) and then we will drive up here during the last week of november. we plan to stay in nova scotia for christmas and then we have no idea where our lives will take us after that.

this past weekend when my sisters and i were having a bonfire sunday night (the first time we were all together since my baby sister's wedding a year ago june) we decided on a new christmas tradition......name draw. we thought this would be a better idea than trying to get something for each person. well.....of course t was included which meant, since he wasn't there, i drew a name for him and someone out there drew his name. a bit strange for him and the person who got his name. they haven't even met yet!........yet......

thanksgiving

here are just some of the things i am thankful for this year:

~a loving family
~delicious food
~comfortable shelter
~a wonderful boyfriend
~awesome friends
~hockey
~the colors of the autumn leaves
~to finally be home at this time of year

sugar.....flour---potato......potatoe???

i've been having a good time staying at my sister and brother-in-law's place. the best part about it has been the cooking they let me do. last night i offered to make some banana muffins. my sister so kindly got out the flour this morning and left it on the counter with a note. the note said "the canister has icing sugar in it, not flour." i guess i had mentioned last night that if i was going to make the banana muffins i needed more flour than what was left in the canister. i haven't stopped laughing since finding that note a few minutes ago 'cause i used that canister of "icing sugar" last week to coat the chicken in a chicken dish i made. i guess this is the answer to why it was sweeter than i thought it should have been!!!