Français with “fives” = fatigue on Friday’s

Just a little FYI: The following draft was written in the fall – time has since passed however, I put so much work into this original post I thought I would add it nonetheless! So think all the way back to Fall 2011…

The summer has passed  (a long time ago!) and I realize that I have not updated my blog in quite some time. Since my last post there have been many new “firsts”… or better yet “F”s in my life…

Farewell, FIT, Fleet, Fever, Français, Fives, Focus, Flem, Fitness, Fatigue, Food, Family… and these are only a Few of my “Favorite” things.

(Back to “current” Spring 2012)

It’s hard to believe that it has been one year since I made my last post! It never ceases to amaze me the crazy adventure that the good Lord has me on. I am sure that by now I could add to my crazy list of “F’s” that I had put together in the fall and never posted… I guess that was my “Fall Failure”!

Now I am in Spring I feel the “S” coming on…. Soar Heartland (HUGE Success), Socials, Skype, Snowboarding, Saskatchewan Sweeties (aka my cousins), School,  Stress perhaps i’ll take on some Spanish too…. si si!

This year was Soar Heartland’s ten year anniversary, it was so wonderful to once again be a part of this fabulous community and make many new friends and meet many new people. I really enjoyed getting to know a few interns from Abby as well as some SOLID youth from Grant Memorial Church.

The socials have been coming and going, Kyla and Nathan (my older sister and her fiancé) just had a St. Patrick’s Day themed wedding social. It was very “green” – and lots of fun. Also, I know a
few more ladies tying the knot soon and look forward to attending their upcoming wedding socials.

As for Skype – it seems to be the best way to communicate with those loved ones around the world. Praise the Lord for free communication via the internet! I am excited whenever I get the chance to hear a familiar voice from across the ocean!

Now back to the stress of sailing through grade 5, three months to go and about seven months worth of work to do. I have decided however that regardless of how much gets done, I will do my best to sincerely strive for success with ALL of my students!

Until my next post, I hope my friends and family around the world are staying healthy and feeling LOVED!

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Transition…

So I promised to let you know when I got back safe and sound, and I realized today that I never did that! For those of you who have been following my journey this past year, I apologize. But I can say with certainty that I AM BACK IN WINTERPEG (aka Winnipeg) What makes me certain, first off the cold dry air and dirty wet snow, also, the streets are empty (no motorcycles driving down sidewalks or people roaming to and from the market and street vendors). There are many other initial cultural differences that I am becoming more aware of, however I feel as though my “grace” period in returning back to North America has been extended. Upon arrival on Sunday night I unpacked a bunch of clothes and left pretty much everything else in my suitcase. Monday I slept pretty much the whole day and seemed to be defeated by jet-leg!

But come Wednesday, I was off to volunteer at Soar Heartland, a program run by MB Mission, that I have been a part of for the past three years. I was not in any way required to be there, but I knew this would be the best place for me to begin re-entering home. Dive right in, and that’s kind of what I did, but it wasn’t really “home” that I was diving into. To give you a glimpse of what SHL looks like, just imagine 320 high school students living in three different churches for 10 days and volunteering in several inner-city locations running children programs during spring break. I was privileged to be a part of the “lead team” and so I was put to work picking up / dropping off, cleaning, supporting, organizing, it was WONDERFUL! But the best part about the whole thing is that I spent 10 solid days with a community that I like to call my second family. The people I was working alongside know me well, and were able to simply love me as I began to transition back to Winnipeg. Pressure was off to answer those difficult questions like “What are you going to do now?” and “How was it?”

I’ve always appreciated people taking interest in what I have been doing, but I’ll be honest, the question “How was it?” doesn’t get any easier the more you’ve been gone. I find it quite challenging summarizing a FULL year in a brief response. But that in no way indicates that I would rather people pretend I wasn’t gone at all. In general, I am realizing that giving myself some time and space to just take one bit at a time is not so bad. That being said, my plans for the next week or so is to simply rest, un-pack and begin to move forward taking baby steps into this next phase of life…

Love you all, thanks for checking in, my prayers are that you may be at peace and filled with joy wherever you find yourself at this phase of your journey!

Photos from Soar Heartland – courtesy of Lisa Derksen

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Splendid send-off from the “Seoul”…

Phew… I don’t know how else to start. Finally a little breather after several days of travelling… only to find myself travelling again. But this time it’s a bit different! For the first time since May 2010, I will not be coming “home’ to my small quaint apartment in Bangkok, I’ll be stepping into the snowy, slushy streets of Winnipeg.

I am excited about this transition, but I know that there are little pieces of life in Thailand that I will miss… getting yummy food from the street vendors for less than a dollar EVERY DAY; walking five minutes to our massage lady to de-stress from a week of teaching with traditional Thai massage, praying daily for my life in the back seat of a taxi swerving in and out of traffic in Bangkok; knowing the BTS routes off by heart; smiles shared with friends we’ve made in the community (7-11 staff who see us DAILY (Thai, Nuch, Egg), smoothie lady (Mud), Pad Thai couple (Tik / Bird), crazy lady who makes yummy food (also known as Sara), my wonderful massage lady (Lake), I will not forget the faces of these beautiful people who welcomed us so warmly into their world and befriended us so quickly! They helped to make Bangkok feel more like home and also helped our Thai improve… nid noi! (a little)

With that, here are some Thai phrases I picked up in my time here… you’ll have to “quiz” me when I am back… I really tried hard to pick up as much as I could…

Sawadee Kah (Hello /goodbye)

Tao Rai na ka (How much?)

Bai Nai (Where are you going?)

Pasa Thai nid noi (I can speak a little bit of Thai)

Kao jai nid noi (I understand a bit of Thai)

Khap kun kah (Thank you)

Pen arrai (What’s wrong?)

Sabai-dee mai? (How are you?)

Sabai-dee (It’s going well.)

Chop (I like)

Mai chop (I don’t like)

Those are the most common phrases and words I use in a usual day round town… but I still haven’t perfected the tonal thing (there are several pitches you use and depending on which pitch you use, you can be saying something completely different, hence my difficulty in learning the language), although I was almost fluent in German after spending a year there, I can’t say the same for my Thai… but I am happy with what I have learned!

I am reminded daily there’s someone looking out for me and keeping me safe… especially today as Carina and I left for our journey back to Canada. We had been praying all day that our over-sized and over-weight bags would make it through to Winnipeg “without a hitch”.  Praise the Lord, when we arrived at the check-in-counter, who should happen to be helping us other than a parent of a student who goes to the school we taught at… she graciously let a few pounds slide and checked ALL of our bags STRAIGHT to Winnipeg!

I can’t complain… as I sit here in the “Prestige Lounge” in the Korean Airport, I am reminded of how blessed I am… free food, free WiFi, comfortable seats and a place to rest before the final jaunt to Vancouver and then to Winnipeg (In the next 16 hours!)

As my journey comes to an end, so will my updates. I want to thank you for your support and encouragement this year while I was stretched and challenged in ways I’ve never been before. Although I think my mind will continue to process this year for months maybe years to come, I know on thing for sure, I can be grateful for family and friends who love and support me, wherever I am, whatever I am doing!

So, until then next jolting journey… I remain yours truly… Janelle

 

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Stunned by sensational sights in Singapore…. Battling Batur in Bali

Finished my travels and they were FULL!!

In a nut-shell here is what Carina and I will remember about our holidays in Singapore and Bali…

- RAIN: of course I have to keep with a theme and seeing as every holiday I’ve taken it has rained, why would this be any different? (2 for 3 in Singapore and 4 for 5 in Bali…) We didn’t let it stop us though… and sometimes it was on and off - so we engaged in a sort of dance with the weather…

- LIONS and TIGERS and BEARS oh my!: In Singapore, we saw an advertisement for Broadway’s the Lion King so we took our chances and hoped to get affordable tickets last-minute… we knew our chances were low, but we were blessed, there were TWO tickets left in the price we could afford on a day we could go…

- To keep with the lion theme, we also went to a night safari, this was really well done and it was a neat eerie feeling watching nocturnal animals parade around at night.

- Singapore also entertained our senses with its beautiful sights and tastes… the harbour front was gorgeous, however we were confused when the FAMOUS Merlion fountain seemed to simple be “missing”… we foolishly discovered that it was under construction and had been enclosed in a giant box with scaffolding all around… but we saw a miniature one and took photos with it!

- One memory I will never forget is when we were walking in Little India and the sole of my shoe snapped and a metal rod was sticking out the bottom of my shoe… Carina and I immediately set out on a mission to find a replacement pair of shoes… our journey ended in success and I found a nice pair of cheap sandals at a little convenience shop.

- Singapore was beyond what I expected and we did SO MUCH in three days! The people were very friendly, it was surprisingly clean and very easy to get around… all in all, well worth it!

BALI:

- Our hopes in Bali were to lay on the beach and get some colour before heading home, but when the rain clouds hover, you need to re-assess… SO here’s what we ended up doing.

- We woke up at 2am and drove out to Mt. Batur the 2nd highest active volcano in Bali, we hired our own personal trekking guide, Putu, and headed up the side of the volcano by flashlight, hoping to reach the top to watch the sunrise. Our physical strength and endurance were tested, but we made it to the top with time to spare. Although arriving at the top early had its advantages, it also had some disadvantages, primarily the fact that we were FROZEN! But a hot cup of Balinese coffee and a warm blanket solved that problem!

- After exploring the volcano a bit further, seeing several craters, digging in the rocks to cook our breakfast, we began our descent and headed off to a coffee field to taste some “exotic” coffee. It was the first time I’ve heard of the famous Luwak coffee, but I gave it a shot… what you need to know here is that this “animal” coffee is literally made from coffee beans that are ingested by a Luwak (type of animal) and then they sift through the animal droppings to retrieve the beans… YUMMY! Don’t worry if you’re curious and wanna try, I bought some and will bring it back to Winnipeg.

- With a few more breaks in the rain, Carina and I made it to Padang Padang beach and Kuta beach. Padang Padang was special because that is where they filmed the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” with Julia Roberts!

- There was one final thing that I was determined to do, rain or shine… learn to SURF! So I signed up for surf-school and one rainy morning set off for a fabulous adventure! I was supposed to be in a group lesson, but due to the rain, it was just me and my Balinese surf instructor Norman! We had a blast and I picked up surfing “quick like professional surfer-dude” according to Norman!

And that pretty much sums up the travels, except one minor thing… there was an earthquake in Bali that lasted about five minutes, I’d like to tell you some crazy story, but I can’t because apparently I slept right through it!  Ha ha ha, I must be a sound sleeper!

Let these photos fill in the gaps for you…. I’m headed back to the airport to take off for Korean – Vancouver – Winnipeg on Saturday night… I’ll update again from the airport!

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Ye-”Siam” sad to say so long…

(FYI: Thailand was formerly called Siam)

It’s so incredibly hard to believe that I am officially finished teaching. I feel as though I have been looking towards this point for a long time, and now that is has arrived I am not too sure what to do or what to feel. I am filled with a sense of accomplishment but at the same time it has been weird saying goodbye to my cohort of teachers and especially my cuties (aka my students), the saying is true that you don’t really realize how much you miss someone until they’re gone.

After a few last outings together with friends here in Bangkok, including, but not limited to… Mme. Tussaud’s (a wax museum), traditional Khon dancing,  Robot Restaurant, Iron Fairies Restaurant (literally straight out of a story book, the restaurant doubles as a blacksmith shop that makes little iron fairy souvenirs)…we said our farewells.

But my adventures are not quite over. Although I will no longer be waking up at 6:00am and heading to school for a full day of teaching, I will be getting up early to do other fun activities such as scuba diving, boarding an airplane or even hiking a volcano!!!

That’s right, my friend Carina and I have made some travel plans for the final two weeks that remain. The first part of our travel plans included heading south to Koh Tao along with another friend Carolyn.  Initially Carolyn and I were going to get our scuba certification, but due to some unexpected sinus issues, I ended up completing that endeavour alone. Apparently my sinuses are not so friendly either and I had a difficult time equalizing my ears under the pressure.

To make a long story short, the first official open water dive we did after two days of studying and training was somewhat unsuccessful for me. I couldn’t make it past 3 meters without my head exploding  so I was sent back up and had to sit on the boat while the rest of my awesome group of divers explored the ocean world.

Luckily I am determined and this equalization problem can be quite normal, so my instructor decided to take me down by herself. It took me a long time, but I was SUCCESFULLY able to equalize down to 10 meters. So we had a short look around together and headed back up! The rest of the dives got better and by the end of our 4 dives I was a “natural”! Honestly, diving was AMAZING and now I am a certified open water scuba diver and am allowed to dive up to 18 meters anywhere in the world! YIPEE!

After this first adventure we hopped on a ferry and night bus and headed back to “camp” as we refer to it. Basically our lease was up on our apartments so four of us rented a room in the apartment building and moved in, with EVERYTHING literally exploding EVERYWHERE!  LIFE IN SHAMBLES!!!

But this chaos will only last a few days and we’ll make the most of it… I love sharing a bed with four other people, so cozy in 35 degree weather. As on Monday the final stretch is on… Carina and I will depart EARLY for Singapore, spend a few days there and then head straight for Bali to hike a volcano and potentially learn how to surf.

On that note… the next time you’ll be hearing from me will most likely be from the Seoul airport on my journey back to Canada.

Thanks for checking in, I’ll be seeing you very soon!!

Keeping safe and warm in Thailand for a few more weeks! – Janelle

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“Thai-ing” up loose ends…

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll realize that there is no alliteration in the title of this post (first time since being in Thailand I believe), but to somewhat keep with the theme, I threw in a play on words… just for kicks.

It’s been getting progressively harder to update the blog, not because I don’t want to, but because I am becoming more and more comfortable with living here and just the general routine of life, therefore I find it challenging to pull out events that are interesting enough to blog about

However, a friend of mine reminded me today that sometimes it’s nice just hearing about the mundane, everyday life of someone you care about. I assume that if you’re reading this then you at least somewhat care about me, so I’ll share some of the mundane, and in doing so perhaps I’ll even remember some fun facts from the past month.

To begin with, teaching has continued to have its high’s and low’s as I am sure it always will for everyone. But somehow I find myself closer to the end of this particular teaching journey then I realized. A couple of weeks ago, one of my co-workers (a fellow U of W practicum student) started a countdown back home… would you believe it… there are only 5… yes I repeat FIVE teaching days left. Then of course I have two weeks of exams (oral and written – even in Kindergarten) and then my teaching contract is FINISHED! AHHH!!!

I cannot help but feel a whirlwind of emotions, it’s hard to even wrap my mind around the fact that life as I know it now will soon be different. I will no longer be getting up far too early to see the lovely faces of my far too energetic students in a country that is far too hot…

It still surprises me how much we realize we’ve learned from an experience only once we’ve walked through it. Honestly, if I were to be thinking about my time here only a few months ago, I think my perspective would’ve been very different.  And I am sure that will continue to evolve as I distance myself from life here… regardless, I feel as though the mountains that have been trekked and the river’s that have been forged (both literal and metaphorical) have only strengthened me. But I’m looking forward to resting and reflecting more on this past year.

On a much lighter note, all this thinking has reminded me that I have not shared some of my latest adventures with you… particularly my day with the Tigers…. oh ya.. got to LOVE Thailand for the crazy things that go down…

So a group of us decided it would be wise to just get away for a weekend before the overwhelming exam / report card season crept up on us one last time… so we left for Kanchanaburi. You may think this sounds familiar and that is because we have already gone there twice before, but we love it and there are so many things to do in this quaint little town about 2 hours outside of Bangkok.

This time it was my turn to head off and explore the Tiger temples (everyone else in my group had already done this… so it was me and 5 guys – Kass’s brothers and friends who were visiting for a short while) They rented motor bikes and off we went… now let me tell you, I had almost forgot what 5 guys between the ages of 19-23 can be like, but I was quickly reminded of their “risk-taking” nature as we sped away to go and “play” with tigers. (Now I am exaggerating a bit – the guys were very kind and we had fun together – but they definitely were in NO WAY scared to take a risk – even silly ones… I felt a bit old and motherly at times – but I can happily say we all came back safely – only a few scratches and overheated engines… MOM and DAD, you raised me well, I am quite the responsible young lady if I do say so myself)

Anyway, the tigers were so much fun, and a bit scary at times but I got some great photos… they’ll speak for themselves.

Other than tiger temples, there is not much else to update… I went to the BIG Jatujuk market one last time to make some last-minute purchases and have now become quite aware of the mass quantity of items I have accumulated over a year here… packing may be the next insurmountable hurdle.

Wait.. this just in (aka – I just remembered) as some of you may have seen on Facebook, a few weeks ago our group (U of W teachers) were awarded a certification of completion from the Canadian Ambassador himself, in his VERY lovely home… it was a wonderful honour and very rewarding experience, I’ll post some of those pictures too.. it’s not everyday you walk across a platform that Desmond Tutu himself fell off of…

Back to the other brain wave… packing…. I tested the waters today and feel as though with some steep persuasion, I should be able to get everything back but I’ll keep you posted on that.

Anyway, I feel that I’ve now shared enough to hopefully keep you interested for a few more posts. My time here is quickly coming to an end and I have been so grateful for all of your support that you have so graciously offered me. I look forward to coming back and thanking you in person and also hearing about the adventures you’ve had this past year.

For now, enjoy the photos.. I hope to get in at least  few extra posts before I’m gone.



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Captivating Cambodia

The long awaited for update about Cambodia is finally making its way to my blog. It’s sad that I can only find time to do this while I am at home “sick” from school. I place “sick” inside parenthesis because I feel ok, except for the fact that I have a horrible cough and NO VOICE! Apparently the doctor says that my lungs / throat are unhappy with the polluted air here in Bangkok. Needless to say, I am realizing how VITAL my vocal chords are to my chosen profession, especially an ESL kindergarten class.

Anyway, back to the Cambodia update, much more interesting. Arlyn, Lisa and I departed on our journey for the long weekend and arrived in Phnom Penh. It was really neat being in a new country again, because it made me realize how comfortable I had become in Thailand.

After making our way through customs and getting our visa’s, we found our sweet Tuk-Tuk driver holding up my name on a sign and headed off to our first guest house, The Boddhi Tree (recommended by a friend) This place was amazing, a little haven in the middle of Phnom Penh and it’s location was quite central! We sincerely enjoyed the AMAZING food and awesome hospitality.

During our time in Phnom Penh we did as much as we could. Lucky for us, we met up with a fellow teacher of mine and her sister who happened to live in Cambodia. So we toured around the city, stopping at the Russian markets (drinking Cambodia’s BEST ICED COFFE), shopping, eating more great food and even getting our nails done. Later that day, Arlyn, Lisa and I decided to stop at some historical sights, like the Teoul Sleng Museum and the Choeng Ek killing fields. Both these places really opened our eyes to the dark and difficult history of this country. But we are glad that we made these stops, it helped us to better understand the people and culture.

The next day we were off to Siem Reap on a LONG bus. But we weren’t about to by-pass seeing one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor Wat temples!

Oopps… i completely forgot about what we did for New Years, perhaps that is because we didn’t really do anything huge, but it was fun, we ate dinner (spilling most of it on the table to be exact) and then got tired so left before the fireworks. We ended up counting down to 2011 in the back of a Tuk-Tuk! Ha ha ha! A unique experience nonetheless.

Back to Siem Reap… i’ll try to keep this short because I could honestly go on forever about our time here… it was just absolutely unbelievable, a REAL blessing. The delectable food, fabulous people, breathtaking sights and just all round experience was fantastic (aside some minor “issues” at our initial guesthouse…. bed bugs… but that was quickly dealt with and the guesthouse we ended up staying at was MUCH nicer anyway, I have the feeling someone was really looking out for us!)

Needless to say, there are many stories that Arlyn, Lisa and I will take away from this experience, but the photos really capture the beauty of this place!

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