Hey ya

Railey Beach, Krabi Thailand

How do I begin? Well, I had a lovely train ride across Japan - passing muddy rice fields, snow covered mountains and then for the finale - the city of Tokyo (where I have yet to visit). There is something so fun about riding elevated trains through cities -- bird eye views of neighborhoods, people in the street, quick brief fly by views of the insides of apartments -- I love it. And for the journey - I had Katya's old fake ipod - with her music not mine, so it was like I was listening to a mix of songs that I didn't know what would come on next - nice -- (thanx katya) .

Flight to Bangkok - fine - met up with diana - and then the enxt morning - hopped a flight to krabi, a cab to the beach, and then a long tail boat to the beach where we are staying. Have you ever seen a long tail boat? they are elegant, wood carved boats with long tailes - most have brightly olored scarves draped around the tail - at the steering end - a v8 car engine that sputteres, spews, gurgules and belches and propelles the bot forward.

The boat, skidding across the blue, crystal water towards giant cravat rocks that jut stright from the water. these rock formations haev crags, caves, long dripping nose candle stick faces. and the beach is fantastic.

We swam in the water and in the pool. and then dinner on the other side of the penisula. the side that we are staying at is fancier - with 3 resorts total. the other side - the shore is coveerd with mangrove trees and there is a slew of funky open air bars, thai guys with dreadlockes singing bob marley songs along the beach selling jewelry, and just what seemed like more of a backpacker crowd -- unlike railey beach west (Where i am now) - on this side - an insane amount of scandinavian families -- you can't swing a sarong without hitting a pink, fat, man in a speedo - and then his white blonde haired children speed past.

and now for the bad part of this post. in this tropcal paradise - palm trees, bouganvilia trees, white sand, blue water, crazy cravast caves.... i became sick!
in the middle of the night, i awoke, much like tony soprano in the last episode of season two - with a bad feeling... and just as tony says to carmela "i think its coming from here" indicating his belly - and then runs to the bathroom to puke - it was coming from my stomach too!
i spend the rest of the night and the entire beginning of my day today - running between my bed and the toilet puking everything i try to put into my belly! diana thinks its sunstroke, i think it was the seasfood and ginger sauce and the beer - but whatever it is - it stinks! diana has been very helpful, bringin me toast, crackers, water and coke and a banana from breakfast. about 15 minutes ago, i was in the bed, feeling crappy, when the urge to puke came again - i got rid of the entire can of coke i drank - came back, and suddenly felt ok - not great - but ok. i ate the banana, finished my toast, put on my bathing suit and wrapped myself in my sarong like the island goddess that i am and ventured to the air conditioned internet cafe -- what a trooper!

so, thats all for now - whenever you think - i'm so envious of sheryl in the tropics, just think of me sik and think that could be you!

End of Term

Well, i have finished my second term of teaching here in Japan. I can hardly believe it! The second term was definately easier than the first. I was also able to read some of the student comments from the fall term. Most were pretty good - i did get a few (expected) she didn't speak Japanese, more Japanese please, please write directions in Japanese. But for each of the comments asking for more japanese, there were equal comments stating that they liked having English class taught entirely in English. Other positive comments were that they *liked* playing games (midterm review jeopardy was a big hit - i also enjoy this one, i get to act like a kooky mix of vanna white and alex trebeck). This was a pleasant surprise -- sometimes its quite hard to read the students' enjoyment levels. But now that know, I will be more confident to play more games. and my favorite comment a simple "Thank you" in English.

so, ok, term over, march vacation, thailand planning, packing, etc. etc. etc.... BUT WAIT! there is still more work! ackk! course assessments and the always dreadfull JABBEE folder (you don't want to know!) await. What to do? Yes, do them is the answer. But I am finding it so so so difficult to motivate. ITs like, well, term is over, classes finished, grades uploaded - what work?!

So I ask you dear reader, should I book a dive course in Koh Tao? If I do that, then I will have less time in northern Thailand. I kind of want to have the freedom to hang out if I feel like it - but what if i decide that I *do* want to dive and I can't book anything???

ahh.... decisions......

Makeup?

Contrary to what you might believe -- i was not wearing makeup while skiing and snow shoeing

just needed to clear that up....

Niigata Ski Weekend

Last weekend, a group of us threw caution and our upcoming grade deadlines to the wind in order to take advantage of the school's seminar house in the lovely mountians of Niigata, Japan. The seminar house is a homey, ski lodge located mere steps from the base of the mountain ski area. Niigata, famous for the amounts of snow it receives did not dissapoint! I have never in my life seen so much snow! It was absolutely unbelievable! As we drove from the highway exit to the seminar house it was if we were driving through a tunnel of snow. The snow was piled up to the top of the street signs.... if you don't know where you are going... oh well! too much!
the picture above is Kent indicating with his ski pole how high the snow was. (i'm not so good at this blogging thing so i think we have kent's pic 2x!)


Now those of you reading this who know me even remotely well might be thinking to yourselves... hmmm... i never thought of sheryl as a skiier...
and you would be correct! My views of skiing and snowboarding are well known - I don't keep this to myself -- i believe that it is an absurd exercise to physically throw yourself down a mountain on slim pieces of wood (plastic, whatever! as if it mattered!) in the middle of winter -- this is fun!? ahhh... winter blues can make people do strange things....

then why was i there? well, i guess you should try all things once. but all i really wanted to do was ride the ski lift and check out the mountain views. but in order to do that, i had to put on the skis, take a lesson, and ski down the mountain. after a minor temper tantrum (those skiis are not easy to move around in!) i took the lesson with emmeline, ernesto's (my co-worker) wife. the lesson was fine. and i suppose it was fun. the ski lift was fun. the mountain were incredible. it was sunny and warm. our ski instructor, who spoke english, said we were very lucky to have the weather we did.

the next day.

we went snow shoeing! I really hope i am able to get those pics up. wow and wow again. we snowshoed into the forest. everything around me was so completely outside of anything i have ever ever experienced. it was truely beyond my realm. we were in the heart of the forest, making our own trail. it was non stop snowing, quite cold, but we were sweating, breathing hard, laughing, falling in the snow, enjoying the scenery. we were on (in?) about 7 feet of snow, so we were kind of in the middle of the snow covered pine trees.

it was a great weekend.

ps - you can see pictures of the snowshoeing and skiing here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherylspix