International Day at CMIS

It is truly a blessing for our kids to be at an International School. They have friends from countries all around the world and have such a better understanding that there are other places outside of America than I did growing up.

Every other year, CMIS has International Day. The years in between they have Thai Day - which we thoroughly enjoyed last year. This was our first International Day. Parents volunteered to set up booths for their countries and then the kids went around to visit the booths. It was so organized - the kids had "passports" that were stamped in each "country" and there was a schedule so the classes wouldn't overlap. 

Orin's class ended up at the USA booth first. 

This was the booth for Scotland. I love how into it the parents got. I actually learned a lot about Scotland. The men wore kilts, the talked about castles and even the legend of the Loch Ness monster.

This was Micaiah's class waiting for their turn at the China booth.

The taught the kids how to do Chinese Calligraphy. It was cute.

One of the ladies even helped Micaiah write his name in Mandarin.

Orin's class went there too. They had different pictures hanging up that the kids could copy. Orin did a really good job.

The Korea booth. It was fun to see the older teens dressed in their Hanboks. I hope Sora will make some good friends from Korea once she's in school.

Next they went to the Germany booth. Orin was very serious about getting his passport stamped.

The boys who were helping with the booth asked the kids, "So what do you know about Germany?" Orin raised his hand and said, "They were in World War II." Crazy kid.

Lastly Orin's class went to Canada. The got to play Hockey which was definitely a highlight.

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It's Graduation Time!

The Thai school year runs from about May until March. So now is the time for graduations. We find them quite humorous. People set up their carts of graduation gifts right outside the school gates and they are actually quite popular.

These things just make me laugh. Imagine your parents giving you this little bee when you graduated from college? But Thai people love "cute" things and so this is exactly what they would want.

I thought this was cool. A bouquet made of money. Each petal is made of a 20B bill. So the money in the flower is equal to about $6. I'm not sure how much it cost, though.

More money bouquets.

A little frog with a graduation hat.

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February in Thailand

Some random pictures from February (and a few from January).

The weather here has been crazy. Well, not as much the weather, but the pollution. They are burning the fields all over Thailand. Clearing the land after harvesting. But it's caused horrible smoke pollution. At school the kids have been kept inside instead of playing because it's so unhealthy to be outside - especially running around. The kids got masks to wear and I thought Orin looked cute as I picked him up one day - I had to get a picture. 

This was the weather one day. It actually said that the forecast was "Smoke."

This is satellite map of the fires all over Thailand and SouthEast Asia. Crazy!

When we returned from India we had a box waiting for us at the Post Office from Mimie. The kids were so excited to finally have their Christmas presents that didn't come in time before we left for India.

So this is the parking lot outside of Damien's office. It's gravel and dirt but this guy was watering it. I have no idea why? It just thought it was funny.

Sora all dressed up. She loves wearing things on her head. She has a head lamp and sun glasses with no lenses.

For a country that doesn't celebrate they sure are advertising for Christmas early! Actually, this is probably from Christmas 2011 - but Thai people seem to confuse New Years and Christmas and for some reason think they are the same thing.

Ant's got into my craft box. This picture doesn't do it justice - there were ants EVERYWHERE. Huge colonies of them. It was disgusting.

There are two small streets in Chiang Mai where, for some reason, they have you drive on the right side of the road. Whenever I drive down this street I try to picture myself back in the US because I've totally forgotten what it's like to drive on the right hand side.

I love English signs in Thailand. "Thank you for your visiting."

This was Orin's valentines gift for kids in his class. Little shovels with signs that say, "I dig you." It was fun to do. I'm not sure if the kids "got" it but they really had fun playing with it.

For valentines day I got the kids these cute paper flowers that had a sucker in the middle. They thought they were really cool. Orin and Sora wanted to take pictures and I love how his hand is in front of her face.

For valentines day we surprised the kids and brought them to see Star Wars Episode I. We didn't tell them we were going, and then once we got there we actually got them into the theater without them knowing what movie it was. It was so much fun to see their face as they realized what movie was coming on. They were in shock and Micaiah yelled out, "It's Star Wars" for all of the theater to hear.

Orin doing his homework and Micaiah patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for him to be done so they could play together.

This street stall sells the puffed pastries that taste almost exactly like Beignets. We buy them, bring them home and add powdered sugar and they are so yummy!

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