Hump Day

Well folks, today marks the half way point. from here on out i am on a down hill slide. 
I have officially been here for 2 months. 
I am home sick, in the fact that i miss my family, friends, and American food.
But the thoughts of leaving Thailand, breaks my heart. I honestly love it so much here, Thailand is perfect the atmosphere is so inviting and refreshing. The people are so happy and loving, I know that a part of my heart will stay here in Thailand, I am so grateful for the opportunity i have had to come here and teach these kids, and learn of the culture. I have learned a lot about myself, and I know i will continue to grow and stretch myself for the remainder of this experience. 

As of right now I am feeling really itchy for a new adventure. We leave for a 13 day vacation next week, and that's when most of our traveling will take place. I am in the need of a vacation, you can only live in the same room with so many people for so long. I can't wait to smell the warm salty air of the ocean on these "beautiful" "unforgettable" beaches in Thailand. it will be a nice refresher that's for sure. When i get home... is it okay if i still go by Teacha Kate? because.... that is a title that will be hard to say good-bye to!!! Nothing warms my heart more than a kid saying my name!. Gosh i love it. i am so content with my life. Thank you so much for all of your support and love. I don't know if i portray how hard it can be here some times. but i think of the people back home when days get hard, and think of how lucky i am to be where i am, and experiencing this for such a short amount of time, it will be a semester i know i won't forget. I can feel myself being shaped and molded into the person i am suppose to be. I can't wait to see where the next 2 months take me.

Please pray time passes by slower, i know i will be.

We biked over 2 hours aimlessly to find these ruins. A little bit worth it :)

Our massage friend Orn took us to Phitsanulok to see a temple, run errands, and had us over for dinner, she is such a
sweet heart. It was such a fun day! Also it was the first day i had stepped foot in a car in over 2 months... it felt good.

Lovin the LOVE!

People,

I just feel like I need to share my absolutely OVERWHELMING feelings of love I have for my life at this moment. I can't even express it well enough to anyone who is not here with me.

I am so content.

Ever since I got here I have been content.

Yes, there were those times when I first got here, where I was so hungry, and my body wasn't use to only eating rice and vegetables, I wasn't use to the bugs in the showers or the lizards on my walls. I could pin point all of the little annoyances or the things out of the ordinary. However, I have come to find that I am very use to my life here. I am so comfortable here in Thailand, sometimes I forget I am not in America. Thailand has become my home!

I am so happy,

I have 6 best friends living with me that I have learned to live with and love so much! We have crazy fun adventures and are always laughing at the awkward things that happen to us, or the funny things we say. I can only speak for myself when I say that I am so grateful for every girl that I am here with, and I know that we are meant to be here together, learning and growing from each other.

I have a mom and dad that never deny me hugs and we go and visit them every weekend.  I have brothers and a sister (Ton, Ake, and Tang) that will help us out with anything we want or need.

This wonderful woman is "Mom" she told me the very first day I met her, that she was here to love me and to be my mother here in Thailand, as long as I promised to never forget her.

Jess and I have become best friends with a woman named Orn (Pronounced On) that is a massage therapist at the local massage shop that her sister owns, and we go see her and the workers there almost every day and are there for hours, talking, laughing, getting to know each other while we sip herbal tea, eat local fruit and occasionally slip in a massage or a couple minutes in the Sauna.

Jess, Orn, and I 

Me with the girls!! I love these women so much

I can't forget about the kids here...

The children that I teach, have 100% sewn their sticky-fingered, broken-English, toothy-smiled, sweaty-kissable faces, ticklish bodies right around the core of my heart. And I cannot imagine my life without them. I am going to apply to come out to be a Head Teacher here, so that I can have hope of not saying good-bye to these kids forever. I love teaching! I love playing with them, I love gaining individual relationships with each child, I love seeing the wheels turning in their heads, and most of all...

I LOVE the rush of kids that come running towards me every morning as I walk in to the school greeting me with squeals and shrieks of excitement when they see me coming down the hall as they yell different variations of my name; "Teachwa Kate!" "Teachwua Pancake!" "Teachwa Birthday cake!" "Teachwa Tate!" I just kneel down and embrace the ambush of hugs and kisses.

I don't know what else to say. My heart is exploding, and I can't think of any other way to express how happy I feel!

I have also noticed a significant difference in who I am as a person. I feel confident. 

For the first time in my life, I feel comfortable in my skin. I am coming to accept my faults physically more as a part of who I am. Rather than constantly wishing I was something or someone other than how God created me to be. I am finally coming to love the person that I am, the way I look (even on my worst days, which is basically every day in this humidity.) I really hope that doesn't go away when I go back to the states, because the constant self-criticism that went on in my head has been silenced for once in my life, and I am thoroughly enjoying the silence. I never want it to hear it again, and I am going to try everything in my power to keep it that way.

From a spiritual standpoint, I feel a very big improvement I look back on the person I was exactly a year ago, and I can't even imagine how much I have changed some changes for the better, others for the worse. For some reason in particular I noticed it especially this last weekend, the LDS General Conference really had an impact on me. It wasn't until I felt the love and inspiration from the teachings that I realized how spiritually malnourished I let myself become.  

I have noticed God has allowed me to feel in certain moments the love that he feels for these children I am teaching as well as the love and adoration he has for these girls that I am with. Those feelings of love are absolutely overwhelming, and not all mine.

Chiang Mai Vaca!

A couple of weeks ago we went on our first vacation to Chiang Mai!! let me just say it was a weekend i will remember for the rest of my life! everything about it was perfect!! and the only way i can describe it is to start out by adding this little snippet in from my Head Teacher's Blog, Jess.

"A few weekends ago we had the opportunity for our first small weekend vacation. We decided to head up north to Chiang Mai for a little weekend away.

Before we had left, I had text the doctor that I work for in Salt Lake City, to see if he would fill out a reference form for me for college. He replied with a yes and asked what I was doing that weekend in Thailand...

Background information about Dr. Rachot: Dr. Rachot is from Thailand, he was born and raised here with his family until he was 13, then moved to America to get started with life and go to school in Arkansas where he became a doctor. His family still lives in Thailand so he comes back here a lot with his wife and kids and is able to see his family in Chiang Mai. His family here owns a hotel and so he has the opportunity to come back here whenever he can.

Anyways...back to an awesome weekend..

Dr. Rachot asked what I was doing that weekend.. I told him that my girls and I were headed to Chiang Mai for the weekend. He text back and said that he was in Chiang Mai and wanted all of us to come stay at the hotel/guesthouse at no charge."

We were so blessed to have Dr. Rachot take care of us like he did. he provided us with 4 rooms at the hotel, all meals at the hotel restaurant for free, (my favorite meal was the pancakes with fresh pineapple in the middle.) He took us all around Chiang Mai with his personal driver, which included, an Orchid farm, Butterfly farm, Jade Factory, Elephant show and one on one time with Elephants, Tigers, a Temple, and 2 night markets.. he paid for us at the Elephant camp, orchid farm, butterfly farm. This man is seriously the best! he had never met any of us girls, except he worked with Jess. and here he was taking care of us like this! 

He is going strait to heaven. 

I was smiling from ear to ear the entire weekend. I haven't felt so happy, and excited for a day in my entire life. by two in the afternoon on saturday we came back to the pool and laid out for a couple hours and slept, till we went shopping. Can i just say how tempting it is to buy things when the exchange rate rocks so much?? everything is so CHEAP.

Me and Abbey getting ready to see the tigers!! 

This is me and Jess at the Jade Factory.. yes i caved.. totally bought a Jade ring. don't regret it.

Mango with Sticy Rice... Covered with coconut milk...thank you very much

Shopping

Riding the Tuk Tuk home from the night Markets!!

The Pool at our hotel. Beautiful!

  

on our way home from the Temple! stopped out at the look out point. incredible view! 

Me and Abbey getting our feet nibbled off!!

At the next night market!

It was the best vacation of all time. 

We have a 13 day vacation coming up in two weeks! we are planning on going to Laos, to renew our Visas, for 2 days, Bangkok for 3 days, and flying to Krabi for 7 Days! 

This one we don't have the sweet hook up like we did the last one. so its all hostels and taxis!! I can't wait. it'll be another extremely memorable vacation i am sure! 

i am so blessed. I am constantly taking this all in. My experiences are priceless. and i am so grateful for the person I have slowly become because of the last 2 months. I can't wait for the next 2!!