Company Trip

​Last weekend, the company that owns my school invited all of its employees on a trip. We went to this nice hotel about 4 hours from our school. The hits has the largest pool in the country! And it is super beautiful and the ocean is just on the other side. It seriously looks like a picture from a magazine!

The SamSon resort! It was like stepping into a picture!  

We were only there for Saturday and Sunday, but it was so much fun. Spending time with my coworkers outside of work was such a blessing. They are so much fun! When we got to the hotel and saw the pool we couldn't wait to get our swimsuits on and go swimming! But our staff didn't want to get in until after 4pm because the sun wouldn't be as hot (they are afraid of getting darker, basically the opposite of every American!). So Jen and I went for a swim at the beach. We played with one of our students whose mom works for another part of the company.

Our staff minus a few. Ready for an awesome weekend! 

At 4, our staff joined us. They asked us to teach them how to swim. And they chose the ocean to be the first place they tried. LOL. I taught one of them how to float but the rest kept getting scared by the waves so I suggested we move to the pool.

The staff at the Gala dinner.  

After swimming we went to a Gala dinner. I didn't really understand everything that was going on but everyone was laughing and it was fun to spend time talking with our staff about random things. After dinner we played some games and one was a fashion show where we were given some materials and we had to make an outfit. Our staff decided to make a bikini and our male PE teacher was the model. Let's just say it was hilarious!!!

PE teacher dancing and showing off his bikini. 😳 

The next day we spent some more time in the water. Some of the staff were getting the hang of swimming and really enjoying the water (many are scared of the water). We also had an amazingly delicious American breakfast. My stomach hurt so much after it, but it was so good. I can't wait to go back to America and have breakfast :) LOL.

We ended the weekend with a 4 hour bus ride back home. By the time we got back, I was ready to be surrounded by English for the rest of the night. Trying a understand a foreign language takes a lot of energy!

I love the staff at our school! I am so thankful God has called me here!!! 

Another New Year!

It's been awhile since I have written a blog post... It's been a crazy couple of weeks.  

 It all began with the coming of the Lunar New Year. Some southeast Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year so where I am is no different. This year the Lunar New Year fell on Feb. 8th. So most of the schools get at least a week off, my school gave us 10 days (Feb 4-14). What?!? So a couple friends of mine and myself decided to leave the country for the holiday. 

Lunar New Year (LNY) is probably the biggest celebration of the year. Some people compare it to Christmas. Students don't get a Christmas break but they get a LNY break. During this time families travel back to their hometowns and spend the week with their family. Their is usually a lot of cooking and eating of traditional foods. The city that I live in is basically shut down, everyone leaves and all the shops close down.  

There is a lot of hype as the new year approaches. Everyone is getting ready. You start to see these huge cherry blossom trees and fruit trees on the backs of motorbikes in preparation for the holiday. We had a new year party with our staff the Saturday before and we went bowling and then to our team leader's house for lunch. Then on Monday we went out with our staff to dinner. Then Tuesday we went to one of the sisters who owns our school house to wish them a Happy New Year. Then Wednesday we were on a plane leaving the country. 

It was really cool to experience the hype of the LNY but then have a nice relaxing and refreshing holiday.  

Happy New Year!  

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Oh my goodness! I never thought it could be true, but it is! It is sooooo cold here!!! 

This summer everyone was adamant that the winter here would be cold. But I had a hard time believing them. I mean the temperatures in the summer were in the 100s with 100 percent humidity. And it was like that all the way through October. Come on! There is no way it could get cold here.  

The temperature started to drop to the low 90s/high 80s and the locals are breaking out their winter parkas. Seriously? That weather is awesome! This made it hard to think it got colder because I don't know how they will survive if they are wearing parkas in 80 degree weather.  

Then in November and December the weather dropped to the low 60s/high 50s. Back in the States that is my favorite weather, but here I have to agree that it's cold! It pained me to say that it was cold because seriously it's not even below 50! But I will say the temperature is different here. Since it is so humid the temperature is more like the temperature of a swimming pool. No one likes swimming in a pool that is below 60 degrees! 

I broke out my jackets for this weather. I actually enjoy jacket season. But this week I had to break out my big winter coat. Yup! Today has been the coldest day I have experienced here. Today the high was 39 degrees! Yeah I know everyone back home is enjoying temperatures in the teens, but trust me it's cold here too!!! 

Also our apartment doesn't have heat so it's basically like living in an icebox. I don't want to wake up in the mornings and leave my toasty bed. I could take a nice hot shower but my hot water only lasts for 8 minutes and usually I am in the middle of washing out conditioner when the water turns ice cold (and it's really hard to get warm once you've had an ice cold shower).  

I can't wait til February 4th when we will be in sunny Australia. Thankfully Australia is experiencing the opposite season! Looking forward to the warm weather!