Where is my pocket full of sunshine?

Well, I've been slacking in the blogging department, that's for sure. I have not had one post from 2013 yet! I must live a very, busy life. :)

Before I begin, I must warn my readers- I have chosen to write tonight because I am home alone, feeling sorry for myself. It's pathetic, I know, but in my defense, winters in Shanghai can be quite depressing. We have so many gray days this time of year that it starts to feel like we will never see the sun again...I'm not even sure I remember what a blue sky looks like over here.

Not only is it dreary and still a bit chilly, it's a busy time of year at work. I have my class assembly this Friday, student led conferences a couple weeks from now and then our quarter 3 reports are due. I must say, I am really looking forward to March 30, when we board the plane to Bali for the second time...and as I think of that, it hits me...I should not feel sorry for myself, even though my sister is about to give birth to her second child and I will not be there to hold him on his birth day...I should be thankful for all that I am fortunate enough to have. (Rambling will continue in this post, beware.) Sometimes it's so hard to see the positives when the negatives seem to outweigh them. One last gripe and then I will move on to the cheery part of my post. Although I am extremely happy and excited to welcome the new baby to our family, at the same time I am reminded of the upcoming anniversary of my father's passing. It has now been 9 years, unbelievable to me and so sad that Gabby, the new baby and those to come never got to know him as their GRANDpa. No matter what, this time of year is always the hardest for me. So with that said, I am focussing on the amazing school year I have already had and am reminding myself of all the great fun. Here is the year (thus far) in review. This post is mostly for me...so if you don't feel like seeing things you have already seen, I would go back to doing what you were doing. I apologize for making you read the above. :)

 First Happy Hour with the staff at Eddie's American Bar.

Bri's Birthday Celebration at Eddie's

One of my favorite days each year, the Chili Cook off!!! (With our new friend, Franck)

 Adriana's Birthday Bash at Club Air...oh the memories of that night!

Staff Halloween Party!

 Hanoi! I miss the coffee...

Bike Riding in Vietnam

Halong Bay, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to!

 Elton John Concert

 Stache Bash 2012

 Pink Party for Krystle's Birthday!

Staff Christmas Party

 My beautiful girlfriends!

More lovely ladies!

 Elephant riding in Chiang Mai, Thailand

 Christmas Day in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Waterfalls in Thailand

 Travis enjoying the waterfalls of Laos.

 Travis being a tourist in Laos.

Me trying to enjoy Laos with the stupid Dengue!!!

 Our Phuket beach vacation in January!

Smiling faces at the beach!

My Polka Dotted 32nd birthday party! Look at all my amazing friends!!!

 CNY in Singapore

I fell in love with this city!!!

Now I remember how fortunate I really am. My life is pretty fantastic, and all of these people (plus more) make it what it is. I look forward to the rest of the school year and the memories I still have to make. This summer is getting closer and closer and I know I will see those that I am missing deeply at the moment. 

xoxo

C

Temples and Cooking School

     Our first full day in Chiang Mai began with a little bit of walking, a little bit of eating, some reading, and a couple drinks. We decided to just wonder around the city and see what there was to see. We found a couple of temples just down the street from our hotel, so we started there. It was a little odd being there with no other tourists. Every temple we have ever been to is always full of people. At the two we went to on this day, we were the only ones. It led me to believe we were not supposed to be there. I totally thought we were trespassing and I kept waiting for someone to come and yell at us. However, I was put at ease when a monk came out and began to talk to us, so then I figured we were fine. Here are a few photos from them.

 I don't know the name of any of these. There were no signs in English. I thought this one was gorgeous!

 I tried to be like the dragon...

 It was actually locked, so Travis couldn't go in either. :)

 The details are amazing!

 LOVED this one!

 Lots of little Buddhas

 Up close, this one was about the size of my hand, maybe a little larger.

They are just amazing!

     The next day we went to a cooking school at night. I am really glad we did it in the evening because it is much cooler then. The days are really hot and when you are cooking, it can be a little too much heat! We found the number one cooking school in Chiang Mai called Siam Rice Cooking School. It was perfect! We really enjoyed the one we did in Cambodia and we were looking forward to this one. We were picked up from our hotel and taken to the market to learn about the foods in Thai cooking. Then we went to the school and began. There were 10 people in our group, four of us from America and six from Holland. It was a fun group! We made a soup, a noodle dish, curry and veggies. Here are some photos.

 At the market

 Our teacher, Mink was fantastic! He was very knowledgeable and fun!

 This is where we did most of the cooking.

 Travis hard at work.

 Making Drunken Noodles! I was afraid of the fire, but Travis was a champ! The noodles were delicious.

 My Drunken Noodle dish, yum!

 Making curry paste by hand is a LOT of hard work!

 Making curry

 Taste testing

 My Pumpkin Curry and sweet and sour veggies, I rocked them!

Travis make another curry (I can't remember how to spell it though) and holy basil veggies. Yummy!

     Today we are just relaxing in our room until we move to our new hotel. After that I have a 3 hour spa appointment! What a lovely way to celebrate Christmas Eve! Then we have a date night to eat dinner and watch It's a Wonderful Life. So far we have done a lot of reading and relaxing, which was really needed! On Christmas we are out to explore mountains and waterfalls. I can't wait! The day after we are headed to an Elephant Farm to learn all about the animals and play with them. I am super excited! I fell in love with elephants when we went to Bangkok two years ago and I can't wait to see them up close again. December 27 will be our last full day here and then we are off to Luang Prabang, Laos. More updates to come...

Merry Christmas Eve!

C & T

The beginning of our Winter Holiday

We are traveling for three weeks…that’s a long time! I have never traveled for more than 10 days at a time, so this should be interesting. To start, I have to say that when we planned this trip I was very excited. I thought it would be a perfect way to spend our three week winter holiday. However, I didn’t think about how much Christmas mean to me, and how much I love being surrounded by family and friends during this time of year. What I was thinking about was how chaotic last Christmas was as we tried to drive between Detroit and Jackson numerous times. On top of that, we took a side trip for four days to San Antonio. It was so busy and not really restful. It was amazing to be with family though. I thought this trip was a great alternative. Well, when we got here I was a little mad at myself for choosing this over America. I even went as far as looking up flights back to Shanghai and then flights to Detroit. I’m a nut case…I fully admit it.

So anyway, back to our current trip. We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand with no problems. The flights were quite quick and nice. The flight to Bangkok was on Thai Air. I absolutely recommend that airline! We had a five our flight and could watch lots of movies or TV shows. I was in heaven! I managed to watch Chicago and Step Up Revolution (don’t judge me, I was in the mood for movies with dancing) all the way through and then part of one of the Harry Potter movies. The second flight was only an hour and I began to read the latest Stephanie Plum book…still love how entertaining those books are. Oh, and for the record, I LOVED Step Up Revolution! Bring me Twitch and Sandy Cohen any day and I am happy!

Moving on…we arrived in Chiang Mai and took a taxi to our hotel. Immediately noticing green trees, fresh air, less craziness. We were happy to say the least. We were brought to our hotel, The Castle and noticed the photos online were perhaps enhanced a bit. The so-called pool was more like a giant-sized Jacuzzi tub and the rooms looked a little different. To be fair, we are only paying $35 a night, so I didn’t expect much. However, after traveling in Asia for almost three years, I also know that $35 can get you quite a lot! Any who, I was a little disappointed. Travis and I have a slightly completely different opinion when it comes to hotels. I am not saying I have to have a 5 Star hotel experience every time (I would never turn one down), but I would like a hot shower, a sink that I can actually wash my face in without pouring water all over the floor and a bed that is not a rock. Do I exaggerate here…maybe a little. After all, we are in Asia, all beds are hard, but seriously as I type this, my butt is going numb!!! And I am not lying- the shower is not anywhere near hot.

We move to a new hotel today. I have high hopes for a fabulous bathroom, comfy bed and better location. I do know the latter is a for-sure. I will keep you updated, so don’t lose any sleep wondering if my new hotel is good enough for me.

Once I was done complaining to Travis and whining about as many things as I could (of course there were tears too), we began to plan the rest of our time in Chiang Mai. Here is what we are looking at- going to temples, a cooking school, spa day, visiting Waterfalls and Mountains, going to an elephant farm and petting tigers, oh and shopping and eating a lot! I wanted to go to the snake farm, but Travis was not up for it. Ha! Totally joking, neither of us would ever go to that. So, as you can see, I sometimes always over react to things. I am happy to be here now and am looking forward to it all.

Side note- next year we will definitely spend Christmas in America. I am already looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

C & T

Christmas Party 2012

It began and ended in the same dramatic way…someone being carried in or out by four people. Yes, in true SCIS fashion, it was a night to be remembered...well hopefully remembered, I guess it depends on how much wine was consumed.

Last night was our annual staff Christmas Party. Each year has a different theme to encourage us to be creative and to feel inspired. Year one was “Wild West”, last year was “James Bond” and this year was …Ollywood. Nope, not a typo, that’s what it was. They wanted us to decide whatever we wanted, such as Hollywood, Bollywood or anything else that ended in ollywood. It was a fantastic theme and I really loved seeing everyone dressed to the nines in their own personal ways! Check out these amazing dresses and tuxedos.

 The sign that greeted us :)

 Is this Bri and Matt or Audry and Humphrey?

 Aren't we cute?

 Lovely ladies!

 More lovely ladies...it was a bit like posing for prom pictures!

 Christmas colors!

 Some good looking men!

 I loved the Bollywood!

 And then these two show up! I love it!

So sweet!

Now, back to people being carried. After many of us took the big bus out to the Shanghai Art Center, we arrived at a very modern, unique venue. It was gorgeous. Christmas lights were strung all around, the wine was flowing, cameras were flashing in every corner and compliments were heard from all. But there was one important moment we were all waiting for...our Head of School was to make a grand entrance. Everyone gathered near the doors with cameras pointed, ready to shoot. The doors flung open and there he was…wearing his white themed Bollywood outfit, raised into the air on a platform and was being carried by four men. It was a moment we will never forget. See the pictures below for an idea.

 The Grand Entrance!

 Look at that headpiece!

The night went on, more pictures were taken, lots of dancing was happening, but most of all the wine was flowing. We were totally over-served as per the usual. The glasses of wine were more like bottles of wine. And as I stated at the beginning, someone was carried out, poor girl! Anyways, it was a fabulous night and we feel very lucky to work at a school that always provides such awesome parties. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Our next adventure is to Thailand and Laos for 3 weeks. We will keep you updated on that as we experience it all.

Merry Christmas!

The Klumps