February 17, 2006

What a week. I have officially completed my first year of teaching at the collegiate level. YAY! We still have juries but that'll fun. I get nervous for my students..anyway, things are winding down and I love it! I can't believe I have a summer vacation. Last year we didn't get a break b/c we moved here right after finals. Teaching rocks for the summer vacations!

We have a busy weekend planned..lots of errands to do. The foot massage place downstairs rocks my world right now. We've been twice in a week and I want to go again this weekend. I actually fell alseep during my last one. She probably stopped working until I woke up again..haha.

The weather here is getting hot! The humidity is up around 90% and it'll get higher through April. The a/c broke at school today which didn't help matters. I can't believe it though..I liked it much better when it was dry. April is the hottest month here and coincidentally enough, there is a huge water festival that happens in the middle of April. I guess everywhere you go, you get soaked with water! How fun is that! I may go to Chaing Mai in the North for the festival, or go into Bangkok with friends. I think it'll be so fun to see..and experience.

Dave and I were supposed to go to Chaing Rai this weekend. It's located at the intersection of Laos (pronounced Lao), Burma (technically Myannmar) and Thailand (called the golden triangle). I guess there are still hilltribes that export local products. I think there are several "tour" companies where you can trek to the villages but I think they're really invasive. I suppose tourism supports their economies but I think I would feel like going to a zoo...staring and looking..like I was intruding. It makes me feel uncomfortable....especially since I'm not a tourist here. Not that they'd know that..anyway. We had to cancel b/c there's too much to do this weekend. Lame huh. Well, we do live here so I guess we can go whenever we want. SCORE.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend...oh, I have a new baby cousin!! Her name is Grace! YAY!

February 12, 2006

What a week...Dave had his first jazz band concert as a director, and I saw my first grad students ever give a recital! I was so proud of my students. They rocked! And Dave is a killer director. He always pysches me out that it won't be that great and then I see him and he is amazing. He taught a Horace Silver solo by rote. How cool is that? Anyway, his band sounded magnificant..we'll have a DVD soon.

Here it is, Saturday night and I'm exhausted. The air here has been really bad..lots of burning. I think I'll attribute my lack of energy to that. Just kidding. But we had a good rain today so hopefully that'll clean up the air a bit. I forgot to take my allergy medicine on Thursday night..just one pill and Friday I could barely wake up my allergies were so bad. I had to take benedryl and by 2pm I was OUT. Yeah, I woke up at 5:30pm. oops. No good. The whole thing shocked me though..am I really that dependent on medicine? I guess so..but that sucks. I need to find me an allergist here.

Other than the benedryl drama, Dave and I had fun surprises for eachother. I surprised him after work one day and we went to see "Munich" gold class. Oh yeah. Gold class seating is awesome. Anyway, it was fun and that movie was impressive. Then yesterday, Dave surprised me and took my to this Rose Garden, which actually isn't a rose garden at all but huge garden grounds in the middle of the swamp on a river. It was gorgeous. All the trees and plants were labeled. We saw what a mango tree, jackfruit tree, and tamarind tree looks like. There were also flamingos hanging out. Those things sound awful when they talk and they're fiesty...yuck. It was an awesome surprise...

Oh, great news. A massage place opened up on the bottom floor of our condo. That's right. 1 hour foot massages for $5 whenever I want. YAY! Our other massage place rocks but we have to take a cab there so it's more time and more money. I am in love with this place. The chairs are comfy and they serve really nice tea. Anyway, I think I want to stay in the condos next year for the foot massages! Seriously..that's a good enough reason not to move right? Well, for me it is. I don't want to move now.

Today we went into the infamous J.J's market. Remember that rain I was talking about earlier?? Well, we got stuck in it at the market. No one was expecting it b/c it's not supposed to rain until May..hello! It was fun though, we had bought a bowl so I used that as an umbrella and the paths were empty b/c everyone was hiding!! It was a fun trip to the market. We were looking for laquerware that I think is from Burma, but of course is sold here. We found a bunch of serving platters for the October reception. Sweet.

Well, this has been a long enough blog..which I am told comes from weblog. Haha, Dave and I are reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It's a great book and makes me feel good about living in Asia. Whatever....

February 5, 2006

It's Super Bowl Sunday but not really b/c it's only Saturday in the states. I think the game will be aired live, which means 6am on Monday. I don't think we'll be watching it this year.

So I think I'm slowly becoming Thai...as much as possible I mean. I feel soo uncomfortable wearing tank tops. I feel like no matter how nice the top is, it's not nice enough. I think in celcius even though I can't feel the difference between 30 and 35. I definetley think in Baht and will save 200 baht if possible ($5USD). I don't ask for mai pet (no spice) at restaurants anymore. Last night, we went to the little place we used to eat at every night (before we bought cooking stuff). We used to only be able to eat the food if there was no spice and no chiles. But we had both last night and it was awesome! I can't believe it. I have a Thai tongue! Dave and I do NOT generally show signs of public affection. I mean, we weren't all over eachother in the states or anything but no one kisses in public here. Hilare.

The humidity is back with a vengeance and it's not cool(literally). I started taking in my dry clean shirts to work so that I can wear them more than once. If I bike over to school (10 minute ride), they'll be drenched and I'll only wear a shirt once. Lame.

I'm really excited for this week at work. I'm having the world famous horn player, Hans Pizka give a master class for my horn students on Tuesday. That'll be a great learning experience for them and for me. My graduate students are sharing a non-degree recital on Wednesday. They're playing Beethoven's Sonata and Dukas's Villanelle as well as some shorter works and duets. And Dave's first big jazz band concert of EVER is also Wednesday night. YAY! Should be a fun and easy going week.

I made up a theme song for Cheddar and he sings with me! It goes "I want a cheddar cheese sandwich" and he goes "meow" and then we keep doing that over and over and it's awesome!! YAY for Cheddar!

Have a nice super bowl sunday and as the Johnny Walker signs here say "drink, don't drive." hahahaha