Last Day in the Sun

On our last day in Dolphin Bay, we savored every last moment of relaxation.

We enjoyed our last leisurely breakfast of omelets, bacon, fruit, and whatever Thai dish was available.

We enjoyed sitting in the morning sunshine. Even with pink eye.

And we spent our afternoon lounging on the beach.

The kids worked hard on a sand castle with some of the kids they had met. This family's vacation lined up exactly with ours, so we saw a lot of them while we were there. They are international school teachers in Beijing.

The kids worked very hard on the details of their sandcastles.

For hours...

and hours...

and hours...

while we sat back and watched them. (another token picture of me. yes, I was there.)

I thought it was strange that Kennedy didn't want to put her swim suit on. She played in the sand in her dress.

And even though Cade was ready to go home, he still seemed to have lots of fun at the beach.

One last trip into the ocean...

And our trip was done.

Cade fell asleep before dinner again (actually it was after we ordered and before our food arrived), so we enjoyed our last meal in the comfort of our room, and then we got up dark and early (around 4:00) the next morning to head to the airport. I'm already looking forward to our next trip!

Snow Day!

Well, I thought it was time for an interruption in our "regularly scheduled programming" (Thailand--I only have a couple of posts left!) and what better time to do that than an unexpected day off?!

It was finally starting to warm up around here. The snow that we'd had since early December finally disappeared in the last week, the ground was clear, the sun came up, and we had highs around 45 degrees!

We were sure it was almost spring! And so, Mother Nature thought she'd laugh in our faces by dumping six inches of snow on us!

So, today we ended up with an unexpected day off from school--which turned out to be timed perfectly since it is Super Bowl Monday here in Korea!

We snacked on granola while watching a depressing first half.

And then we headed out to play in the snow during the halftime show. It turns out it's really hard to try to watch someone sing and dance when live feed has a lot of lag time!

Of course, as it turned out, we timed our trip perfectly. We hadn't missed much with the power outage!

The snow was perfect for packing.

And the kids ended up with a very large snowman!

It has warmed up to 34 degrees this afternoon, so it's slowly starting to melt. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, but then there's a chance of snow again on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how the week shapes up.

Cade has another fever this afternoon, so he's laying low and doing a lot of cuddling with Dad today. Poor guy.

My schedule is flipped this month because of the snow day, so I have lots of planning and due dates to change (but I love the fact that we don't have to make it up!). I'd better get to work!



Heading into Hua Hin

On the day after Christmas, my family took off to explore the rest of Thailand. It was sad to see them go, and it was disappointing that we couldn't travel around more, but it was best for us that we didn't try to stretch the kids too much more. They were already starting to get tired, and Cade especially was ready to go home since he hadn't been feeling well.

So that afternoon, we reserved a taxi to take us into Hua Hin, about a 30 minute drive from Dolphin Bay. My goal was to see a bit more of the culture, have some authentic Thai street food, maybe see some elephants, pick up some Thai ingredients in a grocery store, and maybe get a few souvenirs.

Eric went to the front desk to sign us up for the taxi. They told him they would take us to the "market village". That was perfect. Exactly what I wanted. I thought.

When we arrived, I discovered that it was not at all a market village. It was "Market Village". A mall. Full of expats. Full of white people. With a Starbucks right in front. I laughed out loud. Literally.

So we checked out the mall. It was a lot nicer than a Korean mall, but it wasn't particularly exciting. I told Eric that I wanted to go for a walk down the street outside just to see what we could see.

As it turned out, we couldn't see much of anything. It was hot in the city. Really hot. So, we walked up the street a little bit and basically turned around and headed back as soon as the kids started whining.

We ended up having some boring ol' pepperoni pizza. It reminded me of some of our experiences here in Seoul. We leave the house with these notions of what our experience will be and end up settling for something incredibly ordinary. And then paying way too much for bad pizza to make up for it! It's always some kind of experience, even if it's not the one pictured in my mind!

After lunch, Kennedy and I went to the grocery store while Eric and Cade picked up tacky souvenirs in the mall. We checked out the interesting snacks (15 baht is about 50 cents) and we got some satay and curry seasonings--things that are hard to find here in Seoul. Then we went to meet our driver.

We relaxed a bit on the lawn when we got back to the resort.

We let the kids play with some of the kids at the resort even though we probably shouldn't have since Cade still wasn't feeling well.

We had a light dinner at the resort that evening.

I had Thai iced tea with nearly every meal I had in the resort restaurant, so Eric thought we needed my picture by the sign. As you can see, I was pleased.

Cade managed to stay awake through the meal, but he wasn't even hungry enough for chicken satay. He put in a special order for toast with jam, and they were happy to oblige him, thankfully.

The beach was really beautiful in the evening, especially once your eyes are trained to look straight past the ugly green fence!

I've spent the entire day poring over my students' resumes and cover letters, so that I can assign them jobs for the big research project we just began. It turns out that it takes quite awhile when not only do you have to determine whether or not they are a good fit for the job they applied for, but you also have to grade the resumes and letters themselves. It took me all day to get through one class, so I still have three to go, which does not bode well for my weekend!

Christmas Day

It always takes me so long to get my pictures posted that by the time I get them up, it feels as though it's been months since the event actually took place! It's only been one month since Christmas, but it feels as if it's been much longer. My brother just got home from Thailand this week, but we're four weeks into second semester already.

This week Eric's mom bought her ticket to Seoul for spring break, and we bought our tickets back to the States for the summer. We're all ready for another vacation, I guess!

Christmas morning the kids were excited to get up and open their presents, of course. Cade was still not feeling great, but he managed just fine.

Grandpa spoiled them and brought presents from the States, so they were very excited for all of their new Legos!

And, the adults managed to make it through before heading out to breakfast and that first cup of coffee!

We spent the day lounging, relaxing, and spending some quality Lego-building time since my dad, brother, and Gretchen were taking off the next day.

Kennedy and I took a walk down the beach.

We had Christmas dinner at an Indian restaurant down the road which was really good. Cade fell asleep before we'd even ordered, so he got passed around the table as we ate. I forgot to bring my camera, though, so no pictures.

Last year we ate Korean food in Korea on Christmas. This year we ate Indian food in Thailand on Christmas. I wonder where we'll be and what we'll be eating next year on Christmas day!