2014?!?! I LOVE DUCK

How is it the middle of January already??  Whatever happened between Christmas and right now happened way too fast.  We rang in the new year in Krabi with some beach time, scuba-diving, and island-hopping, and then headed to Malaysia for a few days to update our visas.  Penang, Malaysia had some of the best food I've ever tasted!  Also, it looked a lot more like Europe than SE Asia, and everyone spoke English.  It's not their native language, but their schools teach all subjects in English starting in Kindergarten, so they learn it very well. Here are a few of my favorite moments from this week-long adventure!

KRABI

I did it again!  Much better this time.

dorks

jellyfish got me

MALAYSIA:

Penang Islang, Malaysia is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

World Her·it·age Site

noun

noun: World Heritage Site; plural noun: World Heritage Sites.

1. a natural or man-made site, area, or structure recognized as being of outstanding international importance and therefore as deserving special protection. Sites are nominated to and designated by the World Heritage Convention (an organization of UNESCO).

THEY HAVE BAGELS IN MALAYSIA!

wire-sculpture

Another (weirder) wire sculpture

 Kevin's first Indian food - before and after. I think he likes it!

 (The top of Penang Hill has a couple of Hindu temples.)

Delicious mint-lime smoothie

Mosque out our hotel window.

It was a fun trip with some good friends and some mean monkeys.

In the spirit of the new year, I have made a resolution: practice gratitude.  I know that I am extremely fortunate to travel as much as I do, meet so many amazing people, and see such incredible sights.  Plus, I have THE BEST family, which is why I keep going back home!

Today, I'm especially grateful for 8tracks.com.  Really. I just discovered it this morning, and it's awesome.   It's similar to Pandora, except Pandora does not work in Thailand. (boo.) 8tracks.com has some really creative "mashup" playlists, workout playlists, and lots of new music.  As a matter of fact, I'm listening to it while I type this blog entry...and on that note, I'm also grateful for surprise days off!

This week the students have midterm tests for 3 days, and Thursday is Teachers' Day, which is a national holiday.  ...Did you hear that America? Thailand celebrates teachers with a national holiday. Reason #2 why Thailand does it better.  So I have to teach on Friday and tutor on Saturday, but that's it for this week!  The Thai teachers told me recently that they are happy that I work at their school.  They claim that they're happy because the students listen to me. HA!  I wish. I do believe they are thankful for native-speaking English teachers.  Actually, I think this country needs a few more of us.  OR they need to stop miseducating their children by selling things like this:

 I LOVE DUCK reminds me of Anchorman.  Also, it is NOT proper English.  Do you love ducks?  Or is there a specific duck that you love?  Or do you know someone named Duck?  ???
Here's another one:

Sorry it's blurry. I couldn't stop laughing.

If you haven't come up with a new year's resolution yet, maybe it should be "Happy every day every happiness A year"... just a thought.  Sounds pleasant, right?
How about this one:

This one's not too bad.  It's spelled right, at least.  But to describe it as "Delicious" AND "Good Taste" is a little redundant.  Also, I'm pretty sure that this dried seafood snack is not, in fact, delicious. (Culture note: Thai people eat a LOT of squid-chips, fish strings, dried seafood snacks, etc. Smells terrible. Especially when they open a package on a bus when you can't get away from it for 5 hours.)

Appication Wold?  It's no secret that they have an issue with r's and l's, but that's no reason to just leave them out completely.  Even if it said Application World - those are clearly not applications. They're phone cases.

They expect me to teach these students English when they're surrounded by this nonsense?!  Yikes.


Here are a few more that have nothing wrong with them but make me giggle:

LUNCH            HURRY

I see approximately 1,242,598 things like this every day.  Don't worry, I'll keep the pictures coming!

Happy New Year!