The Hungarian Padthai

 There is a Finnish poem which says the Christmas is only in the hearts of people and it is when we want it. This is how I feel tonight.  It's Christmas Eve. I miss my family, mostly my dear sister and my dear cousins but in general, Christmas in 2020 would be different anyway. It's not about the festivities - and maybe, hopefully, this year it will change it for us forever, that it should be in our hearts. Even if it disappeared from it at some point.  Christmas is when we want it - says the poem and sadly I don't remember who wrote it. Christmas is when our beloved ones run towards us. Christmas is in the heart when you see someone that you love smile at you - or see someone think of you but s/he doesn't realize it that you're watching him / her yet. It's the feeling, and the warmth of the love.  I am grateful to have so many friends to think of and talk to during this night. I don't feel myself lonely even if "I should be": my family are far awa...

 Due to the high increase of infected people, we have cancelled our holiday - which was supposed to start today. You know, the beach will wait, but health is first! However, there has been no provincial lockdown introduced yet (except for Samut Sakhon which is the highly infected province), but we still decided to cancel our week. We count here as migrant, and we didn't want to risk it to get it locked somewhere where we don't have a job or we don't know the means of getting around.  However, it is still good to know how Thailand treats the coronavirus and its dangerous.  Yesterday, on Monday, I had to get my bloodtest to check my thyroid hormones. Now I went to the other hospital (and it was 1000 TBH cheaper! :O) plus, I managed to talk to an endocrinologist, as well! I must tell you, the other day I went on a bloodtest at the weekend - so the big difference in price could be because of that. Upon entrance, there is the usual temperature measure as always, but this time,...

  Last week before the 3-week holiday and I prepared a project with Grade 9. Of course, it was all about Harry Potter as they wished it. I divided the class into the real Harry Potter houses and the first task was to draw their house's coat of arms. Then I asked the other teachers, my colleagues to vote for the best one - which one they liked the best. You can see, here is the end product. (9A and 9B - therefore the 2 sets of drawings).  They of course had other tasks, as well: they had to plan their magical beast and draw it, then present it, bring a passport picture and then draw themselves as a Hogwarts-students and I managed to find some wordsearch for them, as well.  I'm not a genius or anything to have found out these many activities for them, I got them  from here  . Please use them in your class, too - they are really cool! :-) In 9A, Ravenclaw got the first place, whereas in the other class Gryffindor came to the first place! Congratulations, guys! :-)...

 I'm a visual learner. I can't master a language if I don't know its alphabet. I need to read it first and then hear it, so I decided that before I pick up more and other than the initial sawadikaa or kapunkaa  (Hello and Thank you, respectively), I need to learn the alphabet. That's why it took so little time for me to speak Norwegian or Spanish: I literally saw all the signs everywhere and it was really easy to figure out what means what. Also, as K. pointed out, all those languages I was familiar with are relatives and part of the Indoeuropean language family, whereas Thai couldn't be much further from them, even if it wanted to. Therefore, those common roots of words (except for some refreshing familiar words, like coffee!) (which I recognized on a sign today, yay!), don't help me either. It's something completely, utterly, totally different and even after 3 months, I feel completely lost. Also, give it to the fact that I have absolutely no contact with ...

Today I've had my best trip ever! :-)  I don't even know where to start! :-) So, I decided that during the 4-day holiday, I'll do something different - other than Ayutthaya. Yes, Ayutthaya is close but I always go there and it's not that I'm getting tired of the old temple ruins (will I ever?) but I wanted to see something different and surely, there are other things as nice as that nearby, as well. So I looked for places within a 100 km circle and that's how I found Suphan Buri and its museum: Dragon Descendants Museum! (PS: if you live in Thailand or planning to come here before the 31st of December, the museum has reduced prices until the last day of this year. So hurry up! It's REALLY worth it! :-D ). Needless to say, I was a bit tense during the bus ride because I got the information that it takes approximately only 1 and a half hours to get there. Apparently, the van took 2,5 hours! So from now on, I'll know that I always have to add an extra hour ...

  This entry is later than a month: but I only had time to write about it now. On the 6th of November, right after coming back from the holiday, we celebrated the day of Ajarn Samai who founded our school. His dream and vision was to establish an English-speaking school where non-Thai kids can also learn (and those who wish to learn in English but their mother tongue is Thai, as well). The whole school gathered in the main building's aula, and after singing a couple of songs, or listening to my student who is the President of the Student Council, both teachers and students were required to staple up their thoughts on the school. The result became this, as you can see: a board, full of hearts, full of good thoughts and memories. It was really a good way to show gratefulness. Some students wrote that they are grateful because they met their good friends here or that they learnt really good English here, and so on. :-) It was really touching to see all the students move up to the boar...

  After a couple of weeks, it was time to give another chance to Ayutthaya. I realized by now that in Thailand I have to lead a somewhat peculiar life - of two lives, instead. From Monday to Friday, I'm a teacher and - as W. calls me "a businesswoman" - focused on her tasks. On Saturday, Sunday, a tourist must come out from me who follows the flow, and explores the cities and everything - and most of all, doesn't get disappointed or upset by the lack of the routine. This being sad, all my evening duties should be cancelled or modified, otherwise, I can easily find myself in an upset position, again.  Enough of the circtumstances, I decided that I want to go back to Ayutthaya again and visit some more of the ancient temples. I decided on my budget too, and put +300 baht in my backpack thinking that it should be enough. I prepared my map, my GoPro camera, some snacks, food, and water, too then I set out.  The bus trip was all familiar already and I even recognized Ayutt...