I'M BACKKKKKKKKKK!!!

It's that time again!  I'm back in Thailand, at my home in Udon Thani.  I can't believe I'm back here already; it feels like I just left!  My first few days have been interesting but mostly uneventful.  Things should starting picking up in the next few days as I go out and visit school that we will be working with this summer and staff begin arriving!  Staff training will begin next week and I've heard there will be over 150 people here, so I intend to enjoy the peace and quiet for the next couple of days before the mayhem.  After work today, I took a walk around Ricefields and the village and snapped some quick pictures. I realize I didn't do a very good job last year of sharing what it's like here, and that's a shame because it's beautiful.  So here ya go...a peek into my little corner of the world for the next few months (excuse the bad coloring and blurriness on some...I'm still figuring out how to use my new camera!).

This is the Ricefields house which is our main house, and is also the largest.  Most of the female students stay on the bottom floor and staff on the top (my room last year was the top left window).  They are finishing up work on a coffee/smoothie cafe on the bottom left corner of the house right now.

A little hut that overlooks the rice fields and ponds.

A random cart.

This is our san phra phum or spirit house.  The Thais believe that if you put one of these outside of your house, it will appease the spirits so they won't cause problems for your home and family.  People light incense and leave gifts for the spirits.  It's basically a mini temple.

This is the Garden House, or yellow house as we call it.  This is where most of the male students stay.  Many of our year round Thai staff live in the upstairs rooms.

They just recently started work on the garden.

Sunset over the rice fields.

The sign at the entry.

This is the new house they have been working on all spring, it's about a week or two from being complete.  It has rooms, but also a large classroom/conference room, which I am excited to have!  This house is actually outside of our main property (just a few yards away from the front entrance) and sits across the street from the village temple.

A typical house in the village.  This is definitely one of the nicer houses you will see around, and I love that they park their song tao (Thai taxi) inside!.

This is one of the entrances of the village temple.  This sits catty-corner from the entry to Ricefields and directly across from the new house.

Pagodas that line the street around the perimeter of the temple.  These are used as tombs or graves for people to be buried in when they pass away.  It's a bit morbid, but I think they are gorgeous.  So much prettier than a headstone.

This is the main entrance to the temple.  When you come down the main street into the village you can see this from a good mile or so away.

A song tao.  I've been told this translates to mean two benches, which is quite literally all it is.  This is the public song tao that goes back and forth between our village, Ban Chiang Yuen and the town, Udon Thani.  I usually take one of these to get to the mall, the night market, Tesco,  or to the church I go to.  It costs about 50 cents per ride.  We also charter these in the summer to get our kids around and end up having a whole fleet of them (sometimes 7 or 8) driving around town together blasting music from those speakers you see in the back.  They make for a great dance party at night.

Random little gas pump in front of a shop on the main road.  This is about as fancy as it gets in these parts!  Most people just buy old wine bottles filled with cheap gas to fill their motorbikes in the village.

A typical "corner store" as we call them.  This is one of the little shops we go to when we want to buy soda, beer (or Spy!), ice cream cones, or little snacks.  This one happens to have an "ice cream" cart.  Basically it's just shaved ice with condensed milk poured over top and some sugar syrup added.  I can't say it's delicious, but they do have toppings!  Luckily real ice cream can be found at the mall in town.

The main street that runs through the village.

A random Chinese ornament hanging outside of someone's house.  It's rare to see Chinese things like this, but there is one Chinese temple close to town.

Baby bunnies!!!!  I almost died when I saw these, and the old woman who had them was nice enough to let me take a picture.  This was the same woman who asked if I was Chinese.  Bless her for not thinking I was an annoying American tourist with my camera.

This is a trash can.  This is what you will see lining the roads in villages and sometimes even in big towns.  Unfortunately you have to touch it to open the top flap to actually throw something away.  At least it makes good use of old tires!

A real, honest-to-goodness loom chilling right on someone's front porch.  This is actually fairly common to see in our village.

Street dogs.  They are everywhere here.  You can't walk down the street without 10 dogs chasing you or barking at you.

Sunset over Ricefields.

That's it for now!  I'll try to get some more a bit earlier in the day when it's not so dark.  It was just too dang hot to go outside any earlier than like 6:00!

Sawatdee!