Back to School, Back to School

Tomorrow is my first day at W.Academy -- very excited to start the semester, and have a better way to structure my time, etc.

Went in today and did some lesson-planning, and those sorts of good things. I feel weird about posting anything job-relevant on a public site, so.. I won't be, ha - but I'll send some e-mail updates about how things are going in the classroom in a little bit.

And here's a pretty flower:



Hope everyone's weeks are starting out well!

Love,
Paige

Suggestions?

I've decided to go to the next meeting of the Bangkok Women's Writing Group, so before I go... I need to write something to take with me.

With this decision made - and having not done any writing writing since it was assigned to me in college - I am now soliciting writing assignments from you guys. Just e-mail me, and if I write on your topic, then I'll send you back the final work. If I don't write on your topic, then I'll at least write you a haiku about how awesome you are.

My only parameters are that it not be a personal essay - I'll just be meeting these people.. no need for public self-reflection with strangers.

The meeting is either this Wednesday or next Wednesday, so the sooner the better as far as suggestions go!

Today's photo is of a spirit house in a rare (but celebrated) green corner:



Much love,
Paige

Holy Basil, Batman!

Opened the fridge today to find - of all things - a bit of sanctified herb:



..who knew? Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Love,
Paige

New favorite place to eat.

I have a new favorite place to eat that's pretty close to where I'm living. It's called Rice at 33, and (appropriately) serves rice dishes on Soi 33. It's inexpensive, and they cook the food out in the open so you see how clean/ fresh everything is. I like that.

This past week I've also tutored for a 4 year-old Japanese boy a couple of times, and that's been fun. He's pretty cute, has mini-glasses and loves dinosaurs, whales, and dolphins. I thought that private tutoring at someone's home might be a little awkward - but this has been fine. Next week I'm going to start tutoring a 7th grader also.

I don't have any new pics today, and so I'm posting a couple of Gramp's (hope that's ok Gramp) -

Here's from the boat ferry that I was talking about earlier this week:



And here's another one of the cove in Wolfeboro:



Thanks for the pics Gramp, and love to you all!
-Paige

I'm healthy!

Excellent news -- I don't have diabetes (that's what the biggest worry was since it runs in our family). I'm very glad that I went and got the tests done - and it's also just generally nice to know the procedure now for going to a doctor here, and having a go-to person in case I get sick again. It's also obviously really wonderful to hear that I'm healthy. So that was great.

Since I was at the hospital for a day and a half, I also read 3/4 of "On Beauty" by Zadie Smith. Even though I haven't quite finished it - I wholeheartedly recommend it.



Love,
Paige

Hospital Visit & Martha's Vineyard in my Shoes.

So today unfortunately I had to go to the hospital which is never exactly fun... my body is not quite sure what to do with the Thai heat quite yet, and so I'm going to get some bloodwork done just to make sure that nothing serious is going on.

There was a good/ surprising part in the day though. When I realized I was going to the hospital I decided to wear real shoes since the AC would be cranking; when I put on my little topsiders there was still a bunch of sand in them from MV. It was a very comforting, gritty moment. I ended up not wearing them so that I could save the sand though, ha. I'll have to put it in a mini-bottle or something.



Love,
Paige

In the Year 2551....

So I just found out this morning that I am currently living in 2551. I kept getting really confused as to why people kept tacking "51" onto things - so really this feels like quite a breakthrough for me.

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that a Buddhist country wouldn't use J.C.'s birthday as their go-to time-marker, and.. they don't. Buddha was born 543 years before Jesus. So basically I'm living in the future - which is pretty sweet.

Also - here are pictures of a guy who makes jasmine rings in front of a Subway (as in the chain sub shop - not the public transportation) daily on my street. Both the jasmine rings and the bread being baked in Subway tend to smell delicious.





Love,
Paige