Walk Like An Egyptian
In completion of a unit study on Egypt, Lilli's 2nd grade class performed a play about Ramses and how life of a Pharaoh was in ancient Egypt. The students made their costumes, did research, and learned a dance to perform for the parents.
The D.M.V.
(Thai Style)
A few months ago I decided to get my Thai driver's license. What an obstacle of hoops I had to jump through. First I had to take a copy of my house lease agreement to the immigration office to get an official document stating that I was a Thai resident and could legally obtain a driver's license in Thailand. Here I had to have copies of my passport and passport pictures. I had to leave my documents there and return the next day to pick up my official resident document. From there I had to go to the hospital to get a bill of health stating that I was physically fit to drive a car. Now with all these documents in hand plus my international driver's permit from the AAA office in the US, I headed to the office in which one goes to get a driver's license. I call this office the Department of Motor Vehicles but that's not what it's called here in Thailand. Here it's called the Land Holdings Department, but that just doesn't make sense. Once at this office, I was able to read the signs and figure which queue to go to. My documents were examined by two very friendly Thai guys. After they decided I had all the needed documents they said, "Ah, American... you can sing Bye Bye American Pie?" I said, "Well, yeah, somewhat." They said, "Okay sing it now!" I said, "Excuse me?" They said, "Sing song now." So I sang some of "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie" and got a round of applause from the workers and the others waiting in line. I was then promptly escorted to the front of the testing line because I sang. My test included a knee reflex test, a color blindness test, and a depth perception test. I'm happy to say I passed all 3 tests and moved on without wait to get my picture made for my first ever foreign driver's license. The whole process at the DMV (or LHD) took me about 30 minutes. Later during the day I saw a Canadian friend at the grocery store. She mentioned that she had gone to get her license earlier that same day and thought it odd that the guys wanted her to sing Ann Murray songs, but she didn't know any. Her total amount of time at the DMV......3 hours.
Fast forward 2 months to June and Robert decides he wants his Thai driver license. He repeats all the steps but missing one small step in the process causes him to have a 2 1/2 hour wait at the DMV. He was not asked to sing "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie." He did not get to move to the front of the line. He was quite aggravated as he had rehearsed the song and was ready to pull out his banjo if needed.
Lady looking over all Robert's documents to make sure he has everything in order.
We thought the signs above were quite funny.
Singapore
The first weekend of June, Robert and I treated ourselves to a getaway to Singapore where we attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend, a couples retreat sponsored by the Catholic Church. In addition to a very stress-free weekend, we enjoyed sightseeing in the beautiful city state of Singapore. Singapore is a very clean city with rules and order that make it seem more American than Asian. Once a colony of England, the official language of Singapore is English. However, every person has a second language called a mother tongue. Official second languages include Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. We met many nice people and ate some really good food. 
Singapore Flyer
View from the Flyer
This new landmark, The Marina Bay Sands Resort, looks like a cruise ship set atop a building.
How funny, they have "Ride the Ducks" in Singapore too!
The famed Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel
The Long Bar: Home of the Singapore Sling
At 25 Singapore Dollars per drink (20.38 USD), and the fact they were incredibly sweet, we only had one.....each.
The Marriage Encounter House.
Cathedral of the Good Shepherd
The Armenian Church
Singapore has beautiful buildings. This one is the Fire House Museum.
The Capitol Building
Singapore prides itself on being a fine city.... fine meaning a sum of money to be paid as a penalty for committing an offense. That is why you will not see people spitting gum out on the sidewalk, or graffiti on train cars, or baggy pants falling off some skinny guy that thinks the rest of the world wants to see his boxers. As Americans we might find this a little excessive, but I enjoyed the clean, perfect-looking city. We will definitely return to Singapore. Next time we will take the kids and go to Universal Studios Theme Park.
Last Day of School
Smyth and Chloe had an awards assembly on the last full day of school, and Lilli had a second grade end-of-the-year party. I managed to attend all the events when I didn't even have my car and driver available. My Thai is good enough now I can call a taxi to come get me and take me wherever I need to go.
Tournament soccer team awards. Chloe on left.
Honor Roll
I enjoyed teaching the second graders how to make deep dish pizza.
Second graders running around in swimsuits and barefoot, a hill, giant pieces of plastic, soap, and water..... I don't think this combination would ever happen at a school in the U.S.
But anything can happen in Thailand.
Lilli told her teacher they should have been doing this all year long and not wait until the last day to bring out the slip and slide.
Underwater World
On a slow Saturday afternoon we decided to check out the aquarium here in Pattaya. It's a pretty neat aquarium where you walk through tunnels and view the fish swimming overhead. They will even outfit people with air tanks and let them dive with the fish.
This had to be our favorite exhibit. Bottle feeding Koi!
Smyth, Katrina, and Lilli enjoy feeding the koi as well. Katrina even pet the fish.
Chloe and Lilli walking underwater!
The seahorses were so intriguing.
A diver swimming with a shark!
A diver poses for a picture.
As we were getting ready to leave Underwater World, Robert spotted another guy that works for Solvay, only in Dallas!
Summer Fun
First Monday not in school and we are off to a fun start. The kids and I went to one of several Go Kart tracks here in Pattaya. I read on-line that this particular track was a good starter track for the fast carts. Since the girls are new to go-karting this was the perfect place to start.
Smyth and Chloe got the high powered faster go-karts while Lilli and I stayed in a slower double kart.
Smyth lapped us several times.
Lilli drove the kart for us and did quite well. Chloe lapped us a couple of times. I think we are all ready for the next stage of racing..... Formula 1!
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Visiting Bangkok
Delicious Mexican dinner at Coyote
Lilli with the hotel bellhops.
The beautiful Jim Thompson House. An American who put the Thai silk industry in the global market.
Lilli with the tour guides at the Jim Thompson House.
We went for a walk in Lumpini Park (The Central Park of Bangkok). Chloe noticed something sticking out of the water so we went for a closer look. Little did we know that we would find Nessie here!
"Okay, Mom, I will ride in the yellow duck paddle boats if you don't take a picture!" (Smyth)
Another monitor lizard sighting. These people were totally unconcerned that it was climbing out of the water and walking within a meter of them. We called this one Joanna. (Know the reference anyone?)
And this monitor walked along side us as we were strolling through the park. Lilli asked if she could pet it. This one is easily 2 meters long.
Another delicious western dinner, Tony Romas!
Father's Day
Lilli makes pancakes for the family by herself.
Dad with his kids.
The girls pick out another tropical shirt for Robert.
Father's Day dinner, alfresco.
I suggested to the kids to pick out a picture they all liked and have it enlarged and framed for Dad's office. They agreed on the picture, I suggested a size, but Smyth, whose motto is "Go Big or Go Home," decided on this size. Needless to say the picture will not be going in Robert's office but in the hallway at our house.
A Second Overnight Trip to Bangkok
The weekend finally came that we agreed to let Smyth fly back to the States to spend his summer break there. His flight was scheduled for 6:00 am on June 26. Rather than trying to get him to the Suvarnabhumi Airport by 4:00 am from our house, we opted to spend the night of the 25th in Bangkok and see a few more sights we had not seen yet. In the morning we took a 5 minute shuttle run from the hotel to the airport to see him off.
The Erawan Shrine was built to the Hindu god Phra Phrom after so many deaths occurred during the construction of the Erawan Hotel.
Dancers at the Shrine are hired to pray and dance over people who are wanting certain prayers answered.
Robert buying our tickets for the BTS (elevated train). We like traveling around Bangkok on the BTS because it is much faster than driving the congested streets.
Last dinner with Smythy before his big trip.
"Reading departure signs in some big airport..."
Bangkok Day Trip
Bangkok has so much to see and do that it is impossible to get it all done in one trip. That is why when Robert had to work at the Bangkok office for a day, the girls and I decided to go to Bangkok with him. Chloe had been wanting to go shopping at Forever 21 and I wanted to see at least one museum. The shopping trip went well as Chloe came home with some very cute new clothes. It was a nice day and didn't look as though we would have monsoon rains so we did a longtail boat tour on the Klangs (canals) of Bangkok. We stopped at the Royal Barge Museum to see the beautifully decorated barges used in royal processions.
This is the longtail boat we got on for our Klang tour.
Nice sunny day for a boat ride.
Lady approaching our boat selling Coke, beer, water, pencils...
Notice the gray clouds.
Tropical rains do not run on any schedule. They will hit at even given moment. Here we are under a bridge waiting for the gully washer to pass. The sun came out and we dried out on the rest of the boat tour.
A New Family Member
Robert came home from work telling of a story about a snake in the office. Apparently a snake came through the air vent in the ceiling of his second story office. A couple of maintenance workers told Robert's PA about it, and she went to try and capture it but it got away. When the snake peaked out a second time a removal team was called in. Robert asked, "What kind of snake is it?" He was told a green snake. He asked, "Is it poisonous?" and was told, "Yes, yes it is." One of the engineers told him about his dogs being good snake hunters and how they can rip a cobra apart. They are called Thai Ridgebacks, much like Rhodesians but a little different. Robert gave me all this information and suggested that maybe we needed a dog around the house. Without hesitation I went and got us a brand new puppy.
This is Chloe and Lilli's first look at the new puppy.
This is Mekong, named for the mighty river that runs from China, makes up the border between Thailand and Laos, runs through Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying in to the South China Sea, or the popular Thai whiskey. He is half poodle and half Shih Tzu, and he's 8 weeks old. He will grow to about 4 kilos (8.8 pounds). Not exactly a great snake hunter but perfect for our family.
June was an extremely busy month for our family. We enjoyed so many events here in Thailand. Some things are so different than what we experience in the US and yet some things are so similar. We are looking forward to seeing more sights around Pattaya and Bangkok during the next 6 weeks while school is out. We miss Smyth and we are looking forward to his return home in August.
