American fun to last a year!....

....well, it will have to!

I'm back in Thailand and busy getting ready for the coming school year. We've been trying to get things organized. Mostly, I'm trying to. I have three desks now for all practical purposes. When I work on my thesis I need everything out of the way so I just switch to a vacant desk! This practice is catching up to me!

At any rate, I had a fabulous time on my month-long trip back to Minnesota. I also had a fun stop in San Francisco. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for being to welcoming, fun, happy to see me, willing to hang out, etc. I had several highlights this trip.

I got to:
- spend lots of quality time with my family
- spend quality time with good friends
- spend time with my mom for Mother's Day
- eat amazing food
- see my friends' babies (and not so babies anymore!)
- see a Twins game in the new stadium (so fun!)
- be in a big church and hear all the singing and fellowship
- have a day at MOA with friends - miniature golf, boba tea, more good food, a comedy show
- go urban camping
- take numerous drives around town to thrift stores and Half Price books looking for, you guessed it!, books to bring back for my school's library
- get on the news as Ben and I trekked about looking for Nordeast
- see grandparents, and uncle and aunt
- have amazing cinnamon rolls
- eat Ben's quality cooking - Mom's too (Thai food, soup, and enchiladas, mmmmm!)
- walk around the lakes and have great conversations in the cold!
- go swimming
- see a San Francisco Giants game (in their outdoor stadium)
- drive out to Napa, enjoy the beautiful weather and some great wines
- eat at several fancy restaurants - W.A. Frost, and D'Amico Kitchen in Minneapolis; Frances in San Francisco
Ben's amazing khao soy - one of our favorite Thai dishes.
My friend Christina and I at MOA.
Miniature golf at MOA
Downtown Minneapolis from the new Twins stadium
Family breakfast - eggs, sausage, toast...and cheesecake!
Central park where Mom and I strolled around on Mother's Day.
Lake Calhoun - where I love to walk even when it is freezing!
Me running up the stairs in the San Francisco fog.
Artesa winery
Stella, me, Kelly
View out towards Napa Valley from Artesa
For our late afternoon lunch we had a nice white wine, cheese, and a baguette at V. Sattui. Ahhhh.
The game at the Giants stadium - nice seats huh?

It was wonderful to see everyone again and I look forward to next year!

Now, we just need chillies and sugar....

Last week we had an incredibly strong storm at the school. I made my way to the middle of the house (which happens to be the bathroom) and far away from windows. I highly doubt that this precaution was necessary, but I think that's the Minnesotan coming out in me. Springtime, tornadoes, high winds - so it was a more natural instinct than something I thought about. I haven't seen a storm like this here before, though - we got hail!

Can you see the little pieces of hail?

The storm passed quickly enough and when I went outside there were branches, leaves, and fruit everywhere! (I know this pales in comparison to the earthquakes happening around the world, but when your student just took a long time that morning to sweep all around the school, you feel a little bad!) I was also a little worried about our garden because of the hail.

When he walked out of the house it looked more chaotic than this picture made it seem. A huge branch from one of the trees fell on the neighbors house.

When people walked by the school they looked a little surprised at all the debris. And we had to sweep the road so cars wouldn't drive over the fruit making it slippery and dangerous for motorbikes.

When I saw two of my students, Uaorawet and Atiwat, we took stock, and in typical fashion, their brains hadn't automatically gone to what may or may not have happened at the farm - there were more important things to consider. Atiwat announced that, "Now, we need chillies and sugar." So we gathered up all of the fallen fruit, mangoes and star apples.





They washed them and cut them up and...
...we had a snack. Good idea! Is this kind of like making lemons into lemonade...?

Graduation Day

Is old news still news? I think so! One month ago (oh so long already!) Legacy school had it's graduation. Usually we have a very fancy graduation at the Empress Hotel in Chiang Mai. We have a buffet dinner, and an awards ceremony. Students perform and it is a good time. Well, this year we did things a little differently. We had one graduate who will continue his education nearby and will therefore stay here at the school. All things considered, we decided to have graduation at the farm.

The students spent much of the day getting the sala at the farm ready. They created the backdrop, set up equipment and practiced songs. Our ceremony began in the early evening in the sala which overlooks the river near the farm. The very hot day had begun to cool down and all the students were assembled and ready!

Photo credit: Nathan Kimmons

Our program was short. We honored a couple of our students for excellent work this year - Uaorawet received the Spirit of Excellence award, and Samuey, a first year student, received Most Improved. Uaorawet is the student who was in the really bad motorbike accident and despite that huge setback he came to class, finished his work, and had a great attitude. We really learned a lot from him. Samuey had his breakthrough with the phrase "what happened?". Of course, when he first started saying that, he actually meant. "What's happening?" or "What's going on?" but he was starting to talk. And from there he quickly started to talk a lot! I love seeing students get to that point.

We also, of course, honored our graduate LaNuNan for finishing his full three years and really making the most of them. He is an incredibly motivated individual who is always ready to learn and do more.

LaNuNan gave a short speech about his time here and encouraged his fellow classmates to work hard. The awards were handed out and some music was performed.

Photo credit: Nathan Kimmons

Photo credit: Elainea Spivey

After the ceremony it was time for food! LaNuNan (along with everyone else!) loves pizza so that's what we had. Also, Aj. Elainea put her baking talents to work and produced an amazing array of desserts.

Photo credit: Elainea Spivey

The night went on for awhile as the students took advantage of the sound equipment and the fact that the farm is far from other inhabitants! They put karaoke places to shame!



As we all left, the farm seemed a little sad and empty - that's usually a sign that a good time was had!