A Runner's Dig(r)essssst

Let me just start this off by admitting how frustrated and angry I am with this blog site. Everything I had written over the course of the last couple hours...LOST just like that! GRRR!!!
Okay, shake it off. So this one is gonna be short and sweet, unlike the last marathon and half marathon I ran.
So let me sum it up like this: Run, eat, sleep, Run, eat, sleep, enter 2nd Masters, write 20-page papers in boring APA Style each week, REPEAT. AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN!
So, Social Butterfly no more, my friends. This woman has ambitions and is not just quite sure what they are or where they will uncover themselves, but she has them and they are taking her places. But hopefully those places are not back to those which I have spent the last month running in...

Go Team Berkeley!

So with that, I start my rant about my running life. The good news: Bangkok Marathon is over and that is a clump of over 4 hrs. I will never see again, until two weeks later when I had deja vu running a half marathon in the EXACT SAME LOCATION! Friends, let me just reiterate that if you give me an iPod and some gum, I can run for you. It may not be fast like a Kenyan, but remember, in my dreams, I am a Kenyan. No, seriously. Don't sign yourself up for what I encountered. Had it not been for Josh and our wonderful friends Mike and Pam, who were visiting from GB that weekend, I would have said the F* bomb and left the course. You know how they say Thai prisons are bad? Well, imagine that, and then imagine a stretch of highway in the dark, no spectators, just marathon workers sleeping/passed out in the backs of their trucks alongside the medians. At any rate, at least Darrick, Brian and I got to don some funky PINK tees on Valentine's Day after the marathon to show off that we had more guts than anybody to do this thing they call a marathon. The only cool people were the Thai guys, giving me thumbs up because I was one of those only girls bearing the breezeless 85 degree heat at 3 a.m. on a 22+ Km stretch of spectator-less highway.

So I figure I need a break, a break from running (til I run a half the following weekend) and from my coursework. Yeah, I am crazy for running and even crazier for sucking it up to join a 2nd Masters Degree program in Ed. Leadership so I can become a principal someday when I put away my running shoes. There's no way I could handle both! Or maybe one becomes the lesser of the two evils. The jury is still out on that. So what's a girl to do, you ask?
HEAD TO PATTAYA FOR GIRLS' WEEKEND...DUH!

Do they really need a sign? If you don't know where you are, then you
are in sever need of help in Pattaya. Just ask one of the Russians. They'll help 'ya!

So here we go, 4 girls from Berkeley, my girly crew, off to Koh Larn, a beachy place off the coast of Pattaya, otherwise known as Little Russia. Seriously, I now know I don't ever have to go to Moscow. I can get my fill right on Walking Street and on the Koh Larn beaches.

They even knew Virgilalligator was coming for a quick visit!

All Smiles on the back of a motor bike in Koh Larn!

Sometimes all you need is a little beach fun with the girls, right? 

Don't forget to bring your smiles with you
to the beach!

Super PUBLICIZE Me!

So it's been a while since I've come up with anything worthwhile to write about. But you know that saying that "Third time's a charm"? Well, I guess there are 3 great things to tell you about, so here goes. I don't normally like to write about my work experiences because I typically like to keep my social & personal doings separate from who I am at school. Teachers wear many hats, and I toss them all aside when I leave the school to focus on myself and the world around  me. But there are always exceptions to the rule, so I think I need to break a rule and mix happiness in my personal life with my professional life with 3 tidbits.

No more flood, but a whirlWIND of events in the Big Mango

So, you know that saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?"
Well, it's been a few of those weeks strung together. Yes, the floods have subsided here in Bangkok, but the sandbags remain, along with a bunch of really down folks. We are happy to be back at work and we appreciate having some consistency in our days and weeks, but with that comes stress and frustration.

On order and being shipped! Thanks, Mom & Dad!

With 3 weeks back at school, make up days in order, we are just going about our business at work and here in Bangkok. I think things are going well, and suddenly something happens to rattle the cage. But I figure I must keep plugging away and focus on what I am good at doing. The biggest setback comes on Thanksgiving when I 'lose' my iPhone, the one and only material thing I coveted so dearly, and its beautiful WI Badger case I treasured so much. Not even worth my time to explain that drama, but I was not going to be missing my Thanksgiving meal at the Roadhouse with the new ladies I have met through my new membership to the American Women's Club of Thailand. I was on my own Turkey Trot to the Emporium and Siam Paragon malls to find a new iPhone, but "Sorry, Madame. No have iPhone. No stock. FLOOD." Ugh... anyway, being the multi-tasker mission girl I am, I managed one, the very last iPhone in all of flooded Bangkok.

Turkey Trot in Bangkok? Mission: Must find new iPhone!

So I have had some gains through all the mess of life. Thanksgiving was a clear indicator of that. Meeting new friends is always great when you need normalcy and some motivation to keep fighting the fight. So, thank you Ruthie my dear, for wearing those terrible heels of mine  and thank you, Ms. Linda Brown, for stepping in and being the mom I needed on Thanksgiving night.

On the work front, there have been ups and downs. One up to give props to thy self: I recently submitted an article to TIE magazine (The International Educator) about some of my ePals initiatives working with classrooms of students abroad. That should be published in their February or April issue. Score on that. I finally got a chance to interview one candidate for a position that was approved months ago, and I have  list a mile long for him if hired. I think that will ease my work load a bit in terms of helping to get our school headed in the right direction with technology. Plans have turned to considering more education and possibly another Master's Degree to make ourselves more marketable in the International Teaching arena. There are decisions that will soon need to be made. But the prospect of the future and the possibilities are in place, so it makes sense to stick to looking up and ahead.

Bring on the German Christmas Markets (and Bier!)

And, plans are underway for another Tebo pad festive  party. Things are really stressful at work, but everyone's invited over for a relaxing night of Wii Pictionary on the UDraw Tablet, and for some holiday cheers.
But the biggest thing to stop and take time to look forward to...well, for a vacation, of course! Sorry, Thailand, you didn't make the cut this Christmas holiday season. Last year it was Napa and Sonoma, California for wine. This year, it is cooler temps and yes, wine! We are a bit beached out for a while, although Bali was on the list as well as Australia.
It's off to Germany and France for the holidays, possibly to Switzerland depending on how the travels go and how worn out we are. So bring on the Bier and Weissen in Germany and the Hofbrau House (yes, the original!) in Munich. Then, some long-awaited real Vino in France! Note to self: First, must by winter coat at JJ Market for cheap so not to freeze in Europe!
There are things to look forward to, and more work to be done as we get ready to coast in to the new year in less than a month.

X-mas in Paris!

So like I said before, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, right? Sometimes it just takes a bunch of bad stuff to razzle you and then you have a few positives to make you second guess why you were razzled in the first place. Let the wind blow me to  Europe for a couple weeks and blow me and the cooler air back to Thailand to refocus energies and spirits on good things to come in 2012!

Looking forward to a toast to happiness in 2012!