Friday, May 04, 2012
Sandra just realised she hasn't posted any of our travels over the last few years here. And they have been quite interesting. Not necessarily because of destinations and all that (though, admittedly, we have been to some fantastic places) but because traveling with a child, and now three, poses completely new challenges previously completely out of the sphere of anything....
Saturday, November 29, 2008
New weblog
Sandra has decided that she can keep her own blog since she doesn't like typing mine all the time. And me, well, i still prefer to keep an eye on Xenne so it is fine with me so try http://yangonjournal.blogspot.com/ for her updates.
When we travel, i'll still post here so you might want to check on occasion. That is, if you're interested.....
When we travel, i'll still post here so you might want to check on occasion. That is, if you're interested.....
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
As usual
Way too late. And way too much to tell.
First of all, Xenne is doing great. Sandra & KK went to the hospital in Bangkok today to have him measured and weighted. A total of 9.3 kilograms and 75 centimeters. So he has grown a bit since the last time he was checked. And while we all waited (yes i did hitch a ride again in Sandra's bag) Xenne loved being carted around in a small toy car for which he is officially way too young but he loved and loved it. And when they stopped he wasn't very pleased and try to make it move himself.
Tomorrow we'll all fly to Yangon again. It is holiday time this week. And since Sandra had to renew her visa anyway, we all flew to BKK to pick up Sandra's parents who will fly with us to Yangon tomorrow. Horror of horrors, we fly at 7.15 tomorrow morning. Way to early for us skunks!
Unfortunately we miss the festival of lights almost completely. It is being celebrated in Burma right now( or yesterday, i'm not sure). And will be celebrated here in Thailand tomorrow. The end of Waso, the buddist fasting period and it is a big celebration. Oh well, maybe again next year....
For the rest, Sandra loves her work at the small school where she is teaching now. A lot different from the huge school with big classes (up to 26 kids) and enormous numbers (for grade for there were 4A to 4K classes...) and 4 different classes over 2 different grades and three classes were for english and one class she had to teach history and geography.... Now she teaches 13 kids in grade 2. All subjects apart from Music, PE, Art, Myanmar and Computer. And she is much more involved with the kids. Some of them are a real challenge (problems at their former, highly respected international schools where the teachers couldn't/wouldn't deal with them). And for math she has a heavily autistic kid that comes to class. So work heas to be prepared way in advance for that time. Luckily she has a great assisitent teacher and loads of support from the admin (exactly the opposite at the school where she was teaching in june-july).And great kids. So she hasn't regretted her choose to change schools one single moment.
KK's teashop has been sold. It kept loosing money. So it was a nice try but nevertheless a failure. SO up to the next adventure business wise.... For the time being it means that KK's brother who was runnign the shop is living in with us. Not that we have a lot of space. But Sandra doesn't complain, he cooks a lot better than the maid/babysitter........
Ok , that's it for now. Sandra wants to go and pack. It is late enough and she doesn't want to do the packing any time tomorrow morning. We leave the hotel at 5 (AM!!!)
First of all, Xenne is doing great. Sandra & KK went to the hospital in Bangkok today to have him measured and weighted. A total of 9.3 kilograms and 75 centimeters. So he has grown a bit since the last time he was checked. And while we all waited (yes i did hitch a ride again in Sandra's bag) Xenne loved being carted around in a small toy car for which he is officially way too young but he loved and loved it. And when they stopped he wasn't very pleased and try to make it move himself.
Tomorrow we'll all fly to Yangon again. It is holiday time this week. And since Sandra had to renew her visa anyway, we all flew to BKK to pick up Sandra's parents who will fly with us to Yangon tomorrow. Horror of horrors, we fly at 7.15 tomorrow morning. Way to early for us skunks!
Unfortunately we miss the festival of lights almost completely. It is being celebrated in Burma right now( or yesterday, i'm not sure). And will be celebrated here in Thailand tomorrow. The end of Waso, the buddist fasting period and it is a big celebration. Oh well, maybe again next year....
For the rest, Sandra loves her work at the small school where she is teaching now. A lot different from the huge school with big classes (up to 26 kids) and enormous numbers (for grade for there were 4A to 4K classes...) and 4 different classes over 2 different grades and three classes were for english and one class she had to teach history and geography.... Now she teaches 13 kids in grade 2. All subjects apart from Music, PE, Art, Myanmar and Computer. And she is much more involved with the kids. Some of them are a real challenge (problems at their former, highly respected international schools where the teachers couldn't/wouldn't deal with them). And for math she has a heavily autistic kid that comes to class. So work heas to be prepared way in advance for that time. Luckily she has a great assisitent teacher and loads of support from the admin (exactly the opposite at the school where she was teaching in june-july).And great kids. So she hasn't regretted her choose to change schools one single moment.
KK's teashop has been sold. It kept loosing money. So it was a nice try but nevertheless a failure. SO up to the next adventure business wise.... For the time being it means that KK's brother who was runnign the shop is living in with us. Not that we have a lot of space. But Sandra doesn't complain, he cooks a lot better than the maid/babysitter........
Ok , that's it for now. Sandra wants to go and pack. It is late enough and she doesn't want to do the packing any time tomorrow morning. We leave the hotel at 5 (AM!!!)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Did i say the rainy season was over.....
Big mistake. It's been pouring down for the last week and a half. Not continuously thankfully but when it is raining it is as if someone above has opened the tap... Hopefully it'll be over before long. Then we can enjoy the sun for a little while before we miss the rainy season when we have frequent power cuts again.... A very vicious circle .....
For the rest, things are basically the same as the last time i posted. I still look after Xenne mostly. But it is getting more and more difficult for me to keep up with him tiny skunk that i am. The little man has progressed to pulling himself up to a standing position. Therefor attaining heights that i can only reach if someone puts me up there....
Sandra is still very busy with school. She now has an addictioanal kids with behavioural problems. Apparently he was ostracised by his former class AND his teacher even though the teacher should know better being an american with a teaching degree and all that. And, according to Sandra, gets far better pay than she does... But he seems to do ok for the moment. He is slowly setteling in. And then there is an autistic boy who comes to class for one subject every day. The rest of the time he has special care class. The biggest problem in a country like this is that there is so little access to proper materials. It is already an issue with books. These are shipped here but it can take anytime from a few months to a never arrive so most books are actually carried in during visa runs and so on. But so many things westerners take for granted are just not here. Like big sheets of coloured paper in every available colour or other goodies that are so usefull at a primary school.....
Oops problems with servers and so....
For the rest, things are basically the same as the last time i posted. I still look after Xenne mostly. But it is getting more and more difficult for me to keep up with him tiny skunk that i am. The little man has progressed to pulling himself up to a standing position. Therefor attaining heights that i can only reach if someone puts me up there....
Sandra is still very busy with school. She now has an addictioanal kids with behavioural problems. Apparently he was ostracised by his former class AND his teacher even though the teacher should know better being an american with a teaching degree and all that. And, according to Sandra, gets far better pay than she does... But he seems to do ok for the moment. He is slowly setteling in. And then there is an autistic boy who comes to class for one subject every day. The rest of the time he has special care class. The biggest problem in a country like this is that there is so little access to proper materials. It is already an issue with books. These are shipped here but it can take anytime from a few months to a never arrive so most books are actually carried in during visa runs and so on. But so many things westerners take for granted are just not here. Like big sheets of coloured paper in every available colour or other goodies that are so usefull at a primary school.....
Oops problems with servers and so....
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Ants and cockroaches
Ok, first of all, i know i'm way way behind keeping this blog updated. Sorry 'bout that. But Sandra's been really busy with the new school. She loves teaching one class and one class only. She has a rather challenging class because of some kids that are in it (2 brothers of which one is slightly dyslectic and the other has some behavioural problems), a girl that should be tested for reading problems but the parents refuse since their government won't send them abroad again if a child has a need for special education (they work for their country's embassy) and some kids with too much energy).But she loves it. So she's been very busy getting everything in order. After all, she's never taught 2nd grade at all.....
Besides, i've been playing a lot with Xenne. He's crawling forwards now too and so we have to run after him a lot. He loves playing with balls. Especially the ones that makes sounds. So yep, it is all about priorities....
For the rest, live goes on as 'normal'. The rainy season seems to draw at a close. After months of rain and very gray skies we've had a few sunny days now. Which doesn't make the weather all that nicer since it is bloody hot. And since there is so much humidity still it doesn't only feel like a sauna, it IS a bloody sauna. One that you can only leave when you enter an airconned room . And for that you need electriciy. Something that has become erratic again in the last week (ever since the sun started to shine again. What are the odds?).
The rainy season has caused some other 'minor' irritations as well. In this country you always have ants. But in the rainy season they just seem to procriate and multiply by the thousands.... They are EVERYWHERE! And when i say EVERYWHERE i mean EVERYWHERE. Every now and then Kyaw Kyaw or Sandra sprays the rooms trying to kill them but they're back a day later. And they can't do it all the time since it is not very good especially with Xenne. Sandra even found them in the big waterbottle (the 20 liter one) where they'd been hiding in the spout. And sometimes you leave something on the table for 5 minutes! and there are ants all over. We've even found them in a glass that was only used for drinking water.... And diod i mention that these ants are FLYING ants?
And then the other day after spraying in the small kitchen as well, we found 7!! enormous cockroaches there. Dead fortunately. Did i mention they were big? Not at all th e'big'' european variety. No the big ASIAN variety. A body as big as a thumb (at least as big as Sandra's thumb). Aparently they'd come to hide in our apartement when some guys worked on the big watertank next to our apartment (those watertanks are the source of our running water.
Sandra, Xenne and KK want to go shopping so i guess this will be all for the moment. Will try to get more news up soon.
Besides, i've been playing a lot with Xenne. He's crawling forwards now too and so we have to run after him a lot. He loves playing with balls. Especially the ones that makes sounds. So yep, it is all about priorities....
For the rest, live goes on as 'normal'. The rainy season seems to draw at a close. After months of rain and very gray skies we've had a few sunny days now. Which doesn't make the weather all that nicer since it is bloody hot. And since there is so much humidity still it doesn't only feel like a sauna, it IS a bloody sauna. One that you can only leave when you enter an airconned room . And for that you need electriciy. Something that has become erratic again in the last week (ever since the sun started to shine again. What are the odds?).
The rainy season has caused some other 'minor' irritations as well. In this country you always have ants. But in the rainy season they just seem to procriate and multiply by the thousands.... They are EVERYWHERE! And when i say EVERYWHERE i mean EVERYWHERE. Every now and then Kyaw Kyaw or Sandra sprays the rooms trying to kill them but they're back a day later. And they can't do it all the time since it is not very good especially with Xenne. Sandra even found them in the big waterbottle (the 20 liter one) where they'd been hiding in the spout. And sometimes you leave something on the table for 5 minutes! and there are ants all over. We've even found them in a glass that was only used for drinking water.... And diod i mention that these ants are FLYING ants?
And then the other day after spraying in the small kitchen as well, we found 7!! enormous cockroaches there. Dead fortunately. Did i mention they were big? Not at all th e'big'' european variety. No the big ASIAN variety. A body as big as a thumb (at least as big as Sandra's thumb). Aparently they'd come to hide in our apartement when some guys worked on the big watertank next to our apartment (those watertanks are the source of our running water.
Sandra, Xenne and KK want to go shopping so i guess this will be all for the moment. Will try to get more news up soon.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
So much for the promised update.....
Well, being on 'holiday' with Xenne all by ourselves took up most of the time. And KK didn't arrive till very late yesterday. While Xenne, Sandra & I will leave in an hour or so..... Apparently there were no flights available on friday (no seats). Not that strange if since most of the carriers have seriously reduced their number of flights and Air Bagan has stopped servicing Bangkok..... but it makes it all a bit harder to get to Bangkok and back...
I think i have the memory stick working so maybe i can regall you all with some more Xenne. The other stuff (in textform) can wait till we're back in Yangon. Then i'll tell you all about Sandra's job switch, how she likes teaching 2nd graders, our ant epidemic and more.....
I think i have the memory stick working so maybe i can regall you all with some more Xenne. The other stuff (in textform) can wait till we're back in Yangon. Then i'll tell you all about Sandra's job switch, how she likes teaching 2nd graders, our ant epidemic and more.....
Friday, August 01, 2008
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