We've had some bad news from North Dakota. My Grandpa Wesley is in the hospital in Minot after a minor heart attack. He's stable, and they've moved him into his own room. I'm anxiously awaiting the updates, but they think he'll be ok. When I talked to him at Christmas he said he hadn't been out ice fishing yet this winter - the ice was too thin. He said it would be thick enough to hold him up, but not him and that huge fish he was going to catch. Here's hoping the ice thickens up and he's out fishing soon. We love you, Grandpa!

I've posted some pictures from Trevor and my visit to Khukhut waterbird sanctuary and Koh Yo. Pitt let us borrow her motorcycle, and we had a fun drive over the bridge to Koh Yo for lunch. The island seems pretty laid back, and we were sorry we didn't have more time to explore. There are fish farms all around, and plenty of seafood restaurants to choose from. A lot of folks from Hat Yai day trip up to the island (about a 45 minute drive) to eat seafood, so you know it must be good. We had lunch in a lovely, out-of-the way spot nestled amongst the palm trees, and decided we'd stop on the island for dinner on the way back, too. Continuing on to the next bridge, we made it to Khukhut in another 45 minutes, and enjoyed a beautiful drive in after leaving the main road.

We knew we wanted to get on one of the boat rides, but had no idea to go about it. Signage wasn't stellar, and it took us a bit to find the office, which was empty. Luckily a cleaning lady came over, and I happened to know the word for boat (random - you learn it with the Thai alphabet) and she pointed us in the right direction. A guy who turned out to be the boat driver walked us over, and we were soon out on the water in a long-tail. He drove us through an area of shallow grass beds with canals winding through, interspersed with larger open areas and the occasional tree with crazy stalagmite-like roots sticking up all around. The shy purple swamphens with their bright red heads and purple-blue-turquoise feathers were a highlight, as were the enormous purple and gray herons. There were tons of Egrets, though I'm not sure which ones. According to the bird book, there could be 4 different kinds in the area right now, and all wearing almost identical non-breeding plumage (great egret). There were large flocks of little grebes swimming around, and when we got too close they would take off running across the water before leaping up and diving under, as if undecided whether up or down was safer. There were plenty of little cormorants perched in the trees - looking more like little vultures than waterbirds from a distance - and we saw a flock of black-winged stilts, with long skinny beaks and even longer legs. A couple of Greater Coucals were poking around looking for a meal, and we saw a blue-tailed bee eater snag either a bug or a fish off the water. Back on shore we spent some time up in an observation tower, where we watched some ashy drongos and black-naped orioles play in the tree-tops at eye level. (Thanks to Carl-Johan Svensson for posting such fantastic pictures of Thai birds - most of the links above are to his site.)

On the drive home we stopped at another restaurant on Koh Yo, and had some fantastic seafood tom yum (spicy soup) and sweet-and-sour shrimp. Yummy.

P Noot hosts a big New Year's Eve party every year, and we were recruited to come over early and help set up. We peeled, sliced, chopped, marinated, and skewered, helping set up the massive spread of food that we'd later help demolish. At the party, there was musical chairs and waterballoon tossing for the kids. There was also musical chairs for the adults, who were probably more into it than the kids, after a few hours of party time. Chairs were broken, people went sprawling, cash on a fork was awarded. It was fun. Getting on toward midnight, the fireworks started to come out, and the kids' excitement level went up. There was no count-down, but at few minutes to midnight the amount of firecrackers and roman candles being set off in the neighborhood escalated until their was constant noise and smoke. Trevor and I counted down and had a smooch, just to do it properly. Here are some pictures from the party.

This last week (or fragment of a week, anyway) we've started mid-term tests at school. It's a bit of a process. I'm doing a full class period of review, then administering the test the next period, then finishing the one-on-ones the period after that (there's a written part, then a one-on-one outside the classroom to test for speaking and listening, which takes a while with 30+ students per class). So far most of the younger kids are doing pretty well, so it's gratifying to see that they're getting something out of class, and that my expectations for the tests were fairly realistic. We start testing with the older kids next week, so we'll see how that goes.

As for me, I better get back at my own studies now. I'm hoping to meet up with Tor this weekend for some Thai/English study, and she expects me to spell all the words that go with the Thai alphabet. I don't want to fail the test!

Labels: birds, Khukut Waterbird Sanctuary, Koh Yo, New Year's Eve, teaching, Thailand