Bonnie's obituary

A beautiful obituary for Bonnie appeared in the San Luis Obispo Tribune. For anyone interested in reading it, you can follow this link: http://www.legacy.com/sanluisobispo/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=125632678. Her life was certainly an inspiration to us, as it was for many others as well.

Pictures from first week

For those who are interested, we have posted pictures from our first week on a share site within Shutterfly. Here is the link: http://lonswaywaldorfsinthailand.shutterfly.com/

When you get there, you can click on "View Album" and then look to the right to for the slideshow command. It will start playing automatically, but if you want to read the titles of the pictures (which I would encourage), you can click on "options" in the top right corner and select "show titles."

Sad News from Home

Our excitement about starting our time here in Thailand was tempered considerably by the news from San Luis Obispo that our very close friend Bonnie McKee lost her short battle to Leukemia and died this past Thursday. She was one of the strongest, bravest, and most beautiful people we've met. We have learned a lot from how she lived her life and we feel she made the most of her time on earth, She is survived by her husband Rod and two young children Casey and Helen, all special friends to our family. Bonnie, we love you and will miss you immensely!

Work and School

Work and school started today. I started teaching my two classes - one on Engineering Economics and one on Statistical Methods for Engineers - today. So far I have not assigned homework. I don't think the students will be too hard on me either.

Anna and Max started classes with their teacher (grandmother) upstairs at the hotel today as well. I can't wait to hear what they covered. Hopefully they will be able to write their names in Thai by the end of today.

Kim (surprise) worked on her computer today. I am posting this from an internet cafe where we get pretty consistent wireless and entirely yummy green tea frappes.

The work and school is a welcome beginning of routine for us. Although we love vacation, it is comforting to setlle into a routine. Especially after the crazy trip to the Sunday night bazaar last night. It was so crowded! Kim and the kids got to practice shooting a cap gun, we all got chocolate Pokemon waffles, and Dan finally got Mango and Sticky Rice anda pair of silk boxers.

Arrived Safely

Well, we arrived yesterday safely after a long journey. The flights went pretty well. We have been eating well since we arrived - there is good food wherever we go. We heard an introductory lecture today about Thai family culture. Apparently, there exists a very heirarchic structure with the parents on top and the kids below. The kids usually do NOT participate in decision making, and certainly do not sass back or question when the parents make a decision. Very interesting, and weird.

Max and Kim got up at 1:30am last night and started roaming the streets of Chiang Mai like adventurous raccoons. They found a 7-11 and got some food. Dan finally got a good sleep. We are all still a little jet-lagged and are sleepy and awake at the wrong time. You may notice I am writing this at 5am.

Tomorrow (actually later today), we will go to a silk factory and a jade factory. We will travel on a bus with the Cal Poly students. We are getting to know the students -they are fun, if a little loud in the late evening. Poor Lexie was sick today, but Anna made her a get well card.

We hope to hear from all of you, so please post some comments. Not much home sickness yet, but I suspect the kids will start feeling it soon. - Bye for now.

Planned Departure

We plan to leave on Tuesday, March 24, by driving down to LA first thing in the morning. We will fly to Bangkok, have a 7-hour layover, then fly to Chiang Mai. The flight to Bangkok stops in Taiwan and includes about 17 hours of flight time. Yikes. We plan to have lots of things to do on the plane. We have about two weeks now to get ready, with lots to do. Today's tasks included gift-buying!

Welcome

Hello

Welcome to my Thailand journal. Please stop by often for updates or just to say hi!

By the way, this is a picture of a water buffalo from Thailand.