Playing Tourist

When my parents came to visit I got play tourist and tour guide. We traveled to "backpacker's paradise" and stayed in a cute hotel, rode bicycles, rafted down a river, and climbed to the moon. We (especially my mother) got bombarded my local people trying to sell us merchandise. I must say that it was a great place to buy souvenirs, but it is also a great place to get ripped off if you don't know how to bargain.

Goodbye Pictures

These are pictures from the feast my students cooked for me. Some other pictures are in the tea house.

Bon Voyage

After living in my little town for exactly nine months, I recently said my goodbyes and moved to the big city. But saying goodbye cannot occur without a party, right? The night before I left, eight of my students came over to my fairly empty apartment to cook dinner. The food was really good and it was a fun time, but the party didn't stop there. We walked to the tea house so that I could say goodbye to my non-English speaking friends. I am not sure that my students had ever been in such a place because they were a little loud for the calm surroundings.
The next day six students, my boss, and a teashop friend saw me off at the bus station. They bought me some snacks for the road (wonderful gesture but nasty tasting) waited until my bus left. It was so hard to say goodbye (even though I will be going back for short visits) and it made it even more difficult when my teashop friend started to cry. I really do love those people and that place and I am going to miss it. I love small and simple, but I have now moved to big and busy. My life changed so much in just 24 hours.