Working Girl

After my extended period of relaxation, I have finally accepted a full time job. My title is Sped Para aka Special Education Paraprofessional. As there are these little things called confidentiality laws, I can only write so much about what I do. My day is spent in a fourth grade classroom. I am assigned one-on-one with a student, but I am able to interact with the entire class. The students are so well behaved, it is a drastic difference from my last teaching position.
My new school is only a half mile from home, so I have walked to work - even in the freezing cold! CPA is a charter school with students in grades K-12, and a very diverse population. Those of you reading from Thailand will be excited to hear that a majority of my students are Hmong. They were excited to hear about my travels.
In the process of getting my job, I also did some temp work. If you are ever looking for a truly professional temp agency, I highly recommend Dolphin Staffing. The crew there is super. I also toyed with the idea of working full time at Ihduhapi (YMCA camp), but why drive 45 min to work when I can walk?

Is it December already? Time to go home...

Upon my return to America, I learned my Grandmother can touch her nose too! This was early on in our night of dancing in Bangkok's RCA. I spent my last weekend in Bangkok so the Girl Gang could go out on the town, and so we could say bon voyage to Loren as she headed for India with Kate.

Loren and Rosalind prove that skirts are just fine for the platform seating. I think American bars should provide this type of seating, even if it is only for V.I.P. We had reclining cushions, a plush white rug and a bright blue drink, but we got out stain free.

Oh said that she is "getting boring of saying good-by." Meaning that she is tired of always saying good-bye to her friends. I decided to spend my last night in Ayutthaya at the Moon Cafe. It was a calm night, so we basically had the place to ourselves.

Amazing women. Noi, me, Took, Rosalind and Oh.

The band that "always" played at the Moon Cafe wasn't playing that night. Gai was kind enough to hunt down a folk guitar and give me a final show.

Ok, so I ended up spending one more night in Ayutthaya. It made much more sense to get a cab straight to the airport than it did to try and navigate Bangkok. I spent my last night watching the elephant show. It is a reenactment of the fight between Burma and Thailand. There were real elephants!

After the show, I had a great late night noodle dinner with Ros and Geab, but I didn't get any pictures.

At 4am Took meet me in her pajamas to make sure the cab she arranged showed up. It was a little late, but with no traffic in the wee hours of the morning, I made it to the airport in an hour and a half. Maybe I was groggy, but I couldn't believe I was actually headed home. Only 30 hours of travel to get home...