October Break

Hey everybody,

Sorry for not writing again for a while.  I've got a 
break from teaching English in October.  
It's the end of the first 
semester in Thai schools.

I'm going to Beijing with some 
teachers: Caleb, Stephanie and Jaron.  We'll be 
there from October 6-10.  Caleb will
stick around and a few extra days and see Shanghai.
Our trip will be a whirlwind tour of Tianmen Square,
The Summer Palace, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City
and more. Unfortunately, Tan does not have a vacation.
She works at an international school. They get British
holidays and some Thai holidays.  She gets a very long
Christmas break that I don't get. :(

We're using April Travel Agency in Bangkok. Our trip
is going to cost 25,ooo baht (about $625). That
includes plane tickets, tour, accomadations and food
at a three-star hotel and our visas.  Visas alone cost
4,000 baht.  Pang mak (very expensive). Oh well. I've
just accepted that it will cost a lot to get there.
And I really didn't want to go without a tour.  I
don't know enough Mandarin to get around.  Our visas
should be taken care of tomorrow.  We need to get them
done before the Chinese holidays.  October first is
National Day.  I'm glad we are going at the end of the
public holidays.  We'll only overlap one day with
National Week, when everyone travels.  We've been
getting Chinese lessons from Sue in the school van.
She taught us how to count and say good morning and
other stuff, but that's about all I can remember. 

As for my other plans in October.  I am going to try
to work at an English Camp and get a little extra
money.  I've spent a lot of money this year,
especially on the laptop I bought.  I don't know if I
mentioned that.  But I also hope to go to Angkor Wat.
I think I'm going to go the ultra-cheap way, by
catching a free shuttle from Khao sahn road to a
casino across the border.  The casino figures they'll
get your money if you get shuttled up there, but I
won't stop.  Then I can pay for another ride from
there.  It will be a bumpy ride on those Cambodian
dirt roads.

There is also a church retreat for the 20's and 
30's group. We'll be staying at a nearby resort.  
The theme of the retreat is:
Growing Deeper in Christ.  We'll be studying Christian 
disciplines 
like service.  The Assistant Pastor of ECB 
(Evangelical Church of Bangkok) will be the speaker.
  I pray it will be lots of fun and a very powerful
 time for God to speak to us.

The other English teachers are going all over the
world.  Jill and Rori are going to India and Nepal.
Amy is going to  travel around Thailand and Sri Lanka
with her family. Then she is going to meet up with
Andrew Ross and go diving somewhere.  Tim and Shelley
are going to China and Mongolia.  Caleb is going to
America after his China trip. Melissa is going to
Europe.  I think she'll stop in Germany, Turkey and
Italy.

-Steve