Wednesday, February 25, 2009
International Day
Days like today just make me love the fact that our boys are attending an International School. Once a year the school sets aside a day to celebrate all the nationalities and their cultures. There are children from 24 different countries at the boys small school. The morning began with a parade of flags with the oldest child from that country being the flag-bearer, following the flags were the children from that particular country dressed in their country's finest. It was a very beautiful and colorful procession with the tropical landscape of Thailand as the backdrop. Thailand, the host country led the parade to the outdoor gym where a stage had been set up for the performances. Most countries were represented on stage with a performance. The Americans staged a medley of patriotic songs-Yankee Doodle, Bugle Boy, ending with It's A Grand Ole Flag while a huge American flag was unfurled on stage. Then while all the kids divided into teams for international games most of the mothers finished the details of a large international buffet. I was in charge of the American table and most of the American families brought an traditional dish to share with all the students and parents. At first I thought to myself, "What is US food besides hot dogs and apple pie?" Nearly everything I could think of was Tex-Mex but everyone came up with some great ideas. We had Texas chili, Louisiana gumbo, hot dogs, potato salad, chicken nuggets, BBQ spareribs, meatloaf, cornbread, brownies, apple pie, banana pudding and chips and salsa. What an amazing assortment of delicious foods and a fun time was had by all! Now when I go home this summer I will be sure to stock up on patriotic decorations in anticipation of the next International Day.
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Busy Weekend
One evening every 6 weeks we meet with 6 other families that are like minded for fellowship. 5 Nationalities are represented and the kids attend 3 different International schools, we have all met through various Bible studies and wanted to schedule a time of fellowship predominantly for our children to build relationships here in this new land. God has provided each of them to help make our adjustment easier, fellow co-labourers of Christ here in Thailand. I'll post pictures from our last fellowship this last Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon we attended a fellowship for the men's and women's Bible studies that meet each week through our church. The ladies just completed Beth Moore's Daniel study and will start next week on Monday mornings her Fruits of the Spirit study. The men are going through 2 Timothy on Tuesday nights.
Tonight we joined Mark in kicking off the Esso Sports Club Futsal season. Futsal is a popular form of soccer played in Thailand. It is played on a basketball court with 5 people per team. It's a fast paced, physical game. The season trophy has Mark's initials on it because Exxon pays for the event. Mark's initials are MEN but when we arrived in Thailand they started using MNO-M for Mark and NO for Northcutt-go figure? Anyway, it was funny to see that the season trophy is the MNO trophy. Mark had to make some opening comments and officially kick off the season. We enjoyed the Thai buffet provided for all participants for the most part. We all avoided the cubes of congealed blood in the curry, it looks like squares of liver but is blood. The Thai people are all amazed at how we all like spicy foods, it's like we gain respect in their eyes because we can handle their spicy food, we love it! We had a nice time watching the first 40 minute match of Futsal tonight.
On Sunday afternoon we attended a fellowship for the men's and women's Bible studies that meet each week through our church. The ladies just completed Beth Moore's Daniel study and will start next week on Monday mornings her Fruits of the Spirit study. The men are going through 2 Timothy on Tuesday nights.
Tonight we joined Mark in kicking off the Esso Sports Club Futsal season. Futsal is a popular form of soccer played in Thailand. It is played on a basketball court with 5 people per team. It's a fast paced, physical game. The season trophy has Mark's initials on it because Exxon pays for the event. Mark's initials are MEN but when we arrived in Thailand they started using MNO-M for Mark and NO for Northcutt-go figure? Anyway, it was funny to see that the season trophy is the MNO trophy. Mark had to make some opening comments and officially kick off the season. We enjoyed the Thai buffet provided for all participants for the most part. We all avoided the cubes of congealed blood in the curry, it looks like squares of liver but is blood. The Thai people are all amazed at how we all like spicy foods, it's like we gain respect in their eyes because we can handle their spicy food, we love it! We had a nice time watching the first 40 minute match of Futsal tonight.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Cinderella Goes to the Ball
Last night I attended my first, real ball and on Valentine's Day to boot! Some weeks ago we were invited to the American Chamber of Commerce of Bangkok's Hollywood Ball. There were dresses to be made, tuxedos to be ordered, reservations to be made...Balls are a common thing in Thailand, it may be because there is a seamstress on every block and there have to be occasions for their services to be needed? Mark's secretary directed me to the House of Jayna for my dress selection and Mark was sent to Raja's in Bangkok. I learned a lot through the process, first to be more prepared when you walk into a seamstress shop. I falsely assumed that they would have albums of previous designs they have done to choose from. I walked in and was seated with a designer and a blank sheet of paper, who asked, "What kind of dress do you want?" She wasn't very cooperative though, I asked for something that would make me look 50lbs lighter!!!! She's probably heard that before. We finally decided on a design and then I picked out the fabric before having a ton of measurements. Two weeks later I picked up my first special order ballgown. Mark's tuxedo was more complicated and took two fittings and three weeks.
We arranged to stay overnight in the hotel where the ball was being held so the boys could camp out upstairs while we were downstairs in the ballroom. It worked out great. Esso was one of the sponsors and we had front row seats to view all the beautiful gowns (I was storing up lots of ideas for next year's dress.) and to enjoy the entertainment. We were expecting some ballroom dancing, so we had the boys run us through some of the steps they learned in last year's Cotillion classes all to no avail. It was all rock&roll dancing, we didn't even get out on the dance floor. At one point Mark looked at me and sayed, "You don't want to dance do you?" (he's sooo romantic!!) and when I said, "Not really." He sighed, "Good!" It was fun watching everyone else and listening to the band. They played some really great songs-all with an American theme like, American Pie. It felt more like open Karaoke, everyone was singing along and having a great time. Of course the opening song was the King's anthem, followed by the Star Spangled Banner. The US Ambassador to Thailand was two tables over from ours. We had a wonderful meal, an auction for charity was conducted and we met lots of new people. Mark was excited, he killed two birds with one stone, fulfilled a work obligation and treated his Cinderella to a night at the ball on Valentine's Day!
We arranged to stay overnight in the hotel where the ball was being held so the boys could camp out upstairs while we were downstairs in the ballroom. It worked out great. Esso was one of the sponsors and we had front row seats to view all the beautiful gowns (I was storing up lots of ideas for next year's dress.) and to enjoy the entertainment. We were expecting some ballroom dancing, so we had the boys run us through some of the steps they learned in last year's Cotillion classes all to no avail. It was all rock&roll dancing, we didn't even get out on the dance floor. At one point Mark looked at me and sayed, "You don't want to dance do you?" (he's sooo romantic!!) and when I said, "Not really." He sighed, "Good!" It was fun watching everyone else and listening to the band. They played some really great songs-all with an American theme like, American Pie. It felt more like open Karaoke, everyone was singing along and having a great time. Of course the opening song was the King's anthem, followed by the Star Spangled Banner. The US Ambassador to Thailand was two tables over from ours. We had a wonderful meal, an auction for charity was conducted and we met lots of new people. Mark was excited, he killed two birds with one stone, fulfilled a work obligation and treated his Cinderella to a night at the ball on Valentine's Day!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Sports Day at the School for the Blind
Well, my finger is much better. I still have my 4th and 5th fingers taped together and am trying to do some exercises to help with it's movement. I think typing the blog actually gives my finger some exercise. I hope to be back to tennis is another couple of weeks. I had a few pictures I wanted to send along. A couple of weeks ago the boys had a Arts Festival week at school that culminated with performances and exhibits of all the activities. Dustin and Nathan were a part of the jazz band, they loved their guitar classes and sang with a choir. Their choir instructor was a guest teacher from the US who was flown in for a week of classes for the Jr. and Sr. High students. Many guests artisans played a role in the week. Ethan participated in photography and paper mache' classes. One of the little girls in Ethan's class told me that Ethan's paper mache'project was an ice-cream cone, Ethan quickly informed me that it was a space ship and was emphatically not an ice-cream cone!
On Wednesday I attended the Blind School of Pattaya's Sports Day, what an amazing event. It was an olympic show on a very small scale but even more inspiring. I cried many times watching these children giving it their all without the ability to see, one of the most touching moments was when several small children sang, I See the Moon and The Moon Sees Me. This is one of the most exciting days at the school and they prepare for weeks for their particular events. There are approximately 50 children that attend this blind, boarding school, the youngest students are 3 years old. The games began with a small parade down the street entering into the school for the opening ceremony. There was a sports torch and continuous flame for the entire day, the Pattaya mayor awarded the medals, and there were cheerleader teams for both the green team and the blue team. It was amazing watching these children compete in relay races, goal-ball that is a form of soccer, swimming events, and some traditional Thai games-like coconut racing and the centipede race. For the running events, many of the children had people running in front of them clapping so they knew which direction to run. For the Goal-ball event, the ball has a bell inside it and they defend by listening for that sound. If the children had partial sight, they were blindfolded. It was so amazing to watch. I left in awe of these children and again reminded how thankful I am for the gift of sight.
On Wednesday I attended the Blind School of Pattaya's Sports Day, what an amazing event. It was an olympic show on a very small scale but even more inspiring. I cried many times watching these children giving it their all without the ability to see, one of the most touching moments was when several small children sang, I See the Moon and The Moon Sees Me. This is one of the most exciting days at the school and they prepare for weeks for their particular events. There are approximately 50 children that attend this blind, boarding school, the youngest students are 3 years old. The games began with a small parade down the street entering into the school for the opening ceremony. There was a sports torch and continuous flame for the entire day, the Pattaya mayor awarded the medals, and there were cheerleader teams for both the green team and the blue team. It was amazing watching these children compete in relay races, goal-ball that is a form of soccer, swimming events, and some traditional Thai games-like coconut racing and the centipede race. For the running events, many of the children had people running in front of them clapping so they knew which direction to run. For the Goal-ball event, the ball has a bell inside it and they defend by listening for that sound. If the children had partial sight, they were blindfolded. It was so amazing to watch. I left in awe of these children and again reminded how thankful I am for the gift of sight.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
2008 School Field Trip (Nathan blogs)
Day 1
Hey everyone my mom wanted me to write something about our school field trip that we had this week. The field trip started on Tuesday morning bright and early as we all went to school at our regular times except we didn't have classes. We were told that we could pick the people that we wanted to ride the bus with us. It turned out that all the Thai's were in a bus with some Japanese students, and all the Korean's were in a bus together with some other Thai's because our class is over 50% Thai. And lastly it was the American's with an Indian female student that is very strange. Every bus had a teacher with them and the American bus got a really funny teacher named Mr. Schievert, who is from the USA. We were all really tired so we wanted to get some sleep. We all tried for half an hour but the road was just a little too rough and bumpy. The bus ride was 3 and a half hours long and we were told we couldn't bring ipods, mp3s, dvd players, and other awesome stuff that every teenager loves to bring on very long car rides. Three hours later after we had talked and laughed our mouths off we arrived at the national park gate, Khaoyai National Park. The first National Park in Thailand. Every class in Middle School and High School went to a different Thai destination for a week of cultural and science studies. We then had a bathroom break and went to our cabins. As soon as we arrived at our cabins and organized all our stuff we started to play 21 with candy. A game that all of my mates enjoy since we all love cards and candy. At that time it was only my mates Zach, Dustin, and I. I didn't play well but Zach and Dustin got enough of my share of the candy to feed an army and a zoo. We then just hung around till we had to go on a hike. Once we started the hike we were told that we would see a "waterfall" it was more like a stream with half a meter drop. My mates and I ran the whole way in under ten minutes because we wanted to get back to the cabins. Once at the cabins we saw some weird deer with manes we called them the donkeys. Our cabin had the best people since we were all friends and Americans :) lol. After dinner of cashew chicken we all just hung around and talked, and ate fried caterpillars from a Thai guy in our class-they were actually okay.
Day 2:
We all slept in a bit until people started to move around outside the cabin. We started the morning with a 3.5 click hike. We walked to a bird watching tower. We only saw a couple of birds a wild dog and elephant poop(BORING). Later that night we were hanging out with a couple of guys and the strange Indian girl kept walking outside with a flashlight gazing in the woods and mumbling with her thick Indian accent. A couple of guys asked her what she was doing and she said she was looking for ghosts. After that all several of us came to a conclusion that she is a little off. We still kept trying to include her in stuff but she just doesn't want to hang with our class, it's very odd.
Day 3 the last day:
We all woke up early to a quick breakfast of spaghetti (yuck!). We then went bird watching and walked 1 click, even more boring than the 3.5 km hike!!!! We were all bored and tired. We then were taken to a campsite to spend a night in a tent. There was a store that sold cokes and stuff like that so our class ran over to it and drank some cokes :) yum!. Until the teacher told us we couldn't do that any more because we had to eat healthy :(. That night the Americans were in charge of cooking the hot dogs. The Asian kids and adults didn't want theirs black on the outside so they basically ate it raw (yuck). There were a lot of porcupines walking around and some ugly monkeys. We were all sad about leaving the field trip the next morning because it was fun and were all just hanging around the campfire. When all of a sudden a big Korean guy, the size of Dustin, jumped up and started to hit a Thai kid. The Thai kid is probably 20 kilos (44 pounds) overweight and was cowering, covering his face. Dustin quickly jumped in there while others went to get a teacher, I started yelling at the Korean kid to cut it out. Dustin grabbed the Korean and pinned him down so he couldn't hit the Thai kid. We only had one man teacher on the trip and he is really skinny, without Dustin it could have been worse. Everyone was worried because we know that the Korean has anger issues. My mate Zach and I knew that the Korean who had started the fight had a little knife in his tent but even his 2 and a half inch knife could kill a person. So we told a teacher. We then found out that the Korean said a nasty Korean word to the Thai kid who had done nothing wrong. The Thai kid said something back in Thai to the Korean who then got angry saying some other trash and started to hit the Thai kid. Hopefully the Korean kid will be sent to counseling quickly. It turned out that the Thai kid was fine even though he had been hit in the face. What a way to end a fun field trip right?
Anyways, we now have a three day weekend which is cool!! As soon as i came home I found a HUGE box of candy with my favorite chocolates in it. It also had chips and salsa from Aunt Lavon, Uncle Curtis, Cory, Angel, Coli, and Jenna. It's awesome good stuff. Thanks so much!
Nathan
Hey everyone my mom wanted me to write something about our school field trip that we had this week. The field trip started on Tuesday morning bright and early as we all went to school at our regular times except we didn't have classes. We were told that we could pick the people that we wanted to ride the bus with us. It turned out that all the Thai's were in a bus with some Japanese students, and all the Korean's were in a bus together with some other Thai's because our class is over 50% Thai. And lastly it was the American's with an Indian female student that is very strange. Every bus had a teacher with them and the American bus got a really funny teacher named Mr. Schievert, who is from the USA. We were all really tired so we wanted to get some sleep. We all tried for half an hour but the road was just a little too rough and bumpy. The bus ride was 3 and a half hours long and we were told we couldn't bring ipods, mp3s, dvd players, and other awesome stuff that every teenager loves to bring on very long car rides. Three hours later after we had talked and laughed our mouths off we arrived at the national park gate, Khaoyai National Park. The first National Park in Thailand. Every class in Middle School and High School went to a different Thai destination for a week of cultural and science studies. We then had a bathroom break and went to our cabins. As soon as we arrived at our cabins and organized all our stuff we started to play 21 with candy. A game that all of my mates enjoy since we all love cards and candy. At that time it was only my mates Zach, Dustin, and I. I didn't play well but Zach and Dustin got enough of my share of the candy to feed an army and a zoo. We then just hung around till we had to go on a hike. Once we started the hike we were told that we would see a "waterfall" it was more like a stream with half a meter drop. My mates and I ran the whole way in under ten minutes because we wanted to get back to the cabins. Once at the cabins we saw some weird deer with manes we called them the donkeys. Our cabin had the best people since we were all friends and Americans :) lol. After dinner of cashew chicken we all just hung around and talked, and ate fried caterpillars from a Thai guy in our class-they were actually okay.
Day 2:
We all slept in a bit until people started to move around outside the cabin. We started the morning with a 3.5 click hike. We walked to a bird watching tower. We only saw a couple of birds a wild dog and elephant poop(BORING). Later that night we were hanging out with a couple of guys and the strange Indian girl kept walking outside with a flashlight gazing in the woods and mumbling with her thick Indian accent. A couple of guys asked her what she was doing and she said she was looking for ghosts. After that all several of us came to a conclusion that she is a little off. We still kept trying to include her in stuff but she just doesn't want to hang with our class, it's very odd.
Day 3 the last day:
We all woke up early to a quick breakfast of spaghetti (yuck!). We then went bird watching and walked 1 click, even more boring than the 3.5 km hike!!!! We were all bored and tired. We then were taken to a campsite to spend a night in a tent. There was a store that sold cokes and stuff like that so our class ran over to it and drank some cokes :) yum!. Until the teacher told us we couldn't do that any more because we had to eat healthy :(. That night the Americans were in charge of cooking the hot dogs. The Asian kids and adults didn't want theirs black on the outside so they basically ate it raw (yuck). There were a lot of porcupines walking around and some ugly monkeys. We were all sad about leaving the field trip the next morning because it was fun and were all just hanging around the campfire. When all of a sudden a big Korean guy, the size of Dustin, jumped up and started to hit a Thai kid. The Thai kid is probably 20 kilos (44 pounds) overweight and was cowering, covering his face. Dustin quickly jumped in there while others went to get a teacher, I started yelling at the Korean kid to cut it out. Dustin grabbed the Korean and pinned him down so he couldn't hit the Thai kid. We only had one man teacher on the trip and he is really skinny, without Dustin it could have been worse. Everyone was worried because we know that the Korean has anger issues. My mate Zach and I knew that the Korean who had started the fight had a little knife in his tent but even his 2 and a half inch knife could kill a person. So we told a teacher. We then found out that the Korean said a nasty Korean word to the Thai kid who had done nothing wrong. The Thai kid said something back in Thai to the Korean who then got angry saying some other trash and started to hit the Thai kid. Hopefully the Korean kid will be sent to counseling quickly. It turned out that the Thai kid was fine even though he had been hit in the face. What a way to end a fun field trip right?
Anyways, we now have a three day weekend which is cool!! As soon as i came home I found a HUGE box of candy with my favorite chocolates in it. It also had chips and salsa from Aunt Lavon, Uncle Curtis, Cory, Angel, Coli, and Jenna. It's awesome good stuff. Thanks so much!
Nathan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)