crocodiles and dinosaurs

So yesterday I saw a dinosaur and ate crocodile...I'm not kidding.

First of all, Krista is here, and that is very exciting. She is doing really well, and I've even got her speaking a tiny bit of Thai. Yesterday we went to the mall to buy her a cell phone. We decided to get some food, so we went to the grocery store. As we were walking through the aisles, there was a woman giving away free samples of meat. We decided to try some, it was just tiny pieces of deep fried something dipped in chili sauce--it tasted pretty good, kind of a combo between chicken and fish. Anyway, we had just swallowed when a man walked past and looked at us, smiled, and said, "oh...you eat crocodile!" I looked at him kind of funny, and he held up the package of meat and, sure enough, there was a little cartoon character of a crocodile on the front. So we ate crocodile. I'm glad that I didn't know that beforehand because I think I enjoyed it a whole lot more not knowing...you never really know what kind of meat you're eating here.

As for the dinosaur, we really did see one. Here is a picture:

ok, so the picture isn't working right now, but I will upload it tomorrow so that you can all see.


It's hard to see how big it really is, but I swear it was the same size as me or larger...even the Thais were turning to look--that's when you know that it's special. Anyway, we were walking past the pond, and this massive thing started coming out of the water. It was pretty cool, I wanted to get closer, but as I stepped forward it looked right at me and did not look overly friendly, so I decided against that.

Alright, so maybe the dinosaur thing is debatable, but we were pretty sure that it was a Komodo dragon, and other people at work confirmed that they had heard reports of Komodo dragons in Lumpini Park (which is where we saw it). Some still claim that Komodo dragons were around with the dinosaurs, so from now on I will say that I have seen a real live dinosaur just wandering around in Bangkok.

I am almost finished my exams, which means that I can actually see my kids again! The exams are all one on one, so basically for the past week I have been giving my kids something to do, and then leaving the room with one kid at a time. It's really good to be able to assess the kids individually, but I feel as though I haven't been in the classroom for such a long time. It's crazy how attached I have become to these kids. We can't even speak to each other, yet I feel as though I understand what they are saying most of the time. Whenever I don't, I just say mai cow jai (which means "I don't understand" in Thai) and they either laugh hysterically because I am speaking Thai, or look really sad and hurt because they don't understand why I don't understand.

On a completely different note, I just randomly checked the Winnipeg weather today, and saw that it was raining and six degrees...must be fun! We actually had crazy rain today, worse than I had ever experienced here yet. My homework class actually ended early because it was raining so hard that kids needed to get home before it started flooding...kind of like shutting down the school for a snowstorm back home. It only ended up raining for about an hour, but when it rains here, it pours like nothing I have ever seen.

Jill, if you are reading this, I got your package today and it was fabulous...everyone in the office is jealous of my stamps so thank you thank you!!!!