So, at the start of this year Jasmine and I set some goals. These goals revolved around our lives professionally, financially, and relationally. I don't mind telling you what some of those goals are.

Financially, we simply wanted to pay off some debts that have been lingering in our lives, pay for the course that I needed to take this year, and come home next summer with a nice cushion in the bank for us to play with. In order to do this, I needed to take on some extra work. I set a goal to have eight hours of tutoring a week, which was a lofty goal. Just this week I have secured my seventh hour, and I have a couple of people who want to take guitar, so I am pretty much there. Woo-Hoo.....this is going to be a great year financially I think.

Professionally, I am taking a course this year through Nottingham University in the UK. It is basically the start of a masters degree, but with its completion will allow me to be a full time teacher in this school, should we decide to stay, and should the school decide to hire me. In order to do this, I have to be accepted (in process) in the school program, Regents has to endorse me for this (which they have done in full and already assigned me to a classroom for the first nine weeks of the fifteen I need to complete), and I have to come up with the funds (the course in total costs about $5000 Canadian). All of these things are in full motion already, and I will begin this course in the third week of October. Jasmine has made a full transition from the music program to her own classroom. She is teaching Yr. 5 and is the literacy co-ordinator for upper keystage 2, so she is quite busy as well. She is enjoying her class, and has a great group of kids. I think its going to be a great year professionally for us as well.

Relationally, we want to change a few things. I have already posted a few weeks ago about our desire to "get our hands dirty" this year and spend more time helping those in need. We have been doing a little research but thus far have not had time for this. We also wanted to carve out specific times for just the two of us to be together. One such time is our saturday mornings, where we have planned to play tennis every saturday, then go for a nice English breakfast, (preferably on the ocean) and talk about our week past and our week ahead. It is amazing how fast time can fly out here, and when you are running in nine different directions in the day it seems like you only get to see each other as you say goodnight and fall asleep. I guess this is normal, but I don't want it to be. I would rather know that there is a time in the week when it will be just us. So far, saturday mornings. It looks like thursday night suppers might be in the works as well. And if we can add to this some work in the community that we do together, I think it will be a very good for us relationally.

All this to say, I am "glass half full" about this year. The eternal optimist strikes again. I literally cannnot wait to start my course, and with the tutoring that has come online already, we are in great shape. I feel very blessed to be in this spot, and with a few tweeks here and there, this year will have great significance towards our future. Plus, it would be capped off with us BOTH returning to Canada next summer to see all of our families and friends. I haven't felt this excited about life in a long time.

It's going to be a very good year.

Year two begins today. Its hard to believe that we have been in Thailand for 12 months already, but the calendar doesn't lie. As I look back on this last year, it has been what you would expect your first year to be......full of doing new things, trying new things, exploring new things, and generally just trying to learn the ropes. It was a good year. We saw Koh Phi Phi, Phuket, Bangkok, Korat, Koh Chang, Koh Samui, Surat Thani, and of course, Pattaya. We travelled by bus, car, motorbike, tuk tuk, airplane, song tow, mini van, bicycle, boat, kayak and foot. We learned the ways of our school, and got our feet wet with the many moving parts it has to offer. We taught guitar, piano, tutored, ran marathons, volunteered in sports events, sampled many ethnic foods and customs, and met many new friends along the way. Oh, and we also had family and friends come and visit us here as well. It has been a great first year.

As we look ahead to year two, we are filled with a desire to get a little deeper into this great country, and its vast need for people to help in certain areas. Jasmine and I are hoping to get our hands much more dirty than last year, and our school has many avenues to do it. We have connections to orphanges, elderly homes, school building projects, and organizations of all sorts to help the poor, crippled, diseased and dying. This was important to us when we got here, but the first year seemed to go by so quickly, and with such a learning curve, that we never really got started. I am hoping on this blog this year as well to introduce you to a number of the organizations that I previously mentioned so that you can, if you would so choose, go to their websites and see what they are all about.

Its going to be a great year. I can feel it!

Have a great summer everyone!!!

If the sign wasn't there....would that ACTUALLY occur?