Birthday Dinner at Thai Town

Catherine & I had a great dinner Sunday night at a killer restaurant named Thai Town. I was really craving Thai food. The food was outstanding, as was the company. We had a lot of fun. The restaurant is small, has a very intimate feeling inside. We both really enjoyed the meal. Catherine managed to find out that the owner of the restaurant is from her home country, Myanmar, how cool is that? Burmese and Thai food are very similar.

We decided to order several dishes and share them, a good way to sample a lot of the menu. It turned out to make the meal much more enjoyable. We had a beef dish in a spicy cashew sauce, a grilled chicken dish with some interesting spicy sauce, a papaya salad that Catherine really liked, and an incredible eggplant dish. My favorite was the beef dish, the sauce and cashews were perfect. The eggplant was exceptional, it was awesome on a bed of rice. The food is a bit pricey, but well worth the money.

Catherine was, as she always is, wonderful. She had a great time. I have never seen her eat so much...I know she really enjoyed the food.

Here are a few shots from our evening:

The plants on the table are birthday gifts from Catherine. She knew that I need some greenery in my apartment, good stuff.


Ahhh, notice the bottle of Thailand's own Singha beer. A fine beverage.

Duh, I forgot to include where the restaurant is located. It's on Wenhua Rd., across from the Banciao Train Station. There are two Thai restaurants over there, this one is the one further away from the station. You'll see a red sign that says "Thai Town" beneath the Chinese lettering. The front is all glass, they have one of their menus on display out front, ya cant miss it.

Good question Andres.

Birthday Fun

This past week I celebrated my 37th birthday...I'm getting old!

I had many pleasant surprises at work. Some of my students remembered my big day and gave me some fun gifts. Anne, a wonderful girl, gave me a cute little stuffed animal monkey; Tim, one of my students in my 1106 class, gave me a great little toy dog; Teacher Catherine got me a Starbucks Taipei Mug. Of course the bosses Carol & Gavin bought some pizza for the office and also surprised me with a couple of neat little gifts.

1093, the group that I have been with the longest, surprised me on Saturday. During our usual break time on the hour, I had to go up and take care of a few things in the office. When I returned I found the following:


What a nice surprise. These kids are so great. I have been teaching them for about 8 months now. There have been times when I wanted to scream, but for the most part it's been a wonderful experience. They have helped me become a much better teacher. They inspire me.

Here is a shot of them on Saturday. They either love or hate to have their picture taken. Tiger & Chris, in the front, love mugging for the camera. While Lucy & Alice (hiding their faces) think the camera is a tool of evil!

Thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday so much fun. I had a good week.

Birthday Surprise at Work

Sorry for the lag in posting, these past few weeks have been kinda wacky. A combination of work craziness, my birthday, and home improvements has eaten all of my time.

The second phase, or the post Chris and Brent era as I like to call it, is in full-swing.

It has been much more pleasant than I had anticipated. I think my boss and the Chinese teachers now realize that I am more than capable of taking the reins as the lead teacher in the office. Carol, the boss, has been very supportive of me. She has arranged my schedule so that I can concentrate on my writing class and a few other classes that are considered very valuable to the school. I think she is working hard to keep me happy...how cool!! Further evidence of this theory came today; she bought me a couple of my favorite doughnuts while she was out shopping today...hmmm.

Even more importantly, the Chinese teachers have been great! I've come to the realization that in order to be a truly successful foreign teacher here, you have to accept that you know very little. Lately, I have been approaching the Chinese teachers and asking them how they would approach/teach the various lessons. As a result, I think they see that I am serious about being a great teacher and it has strengthened my relationships with them. I have had nothing but positive feedback from them and it feels great!

I had a wonderful surprise on my birthday. I was wrapping up my work day in the office when Lydia, one of the secretaries, came out of the break room with a great birthday cake. All of the Chinese teachers sang Happy Birthday to me and we had a cool little party. It shocked the heck out of me. Afterwards, Scott told me that he was shocked because no one in the office had remembered Chris' or his birthday...interesting.

The apartment is great, I love this place. Recently, Scott hooked me up with some fabric. His girlfriend works for a company that makes textiles so she had a bunch of free fabric. I have been trying to figure out a way to get some curtains for my place on the cheap. The curtains that are on the windows are off-white...not much good for blocking the sunshine in the morning. As a result, I have been waking up waaaay too early lately. Well, I was in an industrious mood this past weekend so I made some curtains, kinda..lol. I managed to get them up by utilizing paper clips, safety pins, and velcro...lol. They work great, but look a bit odd.

Finally, I would like to congratulate my niece Jami. She recently was awarded an internship with Greenpeace. How freaking cool is that!!!!!!! Good luck Jami. Have fun and conquer the world.