These are a few of my favorite things. . .

Just FYI for those of you at home, J and I officially booked our flights back to the US! We'll be touching down on the Seatac tarmac the night of December 8th. Our teaching contract ends in a few weeks and then our much anticipated tour of SE Asia begins! Our plan is to head over to Laos through one last stop in Chiang Mai, then spend about a week in Vietnam, about a week in Cambodia, fly down to Bali, back up through Malaysia and finish with a couple weeks of island hopping back in southern Thailand. We are SOOOO excited. (I mean. . .duh)

However, there will be plenty of things I will be missing about good 'ol Lampang, Thailand; a place that we've called home for the past 4 1/2 months. As it usually happens, I feel like I am finally getting the hang of teaching and settling in quite nicely to our apartment right as we're about to take off. So allow me to reflect on a few things that will stay near and dear to my heart. . .

Our rides to school: Back home my commute to work usually began with the realization that my tank is on E and I have to make an annoying stop for gas. Then I'd head off to make the slow merge onto I-405 only to crawl through the awful traffic, turning the 5 minute trip into a 25 minute trip. Here, however, I saddle onto my red bike, ding my bell and wave goodbye to our neighbors and cruise all the way to school, no gas stop necessary. Not only do we keep a nice even pace, we get to see some pretty spectacular views. Here are a couple pictures of the scenery I get to enjoy every morning while we ride along the river to school and cross the bridge.

Coffee stops: Back in April I was under the impression that we wouldn't find a Starbucks here so I downed about 4 Americanos everyday for a month before coming, just to make sure I got my fix. It only took us a day in Bangkok to realize there are Starbucks on just about every corner. However, there are zero in Lampang. Luckily there are enough coffee shops, stands, and machines in our little town to help distract us from our "usual". Our favorite shops include Wawee Coffee, I Love Coffee, and the one we just call "the crack coffee place". Our favorite little stands are just about anywhere and everywhere and every once in a while we venture in for a machine coffee inside the 7-11. . .however we usually end up with about 20 minutes of crazy hyperness followed by an awful stomach ache after those. Here we are enjoying a nice "to go" iced coffee. . .which in this case meant drinking it out of a plastic bag. Markets, markets and more markets: People always talk about how delicious the street food is in Thailand but I had no idea how amazing it tasted until I got to Lampang! We have a handful of outdoor markets. Our favorite ones include Asawin market which opens just in time for us to cruise through on the way home from school everyday. We eat our favorites: salad, pineapple, banana muffins, chewy bars, apples. . .There are tons of fresh fruits and veggies along with tons of other goodies we've tried. We haven't quite been adventurous enough to try the fish that are still flopping on the table or the shish-kebab of frogs but the rest has suited us just fine. There is also a Thursday night market and the weekend market which has more of the same. . .but way too many deep fried treats so we usually have to keep ourselves away from those. The best part is that whichever one we go to we can get completely full for about $1.50. Here's Alex, Alistair and Lauren enjoying some fresh juice from the weekend night market (again the "to-go plastic bag")

Clip of the weekend market. . . .

Clip of Asawin Market. . .

Bike rides in general: As I'm sure you might be able to tell, I have become quite fond of my bicycle. But the task of hauling our huge backpacks around for the next few months seems daunting enough as it is, without the addition of a big red bike. So being the generous, kind, loving, wonderful, thoughtful, caring, considerate. .. oh sorry. . .people that we are, we decided that we will donate our bikes to the school on the last day. I must say we have enjoyed some pretty great rides on these things. The first day we bought them you would have thought we were 9 year olds on Christmas morning. Since then we have enjoyed countless rides around the town, always exploring and finding new and exciting things along the way. And just about every person we meet here says "Oooh yes. I see you when you ride bicycle". Here are a few shots/video of our bikes and a few of the many things we've found while cruising around, thanks to the bike's lasting hold (even though a 24-year old was riding it as opposed to the 12 year-old its frame is meant to withstand)

Came upon this random but gorgeous temple one day. . .
Just cruising by some cows. . .The walls of Lampang. . .
Enjoying an evening ride. . .

The people: I feel like I have had the opportunity to meet some fabulous people since living here. Most have welcomed us into their town and we have been fortunate enough to share many laughs and smiles with all of them. Actually that's the only thing we shared with a lot of them because of the language barrier. But their smiles could always make me happy. These include the wonderful teachers both farang and Thai, Tuk our hairstylist and friend, our favorite coffee girls, Moo the guy who copies my worksheets for school, the other girls who copy my worksheets and laugh everytime I try to say the numbers in Thai, our favorite bike shop guys who blow up our tires for free, the policemen who sat down with us one night to offer up a few rounds of their whisky, the vegetarian restaurant owner who opened up a few hours early just for us, the flower shop owners who give us a big hello everyday on our way to and from school, our landlord Yao who has so patiently dealt with our house issues, our neighbors (mostly for their dog Piggy), our salad, pineapple, and banana muffin ladies, our spa lady who actually lived in Marysville, Washington for 7 years of her life. . .as well as many more. They have all been a part of my experience here in Lampang and I feel so lucky to have met them!

I'm sure I will have more to add for my last couple weeks here but thought I'd at least get a head start. I can't believe our time in Thailand is starting to wind down. . .but like I said before, we are SO excited for the next few months and can't wait for many more adventures!!!!!!!!!