4 months later...

Oh man, it's definitely much more effective to update frequently. Too many things to blog about now...

While we were still on Borneo (yeah, it's been that long since we've updated), we saw an amazing place called The Semenggoh Wildlife Preserve. We got to see orangutans up close which had been reintroduced to the wild after being rehabilitated. This was a treat for little Katharina who's quite the monkey fanatic. She uploaded a bunch of photos of this experience to her facebook page if you'd like to see photos.

Andrew and Jen Adair visited us in Thailand at the end of October for about 3 weeks. We were able to do a lot of really fun activities and see a lot of beautiful places in Thailand. We started in Chiang Mai, went to Chiang Dao, then to Sukhothai, then Bangkok, Krabi Town, Ao Nang, Tonsai, and ended in Koh Phi Phi. We had so much fun with Andrew and Jen. It was such an awesome experience. Kat and I got to see a lot of places that we had never been to either. Who knew that Bangkok actually has some pretty parts? Again, if you want to see pictures you can check out Kat's facebook.

Since we've been back in Chiang Mai we've just been working our lives away. We came back in the middle of the school semester, but Kat was lucky enough to find a job where a teacher had just quit before the end of the term. She's teaching 4th and 5th grade. It's been a little difficult for her at times because some of the kids aren't very well behaved. But it pays OK and the semester is up at the beginning of March. At this point she's not sure if she will continue there next semester. We shall see.

I have been doing hourly work for a company called NES. It's the type of school we were working in when we were here before. You get paid hourly and the classes are much smaller with more motivated students. Doesn't pay very well, but it's not too bad. I'm teaching Medical English to a doctor right now, GED Science Prep to a high school student, and a couple General Conversation classes.

We've been doing small trips here and there. We went mountain biking on Doi Suthep (the biggest mountain in Chiang Mai) with a company a few weeks ago. It was super fun, but when we were right at the end of the whole trip, Kat had a crash and landed on her face. She broke her helmet and got a few deep cuts on the inside and outside of her lips. We went to the hospital and she had to have 13 stitches altogether.  The cuts are healing well now, just a little red still.

Coffee plantation on the way down Doi Suthep

The one that required 10 stitches is on the inside of her lower lip

We did another activity that's super popular for tourists in Chiang Mai called Flight of the Gibbon. We actually won tickets to this and the mountain biking trip from a climbing competition we participated in, awesomely enough. It was a lot of fun. You fly from tree to tree on zip lines that go really fast. It was in a really beautiful and jungly area about 2 hours from the city. But very expensive. We'd never done it before because of how much it costs, although we'd heard many times about how fun it is.

We actually saw real gibbons

A couple weeks ago we visited a friend and one of Kat's old students, May, in a small town called Fang. May has opened her own restaurant where she serves various versions of Khao Soi. Khao Soi is a noodle dish that's made with yellow curry and is specific to Chiang Mai / Northern Thailand. The food was very good and we had fun hanging out with May and checking out the city and the beautiful countryside.

Hot springs in Fang

We celebrated my birthday with some friends. Kat surprised me with an awesome cake she had a little bakery in town make. It was a beautiful cake with three little Pokemon (Pokemen?). The sad part was when we went camping that evening, Kat had put the cake in the tent under all of our things and I didn't know it was there. I knelt down on a sleeping bag while trying to get something out of the tent and totally squished the cake. Totally.

Before

After

At a buffet called Shabushi with our friend Beau. The food comes by on a conveyor belt. Super fun!

Last weekend went climbing at Crazy Horse Buttress, which is the closest climbing area to Chiang Mai, about a 45-minute drive from the city. We stayed with some friends at a place not too far from the climbing area called John's Huts. It's a small bungalow operation that's built into the side of a fairly steep hill. We had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends and watching the sunrise in the morning.

We moved into our own apartment. Right in the downtown on the 10th floor. It has amazing views of the city and Doi Suthep (and an extra bedroom / sofa bed for visitors, hint hint, wink wink).

The big temple is Wat Chedi Luang, built in the 1300s

That brings us up to date.