Thai breakfast treats

Chumphon, Southern Thailand

Friday, December 31, 2010

The breakfast buffet at our hotel here on the beach is really making me happy. Besides the view, here are a few reasons why:

• Coconut pancakes
• Tiny Thai bananas
• Fun eggs

Paradise found

Chumphon, Southern Thailand
Friday, December 31, 2010

It took us a while to find, but I think we're there. Here's sunrise from the outdoor dining room...

Huge, wide beach and endless pool, too, surrounded by a lovely jungley-like surrounding. Nice kiddie pool, too. Good food at the restaurant and super friendly and helpful staff.

Great place for the kids...

Here's a link to their website: Chumphon Cabana

Trees with coats

Seoul, South Korea

Friday, December 17, 2010

We are in Korea for 48 hours on our way to sun and fruit in Thailand. I was fascinated to see that the trees here in Seoul appear to be wearing cummerbunds made of straw. But just enough to keep their midriffs warm.

And then I saw several trees with full body coverage. Still not quite sure what the theory is, but it is awfully cute and very lovingly done...

Mailing tape flexagons

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

This week it was time for one of my favorite math projects: hexa-hexa-flexagons. Constructed from paper mailing tape (remember when time was...), these wonderful math toys are easy to make and good for endless hours of fun. Finding the patterns is a great exercise in topology.

Until this year I thought there were only 15 patterns to be found, but this year three of my students found 18.

Photos: 1) flexagons in progress and 2) one student's work...

The return of Sinterklaas

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Sunday, December 4, 2010

Around the corner he came on his horse, right there in the middle of downtown Ulaanbaatar: Sinterklaas has returned! Reportly he took the train across Siberia and got a horse here at the train station in UB (instead of his usual arrival by boat and horse).

In any case, we were all happy to see him--especially the children!

Bat engines

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, December 4, 2010

A recently discovered that her Thomas toys will stick not only to each other but to the pipes that connect our heaters. Now we have a whole flock of bat engines lined up.