Ronald greets you, Thai style

Bangkok, Thailand

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Out this afternoon doing a bit of shopping when I noticed (as I passed yet ANOTHER MacDonald's) that Ronald was striking a culturally appropriate pose. East meets West? West meets East?

Proper sandbagging technique

Bangkok, Thailand

Friday, October 28, 2011

On the Bangkok elevated train this morning when I noted this diagram in my neighbor's newspaper. My lack of Thai was no barrier: clearly this diagram is instructing us in proper sandbag filling techniques. When I reached my destination down by the river, water was pouring into the street from the river. I hiked up my pants and waded across the street to the conference hotel.

Clearly Bangkok is a city under siege.

Green papaya salad

Bangkok, Thailand

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The piles of sandbags are everywhere and the whole city is "tweeting" about the latest areas of flooding or predicted flooding. But I managed to get in one wonderful plate of green papaya salad on my way home from the conference. Worth flying into the eye of the storm for.

I remember trees

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Friday, October 21, 2011

Gathered this afternoon with two friends to cut up more bits of fabric. Our goal? To make a tree. As we head into winter, it gets harder to remember trees, their smell and their lovely green-ness.

So, this fanciful tree will have to keep the memory alive until spring. Thanks, ladies--

(Katta rahmat!)

Color triangle

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thursday, October 20, 2011

It's vacation week, and I have time to sit around and do silly things like cut up tiny bits of fabric. Then I had this vision of the color hexagon used to select RGB colors.

What I ended up with was a "color triangle" instead.

Party animals

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Friday, October 14, 2011

Went to a nice birthday party this afternoon with loads of kids, music, and a big lovely cake. These fun items grabbed my attention from the food table!

Warm food for cold nights

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, October 8, 2011

As we roll into October and the local fresh vegetables disappear, I have a new appreciation for borscht. How can 3 beets, 4 carrots, 3 potatoes, 1 onion and a bit of fresh dill (well, fresh from the freezer) taste so good? As the Russians know so well, it's the perfect winter food.

The Globe

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, October 8, 2011

We got a wonderful present today from A's classmate: a globe! A's map collapsed off the wall just a few days ago so it felt like perfect timing. And it makes a fantastic night light...

감사합니다!

(That's "thank you" in Korean)

Tessellating cookies

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Once we are well into the tessellation unit in math class, I start seeing tessellations everywhere. Today it was baking cookies--can I escape them?

(Yes, I know they don't really tessellate, but they reminded me enough of hexagons to trick to my brain for a moment.)

Tessellate!

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Friday, October 7, 2011

Grade 10 is finishing up a unit on tessellations with a small art project on paper or fabric. Once again they've come up with some really fun designs. Nice job, Grade 10!

Team Origami

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

I took my 10th graders today to visit a local elementary school to teach origami. Some of my students love the experience, and I had to practically drag some of them back to the bus. Others couldn't get away fast enough. It's my favorite field trip of the year.