New projects

Sorry guys for not keeping this up and running for the last two months but have been busy with other stuff.

http://myanmarwithkids.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.atasteofmyanmar.blogspot.com/

Although I have to admit that the cooking school site needs a new name (suggestions very welcome) . I also want to make it into 'real' domain names but as usual it is difficult here to find out who to ask and where to arrange things. I've asked the IT people at school twice already and even they can't give me a straight answer.

I will post more on this as soon as I have straightened things out a bit more. KK has been busy painting the kitchen and cleaning up in the house in general. The outdoor place where we want to have it eventually needs the tarp back up over the roof but that it impossible to do at the moment with the rain being an almost constant factor. In a month though, the monsoon will be over and it will be easier to get on that slippery roof and fix everything properly.

A new layout

By now it was high time to give this blog a make-over. After all, I started it a fair few years ago and only updated the look of it once. Am not sure yet whether this new and fairly minimalist style is the one I want to keep but for the moment I like it.

Revamping the blog was not the easiest to do with connection speeds ok but not great. Besides, My laptop seems to find it difficult to keep up with me as well. I have had the need for frequent toilet and coffee breaks in order to give the computer/connection the time to catch up.

It is interesting to note how easily we get used to having something and then to start complaining about it. It was not so long ago that we got internet at home. True, we have had a dial-up connection but that was incredibly slow and we had to buy access cards so we could keep using it. I remember being incredibly happy with that connection when we got it.

A month or two ago, we subscribed to the service provider we have now. The dial-up did not work well with out phone line, not so strange since that line is frequently out of service, and when we got this lifeline to the wider world, I was again very very happy.

Now I'm trying to download the whole internet, or at least I am getting very close to doing so, and the connection speed is already starting to bother me. Luckily with youtube downloader an interrupted connection is not a big thing but it can take a tremendous amount of time. Xenne and Eaindra love the little clips I download. It is also very good for their Dutch since I have been able to find quite a good number of classic Dutch children songs. I have those all on Cd but with these songs there is also a visual part which makes it much more entertaining and at the same time more instructive for them. There are nights when I can download a reasonable amount of data. There are  more nights when I get tow or three measly songclips.

My My, it has been ages

Obviously I was aware that I hadn't visited this blog in a few weeks but I had no idea it had been this long.

Time flies when you have fun, but time most surely skyrockets when you are busy.

We're in the middle of summer school. The builders are still busy every day with the new school but the new P.E. court has been declared accessible for the students today and I'm sure Xenne will be very happy tomorrow when he comes to school.

Apart from the job of teaching English to Grade 6, 7, and 8, I am very busy with preparing homemade watercolour paints, ice chalk, homemade playdough, baking pizza (and teaching Thandar and Sheila how to do it with good results), and all other things that are kids-related.

This weekend we made icecream from bananas (and nothing else). It turned out to be 'heel erg lekker' (very delicious) according to Xenne and absolutely no diary whatsoever. Not that the kids are allergic or anything but most ingredients for icecream are fairly expensive here. So stuff made of only bananas definitely hits the spot in more ways that one since a bunch costs next to nothing here.

With 4 weeks to go before the school starts again for the teachers at least, I will make some time to add some pictures and comments on the Bagan/Mandalay trip we made mid-June.

A new 'project'

The plot of land next to our house is empty and i realised I have a great project on my hands here. every year in the dry season the owner has the vegetation cut as far as it can possibly be cut. Then, the rest of the year nothing gets done. Last year the weeds were growing over the gate and it was almost like the gates to sleeping beauty's castle, so overgrown was everything. It was almost impossible to comprehend that all that greenery had grown in less than a year.

This year the vegetation was cut about 1,5 - 2 months ago. We had the usual influx of unwanted visitors (we think there is still a snake hiding out somewhere behind the house but we can't find him). I'd forgotten about my intention to take regular pictures of next door's plot but this weekend I took my first ones.

 For the coming year, I'll be taking pictures regularly to show how fast vegetation can grow in the heat and humidity that makes up most of Yangon's weather. The rainy season has started this week so it is a good time to keep an eye on the property next door.

I hope that the land will not be sold somewhere down the line, that would be disastrous to my 'project'. It is a distinct possibility though since land and houses are a hot commodity at the moment and there is no sign of a slacking market. But who knows, i might be lucky and show you some nice 'before-and after' imagery.

Two fantastic things in one day

While browsing around a bit for a possible recipe I found this great site
http://www.thedutchtable.com/ . And there are so many Dutch recipes on here.

This weekend I definitely want to try and make 'vla'. Just the thought about it makes my mouth water.

It is also a good thing for Xenne en Eaindra to learn about some real Dutch food. They are turning into 'rice kids' if I don't take care to feed them more western/dutch food on a regular basis.

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....

Internet on my phone but no go

Since a few weeks I have internet on my phone. Funnily enough, it costs a small fortune to have internet at home from your computer but almost nothing from your phone. Just like with a computer-connection though, it is a hit-and-miss affair and often terribly slow.

For dun, I tried to post something here from my phone during the Thingyan holiday but i was never able to do so.

The good thing is that I can read the news and push the "I Like" button on Facebook. I need to connect often since the applications crash regularly for reasons unknown or are so slow that you're timed out but it is possible and I have spend a few pleasant afternoons and evenings (trying to) browse through unread mails, Facebook updates, and news articles.

Got it!

This post came up shortly after I wrote about some of the odd things i saw posted in the expat community group. I tried to post it immediately but the internet let me down (again). After that, between having a slow internet and very little time, it just got 'lost'.

This message made me smile but cringe at the same time:

We have ordered new chairs for our dining room. The one we are selling was the first sample and we decided for some changes in the design. Therefore we are selling this brand NEW beautiful chair for 200USD. The chairs is made of reclaimed pyinkado. Pyinkado redwood is a luxury deep red very hardwood that darkens to a rustic brown with age.

Pictures are attached. First come first serve. Self-collector only.



The chair is nice but nothing too special in my humble opinion. Then again, we still have plastic dining room chairs since we haven't been able to find something that we like AND can afford. Not that we make a huge effort to find something. And plastic is easy to wipe clean. A huge advantage with little kids... 

Expats and sort-off expats

Since a little while I'm a member of the expat google group here in Myanmar. The group was established 2 years ago to share information for the foreigners living in Myanmar. This is a country where lots of things are possible to have/buy but it is,still, very difficult to find out where to go. For example, you might be looking or something relatively easy to find in the west and go to all major retailers and not find it. Then, by chance you might see what you were looking for in a tiny mom-and-pop store where you walked in by chance.

So, the group can be very very useful. Now, there are a lot of members and the questions asked can range from very good to plain dumb. That, of course happens to most groups and forums on the net.

What I find interesting, at least to me it is,  is the sometimes complete lack of local understanding. There is something about 'real' expats that baffles me continuously. The utter lack of regard to costs, the sharing of things that for most people are way out of league, and so on. Luckily those kind of topics don't come up too often but when they do I, for one, often wonder what people were thinking when they posted them.

With the fairly massive influx of 'real' expats at the moment, I think I better get used to seeing posts like that more often.

If I see a really good one again, I will post it here. Saw one the other day and deleted it but there'll be others for sure.

I have internet on my mobile!!!

Not that it is fast or anything...  I tried to read my email yesterday and I got nowhere. But I feel like I have suddenly jumped into the 21st century.

Of course I could use hubby's mobile but somehow that was too often too much trouble especially with the kids around. Now I can check emails at least anytime I want (in theory ;-) )

The next step will be, of course, to have a good working link at home from the computer or laptop so I can post anytime I feel like it. Like the other day when I woke at 12:30 in the morning and didn't really know what to do with myself...

At work the connection speed has been steadily declining and the internet is now almost as gridlocked as the roads in Yangon. The Myanmar schools are on holiday now and I noticed a much improved circulation on the streets but the internet has slowed even more...

So different

The other day I was downtown for the first quiz night in Yangon (that even I know off, there might have been previous attempts). It was a very successful attempt and the bar was full.

For me the most interesting feature of the evening was though the number of foreigners. Most of them fairly young (mid-twenties to early thirties) and I was wondering about what they were doing here.

Then yesterday I was at a workshop from a hardware/software giant and in the hotel there were so many westerners. Again.

Yangon/Myanmar is almost like a treasure chest. The last bastion of golden opportunities. There are masses of 'consultants' and 'specialists' in this country nowadays. People who have been here for a few months consider themselves old-timers and knowledgeable on the culture. On forums this was already a bit the case before especially for tourists with people giving advice who had visited the country years before. Nowadays though it seems like every other person I meet or hear about is here to make their fortune.

It is a fairly unsettling feeling and I wonder how many of them will be here in the next couple of years. If the quiz nights continue (once a month) how many will be able to say in a year's time that they were there during the first one?

More signs of 'progress'

I haven't had much time and, especially energy, to post some more but can't resist now.

There has been some talk amongst the expat community here that it is now possible to get money with a credit card at some ATM's and the other day I even saw an advertisement from a bank to that effect, naming the exact ATM where that was possible. We are heading towards the 21st century.

A fellow expat did mention though that he had tried it a few times and that twice he was charged for the amount he asked for but no money was dispensed. Apparently he is still in sorting things out with his bank. He said it was good to have the option but advised only to use it in an emergency.

This morning I opened the BBC website and what catches my eye, an article on credit card friendly destinations and even Burma was mentioned (still Burma not Myanmar).  On reading the article http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130220-how-credit-card-friendly-is-your-next-destination it appears that Visa is now officially accepted in the country at one place at least. Before there were a few places that accepted credit cards but verification always went via Singapore.

More important for the locals is that it seems that KFC has opened a branch here. A colleague who loves KFC said she would check the place out and report back. If KFC opens, McD shall not be far behind I think. My colleague wrote the word 'progress' between quotes just as I do on this post. Not sure if it is such a wonderful thing now this country is officially open to all the junk food in the world...

I'm a wimp

I have to fess up. I am a total and utter wimp. I never realised it I was until yesterday though.

I'm still doing my Bando lessons and of late it was just me. Having private lessons was great. The teacher made me work of course but that's good for me. The pacing was just right and I enjoyed it. My fellow Bando student has problems with her ankle and a pupil of our teacher was apparently in a meditation center for a week or so.

Yesterday I find that I'm no longer alone. The pupil was back and also another guy who on occasion drops by. He usually has lessons after us but he joined us yesterday. The guys are way ahead of me and the lesson was done most of the time around what I knew and some new stuff. It was a great workout. Lots of different movements and a lot of kicking as well. Great, I thought and loved it.

Then, all of a sudden, at the end of the lesson out come 2 stuffed pads that are used for protection when hitting and kicking. I honestly thought I wouldn't be too bad at it. As I said, I was a total wimp. It is so much harder than it looks to kick such a pad with enough force. You also have to think about flexed feet and where to kick exactly. Anyways, i realised I have a long way to go... Maybe, one day I can kick those pads the way they are supposed to be kicked.

Ridiculous or what?

A colleague of mine has found an affordable house across from our place. Last weekend, he had the key and he and his wife were starting to have a real good look around to see what they needed to do. The house is really cheap for Yangon standards but it meant that some repair work was in order.

Anyway, he is standing outside in  the garden (yes, it even has a garden!) when the owner of next door's plot comes up to him. That owner told him that his plot was for sale for a mere 10 million dollars.

My colleague was still in shock half an hour later when I came back from the errand I'd been on.

Hubby told me that, contrary to what we thought, it didn't even include the whole plot and buildings there but that the land that was for sale was only a third of what we thought it was! Talking about ridiculous prices. For 10 million dollars I'd buy me a nice property somewhere in Europe like a nice chateau or a lovely mansion. I wouldn't spend it on a tiny plot of land in a small street in Yangon.

I cound't resist

 I saw this when I was going home the other day. For me it is still surprising to see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's picture everywhere. For many years, even her name was not said out loud, with everyone referring to her as 'The Lady" . So seeing her picture on the back of a car is such a huge step forward.

I debated a whole half minute about whether or not I could /should take my camera and record it. Obviously, I couldn't resist.

hectic

So much for my good intentions.

I knew there were 4 new classrooms being added to the school building during the holidays but I hadn't realised that that would keep me so busy at the beginning of semester 2. There are also some other projects going on at school and around so that I honestly have had NO time at all to really write anything.

If all goes well, that will change after this weekend and next week so hopefully February will be better.

Happy 2013!

I hope this will be a great year for everybody. Enjoy the good times, get through the bad times as fast as possible, and keep in good health.

I've posted much more than I thought I would in 2012. I hope I'll do even better in 2013.

We've just come back from Chaung Tha beach and have a lot of things to do. Posts will come soon.