Mom and Dad

My mom and dad came to visit me for almost two weeks! And it was so nice to see them again! We stayed pretty busy and it was fun to introduce them to my students, friends and teammates. They also replenished my supply of dark chocolate. :)

 They arrived on Friday morning. My students also decided to cancel class that day, so it worked out pretty well! We ate breakfast and visited a temple and Patouxay, a big monument in the middle of the city. This is by a water fountain at Patouxay.

 Mom and I in front of Patouxay. I think we also ate some Lao food the first night - papaya salad, grilled fish and sticky rice.

On Saturday, one of my students invited us to his house for lunch and to meet his family. He's one of my favorite students. He was a very good host, and it's just fun to spend time with students outside of class. His sister and her friend were also there, so it was nice to have lots of good English speakers.

 Monday we went to That (pronounced tat) Luang. Which is the symbol of Laos. The hip bone of some ancient Buddha is buried here. One of my students was a monk for 11 years and just quit a month ago. He lives at the temple in That Luang so he gave us a tour and told us some history. We came straight from school, which is why we are all dressed up.

 Some of the paintings inside That Luang. They explain the 7 lives of Buddha.

 I think this got stretched... We ate sin dat or Korean barbeque with some teammates on Monday night.

 My parents came to my classes twice. The first day they told about themselves and answered students questions. The second day the students gave presentations to teach them about culture and such of Laos.

 My adorable nephew Brayden! They had some cute pictures of him on their camera, so I stole some of Brayden too! I'm excited to be home in the summer and see him again! :)

 This is a really bad picture, but Yui, one of my friends, and her parents took us out to eat at a yummy Vietnamese restaurant. They also all speak English very well!

 We flew to Luang Prabang, which is a city in the north of Laos, for the weekend. It's really touristy! But has beautiful mountains. Saturday we went on a trek through the jungle. Our guide was really good! We trekked to Kwang Si Waterfall. It was huge, with many layers, I think this is the first one.

 We continued the tradition of eating pizza on Saturday night. :)

 We rode elephants. Going through the river.

 Mom and I rode together. Our driver spoke great English and answered lots of our questions.

 Dad had to ride alone. :(

 We climbed Mt. Phou Si. A little mountain/hill in the middle of Luang Prabang. We watched the sunset.

 Some sunset pictures for you, Danae. :)

 We also took a boat to some caves. The boat was big and only for us three. It took two hours to get to the caves. It was a nice ride, and nice to see more of Laos.

 Many Buddhas in the caves.

 On our trek to the waterfall, we also visited a Hmong and Khmu village. Hmong and Khmu are the two largest minority groups in Laos. This is a Hmong baby. Lao babies are adorable!

 Sorry, the pictures are out of order, but this is some of the land we trekked through to the waterfall.

 At our lunch stop on the way to the waterfall. Laos is really a pretty country!

 Mom and I at the waterfall.

 You could swim at the waterfall. It looked like fun, but was a little too chilly for me. Dad had fun though.

 Going off of the rope swing. You could also jump off of the falls in the background.

We went back to the waterfall on Sunday because we didn't have much time there with the trek.

Mom and dad relaxed at home when I taught on Tuesday and Wednesday. And then they flew home Wednesday evening.

I think this is most of what we did when they were here. I'm glad they could meet some of the people who I talk about, so now they will understand a little more. And good to catch up on things from home. It was a nice visit! So, if anyone else want's to come... we have a spare bedroom and I can drive you around on my motorbike! :)