Happy New Year! (Though it is precisely two weeks late.) My part two weeks have been filled with the work involved in starting up a home-business. Rin and I have been working for the past three months advertising, getting resources, buying furniture, making tables, booking students, writing receipts, collecting fees, organizing schedules, buying books, getting snacks, cleaning our house, and trying to keep calm through it all. We have recently opened a small business at home. It is a small school, tutoring children and some adults on Saturday and Sunday. As of right now we have nine students who are coming into our home every weekend for two hours a piece (some in groups) and I teach them. It is a really relaxed environment and has made really great progress so far. But with me still teaching my regular job, which is becoming more and more demanding, I am feeling the stress. I still have Sundays, as I only teach two students on Sunday, and I am able to have time out. It is great fun. Sometimes I feel like I am playing dress up as the parents drop off their students and wai me, calling me “khun krou” (teacher.) It has been an amazing experience, but hectic as hell.

Over the holidays Rin and I took Santé on his first road trip down to the south to deliver money from a fund raiser we have been doing for the past few months. Rin raised money for a rural school in Chuphon province to help them buy food, books and anything else they need. The school has 27 students and three teachers, and happens to be the school he went to as a child. The school was amazed at his efforts as he happened to raise quite a bit of money for the school. I am so proud of his work. It was great to watch him gain back the respect of former teachers, as he was a bit of a handful as a child.

And now, for the future. I think I am coming home. I still have to plan out a few things but I think I am going to be going home in March for two weeks, around the beginning of the month. I haven’t been home in a year and a half, and I can’t wait. Rin unfortunately won’t be joining me; we will have to wait until next year. The thoughts of going home to visit are amazing…I can’t even imagine what I would do first. It will be a great adventure.