Sara Sarver

If you follow me either on Facebook or Twitter, I am sure you’ve seen numerous messages regarding our upcoming move to Bangkok later this week. Can you tell we’re excited?! Along with the flurry of good emotions that seem to be flying around right now, there are a few that aren’t so great, too. Moving to Bangkok means leaving Lopburi. And, while this is a very good thing for us, it also means we have to leave some people behind.

By finishing up our first year at the language center here in Lopburi, we’ve moved up a level in our Thai language abilities… so much that we no longer need to study in a designated center, with designated teachers. This means we won’t be seeing the women we’ve come to know and love every day anymore. That, to me, is a little bit sad. These ladies work hard every day to teach all of us foreigners, who have no clue about anything compared to them, how to both speak the Thai language and adapt to the Thai culture. Do you have any idea how much patience they must have to put up with years and years, rounds and rounds, of these non-Thais coming through asking the same questions, making the same stupid mistakes, and all around generally failing at life? :)

They are wonderful, and I believe they really don’t hear it enough.

So, what are we going to do about this? We have been told that it is tradition that when each student or family is ready to move on, they take the teachers out for lunch together as a final sort of thank you/farewell party. This, however, is usually rather quick as their lunch break is only about an hour and a half long. It always seems rushed, someone else has to arrange for transportation, another has to decide where they will go and call ahead, and so on. This got me thinking…

Hmmm… I love to cook. These women love to eat. They know I love to cook, and seem to enjoy every time I’ve brought in treats to share with them. I am already finished with my classes and have a whole morning free on Tuesday (the day before Brook’s final exams, thus making us both completely finished at the center). Hmmm… if we were to bring lunch to them at the center, that would free up more time to spend with each other in a quieter setting and take away the stress of transportation. Hmmm…

So, yes, tomorrow I will be blogging about the lunch we shared for Tasty Tuesday. :)

But, what does this have to do with today’s post? I’ve decided it would be good for us to leave something other than bellies full of food behind. Some kind of gift that’s not too big, not too small, and has a little bit of heart in it. When thinking about the teachers and what type of things they like, I realized how much they all seem to enjoy decorating their offices with cute stuff… flowers, plants, posters, stickers, cartoon character things, etc. Then, I came across this idea online.  Perfect! 

So, I made a bundle of these flowers in two patterns I thought they would like.  Then, I made a big batch of Lime Meltaway cookies (to come later via Tasty Tuesday’s as well!), which they had all enjoyed the last time I brought them in.

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Put the cookies in little bags…  staple them shut…  tie on a flower…  and, ta-da!  I know it’s not the most beautiful or extravagant thing ever, but it’s entirely homemade – that counts for a lot over here in Thailand.  I hope the ladies not only enjoy their cookies, but will remember us each time they see the flower on their desk, hanging on their bulletin board, or whatever they decide to do with it in each of their offices.