Welcome to Thailand

A new and exciting stage in the DKGZ's lives began in August, we moved to Thailand.

 We have been here almost seven weeks and I feel like I finally have some time to sit down and write an update.  We flew in August 1^st and had almost two weeks of settling in and orientation to the school before students came four weeks ago.  All is well, and I’d say our transition has been fairly smooth so far. 

     It took us about a week to get used to the time change. Our school took great care of us when we arrived.  They  brought us to several shopping areas and markets to buy house hold items and plants.  They also took us on a trip to the Grand Palace and out and about downtown on the water taxi, sky train, etc.  The kids were good sports through it all. 

We live in “teacher housing” which are two condo apartment buildings surrounding a pool and playground.  There’s a big parking lot where kids ride bikes, a basketball court and a field with a trampoline and soccer goals.  Our apartment is nice, but bare so far, our shipment arrives this week so we are pretty excited to get all our stuff.  We’ve got three bedrooms and the kids are currently sharing one so we have an extra room for visitors!! There are tons of families who live in our complex so the kids have been riding bikes and swimming with a slew of them.  Our housing area is in a large, gated community called Nichada Thani.  It’s a little paradise here.  Everyone rides bikes or golf carts around.  There’s a beautiful lake in the middle of the community, a grocery store, Starbucks, smoothie shop, gym, etc, within the community. Just outside it are shopping malls, local shops and really anything else you might need.  We live about 25 minutes by car from downtown BKK if there is no traffic.  But, there is rarely no traffic so it might take more like 40 minutes to get there.  A more interesting way to get down town is by a river boat.

     Aunt Heather flew over from China and spent almost two weeks with us, helping us settle in.  It was great to see her and she was able hang out with us, and looked after Gavin and Zoe when Kim and I were tied up with work stuff.  She also celebrated Gavin’s birthday with us.   Everyone here knows her now and we are excited for her to come back!

     Gavin started kindergarten and really seems to be enjoying it.  Kim gets to see him around the Elementary school.  We just registered him for soccer and Kim or I will likely coach his team Saturday mornings.  Zoe has started a pre-school close by called Magic Years.  She is in the “Peace and Unity Class” and rides the bus with a few other teacher kids from our housing complex.  Her school is pretty amazing.  There are animals there; two sheep, a goat, pig, ducks and turtles.  She takes wood working class and pottery twice a week.  There’s even a pool where she’ll take swimming lessons once a week.  Gavin and Zoe both have Thai classes and we’re hoping they’ll catch on quick and be able to teach us. 

The River Boat to down town

Gavin and Zoe at the Bangkok Aquarium 

Gavin and Isabella shared their birthday party complete with a pinata.

Kim's moved to teach 3rd grade this year after teaching 4th for the last five years.  She is enjoying the transition and has a nice class which she has had a good month with.  She has gone out to play staff volleyball once and has found a little time to run.


I am getting into my groove and have started swimming a few mornings a week before school.  The weather is hot but I have been running most days and and have started to take part in the “Panther Run Series” which are races put on by the school once a month.  I have to keep those high-school cross-country runners honest and make them chase after this 37 year old.  My math classes are going well, this year I have 3 classes of 9th graders and 2 classes of the IB higher level 11th graders.  They are all great kids so far, and make teaching really easy.  My colleagues in the math dept.  have been very welcoming and helpful to the "new guy".  Kim and I have both started taking Thai lessons so hopefully by the time people visit we will be able to say a few things. 

We have a nanny/house keeper who looks after the kids after school and cleans for us.  One of the best parts is that she cooks Thai food twice a week for us.  Tonight she made cashew chicken and spring rolls; it was delicious! 

     We have a long weekend coming up this weekend, we’ll head a few hours down the coast to the beach with friends.  It will be nice to get out of the city and see some more of Thailand.   So far, this is a pretty impressive place for us and we’re very happy to be here. There seems to be lots of do and see here in Thailand so we're really excited for visitors!  Let us know how you’re doing when you get a chance!

The New Cottage-Summer 2011

The Bentley's packed up what little they did not ship directly to Thailand and said good bye to Sao Paulo to head home to Canada for the summer. It was sad to say good byes, especially to our nanny, Roquelina, and leave our home of 5 years. However,we are excited about the new adventure ahead. We were also very anxious to get back to our newly renovated cottage.

Pretty much everything worked out the way we had hoped, so we were very pleased. There was a lot of work to be done, such as putting a wood protector on the outside, building a front deck, building shelves, closet organizers, Ikea furniture, not to mention all the normal cottage work, like putting the dock in and cleaning the place up. Gavin and Zoe did their best to help out with all the work to be done.

As usual it was fantastic to have family and friends up for visits. Gavin and Zoe enjoyed catching up with their big cousin Kyra. She helped them to jump even further into the water and really fly off the dock. They had fun playing games with their uncle and aunts, and doing art projects with grandparents.

We had a great summer.  It was sad to say good-bye to our little slice of paradise but we were excited to embark on our new adventure in Thailand.    Below are a few more picture highlights of June and July.

Grandpa and Gavin shared a birthday party with an awesome cake.

Kyra and G and Z "flying" into the lake

The Bentley-Boone-Walkington Clan

Grandpa Doug and Nana Mary donated there 16ft CL sail boat to the cottage.  With some help of some friends (Mark) we were able to get it up and running and get some nice sails in without running into too many docks, rocks or people.

The fourth annual DR weekend.  The Keeners, Picketts-Pierce and kids were able to make it up, once again a highlight of the summer.

Ella and Oliver brought their A-game to the cottage once again.  Swimming, running around, wrestling, playing games and drawing pictures. 

Clark and Family visited from Virginia.

We got a chance to catch up with newly married Mick

We had a great 1304 girls weekend but missed Celine.  Can't wait to do it again next year!

Holidays in Canada

I think over 6 months have passed so I'm trying to carve out some time for our semi-annual family blog update. The Bentley family has returned to Sao Paulo after a fantastic month long holiday in Canada. It was great to spend the holiday season with our family and friends. I'll stick in some pictures below with some of our highlights.

Our big news is that we are headed out on a new adventure. In early November, after a series of job interviews on Skype, Kim and I were offered jobs at the International School of Bangkok, Thailand. http://www.isb.ac.th/ ISB has an excellent reputation and we have had our sights on teaching there for many years now. Our good friends Brad, Peter and Patience, whom we taught with in the Dominican Republic, work there and helped by putting in a good word for us.

So we are well into our last semester (4 more months) in Brazil. Gavin is going to complete Kindergarten here, and has generally enjoyed going to school for the whole day, except when he has to do "hard work". He tells Zoe, "live it up there in the toddler class, as all you have to do there is play". He has made some good little friends and has started to love futbol (soccer). He plays on the playground almost every day. He still loves his down time on his own and has a great imagination when he plays with his cars, lego or dinosaurs. Gavin also lost his first tooth over the Christmas vacation while at Grandma Bett's house. It was an exciting event!

Zoe is a big girl. She has even lost her night time diaper, yes, that's right we have bought our last diapers in the Bentley house! She enjoyed her 3rd birthday at her Grandma Bett's house in Canada. She received a scooter for her birthday so she can try and keep up with her big brother. She is well coordinated, has little fear and never wants to sit back and watch. Needless to say, there are loads of bumps and bruises on her legs and arms at any one time. With her December birthday, Zoe is one of the oldest in our school's toddlers class. She loves school and seems to be a big hit amongst her classmates. Her teachers say she is a great little helper and one of the best cleaner-uppers, hopefully this skill will transfer to home.

I have been plugging away at work. We have some new administrators this years so it is always a bit of extra work getting used the them. There has been a lot more "department head" type duties this semester so it will be nice to start in a new job where I can focus more on teaching and less on running a math department. I still run and swim most days to stay fit. We are going to travel to Brazil's capital Brasilia in April to catch up with friends who moved there, see the incredible purpose built city and run a half marathon, so I need to get in reasonable shape to not be too embarrassed about how much slower I am these days. Last semester I traveled to Rio de Janeiro for a math conference. My rock climber buddy Matt, a science teacher at my school, dragged me up Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf). For someone who has only dabbled in rock climbing and nothing to high, spending 4 hours hanging from the side of one of the world most famous landmarks by his finger tips was a hairy experience, but one that will never be forgotten.

Hello! This is Kim writing this part of our news. I don't have too much exciting to report. I'm enjoying my fifth year teaching fourth grade. I have a very nice class again this year and, in fact, just got back from a three-day overnight trip with my students where we traveled about two hours out of Sao Paulo to a beautiful camp. We have our Carnival holiday coming up in two weeks. This year we'll be heading to the Amazon Rain Forest for four days with my dad and his wife. We'll be fishing for piranhas, looking for crocodiles at night and exploring the wildlife. I'm sure our last few months in Brasil will pass by quickly. It will be very sad to leave our friends here and our great life, but we will look ahead to our next adventure.

As I mentioned above we left the warm (and rainy) Brazilian summer and traveled up to Canada for our vacation this year. We were hosted by our family and friends. It was a great time to reconnect and experience a little winter. There were several tobogganing outings on local hills, a few impromptu snowball fights, ice skating both in and outdoors and a huge snow man was built. Gavin and Zoe also had the chance to cheer on their big cousin Kyra in a hockey tournament. G and Z were excited to spend a few action packed days on their own with Grandma Joyce and Granddad John while Mom and Dad spent a few days up at Blue Mountain (a local ski hill/village ) snow-boarding by day and sitting in outdoor hot-tubs and eating in good restaurants by night.

Christmas morning was spent at Grandma Bett's house. Uncle Greg, Aunt Val and Great-Grandma Dot were all around to watch G and Z rip through some exciting stuff that Santa had left behind. Christmas morning is loads of fun with a 3 and 5 year on hand. Zoe's huge doll's house and Gavin's skate board were huge hits.

During the past autumn ground (and walls) were broken on our big cottage renovations. We are very excited about this. We have been working with my brother, Nolan the architect, and a local contractor on the project. It was pretty exciting to travel up to the cottage a few times to check out the progress and plan next steps. We also spent a lot of time and money at Home Depot in Cobourg during our last week of vacation designing kitchen's, bathrooms, etc. A special thanks to Nanna Mary and Grandpa Doug for hanging with G and Z as Mom and Dan were consumed with shades of cupboards, counter tops and bathroom faucets.

Well, I think that's the big news in our family over the past few months. Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far. I'm sure we will update at least one more time in 2011!

Summer 2010

I think it has has been a full 8 if not 9 months since our last post. Hard to find the time to sit down and hammer it out. But here we are on our first long weekend of our 2010-11 school year. We have been back in Sao Paulo since the last few days of July. Yes, the school year begins way too early here but with the early June finish date and 5 week Christmas break it all comes out in the wash.

Gavin is back as a K5 in his Montessori class. He is now in one of the oldest in his class and stays for a full day (his class has ages 3-5 year olds in it, they actually stay with the same teacher for 3 years). He loves having lunch at school and is starting to do some "harder" work. Zoe has begun in the K2 program at our school. She too is one of the oldest in her class and it doing great. She has been so ready to go to school. She very excited to go each day and has not cried once about it and in fact she complains about the "babies" in her class who cry after their mommies drop them off.

Here is the standard first day picture of them heading off to school.

However, more on our life here at a later time. This post's title is Summer.

So I'll throw up a bunch of pics and let you know what we got up to in June and July.

Once we roll up to the cottage there is always a lot of work to be done to get the place fixed up and ready for the summer. Raking and hauling the leaves off into the forest is always a days work. Gavin was actually a great help this year. No I really mean that, Gavin is actually starting to help out with jobs like this, meaning that it actually takes me less time to do the task than it would if he were not there. This is a welcomed mile-stone in the life of a father.

Early on during our time in Canada, Kim had to leave us for the better part

of 2 weeks to take a couple of courses towards her Masters, on the beach in Miami. Well, maybe it wasn't the beach but the sweet hotel/convention center she was trapped at sounded pretty darn rough.

Dan and the kids used this time for a small road trip up to Barrie, Penatang and Toronto to see all of Dan's family.

A highlight was hooking up with cousin Kyra and heading to Uncle Nolan's place in downtown Toronto and "doing Toronto" for a few days. Heading up the CN Tower, catching a Blue Jay's game (after eating a big sausage dog out front of the Sky Dome). The next day there were some patios and a

ferry out to Center Island for fun and beach time.

Kim returned for Canada Day which we spent at Grandpa and Nana Mary's place in Cobourg. There is a big festival there that weekend and they live right in the middle of it. We've enjoyed the last few Canada Days there. Lots of rides to try and crafts and things things to buy. We also had a little celebration for Grandpa Doug's 60th birthday which was later in the month.

The next big highlight of the summer was Kim's brother Greg's Wedding. He and Val were married at a Quebec ski lodge just outside of Ottawa. It was a beautiful wedding, great weather and a great chance to catch up with family and friends. In true wedding fashion there were many pictures taken. Here a a few:

Gavin loved his tie and looked very dapper. Zoe was beautiful in her dress that Grandma Betts made for her. They worked the dance floor and charmed the guests. Gavin and Zoe with their Grandma Betts:

Greg and beautiful Val, Grandma Betts, Paul, Heather, Great-grandma Dot and the Bentley Crew.

Little brother Greg and his two beautiful sisters Kim and Heather. Heather made it back from China for the wedding - it was great to see her!

The rest of the summer was spent at our favourite place, the cottage. Lots of family and friends made the trip up for a summer of great weather and loads of time on the lake.

Uncle Nolan bought his first motor cycle and drove it up one Friday after work. It was the longest drive he had ever made on it. We made sure that we had a cold one waiting for him as he pulled in just after sunset. As quickly as the next morning came, Gavin wanted to be taken for a ride.

Granddad John helping Gavin with his Lego Birthday present while Grandma Joyce hides Zoe's soccer ball on her (or is she telling Zoe about the new aunt she is about to have?) Grandpa and Nana Mary celebrate Doug's real birthday with a few eager munchins trying to get at the cake.

Auntie Heather showing G and Z how to rip worms in half to make the tub of worms last longer.

Friends are so much fun to have at the cottage. Owen and Logan dropped by for a few days.

Oliver and Ella spent yet another few action packed days on Wollaston Lake. Art projects turned into paint wars.

Kyra and her friend Olivia helped ice some cup cakes but decided that icing their faces would be way more fun.

Gavin and Zoe loved the water. They have both been in swimming lessons for a while here in Brasil so they were ready and eager to take their new water skills to the lake. It made everyone else's life so much easier to know that they were less likely to drown if they fell off the dock this year.

Our good friends from our time in the D.R. Paul and Janice and (new to the lake, Sam) , join Wollaston Lake regulars: Mark, Karil, Oliver and Ella some fun times and much needed catching up.

Sad to leave before August even arrived. This year will be our last in Brazil as we look to head out on a new adventure in another part of the globe. One thing for sure is that we are hoping to find a school with a little more time off in the summer so we can enjoy our little slice of heaven a little longer.