From Tak to New York pt. 1

The order of all of these pictures is wrong, fyi. This is my mom, brother, aunt, sister and I on Hugenot St. in New Paltz, New York 

A glance up while stepping into a church yard

Hugenot St. is a short section of New Paltz that has been maintained in its historical setting. All the houses are very old, but well-preserved. New Paltz was settled by French Protestants way back when. Now it's a New Age/Hippie/College town.

Pretty red barn doors.

This is what is inside those doors. It's an ancient carriage house!

Sophie, displaying a large wreath

The Reformed church in New Paltz is very welcoming...

They cater to the lifestyle of the town

Apparently, the French Protestants that built these houses weren't worried about knocking their wigs off.

Raphy consented to take a photo with me. What an honor.

Raphy, Sophie, Titi Millie and I

And back to Thailand...

This is Hannah's super cute tenth-grade class. Nearly all of them speak English well enough to do fairly well at translating. From the left is Myint Htay, Saw Nay Tha, P'Saw Paw, Mu Htee Lar, Moo Koh Paw, Hannah, Ta Aye Paw, Naw Nu Nu, Mo Mo Eh, Saw Di Di, and Saw Win Jaw.

These are Hannah's super fun, friendly ninth-graders. The two in white shirts are day students who weren't aware that they were supposed to wear their class shirts that day. I do remember all their names, but I'm sure any of you who really care who they are probably already recognize them.

Flowers and a flag

A battle of life and death right on the back of my hand! I think the Mantis won.

Landon, after I told him to look tough.

The camera cannot possibly catch the lushness of the mountains in front of me. I am standing right on the edge of a very high drop down the mountainside. The view was totally worth the sweat and toil it took to get there.

We of course had to test how strong the tree was. It started to crackle about when this picture was taken.

Gaaaah! They're so cute! Landon, Sharon, and Hannah are unofficial siblings.

I don't know what Sharon was laughing about, but with her it could be anything!

"No! You can't be in our picture, Haley." (actually, Hannah was about to tell her to come closer.)

Miss Elizabeth, Haley, Rebecca (Rebekah?), Sharon, Mr. Steck, Mrs. Steck, Hannah Steck, Hannah Powell, and I. 

The pagoda that we were originally hiking to. After struggling up the first mountain, we decided that this was a good enough view of the pagoda for us.

And so we ran back down the mountain.

This is how we utilize our vehicle. We ride on the top, the back, and the windowsills. It's better air circulation, that way. 

And now, back to New York. 

The kind of door that opens to wonderful places (in this case, an old church sanctuary)

I couldn't figure this picture out...and I wasn't paying attention enough to include the top little circle, which tells the title of the stained glass.

The inside of the second church in the U.S to receive electricity. It is now the meeting place on Sabbaths for a Seventh-Day Adventist Spanish church.

The stained glass windows were all very beautiful and well-done.

Here's Jesus, telling the disciples to cast their nets again.

Here's the outside, side of the church.

I still couldn't get the whole church and sign in my shot

The view from across the street. I really wanted to explore the steeple, but it was closed off.

Beautiful front doors

The iron fence around the church

The roof tiles of the church. It kind of reminds me of the ancient carpeting that you would find in an old library or hotel.

I liked this bag. Its cheerfulness, though it's been reduced to litter, made me smile.

The view of New Paltz from the Shawangunk Ridge. You might understand why I thought this was a rather boring scene.

This kind of trail says to me, "Let's go!"

And so we did!