Baby, its not 90 outside

Today marks a week until Christmas day which I will spend in Bangkok with my mom and brother. I am very excited and lucky to be able to spend Christmas in Thailand with my family J Last night was Grace’s wedding reception. She is a Philippine English teacher at my school.  The reception was held in the theater area of the school. Katie and I were invited along with all the other teachers at Bangplamasoongsumarnpandungwit School and of course the bride and groom’s family. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this event, but it turned out to be an enjoyable night; however not the typical American wedding reception one would think of by any means. Grace looked beautiful! Her dress was very simple but elegant especially with the way her hair was done. Toon was the host for the evening; she said a few words about the bride and groom and introduced the Director of the school to give Grace and Darwin his blessing. After the blessing, Grace and Darwin sang a song together and cut the cake. Before the cake was served, there were food items placed on each table, an assortment of different Thai dishes. The whole time the guests were eating Grace and Darwin were either walking around or were on stage. There wasn’t a table designated for them to sit and eat themselves. A group of four students were singing throughout the night, as well as one of the teachers. She sang Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, which I thought was an interesting choice for a wedding….The bride and groom had their dance together; besides their dance there wasn’t any other dancing that went on. It was very thoughtful and generous of the school and all the teachers to help put this event together for Grace. It is like we are all part of the Bangplamasoongsumarnpandungwit school family.

This past Tuesday, Katie and I went with Toon in the school’s van to Ayutthaya to finish our work permits. We are now legally working in the Kingdom of Thailand. This process was completed much sooner than I thought too! It ended up being a fun day. On the way, Toon helped Katie and I learn some new Thai words and phrases that we will find helpful in the classroom. We stopped at a restaurant across from some of the ancient ruins of Ayutthaya, which is Thailand’s ancient capital. Toon did the food ordering. We had a delicious noodle soup with beef and an omelet filled with calamari, mussels, and shrimp. It may sound a little fishy, I know…..but it was really good! After lunch, we went to get our work permits. It was a very small room packed with desks and people standing waiting to be seen. It was worse than the DMV, luckily we didn’t have to wait too long. Next, we made a surprise visit to one of the floating markets called Ayootthaya. I wish I would have brought my camera. Definitely a place I want to visit again. It’s not your typical “floating market” where people actually sell things from boat; the shops sit on a boardwalk right next to the river. We strolled through the area and each store seemed more unique in its own way to Thailand, selling things from souvenirs and food to specialty items. Toon had us try a famous Thai dessert I’ve seen before but wasn’t sure what it was. I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s a roti pancake, very similar to a crepe, filled with a cotton candy like material. It is aroi….delicious in Thai. The rest of the week went rather well. My students were surprisingly well behaved for me this week. It was perfect timing weather wise in Wisconsin for me to be teaching some of my students about winter weather; I showed some pictures of the snow storm that hit Wisconsin recently to my students.

The students all seemed to be pretty surprised to see snow and said the pictures were “beautiful!”….thanks mom! One of the days after school, Katie and I began teaching a group of 20 students the “cha-cha slide” that they will perform at the Christmas program on Christmas eve. I’m not really sure why they are performing a dance at the program, but one of the Thai English teachers wanted Katie to teach the kids an “American” dance and since we couldn’t really think of anything Christmas specific, we thought the cha-cha slide would be a good alternative. I can’t wait to see them perform next week! Thursday evening it rained like cats and dogs here in Thailand; with the rain came a cold front and by cold front I mean temperatures are now probably in the 70’s. In our apartment the usual temperature is in the high 80’s sometimes even low 90’s, but Friday it read something as low as 69 degrees! It was amazing waking up Friday morning cold and drinking a warm cup of hot chocolate. Today I even got to wear jeans! I hope this cooler weather lasts for a while.

Tonight will be spent relaxing, drinking a glass of the first bottle of wine Katie and I splurged on since we’ve been in Thailand, and probably watching Bones or Elf. Unfortunately, the taste of that glass of wine didn’t live up to my expectation I had for it....

Happy Birthday King and Wild Elephants

December 5^th was the King of Thailand’s birthday; therefore Monday, December 5th was a National Holiday. A group of girls and I went to Ko Samet for the long weekend. We had a great time…. r & r on the beach followed by amazing fire shows and dance parties at night.  We ate dinner at Ploy’s Restaurant, sitting on cushions right in the sand.  A Philippine band performed some popular American songs before the fire shows began. They were very good! The whole crowd helped them sing, including what to me looked like a European man who was very intoxicated. He would stand on his cushion bouncing and dancing around while he attempted to sing along….it got to be quite entertaining especially when the fire shows began. We had front row seats for the band and the fire shows until they moved to the beach. The show was a little bit different than the last time I was on Ko Samet. The “Firemen” lined up along the beach and there was an announcer that introduced each fireman and said their “story”. After another synchronized fire show on the beach, they had everyone who was eating dinner get up and join them for the LIMBO….fire style. It was awesome! I am not very good at the limbo though, so I made it only two times under before stepping away. This may have been due to my inflexibilities but I think it had more to do with my fear of catching on fire! The bar they used for the LIMBO was completely immersed in flames. Some people kept with it as it got lower and lower. Finally when it came down to the very lowest height possible only two of the firemen were left….what do you expect though, they do this for a living. They both made it under the bar with the little room they had left.  After the LIMBO, there was the jump rope of fire and the fire hoop. Jenna and Allie, two of the girls I was with, did the jump rope of fire. They did an amazing job! No one I knew did the fire hoop; thank goodness because there was a girl who tried jumping through it and burned her leg…..the hole jumping through a small hoop of fire seemed pretty dangerous to me. She seemed fine though…..

After another day of relaxing on the beach and eating delicious Thai food and fresh fruit smoothies, we went to another beach bar to celebrate the King’s actual birthday. It turned out to be “gay night” on the dance floor which was entertaining and very fun! At midnight, the bartenders passed out birthday candles and everyone began singing a Thai song while we watched a sign on the beach blow up in flames that read, “Long Live the King”.

That week at school was rather short. Only three days of teaching because Friday, December 10^th was Constitution Day, another holiday we had off. I taught my students about Christmas and am having them create Christmas cards to turn in for a Christmas card contest. Tuesday, after one of my classes, I find a package on my desk in the English Department. St. Nick found me in Thailand!! He delivered me my very own stocking from home filled with a few goodies and even turned Harley’s old stocking in to a stocking for my roommate Katie. It was perfect because I was able to show my student’s what a stocking is and what mine looked like. To get even more in to the Christmas spirit, I bought multi-colored Christmas lights at Tesco and hung them on my walls in my bedroom. And…it gets better! I can now say I decorated a Christmas tree this year in Thailand J Katie’s parents sent her a mini Christmas tree with decorations; so we listened to Christmas music as we decorated our mini-tree.

Thursday after school, I headed to Thailand’s oldest and one of the largest intact monsoon forests

remaining in mainland Asia, Khao Yai National Park. I went with Liz, Ciana, and Olivia. We stayed at

Bobby’s Apartments and Jungle Tours, which by the way were great accommodations offering great hospitality! We arrived rather late Thursday evening but luckily I was able to sleep in Friday morning since our half day tour didn’t begin until the afternoon. Seven of us sat in the back of Bobby’s pick-up truck to begin the tour. Jip was our Thai tour guide, who spoke very good English. Along with us was a woman in her mid-40's from England travelling with her mother around the world in three months; a French man who was a fireman back in France and spoke just enough English to get by; and a young Veterinarian woman from Finland vacationing in Thailand. The half day tour included swimming in a rather cold river with mini-waterfalls, a cave tour, and watching thousands of bats evacuate their cave into the night sky. I was a little on edge about entering the cave. I really had no idea what to expect, but it was much bigger than I expected. I got to see stalagmites and stalactites, icicle shaped mineral deposits that occur in limestone caves….pretty boring actually ha….but we also saw bats and some sick looking millipedes which reminded me of something in the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. They were huge!

 

After the cave venture, we drove out in to the middle of a corn field to see an amazing sunset and watch thousands of bats come out of their cave. As they flew out of the cave it looked like a line of smoke in the sky. It was pretty cool seeing them flock together in groups and disperse to different areas of the sky.

 

Our way back to the guesthouse took longer than on the way there due to the music festival traffic. As we were stopped in traffic, there was a car full of Thais, one of which was playing the guitar in the backseat while the passenger in the front was singing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” rather loudly for everyone to hear…it was quite entertaining actually. We finally made it back to the guesthouse and enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal… Chicken, Cashew Nuts, and Vegetables with Rice….aroi mak mak!

Saturday was the full day tour. We woke up bright and early, had a wonderful breakfast, and were on our way to Khao Yai around 7:00 a.m. Our first stop in the National Park was at a viewing point where Jip, our tour guide, had us put on leg warmer looking booties to protect our feet and legs from tick bites. I have to say, we all looked pretty good in them! Ha ha….

As we continued on, we began to see monkey after monkey on the side of the road and even right in the middle of the road. The cutest thing was the mama monkey holding her baby monkey tight in her arms. Our next stop was at the Visitor’s Center where we walked across a rather wobbly bridge and read some information about the animals we may see in the park…... an assortment of birds, elephants, monkeys, gibbons, snakes, etc. After another short drive, we were dropped off at the side of the road and began our hike. The further and further we were in the jungle, the less and less of a path we were on. There really wasn’t much of a hiking path to begin with though. I felt like I needed one of those swords that you cut down brush and trees with to create my own path. It was quite rustic. As we hiked through the jungle, I began to hear the sounds of a waterfall along with the other nature sounds. The waterfall noise got louder and louder until we finally reached it. It was beautiful; the area was so peaceful. There was no one around us. The waterfall was, if I remember correctly, 12 meters high. Liz and Lionel, the Frenchmen, decided to make the jump. I’m too chicken…it was too steep of a jump for me! Plus they had to climb back up the falls in the jungle with no shoes on to meet back up with us. It was pretty cool though to watch them jump. I was content with not jumping and enjoying the peace and quiet of my surroundings.  

After our first waterfall break, we continued on along the falls. This part of the hike was a lot different than the first part in the wooded jungle. We were pretty much rock climbing or at least what will be the closest to rock climbing I’ll probably get to. As we were hiking, Jip all of a sudden is “shhh’ing” us as he quietly shouts “gibbon, gibbon”. Sure enough, high up in the trees is a gibbon. It was awesome! We watched the gibbon hang from the tree high above us and swing from branch to branch. It even looked like “Gibby” was eyeing us up for a while. We decided to give the gibbon a name, “Gibby”. I was pretty thrilled to be able to see a gibbon. Many people, who have done the Gibbon Experience and Flight of the Gibbons, where the tour is specifically to see gibbons, don’t even see them.

The hike continued for a while, making a stop at a smaller waterfall and finally making it to the end of our hike at the mouth of the famous waterfall, Nam Tok Haew Suwat which was filmed in one of the scenes from the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Beach”. This waterfall was packed with tourists but so beautiful! After our long, strenuous hike it was time for lunch. I was pooped, so Liz and I sat in the back of the pick-up truck and played cards while the rest of the group went on a hike to see crocodiles. I decided I’ve seen enough of them in Florida so I was going to rest for a bit. After their return, we drove up to the highest viewing point of the National Park. Unfortunately, the sky was rather foggy so we weren’t able to see much of a view. On our way back down it was closing on dusk and we were told that if we are lucky we may come across wild elephants. As I am yawning, enjoying the drive through the park, Liz screams, “Elephants!” Sure enough, there are four wild elephants, one standing pretty much in the road. The truck driver drives by slowly and Jip says something in Thai to the elephant. The only phrase I remember is, “mahut….mahut”. The elephant was being quite peaceful just eating some dinner and then all of a sudden it must have gotten irked by something and decides to start charging at our truck as we were slowly driving by it. “Oh shit!” The driver of course started to speed away and the line of cars waiting to pass by in the other direction begin trying to reverse. Man can those elephants run….and I thought they were slow moving animals; I guess only when they want to be. As we began driving faster, the elephant stopped running eventually; but our guides didn’t have enough and neither did I. It was so thrilling!

We started to approach the elephant again, just wanting to get closer to look at it and sure enough it began to charge at us again. This time the front of the truck was facing the elephant; therefore, the driver had to go in reverse at a fast speed which was rather interesting considering there was a line of traffic behind us. We got lucky though the elephant didn’t run too far away from the others he was with. I just kept imagining what would happen if it decided to actually charge one of the cars or try stepping on one of the smaller cars. Who knows what could happen….They are very large, wild animals. Finally, a ranger truck came to move the elephant in to the jungle so cars could pass by. All it did was approach the elephant at a fast speed and had some type of stick to give the elephant a little push into the jungle. I was sooo excited to be able to see a wild elephant like that! It was pretty awesome and not to mention extremely thrilling!! I loved it! We had quite the day at Khao Yai National Park. It was great to experience one of Thailand’s amazing natural landscapes and habitats.

A very "turkey-less" day in Thailand

Today was my first PAY DAY…I feel rich with all these 1,000 bahts…if only it was the baht was the same as the U.S. Dollar….

Last Sunday, November 21, 2010 marked the first full moon of the 12th lunar month otherwise known as Loi Krathong. This festival is celebrated all throughout Thailand. The festival of Loi Krathong thanks the river goddess for providing life to the fields and forests and asks for forgiveness for the polluting ways of humans (Lonely Planet).  Some of the students made some very beautiful Krathongs, or handmade boats made from banana leaves and decorated with flowers, and brought them to school on the Friday before the festival. Katie, her dad, Gan, and I joined some of the other teachers in Bang Plama for a special dinner that was being held. There were about a dozen women dressed in the Thai traditional costumes representing schools and organizations. People bought green and pink colored necklaces to represent an amount of money that was being donated and then gave to the women as they stood on stage. They played the Loi Krathong Festival song and a group of people went on stage to dance. Katie, Gan, and I joined after observing how the dance was done. It was rather simple, a slow skip while you circle the stage and move your hands in a funky way; it was fun! After dinner and a little dancing, we went to the river to light our Krathongs and sent them floating down the river.

During Thanksgiving week, I taught my students about the Traditional food items American’s eat on Thanksgiving. The whole time I was wishing I would be able to eat stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pecan pie on Thursday. It was interesting when I showed a picture of the turkey, all the students were convinced it was a chicken. They scream, “chicken…chicken”. I say “no, no….turkey, turkey”. I suppose there is a strong resemblance. The closest Thanksgiving food I ate on Thursday was the mashed potatoes we bought from KFC. Other than that, it was rice, chicken, and vegetables along with some wantons for an appetizer and pineapple for dessert. Even though it was a “turkey-less” turkey day and I wasn’t put in my yearly food coma, it was a fun Thanksgiving. Nothing compares to being home with family and friends eating the Traditional Thanksgiving dinner though.

Saturday, I was a judge for the “Towards World Class Education” competition. I judged web based projects, majority of which were science based. A few of the presentations were very impressive. One that really peaked my interest was the “mini air-conditioner”. The team even brought in the model for display. It was a mini fan that was hooked up with cords to a Styrofoam cooler filled with ice and water. Something I could really use in my apartment! It got to be a rather long day though. I judged twenty presentations, having to ask each team a few questions based on their presentation.

After the competition was over, I got on a van to Bangkok and met Jenna and Liz at Siam Center to see most recent Harry Potter movie at the iMax. For having read only the first book and not seeing any of the movies, I actually thought it was very good! Being in Siam Center really made me feel like it was the weekend after Thanksgiving and Christmas is soon approaching with all the decorations. It is now Monday, and my feeling of Christmas approaching has passed. It must be the weather and lack of decorations at school and in my apartment. It’s time to look into buying a Christmas tree!  

Ko Samet!

I definitely need to remember to be thankful for a washing machine on Thanksgiving. I just finished hand washing my laundry, hurrying to get it done before the sun sets and the mosquitos attack. Just one of the other joys of living in Thailand; although waking up to a beautiful sunrise over the flooded rice fields that look like a lake make it worth it! For dinner I made the usual rice, fried egg, ketchup, and chili powder. And yes, it is good! This morning I was told I would go to a different school to help judge part of an English Contest, similar to the one Katie and I helped with last week. Gan, the Chinese teacher at my school also came. I was talking with her and said if I ever travel to China I will definitely have to stay in contact with her via Facebook. She then said she won’t be able to be on Facebook in China because China blocks the website along with YouTube and some others…..I’ll have to just keep in touch via email then.  When we arrived at the school, I went to one of the computer labs. The school seemed much nicer than the school I am teaching at; at least technology wise. I learned that I would be a judge in a science presentation contest. I heard the word science and thought, “Oh boy….this is not one of my favorite or better subjects. I hope that doesn’t affect me being a judge.” It ended up being fine; there were four different presentations all of which presented each judge with a print out of the material being presented. There were two schools competing in the contest. The one school was much better than the other school. After the competition, a teacher from the school who lost started arguing with me in English about why I thought it was fair to not allow the students to listen and watch their competitors’ presentations. I told him what I thought and that it really was not up to me to make any rules. I definitely was caught off guard and thought he was rather rude…. But “Mai Pen Rai” as a Thai person would say.

This past weekend, Katie and I met a few other teachers in Bangkok to head to the island of Ko Samet. We took a bus to the town where we would catch a ferry early Saturday morning. The hostel we stayed at Friday night had delicious hamburgers! It was nice to have American food, but the only reason I ordered a hamburger was because they weren’t serving any Thai traditional food at the time we ordered. Surprisingly, I haven’t been craving much American food yet; still enjoying all the different tastes of Thailand. We woke up early to catch the ferry for Ko Samet. The day consisted of relaxing on the beach, swimming in the Gulf of Thailand, eating mangos, and listening to a group of very intoxicated Thai men sing while dancing in the water….quite entertaining.  For lunch, I had papaya salad with “nid noi” spice, meaning a little spice. Well I don’t think they understood what I said….it was extremely spicy! Probably one of the spiciest meals I’ve eaten so far.

Later in the afternoon, we took a sunset and snorkel cruise around the island. We stopped at two different locations to snorkel. Unfortunately, the water wasn’t very clear where we snorkeled so there was not much to see. We were also taken to see a fish farm that contained very exotic fish; large grouper, a snapper turtle, and fish with leopard print scales. It was really cool!

Our night adventure began with a delicious pad Thai (American style filled with ketchup) and a few Leo’s of course, while we watched the fire shows on the beach. They were incredible! The remainder of the night was a blast including body paint, lighting a lantern off in to the night sky, dancing, cuddling with a half dozen adorable puppies on the beach, learning how to DJ, and pizza. 

Unfortunately, Sunday came too quickly. Our bus ride from Ban Phe to Bangkok was the last thing from comfortable. The air conditioning barely worked, every seat was full, the sun was blaring in to the bus, and for some reason the bus was only going what seemed like 40 mph on the highway. About two plus hours into the trip the bus turned off the highway on to a less busy road and all of a sudden broke down. We could hear what little AC there was shut off completely and when the driver tried to open the doors they would not open. Immediately, I start to panic a little, trying to keep it to myself. Everyone probably felt the same way…there was no way we could stay on that bus with no air. It was a claustrophobic feeling. Thoughts were spinning through my mind of what would happen if they couldn’t open the doors; someone would have to break a window or the door or something. The doors opened actually rather quickly, thank goodness. We were able to get off the bus.  Apparently, the bus ran out of gas and they were running on low gas the whole time they were driving. That explains some things....but doesn’t make much sense why they wouldn’t have just filled up before leaving. “Mai pen rai” We finally made it home safely, after a long day of travelling. it was worth it for the day on Ko Samet!

Now I know how celebrities feel....

I didn’t think it would be possible to have any more students’ stare at us “farang” teachers aka foreign…until today, the day after I helped represent Bang Plama in the Opening Ceremony of the 3^rd Year of the Suphanburi Games.

I am writing this blog post, Wednesday, November 10, 2010, the day after Katie and I were dressed like Royalty, in the Thai traditional costume. At school today every student and teacher smiled as they made sure they told us how beautiful we looked in our costumes the night before. I felt very honored and special.

Monday afternoon we went to Suphanburi stadium to practice for the big show on Tuesday. We were able to watch some of the opening acts, including many of the girl students at our school dancing in one of the main performances. We also heard the Suphanburi Band, which was unbelievable considering their age group, ranging from 12 to 18 year olds. They reminded me a little bit of the Badger band. After of an hour or two of just watching, Katie and I were finally introduced to what we would be doing the day of the event. We would be part of the “parade” of Suphanburi’s districts’ athletes and sponsors, holding up a sign representing Bang Plama. We practiced walking on the track across the stands, around the first corner, and on to the grass one time and that was it....it took maybe ten minutes. Needless to say, as I left the stadium, I was still unsure as to what I could expect for tomorrow’s opening ceremony. 

Tuesday, the day of the ceremony, was a pretty relaxed day considering I did not have to teach any of my classes but an exciting day too! Katie and I went to the beauty shop around noon, where her, I, and 18 other students would be getting ready. The three lady boys were hard at work all day. They began at 9:00 a.m. finished the 18 students by 2:30. I attentively watched as one lady boy put foundation, blush, eye shadow, fake eyelashes, and lip stick on a student and as another lady boy teased a student’s hair, and as another helped complete the look with putting the costume together with jewelry and accessories.  The girls looked beautiful when they were finished. Then it came to be our turn….the “farangs”.  Katie’s hair was first, while I had my make-up done. I quick glance over and see Katie’s teased hair. Wow! And she thought her hair wasn’t going to tease….I thought the exact same thing, but little did I know I was also in for a surprise. The finished product for both our hair and face I thought was pretty good. I definitely have never had so much make-up on in my life. I loved the fake eyelashes. The lipstick was a little out there, but I guess I’m just not used to wearing any. The fake hairpiece, crown, and flowers added a lot to the look of my hair-do. The lady boys were quite excited about our final look, or I should say “their” finished product. We made sure to thank them and told them we would take many pictures for them to use as future advertising.

Getting in the van was a little difficult considering my hair piece, crown, and heels, but I managed. We arrived at the stadium just in time around 4:00 p.m.  I don’t mean to sound conceited, but the second we stepped out of the van I could feel all the “stares”.  We walked in an air conditioned room reserved for people who were part of the opening ceremony. The stadium was quite full already, but nothing was going on yet. Katie was brave enough to attempt to use the restroom in our costumes. As I was waiting outside with Toon, a group of younger girls who were also in the opening ceremonies came up to me and asked to take my picture. The flashes kept coming, until all of a sudden all the girls rush over to the stairs and start screaming like they’ve just seen Justin Beiber. Little did I know, Gun, a popular teen idol in Thailand would be performing at the ceremonies and he was entering the building hence all the screaming. We then went outside where other performers were waiting, and saw some of the students from our school along with Bang Plama’s representatives. The student’s also went crazy with pictures of Katie and I. I was getting very warm standing outside, so Toon decided to take us back to the air conditioned room.  As we made our way back into the building, there was more Beiber screaming….Gun was making his way in to the room we were headed for. I think because of our “royalty” look we were easily granted access in to the police guarded room. Coincidently, our lady boy friends happened to be right there. They grabbed Katie and I’s signs to help us make our way through the crowd in order to get in to the room.  They most likely just did that to be able to see Gun since he was in the room taking pictures with a few of the other performers.  That’s ok though…I would have too if it was someone that I could relate to. The Thai girls who saw us go in to the room were probably thinking, “Ungrateful Americans. You are in the room with Gun and all you care about is your water and air conditioning…” He performed a few minutes after we were in the room. We were able to see his performance pretty close up. He was actually pretty good!

It finally became time to line up outside, stand and wait until it was our turn to parade into the stadium. While we waited, I met the Mayor of Bang Plama along with some of the other Bang Plama sponsors. As I stood holding Bang Plama’s motto sign, a lot of people came to take pictures.  I felt like Santa Claus having children line up to sit on his lap except in my case it was just to take a picture. 

We were the last district to walk in the parade so it was a lot of waiting. But it finally became time. Katie was in the front, holding the Bang Plama district sign followed by a man in the military holding the Bang Plama flag. I followed the group of sponsors and behind me were students holding each Bang Plama motto and Bang Plama’s athletes. We started to walk. As we were approaching the track with all the lights, I could tell I wasn’t walking fast enough. The problem was my outfit. The skirt didn’t allow for my legs to make very long strides. Right before I stepped on the track, Toon was there saying, “faster, faster”.  I quickly picked up my pace. My focus was on smiling, holding the sign high and straight, and walking on that fourth line; until it came time to find where the stairs began I turned the sign so it faced the crowd but more specifically the ex-President.  We were told to look at him and smile until we saw the next set of stairs, then we turn the sign forward. The entire time I am walking across the track, I keep thinking to myself ….”What am I doing? This is crazy. Just keeping smiling.” I make it to the grass and feel a sigh of relief. I made it! I didn’t trip! As I stand on the field in the middle of the stadium, I look around me and see thousands of people in the stands along with hundreds standing next to me on the field. Behind us are people in the stands holding signs that form different pictures; one in particular being a picture of the King. The Thai National Anthem is sung and the fireworks begin. In between fireworks, a man and a woman on a tight-rope “fly” across the field to grab the torch that was lite by the ex-President. They begin to “fly” back to the opposite side to light the torch that sits on the top of the stands.  As they reach the middle of the field, fireworks shoot off and fly into the torch, making it look like it came from the torch they were holding. More fireworks blow up near the torch as a burst of flames ignite it. The choreography of the fireworks was incredible. I have never seen anything like it! It was amazing! After the grand finale of the fireworks, and the ceremony as well, people in the stands began to clear out and the pictures began. We probably stood on the field for almost an hour taking picture after picture with the other students dressed up along with our school’s director, vice-director, mayor of Bang Plama, and many others. After a while, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to wipe the smile off my face. It began to hurt.  We finally headed back to school, traffic was bad and the school was even busier it seemed with all the students and their parents. We got back in to our teaching clothes and ate dinner at the school. Toon told us the Mayor was very pleased with the job we did and with our appearance and “beauty” that he would like us to attend the closing ceremony as well. She said everyone was talking about how beautiful we looked and that Bang Plama was the “talk” of the night. I feel so honored and special to not only be asked again, but to have been asked in the beginning and have a part in such an incredible event. I had no idea the Suphanburi Games were going to put on such an extraordinary ceremony. I felt like I was part of the Olympics.  I am so grateful to be able to be a part of such an unforgettable experience!

Longtail Boat Races

I just got back from the Bangplama Longtail Boat races with Toon, Gawan (Toon’s 8 year old daughter), Katie, and Gan, the Chinese teacher at our school. Along with the races, there was a market and fair rides. Longtail boat races are similar to rowing in the U.S. The announcer sounded like an auctioneer, speaking extremely fast.

Some of the students from the school have been practicing all week for their cheer performance at the races. I’ve been hearing them practice and finally got to see them perform the real thing. Each student wore one white glove while they sang and did hand gestures, very much like Michael Jackson.  The whole event was fun to watch! We walked around the market and tasted a variety of delicious Thai snacks. I had one of my Matiem 2 students find me. He tagged along by our side for a while. Even though he is probably only thirteen years old I can already tell he is a “lady boy”. I had a feeling when I saw him in class that he might be, but seeing him outside of class with eyeliner, lipgloss, and dressed in pink I didn’t have any more doubts. When I said, “He is a student in my class”, Toon quickly corrected me to say, “She”.

Back to the beginning of the week…… My first “real” week of teaching went well. There were a few times when my co-teacher was not in the room with me. Those students were so naughty compared to those who had the co-teacher in the room with me.  I don’t know what to do…how to control them. One student wrote something small on the board in Thai….if only I knew what it had said. Another student body slammed a classmate in the front of the room, literally body slammed him. They have so much energy! The only time I could keep them under control was when it was time to play a game…instead of using up their energy on one another, they used it towards screaming and running around the room during the game   A few of my classes were cancelled due to practicing for the races and the Suphanburi Games which begin November 9^th. Little did Katie and I knew the Games would be such a big deal, not only for the school but for her and I as well. Thursday after lunch Toon came up to us and said “Let’s go…We are going to get you a costume. You will participate in the Opening Ceremony for the Suphanburi Games by representing our school”. We hopped in her mini green car with another teacher and drove to a beauty shop nearby in Bangplama. We walked in and immediately had the attention of three “lady boys”. They handed me a long purple skirt with very beautifully detailed gems on it and told me to put it on. After I was fitted completed, I had the look of a princess with a Traditional Thai costume, crown, jewelry, and even a fake hair piece bun. Toon told me this type of costume is usually only worn by Royalty. I am so excited for Tuesday to come. We will go back to the salon to have hair and make up done for us on Tuesday before the Ceremony.

Wednesday we decided to make a trip into Suphanburi for dinner and a Tesco run. We took the bus in to town, and began walking….before words could come out of my mouth to stop Katie, we hear some Thai workers scream no – no – no….Katie just stepped in wet cement!! The workers were laughing with us….thank goodness it wasn’t too bad; her footprints may be there forever but that’s ok. We ate dinner with some of the other teachers. I had a delicious Pad Seu; similar to Pad Thai but with a different type of noodle and more fresh vegetables. I think it was the same night that Katie nearly got attacked by the stray dogs that live on campus. She was outside using the internet while I was in the apartment. All of a sudden, I hear the dogs bark viciously. Immediately thinking about her outside, I get a phone call from Katie. She’s standing on the table because the dogs all of a sudden ran up to her and began to bark. She was able to get away fine….we think something may have startled the dogs and they were protecting their puppies which were hidden close by where she was sitting. A little scary though….

Things are looking up

This post goes back to about a week and a half ago…before teaching began.

After two nights of not so great sleep, we decided to head in to Bangkok and stay with Sam, Katie’s roommate during orientation. Surprisingly, the trip wasn’t too difficult. We grabbed a mini-van right off the highway and just said….”Bangkok?” the driver shook his head yes. There were just enough seats for Katie and I. The drive was about an hour and 10 minutes. It was sooo nice to be back in Bangkok! Ahhh….City life! We hung out with Sam and Megan for the night and enjoyed the cleanliness of their apartment. Friday, we decided we would go talk to Phil with OEG. After we finally found their office, which is in this amazing high rise downtown Bangkok, we were able to discuss our living situation with Phil and another Thai coordinator.  I felt a lot better after talking with them.

We remained in the building to enjoy an iced coffee and air conditioning; all of a sudden we hear some type of alarm going off. For the first few minutes, no one was really reacting. Then we saw people with OEG, they were on the 9^th floor. So we decided to follow them and see what was up. It was a fire drill. How strange, what are the chances a high rise office building performs their once a year fire drill the day we are there.

As we were walking to catch a bus, we walked by the US Embassy. We took a few pictures and kept walking. Well as we approached the second building for the embassy, maybe four or five security officers stopped us and with the little English they spoke tried to tell us to delete the photos we took. They also asked for our passports to make copies…good thing I had a copy of my passport with me. Kinda strange/creepy but everything was ok. Just remember no pictures of the US Embassy!

We found the van we needed to take back to Bang Plama with no problem. Getting out of Bangkok however took some time; there was a lot of traffic. I was a little nervous in the van, the driver was pretty crazy. I was especially nervous after seeing our first accident in Thailand. It was a minivan tipped over to the side….

So of course, we weren’t dropped off at the school, instead ended up getting dropped off at Tesco Lotus, did some shopping and took a tuk-tuk home. It was a tight squeeze with our groceries, but we made it work!

I wrote this post on Wednesday, October 27^th, half way through the school week after  meeting 5 sections of my students.  Monday, was a National Holiday in Thailand and most schools did not begin classes until Tuesday. Toon told us the school’s director decided the students have already had three weeks of vacation, so they can come to school on Monday. Little did I know the students would mainly be there on Monday to help clean each classroom. Monday after school, Toon and two other teachers came over to our apartment to help us set up the new beds that the school had gotten for us. I did not expect such a nice gesture! Toon expressed her concern to Katie and I that the school wants us to be happy here, especially with our living arrangements; because we will have more problems with our students. I hope she was being sarcastic when talking about the students. We also found out a western toilet will be installed in our bathroom as well. I was Skyping with Dylan at the time when Toon told us the good news; he later told me he hadn’t seen my eyes light up that much since I’ve been here. Probably because it was a complete surprise that they are getting us a “western toilet”. I definitely did not expect that!

Tuesday was our first day of what was supposed to be observing classes, rather our co-teachers made us “introduce ourselves” for the whole period. I was at a loss of words during one of my sections; that is when I wish I would have thought of Hang Man! Instead, it came to mind today and ended up working out great! It’s a great game to play to kill time and to get an idea of the students’ English level.  Plus most of the students really get in to it. I even had students come up with their own words and play with the class. We had good time!

Halloween weekend was spent in Bangkok with a group of teachers. We had a great time swapping stories of teaching and our students. Saturday I visited the weekend market and the Wat of the Leaning Buddha. Wat means temple in Thai. I shouldn’t forget to mention my crazy moped ride Saturday morning. I was a little nervous; especially when the driver starts driving on the sidewalk and jumping curbs…..and I thought Illinois drivers were bad. Nothing I’ve seen in the U.S. compares to the way Thai people drive.  A group of girls and I went to the top of a sky rise in downtown Bangkok for drinks. It was a rooftop restaurant bar called Vertigo. Absolutely amazing!!! The view was incredible!!

After that we had delicious pad Thai at a street vendor, had guacamole and free margaritas at a Mexican restaurant with amazing Halloween decorations, and rode around town in a tuk-tuk with 9 people! It was a fun night!! I guess you could say we dressed up as “Americans” for Halloween.

Sunday, Katie and I stopped at Bang Plama’s weekend mini-market filled with a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, and clothing. Some of the more interesting things for sale included pig’s heads and live frogs.

House warming....

A lot has happened since I wrote last, and I am skipping to the most recent events .... just because. So Tuesday morning was AMAZING!! We went to the. Taweechai. Elephant Camp in Kanchanaburi. to go elephant trekking and bamboo rafting. I was extremely excited and happy once I saw all the elephants. I rode the elephant with Jesse.  She was also very excited. We climbed a set of stairs to hop onto the seat that is harnessed on the elephants back. Our elephant's name was. Alaya. As soon as I got on I was laughing hysterically. It took a while to get used to the movement of being on an elephant's back. Our elephant guide's name was Kao. He was really nice. He eventually even let us sit on the elephant's neck.  Jesse got on first and then a little later I hoped on. Alaya's. neck. It was sooo amazing!! Jesse said she felt like she was falling off, but "Alaya would save her ". She was getting pretty spiritual and close with the elephant actually, it was funny. While we were trekking, a girl in front of us dropped her cell phone; the back and the battery broke off. The elephant she was riding. amazingly picked up each piece with his trunk and gently gave piece after piece to the girl.  After we were done trekking, we were able to feed. Alaya. bananas. It got a little slobbery. We then watched two elephants preform tricks for us. The best trick I saw happened to my roommate Katie, and another teacher Jeff. They each were lying down on the ground with a towel over their bodies. The elephant then took his foot and started to make "stomping" motions on them. Katie said it actually felt good. The elephant was actually massaging her, pretty unbelievable. We made our way over to see the baby elephant. That little one was a little naughty. He was running back and forth behind his cage and would randomly slap people with his trunk.  A few teachers got slapped. I guess they were standing a little too close.

After the elephant trekking it was time for bamboo rafting. It was a beautiful day to do such fun things! The river we went rafting on was a quiet one. I swam a little bit too, the water was very refreshing. After our adventure at the Elephant Camp it was time to head back to the hotel to pack up our belongings and say our goodbyes to the big group. I was finally getting acquainted with everyone, and found a group of friends that I really enjoyed being with and now it was time to leave each other. But it's\ ok ........ There's always the weekends for travelling. I know I will see them again.

Our last group orientation lunch was very good. They served a delicious green spicy curry. YUM!! For dessert they served the typical watermelon and pineapple along with another Thai specialty. It was called green jelly with taro and coconut milk. Basically the name says it all and then add ice on the top. The green jelly looks like a green noodle, kinda strange for a dessert; but it definitely grew to my liking bite after bite.

 After lunch we had to say our good byes to all the fellow teachers. Toon, my coordinator picked us up. She brought along her daughter, who is eight years old and very cute! She was shy at first, but then opened up. She doesn't know that much English though. They picked us up in a van, it was pretty small and the AC didn't work very well. The drive actually was not too bad though, maybe 2 hours, it went fast.

 When we got to Bangplama school, we first met the school's directors.  The school grounds looked quite familiar, similar to the pictures that were sent to me with my placement. Toon. then took us to our apartments. She said that one of the apartments was filled with more "artwork" than the other.  So we took a look at the first apartment. The walls are orange, floors are cement, and there is a hole in the ground for the toilet ... Oh boy! And we thought this one was going to be bad .... We stepped in the next apartment and it was worse!! Extremely repulsive .... There were holes in the walls, bugs and spider webs everywhere, the walls were also cement - no color, and the entire feel of the apartment was really depressing. Also the past teacher had left a ton of junk just lying all over the apartment. I believe there was no way that any one step foot in these apartments before we arrived. It. wasn't a. very warm welcome; but Katie and I were able to "save our face". The moment. Toon. left I felt like I was going to break down and cry ... .. It needed A LOT of work to say the least ... Katie and I discussed the situation we were just thrown in to and asked each other what did we just sign up for?! We decided that since there are two rooms in each apartment, we would just share the "better" apartment. It makes the most sense and made me feel a lot better that I did not have to be alone, in what to me seemed like a jail cell.

 Toon. us to. Tesco. Lotus, the. Wal.- Mart of Thailand, to get some necessities for our apartment, cleaning, living, and eating wise. We spent quite a while there actually. We also ate dinner at Texas Suki. Tesco. Lotus is actually similar to a shopping mall. The shopping is on the main floor with restaurants and a game room on the second floor. Our dinner was delicious. It's actually Japanese themed; you order a few different items such as chicken, lobster balls, prawn. wontons., And a vegetable dish. You take the items and cook them in a cooker that sits on the table. The concept I think is very similar to The Melting Pot. It was good! Toon.recommended we try another Thai dessert. I did not oppose. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name but it had coconut strips, either frozen strawberries or raspberries, coconut milk,. waterchesnuts, and ice. It was tasty!

Being out in the town with. Toon. made me forget where we were going to be living for the next 5 months. When we got back to our room and brought up all our groceries / supplies, we looked at each other in disgust and anger ... I am trying to keep a positive attitude and always remember the expression we were taught in orientation about "Saving Face". Basically, when around Thai people and something may not being going the way you want it to be going keep smiling and save your real facial expressions until you are by yourself.  This concept is much needed in a situation like this! Especially since our coordinator is super nice and wants us to be happy. I just think the Thai standards are a lot different than those of the United States, therefore she really does not understand completely. Also like Katie says, things tend to get "lost in translation".

There still is a lot of work to be done to the "orange" room; as well as getting used to the things we have encountered our first night ... ... geckos, spiders, weird noises, little bugs on the bed (which to me is. seriously not. exceptable .......), The rock hard mattress (literally it is like sleeping on a piece of wood or cement),. and the hole in the ground as toilet. Needless to say our first night sleeping in our school. accomodations. was quite rough ....

Toon. picked us up around lunch time and took us to a coffee shop to use the internet. since the school's. internet. was not working at the time. She also knows how much we like coffee, which was sweet of her.  We came back to the school and found the internet. to be working!! It doesn't work very well in our apartment though, if at all .... It's a very low signal right by our window. I did find restrooms in the administration building that had actual toilets! YAY.! It's becoming funny how the little things in life are making me soooo. happy here.

Around dinner time,. Toon. drove us to the actual town of. Suphan. Buri. It took about ten or fifteen minutes. Driving with. Toon. got to be a little scary. Our school is off the major highway; it's not as busy as a typical highway in the US but still a highway. W.ell while she's talking to us she tends to look back at us and swerve and also there were a few times she almost hit a. car. Thank goodness we didn't! She showed us how to get on the bus which would take us into town as well as how to get to Bangkok, which will be helpful! Transportation seems cheap ... .120 Baht to get to Bangkok from here. It's about a two hour drive. 120 baht translates to about $ 4! We had. Toon. drop us off to meet up with my friend Liz who I knew was living in an apartment in the town. There were also a few other teachers. who live in the same apartment building; good to know to hang out with people close by. It was nice to hang out with a few other Americans for a while. We ate dinner at an outdoor food stall. There were a few different vendors. I ordered the Pad Thai, it was delicious!! And also cheap ... 30 baht! Oh, if I haven't already mentioned the stray dogs around town ... it seems to be worse than Bangkok. They are everywhere, especially places you find food. After dinner, we walked around for a while and stopped at a little convenient store with tables outside and had a Leo. It's a Thai beer, a lot better than Chang. As we were walking home, Katie attempted to walk on the sidewalk where a line of dogs were sleeping. That was a mistake .... The first dog she came close to, began barking very viciously, g.iving her fair warning do not walk any closer. We walked back to the apartment Liz was staying at, which also was probably a mistake since it was. sooooo. much nicer than ours! It's an actual apartment complex, with a small food store in the lobby, thumb finger prints to get on the elevator and on their floor, air conditioning, their own toilet seat, but they do have the same mattress as we do. So. Toon. had told us we could catch a. tuk.-.tuk., A. taxi service here in Thailand. at the. Tesco. Lotus until midnight. So we left their apartment with plenty of time at 10:30.  It took at least a half hour to walk there, come to find the lights are shout off and the place was deserted. Katie and I both look at each other, "Oh shit .... We are screwed". How do we get home? We debated whether to walk back to our school, which would have been a LONG walk or to walk back to Liz 'apartment and sleep there for the night probably on the floor .... We decided to walk back to Liz 'place, but as we. were walking it seemed to be taking twice as long, probably because we were tired and sick of walking. We walked by this Thai club and figured it's worth a try to ask if anyone spoke English or if there was a. tuk.-.tuk. that someone could get us home. Well no one spoke English that well. There was one girl who understood a little. Thank goodness for. Toon. writing our school name down for us in Thai, after a lot of laughter and hand gestures, we were able to get a moped / scooter ride! This tiny Thai woman motioned for us to hop on her scooter. There were three of us on it. I was. soooo. nervous and began praying immediately but then I realized it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. We made it home safely, and it actually was a pretty nice ride. She was very nice and grateful. We paid 150 baht, which was little bit more than the. tuk.-T.uk. b.ut at that point we didn't really care. What a day .... Seeing the other teachers' apartment's made me so sad / upset that they had such better accommodations than we did. It does not seem fair ... .. Someone please remind why I am doing this ... .. I try to keep telling myself every day it's all for the experience and the teaching! I think as soon as teaching begins everything will be a lot better or at least I hope so ....

Now that I told you about the exciting excursion we had as a group and about our awful living conditions, I will go back to our final days of orientation ... ....

Friday afternoon, after the Grand Palace and lunch, we got back to the hotel and had a few hours of teacher training and some time to rest before we met our school coordinators.  Katie and I were a little nervous, but as soon as we met Toon we were relieved; she seems very nice.  She came off very friendly and welcoming. She answered a lot of our questions we had about how our Teach in Thailand experience was going to fold out. She told us we would each be teaching a section of middle school and a section of high school. In Thailand, they refer to middle school grades as Mat-tha-yom 1, 2, and 3 and high school grades as Mat-tha-yom._-. 4, 5 and 6. Our main objective throughout the semester is to focus on pronunciation and communication with our students. We don't have a book that we are required to use to teach, but Toon told us we can just somehow relate what we teach to what our co-teachers are teaching.  It was somewhat disappointing because she said straight up they don't have high expectations for us as teachers. I, on the other hand, really want the students to take away something from me teaching them English. I think I really need to be strict teaching right away. Lay down some ground rules for the classroom, and set up consequences, such as taking away their cell phone if it's that big of a distraction. Toon said we were definitely allowed to do so, as long as we give the cell phone to our co-teacher. I know that may seem harsh, but I was told that cell phones are a big problem in the secondary level schools.  Megan, a friend of a teacher in our group who has been teaching in Thailand already for a few months, came up with having the students come see her for 5 or 10 minutes of their lunch break if they are misbehaving badly in class. This may be a good idea. We cannot have them stay after school because they all ride buses home that leave immediately from school it sounds like.

Does anyone else have any other ideas as far as discipline / consequences go? Any ideas / suggestions are welcome!

After talking with our coordinator, there was a Traditional Thai Welcome Ceremony along with a buffet dinner. The dinner was pretty good. Not one of the best meals we've had, but they had yummy desserts. My coordinator brought Katie and I what to me looked like chop sticks. I was taught that Thais eat their noodles with chopsticks, so for my spaghetti I grabbed the packaging of "chop sticks" to find out it actually was a straw. Before I realized this, I said "ok, so we eat the noodles with these chop sticks right?" I felt pretty stupid, Toon was laughing at me ... .. I was a little embarrassed but it was fine, I just laughed it off. with her. As part of the Welcome Ceremony there were two Thai girls all dressed up and did some type of dance to Thai musicians. It was pretty cool.

Saturday, we were able to sleep in a little bit. We had our teacher training and a Thai Educational System and Standards class.  English learning for Mat-tha-yom 1 - 3, grades 7.^th. through 9.^th., Is intermediate grammar and the four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. English learning for Mat-tha-yom 4 - 6, grades 10.^th. through 12.^th., Is test preparation for the National Education Exam. One helpful technique for classroom management is the strategic use of praise and rewards. The Thai phrase,. Kreng Jai. means. being aware of other people's feelings and showing politeness. This is also a helpful classroom management technique I will try to use. Following the idea of. kreng jai. comes the Thai word. Sa Nook, to have fun. Thai culture involves a lot of. sa nook. in their classrooms as well as in the business setting.  Another topic the lecturer covered was the culture shock about sexuality in Thailand. It is unacceptable in the Thai culture for a man and a woman to show any form of PDA; however it is perfectly normal for two men or two woman to show affection towards one another even if they are heterosexual. This concept is quite different than in the United States.