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!
No comments:
Post a Comment