it was worth it for the view

High points and fond memories, appreciations and realizations from the last few weeks...

Un otro San Miguel, Kaa: There's nothing like getting drunk with new friends and busting out the classic techno ball moves for upwards of 25 minutes to make a bar on Khao San Rd. feel like you're... not home, but where you belong in the moment. I'm so, so thankful for the wonderful people I've gotten to know and explore this country with the last 2 months.

Best Guesthouse experience thus far: Saibaidee House in Sukhothai for 1) allowing us to check in at 4:30 am with a sleepy smile, 2) providing the most helpful information possible for checking out the city and beyond (including bus schedules!), and 3) homemade muesli delicious enough to write home about, literally... Worthy of bitcheswhobrunch.com ;)

Great Success in the classroom: our friend Connor gave us the idea to do a Pronunciation Bee in class (like a spelling bee, but with pronunciation). Lee and I made a lesson plan to teach pronunciation of words with "R" and "L" which included saying pairs like right and light, rip and lip, rice and lice. As I'm sure you know already from Asian stereotypes, this was pretty difficult for most of them. But the look on their faces when they pronounced a word correctly... priceless. The lesson also included singing "Low, low, low your boat".

Toast Appreciation Day: We have a toaster in our kitchen, but we didn't use it b/c who knows what's been in it. But finally we couldn't stand the thought of warm toast with butter and jam or peanut butter teasing us anymore so I googled "How to clean a toaster" and Lee cleaned it... only to find out after plugging it in that it was broken. I'm eating plain untoasted bread right now.

Worth the tourist stampede, I concede - you could see the hordes of farangs and Thais alike at Erawan National Park in Kanchanburi from a klick away. I like my tourist attractions the same way I like my mall - untouched and uncrowded on a Tuesday morning at 10a.m. However, the waterfall really did live up to the hype. Absolutely gorgeous, unreal water, with 7 steps of very satisfactory hiking. The fishies in the water nibble away at the dead skin on your feet as soon as you step in the water to swim, so they got a feast while I got a free pedicure. Win-win.

Dog Bite Count: 2. No blood, no worries. There's a mean-spirited dog that has taken to hiding in the bushes right outside of our school, and one day I was on the phone and forgot to cross the street to avoid it and it jumped out and sneak attacked me as I passed its hiding spot. It's getting quite difficult to go for runs on longer creative routes around the town because I keep running into dogs that really want to sample my flesh, and my flesh only. Do I not just look like everyone else?

Favorite Place So Far?: Koh Mak. Sigh... Gorgeous. Untouristy. Perfection. A small boutique on Tuesday at 10 a.m.... and it's high season. 24 hours of kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, climbing palm trees and attempting to break open coconuts, and reading in a hammock. We stayed in a legit little bamboo bungalow (thank you Jamie!), and the restaurant served up the most delicious seafood - no, meal - that I've eaten here. This is Thailand. :)



Sample of my current Thailand playlist:
"Intro" - The XX
"Lost in the World" - Kanye West
"Map of the Problematique" - Muse
"Desert Rose" - Sting
"Zombie" - Cranberries
"In For the Kill" - La Roux
"Colourless Colour" - La Roux
"Home" - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
"Bamboo Banger" - M.I.A.

For the bus rides:
"Stars" - The XX
"Infinity" - The XX
"Cosmic Love" - Florence + The Machine
"In Every Sunflower" - Bell X1
"Don't Forget Me" - Way Out West
"To Be Alone With You" - Sufjan Stevens
"Into Dust" - Ashtar Command

Successful Hitchhikings Part 2 w/ video - "Evidence of Elephants"

Steph and I decided to go to Khao Yai National Park, so day 3 of our trip was spent mostly in transit. The songtaew dropped us off at the bottom of the mountain, and Steph and I looked at each other with the expression of "well now how the hell do we get up there?" A park ranger told us to hitchhike up to the top. So we stuck out our thumbs and let our teeth show and sure enough within 5 minutes we were sitting in the bed of truck making our way up the mountain. We got a room and signed up for a night safari later that night. This excursion was pretty cool. We saw lots of massive dear and even a curious little porcupine on the side of the road. Not a bad way to relax after a long day of traveling.

The next morning we got up before the sun and headed out with the goal of seeing everything the supersized park had to offer in one day. First, we head to the elephant salt licks. No elephants. Then we walked through the park to an observation tower. This was pretty scary. I was just waiting for a tiger or bear to jump out of the tall swaying grass that surrounded us and start gnawing on my skull. We made it unharmed, but there was a problem with the observation tower. No animals, but the scenery was very beautiful and it felt good to get some fresh clean air.
We then jumped on our girly yellow motorbike and decided to see some waterfalls. Even if there weren't animals we could still enjoy some free falling water. We first went to Heo Suwat, which is the waterfall from the movie "The Beach" with Mr. DiCaprio. This waterfall was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. It was perfect, except that we couldn't go swimming in the chilly pools beneath it. After dozens of pictures we jumped on the little girl bike at went to the south end of the park to its biggest waterfall, Heo Narok. On the way we passed some monkeys hanging out on the side of the road. We also passed some large piles of elephant poo, which proved that there were elephants resided within the boundaries of the park. We finally made it to the waterfall after a 45 minute bike ride and started hiking towards it. 300 meters away from it I could still hear the water falling through the dense jungle. This waterfall had to be 150 meters tall. The biggest I've ever seen. It was pretty, but Heo Suwat takes the cake.
So that was it. We did it. We saw everything that we thought was worth seeing at the park, and it only took us 8.5 hours. We checked out of our room, returned the motorbike, and stuck out our thumbs in hopes of catching a ride back down the mountain. We made it back to town with just enought time to catch the last bus to Bangkok. We got to Bangkok late and quickly bought an overnight ticket to Sukhothai, one of Thailand's ancient capital cities.

The bus seats never felt so comfortable. We were exhausted from hiking and traveling all day and we immediately feel asleep once the bus started moving. This didn't last long. At 4:30am we were awoken by the bus hostess screaming "Sukhothai! You get off here!" in our faces. Needless to say we were not pleased, but we were able to check into our hostel and go back to sleep.

The next morning we went into the historic park and rented some bicycles. This was pretty fun. I hadn't jumped on a bicycle and gone exploring since I was 14 years old. We spent several hours riding around Sukhothai's ancient ruins trying to imagine what it looked like hundreds and hundred of years ago. It was fun, but after awhile the ruins start to look the same and we lost interest. Day 2 in the ancient town we rented a badass black Honda motorbike from our hostel and rode to some hot springs for a day of pampering. It took us about an hour to get there, so my aching ass and back were ready for a massage. We first got a massage which lasted an hour and a half then we jumped in a hot tub that was filled with natural spring water. We relaxed for a little while, letting our muscles liquify in the hot stew and then headed back to the hostel. It felt good to relax and unwind for a bit. That night we jumped on the overnight bus back to Bangkok and arrived at the bus station at 5:00am. We then got our 6:30am bus tickets to Kanchanaburi and grabbed some grub from 7-11.
We got to Kanchanaburi and took a little cat nap while waiting for Connor, Katie, and Becca to arrive. Once we had our travel buddies we met up with Sara and Nell and hit the streets. We checked out the Jeath War Museum at the bridge over the River Kwai. This museum was pretty cool, and it was filled with some very random things. I was able to get a tank top from the night market across the street, so I'd say it was a pretty successful trip.

The next morning I woke up not feeling so well from the night before and met up with everyone in the hostel restaurant eating breakfast. We all decided to go to the Erawan National Park to see some waterfalls. I had been looking forward to this for awhile. So after breakfast we jumped in a songtaew and made way for the park. This is home to the famous seven-tiered waterfall. The seventh level is said to look like Erawan, a 3-headed elephant. I didn't see the resemblence, but these waterfalls were truly captivating. When hotels in Vegas build elaborate pools they have these in mind. We swam at a few spots and took lots of pictures and then headed back to the hostel.

The next day we made our way back to our Thai hometown, Wangchan. This trip brought on many experiences. We saw balloons, fireworks, elephant poo, and I somehow managed to be in the King of Thailands birthday parade. It was a trip that left us exhausted and satiated with Thai culture.

This week I have been making a video that documents our travels of the past week. It's called "Evidence of Elephants."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfhGjGOGyr0

Successful Hitchhikings Part 1

Steph and I had the entire last week off so we decided to see as much of Thailand as possible. This expedition consisted of 10 days, 3 hostels, 10 awful bus rides, and 3 successful hitchhikes. It was an epic journey that took us to waterfalls and hot springs and even got me into a parade. We got to see hot air balloons and two firework shows that dazzled our eyes. It was rough on us, especially our backs, but we managed to do everything we planned and a little more.

Friday after school we got on the 5pm bus headed to Bangkok and stayed with our friend, Marianne, in Samut Prakan that night. It was nice to sleep in a bed bigger than a twin and get a good nights rest without being awoken by fighting dogs. The next morning we got up early and met some friends at the BTS station and soon we were on our way to Thailand's International Balloon Festival in Nakhon Nayok. Before jumping on the "hour and forty minute" bus ride we hit up K.F.C. for some chicken sandwiches and some greasy salty french fries. And if you were curious if Thais put mayonnaise on their sandwiches, they do. They pour it all over them.

So after the 3 hour journey we finally made it there and decided to go white water rafting. For the small fee of 250฿ we were taken on an interesting aquatic journey through the mildly chaotic river. After the ride we grabbed some quick food and made our way to the fairgrounds and prepared for a spectacle of immense proportions. HOT AIR BALLOONS! We had all seen them before, but for some reason these just seemed much cooler. Maybe because we are in Thailand I dont know. Over half a dozen hot air balloons were blown up and putting on a light show with their massive flames. There was an old English chap on the microphone trying to coordinate the balloons flames by telling the operators to "flicker to the music now!" The music was the score from some Disney movie, which made it even better. After hundreds of pictures we were exhausted and ready to leave, but then came the fireworks.

The next day was the king's 83rd birthday which is a HUGE celebration here. There's nothing like it back home. Everyone here loves the king. Everyone. Me, Steph, and Marianne went into Bangkok and messed around for a few hours and finally met up with Connor, Becca, and Katie at the Big Swing. In Thailand there are certain times everyday when you can buy alcohol. When we met up with them it was 4:40 and we couldn't buy beer until 5:00, so Connor and I just hung out in the local 7-11 for the next 20 minutes patiently waiting to get our fix of booze.

That night we hit the streets of Bangkok to join in on the celebration. Connor and I split up from the girls for awhile and actually became part of the celebration. We went wandering off dipping and dodging through the over-crowded streets trying to find a great spot to view the fireworks and somehow ended up in the king's parade. It was hilarious. Connor and I were the only two people out of thousands that had beer in our hands, which made us feel awkward enough, and we were in the middle of the King of Thailand's birthday parade. We didn't care. We just kept playing the "I'm not from here, so I dont' know what to do" card, and it worked like a charm.

After an elaborate fireworks show we posted up at a place called "Gullivers" on Khao San Rd. We enjoyed each others company and had nice conversation over several rounds of San Miguel Light. It was over these delicious brews that I realized that coming to Thailand was one of the best decisions I had ever made. In only two months I have done some incredible things and met some unforgettable people.

Buffet Buffers

One full month of teaching down! That is, if you count only having seen some classes once so far and having at least 3-4 classes cancelled or not show up each week a full month... ah well. Lee and I have grown accustomed to asking our coordinator almost daily if there's something going on with the school that would cancel classes for the day, because i've lost count now of how many times I have shown up prepared for the class, only to stand around and wait for 20 minutes before going downstairs to the gymnasium and realize that the all the students are watching their peers play an intense game of Chairball (kind of like basketball with no dribbling, and a human stands on top of a chair with a basket in his hands for his team to score in). On one day where there weren't classes in the morning but they were scheduled as normal for the afternoon, I asked my coordinator again whether there was really class in the afternoon. She looked at timetable, and said "yes, yes there is class..... but the students are lazy... and they may not come." I'll let you guess what happened.

I have 2 classes in particular that are easily my most favorite to teach, and I really look forward to seeing them each week. The first is my M. 3/2 (like US 9th graders). Not only is the classroom setup WAY better by being a little smaller with just 3 rows going across so that they are all fairly close to the front, but there is a group of 10 girls that always sit in the front and are just freaking English superstars. During the first week at the end of the period, I asked the class "Was this easy?" and they screamed out "YES, EASY EASY!!!" During the next class with them, the theme of the lesson was Food and I played Categories with them. The first category was Drinks, and I actually just had to stop the round at one point because they were getting quite creative with it and there was no end in sight. The 2nd category was fruits, and they must have named at least 50 fruits before the smarty girls in the front finally won. I've never seen a class of more excited kids in my life. Adorable.

The second class I love is my M. 5/2 (US juniors). During my first week, they seemed to understand me well enough in class that I was able to make some jokes with them, and trust me, I don't have many classes like that. Again, there is a group of 7 smart girls in the front, and Lee and I had a chance to get to know them much better during the region's English Competition day in the nearby city of Klaeng on the second Friday of school. Lee had written a play for them to perform in the competition entitled "Water Devil" about the flooding in Thailand, and we watched them practice it before the show and then we hung out with them at the competition until it was time to go back. Not only is their English pretty good, but they are hilarious and love speaking with us. They kept buying us little treats like popsicles and dangly phone accessories which we had to put a stop to, and also taught us how to say some different food dishes in Thai. Love love love them.

On to the WEEKENDS! it's crazy because the more I read my Lonely Planet, the more I think i'm not going to have enough time to see everything I want to see... so we've wasted no time, here's a recap of our weekend excursions since Koh Samet (see Lee's post below)

Rayong & Khao Chamao: While Koh Samet is definitely the gem of our province, we decided to spend a day in our capital city for 3 reasons: 1) see Harry Potter 7.1 in English at the movie theater; 2) go to Tesco Lotus and replenish our dwindling peanut butter stock (I also got some cheese similar to Laughing Cow FTW); and 3) eat as much Western food as possible. Great success. I even found one copy of HP&TDH in English at the bookstore and definitely dropped 500 baht on it. So worth it. On Sunday, one of Lee's M. 6/1 student's mother gave us a ride to Khao Chamao National Park (about 45 minutes away). It has a beautiful waterfall that requires a fairly rough and steep hike; we made it to the 6th step which was 1660 meters up; the 7th and last step was at 2660 meters so we may have to go back and try for that next time. I've realized that trekking is definitely my favorite thing to do here (besides eating).


Bangkok & Lopburi: Post-Thanksgiving Friday, we hopped onto the 5pm bus to BKK and met up with our friends Connor, Becca, Nell and Sarah at Victory Monument at this sweet pub called Saxophone. Tons of yazz flute going on. We took a cab back to Connor and Becca's place and I really needed some late night food... the only that was open was a Family Mart (like a 7-11), and I decided it was time to try out the packaged ham & cheese sandwich and hawaiian pizza slice. It was not disappointing. Saturday morning we hit up the huge Chatuchak weekend market where i finally made my first clothing purchase: a Chang tank top.

Then we piled in a minivan and made our way up to Lopburi to check out the Monkey Buffet, which we had only heard of a day before. It's pretty self-explanatory; the city is completely overrun with wild monkeys and one weekend out of the year (that happens to coincide with Thanksgiving) they set up an extravagant feast for the monkeys at one of the wats. We hung out with tons of people from orientation and other ESL teachers on Saturday night, buying out the local supply of Changs and Leos and playing rounds and rounds of flip cup on the rooftop of a hostel. Repeat convenience store pizza and sandwich late night combo. Sunday morning we went to the wat with the Monkey Buffet and spent the morning hanging out with the monkeys... and now I'm sad that there aren't monkeys running around in my town. They are hilarious and love to climb on you, especially if you have a backpack on. One did manage to steal Lee's sunglasses, good thing they were $4 knock off ray bans... another one stole our can of Off, but luckily we managed to get that back before a disaster occured.

On another random note, I finally got bit by a dog the other week here in Dog Town. The dog's name is Taniwah and belongs to our next-door neighbor. Don't worry, it wasn't deep enough to break the skin - he just wrapped his teeth around my calf and thrashed me enough so that it left a nice bruise. I'm not a big fan of him.

Aaaaandd.... Happy belated Thanksgiving from my 5/2 students and from us! gobble gobble gobble





Gotta run, we have next week off and it's time for some new adventures...

MISPRONUNCIATION = MISCOMMUNICATION

Almost halfway through our 3rd week of "changing the world, one Thai kid at a time," and it's starting to become clear and organized. I don't think I will ever consider teaching easy, but I will say that I'm feeling more and more comfortable as each class passes.

This past weekend we went to Koh Samet again. This time we met up with Connor, Becca, Katie, and Chelsea. We actually stayed in Ban Phe the first night. We stayed at the Bedrock Guesthouse, which was pretty chill. Some old Aussie owned the place with his much much younger Thai wife. This lady made the best hamburger I've had since being in the Orient. I was in heaven at this place. I had an ice cold beverage, a hamburger, and Sportscenter all at my disposal. There was no way Steph was getting me to go on a walk with her. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to feel American. It rarely happens here.

The next morning we caught the ferry to Koh Samet. This time we found a cheaper place to stay called Naga Bungalows. Though Steph and I aren't too worried about money now that we have a second source of income. Three nights a week we tutor three Thai's in English. I help 25 year old, Byrd, and his 30 year old sister, Ning. Steph offers tutelage to a 4 foot, 100lb 9 year old boy named Mammouth. So we got that goin for us.

Anyways, Saturday we chilled on the beach for awhile, then we decided to go on a sunset boat ride. During the ride we stopped twice to get out and snorkel, which was mildly entertaining due to the lack of fish and aquatic foliage. Also, the sunset was blocked by some unexpected cloud coverage, so we missed that. Not to worry, the crew had a backup plan. "We are going to a fish farm!" The fish farm was actually pretty cool. We got to see some sea turtles and other large marine life. Before we took off for the fish farm we were fortunate enough to get this glamour shot.

That night we went bar hoping along the beach with our flyers that got us one free drink at several different places. Then we split up. Connor and I went to Naga Bar to watch a few Muy Thai fights, while the women drank at the Sunrise Bar and had young chiseled Thai boys paint all over their bodies. We met up later and stumbled across a group of puppies huddled together on the beach. This is no joke. I thought it was a dream myself. There were 5 fresh puppies huddling together for warmth out on the open beach. Needless to say we played with them for awhile and then built them a defense system in case some drunkard stumbled across them in the middle of the night. I couldn't leave until I felt they were secure. Cue pizza and slumber.

The next morning we got some breakfast and jumped on the ferry back to the mainland. Funs over. Now it's time for school.

Fast forward to Monday of week 4. Steph and I realized that all of our lesson plans are following the same pattern. Class starts with the students screaming vocab at us while we write it on the board. Then we teach them "model language" that is related to the vocab for the lesson. This week our lesson plan is about shopping. So the model language is:

"How much is the ______?"

" It costs ________ baht."

"Would you like to buy it?"

" Yes I would" or "No, thank you"

The students get into pairs and run through the dialogue that they will surely use one day and we go around and check all of them for pronunciation. MISPRONUNCIATION = MISCOMMUNICATION. After this we change the dialogue a little by adding a preposition here or changing a verb there. This is difficult for most classes. Only the upper levels of each grade can grasp this step. And then if there's any time left, or if my voice still exists, we will play a game.

I'm getting very bored with these lesson plans, and I'm sure the students are too. I want to incorporate more materials and activities. I want my classes to be fun. I want the students to walk into my classroom gasping for air, because they just sprinted across campus in hopes of getting their first to get a seat up front. But I guess that's every teacher's dream.

My Name is Mammoth.

To be succinct, the last 11 days have been challenging for me. They have been challenging, but also different and rewarding... they're why I came here.

Last week was my first week of teaching in the classroom, and Lee and I are both teaching all grades in Matthayom 1-6 (which is like US school grades 7-12) as well as a wide range of learning levels within each grade (/1 is the best, /8 is the worst). I am happy to report that the first week went smoothly overall, less one minor incident involving a small but very loud 14-year-old boy yelling inappropriate words in my last Friday class... but as someone back home said, boys will be boys. My class experiences ranged from my Matthayom 5/2 class understanding me so well that I was able to make jokes with them, to the lowest level Matthayom 1/8 class not being able to understand when I wanted them to ask their partner what his/her name was. I have quickly realized that the real difference in how and what I teach is not in their grade levels, but in their learning levels. I have also found that teaching English has not felt so different from teaching group fitness classes back at home - you have to be "on" the whole time, and while this takes a lot of energy, it feels great at the end of the class when you feel that some of the kids may have really enjoyed the class. Doing this 4 times a day with some rowdier classes, however, really took a lot out of me last week, and on top of that I was left with almost no voice by lunch on Friday. I sounded suspiciously like a man, and I had to make it VERY clear to my students in the afternoon that I was sick and had no voice, lest they mistake me for a ladyboy.

One of our friends from orientation who doesn't start teaching in Samut Prakan until the 15th came and visited us in Dog Town for the weekend! Coincidentally, it happened to be probably the best weekend to be in little ole DT because there was some buffalo racing festival going on. The highlights included a huge techno party with Chang on tap and AMERICAN music every night down the street from the school, food stalls with french fries and chocolate frosted donuts, and an all-day street event on Sunday including takraw tournaments, muay thai boxing, a talent show, and of course buffalo racing. We missed the buffalo racing, but I'm sure it was gnarly. We had a really good time experiencing these different cultural aspects in our little town, and even better sharing it with one of our friends!



Back to the classroom on Monday - my voice was starting to come back, but my throat was also starting to feel awful, but I taught anyway. It was also much warmer outside, and since we don't have A/C in the classrooms, at several points I got pretty frustrated with trying to tell the kids to be quiet with a raspy voice and sore throat while sweating profusely. Lee got sick on Tuesday (main suspect: fried cashew chicken?) so we both took a sick day. It's quite terrible being sick and away from friends and family, feeling lethargic from many days of mental exhaustion coupled with not enough exercise and perhaps inadequate nutrition ("pat" means fried and "pak" means vegetables, and they always seem to think i say "pat"), and also being disconnected from everyone due to internet failure in our apartment. We coped by getting a couple movies (Robin Hood and HP & The Half-Blood Prince) and taking it easy.

Things started to turn up on Wednesday - we were both feeling much better and returned to school. We went into town to run errands in the afternoon, and on the way back there was an OUTDOOR AEROBICS CLASS going on with the instructor on a big stage at the outdoor jogging track. I couldn't believe it. I hurried home, threw on my sneaks and ran back to the track and caught the last 10 minutes of the class. The music playing was very high energy Thai or maybe Korean pop, and the instructor only used visual cues but was still energetic nonetheless. After some confusing exchange and hand motions with the ladies in the class, I was able to decipher that the class was at least every Wednesday at 6:00. Boom. On Wednesday, I was also able to get into the "English library" at school (one cabinet) and obtain a few Harry Potter books. Boom.

Today, however, may have been one of the best days so far in DT. The school didn't classes today and tomorrow, but we came in at 8 so that I could help an M. 2 girl prepare for an English speech contest, and so that Lee could help an M. 3 girl prepare for a spelling bee. My student had written and memorized a page and a half-long speech about the environment, and I helped her with some of the grammar, content flow, and pronunciation. The tougher words for her to pronounce were "variety", "surroundings", "first" and "waste" - the first two because Thai people tend fo emphasize the last syllable in every word, and the last two because "st" is a difficult sound for them to pronounce. I felt that my native accent was very helpful for her, and it made me glad to feel needed there. In the afternoon, I went on a 3-mile run for the first time since leaving the U.S. which made me feel more like my old self. I also found out that the aerobics class is Monday-Thursday every week, which makes my life even more complete. In the evening, Lee and I tutored some kids - well, he tutored a brother and sister that were 25 and 30 years old, while I tutored their adorable 8-year-old little cousin. His name/nickname is Mammoth, so you know he's a badass. He was extremely shy at first and I was worried that he didn't want to talk to me, but after about 15 minutes I realized that this kid was more advanced in English than at least 60% of my Matthayom students, and he's in Pratom 3 (like 3rd grade in the US). He did really well at the reading and speaking exercises I had prepared for him, and we played several games of Categories towards the end of our hour-long session. I also learned from his older cousins that Mammoth is the Scrabble champion in his school, and that he will be competing in a Scrabble tournament in Bangkok sometime this semested. BAMF. We will be tutoring this group 3 times a week starting next week, and I am really looking forward to it. Lastly, I figured out how to say correctly pronounce the name of my new favorite dish in Thai so that people don't look at me like I'm crazy when I try to order it. It's "pak piao wan gai", which is chicken and vegetables in some delicious sauce over steamed white rice. After dinner, Lee and I rented Quantom of Solace - we are probably going to go through the DVD store's entire English DVD collection by the end of December.

It's 3 a.m. now; I couldn't sleep but I suppose I'll try because we have to be at school at 7 a.m. to go judge some English contests or something. Until my next imsonia episode...

Cribs: Wangchan edition

As promised

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b33etrQfgc

It's Mr. Lee to you...punk.

It's our first weekend here in Wangchan. We just finished our first week of teaching and I can honestly say that I really enjoy it. I love the feeling that I get when I notice that what I'm trying to teach is actually getting through to them.

We are teaching at a secondary school which means it has grades (Matthayoms) 7-12 (1-6). There are over 1,300 students here and we get the "privilege" of teaching each and every one of them. We have on average over 35 students in each class which seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but actually isn't that bad. You just have to show them who's boss.

I'd like to think that I rule the classroom with an Iron Fist. If anyone steps out of line it could possibly cost them their daily rations. If there is any sass in a student's response, it's met with fierce lashings across their back.

Like I said before, I'd like to think that I rule with an Iron Fist. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. I like to make class as enjoyable as possible. We don't test these kids and the school has not come close to attempting to help us come up with any sort of curriculum. So we drew the conclusion that we're here to help with pronunciation. Not only for the students, but the teachers as well.

Steph and I both try to make class fun and informative. I start every class by introducing myself and by also laying down a few basic rules. Then I pick one student to come up and write the alphabet on the chalkboard while the rest of the class shouts out the letters. By the way, chalkboards are terrible, they just make a huge mess. The funniest pronunciation is "Z." They pronounce it "say." I just shake my my head and say "Z! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!" This always gets a huge laugh. Other difficult letters are G, H, V, & X.

For the last 20-25 minutes of class I like to play games with the class. "Telephone" is my go-to game due to the disappointment of Charades. Getting the students to come up with team names is always interesting. You get "The Winners," "Rose,", and "Snakes" a lot, but every once in awhile one team will go rogue. One group came up with "Team Semen" and another came up with "Silly Fool," which I'm almost certain was a direct reference to me. A few teams have written words in Thai, and when I repeat them the whole class erupts in laughter, which makes me believe it's something inappropriate, or something about me, or quite possibly both.

Everyday Steph and I go across the street to the "Noodle Lady" for lunch. It's cheap and it the tastes dazzle our welcoming taste buds. Did I also mention that she has puppies running around? Fresh out of the womb puppies? We have renamed the establishment N.R.P (noodles, rice, and puppies).

COMING SOON...........

A special treat for you guys: Cribs: Wangchang

Welcome to Dog Town

We left Chiang Rai on Tuesday - went to the bus station at 12, and got on the bus at 3:45. I had gotten a little sick that morning and was semi-delirious during the wait with a mild fever, but I thankfully survived the 3 hr. bus ride and dangerously unsanitary public squat toilets back to Chiang Mai with the help from my friends Pepto, Cipro, and Ibuprofen. (Thank you Marianne, my traveling pharmacist!) We arrived in Chiang Mai and immediately searched for an overnight ticket to Bangkok with our favorite bus company, NCA, but unfortunately all of their buses were booked for the evening. Our 2nd second choice was Sombat Tour, which was a little cheaper (by about 85 baht) and looked pretty decent... not quite. The seats weren't as comfortable as comfortable as NCA so it was challenging to sleep, and although we had a toilet on the bus they still made a community lights-on pit stop at 2am at a very mosquito-infested bus station. The real highlight, however, was when they turned on the lights and began playing Kpop, which is just extremely cheesy Korean pop music, at full blast on the speaker system at 6am, and we weren't arriving in Bangkok until 7:30am. Insert grumpy face.

So we're waiting at the BKK Mo Chit bus station for a couple hours for our school coordinators to come pick us up from Rayong. I'm super excited at this point to finally get to our apartment, settle in and rest after almost a full day of transit across Thailand. After getting into the school van, our coordinators told us that not only were we going to spend several hours shopping in Bangkok first, but they also had about 8 other Thai teachers with them who were at the market. I was in a gray t-shirt, running shorts, hair up, glasses on, and stinky. You may also recall that I likened shopping in Bangkok to shopping in a TJ Maxx on Black Friday in an earlier post. Lee and I just looked at each other and were like oh my god... pleeease just take us to our apartment. We picked up the other teachers who were very nice but most of them didn't know English, so they kind of ignored us (which was fine at this point in my homely state) and headed to the Platinum Fashion mall, which seemed like a slightly smaller mall than the others I went to my first week but it was still 7 stories tall. Lee and I did get some sweet beach towels, but most of our time and efforts were spent in the massive food court getting rice and chicken dishes, papaya salad (one of my fave things here), a chinese vegetable bun that was terrible, and ice cream cones from KFC - delish. Thank God For KFC.

We finally arrive in our town of Wang Chan around 5:30pm (it took about 2.25 hours from Bangkok by van). During orientation, one of the current CIEE teachers who has been teaching since May in the neighboring province told me that the former participant in our town/school nicknamed Wang Chan "Dog Town" due to all the stray dogs in the area. Fact: there are stray dogs everywhere in Thailand... but within 5 minutes of our arrival, there was definitely a stray dog brawl right outside of our apartment. I shall be referring to Wang Chan lovingly as Dog Town from here on out. Our apartment is pretty decent; it's a little 2-bedroom house with A/C in the bedrooms, a seat toilet, a shower that's almost right above the toilet (no hot water), a kitchen that i plan on never using due to fear of ant infestation, and there's several geckos in and around the house that i have fondly dubbed as our Gecko Patrol since the eat mosquitoes... we watch them set up a perimeter around our house every night, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. If i could catch some and put more inside our house to increase the small army of small gecko foot soldiers, trust me, I would. We also refer to the downstairs as the Blue Dungeon because the walls, floor and ceiling are all a violently bright acid-Carolina blue color, and we keep the windows shut in order to keep bugs out. Pictures coming soon...

I got up early the next morning and decided to see what this town was all about. It's very small, and absolutely everything we need is within a short walking distance. We live on the school grounds and it's like a mini college campus inside a gated area. I exited the gates and did a walking tour around the market and main street. On the way to the market, I passed a sketchy looking body of water that is surrounded by a cement jogging track, which is perfect for me! I estimate it to be about 525 meters around. At the market, i bought a bag of pineapple chunks and 2 mini pumpkins for Halloween which made me very happy. Most people I saw assumed I was Thai at first and would begin speaking Thai to me after I said "sawatdee kaa" (hello) and "tow rai kaa?" (how much is it?), to which I smiled and pointed at myself - "sorry, I am farang". At orientation, they told us that Farang means foreigner; to be exact, farang actually means Guava, which is a foreign fruit, so they use this term to refer to all foreigners... and that is how you tell a lie.

After I got back to the apartment, I was reading something online and noticed that it said Farang meant white person... we went to dinner with our coordinator that evening, and I asked her exactly what Farang meant. She said that Thais use Farang to refer to someone who is from Europe or America, generally. Temporarily reassured, I said oh, so it's not just white people, but anyone from Europe or America? And she said no, it's only white people. Therefore, people who are Asian that come from America like yours truly do not fall into the Farang category... therefore, there are probably many shopkeepers in my town that may or may not think I'm delusional... Good thing I'm responsible for educating their youth.

More posts about Koh Samet and our first week of teaching coming soon!

A Monk, A Bus, and a Native-American-Looking Thai Guy

Sitting here at the "new" bus station in Chiang Rai right now. We've spent the last 2 nights here at "Ben Guesthouse." A lovely ranch-style guesthouse with a nice pool, which came in handy yesterday.

Yesterday we were very busy & it didn't help that I didn't get much sleep the night before. I stayed up til 3:00am watching the Panthers finally win their first game of the season against the 49ers 23-20. But anyways me, Steph, Kelsey, and Marianne decided to go to Doi Tung in Nothern Chiang Rai. The bus ride up took around an hour and a half because the bus driver would stop every 10 minutes to try and get more people on.

Finally the old Mercedes bus drops us off at the base of the mountain. We are immediately approached by an old Thai man whose skin looked like leather. He offered to take the four of us and a monk to the top of the mountain to see a royal garden in his little blue song songtow. Who knows how long he had been waiting at the bus stop hoping to see four innocent looking Americans get off and want to pursue Doi Tung. We bargained with him for a few minutes while the monk waited patiently and we finally agreed to pay 125 baht/person for a round trip.


The ride up was beautiful, though I did feel a little nauseous, but the stomach ailment was worth the view at the garden. There were dozens of beautiful scenes that caught our wandering eyes. Between all of us we may have taken 200 pictures, but not one could really capture the true majesty of this garden.

After an hour at the garden, we found our monk and started back down the mountain in the little blue songtow, with our Native-American-looking driver stopping several times to point out some stellar views. This guy really liked me for some reason. There were several occasions where he put his hand on my leg, which was a little odd, and he kept talking to me in Thai like I was his old drinking buddy. But I would just smile and nod my head and try to be polite. He also gave me the first hand-shake of the trip when we bid farewell at the bus stop.

The bus ride back to Chiang Rai was miserable. When we jumped on I could tell the bus was already overcrowded. The money collector nudged and bumped her way through people to get to us and collect her moneys. She kept telling the bus driver, her teammate, to pull over and pick up more people. I shouldn't have to tell you this, but more people equals less comfort and I was standing up in the aisle with my chin tucked against my chest trying to keep my legs from locking up. I was by far the tallest person on the bus, and the most uncomfortable (see photo above). Every 5 minutes Steph, Kelsey, and Marianne would turn around and just start laughing at me because of how awkward I looked surrounded by all the tiny Asian men. After 30 minutes of this hell I was finally offered a seat, a seat beside the monk who journeyed Doi Tung with us earlier. It was a nice conclusion to the day. The Chiang Rai bus station never looked so good.

Lee's Journal Entry from 10/20/10

Orientation is over, but Steph & I can't go to Rayong because our apartment is being painted. So yesterday we jumped on a 9 hour bus ride north to Chiang Mai. The bus ride was anything but uncomfortable. It was like flying. There was an attendant, a meal, & televisions playing American movies that went straight to DVD. It seems like Asians love America's terrible movies, especially ones with animals and Brendan Fraser. The bus drove through the night & we slept through the night.

Once we arrived in Chiang Mai we were greeted by another CIEE participants coordinator. "Are you Kelissa?", he said. "No, she will be here in 45 minutes", replied Steph.
We told him we knew her & we sat down & started chatting. The gentleman politely offered to give us a ride from the bus station to Jai Dii house, our hostel.

Our hostel was very comforting at first glance. It was opened 8 months ago by some beanpole Frenchman and his Thai girlfriend. I immediately went to he bathroom & sat down to take care of some business & saw a sign that said, "DONT USE TOILET PAPER, USE BIDET." I quickly concluded that the bidet was the culprit of the wet floor.

I had never used a bidet before, so you can imagine how it went. If you can't imagine how it went I will tell you. It was a disaster! I walked out of the bathroom soaking wet.

Chang Love

Rewind a bit to last Monday when we wrapped up the teacher trainings and Thai culture lessons in orientation, they told us we were ready to educate to Thai youth and now it's time for some real fun... an overnight trip to Kanchanaburi, a province bordering Myanmar about 3 hours by bus from Bangkok.



Our first stop of the evening was at the Bridge on the River Kwai, which was built by Allied POWs during WWII while Thailand was under Japanese occupation... there's a movie and book about this which I fully intend on watching and reading as soon as I get a chance. Dinner on the river was fantastic, and all the Thai food was muy sabroso as usual, but I must say that the enormous chicken drumsticks was the standout dish for me... think NC State Fair drumsticks, but hotter and crispier... yesh.


(view from the restaurant... you can see the lights on the bridge in the background)


We got to the resort, and after a few minutes of walking around I got the impression that it was the kind of place where you'd film movies like Dirty Dancing or something of that nature. It was in its own little world with mountains and a small lake in view, and just gorgeous... so we immediately bought out all the beer in the hotel and got to work.



Our group took over the downstairs game room area equipped with a pong table, pool tables, VIP karoake room, and DJ room that played dance music while showing borderline stripper girls on a projector screen. It smelled like Spring Break.

Up way early in the morning for main attraction... ELEPHANT TREKKING!! I'm going to make this short and just say that it rocked. They gave Lee an umbrella to hold during the ride, and we thoroughly entertained ourselves by singing "maaaake waaaaaay... for Priiiiiin-cess Leeeeeee..." throughout the duration of the ride.



Chang Love.



Next up: Chiang Mai...

Q: Why does this mango smell like a foot?

Sawatdee Kaa! Random thoughts and highlights from Bangkok...

* Orientation has been pretty awesome - it's kinda like I'm in college all over again, and this hotel has been my dorm. I've been meeting people from all over the place, lots of peeps from Boston and Cali in particular.

* Bangkok, simply put, is cray-cray. I thought that NYC was a big city... it ain't nothin compared to this place. Shopping here on Wednesday was like trying to shop in a TJ maxx on Black Friday. Also, it's 85-90+ degrees here everyday, and you're cloaked in humidity and pollution... sweat errrywhere.

* Food is dank here... and cheap as hell. A plate of noodles or rice from a street vendor is 30-35 baht, which is roughly a little over $1 USD. Sweet dollar menus everywhere. Food in a restaurant is still only about 80-100 baht.





* I bought a mango one day on the street for 6 baht... i got back to the hotel, peeled it with my hands, and realized that it smelled like a foot. Lee confirmed this fact. We still ate it because we were hungry. Someone told us that we probably ate a durian, a fruit which is banned from some hotels and modes of public transportation due to its smell. This temporarily comforted me until I saw a picture of a durian and realized that it's spiky on the outside. The fruit I bought was definitely not spiky. Therefore, I can only believe that I ate a Foot Mango.

* I went to an internet cafe down the street, and it was filled with little Thai boys furiously gaming. I learned later that Thais don't read books - they play violent video games and listen to Kpop (Korean pop). On a semi-related note, there's 4 music channels on the TV here in the hotel room, and one of my favorite videos is by a rapper by the name of Thaitanium. Clever

* On Friday we went to the Grand Palace, the holiest of places for Buddhists in Thailand. About 8 other girls and I got called out for dressing "too sexy" and were made to put on long sarong-skirts (see below). They were actually pretty awesome and I wish I could have kept mine...



(blessing Lee)



* Met our school coordinators on Friday - I will be teaching 18-19 DIFFERENT classes each week. 40 students per class. High schoolers ages 12-18. No A/C in the school. This will be challenging... I should have brought more silly bandz because I only have 150...

* We got Thai massages on Saturday after orientation, 1 hour for 150 baht (roughly $5 USD). Lee got his by a dude. A 6'4'', 250lb dude with a ponytail. He was also given a pair sheer cotton jammies to wear. Really wish I had photo documentation.

Bangkok Is Lawless

Almost a week in Bangkok and this place kicks tons of ass. Waking up and going to orientation everyday is pretty lame, but it's also essential and very informative. We have been staying very busy, so I will just hit the high points.

We have been making lots of new friends from all over the place, but it seems that most them come from Boston or California. I've gotten at least 4 comments from people on saying "yall." I guess I'm a redneck. Everyone in the program is very friendly with the exception of several girls that I never want to see again.

Last night we had a massive fiesta on the 5th floor. There were 40 of us out in the hallway being incredibly loud. Some of us were playing drinking games like f*ck the dealer and Catchphrase while others were chatting.

At some point 10 of us decided to hit the streets. We ended up at a chill joint called the "Boom Boom Bar." We were the only ones in there so we immediately made it our own. We played a couple games of pool, and then I decided to serenade everyone via karaoke. After flipping through their week catalog I found Seal's "Kiss From a Rose", but unfortunately the machine wouldn't recognize it. This was a huge heart breaker. So I looked through the catalog again and found The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun." I got too excited and immediately signed up for it not thinking about how difficult it is to sing. Midway through I realized that I was too drunk and everything coming out of my mouth sounded like a collaboration from Britt and Doc. After the performance I paid my tab and walked back to the hotel with my tail between my legs.

Steph and I just got our first Thai massages. We got an hour long massage for 150 baht ($5). Mine was somewhat interesting because I had never had a real massage before and it didn't help that I got it from a man...a 6'6" Thai man.

Bangkok Playlist

1) Hall & Oates - "Out of Touch"
2) Sleigh Bells - "Run the Heart"
3) Monsters of Folk - "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)"
4) La Roux - "Tigerlily"
5) Killswitch Engage - "Just Barely Breathing"
6) The Black Keys - "Sinister Kid"
7) Arctic Monkeys - "This House is a Circus
8) We Are Scientists - "Tonight"

*Also. If presented with the opportunity don't ever drink Chang beer. It tastes like victory, but it apparently has formaldehyde in it and will produce an unbelievable hangover the next day.

1st stop: Aloha!

you know that feeling when you step outside and you just feel GOOD about life? it's pretty much like all that all the time in Hawaii. it's the kind of environment where you feel like you can do any activity you want outside, which just so happens to be convenient because there's a million places to explore. i also feel that it's the perfect melting pot of people: asians, americans, asians who are super american...

we stayed with Britt (Lee's sister) at her house a few miles from Waikiki. their house itself was melting pot of roommates: Christie from Jersey, Seth from Arizona, Emma from Kauai, and Ella was visiting from Finland. it was awesome hanging out with them and several other North Carolinians like Chiou and Shawn; we also met a ton of their friends and it felt like I was actually living there and not just being a tourist.

i was actually a little bit sad after each picture i took there, because no picture did hawaii's beauty any justice. please just go and experience it for yourselves!! i'll be back for sure. it's just awesome looking at the beach/ocean/mountains simultaneously all the time.

here's a few photo highlights anyway...


Sauntering down to the Makapu'u tide pools on Tuesday. thank you, $2 old navy flip flops, for not giving out on me during the 30 minute descent.




New mexican restaurant opening with new friends!




North Shore where we sunned, shaded, and snorkeled on Thursday




Actin a fool in front of Diamond Head




Making the hike up Koko Head - imagine doing about 1,500 lunges on an incline.




At the top of Koko Head... twas worth the sweat.




TUTTI FRUTTI, where taro and honeydew melon froyo is the dankness.




We're about to board the plane in Taipei... landing in BKK in 3.5 hours! :)

What's Good Hawaii? - Part 1

Hawaii was magical once again. Britt picked us up from the airport in her 1993 manual 2-door Jeep Cherokee that cost her a cool $650. I was very happy to see her. It had been 6 months since she left the states. We drove towards her house in Honolulu and stopped by a liquor store a gathered some refreshments for the evening. I got Keystone Light. I figured "when in Rome."

We pulled into Britt's house around 9:30pm and walked into a party with beer pong and bumping jams blaring out of a $10 stereo. Steph and I met at least 8 people within the first 2 minutes of our arrival, including Britt's Finnish friend Ella, who is hilarious. Two of Britt's roommates, Christie and Emma had established their dominance in Beirut all night. Unfortunately for them, they were unaware that I consider myself to be well advanced in the game. Needless to say Steph and I knocked the two queens of their throne's, and after two beers I was drunk. This was mostly due to the Xanax I had been taking for our flights, or at least that's what I hoped it was.

We didn't stay at Britt's place long. The party then moved down to Waikiki to a chill place called Lulu's. We were all about to walk in when Ella asks several of us to wait for her while she chugs here bottle of vodka and coke. Apparently she hates drinking beer. Once we got in the joint, the DJ was playing some tight 90's gangsta rap, I instantly fell at home.

And the Quest begins...

first of all, WELCOME! :) if you're reading this, then by now you know that Lee and I are deploying ourselves to the land of Thai for 5 months to bestow our knowledge of the English language upon young children, and then traveling throughout the region afterwards for a few months. in order to preserve our memories and experiences and also to share them with our friends and family, we'll both be posting from time to time on here. we hope that you'll find it interesting, maybe get a few laughs, and most importantly feel connected with us while we're away. Yay for the interwebz!

A few things to note:

- although we'll be including some pics in the blog, all pictures can be viewed on Facebook of course

- yes, i am very well aware that the masthead photo is off center. if anyone knows how to fix this, let a sista know.

- i hate capitalization. Lee Really Likes CAPITAL LETTERS

that's it for now. we're leaving in the morning for Bangkok... check back soon for updates :)

estefani