Sports day and Pai

We were again on 40 minute classes all last week. No classes Thursday since we had Sports Day, the Thai equivalent of Field Day. The kids spent a month rehearsing their cheers after class and decorating their stands. Their cheerleading is mostly chants and songs, and it's pretty interesting to watch. Sadly, I got no pictures or videos of it because I was kind of on hold all day for my event and had no idea when I was going to be running. It was kind of a joke. I was on a relay team of 8 teachers, running against other teachers. Only 50 meters, and it felt ridiculously short. We got second place because one of the school directors, the last leg of my team, face planted at the finish line. He's ok, he just got a little scraped up. 

After we ran a couple of the teachers and I went to the edge of the fence where all the street food vendors set up. I was starving and got a crepe with egg, crab, and mayonnaise. Mayo here is generally very sweet and not at all like the mayo we're used to. It was a strange but delicious crepe.

Early Saturday morning Fang and I left for Pai. We got there around 1130 and met one of his friends for lunch. All young men in Thailand have to serve I think 2 years in the army, and Pai is where Fang served so he knows the town decently well. After we met his friend, we went sightseeing for a bit. We went to a 102 year old bridge that was built by the Japanese, I think during their occupation of Thailand. The sign about it was in Thai so the only thing I could understand was the year it was built, 2454. We're in Buddhist years and it makes me feel like I'm living in the future sometimes, as it's the year 2556.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cruising around sightseeing and taking pictures in the mountains around Pai. We went to Pai canyon, where I scared Fang by walking to the end of a rock path that had abrupt drops on each side. 

That night we went to visit his friend who had a booth at Pai's walking street. It was a pretty big market, lots of cool handmade things to see. And there was chai! It was delicious.

We met more of his friends at a bar after that and just hung out for the rest of the night, drinking and dancing to a Thai band. 

The next morning we got up early and went to a Yunan village (Chinese) called Baan Santichon that was just outside of Pai. It looked pretty touristy but still interesting. There was a little circle of shops with a pond and a replica of an old castle. Lots of Chinese food and crafts. I wish I'd been hungry, but it was early and I'd had no coffee yet, and entirely too much to drink the night before.

After Baan Santichon we went back into Pai proper and found coffee. Part of the reason I love Pai so much is that they have real, fresh, hot drip coffee and it is delicious.  We had our coffee and I had a croissant at a tasty little Muslim bakery. Then we went and had "real" breakfast, Fang gets a little weird about farang food. So we found him a Thai street vendor with kra pow moo and he was happy. 

We had to return our rented motorbike at noon and still had three hours until our bus, so we wandered around Pai for a bit. Fang wanted a massage so we found a nice little place with a/c and wasted an hour there. Then we went to eat again, since the bus ride is about 3 1/2 hours. We went to a little place I liked last time and I got a tuna sandwich. Fang got a burger that he couldn't figure out how to eat (it was kind of large) so it was comical watching him try to pick it up, and then try to cut it apart with his utensils. 

Anyhow, we made it to the bus on time and got back to Chiang Mai around 630. Uneventful trip home, and now I've been back in Lamphun. Thursday was the king's birthday, AKA Father's Day, so no class. Tuesday is Constitution Day, so no class then either. Two weeks til finals and not a single solid week of classes. I think I'll get used to this...  

Loi Krathong and other exploits

It is still a profoundly humbling experience to look around the room and realIze that you are the foreigner.

 In the past ten days, for the most part, not a lot has happened. Sports day was postponed for the kids so this upcoming week will be the third in which I don't see all of my classes, and in which the schedule could be variable. For the past two weeks, instead of the usual 50 minutes, we have had 40 minute classes. This means that classes are done by 230, which gives the kids time to further choreograph their "cheering," which they do by color and class. There are 5 colors, I believe: red, yellow, blue, green, and purple. Sports day is basically the Thai version of field day, so it should be another interesting experience. 

This past weekend was Loi Krathong. "Loi" means float, and a krathong is a little floral arrangement on a slice of banana tree trunk decorated with folded banana leaves and topped with incense, a candle, money, and some hair and fingernail of the person sending it off. As Fang explained it to me, it's kind of an apology to the river for using it all year. I've seen some really beautiful kratongs, and I'll try to find some pictures so y'all can see. It's held every November on the full moon. Saturday I was supposed to go to the festivities in Lamphun, but I was sick. The weather keeps flip-flopping here. During the day it can be really hot, and then it cools down quite a bit at night. It usually feels great but it keeps giving me little colds and I've had a couple migraines I think the weather change has triggered. So I just stayed home and slept.

Sunday night was the night I'd looked forward to anyway. Fang played at a place called the River Market. It was a fairly exclusive party, the tickets cost 2,400 baht apiece, about 80 bucks. Thankfully, dating the guitarist has it's perks, and so I went for free. It was a pretty great night. Before Fang played, we walked around outside the River Market and to the Iron Bridge (which the River Market overlooked) and bought some lanterns. We lit one and sent it off while we were on the bridge, and saved the other 2 I bought. The drummer, Damien, is from Australia and his mother had come to the show since she was visiting, so we thought she might like to help us light the other lanterns. 

The band played for about 3 hours, and the sets were interspersed with traditional Thai dancers. There were even a couple of fire dancers. It was a mostly farang crowd, which meant people I could actually talk to and understand! And dance with. The Thais aren't big dancers in the bar. 

Both Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan were at the party, since they're filming around Chiang Mai now. Owen Wilson was with who I assume were his wife and toddler, and after a while he sent them home and came and sat at a table and mostly hung around and brooded for the night. He was gracious enough to take a picture with me and Fang (who I think was the most excited to meet a celebrity). Unfortunately, I only heard after that Pierce Brosnan was there, I didn't actually see him.

I had such an amazing time at this party. There were literally thousands of lanterns in the sky, some hung with fireworks so they sparked and glittered. Words and pictures could not do the sky justice. It's really cliche, but it was magical. There was even a professional fireworks show, which looked so cool with the backdrop of the full moon and all the lanterns floating along. It's one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life. 

This week was my first with my new classes. I now teach EPDP 1s and 2s. My other classes weren't told so all week I've had kids coming up to me wondering why I wasn't in class, and I've had to explain that I got swapped. Some of them have even been sad, which I thought was really sweet since I thought I've been a shit teacher. A couple of my 4s have even begun to come to me after school for help with homework, which they didn't do when I taught them. I kind of love it, I can't lie. And now instead of seeing twenty different classes of 50 students once a week, I see ten different classes of 20 students twice a week. Technically I have half of the class, and Bill has the other half. So I have a coteacher of sorts. It really does make all the difference, and after this one week I can actually definitively say I might like this. I even have a book to teach from! So I've made a deal with all my kids (most of whom actually understand me now!) that one day a week will be workbook day, which is boring. But if they're good on workbook day, they respond to my questions and cooperate, then the other day that I see them will be game day or video day, something fun. Of course it will be educational fun, but as long as they don't really notice it then we're all good. Even an English language movie will be practice for the kids, because the Thai teachers that teach them the initial English they learn often teach it to them wrong.  By the time they get to me or, god forbid, to Bill (who has a very thick English/Australian accent), they get really confused by hearing vocabulary I know they've already learned. They catch on really quickly though, and we've had a lot of fun this past week. The first day we practiced questions about Loi Krathong. "What did you do?" "Where did you go?" "How did you go?" "How long were you there?" "Who did you go with?" 

Questions are actually some of the biggest strumpers for my kids. With my regular 1s last semester, we did a listening exercise about a dog the had three balls, one red, one yellow, one blue. He chewed one, played with one, and ran after the other. So I'd read this several times very slowly, and then ask my kids. "How many balls did the dog find?" "Blue!" was one of the most common answers. 

The other half of the week this week was story time once we figured out that half the 2s have the wrong book somehow. It actually really helps the kids learn to think on their feet (since they're used to copying, memorization and repetition). Once they get going we all had a blast. I always get them to tell me the name of a person (they usually pick on a classmate) and a place. Then we get the person from their house to whatever place. We specify the day of the week, the weather, the transportation this person will use. We talk about what this person looks like. Then, along the way, the person meets A MONSTER! So we talk about this monster, what it looks like and what the person does with it. My kids are pretty violent. In one of my classes, a girl killed the monster with a shotgun and a knife. Then she fried it and ate it, and shared it with her friends. The monster was poisonous, though, so it killed all of her friends, but not her, she was magical. She did get so depressed after all her friends died, though, that she killed herself with the shotgun. By the end of the story, the whole class is usually involved and having a blast, where before it was hard to get them to answer even simple questions. I think that's going to be my rainy day activity from now on.

Next weekend Fang and I are going to Pai, and I'm really excited. It should be really fun. Hope I can convince him to go to the hotsprings...

I guess that was really a lot more to report than I'd originally thought. Well. Here's to all of you saying I don't blog enough.

Business as usual

Not a whole lot to report. Started school again a couple of weeks ago and things seem to be going as usual. Having to create lessons again, which now is a little better thanks to having a projector in most of my classes. Now to find the appropriate attachment to be able to use my iPad with it...

I would use my laptop, but see, I tried that already. And bought the wrong attachment, because the one that I need for my ancient MacBook never actually made it to Thailand. Since my laptop is 8billion years old in computer years, I'm SOL on that front. But thank goodness for my iPad, because I think I can find something for it. 

This week and last week have been interesting at school... The kids are having a Sports Day on the 21st (whatever that means....) and have been practicing their cheering in the afternoons, so we have had half days for these 2 weeks. Last week, we had all the morning classes. This week, our afternoon classes have been moved to the morning and we don't see the morning classes. Confusing? Yeah. Everyone pretty much is. 

Ben is leaving next week to go back to America for grad school in the spring. I'm slightly jealous, but I'll be back soon enough I suppose. (Come on, April! Or May?.... Maybe June..... Hmm....) There's a chance that when he leaves I will take over his lower level EPDP classes, which I think will be a good thing as I will sort of have a co-teacher. I have mixed feelings about it because I really like my M.4s and will feel bad to abandon them, but I feel these kids would be better served with me helping the classes in which more students want to learn and are younger so they'll pick up the language faster. Hopefully.

I have also now started a new job, in order to save money to extend my stay at least to the Songkran (new year/water fight) festival in mid-April. I'm tutoring elementary school kids and I already love them. I have one set Wednesday and Friday, and another set Saturday and Sunday. They're so stinkin cute and really bright. I'm trying to get them talking and playing, but I never realized I could be good with little kids before so it's a learning experience for all of us. Thankfully I have found a really good website with games that get them out of their seats and interacting with me. 

This weekend is Loi Kratong, and I'm really excited! It's the lantern festival, and there are already tons of paper lanterns being hung everywhere and kids are playing with fireworks... There are vendors for the floating lanterns everywhere, too. Part of the tradition is to make a kratong, which is basically a slice of banana tree on which flowers and incense and candles are arranged, and the kratong is floated down a river. I'll be going to the festival in Lamphun on Saturday and the one in Chiang Mai on Sunday, as Fang is playing with his bands for both occasions. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of pictures for y'all after this weekend!

On a similar note, dating a Thai has been an interesting experience. He encourages me to wear makeup and nice clothes, but I have realized that it's part of the cultural differences. I may have mentioned before that the Thais are very very heavily invested in surface appearance. Everything is "soo-ay"(beautiful) and they don't have much stock in the idea of anything being ugly. So one is expected to make themselves look a certain kind of presentable in order to provide a pleasing aesthetic for those around them. It's a point of pride to invest time in your outward appearance. I've never worn makeup this much in my life. And PJs in public? Alas, I cannot.

76 steps

Got to Bang Mun Nak safely (it's spelled, like many things in Thai, several different ways) and spent the night there to break up the travel time somewhat. We woke up around 5 and hopped the train to Bangkok, which ended up only being about 56 baht. Score one for cheap travel. It was about a 6 hour trip, and we got in around 1 and sat at a little coffee and bun shop to regroup. I found it quite odd but comforting that the coffee bun I chose reminded me of dad's sourdough pancakes.

We downloaded a map of Bangkok and decided to strike out on our own for the nearest Skytrain station, because we're cheapskates. The taxi drivers at the station seemed a little surprised and dismayed at our independence, but we shrugged them all off and continued on our way. We found the station after a short walk and got to the Ekkamai bus station ok. Unfortunately, though, we had slightly misjudged the travel times and were told that we'd be stuck in Trat for the night because things here in Thailand tend to close ridiculously early and we'd miss the last ferry at 7 o'clock. We decided to stay that nigh in Bangkok, not knowing about the sort of accommodations to be found in Trat. That ended up being a good decision, we found a nice hostel around the corner from the bus station and explored the Sukhimvit area of Bangkok a bit. I'm glad, because my previous explorations of Bangkok really did not impress me. It seemed very much like a city that can't figure out its identity.  When you're in New York, or Paris, or London, even Atlanta, they have their own big city feel of sorts, and Bangkok just feels muddled and confused. Sukhimvit area seemed much more strong and aware of the face it wanted to show the world and was fun to walk around. It is a much more new area of the city.

Anyhow, we caught the 7 o'clock bus the next morning to Trat and it seemed a near thing as we ended up crowded in the very back seat with three broad shouldered Thai men for much of the way. We pulled in to Trat around 1 and had to catch a songtaew to the ferry, which took a little bit less an an hour. The ferry itself was another hour of travel, so we finally got to Koh Chang around 3 that afternoon. We ate lunch at a little noodle shop by the pier and rented a motorbike. Apparently we picked the hostel that is almost the farthest away that we could pick, because it took us around 45 minutes to bike to the south area of the island where we're staying. As far as scenery and feel it is a great choice, but the road is a bit terrifying in a couple of places (the hairpin-iest hairpin turns on steep inclines).

Sean and I were in a little 12x12 bungalow at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful and for 200 baht apiece a night, I feel we made a great choice. The nights were nice and cool so we had both windows propped open and a little fan for extra breeze. Hearing the ocean crash against the rocks below was really relaxing. 

We went to a place called Ruan Thai Seafood for dinner. Great life choice. We got crab sautéed with red curry, crab baked with vermicelli (which had cloves of garlic and fat slices of ginger), and red curry with pineapple, shrimp, and coconut. I felt like such a glutton because it was so good I could not stop eating. The shrimp and crab were fresh and so was the pineapple, absolutely delicious.

The first full day we were here, we managed to talk to the Welshman who owns the place (who was quite impressed that we identified his accent) and after asking him for advice, we kayaked to an island nearby. He gave us the kayak for free, which we later found was quite a steal because others staying here are renting them for 400 baht a day. 

The island we kayaked to was a couple of miles from where we are staying, which means Sean and I got a workout for the day. A little over 4 hours of ocean kayaking. We snorkeled a bit around the island we stopped at, which was really pretty. We saw lots of brain coral and colorful fish. I was tired for a few days from all that paddling. I cut my feet on some of the rocks on the beach, got a mild sunburn and blistered fingers. Worth it. Also cut my palm open falling on the rocks when we brought the kayak up at low tide. That was a challenge.

We wanted to go to a place we'd read about called Barrio Bonito for dinner, a Mexican place owned by a couple of expats that had gotten great reviews. Unfortunately it proved impossible to find so we ended up at a place called Ciao. It was an Italian place owned by an Irishman and his Thai wife, who was the chef. For neither of them being Italian it was some of the tastiest Italian food I have ever had. Sean got the special, which was meatballs in traditional tomato sauce with mozarella and penne. I got penne with a mushroom truffle cream sauce, and we split a vegetarian pizza and the house red wine (which was actually pretty good- a happy first for Thailand!). Somehow we ate all of it (I blame the kayaking). We had a really pleasant conversation with the owners, as well. All in all a day well spent.

Sunday we explored the east side of the island. We started our trip with breakfast on the west side at a place called Papa's bakery, where we got chocolate croissants. So delicious especially given that they are so hard to find around here. Good bread, real homemade bakery bread is hard to find. We bought a couple of sandwiches for lunch from Papa's, Italian Salami with pesto and tomatoes and Gouda on homemade toast. We went to Than Mayom waterfall, which was alright. It was pretty but very crowded. We'd heard that a couple of kings had carved their initials into the rocks at the top and wanted to climb up and see, but there was a little man in uniform that blew his whistle and fussed when anyone got too close to the rocks around the falls. The water felt great, though and it was a fun little trek through the park. After the falls, we tried to find a mangrove forest that's a sort of restoration project, but the roads and the signage were confusing and difficult for motorbike novices to traverse, so we ended up just turning around and going back. We stopped for coffee halfway up which ended up being a good decision because we got to sit out a really bad storm. 

Monday we went to a little beach near our hostel and sat in a couple of deck chairs underneath an umbrella napping and reading all day. The ocean was the perfect temperature, there were very few rocks and the water was really clear. We overlooked Bang Bao Bay and a couple of tiny islands that are to the south of Koh Chang. It was a really relaxing and calm last day. 

I definitely did not get enough pictures, sorry! And I have not uploaded all of them to Facebook. I'll get on that eventually.

Today starts my first day back teaching. Second semester, and I'm told there will be many more holidays and activities than last semester. I also now have a second job, working with Cambridge Language School to help elementary school and a couple of high school kids with extra lessons, as well as a private lesson with Fang's boss's 4-year old daughter in the works. Should be a pretty busy next four months. I'm trying to save money so that I can stay a little longer after my contract ends. Fang is also trying to get me to sing with one or two of his bands, so that may be another way to get some more cash. If I can get over all feelings of "hell no, I'd have to be in front of people!" 

We'll see how it goes....

Weekend/sept 14

 Some of this is play-by-play of the weekend, some is catching up the rest. Sorry for the mix of tenses.

Here I am at the Lanna resort now. I thought I was rooming with Jenny, just to find that apparently I've been put with a lady named Nongyao, a woman that everyone seems to pity me for being stuck with. Great. So glad they've just told me now instead of asking me when they asked everyone else. I guess they figured she can't speak much English, I can't speak much Thai so how horrible can she be to me? Only one night to find out...

The buffet was delicious. Tacos and alfredo! The best! I also had sushi and salad and tomato cream soup... Also had too many desserts, crepe and little cakes and a custard tart and a big scoop of ice cream that Tata fixed for me with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and sprinkles. Now I wish I had brought my running shoes. I'll have to run tomorrow for sure. I ate so much....

Not looking forward to this stupid dance we're supposed to do, but the Thais are great at laughing at themselves so it's a skill I'm working on picking up as well. I guess one dance is a small price to pay for a free buffet and a nice stay in a super comfy resort...

Well, I think it's safe to say we were the best dancing group, make of that what you will. I will try to have video evidence at some point, I know there were videos taken. At any rate, here I am in a showgirl headdress drinking the strawberry wine by myself because it wasn't to Alli's taste, wondering after the possibility of everyone getting me up on stage to sing. Tata has already dragged me up in front of the stage to "lead" a dance, and it became evident that I need more alcohol. It has been a blast so far, wackiness has definitely ensued. Re: earlier statement about Thais loving to laugh a themselves.

The night was overall a success. We sang, we danced, we drank... It was fun watching our fellow teachers let loose. After all their talk of staying up all night, the party shut down around 11 and we went off to our separate rooms. I stayed up with Tata and Ryoma for a while, then made it back to my room.

Safe to say I now know why the others pitied me. "Happy" Nong didnt say two words to me the entire weekend, but she left the TV on ALL night. When I got in around 130, I turned the volume down and tried to get to sleep, which I managed to do with the covers over my head. I heard her start to get up around 530 and I put the remote on the bedside table, hoping maybe she would turn the TV off since she was going to take a shower. Nope, she turned the volume right back up, blaringly loud, even though I was clearly not trying to be awake yet. While she was taking a shower, I grabbed the remote again and again turned the volume down--leaving the TV still on and hearable, mind you-- and put the remote by my pillow on my bed. Well, she came out and was just grumpy as all get-out. She started opening all the drawers and slamming them shut trying to find the remote; she slammed the bathroom door, and eventually packed all her things up and left, leaving all the lights on and the front door wide open. Since I could not get back to sleep after all that, I just turned off the TV and lounged for a bit before getting up myself. Several other teachers have now come up to me asking about what happened. Overall, it wasn't a big deal. It was just one night. The beds were really comfortable though, I would like to have been able to say I slept better.

On the way back, Ben, Char, Alli and I got off the school truck near Chiang Mai and caught a songtaew into the city. Ben went his separate way and the rest of us went to airport plaza to go shopping. Char needed some running shoes. We met Amaka at the mall and just hung around a bit. Had our usual Duke's for lunch--delicious chilli and a burger--and came back to Lamphun. 

Went out to a bar we like with MC that night. The band was pretty awesome. Alli was given a rose by a guy at another table, who then got jealous and pouty after the guitar player from the band started talking to us. Sorry, pouty rose dude, he knew more English. We ended up getting on really well with the guitar player, whose nickname was A and had good enough English that we could hold a good conversation. When we got up to leave, he came outside with us and insisted on a hug, apologizing for not being able to give us a ride home since he'd come on his motorbike. As we walked down the street, he came driving up with the singer and another friend in tow. I hopped on his bike, Char and Amaka hopped on with Gee, the singer, and Alli was with the friend. Got another hug as we got off the bikes. It was super nice of them all, and now we've got plans for Thursday. I love musicians!

The Yoofe of today

Here's a play-by-play of my Saturday :

Songtaew here (a school in Lampang) was bearable but slightly disappointed I couldn't sit with my kids. They shoved me in the front seat with the driver, who happened to have the most annoying voice thus far. Like a Thai Mister Smee. The hour-ish drive did give me a lot of time to think. It was also beautiful, most of it through the mountains between Lamphun and Lampang.

At spelling bee competition with the kids. So far has proved an interesting experience... Not the spelling bee I'm used to. They've got multiple choice questions, with a sentence and definitions, and it's like a section of the SAT or something.  There are two MCs that are reading out the questions and spelling the answer choices; I think they're famous because every time they walk near the back, all the spectators (teachers and fellow students of the competitors) are snapping photos. But then again Thais are crazy about pictures and selfies. When we walked in, the ushers we thought were going to take us to our seats immediately waylaid Char and me for photos. Everyone still coming in had to squeeze around us to get to a seat. Then, when we tried to sit with our students and fellow teacher, another usher came up to us and said "Come with me, please" and led us both up to the front of all the (hundreds of) kids to sit in the first couple of rows like VIP. Got that farang status. Strange.

The upper level words are so easy. Youth, torch, satellite, astronomy, enlarge, kingdom, politician, etc. These choices are upper level high school! Wtf?

Finishing out the day listening to Mary J Blige at an older British gentleman's 57th birthday party in Thailand, at his own request because he just "goes to pieces" when he sees her; Following that with a rapper, also at his behest: Not where I thought I'd be. Also, according to said British gentleman, I've "got soul," which he defines as a "zest for life and experience." Considering I've just met him (and this comment was after Char, MC, and I karaoke-d NSYNC), it seems a very nice thing to say. I hope I continue to live up to that judgement.

Filling in

I heard pounding on Alli's door at 8 o'clock this morning. When Alli didn't answer and the cries became both more insistent and annoying, I threw on a tank top and some shorts and poked my head out of the door. I had no contacts in and must have looked sleepy as hell. I heard two voices cry "Oh! Teeeeaccherrrr!!" The fuzzy shapes then revealed themselves to be James and Baker, two of our EPDP students, in M.3 and M.2 respectively. They immediately told me they were going to Chiang Mai today, to see a movie, and posed the question "Teacher! You will go with us?" To which I could only sleepily stammer, "Oh! Um... Ok?" While they waited outside, I went back in my room and woke up a bit more, brushed my teeth etc. Apparently as I was doing that, the boys convinced the morning receptionist/manager we call Fuzzy-Headed Man to unlock Alli's door. Um. Wtf. Needless to say, we will be deadbolting the door from now on in addition to locking the doorknob. 

So after the rude awakening, Alli and I both headed out with the boys. We caught a songtaew and went straight to Central Airport Plaza. The boys settled on watching the second Percy Jackson movie, so we bought tickets and went to eat. After wandering around and figuring out that most of the buffets and restaurants around were entirely too expensive, we settled on the Central Plaza food pavilion, which has a lot of yummy traditional Thai foods to choose from. After lunch we played a silly Thai arcade game thing and then it was time to go to the movie.

The movie didn't suck as bad as I thought it might. It was kind of cheesy, but it was pretty fun. Anthony Stewart Head and Nathon Fillion definitely made it better. 

When the movie was over, Alli and I escorted the boys to Wororot market to catch a songtaew home. We went to the Sunday Night Market in Old City. I was really excited that we could go, since the last songtaew leaves for Lamphun at 7. The market sets up around 4 and was much more pleasant to be able to actually navigate the market without having to fight through a huge crowd. Had a delicious chicken kebab for dinner, and now here I am back at home. 

In teaching news, we only have the month of September left. Four weeks, technically, although the last week will be finals so it will probably not be a full week for me, and I'll have to proctor for a few days. So really I have two weeks of classes, one week for my finals, and then one week for the school finals. I'm so ready. This semester has been a long lesson in What Not To Do. Next semester should be so much better both for me and my students.

Now I just have to figure out where I want to go for break in October. I'm thinking maybe Angkor Wat? I only have about 2 weeks, and I think that might be pushing it a little. But I'm ok with that. 

As far as the rest of my time, this whole past week Char and I have been going to Thai Zumba. One of these days I'll get a video. It is not like the Zumba that most people think, but more a mix between 5 year old hopping around and teenie bopper dance moves. It is hilariously exhausting. Mostly just hilarious. After a week straight I sort of feel like I have a grasp on maybe half of the moves. It's only Monday through Friday, and we intend to keep going. We have already recruited Jenny, a Philippino English teacher, to come with us Monday. Wednesday, Jenny's husband JP, an English teacher at a different school, and Ryoma, the very animated Japanese teacher at Chakkham, are also coming with us. I am so excited. 

Lampang weekend

Went to Lampang a couple weekends ago for TTC. Am now officially TEFL certified, much good may it do me. It's only a 60 hour certification, and most English teaching jobs require double that. 

In all, it wasn't a complete waste of a weekend. It was really good to see everyone, and I met the newest member of our program, a girl named Emily. She's with the Chaiyaphum group, came in from UGA at the beginning of August. She seems really nice, I look forward to more group shenanigans to get to know her more. 

I got to Lampang that Friday with Ben, we'd left school early. Checked in to our usual Kim City hotel, and found there were already a good few folks there. We had to meet in the conference room for the beginning of our panel discussions, which were about our experiences in our towns teaching as well as  what we thought about orientation and how helpful it was for our lives now. After much riveting discussion, we had dinner and adjourned early. Everyone else went out to bars and clubs, but I just wasn't feeling it and ended up going back to the room and read instead. Turned in early.

Saturday was fairly slow. We had more panel discussions and then had dinner together in the meeting room. That night we went out again. Bou, Amaka, Char and I accompanied Chase, Nabi,l and Sean to watch a football game. We ended up at a local Thai bar that was playing three, back to back. After a little while, Ben and Merhawi joined us. I left around 1130 as everyone else went to another bar and wandered around Lampang for a while. I found a lot of great junk! Got back to the hotel around 1230 and went to bed.

Got up Sunday morning and went down to breakfast. Turns out the Sunday meeting was rather pointless, all TTC wanted from us was a quote and a bio for their website. Sent them a quote, thanks to Howard for the assist: "I came to Thailand because it was here, because this place offered me experiences so far beyond my hometown as to be nearly alien in nature. I came because Thailand was here, but I have stayed because of my students, because of these wonderful chatterboxes of culture and inquiry. I give them a second language. They give me a second life." 

I promise you, it is intended with every bit of sarcasm you think it is :). Still haven't turned in a bio. Oops. 

After we all realized the Sunday morning meeting was just info wrangling, we parted ways and hung around Lampang. Bou, Nabil, Amaka and I all went to get a massage at the place we like that's right in front of Kim City Hotel. Then we went to a local farang hangout where i had a delicious fajita. Mmmmexican. Weekend overall was nice and relaxing, and I had a good time with folks I don't see very often. 

Pai times

I am the worst at blogging regularly. 

I left school a little early on the 9th, as I was headed to Chiang Mai to visit the doc. Didn't end up happening, but I had a night in Chiang Mai nonetheless. Ben and Char were supposed to be headed to Pai but as I was sitting in the common room at Deejai, they came waltzing in. We headed out for some dinner, and ended up at a little Italian place inside old city. Char and I got pizza, which was alright but did not satisfy us like the ones at Duke's. we found ourselves next at a stand by Tapae Gate called Cocktail Cycle Chiang Mai. It was elevated and we climbed up to sit onto padded bicycle seats. We spent about three hours talking to the bartender, Mr. Keng. Definitely going back there. 

After that we ended up at a club called Spicy, which I only mostly remember. Apparently that night was my first ride in a tuk-tuk, but I certainly don't remember that. 

Somehow I got back to the hostel; I woke up at 5 in the bathroom shower, water running. I got up, crawled into bed and went to sleep. 

We all headed to Pai Saturday around noon. It was a long, wind-y, three hour trip through the mountains. Char and I were in the van of a man who clearly thought he was a race car driver. Between slamming on brakes and driving squarely in the middle of the road, we had an interesting ride. In Pai, it took us about 45 minutes to walk to our hostel; Darling View Point was a good several kilometers from the bus station. It was a beautiful walk though with some great views overlooking the city and the river. We were in an old style Thai house that had been converted into a dorm style hostel, beds on the floor and everything.

We had dinner at a local place called Maya Burger Queen. It was delicious, although Gekko Gardens in Chiang Mai is better. We sat at a place just down the road called Ting Tong and chilled for a few hours after that. A cool German dude named Elias made our acquaintance and we sat and talked to him and other farang for a good while. We turned in around midnight with an agreement to meet Elias for breakfast the next morning.

We met Elias at the concrete bridge near our hostel around 9 and headed to a little Thai restaurant for breakfast. I had a delicious omelet with tomatoes and onion and some toast. And coffee. Always coffee. We went to a little place called Aya after that and rented motorbikes. Pai is a lot more fun with motorbikes. After we filled up the tanks, we went to a waterfall north of the city. It was a really fun ride even though it was full of potholes and shittily maintained roads. 

The water was freezing, but I got in anyway. The waterfall was really pretty. We stayed for about an hour, and Elias and Ben both injured themselves trying to slide down it.

We were set to leave and got caught in a torrential downpour which left us clambering for shelter. We huddled under the awning of the little noodle/soup shop that locals had set up by the waterfall. The roof of it was all dried leaves, which ended up not working quite so well in so much rain. It kept springing leaks and the little Thai man would come over and stuff plastic bags through the tiny wooden slats to stave them. It worked well enough until another leak came along. Finally the rain lightened up enough that we decided to chance the ride back down to the city. We still got completely soaked, though. 

We ate lunch a little while later at a place called the Witching Well, where I got a vegetable tempura burger since I'd never heard of such a thing. Good life choice. It was delicious. Then we just lounged in hammocks in this little bar called Hi5. The owner was a little rasta Thai dude and his Australian girlfriend bartended. They were both really talkative and kind. We stayed there for about 5 hours lounging, talking, and playing pool. Finally we just went back to the hostel and had a mini pool party in the hostel's mini pool, and went to bed. 

Met with Elias for breakfast one last time before Char and I had to catch our bus back to Chiang Mai. Don't know the name of it, but it was only alright. Got back to Chiang Mai, ate dinner at Duke's and the headed back to Lamphun. Good four day week of teaching.

Things I have learned in Thailand

This list is likely to expand the longer I am here.

Concerning transportation:

1. If you are driving a motorcycle or scooter, it is ok to drive along the wrong side of the road if there is not yet a break in traffic for you to get to the correct side, or provided you are not going very far before turning. The definition of what is very far is variable and subjective. 

The sidewalk is also an acceptable place to drive a motorcycle or scooter.

2. Helmets are not necessary unless it is night time, or you are going on a long journey. If you are going only a short way at night, helmets are optional then too. 

3. When on a scooter or motorcycle, it is only ok to stay behind a car when the road is very congested. Otherwise, the rule is "me first," and you can pass to either side. If you are in a car and behind another very slow car, so long as there are no other cars coming, you pass. Motorcycles or scooters in the oncoming lane do not count as cars. You pass.

4. The proper road etiquette for a motorbike can be summed up thusly: if it fits, I sits. You are expected to weave through stopped traffic at a light so that you can have the spot in front.

5. Driving drunk is ok, so long as you just go really slowly and drive very carefully. Both slow and careful are also subjective terms.

6. In America, when someone flashes their lights and/or honks the horn, it means they are being polite and letting another driver have right of way. In Thailand, flashing one's lights and/or honking means "If you value your life or extremities, get the fuck out of the way I'm coming through!"

7. Sidewalks are an acceptable place to park anything. People don't need them to walk on, that's what the streets are for. Just as well anyway, because dogs generally decide that the sidewalk is the most comfortable place for a shit.

Concerning markets:

1. If you are in town on a Friday night, you go to the market. Even if you don't need anything, you go. Everyone who's anyone is at the market. 

2. Everything is cheaper at the markets, from fruit to underwear to puppies. You can find just about anything you need at the markets, excepting alcohol. For that, you go the the bars conveniently behind the market, or you just pop down to 7-11.

3. People stop immediately when they see something they like. Moving over before stopping is not a concept most follow, to the effect that sometimes you have clusterfucks. If you are not paying attention, you may also walk into people that have just stopped short in front of you. Clearly, this is your fault and you are to be glared at, you silly foreigner. 

Concerning food:

1. Proper silverware etiquette is spoon in the right hand, fork in the left. You shovel food onto your spoon with the fork. The fork is mainly for distribution of food. There are no knives, that's what the spoon is for. If something cannot be cut with your spoon then you had a bad cook who should have made it bite sized to begin with.

2. Food is cheaper and better at the market or street stand than you would find in a restaurant. There may not be a place to sit, and you may be eating Pad Thai with what are essentially shortened skewers, but it will be cheap and tasty.

3. Sometimes you have to fight flies if you want to eat. Swat the army of flies away with one hand, shovel noodles in your face with the other. 

4. There are vegetables in very few things. Those few things have very few vegetables in them. Meals consist of rice and/or noodles and some form of protein. Here in Lamphun, that protein is pork more often than not. Also, egg is in everything.

5. One drinks alcohol with copious amounts of ice and water. Beer must  be topped off with at least three ice cubes. Whiskey is one part whiskey, three parts water and three parts soda water. Asking for coke makes you a drug addict. Or a foreigner.

Concerning language:

1. Most Thais know two phrases: "Hello!" and "Where you go?" You will hear those two phrases so many times you will dream of creative ways to murder the next person that says them to you.

2. If they know more phrases than the above two, they will use them. Even in passing or while you are walking away and with no context, just to prove to you that they can. 

If they do not know more, they will begin speaking to you in Thai and expect you to understand anyway.

3. If you are in a restaurant and cannot name something you want to eat, you will be brought a menu. 4 times out of 5, it will be in Thai and the server will expect you to be able to read it, as they might point to things that you should think are desirable.

Concerning schools:

1. Read number one Concerning language.

2. If the kids know you do not know Thai, they will then try to only speak to you in Thai. When you respond that they should be speaking English, they will say "Teacher! Sa-peak THAI!" 

If it is not a game, Thai kids do not care about it. They will then ask for the entire class time, "Teacher! Next week, game?"

3. Copying someone else's schoolwork is to be encouraged. If you don't know the answer yourself, someone else's is good enough. It's not really cheating, it's being helped by a classmate.

4. If you don't understand something, don't you dare say so. Thai teachers will just tell you it doesn't matter, and besides, you can trade those math answers you don't know for your science paper. When in doubt, cheat. 

4. Twenty kids yelling different things at once is an acceptable way to communicate with the teacher.

5. There is almost never a full school week. School is mostly an excuse to have tournaments and celebrations, and cheap (meaning free) labor for frilly decorations with which to impress official, usually government, folk.

Miscellaneous weird shit:

1. Seen in Pai: a two-foot long rat tail.... Dreadlock.

2. Seen in Lamphun: a man walking his birds. Seriously. He had like 6 or 7 bright green and yellow birds, just a a-hoppin' along on the sidewalk as he muttered to them and swept the laggers along.

Quick note

It is now the start of week 10, and I have yet to have every single class in a week that I am supposed to have. For one reason or another, either I miss a whole day of classes or I am just one or two classes short in the week due to "activity." Next week will make 11 weeks. This week I missed yesterday because our field trip returned at 430am and we were allowed the day off. Next Monday is the queen's birthday, so we have that off. The week after that, week 12, we may be missing that Wednesday to go to Lampang for visa things.

Sometimes, this job is pretty sweet.

God comes down to scratch that

Here are my notes from the field trip this weekend:

730 pm Friday--

This is definitely a surreal experience. These kids are a trip and a half. They're so excited, and the driver's put on a mix CD so they're dancing in the aisles and up to 13 year old shenanigans. This could only get more interesting. I plan on documenting this with pictures and stream of consciousness entries. 

Our buses look like they were designed by the Thai Lisa Frank. I'm at the very front of the bus, sitting with Ami, which so far has been an interesting vantage point. I've got the big ass window view, but I am also unfortunately directly in front of the speaker, which has proved quite loud at points. Thank god for earplugs. And also thank god for ladyboys, because they will definitely be chief among my entertainment this weekend.  One of them has already donned a brunette wig and flower wreath.

This trip reminds me of my own to New York City when I was two years younger than these jokers. Only we weren't allowed to dance in the aisles then. 

830-- 

We're at song 23 of 38. Dear Lord these crazy children just pulled me into their dance party. There's a couple of them pushing me down into the rest, and the rest are cowering as I approach, because apparently my innocuous American dancing is not so innocuous here, and it makes some of them nervous. Funny what happens when you acknowledge that you have hips... I only just managed to escape, because we've now stopped at a gas station for a quick bathroom break. Oh Lord Jesus it's a fire.

1115--

All's quiet on the western front. We just finished watching a movie and I am amazed that the only sounds are the creaks and thumps and whooshes from the bus. Not even a whisper from these kids. They've just all accepted that it's sleepytime.

The movie we watched was of course entirely in Thai. It was a spoof of a famous Thai ghost story, Ami tells me. A Thai comedy group remade it, in essence. While I understood very few words, it was actually somewhat easy to follow plot-wise. I'd like to find it again sometime, I quite enjoyed it and if I could either find it subtitled or rewatch it once I understand more Thai I think that could be a thing.

The plot was this: the movie begins with a pregnant woman. We see blood start to run down her legs, she collapses and it cuts to men fighting in a war. Many are wounded but we see that one group makes it out and manages to help one of the guys get back home. When he gets there, the villagers act weird. Turns out that his wife died in childbirth and the whole village knows and won't tell him. His friends find out and try to tell him, sort of, I think. She starts to haunt them because they try to take her husband away from her.  The twist is that he knew  she was dead nearly the whole time, but didn't care because he loved her so much. He pretended he didn't know to make her happy. Somehow looking back through your legs lets you see if someone is a ghost/dead or not because that seems to be how the husband and one of his friends each knew. Overall, it seems like it could be a really freaky horror movie but as this one was a comedy, it was quite enjoyable.

Going back to my 6th grade trip, I was reminded that we watched the mummy and I was freaked out the whole time. I don't recall having gotten much of any sleep, I think we watched movies and talked the whole night so it's kind of a remarkable thing to me that I already hear snoring and not a single whisper from these kids. If only I can be so fortunate as to also catch some zzzzs, I will be satisfied. Good night all. 

830 am Saturday--

We are now apparently headed for Hall of Fame, a wax museum like a Thai Madame Toussaude's... I am intrigued. Not sure what the day holds entirely, as while I have the schedule I still can't read Thai. But I am working on that. They've been playing karaoke songs with both the characters and the phonetic English spelling so I've been trying to follow along somewhat and learn new things. 

We were woken up at quarter past 6 after fitful and shitty bus sleep, and I don't know if a coffee ocean would be big enough today. But Ami and I agree that it's too early for thinking and have been small talking instead. 

We stopped at a temple here to clean up and grab something to eat or coffee or what have you and yet again I have been surprised by these kids. That they were basically allowed with no supervision to run around and find food or do whatever for like an hour is very... different. I am definitely not used to the level of personal responsibility bestowed on 13 year olds that still act like, well, 13 year olds. I was not allowed this kind of freedom at 11 (thinking again on my New York City trip)  and I don't think any American teachers would allow their kids the same freedom these kids are capable of retaining. I suppose it's another one of those cultural peculiarities. 

230

I can now scratch several more things off my bucket list. While I still have yet to pet a monkey, I have now seen about half a hundred up close and have been chased down a hill by one. Of course I have (a few) pictures.

The "Thai human imagery" museum was creepy.  It was only one building with a sort of market-y area outside, complete with karaoke. Nothing is Thailand is anything if there isn't karaoke. We stayed there about an hour and then were back on the bus, this time to the former palace of Rama IV I think.... It was pretty interesting, an abandoned concrete monkey house now. The monkeys are everywhere, and they are aggressive. I had an empty coffee cup that many of them were trying to intimidate me and steal when I first got there, until I found a bin to throw it away. Win! On the way back down the mountain, a couple of monkeys managed to get two water bottles from the girls we were escorting. As I tried to take a picture of one of them, he all of a sudden decided I was not worthy of his sidewalk water (he'd unscrewed the cap and poured all the water on the ground to drink it), so he started to approach me, teeth bared. He got within about 6in and I realized probably was not going to stop, so I screamed like a wuss and ran to the bottom of the hill. Char said she thought that was the fastest she'd ever seen me move. 

I also have now had the famed Thai Coke-in-a-plastic-bag. And it has been the tastiest and least flat/syrupy Coke so far. I think that also counts as a win. The little vendor man shoveled ice into a plastic bag, cracked open a glass bottle, and poured it in. Then he shoved a straw through the ice and that was that. 

630pm Sunday

Today was spent at Dream World, what Thailand refers to as a theme park. My first thought upon seeing it was "oh, that's cute." These kids would lose their shit if ever they could go to 6 Flags. First I was wearing my harem pants but since it was so hot I decided it would be a better choice to wear my jeans again. By the time I had changed, Ben Alli and Char were inside and in line for something without me. I'd wanted to spend the day getting to know Ami better so it seemed I got my wish. We ate lunch, then went to ride some rides. First was a water ride called Grand Canyon. If we weren't soaked enough after that,  we got on Splash Mountain which finished the job. We were soaked to the bone but it was so much fun. We paused in the 4d show (a super cheesy short film about a guy in a lab that makes mutant bugs that flew out of the screen) on our way to the bus change into dry clothes. When we got back to the park, we stopped in the Giant's house and then walked to the Haunted House. Ami and I were both too wussy to go in just the two of us, so we waited until a group came along and eased into the middle of it. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was pretty creepy when they'd shut off the lights for a few seconds and choose right after they lit again to have something jump right out at you. Ami spent the whole house with a death grip on my arm, and I spent it shoving into the guy in front of me and ducking under my hat brim.

We were at the park for around 5 hours, which seems now like an overly long time. The kids had a blast though, and so did I. It was a great time, and I'm really glad I got to hang out with Ami. 

We're now in the bus on the way home, music blasting. Thank god for ear plugs. Several things I have figured out about Thai music: they love canned beats. We've been listening to a CD of what sounds like the same song over and over. It's not though, I asked. They also love voice overs. And the whinier the singer, the better. Makes me want to claw my ears out sometimes. Friday night they turned everything off around 11... I can only hope they do the same tonight.

His name is Tata

So I really didn't have any classes today either. Out of the 3 I was supposed to have, one didn't show up, one I only taught a mini-lesson, and the last asked to leave early so they could get lunch before the procession. It was the beginning of a Buddhist holiday, and a day during which the kids took large candles that they had carved designs into, placed them in an ornate parade float type thing, and walked in their various class groups to deliver them to Wats around the city. Ben, Char and I went to Wat Chang Si with the green group. We tagged along with Char's Thai little sisters. It was an interesting and intensely hot walk. There were several sign holders, a group behind them holding offerings, then dancers behind them, the parade float being pulled and pushed that had the candle and several students perched atop it, and following behind were about 100-odd students. When we got to the Wat they all sat and prayed. Ben, Char and I left before the end and headed back to school. Char and Ben had to go travel, Ben to Chiang Mai and Char to Pattaya. Alli and I will be headed to Chiang Mai ourselves tomorrow.

Today, we went to walking street with one of my Thai little sisters, Jar, and a couple of her friends. Alli and I were on a mission to find Tata, one of our coworkers, a graduation present. It took us a little while but we finally found a kitschy photo holder that would suffice. We went after Walking Street to Tata's graduation party, which was at his house about a block and a half from the school. Holy karaoke. Seriously, from the time we got there until about 4 hours later when we left, so much Thai karaoke. They kept trying to get us to sing so we found a couple of English songs we knew to sing. Otherwise it was a time full of drinking and hilarity. Our little Japanese teacher man friend, Ryoma, was there and his English is "very casual." We got to hear him call himself a "real motha-fucka," and another teacher "bitch-ass," which I wish I could relay to you in his heavy Japanese accent. He learned most of his English from rap songs, he tells us. Ryoma got Tata a Doraemon bookbag like a 5 year old would wear. Tata wore it the entire night, and insisted every time Ryoma said his name that he instead be addressed as "Doraemon."

By the end of the party, Tata's father had invited me, Ryoma, and Alli to drink his Johnnie Walker with him at his table. While Alli and I were anxious at first, we definitely agreed by the end of the party that it was a good life choice. We cannot unhear the way Ryoma said some American curse words (hilarious... "Pan-ze-ass!"). My face still hurts from laughing, and we had a great if not fully awkward time at a Thai coworker's graduation party. 

Full week of classes... What's that?

So, there's yet another event at the school this week. We're hosting a nation-wide basketball tournament. For the past two days, we went from 50 minute classes to 40 minute classes so the kids could go rehearse for the opening ceremony. Today, we are also on a 40 minute schedule, but if the kids ask to go to watch the games we can give them permission. If we want to. Hah.

I went up for my first class, and 8 of my kids showed. I sat at the desk waiting for about 10 minutes when one of them came up to me and told me that the boys were away at camp (some JROTC thing I think), and "could they... free... to... to... cheer! To cheer at basketball?" So of course I said no, get your butts in this class by golly I'll just teach the 8 of you. 

In another dimension, maybe. I didn't really feel like teaching today anyway hahaha. I'm glad this country likes to make it easy on me. I had another class right after that one, but I waited for about 25 minutes and nobody showed. Finally I was on my way back to the office when I hear someone call down at me from the floor I'd just been waiting on. "Oh, teachaaaa!" they called. There were only 3 of them, and the others stopped along the sidewalk as they'd just been on their way to the stairs. I just waved and pointed, didn't even bother making them ask. When they understood their faces just beamed and they all bowed and said "Thank you teachaa! Thaaaaank you!" 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I've gone to watch some of these games, and there are some BIG girls on these basketball teams. Thailand is really not a land of short people.

And as stated in the title, I have yet to have a single week since I got here in which I have seen every one of my classes I was supposed to. 

On another bright note, one of my classes has specifically asked me to teach them tenses (like past continuous and perfect tenses), because apparently they had them on the midterm and didn't know them. I love it when they know what they want me to teach, it helps me immensely.

Yesterday Dr. Nirund and Maaw Pet and Dr. Walker and his wife Beth all came for a short meeting and a visit. The meeting at school seemed pretty good, they just asked how we were fitting in, how our teaching was. Then we went out to dinner. Naturally, we took them to one of our favorite places that we can't afford very often... It was delicious, we all just ordered something and passed it around. We had chicken with cashews, a sweet and sour fish dish, pork spareribs (some with garlic, yum!), pad thai with omlette, frog in curry sauce (yes, frog, and it was also delicious), panko shrimp with chili sauce... There were more dishes but I forget what. And we got french fries, one of the few things I crave that I can actually get. Since it was Alli's birthday, Maaw Pet surprised her with a cake and bouquet of roses. It was really sweet. And I never say no to more cake!

Past few weeks in a nutshell

So, not a lot has happened within the past few weeks that I really felt was blog-worthy, but I'll admit to a few interesting incidents.

Firstly, we no longer have the motorbike. I spent a day or so trying to convince Ben of the fact that we didn't really need it. It's an unnecessary expense, and we really don't need one to get around. In addition, it's cheaper to just catch a songtaew to Chiang Mai for 17 baht than to spend 140 baht on a tank of gas for the round trip. So we go out with a fellow teacher one day after school, june 30th-ish i think, just kind of bar hopping like we like to do occasionally. Finally we end up at a club about 5 miles from our house called Rodeo. Ben got mad at me for the whole bike thing and ended up leaving me there in a bit of a huff around 1130pm. I was fine, I was still with the other teacher so I had a safe ride home and all.  I got home around 3 and the bike wasn't there. I wasn't in a state to think too hard on it so I just went to bed. Saturday morning I wake up to a message from Alli that Ben crashed and was in the hospital. He's fine, he just got a bit of road rash and needed a few stitches on his face. Because, guess what? He was a dumbass and was not wearing his helmet (like I had nagged him to many, many a time before). Anyhow, he was really, really lucky. No broken bones, no concussion, no missing teeth, just a bit banged up. But the bike was a little less fortunate. Ben managed to crush the exhaust pipe and dent the exhaust itself, as well as scratch up a mirror and a few of the panels. 4,000 baht worth of repairs later, he returned the bike to the nice Dutch gentleman in Chiang Mai we'd rented it from. 

My birthday week was pretty fun, from July 1-4 I had at least one group of classes a day sing me happy birthday. On the fourth, my "friendship family," two girls in year M.5 that are my "Thai little sisters" surprised me with a cake. Alli, Char and I had stepped out of the office on our way to lunch when we ran into the group of M.5 EPDP (English development and promotion, like AP) girls. They asked us where we were going and kind of hung around expectantly. I wasn't sure if they were going to ask us to go to the canteen with them or what, but Char paused just outside in the courtyard because the Japanese program was having a little festival activity thing. The girls asked us again where we were going and then said "Oh, teacher... You wait here, please?" So I turn around from watching Char write a wish on a piece of paper to hang from one of the trees, and there is the whole group of girls, with a cake. They started singing happy birthday as soon as I turned around and I almost started crying it was so stinkin' cute. They didn't have any plates, but Ausma (pronounced Ah-shma) brought out a handful of spoons and handed them out. They let me get the first bite and then asked " oh, teacher, is it ok?" Again, so cute. So we all just stood around, me and a group of like 8 or 9 teenaged Thai girls, digging our spoons into this 6" white cake. And it was DELICIOUS.

This past week at school was midterms. I can't believe I'm already 1/4 of the way into this teaching gig. Yikes! Anyhow, no classes, yay, but we did have to proctor for 3 days out of the 5. Luckily, Alli and I both ended up getting Monday free from proctoring, and Jimbo and Luke invited us out to a day on the lake that was a maiden voyage of sorts for a farang who is trying to start that as a business. We got picked up from Lamphun around 930 and headed down to Lampang to the Kiu Lom Dam where the boat was. I was definitely expecting more of a yacht type deal, some sort of motorboat like you normally see in the states. Well, this was not that kind of boat. Nor was it really a lake, actually. More a dammed river. The "boat" was more like a porch on pontoons with a little motor on the back. 

We took off our shoes right by the entrance and sat at at one of the plastic tables and the boat puttered its way down the river. We sat with Jimbo and some of his friends from Chiang Mai, just drinking beer and eating delicious curry and spare-ribs. All FREE, the best price! We stopped a little ways and explored some caves, one of which had a Buddhist shrine in it. The rest were full of bats but really pretty natural rock formations. We were told they were also haunted, but we really didn't stick around long enough to find out. Apparently, monks who are on their way through will stop at the shrine and pay homage to the Buddha and the other monk statues there.

At our turn around point, we stopped along a cliff face. It was super beautiful, really peaceful and relaxing. Jimbo jumped in the water for a swim and I was not far behind. The water was perfect. I was only a little disappointed to find that we were the only ones inclined for a dip. The stop was too short. After about 10 minutes, we climbed back up onto the boat and got back underway towards the dam. The trip in all was about 4-6 hours, although admittedly I was more interested in the beer and homemade Thai food than the time. We were bussed back to Lamphun, where Alli and I found ourselves on a tipsy walk downtown to a new noodle shop and had dinner. Delicious. 

All in all, it's been a pretty good few weeks. We've got a full week of classes, as far as I know, and then we have a long weekend coming up. There's a Buddhist holiday on Monday and Tuesday the 22nd and 23rd, so we're already planning our shenanigans. Will try to be more forthcoming with blog posts. Also, this one will have added pictures soon but that's easier to do on my computer than my iPad.

Bangkok (now with pictures!)

So I just had the worst class so far. They were a class of my 4s in which half were absent to begin with. Of the other half, about half spent the time trying to goof off. One boy in particular spent his time trying to pick on one of my ladyboys (named Bambi), and I eventually had to kick him out of the class after Bambi asked me for about the 10th time for help. I say ask, really he would just say "Ohhhh! Teacherrrr!" and look at me pleadingly with big brown eyes as Palm sat there poking his sides, or trying to copy off of his paper, or steal his eraser. I tried to give Palm a chance. I had him move seats, and when he kept moving back, I moved the desk beside Bambi forward. When he would crane around to reach towards Bambi, I stood in between. That just wasn't practical, I needed to move around the class to see what they were doing, and now that I think about it I'm really not sure what prompted me finally just saying "OI! You! Sit outside!"
I had to fuss at the class hardcore, too. I was trying to go over family members, and I drew mine. When I got to asking about various ones (the daughter of my uncle is my...?), they would not say a word. I must have asked the same question about 10 times in a row, obviously looking for a response. Nothing. So I laid into them for about 10 minutes. "I am not here for me to speak, I am here for YOU to speak! I know you're not stupid or mute, but you don't speak! If you don't want to learn, get out of my class!" All of which I said as slowly as possible while I was angry so that they might understand. They at least understood I was angry, and some of them began to respond. As they were working on their in class assignment (drawing their family trees), Bambi called me over. "Teacherr! Um... The, um... information is, you are popular!" Later he also told me I was smart and beautiful. Not sure if he was sucking up or if he actually meant it. My other ladyboy in that class, named Song, told me I was beautiful later, too. They get extra credit! The best part about both of their family trees? They drew themselves like girls, one with long hair and the other with his stomach hangin out and a big bow. Song called me over specifically to show me his. "Is me, teachaa, is meeeee!" So cute!

So last weekend passed pretty well. The weeks are seeming to fly by. I can't believe that I've been here a month already.
We went to Bangkok for a concert by Stanford Chorale and Stanford Taiko. Ben, Alli, Char, MC and I got on the train Thursday evening at 430. We got to leave school early! We bought beds on the train because we knew it would be a long trip.

Our ticket said the arrival time was 630am Friday, but we learned the hard way that train is a very time-consuming way to travel. If you think Europe is bad, oh boy. When we told people that we were taking the train, they laughed and didn't bother asking our arrival time. For good reason: we got in at 930. To top it off, Char's iphone was stolen from the table in our berth as we slept. She got on a tuk-tuk for the Railway Police station, and the policeman came shortly after to get the rest of us. That didn't take long, and the men at the station helped us get a taxi to our hotel.
We stayed at the Florida Hotel on Phaya Thai Rd. After the hotels in Lampang I was nervous, but this was really nice! Kushy duvets, big bathroom, the works. The only down was that Nirund didn't pay for wifi this time. Can't have everything.

We checked in around 1030 and decided to go exploring, as we weren't expected at the concert until 4. The BTS Skytrain was just outside of our hotel. We climbed up the stairs and headed to Siam Square. We explored the malls for a bit, just kind of wandered around. We thought the Bangkok Art and Culture Center was a museum, it was not. More a mix between an office building and a set of galleries. There were two interesting exhibits, one a series on pollution awareness, and the other a schools-wide art contest for dengue fever awareness. Some of the kids, in about 5th grade or so, were crazy good artists. I regretfully got no pictures of their work.
We ate lunch at a massive buffet in one of the malls. There was so much food it was really hard to choose: Japanese, Chinese, a Korean grill, Indonesian, Greek, American, seafood... there was more but I think you get the idea. It was expensive but worth it. After we ate we found our way to Jim Thompson's house. It was a pretty cool place. He was a fashion designer in the early 1900s that went missing in 1967 on his 61st birthday. He was responsible for reviving international interest in the Thai silk trade, and his house was very traditional. He collected antiques and some of the pieces that made up his house were over 200 years old.

We got back to the hotel around 330 and started getting ready to head to the concert. Since nothing has ever been at the time they have said ("Thai time" is a very real thing, and it is at least an hour after the time they say), we decided, rather wisely it seems, to be late. We got there around 5 and still waited around with nothing to do. The concert itself was alright, I could have done without the chorale. I don't mind a capella music, but I was not a fan of their set. In addition, a stage light shone almost directly in my face so I spent the whole time looking down in my lap, hoping it would go away soon.
The Taiko, however, was really, really cool. They're an entirely student-run group. They write their own music, build their own drums, even sew their own costumes. It was impressive. I'd never seen taiko before, but I definitely want to again.  I was an old lady when everyone else went out to the club after, I just stayed at the hotel and went to bed.

Saturday after breakfast, Junior, Ryanne, Alli, Jessica and I set out to explore and sightsee around Bangkok. Alli and I had thought the plan was to be back in time to go to the second concert, that day at two. Apparently that was not the plan. We saw Wat Pho, which is a massive temple next to the grand palace. It houses the Reclining Buddha, which was really huge. It was a really interesting statue, and Alli and I got lost in the rest of the Wat trying to find our way out. Wats here are so intricate and decorated everywhere. There were rows and rows of Buddhas lining the walls. In addition to the Reclining Buddha, there were little buildings with other Buddha statues, like the Buddha of Saturday and others.

Buddha of Saturday, also called Healing Buddha

After Wat Pho, we tried to go to the Grand Palace. I had on a tank top and we decided it was for the better that we just skip it for the time, because renting a covering was 200 baht and on top of that it would have been 500 baht just "to thank the King" for us to get in.
So instead, we found a ferry across the river to Wat Arun, the Wat of the Dawn. We could climb about halfway up and see great views of the city, it was really a beautiful place. There was a lot of tile work and it made me feel like Gaudi must have been to Thailand at some point for inspiration. The coolest part, to me, was that you could tell that most of the flower designs were made from old saucers or dishes.

We went to the mall after that because we were going to watch Man of Steel, but since the soonest showing was in 3D, Alli and I decided to skip it. We had an extra luxurious dinner from McDonald's (don't you judge me!) and went back to the hotel. Everyone decided to party it up that night, so we got ready and headed out with Pong, Ong, Jane and a couple other Thai assistants to a dance club. It was super fun! I had a great time dancing with all the fellow TTC peeps.
Sunday, Alli and Char and I decided on a girl's day. We went to Chatuchak Market, which is the biggest market I have ever seen. I'm talking a market the size of Mercer campus, maybe bigger. It was so overwhelmingly huge. We found a little booth with 100 baht dresses. They had just about everything you could think of, with so many twists and turns and ins and outs... cannot wait to go back.
We ended up taking a bus back to Lamphun, it left Bangkok at 830. Definitely the way to go as far as punctuality. We were scheduled to get in at 630 and were in Lamphun an hour early. Just in time to get ready and go teach! I got decent sleep on the bus, too. The seats were pretty roomy and actually comfortable. So here I am, back in Lamphun. Still not a "normal," week; I havent had any of my 4s because they're all involved in "activity." We think it's an anti-drug assembly/competition kind of thing.
Anyhow, bedtime now. More later.