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.
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