Pretty Much Thai.

So I met more friends this week at Pom's place! I feel like I can definitely understand Thai a lot easier--the problem is communicating my understanding. Which is probably why most of the children who are not officially my students are unwilling to speak English with me--they simply can't. The education they receive in school isn't enough for them to speak with native speakers, and it's difficult. Which also explains why my students are chatterboxes in Thai but the minute I ask them to speak in English, they clam up and refuse to make eye contact with me even though I'm. Standing. Right. In Front. Of them.

But it doesn't make them any less cute, as proven below:


Hello, M3/3--you guyz r adorbz.



And I love you too, M3/4.

I mentioned previously that my nickname was Chompu, which means 'rose apple'. After chatting with them again, they've given me an official Thai name: Siprai. Which means 'beautiful'. Liu Siprai would be my Thai name, Chompu my Thai nickname, LuuLuu my Thai teacher name...

You know you're officially a part of the Thai community when you've got a Thai name, a Thai nickname, a Thai teacher name, and you go to the local Thai vegetarian restaurant twice a day.

I guess I'm pretty much Thai now.

Chompu.

I've never liked paying for doing laundry. It's like throwing away money just because I was lazy. Laziness < money. It's how I felt when I was studying in China--I handwashed clothes every day before I showered and went to bed. It was a routine that I proudly stood by, and I enjoyed it. I planned on doing the same thing in Thailand, but after an entire day of teaching, I really never feel like doing anything except settle down in a tanktop, shorts, with a glass of something cool (no guava lemonade, unfortunately), and either a book, my kindle, or my laptop.

However, after being in Thailand, paying for laundry isn't that big of a deal. Pom, Not, Foam, and Pit are so welcoming. Laundry takes about an hour. I put my laundry in, and I sit down with them, and we start teaching each other languages. Foam is in fourth grade--she's learning English and Chinese on top of her normal Thai lessons. Her pronunciation is great, but she's unwilling to chat with me in English, but that's okay--she's stuck with me for 9 more months ;) The family teaches me Thai, and I teach them English (with the occasional Chinese!) They always have friends and family dropping by their place, so I meet a lot more Thai people that way.

We were discussing different foods (in our broken languages!), and N, L, and I were given nicknames. My nickname is Chompu (rose apple). L is Malee (jasmine). N is Naagao (intelligent). They offered to take us to a market about 30 minutes away from our town, and they did.

Before that, a group of us went to Mae La Mao, and I went ATVing, rafting, and jetskiing for the first time, all in one day. Money and time well-spent! However, during our trip from Mae La Mao to Mae Sot, I've discovered my distaste for the idea of marriage and having children. I don't mind being the fun aunt, but when it comes down to it, I don't want to get married or have children. If my biological clock begins to tick, I want to adopt. There are plenty of children who need love--I can't be selfish and say that I want my "own" children.

Mae Sot was great, the couple of hours we spent there. The food is amazing. I haven't had samosa in such a long time, so the trip there was definitely a highlight after an hour car ride with two babies demanding attention and screaming into my eardrums.

Something drastically changed my livelihood in Thailand, and I now have no significant ties in America. I had talked to G as the exchange was happening, and I was upset. Not only because everything was different but because I felt that I was alone in Thailand. There are friends here that are barely acquaintances, and I didn't feel comfortable crying into the shoulder of any one of them. I discovered today that the one thing I can count on in Thailand is my group of friends. The ones back home and the ones that I've connected with in Thailand. Even the ones I thought were mere acquaintances were patient with me and were willing to listen to me talk and tell me that it's not shameful to cry, that I'm not a ****ty person, and that they were there.

So thank you, Grace, Micha, Christine, Micah, Shannon, Sam S., Ashley M., and Dan, for helping me through a time where I thought I wouldn't have anyone. I couldn't be more grateful than I am now.

Hopefully the next entry will be a lot happier. Chompu out! :)

Food, and More Food, and Neck Injuries -- Oh My!

I'll get to my neck injury in a bit.

My original plan for Chiang Mai this weekend went a little something like this (copied and pasted from my facebook status):

Tomorrow: Muay Thai training, temple exploring, vegetarian lunch buffet, volunteering at the local orphanage, used-bookstore browsing, night bazaar!
Sunday: cooking class all day, fishies, nightlife with the TP farang teachers!
Monday: morning exploration, head back to Tak.

The main things I wanted to do on this trip was muay thai training and volunteering at the local orphanage. Neither of those things happened. We were up at 6am to go training at the local muay thai gym. The minute L and I decided that we were going to do it (why the hell not?), we heard rain. We opened the door to our guesthouse and saw a downpour of rain. Well, that was it. Running out into the rain to grab a tuk-tuk then go running around the lake? Definitely wasn't what we were planning on. So we went straight back to bed. I thought 'ah, well, I have 9 more months here--I will be making many more trips back here! No big deal! As long as I can volunteer later today!'

Now let me explain why the volunteering didn't happen. Since muay thai didn't happen, our schedules were a bit up in the air. N and I were supposed to meet L at a local cafe--we got lost for at least 45 minutes. We decided that we were going to visit Doi Suthep later that day, so we were going to visit Wat Pra Singh which is another temple in the area. Everyone wanted to get a Thai massage at the Women's Prison, but they closed at 4pm, so that was the priority.

N and I have never gotten massages before (we fear being touched that intimately by a stranger), but we decided that we're in Thailand, so we may as well try it. I was matched up with the sweetest woman. She was Chinese-Thai (like I'm Chinese-American) and we just chatted in Chinese. I felt immediately at home with someone who can speak Chinese with me (I've taken Chinese for granted!), so the Thai massage was actually quite pleasant. We got a cup of tea afterward. It's hard to imagine these really cute women as convicts who could have possibly done anything illegal.

Don't we look spiffy in our massage outfit? (Apparently, we had our pants on backwards. Oops!) The program at the Women's Prison is for women to train to integrate themselves back into society. So the money that they make by massaging people (180 baht an hour) is put aside for them when they are set to be released. The women who are allowed to do this are women who are set to be released within six months. I think this is awesome! I'm glad I got to experience this. :)

We were going to go to the orphanage, but getting massages can make one quite hungry, so we headed to Kuhn Churn--which is popular for their vegetarian lunch buffets. However, we got there just as the buffet ended, but we thought 'what the hey! Let's eat anyway!'--and then we ordered a lot of food. My favorite part of that meal, however, was the guava lemonade. My favorite drink and my favorite fruit together? It was heaven. Literally. I wish I had more before I left! But that's okay--I'm going to be back in Chiang Mai soon! Anyway, by the time we were done eating, it was 4-4:30pm, and they wanted to go to Doi Suthept. I thought 'well, I'll have time Monday morning to volunteer!' so we went. It was lovely--but too touristy for a sacred temple. That's how I've been feeling the past couple of weeks. Places that should be sacred and explored by those who are serious about Buddhism are being exploited by those who want to make a living. Which would be fine if it was just a cultural monument, but I wasn't fond of having to wave off vendors selling me cheap whatchamacallits when I'm at a temple.

I did manage to go used-bookstore-browsing, and it was great. It was nothing like the used bookstores back in IC (here's lookin' at The Haunted Bookshop!), but it was still quite pleasant, and I bought three books, as I have almost finished Neil Gaiman's Collection of Short Stories called 'Fragile Things', and John Griswold's 'A Democracy of Ghosts'. I bought Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods', Vikram Chandra's 'Love and Longing in Bombay', and Gaile Parkin's 'Baking Cakes in Kigali'. Obviously, not very English novels, but that's okay, as I've acquired a taste for international literature (written in English).

Sunday was the all-day cooking class that we took. That very morning, I woke up fine, and after a nice, warmish shower, my neck felt like it had a crick in it. After that, it was all downhill from there. I couldn't sit in a soeng thaow without holding my neck like I'm sure Nearly Headless Nick did when he was first nearly beheaded. But the teachers were all understanding--Tom, our main teacher, even took me to the pharmacy on his motorbike to get me something for the pain. I also owe AX a huge thank you for everything he's done for me this past weekend (cotton candy, ibuprofen, Tiger Balm)--and also for brightening the lives of those of us who work together in Tak because we see each other every goddamn day anyway. lol. And look at me up there. Don't I just look so happy to be cooking? (Because I am! I wish I had a kitchen!)

If you want pictures of the food I made, they'll be uploaded onto facebook asap. That's the list of things I chose to learn to cook that day, and let me just say that the food was delicious! We actually made green curry FROM SCRATCH. I have decided that I must invest in a mortar as it's the Asian thing to do and to have. Obviously.

My neck bothered me all throughout the day and the night and when I woke up (not having done the fish spa--which is literally just sticking your legs into a tank of fish, and having them eat the dead skin off of your legs and feet. I heard it was amazing. Unfortunately, the fish spa we wanted to go to was closed every time we were there, and so I cannot say otherwise.) Since my neck bothered me Monday morning, I went to an acupuncture place near our guesthouse that also said "Chinese medicine" on the sign. When I walked in, I felt like I was back in LA in one of those Chinese clinics and felt immediately at home. Dr. Sudhisak was very kind to me--he spoke to me in Chinese and fit me in his really tight morning schedule, since I told him that I was heading back to Tak early afternoon. I've never done acupuncture before, as needles scare me, but the pain was definitely worth braving the needles. It was an interesting sensation as he was tapping the needles into my pressure points because I didn't feel a thing until he got to my hand (because I could actually see it), and then they sent electric pulses into three of the needles and put a heat lamp right over my neck. It was probably the most comfortable half hour the entire weekend I was in Chiang Mai. I fell asleep several times, and when they removed the needles and heat lamp, I felt like I was being forced out of bed on a winter's morning to go to school. He prescribed me a week's worth of Chinese herbal painkillers. Another thing, before I forget to mention, he knows the principal of a language school that teaches Thai, English, and Chinese. He wants to hire me to be a teacher there, in Chiang Mai (though he has to discuss with the other teachers/directors in the school), but he said that he would get back to me.

Dear Dad, thank you for forcing me to learn Chinese. You're the best.

My neck is still sore, but it feels a lot better (still can't straighten my neck though), and I'm hoping it'll feel at least 85% by tomorrow morning, as I've got 5 classes to teach, and 3 of them are at least 3 classes behind the rest of Mattayom 3.

Oh, the life of a teacher.

Enjoy this group cooking class picture as I drift off to fuzzy kittens and gelatos.

Province of Monkeys.

Monkeys. Not unlike the critters I teach every day. Just hairier. (Just kidding, by the way, I love my students. They are so cute. And can be naughty. Like monkeys.)

This past weekend, my friend, AWW, and I traveled to Lopburi to join up with N and about half of the CIEE/OEG group who were also there for the monkey banquet. Just a brief explanation: every year, Lopburi throws a pretty big banquet for all the resident monkeys that live in their cities because it is believed that you will have good luck if you treat monkeys well. I think it's just a ruse to learn to be patient with those who are different and annoying, so I'm taking a leaf out of that book and applying to my life at TP School.

The trip on the way there was interesting, and I could see why it is so pleasant to travel in Thailand. We got on the 8:00p bus, but I was placed directly behind the driver's seat where the drivers sleep with four other tiny Thai girls (AWW sat up top). I met Noi and Noi (they're both named Noi--isn't that a hoot?--one is an English teacher who is just north of Mae Sot, whose English is amazing compared to my co-teacher's), who told us that our original plan to go to Singburi and then transfer buses to Lopburi was a horrible idea because they just drop us off at the side of the road at 1a with no means of transportation into Lopburi. So they suggested we got off with them at Nakhonsawan, they would set us up in a hotel, and then we can continue our journey the next day. That's just what we did, and I can't say just how grateful I am to both Nois for talking us out of going to Singburi. Thailand is filled with people who are willing to help (more than there are in the States, anyway), and it's nice to be reminded that, especially when the school is so disorganized and it's hard to remember why I'm here in the first place when classes have been canceled so frequently the past two to three weeks.

Lopburi was great. It was easy to get around; AWW was a great travelmate; and since N got into Lopburi late Friday night (we got in around noon Saturday because we stayed the night in Nakhonsawan); he showed us around the gigantic street markets around the area. Our first view of monkeys? Just outside of our hotel. All windows and open areas are barred, and they were quite entertaining!

We saw a disgustingly (I say this with affection) large group of us CIEE/OEG teachers, and went to the sunflower fields and swimming at a nearby lake. I was so happy to see SS, CH, and EL! I miss you girls so much--hope to see you all soon!

So today there was no school, but everyone was still there. Apparently, some higher-ups came to visit (coughinspectcough) the school, and there was a 2.5 hour opening ceremony that I was required to attend (we left at the 2 hour mark and never looked back), and then we sat in a classroom for 10 minutes whilst J demonstrated howthe smartboards are being "used" in the classroom (by the way, not many Thai teachers use the smartboard, even when they are privileged to have a room with a smartboard--if you're not using it, lemme use the room, please!), and then we went to open our bank accounts. Whenever I have a bank account in a different place, I feel that I've finally settled in a place somewhere and won't be leaving for a while. I feel grounded, which is nice but kind of disorienting, having to know that I won't be back in the States after my 10 months here are over. The future is uncertain.

No school tomorrow either. I don't know why. They don't tell us anything. Apparently, we're having a Lord of the Rings marathon tomorrow. While they watch that, I will be doing my 40+ lesson plans and finding some time between then to read through submissions for Niche magazine. I need to remember that I'm not only a teacher, but an editor too.

What are my plans next weekend, you ask?

Chiang Mai again, but this time for our 3 day weekend, which includes used-bookstore-browsing, muay thai training, taking a cooking class, (hopefully) some rock climbing, and going to the nearby orphanage to volunteer for a day.

This is why I love Thailand. I get to do all of the things I love in one city, in three days, and did I mention my students are generally monkey-like cute?

A Traditional Thanksgiving.

Just kidding. It wasn't traditional at all. Then again, I'm in Thailand.


(Us awesome teachers hanging out at Lansang National Park! Awesome time. I've got a crapton of bruises and cuts and scratches to prove it.)

I've been mildly sick lately, due to the trek to the waterfall I had on Tuesday when we all played hooky and left school to go to Lansang National Park, so come Wednesday, I had a sore throat, a stuffy nose, and a splitting headache. None of that helped when my M3/5 and M3/6 class decided to be louder and ADD more than usual, so by the time my least favorite class comes along (M3/8), I was ready to crack some skulls. Fortunately, I didn't. But I wasn't interested in putting up with their "I don't give a s**t about English" attitude, so I did something I would never do with my higher-level classes: pushed all of the desks out of my way to get to the back of the room to deal with the kids who were playing a board game; snatched away cell phones and DVDs that I saw out (without warning! gasp!), and they were perfect(ish) little angels afterward. Also, over half of them took the speaking test! I was so pleased! Unfortunately, I am far too nice to be that angry at them again, so we'll see what happens next week on Monday.

As for Thanksgiving, a group of us farang (foreigners!) went to a German pizza place called 'Baan Pizza' (meaning 'Home Pizza')--not the most traditional meal, but it was nice. It was the first time I could really connect and have fun with the people that I work with. We went out for drinks, but I just had a pineapple smoothie, and chatted. I was so relieved and thankful that I had these people in my life at this moment, sharing it with me. Life would have been absolute hell if I was by myself, so many, many thanks to N, L, PN, J, A, R, and everyone else. :)

I'm going to Lopburi this weekend for the monkey banquet. Not a big fan of monkeys, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I may as well take it! I hope they don't break my camera. I want to make it back to Tak safely and without rabies.

Look out for a blog post update with cute/horrifying/wtf monkey pictures!

Mosquito Food.

I attract mosquitoes. Even despite layers of bug spray, my legs are covered in bites and scars from past mosquito bites. As far as I've seen, none of the Thai people (or any of my students) have issues with mosquitoes. WHY ME?!

I told my M3/1 class that I have a group of American students who would be willing to exchange letters with them. Their reaction? Looks of absolute and pure horror. I asked them if they would want to write letters to them, and at least 10 voices rose up and said, "NO!" I was surprised, until one of the girls in the front (really bright and attentive in class) said, "Teacha--will you teach how to write letter?" And then I realized that they were reacting because they didn't have the confidence to write a letter to actual Americans who already know English. I reassured her that I will be teaching them how to write a proper letter to their penpal, and asked students who were interested to please come up to the desk to sign up with me. At the end of the class, I looked down at my roster, and noticed that out of 49 students, only 3 refused to sign up. (I know exactly which 3 too...) I'm excited. I'm hoping that my other classes will have the opportunity to write letters to American penpals -- even my M3/9 class, if they are interested and behave themselves. But first I'll have to find 400 American students who would be willing to do this penpal program. One step at a time...

I talked to N today, and I told him that next semester (as I'm staying 10 months instead of 5 like L and N) I wanted to stay with M3 (though they'd be M4 by then) so that I could work with them some more. I need to remember to ask Phi-Dang about that tomorrow. I want to stick with them as long as I can so that they don't get screwed over somehow. Also, it saves me the month's time trying to relearn names and levels of understanding! How efficient am I? :3

We don't have school tomorrow because half of the teachers are away for a conference, and the students were told not to come to school. I was fine with it, except one thing...the teachers who are not going to the conference still have to show up for school. But we wouldn't be teaching. Or anything. What am I supposed to do for 8 hours in my office when I could be gallivanting around Tak?! I suppose I could write 40 more lesson plans for the semester lesson plans that they failed to mention earlier. sigh.

Perhaps I shall play hooky and leave to travel to a nearby waterfall. We'll see how I feel in the morning :)

Sometimes It's Hard to Smile.

Teaching is making me bipolar. Thanks to Sumi for actually putting what I've been feeling the past three weeks into words. The inconsistent "I love teaching!" and "WHY DO I EVEN *insert f-bomb here* BOTHER?!" makes me a little tired.

After school every day, I resign myself to ride my bike home, drop everything on the floor, and curl up in bed with my laptop and an episode of something running in the background, and just sleep. When I wake up, it's dark out, I lay in bed with Kitty snuggled under my chin, Giro tucked up in my arms, Zip by my head, and KitKat on my head, and I wait until I'm hungry before I head out to find some vegetarian food. It sounds like a massive amount of depression. Because it is.

Culture shock is settling in, and there hasn't been a day that has gone by when I don't wonder if I've made a gigantic mistake in deciding to take on teaching for ten months instead of five months. It hasn't even been a month yet, and I've already felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown where I call my father, tell him I'm going to move to Taiwan, and that I'm going to find a job there instead.

When two familiar faces from OEG came to visit today, I almost cried. The coordinator of the schools in the Northern provinces was one of them. The other was the sweetest woman I've ever met. I wanted to cry and tell them that these students are probably the worst ever, and that I wanted to go home and be with my family. I didn't though. What's independence without a little emo, a lot of tears, and perseverance? (I know this line makes everything sound like it's okay. Do not be fooled.)

I know that I should remind myself of the good things I have here in Tak. Like the laundry lady, Pom, and her family, Lot, Foam, and Pit. They were so welcoming and so helpful when I showed up with a huge bag of laundry because I haven't had the time to handwash them as I normally would have. I'm glad I didn't have the time. They, too, call me Teacher Liu. :) They don't know any English, and I don't know any Thai, but somehow we can communicate! There's Phi-Phet, the man in charge of the only copy room for the school, who has been teaching me Thai. I visit him every day, sometimes with papers to copy (455 copies for my 9th graders), and other times because I was in dire need of someone kind to talk to. There's the soy-milk guy: he makes amazing soy milk and he always laughs when he sees me riding up on my bike. The coconut-juice guy who speaks to me in Chinese and makes me feel less out-of-my-element, and the pad-thai lady who always knows what I want and speaks to me in a little English. I cannot let M3/8 and M3/9 and M6/3 ruin my experience in Thailand.

After today, I can see why Thai teachers don't even bother trying to teach M3/8 and M3/9--it's too exhausting trying to teach a class of 40, when all 40 are off in their technologically-savvy world, or their world of copying each other's homework, or sleeping, or running around the classroom, trying to touch each other inappropriately. I've succeeded last week, when I had my M3/8 students come up with a story together, but my creative juice is running on low, and I am desperate to make some progress with my lower-level students. I know that I'm being impatient, but I don't know when I'm doing things right, and when I'm doing them wrong!

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Perhaps I should go and try to sleep. That or start writing again. But my students are sucking all light out of this world, and it seems that my love for writing has diminished, along with my optimism.

Loi Krathong. Part II. & Chiang Mai.

So there are a series of things I need to talk about before I return to finish my lovely semester's lesson plans (8 units, 4-5 lessons per unit--you c ansee why I feel like taking a break...)

Loi Krathong. Part II.

I watched several lift-offs of these giant lanterns. What most people do is write their wishes on these paper lanterns and watch them fly out into the sky. When we went on the day the krathongs were being released into the river (just a reminder: there are two types of krathongs--ones you float in the sky, and ones you float on the water), there was a sky full of those lanterns. It was like Tangled except a little less romantic because S wasn't there, but it was fun, regardless.

We joined the Thai people by releasing our coconut krathongs into the river:

So pretty :)

There are a couple of pictures that I do not have and will have to wait for N or L to send to me before I can post them, but my krathong burned brightly down the river, and for a moment, I felt like crying. Ah, well, there goes me and my poor sentimental writer's heart!

I went by the river today, now that the festival is over, and it was such a depressing sight. Litter everywhere, and a few of the rides still lit up, but all of the people are gone. It was dirty and has inspired me to create a unit plan for my M3 students (maybe even my M6 students) to take a field trip outside of the school to clean up their community. They'll learn to be honest, hard-working, public-minded--ALL WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE INCLUDED IN OUR SEMESTER LESSON PLANS, and are currently impossible with the unit themes that Phi-Som wants to concentrate on. =_=;; (Also, here's to hoping that C and I can get a couple of interested students to start a penpal system with a couple of my students and her kids. My biggest obstacle: Phi-Som and Phi-Dang. Wish me luck.) The view of the dirty, empty park with remnants of the festival is definitely turning up in my new story. Creepy, abandoned, easily forgotten--my type of story. :)

Chiang Mai


The bus station was hectic--not knowing Thai is difficult in a town that doesn't know English. Fortunately for us, Teacher Ma (he's in the English department with me) was at the bus station as well, also headed to Chiang Mai, and he helped us out a lot. When we got to Chiang Mai, the Loi Krathong festival was full-blown. We went around our area a little to eat and wander, and then headed back to the guesthouse to sleep ro re-energize for the Flight of the Gibbon.

We were at the same hostel as SaH and SarH, so in the morning, we met up with them and our driver, Tor, came to pick us up, as well as a couple: Charles and Douglas. We drove an hour up to the forest, geared up, and headed out to go ziplining. I've done it once before in China off of the Great Wall, but this was going to be a whole day event with hiking and a traditional Thai meal! Our leader was named Don, and his helper was Chai. I felt so safe on this trip that it was impossible for me to freak out when we started off at the 800 meter zipline. There were variations throughout the ziplining experience, and it was amazing. I really can't find the words to describe how lovely Chiang Mai is, or how cute the gibbons are, or how thrilling it is to sail through the canopy of the forest. (More pictures and videos will be up on either my youtube account or facebook account!)

The lovely people of our Flight of the Gibbon trip!

Chiang Mai is lovely. I didn't want to come back to Tak. Good thing we're heading back to Chiang Mai for the King's birthday (December 5th). That weekend will be full of eating delicious vegetarian foods with L, traveling around with L and N, and lots of souvenir/gift shopping! <3

Loi Krathong. Part I.

Before I talk about the fun stuff, there's always the obligatory school stuff that has happened the past couple of days.

I find it harder and harder to blog about the school that I work at because it has been difficult adjusting to the education system. Our notions of what it means to respect a teacher is not quite the same here. In America, when you respect a teacher, you show up to class on time, you pay attention (you NEVER take out your phone in class and plug your headphones in, or even take out your phone at all), you don't run around in a classroom, you don't randomly get out of your seat to chit-chat with your buddy-buddy across the room, and so on and so forth. As for Thai students, their notion of respect is......well, when I find out, I'll be sure to let you know.

I need to remember that each class is a different being. My M3/1 class are bright, quick learners, and ridiculously quiet and shy. I want to bring them out of their shell and become more confident in their speaking abilities. My M3/8 class is only driving forward because of the girls. They are my least favorite class. They are simply not interested in English. So I tried something different with them today: I asked them to create a story with me. I had to spend some time explaining what a story was and what a main character was, but once I started asking them questions, they became more and more engaged until the entire class began shouting out answers and random English words (except for 6 boys who just fell right asleep in front of me. At least try to sleep with your eyes open--yeesh!). However, the scariest thing about youth is that they're violent. The entire story was about Harry, who had a pet owl and a pet buffalo--who shot his buffalo and owl in the head because he was a hungry robot. And then Harry sued the condo (in which he lived) for $1000, and his family was happy because they got money. The end. Literally. 9th graders. And that's all they can think about. I really don't know where youth is going these days.

I sound so old.

As for the school itself, I'm afraid that my blog posts have gotten considerably more negative (despite my already negative nature) and it's almost worthless to blog about it because rereading it just makes me want to stick Barbie's head into a boiling pan of oil and then throwing the hot plastic at the wall. Or person, depending on the sort of mood I'm in that day. But anyway. Onto the fun stuff!

Loi Krathong is insanely busy. It's nothing like the Fourth of July, where everyone just hangs out with their families and that's it. It's a community event. Children have to represent their schools and make speeches; they have to dress up and represent their village/ethnicity.

Just a quick note that not all students are evil like M3/8 and M3/9. Not all students in M3/8 and M3/9 are evil either. But the entire class as a being: EVIL. However, I have some very sweet students too :) I'm not completely hated, as has been proven to me tonight.


These are just a fraction of my students. Aren't they cute?

Floating lanterns--the main attraction of the Chiang Mai Loi Krathong festival is pretty popular here too. I remember that my friend Kent and I floated one up into the sky when we traveled to Guilin. I felt very nostalgic. I ran into my students as they were preparing to lift off their lantern, as evidenced below:

Ah, so cute. :)

They asked me to go with them to watch the parade, but at this point, I wanted to wander around by myself, as N and L were hanging out with A and a Filipino math teacher, R, and I was tired of just sitting, so I thanked them and watched the parade myself. Loi Krathong is a time where all villages can celebrate their culture and their pride. If you would like to see those pictures, head on over to my facebook.

As for floating our 'krathongs', that's tomorrow! (Thus why this post is titled "Part I") Ah, L and I bought our krathongs from our students:


We're QUITE SURE they ripped us off, but I made them make me a deal: they need to get a 5 on the next speaking test. I'm such a teacher. :)

So here are our krathongs! We will be lighting these tomorrow night and floating them down the river:

The water lily is mine--I'm making a wish for my father. :) And L's is bright and yellow--just like she is!

There will be more stories and pictures coming soon. Right now, I need to write my entire semester's lesson plans by tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, Thai culture, how you tickle my funny bone.

A Day in Sukhothai.

I'm getting the hang of using blogger and uploading photos, but please bear with me as I become pro. It's a slow process for us technologically thick people.

We took a bus at the Tak Bus Station--we were late, so we had to stand in the aisle. Which is really normal for transportation in Asia. The safety hazards are almost non-existent. It's also not very comfortable. Especially when you're used to getting sleepy on the bus for long rides. We made it there okay, and I had spicy noodles for breakfast. It was delicious. N and D had a breakfast bagel, and A had some sort of rice. We passed several Thai massage places and I shuddered. Random strangers touching me is not something I look forward to. The other people in the group, besides N, looked at me like I was an alien.

Sukhothai is probably an hour and a half away from Muang Tak. It's the other popular place to celebrate Loi Krathong besides the stereotypical Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It's a historical site--we visited the temple ruins where ginormous Buddha statues stood, overlooking the construction of the Loi Krathong festival as it was being built up around them.

We rented bikes for 30 baht (85 cents) and rode through the temple ruins. It was a lovely day out--a bit hot as the day progressed, but the bikes made everything cooler. The architecture was lovely, and the water lilies were just blooming in patches over the dark water. I felt rather homesick at this point because I thought about my family and how they would have loved to see these temples. I took several pictures of water lilies for my dad (they're his favorite flowers), and then proceeded to enjoy my bike ride.

It got too hot, and we went by the restaurant we had earlier for lunch. I ordered mashed potatoes, just to see what it would taste like, and it's not as good as the mashed potatoes that my aunt used to make at home. Or my mashed potatoes for that matter. Still, it was nice to kind of just sit and hang out with friends.

My weekends will be my saving grace. Next weekend, we're heading to Chiang Mai to meet up with other OEG/CIEE people (there are 144 of us in Thailand!) and ziplining through the forests! But before that is the official Loi Krathong festival which includes floating 'krathong's which are candles stuck inside of coconut shells and decorated with beautiful flowers and paper.

Until then, my world revolves around my students and my laundry.

Co-Teaching: Cheating for Teachers

I love my Thursday and Friday line-ups. Granted, my Fridays are full of classes, but three of the four classes I have that day are co-taught with Phi-Som. (And two out of the three classes I have on Thursday are co-taught.) When Phi-Som is in the room, the students are somewhat well-behaved. Though it depends on the class. M3/9 students today were as rowdy as ever, but half of those boys have their hearts in the semi-right place. I say semi-right because these were the boys who asked me for my facebook. They do put forth some effort in class, and a good 25% managed to memorize the conversation test and complete it. Some even stayed after class to finish, which I'm sure they never really did before. (Am I tooting my own horn? Just a little bit.) Regardless of that little piece of useless self-advertising piece of information, co-teaching is a lot easier because one person can man the disruptive part of the room while the other one teaches. Unfortunately, we don't get the chance to do that often. Also, co-teaching allows me to see exactly what these students have been taught, and many of the Thai teachers make serious grammatical mistakes (forgetting to put the 's's at the end of plurals, forgetting to use articles in front of nouns...) How does one correct that when the students don't really care about who you are yet? And how do you attempt to correct years and years of incorrect English? I don't have an answer for that yet, but in 10 months, I will!

When L and N and I rode our bikes (omg, we got bikes--the feeling is equivalent to little 15 year olds in America getting their first car, or little 21 year olds in America going to the bars and getting themselves stupidly drunk) to our coordinator's house to meet up with our coordinator (A) and two British volunteers (D and AL) to check out the Loi Krathong festival (google it, but do not wikipedia it!) We rode by a house, and I hear "TEACHA LIU, TEACHA LIU! HERRO!" I glance over, and there were a couple of my M3/9 students waving at me from behind a gate.

I run into my students a lot. They're kind of cute. Outside of the classroom. lmao.

The first thing we did at the festival? Bumper cars. With awesome remixes of popular American music. And rave lights. It is now dubbed "rave-bumper-cars". I think we've all decided to do it once a day until the festival is over. It was a lot of fun. I've got the bruises to prove it.

The weekend's coming up. I think we're going to go to Sukhothai this weekend (an hour and a half bus ride away?) to check out their Loy Krathong festival, and then we'll return on Sunday to continue the celebration back in Muang Tak, and on the 10th, please expect a crapton of pictures :)

And so, the 7-day Loi Krathong festival has just begun in Muang Tak!

That means 7 days of rave-bumper-cars. And street food. And carnival games. And cheap shopping!

Wait, what am I doing here again...?

Looking Thai in Thailand

I think the worse part of teaching, besides the fact that these children's educations ride on your shoulders as a teacher of the English language; besides the fact that we are ambassadors for the United States of America; besides the fact that my life now revolves around not-so-perfect English which is slowly, but surely, deteriorating my own speaking abilities (I can feel it); besides the fact that everything is topsy-turvy; besides the fact that I haven't had time to write anything creative, is that I look Thai in Thailand.

When American-looking (to specify 'American-looking', I mean to have distinctly 'white' features) people step into the classroom, they are regarded immediately as foreigners. And it is understood that they do not speak Thai. However, in my case, all students, upon first meeting, will talk to me in Thai like I'm a native. And then they cannot see anything else beyond that. They will know you are a foreigner, but they will not recognize you as one. And if they do, they insist on teaching you Thai, in which you turn around and think "look, you little brats, I'm the one with a college degree in English Literature from a university in America, so sit your butt down, shut your beak, and take notes because I WILL put this in on an exam, and I WILL grade you down if you glare at me for taking away your game/cell phone/manga/book and then proceed to fail my exam because you weren't paying attention." Here's looking at you, M3/8. Don't think I've forgotten you. I'll see you next week. Pity is no longer in my vocabulary.

What's so frustrating is that Thai students are so gosh-darned sweet when their Thai teacher is in the room. The minute the Thai teacher leaves, they become those "little darlings" that you hear about at orientation, and then you think "oh s***, wtf have I gotten myself into?" Well, in all honesty, what did I really expect? (Like well-behaved students? Students who will not run around in the classroom and take liberties just because they think they can get away with it with a "lenient farang (foreigner)"??) Who was it at orientation who told us that foreign teachers are usually respected more? Because whoever said that is going to get a mental curse from me. Just saying. Also, the Thai English teachers don't even seem to do much teaching? It seems to be a lot of copying down of words from the board and doing worksheets. They also just speak in Thai. So when I take over the classroom, none of these students have any idea what I'm talking about. They cannot distinguish the difference between "how many...?", "do you have...?", "what is...?", which means that any question I ask them, they always answer with "yes." It's totally not what I was going for.

For those of you who know me really well, you know that 1) I have a bad temper; 2) I'm idealistic; 3) I have a bad temper; 4) I have a very strict idea of what a classroom and what students should be like; and oh, 5) I have a bad temper.

So I'm sorry, students of mine. I am not your Thai teacher who will let you run around the room to chat with your friends. When I am talking, you sit, you listen, you write, you remember, and then you envision. Too difficult right now? That's okay--we'll work through that together.

As for looking Thai in Thailand--nothing I can do about that. Looks like I'm just going to have to bite the bullet, look ashamed for not being Thai and for not knowing Thai, and then learn it until I can hold a conversation.

Tomorrow will always be better. And if not, the day after will be better. And if not, the weekends will always feel like heaven.

First Tears Shed

I had my first classes today--4 in a row by myself, and 1 at the end of the day co-teaching with Phi-Som (pronounced Pee-Som, 'Phi' meaning "senior"), who is the core teacher for the general Matium 3 classes. Matium 3 would be the equivalent to 9th grade in America. They are then separated by intellectual abilities from 1-10. I am currently assigned the Matium 3 classes that range from 1-9. So when I say M3/1, it means that I'm teaching 9th grade who have exceptional abilities, and M3/9 would be considerably worse in understanding English.

Today, I had M3/1, M3/2, M3/6, and M3/9 (with co-teaching with Phi-Som M3/3). M3/1 and M3/2 were right after each other in the classrooms next door, and I had been so extremely nervous that it was difficult for me to walk through that door for my first class. When I walked in, the students stood up, said "Good morning, teacher" in the sweetest, most attentive way that I thought I could only imagine in my head. It made me feel immediately welcome and less nervous. My M3/1 class was my best class today, in terms of speaking, listening, understanding, and paying attention. I have very high hopes to do a lot of fun activities with them (despite the fact that they don't seem too keen on activities, but that's okay, I have a goal to wean them off of the boring worksheets). Not to mention, worksheets do not promote fluency in speaking and listening.

My M3/2 class was considerably worse. I've made the distinction that the more boys there are in the class, the less attention the rest of the class pays at the front of the room. That makes it fairly difficult to get their attention, and thus, their participation. However, there will always be a couple of students who pay attention and knows exactly what I'm talking about and will explain to their friends. It does, however, raise the chatter in the room, which makes the boys in the back of the classroom even louder. I'm trying to find ways around that--I need to find a way to engage them and have them become interested in English. Unfortunately, I feel that this is karma, as I never really paid attention to my teachers in class when I was in middle/high school, so now I'm paying for it. Dangit. I also shed a few tears after this class because it was just hard to say that I really enjoyed teaching students that won't stay seated, won't be quiet, and constantly copying each other's homework in class for one of their near-future classes.

Whoever said Asian students are good students can shove their stereotyping foot up their stereotyping butt. Also, this is a lesson in which people should understand that stereotyping is bad and should be avoided at all costs.

My M3/6 class was probably not the worst class today, but it felt like it. Because of the pep talk that various of the more experienced teachers had with me, I managed to push on through and talk to the few students that were paying attention. M3/9 was, by far, the worst class in terms of discipline. M3/9 was 95% male, only 30% paid attention, and 25% were either up out of their seats, running around the classroom, or running out of the classroom (and then back in). I'm also quite sure that there were a couple of students in the classroom that were not a part of the class, and it's giving me a headache all over again just thinking about it. I asked Jerry (the veteran English teacher--and by veteran, I mean he has 10 months ahead of us) what I should do, and even though he told me to be strict with them, how do I be strict with a bunch of boys who are physically taller than I am?! For once, I'm sad that there's not corporal punishment allowed in the schools (due to a very recent law that was passed), because sometimes I think that's all these students will respond to.

Co-teaching with Phi-Som is interesting because M3/3 were also very sweet students (though I'm not quite sure if it's because Phi-Som was in the classroom with me or if it's because it's a classroom that consists mainly of really enthusiastic and cute girls), but their English level was quite impressive, and they were interested in introducing themselves to me and hearing me butcher their names in badly-accented Thai. (Also, it seems that a lot of their nicknames are like "ice" or "milk" or "dream"...just pronounced weirdly so I could never really catch their names--or remember them.)

I found out today that the school has given me an objective, which is to heighten the listening and speaking abilities of the students. Not the easiest objective ever, and it limits what I really want to do in the classroom (in terms of class sizes and their own levels of understanding), but I'm trying to find speaking/listening activities that they'll take an interest in. For now, I'm just flailing about in an ocean of my own tears.

Here's a note: the school will be horrible at getting things done ahead of time. I was asked to help another English teacher write a skit, and have the students practice the skit in time for the competition on the 20th of November. (And then they just happened to fail to mention that my entire semester's lesson plans are due the 10th of November......and then fail to tell me that I need to sign out of the classroom every time I have class in there.) Patience, hard work, and perseverance will help me last through the entire year I'm here. There will be a lot of playing to make up for this, dangnabbit!

Here's to hoping tomorrow's M3/5, M3/6 (co-teaching with Phi-Som--yes!), M3/8 and M3/4 will be a lot better than today. Also, with tomorrow's schedule, it seems I will, once again, not have any time to eat lunch. Don't worry, I've only briefly lost my appetite. I'm going to be so skinny by the time I get out of here. And hopefully M6/3 will be amazing. 12th graders usually are, right...?

In Tak, Thailand.

Finally in the province of Tak! Yesterday's 7:15pm flight had been delayed several times, until finally, at 1am, we flew out of Bangkok's airport. When we arrived at 2:30, our school coordinator was there waiting for us and drove us 2.5 hours to a hotel just outside of Tak City. We were told that we couldn't move into our apartments until Monday, so we're spending a few more days living out of our suitcases. The two other teachers teaching at Takpittayakhom School (N and L) are already certified teachers, and we're all ready to settle down into our new homes and meet our students.

When I woke up this morning, and after a dire need of a shower, I went into the lobby and found out that we had free wifi here at the hotel. At first, I was skeptical, as my previous experiences with "free wifi" resulted in none of the pages loading, despite having all bars full, but it worked well, and I had a nice Skype conversation with my father who stayed up late to Skype with me.

Over the course of the week I've been here in Thailand, I've had a fuller, deeper appreciation for the relationships I've had with the people back in the U.S. Sometimes you end up forgetting that these friendships were created through hard work, understanding, and a lot of time. I can't expect to find a close friend in Thailand so quickly

After my experience with Thai internet (and how you have to pay for it, and even when you do, the internet is really slow), I've realized that Thailand is a great place to cultivate patience. Patience and understanding and acceptance. Ultimately, the goal is to, hopefully, not have to use these electronic devices as a second pair of limbs before it becomes too much.

There are palm trees everywhere in Thailand. I've yet to have coconut juice. It's somewhere on my long "Thailand: To-Do" list, but it will happen. The mosquitoes here are vicious; my legs and feet are covered in bites--but I blame being at Chon Buri beach, as mosquitoes breed and feed like crazy near the water. I've quickly discovered a new distaste for mosquitoes.

My main goal at the moment is to become somewhat fluent in Thai as quickly as possible, as whenever I am walking around with N and L, Thai people look to me for translation. Unfortunately for them, I am not Thai, I do not know Thai, and I cannot translate Thai into English (or vice versa). However, for now, I'll try to come up with lesson plans and incorporate into my school before I begin to fully study Thai. One thing at a time!

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. They keep me going when I feel like going home.

Many thanks to my dad and S for being so supportive and optimistic when I'm crying on Skype. hahaha~ It's much appreciated!

Much Thailand love to those who are following this blog! (Comment, please?)

The First Week - Bangkok and Chon Buri

In a world filled with pessimism and bad news coverage and reality TV, there's something to be said about Thailand and its cross-cultural history and beautiful landscape.

The flooding--as the news have been covering quite sufficiently--has had some impact in our exploration of the city of Bangkok (*also known as "Krung Thept" by the Thai people, and officially "Krungthepmahanakhon Amornrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharat Ratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphiman Awatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit") as many taxi drivers are unwilling to travel too far into Bangkok in fear of being caught in the flood. However, the areas we were lucky enough to explore were filled with exotic smells and tastes.

We left for Chon Buri a day earlier than was scheduled, and we all practiced the idea of "ไม่เป็นไร (Mai Pen Rai)" (don't mind--let it go) and began to understand to 'go with the flow', for lack of a better term. We spent good time on the beach after our last meeting and teaching courses, and we are now ready to, supposedly, jump into the classroom and teach and inspire and motivate young Thai students to enjoy learning the English language.

I'm feeling anxious. I get mistaken for being a Thai person all of the time, even in America, and my insecurities with my understanding of the Thai language and culture prevents me from feeling excited. I'm nervous that I can't teach these students well, and I'm just a whole bundle of nerves.

I hope that the first week will go by somewhat smoothly before I launch into full Thailand immersion. For now, I'll lead my way into Thai life, and will learn to smile as the Thais do.