Wedding Crashers

On Sunday night, Tu called and asked if Olivia and I would like to go to dinner with her. We agreed and she and another teacher picked us up around 5:30pm. We had no idea where we were going and got even more confused as we headed out of town. We tried to ask where we were going and she started talking about Kanchanaburi which is about an hour from U-Thong. Were we going to have dinner in Kanchanaburi??? We were totally confused. Then she started talking about weddings and asking how to say bride and groom in English. Apparently one of her former students was getting married. We thought she was just making conversation but about 10 minutes later we pulled into this park which was lit up with neon lights and lanterns. Turns out it was the wedding she was just talking about. 

We pulled up to the parking lot and they got out of the car. Olivia and I started to protest because we were in no way dressed for a wedding. I was in khaki capri shorts and dirty slip on shoes. Tu insisted it was ok and led us into the wedding where we were immediately taken to greet the bride and groom and take pictures with them. Totally awkward. We then were taken to a table. There were at least a thousand people there. Apparently there is no dress code for a Thai wedding and we were not the only people who were dressed causally (thank goodness). There were quite a few people in jeans and flip-flops.  We sat down and drank some soda while Tu chatted away with some of her friends in Thai. 15 minutes later we got up to leave. Olivia and I couldn’t help but start laughing as we had just crashed a Thai wedding. We got back in the car and kept driving. We realized that we were indeed heading to Kachanaburi.

About an hour later we pulled up to a really nice hotel and realized that we were going to be attending another wedding. Really? Two weddings in one night? If I had known, I definitely would have dressed more appropriately. So there we were ready to crash the second wedding of the evening. This wedding was definitely fancier. We sat down and actually ate dinner as we listened to speeches from the mother and father of the bride. This wedding was also quite large and had at least 500 people. Dinner was delicious and they kept bringing us more and more food.

I learned that the actual wedding ceremony is held in a Buddhist temple. After the ceremony they host a big reception. Apparently they don’t care who comes or what their guests wear. The reception was pretty much the same as America with toasts, speeches and cake cutting. There was no dancing however. After the cake cutting the bride and groom left and the guests immediately followed.

Can’t believe I crashed two Thai weddings in one night!

After we left the wedding Tu said that we were going to go see the “bridge over the river Kwae”. We tried to explain to her that we had already seen it during orientation week and we didn’t really need to see it again. It was 9 pm by this point and we were both tired. She insisted that we go saying that the bridge had “light and sound”. We kept trying to tell her we didn't need to go but she drove us there anyway. Turns out there was a huge festival (of course there would be a festival) at the bridge celebrating the end of WWII in Thailand. The bridge was lit up and there was a huge market and live music. There was also a big carnival but we did not go  because it was packed and we couldn’t get anywhere near it. We still walked around the market for a while and enjoyed the celebration. We didn’t get home until about midnight.  Yay for random Sunday night adventures! 

Some things I have learned:

-I am confused about 99% of the time here in Thailand. I never know what is going on.

-There is a festival for just about everything. Thai’s love to celebrate.

-Going out with Tu is always an adventure

Thanksgiving, Monkeys and Harry Potter

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Thursday, Olivia and I headed off to Suphanburi to have Thanksgiving dinner with several other teachers from the program. There were 11 of us total and we started off with dinner at Lin’s Place. On the menu for Thanksgiving dinner was a wonton appetizer, KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken and rice (provided by the chefs at Lin’s), followed by a dessert of delicious pineapple and Thai donuts. Nothing compared to home but overall a pretty tasty Thanksgiving dinner.  We went around the table and each talked about what we were thankful for.

(Side note: the word thankful does not exist in Thai. I found that out when none of my students understood my Thanksgiving lesson…)

Dinner was followed by a trip to the Cowboy Bar which had some pretty great live music and dancing. It was wonderful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with fellow Americans even though we are half way around the world. J 

I didn’t have class Friday because we had originally asked for it off to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Bangkok. Our plans changed but we still had Friday off, so Olivia and I headed to Bangkok Friday morning. We hit up Khao San Road (the popular backpacking district) and did a little Christmas shopping. It definitely felt weird to be buying Christmas gifts in Thailand in the 90 degree heat. After spending a lot of baht on gifts we decided to treat ourselves and go see Harry Potter. I almost forgot I was in Thailand until they flipped on the lights at the end of the movie and we were the only non-Thai people in the theater. A great afternoon in Bangkok!

After Harry Potter it was off to Lopburi to see the monkeys!

Got up early Saturday morning and ventured out for a cha yin (Thai iced tea). We were walking around and ended up by the famous ruins, AKA monkey central. We stopped to admire the monkeys and snap a few photos however it was not even a minute before a monkey spotted Olivia’s iced tea. He climbed up her leg and reached for her tea which she quickly gave up. Seeing that there were about five monkeys headed my way, I willing surrendered my drink to avoid the imminent monkey attack. They took our drinks and ran away into the shade to enjoy our delicious tea.

After our close encounter with the monkeys we decided to hit up the famous sunflower fields nearby. It was an hour bus ride outside the city. We walked around the fields looked at the beautiful flowers and then bought some yummy sunflower seeds.

We came back, walked around the ruins, saw some more monkeys and wandered through the museum. I am not going to lie monkeys kind of freak me out. I am pretty glad I don’t live somewhere where they freely roam the streets.

 Coming back from Lopburi was definitely an adventure. We had to come back to U-thong Saturday night as we had to attend an “exhibition” with our school on Sunday. We found this out on Wednesday and couldn’t say no since they had been kind enough to give us Friday off.

We got to the bus station in Lopburi only to discover that there were no more buses to Suphanburi and we would have to wait until the next morning. We were really confused because it was only 3:00pm. We figured out that we could go to Ang Thong and get on a bus to Suphanburi from there, so we got on a rickety old bus and an hour later we got off. Our bus driver was kind enough to wait with us and show us which van to get on. We got to Suphanburi at 6:00pm to find out that there were no more buses or vans to U-thong (what is with the bus schedule??) We were stranded and none of our friends were in town. A song-taw driver offered to drive us for 500 baht however we kindly refused.

We called our teacher friend Tu to ask what we should do. She got on the phone called around and ended up calling the school van to come pick us up. We felt so bad that someone had to drive to come get us (about 30 minutes) but there was no other way to get home. We were thinking we were going to have to wait a long time for the driver to come get us but not even 10 minutes later the van shows up. The driver opens the door and the car is filled with teachers from our school and a few of my students. SO embarrassing. They happened to be in Suphanburi as part of the “exhibition” going on this weekend.  They were all laughing for a good five minutes and we kept hearing the word farang. They thought it was hilarious. I couldn’t help but start laughing too. Traveling is definitely an adventure that is for sure! 

  

Loi Loi Kratong

Sorry this post is really long!  

So this weekend was the celebration of Loi Kratong which is basically a festival to honor the water spirits. Thai people make beautiful boats made out of banana leaves and flowers and release them into the river as a thank you to the water spirits and also to ask for forgiveness for polluting the water. Loi Kratong is celebrated all over Thailand, however our coordinator asked us to stay in U-thong this weekend for the celebration. I was kind of excited to stay in U-thong because I have done so much traveling on the weekends that it was nice to stay close and explore more of our town.

On Friday, one of the Thai teachers offered to show us around U-thong. Her name is Tu and she is amazing. She teaches the commercial (business) classes at the school. She offered to take us to the Wat (or temple) in U-thong.  The Wat is situated up on a hill at the end of the main road in our town. I was excited to go because I have only seen it from a distance as it is too far to walk or ride our bikes.

We showed up at the Wat and it turns out there was a huge market set up for Loi Kratong. Tons of food stalls, people selling souvenirs and clothing, and a huge carnival with games and prizes. The temple itself is huge with different levels as you climb up the stairs. On each level is a different Buddha statue. We walked around the temple for a while and then we saw a huge crowd gathering in the center of the street in front of the Wat. Everyone was carrying balloons. Tu ushered us over to the crowd and bought us each a balloon. We had no idea what was going on but she was able to explain that part of Loi Kratong is also to say thank you to the spirits of the sky so they also release balloons and lanterns during the festival.   We waited as a monk made a special speech and prayer and then the whole crowd released their balloons.

After that we went over to watch a traditional Thai dance performance. The performance was an interpretative dance of the history of Loi Kratong. Even though I didn’t understand any of the narrative, the Thai dancing was incredible. And of course the costumes were amazing. 

After the performance we sat and had dinner and then wandered the market for a while. It was such a neat experience and I am so glad that we had a local Thai to show us around and tell us about the festival.

On Saturday Tu again offered to show us around. She said that she wanted to take us to a “temple with many Buddha”. We said ok and jumped in her car at 7am. We kept trying to ask where this temple was but the only response we got was “very far”.  So we drove through the countryside for about 2 hours. We pulled off onto a dirt road and Tu explained that she was lost and had to stop to ask for directions. So we pulled up into this tiny village and stopped at about every house to ask if they knew where the temple was. Nobody seemed to know so we kept driving. We stopped at one house where a woman was sitting outside weaving a basket. We sat and watched her while Tu was chatting with her in Thai. Later Tu explained that basket weaving was a big deal in this community and that all of the women did it and then sold their baskets at the local market.

We finally figured out that we were in the completely wrong town. So we drove for another hour to another small town. Finally, Tu said that we had arrived. I was expecting to see a magnificent temple however we pulled up to a house with about twenty women sitting outside, all weaving baskets. I was really confused as to how we ended up here. Turns out that Tu gives financial advice to several small businesses around Suphanburi. This group of women had called Tu to come to one of their meetings.  Apparently this group of women weave baskets together and then sell them at the market and share the profit. So, Olivia and I got to sit and watch as these women weaved baskets and talked to Tu about their business. Later Tu explained that the women were struggling to keep up with the demand for the baskets. Each basket takes about 3 days to make and they have many, many orders.

It was such a unique experience to be sitting with these local women. There was such a sense of community. We had a delicious lunch with them followed by a photo shoot. They were fascinated by us and all wanted to take pictures with us. It was such a wonderful surprise. J

After lunch Tu said we were going to find the “temple with many Buddha”. We drove around for a long time and had to stop and ask for directions again. Somehow we ended up at the Boonchawa (?) gardens which is this big park and outdoor vegetable garden. We walked around for a while. It was quite nice.

After that we drove back to Suphanburi. On the way back we stopped at Tu’s family restaurant. We were invited into her home and met pretty much her entire extended family. They kept bringing us plate after plate of fresh fruit and then they cooked us a delicious dinner. They kept bringing out more food! I was so full and they kept asking if I wanted more. Her family was amazing. I definitely wish I could speak more Thai so I could have talked with them.

 We never did see the “temple with many Buddha” but what we got instead was pretty great.

 

Sunday was the actual Loi Krathong festival. It started off with a parade through U-thong. The foreign teachers got to dress up in really awesome hot pink Hawaiian shirts. We were all given a krathong (the boats) to carry during the parade. The parade was actually pretty cool. They had floats made out of flowers and banana leaves that were extremely intricate. Our school had a group of dancers dressed in traditional Thai dresses, a marching band, followed by a few classes of students. The parade was a bit awkward for us foreign teachers. I thought we got stared at a lot on a day to day basis but it was nothing compared to parading in front of the entire town of U-thong. I can’t tell you how many times we heard the word “farang” and how many people were so excited to take our picture.

After the parade we went back to the park where we attended another photo shoot. (Seriously more pictures?) After that we were led down to the river where we released our kratongs. The park was lit up like crazy and they had tons of food stalls and other vendors. There were literally thousands of people. I have no idea where all the people came from because I did not think U-thong was that big. We ate way too much food, including som tom which is one of my new favorite dishes and walked around the park enjoying all the festivities. It was really weird to see so many of my students wearing normal clothing. I could barely recognize some of them. After watching some more traditional Thai dancing, fireworks etc, we decided to go back to the temple where there was the carnival going on. We found a group of Elana’s students (M3) who were so excited to see us and wanted to show us around the carnival. So, we followed a group of 14 year old girls around as they explained what different foods were and then led us through how to make offerings to the many Buddha statues at the temple. It was actually really fun and I think they really enjoyed hanging out with the foreign teachers and practicing their English.

I have never seen anything quite like the Loi Kratong festival. There were literally thousands of people around and so many festivities. It was really a lot of fun. I am so glad that I stayed in U-thong for the celebration and was able to get to know some of the teachers, students, and other local people. Such a great weekend! 

Random Thoughts and Interesting Tidbits

-I bonded with my Chinese roommate over lunch today. Turns out she speaks pretty good English. (Maybe she was scared to speak it?) She was able to have a full conversation in English and I learned that she is a University student who is here doing a teacher training program. Maybe the living situation may not be so awkward after all?

-I am having a never ending battle with the bugs in my house. Ants are the worst. I get rid of an ant pile only to find that the pile has tripled in size the next day… The bugs here also seem to be about 10 times the size as they are in the States. 

-Mosquitoes are vicious and seem to enjoy my legs and feet despite the layers of bug spray. 

-Geckos are frequent visitors and I also found a frog hanging out in the kitchen.

-It is winter in Thailand. Even though it is 85 degrees Thai people are walking around in sweaters, coats and scarves. I really don’t want to stick around to see what summer feels like if they think this is cold….

-Word of advice: If you step on a sea urchin while snorkeling in Ko Samet, make sure you go to the doctor right away. It could end up getting infected a month later….

-Rabies shots are annoying. However, I will soon be protected in case another dog decides that I am some sort of threat.

-Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are insanely popular here. I actually heard one of the Thai English teachers teaching the students the words to “Bad Romance” (right after singing Old MacDonald).

-A few of my students were playing scrabble before class the other day. They were so excited to show me their scrabble board when I walked into class. “Teacher, teacher!” they yelled as they pointed happily at the board. They were so proud of themselves, however I did not find a single, actual English word. There were words such as “lat”, “girt”, “sires”, “mune” etc. I can only guess what words they were actually trying to spell. I smiled at them and told them they had done a terrific job. I didn’t want to ruin scrabble for them…

-I found out that the classes in each grade level are ranked 1-11. Apparently 9 is the smartest and most well behaved class (don’t ask me why 9 is the best). 1 is essentially the “dumb” class and has all the “naughty” kids. Why would they put all the worst kids together in the same class?

-I am amazed at how different my classes are. I can teach the exact same lesson and have it be a huge success in one class and a complete failure in another class. I have already had some pretty epic failures….

-This post is what happens when you have too much iced coffee and can’t sleep J

"Happy Bird-day"

After another somewhat adventurous journey, I arrived in Ayutthaya to spend my birthday weekend with friends and do some sight-seeing.

Friday night five of us went out for a western dinner at Tony’s Place. After a delicious meal of chicken and french fries we headed across the street to listen to some live music. Here we found a band with a singer who I can only describe as a Thai “hippie”. This guy was awesome. Aside from the fact that he was pounding back whiskey shots, he really had no idea the words to the songs he was singing. Songs such as Bob Marley’s “No woman, no cry” didn’t sound quite the same as he was mumbling through the words in a Thai accent.

I got the best birthday present when two of my friends surprised me with a banana chocolate roti birthday cake, candles included. Roti (kind of like a crepe) is one of my favorite desserts here so I was thrilled when they walked up singing happy birthday. The band, seeing that it was my birthday, began singing their rendition of the song. This was quite funny because it sounded like “happy bird-day” (Thai’s have trouble pronouncing the “th” sound in English words). Such a great way to spend my birthday J       

Ayutthaya was the former capital of Thailand (or Siam) and was built in the 1300’s. In 1767 the city was sacked and burned by the Burmese army. The city was left in ruins until they began to restore it in the 1950’s. During the attack the army stole all of the treasures and cut off the heads of the majority of the Buddha statues.

On Saturday we decided to rent bikes so we could ride around to all of the ruins. This was interesting as we had to cross the river with our bikes first. Hmm…didn’t really think that one though. We ended up getting our bikes onto the ferry (luckily it was about a 2 minute ride) and then attempted to ride down the side streets looking for the ruins. Riding bikes around Thailand is honestly quite terrifying. Again they have no pedestrian side walks or cross walks so you just have to go and hope you don’t get hit by a motorbike or tuk-tuk. We found the ruins and began our tour at the Wat Mahatat.  

 We spent the majority of the day walking around the ruins which was absolutely amazing. We saw the famous Buddha head wrapped in the tree trunk, the largest Buddha in Ayutthaya and a giant reclining Buddha statue. We also wandered through a huge market and had some delicious snacks. I can’t wait to go back and see more of the temples and ruins we didn’t get a chance to see!

I can’t believe I got to spend my 25^th birthday in Thailand. So amazing. 

Saraburi? Saraburi?

On Friday I decided to hop on a bus to Saraburi to go visit some friends from the program.

I arrived at the bus station in Suphanburi and attempted to ask for a van to Saraburi (vans are twice as fast as buses and definitely the way to travel) “yes, yes, van” they kept telling me but suddenly I was being ushered on to a rickety old bus that had unquestionably seen better days. I didn’t have much time to protest as the bus was already leaving the station.  Hope I am headed in the right direction!

Turns out I was placed on the slow boat to China (or in this case, the slow bus to Saraburi). This bus was slow as molasses and I really thought it was going to break down at any moment. It was also the bus that made stops about every 5 minutes. What I thought would be about a 2 hour journey in a nice air conditioned van turned into almost a 4 hour bus ride through the countryside.

I got quite concerned about hour 3 that I was not headed in the right direction. We were in the middle of nowhere and all of the signs were completely in Thai. About an hour later, still concerned that it was taking way too long, I attempted to ask what time we would be arriving in Saraburi. This was met with confused looks from everybody. “This is the bus to Saraburi right?” I asked. Silence.  More confused looks. “Saraburi?” I kept repeating. Nothing.  Then the lady made a bunch of weird gestures at me that I did not understand and told me to sit down. About 10 minutes later we arrived in Saraburi (thank goodness).

My journey was not over as I still had to figure out how to get to the school where I was meeting my friends. I attempted to ask how to get to the school which was again met with confused looks. “Anuban Saraburi” I kept repeating. Nothing. Finally someone understood and I was ushered to the curb. Suddenly, a motorbike taxi appeared in front of me and the driver was given instructions on where to take me. I hesitantly hopped on the back of the bike (my first time ever on a motorcycle) and we took off weaving through traffic. About 5 minutes later we pulled up to the school. Miraculously, I had made it.

What I thought would be an easy, quick ride tuned out to be quite the experience with a lot of language difficulties. On the positive side I got to see a lot of the beautiful countryside.  Sometimes the journey is just as exciting as the destination. And sometimes you have to put a lot of faith into random strangers. :)            

My time in Saraburi was short and sweet. I wandered through a big night market, tried some interesting street food (I passed on the fried grasshoppers), and met some great people. Ended up at a swanky Thai jazz club followed by a dance club with live music by a band called “Sweet Mullet”.   Wish I could have stayed longer but overall a pretty successful trip! 

Why my students were ditching class...

So Friday was the much anticipated “Sports Day”. This past week most of my afternoon classes were canceled and many of my students didn’t show up to class. I did not understand why “sports day” was such a big deal and why none of the teachers seemed to care if the students attended class. I watched all week as students practiced various sports for hours after school (sometimes until 8 or 9 at night). Even the teachers had their own soccer and volleyball tournaments.  On Thursday they began decorating the huge field in front of the school with tents, signs, banners, flowers etc. The students labored intensively on different colored posters and decorations. I could not believe how elaborate everything was.

On Friday morning we were asked to attend the “Opening Ceremony”.  After the first 5 minutes I finally understood what they had been working so hard on and why they had been ditching class. It started off with a huge parade. The students were all divided up into groups, each represented by a color (pink, yellow, red, green, blue and purple). Each color group had its own “theme” with costumes, banners etc. The costumes were absolutely amazing! I posted some pictures so you can get an idea of how intricate and detailed they were!

After the parade there was a dance (or cheerleading) competition. The girls in costumes from each color group all did a cheer performance.  This was followed by fire crackers, confetti, balloons, and the lighting of a torch (like the Olympics). The whole ceremony was incredible and lasted about 3 hours. The rest of the day was devoted to the actual sports competitions.

I finally get why the school opened early and why so many classes were canceled in preparation for this event. So cool!

So much for making friends with the dogs in my neighborhood...

I arrived at the school after my journey from Bangkok and was walking towards my house. The dogs in my neighborhood immediately began barking, (which is pretty common) and two of them began to follow me. I was told that the best thing to do is ignore them, keep walking, and eventually they will leave you alone. So, this is exactly what I did. I continued walking. Suddenly, one of them bit the back of my leg. Luckily, my Thai neighbors (including a fellow teacher from the English department) were out in the street and saw the whole thing. They immediately sat me down, stopped the bleeding and drove me to the doctor in town. They were extremely helpful and were able to translate between me and the doctor. Luckily the bite was not that deep nor that serious. They cleaned me up, gave me a rabies shot along with some antibiotics. I have to go back a few more times to get the rest of the shots in the series. I am amazed at how friendly and helpful Thai people are and I am so thankful that I have such great neighbors!!

Ping Pong Show?

 So, Bradley (my roommate from Bangkok) and I decided we wanted to explore the Silom area near our hostel. She had heard of a night market nearby so we set off on an adventure. We walked through a very nice part of town and realized that there were a lot of super nice hotels and it was an area that was definitely catering to westerners. On our journey I saw McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, KFC and 5 Starbucks. The streets were crawling with foreigners, mostly Europeans.  We continued on to the Patpong night market.  It was a nice market however we quickly realized that we were in a not so nice area of town (aka the red light district). We strolled through the market but decided to quickly get out of the area. 

For the one millionth time I do not want to see a ping pong show!! (If you don’t know what a ping pong show is, don’t ask. You really don’t want to know. 555).

After a disappointing Thai dinner at Happy Joe’s restaurant (or something to that effect), I broke down and had my first taste of western food. McDonald’s french fries. Hands down, best tasting french fries I have ever had.

Sunday morning I decided to splurge and get a Thai massage. Traditional Thai massages are not at all like the massages in the states. My body was twisted and contorted in ways I didn’t know it could go. My limbs were pushed, pulled and stretched in every possible direction. I was expecting it to hurt a lot but it felt surprisingly good. All of the tension in my muscles was instantly gone. Best $10 I have ever spent. Definitely an experience worth repeating.