Chiang Mai Part I

We arrived in Chiang Mai after about a 5 hours bus ride. We dropped our stuff off at the Little Bird Hostel and went to go check out the "Sunday Walking Street" a gigantic night market in the heart of the "old city". We got there a little early and were able to see all of the vendors setting up for the night. The market was huge and went on for blocks and blocks. They had so many neat souvenirs and things to buy and was it was really fun to wander and check out all the new and different knick-knacks. Luckily traveling with only a backpack really deters you from buying too much stuff  :) We also ate some great street food snacks along the way. I love Chiang Mai already.

On Monday we got up and decided to do our own walking tour of the temples in the "Old City" (Chiang Mai is also divided). We went and saw four of the famous temples (as suggested by lonely planet) and it was really interesting to see how the temples differed in architecture from everywhere else I have been in Thailand. It was a fun morning spent temple spotting (there are A LOT of temples!). After lunch we headed to the women's prison for a massage. I know its sounds weird but its actually part of a rehabilitation program. It was the best massage I have had so far in Thailand, and really cheap too! After a relaxing massage we jumped on a song-tau up to Doi Suthep, the highest mountain in Thailand to check out the temple ( I had been on my previous trip to Chiang Mai with the school).   

Chiang Mai is such a great city and I am falling in love with it already. We had planned to stay about 4-5 days but we may end up staying longer. There is so much to do and see here and the city has such a great atmosphere. Chiang Mai part II coming soon!

Sukhothai

The first stop on my two month traveling journey was Sukhothai, and what a perfect place to start. Sukhothai is a cute little city that was once the old capital of Thailand. Sukhothai is divided into two parts, the old city where the historic park and ruins are, and the new city where we stayed. We stayed at a really cute little guest house run by a friendly couple.  The first day we took a trolley/song-tau thing into the old city where we rented bikes to tour the ruins. Unlike Ayuttaya, all of the ruins are located in one park area. The ruins were amazing and much more well preserved. The park was also way less crowded and touristy. My favorite part of the ruins was the "Big Buddha" at Wat Sri Chum. So amazing. Although it was hotter than hot, it was a great day biking around the ruins. The next day was spent exploring the "new city" and lounging at our hostel. We had allowed ourselves two days to tour the ruins but we really only needed one. I am definitely glad we stopped in Sukhothai. I think it is a place that tends to get overlooked by tourists but has some of the most amazing ruins I have seen and definitely worth a stop. Next stop Chiang Mai!

P.S. Unfortunately I was unable to  pack my laptop in my backpack so I may not be able to upload photos for a while. I will try to post pictures as soon as I find a place that allows me to do it!

The Good, The Bad and The Just Darn Cute

The semester is quickly coming to an end and I only have two more days of teaching. I thought I would take a moment and reflect on my teaching experience.

The Good

-This semester I had 2 or 3 classes that I absolutely loved. The students were always energetic and enthusiastic about class, no matter what I was teaching. They were generally engaged in the lesson and I always had fun teaching them. I looked forward to seeing them every week. I was also able to bond with a few of the students which is extremely difficult to do when you have such large classes. If all of my classes were like that, I would have no problem continuing to teach in Thailand

-Being able to build relationships with some of the teachers at my school was huge. All of the teachers were extremely nice to me and made sure that I adjusted to life in U-Thong. So many of the teachers would go out of their way to do anything for me and I really appreciate all of the nice things they did for me

-What I like to call the “aha” moment. It is difficult to teach a language to students who have spent the last few years learning English from a Thai teacher. Sometimes it was really difficult to get my point across because they just didn’t understand me. I felt so good when I could tell that a student finally understood what I was talking about and had that “aha moment” Sometimes it happened to me when a Thai student tried desperately to communicate something to me in Thai. Finally after lots of repeating and gesturing I would have that “aha” moment and understand what the student was trying to say.  Getting past the language barrier always felt good. 

The Bad

-Having 55 students in each class was crazy. It was impossible to find lesson plans that kept the kids engaged. I would say about 90% of the students could care less about learning English and that made it hard for me to get excited about teaching them.

-Having so many classes was also difficult. I would plan one lesson per week but it I would have to tweak it -for different classes. A lesson would go over so well with one class but then completely fail in another class.

-My M5 classes pretty much stopped showing up by the end of the semester. I probably saw my Friday afternoon classes about 3 times the entire semester. It was frustrating that I still had to go to class and wait around to see if they would show up. It was always amazing to me that an ENTIRE class would agree to ditch class

-The lack of resources was very frustrating. I had to plan my own lessons, which was difficult, especially with an unreliable internet connection. I was unable to do a lot of the lessons I wanted to do either because of lack of resources or because there were just too many students to make it work.

 -The kids were constantly talking, copying and working on other homework, playing on their cell phones and listening to their Ipods. By the end of the semester I had pretty much given up the battle. 

The Just Darn Cute

-I am kind of going to miss hearing “helllooo teecha” about a thousand times a day

-I am really going to miss my students laughing at me when I butcher the Thai language. They always thought it was so funny when I tried to pronounce anything in Thai.

-I thought it was funny when my students got frustrated with English and they would ask me to “speak Thailand”.

-I am going to miss students calling me beautiful and random boys saying “I love yooouuu”

-I am also going to miss groups of students running up to me and saying random things in English and then running away giggling.

-Some of the students were just so darn cute. They always sat in the front row and smiled and nodded at me the whole time I was teaching. Definitely going to miss those smiling faces.

There were many times that I got extremely frustrated with the school and with teaching, but overall I am so glad that I had this experience. It really gave me insight into the life and culture of the Thai people and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. There were days when I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face, but as always in life, there were bad days too. I am both excited and sad to be leaving U-Thong and the school. There are a few things I will miss about teaching and I will miss the connections that I made here.

Now it is time to pack everything up and begin my travel adventure. First stop Sukhothai. Can’t wait!  

Western Weekend

Where do you go if you want to see old white men in speedos? Hua Hin. Well, any beach in Thailand really, but specifically Hua Hin. I have never seen so many oversized European men wearing undersized swim wear. I understand it’s a cultural thing but I really wish they would cover up. Especially when you look around and see that the local Thai's swim fully clothed and wear long sleeves and long pants to the beach.  

Hua Hin is a popular beach destination for both local Thais and farang due to its close proximity to Bangkok. It definitely caters to the westerners and is crawling with older white couples and ex-pats. Despite being a little grossed out by the lack of coverage on the beach, Hua Hin was a pretty neat town. I spent some time on the beach, celebrated a good friend’s birthday and ate a lot of western food. Food this weekend included Italian, really good Mexican and even bagels with real cream cheese!!

Best part of the weekend? Waking up really early to watch the sunrise on the beach. Amazing. 

Im Mak

I think I gained about 10 pounds in 2 days. No joke.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so much good food in my life.

The semester is coming to an end and it will soon be time for me to leave U-thong. Olivia, Elana and I decided we wanted to take our teacher friends out to dinner as a thank you for everything they have done for us this semester. We invited our coordinators Nu, and Jeab, and our friends Tu, Wonchai and Bua to dinner at Tu’s family restaurant. We have become quite close with these teachers over the past few months and they have been so wonderful to us; driving us to Tesco, taking us on random adventures, and treating us to so many lunches and dinners I can’t even keep track. They are all such wonderful people and I can’t imagine my experience in Thailand without them.  

Dinner was “aroi mak” (very delicious) and I absolutely stuffed myself on fried fish, tom yum soup, gang leang(sp?) soup, and a salty fruit salad. Soooo good. The conversation at dinner may have seemed a little odd to an outsider. The farang were attempting to talk in Thai and the Thai teachers were practicing their broken English, yet somehow it worked and there was laughter and smiles all around. The teachers tried to teach us some new Thai words, none of which I can remember (dang, I need to be better about writing these things down). The one phrase I do remember: “Im mak” meaning very full.  

The next night Olivia and I were invited out for dinner by two teachers P Meow (I love her name!) and Petah (?). We went to this amazing restaurant that I didn’t even know existed (funny how we find all these new places right before we leave). The teachers speak pretty rough English, but I could tell they were so excited to be out with the foreign teachers so they could practice. As soon as we sat down a big clay pot with burning hot coals was set down in front of us. Along with a bowl of raw pork, some veggies, noodles, and a few spices. Everything we needed to begin our “hot pot” dinner. The teachers started by adding the broth and various ingredients into the bowl that was warming over the coals and we began to cook our meat. Seriously one of the best meals I have ever had. I could not stop eating. The teachers got a kick out of me saying “Im mak” every time they tried to put more food on my plate.       

Two great meals spent with great company. I’m a pretty happy (and full) girl. J

Chinese New Year

For Chinese New Year Olivia and I headed to Bangkok to check out China Town. We took a stroll down Yarawat road which was decked out in red and gold and covered with lanterns, banners and other festive decorations. We wandered through a giant, never-ending, market filled with every cheesy souvenir you could possibly think of. It was awesome.  

On Thursday we went with our school to a New Years celebration in Suphanburi at the Chinese Dragon Decedents museum, which is literally a gigantic dragon sculpture. Here we were able to see some traditional Chinese dances and performances. Of course there were fireworks (this country puts our 4^th of July to shame) and a concert by a pretty famous Thai pop band (judging by the screams of  my M2 girls).

Here are a few things I learned about Chinese New Year

-Chinese people spend the days before the New Year cleaning the entire house. This is meant to symbolize sweeping away all the ill-fortunes from the previous year and making room for all of the good fortunes that are to come in the new year.

-In China Town I saw many people burning big bonfires. I found out the people make offerings to the dead by burning items (such as fake money, fake houses etc.) to send to the afterlife. They also set out big feasts for the spirits of their ancestors.

-You are not allowed to cut your hair right before or after the New Year. You are also not allowed to wash your hair because you will be washing away your good luck. 

-2011 is the year of the Rabbit, which apparently means it will be a much calmer year than 2010 (the year of the Tiger).

Channeling My Inner Thai Chef

Wednesday I had the day off due to Chinese New Year. Olivia and I decided to head to Bangkok to take a cooking class and check out China Town.

The cooking class was so much fun. The class started with a field trip to a local market where we were able to pick up all of the fresh produce that we needed to make our dishes. On the menu: spring rolls, pad thai, som tom (papaya salad), masaman curry and fried banana with coconut ice cream These are some of my favorite dishes here in Thailand so I was really excited to learn how to cook them!

As some of you may know, I am not the best cook in the world. I was a little worried about trying to learn how to cook Thai food. There are so many ingredients that I am not familiar with and it all seems so complicated. Luckily, a friend recommended a great cooking school. Our instructor was awesome. Not only was he absolutely hilarious, he was knowledgeable and helpful.  I learned a lot about different spices and different chilies used in Thai cooking and learned the proper techniques for making som tom and curry paste. We got to eat all of the dishes we cooked and I have to say they all turned out really well. We got to keep the recipes so I am excited to try to re-create the dishes at home for my friends and family!