Field Trip!

Saturday it was off to Kanchanaburi on a school field trip, “English on Tour”.  A group of my M2 students were selected to go on this field trip in order to practice their English skills. The bus ride started off with me and Olivia asking questions in English and students reading the history of the sites we were going to see. The students were supposed to complete an assignment at each of the stops on the trip.  First stop was the WWII cemetery containing soldiers and prisoners of war involved in building the “death railway”. After that it was on to the “Bridge over the River Kwae” (apparently pronounced kway not kwai.  Kwai means buffalo in Thai which the Thai teachers and students thought was hilarious) The bridge was part of the “death railway” built by the Japanese. The railway was intended to link Thailand and Burma and was used to transport labor and supplies to the Japanese army. After a morning filled with history it was off to the Soi Yok waterfall. The students had to complete an assignment where they had to have a conversation with a foreigner and ask them questions in English. The waterfall was pretty but it was very crowded and touristy. As for the kids, I don’t know if any of them completed this part of the assignment. I kept asking my kids if they needed help, but they just said “No teacher. Later”. I think they were too nervous about approaching a stranger and attempting to talk to them in English. Overall, a pretty interesting field trip.

Sunday it was time for another “field trip”. Although, I wouldn’t necessarily call a trip to the Chatachack weekend market in Bangkok a “field trip”. Doesn’t seem to me there is much educational value there….Nonetheless, 7 buses were loaded with probably about a thousand kids (all grade levels). And guess what?  The kids were literally dropped off and told to meet back at the buses. I was shocked as the M1 students (11-12 year olds) were simply let loose into the largest market in the world. I thought for sure someone was going to get lost. Heck, there have been a few times where I have felt the onset of a small panic attack because I could not find my out. But low and behold, after an afternoon of shopping, all the students seemed to have made it out alive. Whew.

It was a pretty fun weekend, however I think I am done with the school field trips for a while. I don’t know how many more bus rides filled with loud techno music and bad karaoke I can handle.     

Happy 2011!

Happy 2011!

Can I just say how incredibly lucky I am? I am getting PAID to LIVE in this BEAUTIFUL country. I seriously can’t get over it.

I also  have to say that I was a bit spoiled this weekend. I decided to go back to the island of Koh Chang. I met up with some friends and we stayed at the most amazing hotel. It was right on the beach and even had a roof top pool!!

On Friday, after spending the majority of the day lounging on the beach and swimming in the ocean, we decided to splurge on dinner. It’s New Years right? We found a Mexican restaurant and absolutely gorged ourselves on fajitas, burritos, nachos etc. It tasted SO good.  After dinner it was off to Lonely Beach for a gigantic New Years beach party. It was so much fun!

The next two days were spent being completely lazy. Lying on the beach and eating delicious food. Saturday night was Italian. I never knew pasta and pizza could taste so good.  On Sunday we went to Bang Bao which is a tiny fishing village at the southern tip of the island. It was such a cute town. We walked around, had lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.

Best. New Years. Ever.

If the first few days of the new year are any indication of how the rest of the year will go, I’d say its going to be a great year.  J   

Happy Very Much in New Year

On Thursday we did not have classes due to the school having a New Years party. (I only taught 1.5 days this week!) I was excited but I had no idea what the New Years party entailed. All I knew was that there was some sort of marathon and that each class would have its own classroom party. I had also heard that there would be dancing. I had no idea what a big deal it was going to be.

On Thursday I woke up and went out to join the rest of our school to run a “marathon”. The whole school, including teachers, lined up behind a big start gate. The race was to the temple and back. Olivia and I walked the race with a few of the other teachers. It was actually a lot of fun. After the race there was a big award ceremony where they gave out trophies to the winners (they had several different age categories).  This was followed by a gigantic raffle of gifts. All of the students had put their names into a drawing. They had so many prizes! Fans, rice cookers, DVD players, TV’s, and one lucky student won a motorbike! (It still freaks me out that 15 year olds (and even younger!) can drive those motorbikes….) It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed getting presents!

After the school wide raffle, the students all went to their “homeroom” for their own New Years Party.  I went to have lunch with our teacher friends in the commercial department. After a really delicious meal, there was another raffle for the commercial students where even more prizes were given out. I got to help draw names and hand out the gifts. It was really fun!

After all of the gifts were gone, we were told it was time for “dancing”. I was thinking “dancing” meant some sort of Thai traditional dancing with the students in costumes etc. Boy was I wrong. Turns out the school hired a pretty famous Thai pop/rock band to come give a concert at the school. Just imagine over 3,000 students, a sea of yellow and red uniforms, going crazy to their favorite pop songs. I am sad to say that I actually recognized a few of the songs and enjoyed dancing with my students. It was great to see the kids in a totally different context, dancing and having fun. What a crazy day!

After the concert was over I wished the Thai teachers a Happy New Year and headed off to Koh Chang for my own New Years celebration.  

Christmas in Chaing Mai

So my school planned a field trip to Chaing Mai this weekend. They plan several trips throughout the year for the “smart classes”. The rest of the students had mid-terms on Thursday and Friday, but since we do not test our kids in English class, the foreign teachers were invited to go along. Christmas in Chaing Mai!

On Wednesday I set off on an overnight bus with 40 students and 6 other teachers. Getting there was kind of a nightmare.  We had to switch buses 4 different times and ended up sitting on the side of the highway with all of our luggage for almost 2 hours. After arriving about 5 hours later than planned we had a quick bite to eat followed by a full day of site-seeing.

On Thursday we started off at an umbrella factory where we got to see Thai people hand painting umbrellas and fans. This was followed by a trip to the hot springs. Thursday night we went to the famous night bazaar to do some shopping

On Friday we got up early and headed to Doi Suthep the highest mountain in Thailand. To get there we had to pile all the kids into song-taus to drive up the winding mountain roads. After walking around the top and viewing what a traditional hill-tribe village looks like, we went to the Doi Suthep temple. The temple was amazing and had a gorgeous view of the city of Chaing Mai. After descending the mountain we headed to a botanic garden. After a quick break for lunch we spent the afternoon at the  Chaing Mai zoo. We went to the aquarium and got to see the famous pandas. So cute! From the zoo we went to have dinner and watch a traditional Thai dance performance.

We headed back to U-Thong on Saturday. On the way back we stopped at a really old temple in Lampang which was really cool. The bus ride home was filled with lots of very loud techno music, just plain odd variety shows, and of course karaoke. I started to go a little crazy after about 2 hours of the "greatest love songs of 2010". 

Overall the trip was really fun. We did a lot of touristy stuff and I wish we could have spent more time in the actual city of Chaing Mai, however, I plan to go back there so I guess its good I got all the super touristy stuff out of the way. I was a little worried that I would have to be “chaperone” and have to watch the kids the whole time, however the Thai teachers were surprising lacks about supervision. The kids were very well behaved and pretty much free to do as they pleased. It was fun to hang out with the Thai teachers and my Chinese roommate and spend some time in the cooler weather up north!

  

So, my Christmas was spent in Chaing Mai watching a traditional Thai dance performance. I don’t think I could have gotten further from Christmas at home. It definitely felt weird to not be doing all of the "Christmasy" things I am used to doing every year. I guess I felt a bit removed from Christmas here considering it wasn't really acknowledged at our school or in our town. Other than a few occasional signs, a Christmas tree here, some lights there, it didn't really exist for me.  I still  missed my friends and family very much and wish I could have spent the day with you all!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Looking forward to New Years!  

Puud Pasa Thai Nidnoi

One of the most frequent questions I get here in Thailand is “do you speak Thai”. My response is always “nidnoi”, meaning a little bit.  Since getting adjusted here in Thailand I have been wanting to learn to speak more of the language so that I can actually hold a conversation with a Thai person. I have learned a few key phrases and words that has definitely been enough to get me by, but I would really like to learn more. I was excited when OEG sent me a link to a language school in Bangkok that was offering a REALLY good deal on 30 hours of Thai language and culture classes. I decided this was my chance to improve my “nidnoi” status so I signed myself up. I headed to Bangkok this weekend to try out a few classes.   It was well, an interesting experience…..

The class was not at all what I expected. Apparently at this school they focus on the listening aspect and not so much the speaking. Their philsophy is that you can learn a language simply by observing and listening. So in each class there are two teachers and they basically just converse with each other in Thai and gesture and draw pictures so you can attempt to follow their conversation.

In the first class they talked about how the world was going to end in 2012 and how they wanted to be able to fly to the moon. Then they discussed the 3 items that they would take with them on their trip……not exactly a useful conversation I plan on having with a Thai person.

In my next class one of the teachers literally talked about toilets for 20 minutes. This included some very awkward gesturing involving actually using the toilet….. I think spending 2 minutes covering the Thai word for toilet would have sufficed.

All in all I am not so sure about these classes, however, I did learn what it must be like for my students when I talk at them in English and make weird gestures and drawings. 

Happy Very Much

This week I decided to teach my students a little bit about Christmas. It is a holiday that is not really celebrated here. After teaching some Christmas vocab, I had them all make Christmas cards. I was a little worried that they would think it was stupid but they absolutely LOVED it. They all go so in to it and really made some amazing cards. I was actually quite surprised that the students knew so much about Christmas. They knew words like Santa, reindeer and elf and their drawings completely blew me away. I hung up a few of my favorite cards in my office :)

A few of my students from one of my favorite classes actually took the time to write little messages instead of the standard “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year” Here is a sampling of their writing:

“Wish u happy with everything. Wish u have a good life and good health. In your stocking have…gift!”

“I wish you are merry Chrismas and happy in new year verry much”

“I whit everybody happy very much in Christmas day and new year”

“I wish your are happy very much and your family have a wall being so much”

I could not help but smile from ear to ear as my students handed in their cards and said “teacher, teacher we love you!” Teaching has been such a rollercoaster with really miserable classes followed by classes that make me smile and laugh. This was one of those classes that made me really appreciate teaching knowing that these kids actually enjoyed coming to my class and learning English. It also felt good to know that I am not a complete failure as an English teacher. A wonderful Christmas present!

A little Christmas cheer

We had another three day weekend (Constitution Day) this week. December rocks. Only one full week of teaching this month! Instead of jetting off again to somewhere far away, I decided to take it easy this weekend.  I have not been feeling well after a nasty sinus infection and I definitely have not been sleeping well here. I was in no way wanting to take on a full day of traveling to go anywhere. I decided that I needed a laid back weekend by myself with no agenda and no pressure to run off to do things and see things. It honestly felt really good.

I decided to head to Bangkok. Not exactly what you think of when you want a relaxing weekend to yourself. Bangkok is busy, noisy, crowded and can be very overwhelming. I have to say my opinion of Bangkok sort of changed this weekend. I didn’t have anywhere to be or any real plans. Bangkok is so much easier to manage when you are not in a rush to get somewhere. I stayed near Khao San Rd. in a very nice guest house. I was able to catch up on my sleep on the most comfortable bed ever. It is really sad when you look forward to staying at a hostel or guest house because the beds are more comfortable than your own.

It was quite nice to travel on my own. I literally had the freedom to do whatever I wanted and did not have to worry about what the other people I am traveling with wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong, I have met some great people here that I love to travel with but it was just a nice change of pace.

I went to the Pak Khlong flower market on Friday night which was truly stunning. I have never seen anything like it. An entire street blocked off with stalls after stalls of vendors selling the most beautiful fresh flowers I have ever seen. Thai people unloading baskets of orchids, daisies, lilies, roses etc. The orchids were the most beautiful colors of purple and pink. My pictures don’t even do it justice. The street just kept going with more and more flowers being unloaded from trucks. Truly a sight to see.

On Saturday I decided to go in search of some Christmas cheer. I found a few Christmas trees, some lights, and even a Santa Claus or two. It definitely feels weird to be in Thailand for the holidays. It does not feel like Christmas or even December. At all.  It may sound weird but I actually miss the cold weather and the snow. In my search for anything Christmas, I decided to splurge and get a starbucks peppermint mocha. Even though it was too hot outside to be drinking hot coffee, there was something oddly comforting about drinking from my holiday cup and listening to Frank Sinatra Christmas music. It’s funny sometimes what reminds us of home. I am definitely missing a lot of those “homey” things that I am used to doing around this time of year and I miss being with family. I do feel a little better after getting a little taste of Christmas so far away from home.    

I feel 100% better after the weekend and I am ready to take on this week of teaching. The next three weekends will be filled with lots of traveling and exciting places so I am glad that I was able to rest up so that I can enjoy it!  

Koh Chang

We had a 3 day weekend due to the King’s Birthday (Also Father's Day) so I decided to head to the Island of Koh Chang

I think I used just about every mode of transportation possible this weekend. Koh Chang was NOT easy to get to.  To get to the actual island we had to take an hour long ferry ride followed by an hour long song-tau ride up a winding mountain road (pretty interesting journey). The island was definitely worth it though. Koh Chang is one of the largest islands in Thailand and definitely fits my idea of what a tropical island in Thailand should look like. Rugged jungles, beautiful scenery, laid-back atmosphere and beaches that weren’t overcrowded. Definitely a tropical paradise.

Highlights of the trip:

1)      a short jungle hike to a beautiful waterfall

2)      renting a kayak and paddling out to a small nearby island

3)      the best meal I’ve had so far. Masaman curry is my new favorite dish.  Followed by coconut and mango sticky rice for dessert.  Total food coma. J 

It was such a nice relaxing weekend and I can’t wait to go back!  Now its time to transition back to teacher mode for three days before we get another long weekend.

We met a guy at our guest house who said that he had been on Koh Chang about 5 years ago and there was literally nothing there. He was surprised when he came back to see how much had been built. I wonder what it will look like in another 5 years?

  

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!