End of Orientation

Unfortunately, this entry will need to be brief.  A lot has happened in the past week, and in an effort to not bore you to tears, I’ll try to be as brief as possible while still including the most information.

Last weekend we went to That Phanom for a dance festival in the morning.  That Phanom is the largest temple in Nakhon Phanom province, and it is really impressive.  The 7 districts of Nakhon Phanom brought their dancers for a huge show in front of the temple, so there were probably 1000 thai dancers in unison there.

Thais like to combine their holidays, so on that same day there was also the Fireboat Festival back in NKP, the harvest festival, the end of the rainy season festival, the full moon festival, and the anniversary of the most famous king’s death. Last Saturday was certainly a party day.  And party we did.

We left That Phanom and headed straight to NKP to Pi Dtao’s house (right on the river, with a beautiful view from the roof deck).  Pi Dtao is Sarah’s host mother and a great friend to WorldTeach.  She invited all 15 of us to stay in her home that night, and she is also planning our trip to Surin for the elephant round-up coming up in a few weeks.

Speaking of elephants, I finally saw one in NKP that day!  They are usually brought around for festivals, which would explain why I also caught a glimpse of one parallel parked in between 2 cars in That Phanom as well.

NKP was bustling with activity, from riverfront makeshift markets, to parades, to a million street vendors selling dried squid and other questionable items (more on my recent culinary adventures in a bit).  We sprinted through an overwhelming carnival to get to one of the main streets in time to catch the end of the wax temple parade.  All the villages make elaborate temples out of wax and parade them through the streets.  To keep them from melting, they have people spraying the temples with water alongside the trucks.

After the parade, Rita and I decided to forgo nap/shopping time to go with Jes to her home to get more sleeping supplies. On the way we ran into Nell (that girl was the easiest person to find ever, she seemed to pop up everywhere….miss you Nell!) and went to her house instead to get more pillows and blankets to bring to Pi Dtao’s.  Nell was living with Pi Nok, one of the women who also work in the educational office in NKP.  Pi Nok is the sweetest woman, very easy to get along with and be comfortable with, especially as compared to the number of overbearing thai women we’ve been in contact with.  Now that Nell has moved back to the states, I’m so excited that Jes has decided to move into her room at Pi Nok’s, so we’ll be able to stay in touch with her.  Immediately upon entering her home, she hugged Rita and I as though we were family, which is rare in thai culture. 

After a while of calm at her house in the outskirts of the city, we headed back to the river to get ready for our night of fireboats and fun! After dinner at a restaurant named “Good Morning Vietnam” we searched for the perfect viewing spot on the riverfront to see the elaborately decorated boats aflame floating down the river.  It truly was a spectacular sight.  (For more info about the festival visit this website: http://www.north-by-north-east.com/articles/10_04_2.asp)

To see photos from both That Phanom and NKP festivals, see my album on facebook here (no need to be member of facebook): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067867&id=1326450028&l=d377cdf30d

After a night of partying away and dancing (gasp!) at the Duck Pub (who’s owner is very conveniently Rambo’s brother), we woke up early to get a start with errands for the day.  After wandering around the city and picking up necessary items, we headed to Mr. Narong’s house for lunch.  His home was beautiful and the food was amazing.  And of course there was thai dancing as well.  Someone took photos and video, which you can see here hahaha: http://www.krunarong.net/obec/index.php?mod=gallery_update&id_update=3&block=&path=web/gallery

Back at Pla Pak, we finished up the last few days of our practicum, which was a lot of fun and a great experience.  We were also there for Pla Pak Wit’s first day of school, so of course during their opening assembly we had to introduce ourselves in Thai. Yikes.

The PaawAaw of Pla Pak threw us a going away party on Wednesday night, which was a lot of fun. We were worried it would be like our welcoming party in which the whole community was invited.  Being our last night together, we wanted a smaller gathering…which was exactly what we got!  We all were able to fit at 4 tables and the only other attendees were teachers and staff that we were directly involved with. Karaoke and Thai dancing were a must!  The party ended early, so of course Rambo brought reinforcements and we had an after-party back at the school.

The next day I went to Gen’s home because my host family was traveling from China.  It was so nice to have my own room and be able to sleep in a real bed (rock hard, but real). Gen’s host mom is adorable and was so much fun.  She knew very little English but somehow we managed to make it work just fine.

When we visited Gen’s school on Friday, she got a huge surprise.  Her school had already started back up again and she was expected to teach her regular schedule starting that day. I found this awesome and hilarious because I got to sit back and watch, but I could tell Gen was a little nervous – but she handled the whole thing like a pro!

After school, my host mom, Nit, and her daughter, Bo, came to (I thought) pick me up, but we ended up only going out to dinner instead.  Nit had a test for her master’s degree the next day and arrived home late from China, so she didn’t want to take me to her home that night. Mai Pen Rai…we had fun at dinner and shopping.  Bo is 23 as well, and it was a lot of fun to be shown around by someone my age.  Unfortunately Bo has already moved back to Bangkok where she works, but I hope she visits home often so I can spend more time with her.

Upon finding out I would be picked up Saturday evening, we started to make plans to meet up with friends in NKP for the day.  So early Saturday morning, we headed to a saawng tao, and made our way into town.  We met a few other volunteers at Merengue, a great café where you can get “American” breakfasts aka ham and CHEESE sandwiches. We did a little shopping, went to Jes’s home to pick up our work permits, and enjoyed each other’s company as we are unsure of when we’ll see each other next.

Back at Gen’s home, I awaited Nit’s arrival and finally moving into my house.  It was late evening before I got there, but the whole family was around to have dinner on my porch and awkwardly hang out as I unpacked.  The house is beautiful and the amenities are even better.  My very own bathroom is not done yet, but should be within the next few days.  I have 2 full closets, one of which has a vanity-ish thing too.  A brand new fridge, fan, washing machine, and rice cooker round out the basics.  But the best part is that my bed and pillows aren’t rock hard. By no means can you sink into it, but you can press it down a millimeter or 2.

Last night Nit had a student stay in the house with me, which was also awkward, but it isn’t customary for anyone in Thailand to live alone.  I think I was able to communicate that it was fine to be by myself, and honestly, this house just isn’t big enough for 2 people.  Its just one room that the bed takes up half of. Regardless, this poor girl followed me everywhere, even to the bathroom when I got up in the middle of the night.

This morning, Nit had me come with her to her master’s degree class. She thought I’d be able to work in the library while she was in class, but the librarian’s dad was drunk or something and left the room locked.  So, what did I do for 3 hours instead?  Sat in class and listened to people speak Thai.  It wasn’t that bad, because no one actually paid any attention.  Everyone was having side conversations, passing around pictures from China, talking on their phones, or taking umpteen coffee breaks in the middle of people’s presentations.  It was definitely weird, but I was just passed from table to table, meeting Nit’s classmates and trying my best to politely refuse people wanting private English lessons or wanting to send their cousins/sisters/nieces to come live in my room with me. 

After class I was ready to get back home and work on organizing my space and preparing to teach tomorrow, but no.  Instead, we went to a party at a restaurant along the Mekong River for all the grad students.  Karaoke and Thai dancing were a given.  It was fun and everything, but I was not prepared for the whole thing, and I had so much going through my head that a party was the last place I wanted to be.  Thankfully, I think Nit could sense that I didn’t really want to be there, so she said, “Let’s go back to my home, and you take sleep” Somehow she knew exactly what I wanted/needed.  So here I am, freshly napped, unpacked, ready for tomorrow, and reminiscing about the last week with a beautiful view of my pond out the window.  My work in Thailand officially starts now, and I can’t wait for all that’s to come. 

Things I’ve learned in Thailand so far:

1.      Be careful what you compliment.  Peter said he liked Mr. Narong’s traditional shirt.  The next day 14 were delivered for us all to have.

2.      Be careful what you say.  One mention of ice cream or a snack or anything you might theoretically want, you’ll get, within only a matter of moments, whether you actually wanted it or not.

3.      Don’t ask what it is you’re eating.  It’s better to be left in the dark.  I know I’ve eaten fried crickets and squid. But the other stuff is a mystery.  It was probably liver and fish eyes, but I’m happy with just pretending that its not.

4.      Be rip-roi. Always. Rip-roi translates literally as finished, but in Thailand its used as a term for a put-together appearance.  You never know who you’re going to meet, whether or not you have to introduce yourself to hundreds of people, or what.  Better safe than sorry, so I leave the house wearing the nice stuff everyday. 

5.      Have toilet paper in your purse/pocket at all times.

 

Pictures:

All of Orientation (now including Farewell Party): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066924&id=1326450028&l=aed4d0e521

My New Home: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068466&id=1326450028&l=068b9d4011

NKP Scavenger Hunt and Day 1 of Teaching!

This past weekend we went into Nakhon Phanom again, but this time for a scavenger hunt.  Michelle, Amanda, and Zach were on my team and we were the Lemon team.  So of course, our first order of business was to get lemons at the Fresh Market. They actually don’t have lemons here, so we had to get the yellowest oranges we could find (which are actually green…hmmm).  For the scavenger hunt, we had to get pictures of about 20 items/places, and we wanted our lemons to be in each and every picture to help represent the team.  We also wanted to practice speaking with as many people as possible, so we wanted people to be in our pictures holding lemons too.  This caused quite a few hilarious moments throughout the day…especially with the Tuk Tuk drivers and the police-man.

The most memorable part of the day was when we went to the SP Hotel (the “official” hotel of WorldTeach visits to the city).  While we were there we figured it would be a good place to ask for directions to Jes’ office, which we knew was farther away and hard to get to.  The hotel owner couldn’t quite describe it to us, so he decided to drive us instead.  For those of who are worried at this point, ahem Mom, don’t be.  He was the owner, and asked us a bunch of questions about last year’s volunteers, so it was pretty legit.  When we got to the office, we were so close to the finish line that we decided to end our hunt there, even though there were still 3 things left to find. We’d also heard (incorrectly) from another team that we were in the last places.  Turns out we were actually the 2^nd team to arrive to Jes’ apartment and would have had time to finish before the last team arrived. The scavenger hunt was a really great way to learn the city and figure out where all the necessities are. In our last visit, we just followed other people around like ducklings and had no idea how to get from one place to the next. 

It was good we cut our hunt short though, because Nakhom Phanom was hopping!  Because of the Fire Boat Festival (Rua Fi) this weekend, there were vendors from all over Thailand setting up shop, and one of the roads was closed for a huge market/carnival.  We’ll be heading back to the city this weekend (this time overnight) for the festival. I’m really excited about it because Nakhon Phanom is known for this festival, so I know it will be a great time.  The PA of Pla Pak also arranged for us to go early Saturday morning to That Phanom (the largest city/temple that my placement is closest to) for a huge dance show where 300 groups will be performing.

Back home at Pla Pak, orientation is officially over.  Yesterday we finished our last Thai and TEFL classes. Today we had our first of six days of Practicum.  Local students have volunteered to come to our classes during their vacation to learn a little more English and meet all the new farang. There are five practicum groups, 2 for high school and 2 for elementary.  Amanda and I are working together in our classroom of 45 high school students.  High school here is 7-12 grade, so we have the younger group for 2 hours each day. 

Because its their vacation, we didn’t want to do anything too academic, so we’re focused on building vocabulary while teaching them about American culture.  Today we went over rules and had a scavenger hunt to try to get to know each other better.  After Amanda’s part of the lesson and seeing the extreme shyness of my students I was worried about how the scavenger hunt would go. They seemed to just give us blank stares a lot. After modeling a bunch of times, and in smaller groups they finally got it, and the game took off! I was so impressed and excited that I got them talking to each other and me in English (I sneaked a question that only applied to me and Amanda on their hunt). It was a lot of fun, and I’m excited to get back in the classroom tomorrow!

Camp Thailand

On Saturday we took a trip in Nakhom Phanom (the provincial city).  J, the volunteer doing a second year, wanted to go into the city early in the morning so he’d be able to be back in time to return to his village to take a field trip with his students. He offered to show the rest of us the city as long as we were willing to wake up early to catch the first saawng tao (meaning “two benches”…basically in the back of a pickup truck)  into town.  Knowing that we had places to be and activities to do with the groups’ plan later in the morning, most of us took him up on his offer.  

We had a group of 12 or so people, so when we got to the saawng tao stop and saw that it was already full, we were bummed that we would have to wait for the next one in a half hour.  Instead, however, we decided to play a little game called “How many people can you fit in a saawng tao?”  The driver jumped out of the cab and into the back of the truck and pulled out a 3^rd bench and put it into the middle of the two benches (now it should be called a saam tao).  We crammed in and tried to intertwine our knees with the local’s, much to their amusement. The boys, of course, were hanging out of the back of the truck.

We were dropped off in NKP near the Fresh Market, where, during my group’s cultural observation later in the day, we observed people selling eels, skinned frogs, live fish, bunches of chili peppers, waffles, shoes, clothing, jewelry….basically anything you wanted or needed, you could find it there.  

After a brief exploration of the fresh market we headed to the river walk, where we could look across the river to the beautiful mountains of Laos.  While it was a hot, humid, hazy day the mountains were more hidden, but we could still see their beauty.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The mountains are more like steep, rocky plateaus that just jut out from the landscape.  And its crazy to think that if we wanted too we could just swim across to an entirely different country. Surprisingly, however, in order to get the required documentation to travel to Laos, we have to go to the embassy in Bangkok.  

We explored a temple on the river too, to practice everything we learned about wai-ing monks and entering a temple respectfully.  It was a gorgeous temple, with gold and red paint on the outside, which beautiful scenes painted on the walls of the inside.  Everything was just ornate and really fancy looking, especially compared to the poverty right outside the temple grounds.  We then went to the IndoChina market, which, like the fresh market, had anything you wanted (with the exception of food).  After wandering around there for a bit, the slow-pokes in the 2^nd group met up with us to buy phones and get lunch.  

It just so happened that we were in NKP for the Chinese University’s Vegetarian Food Festival (odd, I know, but I have very few details about it other than that) where they serve free food once a year.  It was delicious…they served som tam (spicy papaya salad – an Isan staple) and some other really great food.  The vegetarian dishes here are always really great, and the fake meat is waaaay better than the fake meat in the US. We have a few vegetarians in our group, so there is always a veggie option for dinner, and one night I swore there was meat in it, but it turned out to be a soy protein that was awesome.

After our lunch we split up into our cultural observation groups where we were to spend time observing a busy community spot.  On the way back to the fresh market, we stopped at Tesco Lotus (a Target-esque department store) to stock up on toiletries and other items we would need.  I got all my shower stuff, some school supplies, and 2 shirts for $25. Not bad. Included in my shower supplies was my new favorite product – baby powder.  For one, it was the most extensive baby powder display I have ever seen anywhere, and there were kinds with sunscreen, whitening agents (Thai’s covet white skin, so almost all their lotions and potions contain some sort of bleach or something), different scents, etc.  But I’ll admit my favorite kinds are the ones with menthol to give your skin a nice, cool, tingle; and Sweety Pink, a pink-tinted baby powder to use on your face to sop up the sweat.  It was cool-ish when we first got here, but its been in the high 90s – low 100s this week, so the baby powder is a necessity.

After we finished at Tesco, Jackie, Zach, and myself headed back to the Fresh Market, where all the women thought Jackie and I were Zach’s wives (polygamy and cheating is expected here). One of the things that we’ve gotten used to is being stared out a lot and being called “Farang!” (white foreigner) all the time.  We’re certainly a novelty here, and people are curious about who we are.  Word travels fast though, and most of the people knew that we were volunteer teachers and some even knew which school J had worked at last year without ever having met him before. We explored a bit more and met back with the whole group at the sawn tao stop, where on the ride home, I think we had more people on it than in the morning.  

Orientation:

We’ve sort of formed a little Camp Thailand here in Pla Pak.  We do everything together, so there’s zero alone time, and very rarely any one-on-one time with anyone else in the group.  While it could be expected for us to have formed cliques or have had some personality conflicts, that is not the case.  My mom asked who my best friend here is, and I can’t answer that.  I feel like we’re all equally close (maybe the boys are little bit closer because there are fewer of them sharing their bedroom).  After the first week, we had to start splitting up for lunch because 15 people at a time overwhelmed the tiny restaurants near the school.  Instead of forming regular groups and forming cliques, we decided to have a lottery for lunch groups, so everyone would eat with different people every day.  We have breakfast and dish duty lists each week and Thai study sessions at night.  Once we finish studying, we take the projector from our classroom to one of the bedrooms, hook up a computer, and watch TV.  The show of choice is season 1 of Modern Family.  After that, we’re all asleep by 10 to be ready for another day of TEFL, Thai, Culture and, this week, Thai Dance lessons.  

That’s right, we’ve been learning traditional Thai dance for the last few days for an hour after lunch.  It’s a lot of fun, but takes a lot of coordination.  Peter, the oldest of our group and our Thailand “dad” had a little crush on our teacher, so that made it even more entertaining. Ajarn Oh, our Thai teacher, came to dance with us to help translate.  She’s the most adorable woman and a great teacher (we’re picking up Thai even more quickly now!).

Another person who has become a wonderful part of our Thailand family is Kate, a volunteer from last year, who is staying through our orientation to receive her TEFL certification.  TEFL wasn’t a required part of her orientation, so she decided to stick around to get it with us….and I think she just wanted to stay in Thailand as long as possible.  She’s been a great resource throughout our TEFL classes and about anything else we may have questions about.  We’ve already made the suggestion that a few of us stay through next year’s orientation, because it definitely has made it easier with her here.

The last new member of our Thailand family is Rambo (his “Thai” nickname…chosen for obvious reasons), the policeman assigned to be our security.  I’m not sure if he always works in Pla Pak, or was hired specifically to watch over us (although I’m not sure we need it).  His wife has family in the states, so he lived in Georgia for a while and worked with the FBI.  Sometimes he explains that the embassy has hired him for us, but I’m not quite sure if that’s the case.  Regardless, you can’t escape the man, somehow, some way, he knows where we are at all times.  The first day we went to lunch as a group without any experienced veterans we were all excited to see if we could order for ourselves and figure it out on our own.  We walked there, and as soon as we sat down, Rambo strolls up and takes a seat with us and helps us order.  So much for our independence.  He also followed Peter, Zach, Ben, and Rita on their site visits last week, for no apparent reason. He’s living in the chemistry room here at the school so he can watch our every move.  Tonight at dinner we were wondering aloud when the stores closed because some people wanted ice cream, but we never made any decisions about it.  Twenty minutes later, Rambo strolls up with 20 ice cream cones for the whole group.  

It’s typical of Thai culture to be so hospitable, but I never imagined that we would be so well cared for at all times.  It seems as though all of our wants and needs are anticipated and taken care of in advance.  

So there you have it, an explanation of the daily life here at Camp Thailand.  We’re so comfortable here that I’ve become a little anxious about going to my placement in Goot Chim, but I know that I’ll be as well cared for there as well.

For those who want it, here’s my contact info:

Email: heatherjohns87@gmail.com

Skype: heatherjohns

Mailing Address:

Heather Johns
c/o Jesica McDonough, WorldTeach Field Director
Nakhomphanom Educational Service Area Office 1
Klangmuang Road Tambol Nongsang
Aamphoe Muang
Nakhomphanom Province
48000
Thailand

Cell phone (incoming calls are free for me, so if you call from skype it would be super cheap for both of us): 

(+66) 083-338-9018

Site Visits!!!

Things have continued to go really well here in Thailand.  Yesterday we went to the local hospital to get a “check-up” to prove our health for our work permit.  Basically all we had to do was wait for them to fill out a form and tell them we didn’t have any diseases, and then they listened to our hearts. Done.

Today was really exciting though.  We got to visit our schools and living quarters.  We went in groups of four so we could also see where the volunteers who are closest to us are.  We started out at Michelle’s high school, where they had water, coffee, and snacks waiting for us.  Her P.A. (principal) was hilarious and incredibly welcoming.  There were also 2 women who I think are English teachers at her school who traveled with us all day and very fluent in English.  They also brought us to Michelle’s house where she’ll be living with Kerry.  The house was in the middle of being renovated, but you can already tell that it will be very nice.

Kerry’s schools were next. The first of her elementary schools was teeny tiny with only about 50 students, but it seemed very sweet, and they had water waiting for us.  The next of her schools was quite an experience.  We pulled up to the school courtyard, where about 100 of her future students were waiting.  There was also a little stage area set up (it may have been just for this occasion, but it may have been permanent).  The P.A. there prepared a speech in English and read it to us. Then he asked us all to introduce ourselves and say something to the students, which is something we were all a little unprepared for, to say the least.  We spoke in English, but I decided to try my hand at “yin tii dii dai ru jak ka” which means “nice to meet you” and as soon as I said it everyone laughed…which I guess was expected.

On the way to Gen’s school we stopped to take pictures at Wat Ranunakon and for a 7-11 bathroom break (which was clutch considering all the water we’d been offered and needed to drink).  We also bought small things in order to break our big baht bills.  Apparently 7-11’s are the only places that allow bills over 100….and we’re all saddled with 500 and 1000 baht bills from when we exchanged money (fyi, 1000 baht is the equivalent of roughly $30 US).

Next up was Gen’s school. They had water waiting for us (begin to see a pattern here?).  We toured her school and the palatial home she’ll be living in with one of the teachers whose sons all moved away. 

Then we traveled into the boonies for my school.  Michelle, Kerry, and Gen were all located on one of the main roads, but we turned onto a tiny village road for me. There were only clapboard houses and maybe only one convenience store. On the way to the school we passed a lotus pond with a new little house on its edge and I knew it was mine.  My P.A. and Nit were there waiting to introduce me to the English teacher (who is 8 months pregnant) and give us all water.  We toured the school, which seemed very nice and very similar to the other schools we visited.  Next, we all (and by that I mean my P.A, Nit, the English Teacher, and some of the other teachers) went to visit my pond house.  It is very picturesque (I’ll get photos up as soon as possible).  It is sitting over a lotus pond (it isn’t even touching land and all. Right now you have to jump to get onto my very sizable furnished porch, but there was wood there that I think they were going to try to make a bridge with.  The home itself was pretty small and unfurnished, but I was told I’d have a bed, cabinets, a pantry, fridge, tv, and wireless internet.  I’m not sure how all that will fit into the house but alright.  There also wasn’t a bathroom in the house, but Jes had told me it was in construction when she went there.  I’m assuming it will be some sort of outside bathroom so I don’t have to go traipsing through Nit and Loi’s home in the middle of the night.  I think I’ll be very comfortable there and I’m excited to move in and get settled!

On the way back, we stopped at Michelle’s assistant PA’s home and drank more water and listened to a whole bunch of people speaking Thai (I don’t think I’ve ever drank so much water in 3 hours in my life).

I think it was only a ½ hour in the car from my placement to Pla Pak and only about 10 minutes between Kerry/Michelle and Gen and myself as well, which is promising for biking purposes between towns. J, a volunteer staying for a 2^nd year is in the area too and has experience biking between our towns and is drawing a map for us to be able to get to eachother.

Sawatdee Ka Thailand!

This is a long one, so hang in there.  It’ll probably be easiest to do this day by day, so here we go:

Thursday, Sept. 30

Let the traveling begin!  Luckily, there were no delays or set-backs in my flight plan, and I made it to LA in a reasonable amount of time.  The flights seemed to go quickly and I was excited to meet everyone in the WorldTeach group.

I wasn’t really nervous/upset about leaving home, which sort of surprised me, but I think my excitement overcame many of my fears and allowed for the day to go smoothly.

I arrived in LA around 4:30, got my bags and headed to the international terminal to wait for the group to arrive by 9 pm.  This meant I had several hours to kill, but I used the time to make last minute phone calls to friends and family and it made the hours fly by.  I also used to time to creep on people that may have been in the group with me.  After noticing a few people that looked like they might be headed to Thailand for a year, I finally got the courage to approach one person and ask.  Turns out she was with WorldTeach.  From that moment on, we quickly accumulated the rest of our group and started to get to know eachother.  Most of the volunteers are right out of college, or a few years older.  One man, Peter, is probably in his 50s and quickly assumed the dad role and we followed him like ducklings throughout all the airports. Which is a little ironic, because he has taken on the class clown role since being in Thailand.  We joke that we can’t take him anywhere without him making a huge scene. 

Friday, Oct. 1

I briefly celebrated my birthday in the LA airport, with a scoop of ice cream from haagen-daaz.

The flight to Taipei was long and boring, and we all alternated between movies and cat-naps.  What was really great was that we all sat together on the plane, so there was none of that “oh no, I can’t go to the bathroom because I don’t wanna step over a stranger” and we had the opportunity to get to know each other better.

Saturday, Oct. 2

Taipei to Bangkok flew by, and we were welcomed with the hottest heat ever.  Once meeting Nell (last year’s field director who is helping with our orientation) we packed all our bags into 2 vans and were instantly dripping in sweat.  Luckily the vans were air-conditioned, and we spent most of the 13 hour ride in and out of sleep.  I tried my hardest to stay awake so I’d be able to sleep that night, but I still napped for a few hours.

I had assumed we’d stop two or three times during the trip, but our driver was so concerned about our comfort that we stopped every two hours for gas, snacks, and bathrooms.  Bathrooms…my first experience with a squat toilet was an interesting one to say the least.  It took a while to get used to, but I think I’ve got it down now. We also stopped for lunch, and we didn’t really know what we ordered, but we all regretted it with the first bite.  It was delicious but set our mouths on fire.  Lips and tongues tingling, we headed back into the vans for more dangerous driving and beautiful scenery. The number of times we could have been in a head-on collision compared to the number of times we weren’t is astounding.  Thais pass on every side of the road and without any sort of notice.  At one point we were driving over a mountain in the rain for about 3 hours and it was full of switch-backs…but of course, our driver would pass in the middle of a turn anyways.

We arrived in Pla Pak, our orientation site, at about 1 am, and hopped immediately into bed.  To our surprise, all of our schools had brought mattresses and bedding to Pla Pak, AND there’s air conditioned bedrooms (one for girls, one for boys) AND there’s one western toilet, AND there’s wireless internet, now, that is.

Sunday, Oct. 3

We woke up relatively late to breakfast right outside our doors in the makeshift kitchen the school provided us.  During orientation, we will be making our own breakfasts, eating out for lunches, and being cooked for by a local teacher for dinner.  So far all the food has been fantastic, and we’ve learned how to avoid/work up to the spicy stuff.

Then we had a quick meeting in which we got our orientation materials and a little more information about our placements.  Mine is about 3 km from a larger city and temple, so I’ll have access to that, which is exciting.  I think I am also pretty close to at least 1 other volunteer.  We’re all provided with bikes through our teaching contract, so I should have no trouble getting there.

There were some necessary items that we were told not to bring (towels, toiletries, etc) so Jes (this year’s FD) wanted to get to the market to get these things for everyone.  There were a few spots in the truck, so me and five others hopped in the bed (don’t worry, in Pla Pak, its rare to even pass another vehicle, the town is so small…so no crazy driving here).  The market happens twice a month, so we kinda lucked into it, and I’m so glad that we did.  It was so cool to see the vendors, street food, and all the people staring at us, the farang. We didn’t stay long, but we did get to try some new fruits, and banana-ish fruits fried in coconut oil, which were sooooo good. 

The rest of the day we sort of had to relax and get settled.  It cooled down tremendously, as its been raining here since Sunday. 

Monday, Oct. 4

Our first day of real orientation.  The first two hours were spent learning Thai with our teacher Ajarn Oh. Well, scratch that. The first hour we spent learning Thai. The second hour we spent with some high school students who were harvesting the rice field on campus.  So yes, we all tried our hand at cutting some rice.  The kids were really excited when they saw us and were eager to show us how to do it.  I’m not sure why they are on campus as this is their mid-semester break, but who knows.

Then we went out to lunch at a restaurant down the road and ordered about 7 dishes per table so we all got to try everything, which was a great idea so we got a taste for everything.

The rest of the afternoon was spent learning Thai culture and working on our TEFL certs.

Today, Tuesday, Oct. 5

Today was one of the first days I really felt at home here in Thailand.  We woke up, had breakfast, went to Thai class, and did some TEFL practice.

Here comes the exciting part though – this afternoon we had a ceremony to meet our school directors (principals) and a teacher from the school.  We had to get all dressed up, and we spent the morning frantically trying to memorize our thai phrases to use when meeting our bosses.  We learned how to Wai them correctly and were given garlands to present to them upon meeting them.

We were all really nervous about the meeting, but it turns out we had no reason to be.  My school director (whose name I don’t remember…oops. For now we’ll call him PA – the term for directors) was really nice, and Nit, the woman who built my house came to meet me.  PA spoke pretty good English I think, just didn’t say much to me.  Nit, on the other hand, spoke English fairly well as she’d lived with a Peace Corp volunteer in the past, and just couldn’t keep her mouth shut.  She brought a little notebook with English in it to help her remember.  She told me couldn’t wait for me to come and live next to her, and that we would teach each other our languages, and she would even teach me how to cook Thai food.  At one point in the frantic meeting (we had to fill out our work permit paperwork too, yikes!) she got really excited and pointed towards the door.  She said, “there’s my husband, Loi, he came to meet you. He can’t wait to have you near us and for you to be like a daughter for us.”  Loi waited outside throughout the 2 hour meeting, doesn’t speak any English, and is not a teacher, and really had no reason to be there at all other than to meet me. 

It was incredible, and totally put my mind to ease about the situation.  I’d been pretty nervous about being in a village by myself and not knowing if anyone at all spoke English, but it sounds like I will be very well cared for in Goot Chim.

After the meeting, the students at Pla Pak threw us a party to welcome us.  It was sort of a surprise party.  We’d heard them practicing for the last few days for what we thought was a rice harvest festival, but it turns out they’d been practicing for this party the whole time.

Massive amounts of food were served, and then the students put on a dance/singing show for us with traditional costumes and music.  There was also some sort of ritual that they lit the top of a palm tree statue on fire, and while it burned the oldest man was maybe praying.  After it stopped we were all given an egg to hold in one hand and then they all took white strings and tied them around our wrists and wished us a happy, healthy, and fortunate year.  I guess the strings may fall off on their own, but you aren’t supposed to take them off for 3 days.  I hope we learn more about the ritual tomorrow in our cultural class.

We got up and danced with them several times, and the night ended with karaoke, in which we were forced to sing (as a group) bizarre songs that they thought we would of course know.  “Last Christmas” was the song of choice for whatever reason. We all left the party about 2 hours ago, but I can still hear the karaoke going on across campus.

Its been an incredible few days, and I can’t wait to experience even more.  All the people that I’ve met, volunteers as well as Thais, are great, welcoming people.  We all get along really well, and we’re forming our own Thai family here!