Happy Holidays and Big Changes in Thailand

Been a while since I've posted, and I don't wanna get too far behind so here we go!

1. Christmas. I spent a wonderful weekend at Rita's with my WorldTeach fam, sharing old traditions and making some wonderful memories.  90 degrees and fried rice for dinner, but Christmas spirit was all around! The best description of our holiday comes from our word-smith, Peter: http://peterinpeterout.blogspot.com/2010/12/dada-x-mas.html

you can also see videos of our Christmas at
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=worldteach+thailand&aq=f   The first one is of wandering around our party, and the second one is from a really special moment later in the evening when we lit candles, sang carols, and set off fireworks!


2. Big Changes! After Christmas, I ended up leaving Kut Chim and moving in with my field director, Jes, and her roommate Pi Nok in Nakhom Phanom due to some "interesting" circumstances.  Details are still being worked out, but I know it was the right thing to do.  There are now many interesting opportunities for me that I'm very excited about. 

3. Happy New Year! Sawatdee Bpee Mai!  I rang in the new year with some fellow volunteers atop a plateau called Phu Kradueng.  What an interesting hike!  First off, we'd read that it would take anywhere from 3-8 hours to climb as well as a random smattering of descriptions about how strenuous the hike would be.  Like anything in Thailand, we went with an open mind and zero expectations.  Looking around at the people who would be hiking that day, it would seem as though we were just taking a walk down a city street.  Not quite...It was a 5.5 km hike UP.  There were portions with stairs, ladders, and railings, but it was steep.  Then once atop the mountain it was another 3 km to the area where everyone camps.  Phu Kradueng is a rite of passage among Thai young adults, and apparently a popular spot for new years' eve.  There must have been about 8000 people hiking the trail that day. It was hard to get a groove because you were always being stopped be people and porters getting in your way.  The whole thing took us about 4 hours, and we had a lot of fun laughing at the crazy outfits people were wearing, trying to talk to the people that we passed, etc.  Once at the campsite it was a tent city.  There was a big field covered in tents as well as an area that resembled a typical city night market where you could buy dinner and souvenirs.  It certainly was not the wilderness experience we were hoping for, but fun nonetheless. As the clock struck 2011 we hugged in our tent shivering. Lies, we actually spent the first few minutes of the new year negotiating with Peter for the extra sleeping bag (aka snagging it from him) and taking a trip to the bathroom. After freezing our butts off the first night there, we decided to head down a day early and pamper ourselves by splurging ($8) on a nice hotel in a city between the mountain and NKP.  Hot shower! AC! Comfy bed! soooo nice!

Here's Peter, me, Rita, and Sarah atop a waterfall a short hike from the top of the plateau. 

And that's me at the top of Phu Kradeung!

Happy New Year! Here's to many exciting experiences and to making wonderful memories!

Korean Barbecue: Head vs. Taste Buds

Korean Barbecue is my favorite meal in Thailand, but it is also my least favorite. Let me explain...

Why its awesome:
- 100 baht (about 3 bucks) for an all you can eat buffet.
- fruit, veggies, pre-cooked items like spring rolls and fried chicken, raw meat and fish you cook at your own table to your liking, sauces galore, kanoms (small gel desserts), and coconut ice cream with peanuts.
- picking what you like and cooking it yourself
- staying warm by the firepot on a cold night with the whole thai family.
- awesome restaurant atmosphere
- live music

Why its incredibly stressful:
- placing raw meat on the fire with the same chopsticks you remove cooked meat with.
- soaking said chopsticks in boiling water every time you touch anything with them...in an effort to stave off salmonella.
- being just about ready to pull off a wonderful piece of bacon, when someone plops down some raw liver right on top of it.
- you never know when someone is going to put a questionable item on your plate. maybe its a little undercooked, maybe its boiled blood, maybe its an entire squid. you've picked your own food from the buffet, but somehow you're expected to taste "chim" whatever is placed on your plate.
- No one else seems to have the same concerns as you.

That being said, I can't wait for the gamble that is my next Korean barbecue meal. (knock on wood) I haven't been sick yet!

Nong Khai

This past weekend was another 3 day weekend (or 4 day because of a WorldTeach meeting in the city on Thursday).  Although I would have been happy to stay and relax in Kut Chim, I felt a need to wander and explore.  Rita, Ben, Peter, and I made plans to travel to Nong Khai to do just that.

After our meeting, we thought it best to crash at Jes’ house so we’d be able to leave early Friday morning.  It was nice to relax in such a cozy setting.  We went to an amazing restaurant for dinner, and even baked M&M cookies for dessert. Ovens are few and far between, so when Jes acquired one, we were all pretty excited to use it!  Pi Nok helped us with the bus schedule and we were set to leave at 5:30 to catch an early bus.  Sure enough though, we found out that the earliest bus wasn’t running so we’d have to leave at 9 instead.  Mai pen rai, a lazy morning sounded nice, and we’d still get to Nong Khai with enough daylight to find our way around.  The next morning, Pi Nok went to the bus station before we woke up just to ensure we’d get tickets and the right information.  She came back with tickets (just 2 for the boys…) for 11:30 am.  Turns out something happened to the 9 am bus and we’d have to leave even later! Such is life in Thailand.

The bus was pretty uneventful, except that it stopped quite often to let people on and off the bus – making the journey much longer than it needed to be.  We arrived in Nong Khai right after sunset and needed to find a place to stay ASAP.  After spotting a farang couple on the bus, Peter, in typical fashion, started jabbering at them in English. Turns out they spoke French, woops. Mai pen rai, Peter speaks French too!  They told him where they were staying and gave us directions and we were on our way! They turned out to be staying at a hostel that was raved about in our Lonely Planet guides, so we knew we were in for a lot of tourists, which wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but we just needed a place to call home for the next few days.

What we neglected to think about though, was that it was a holiday weekend, and even Thais would be traveling to Nong Khai because it is one of two cities with a friendship bridge to Laos.  So the cool looking hostel was booked, and so was the next one, and so on all the way down the riverwalk.  We started to get a little nervous that we would be sleeping on the street, and I could sense Peter’s dad instincts setting in.  No chance he’d let us be both hungry AND homeless. But once we reached the end of the walkway we saw a little shop with a sign “wanna guest house.”  Well in fact, yes, we do wanna guest house.  There was one room left, on the third floor, with its own private balcony overlooking the river, AC, hot water, and 1 king sized bed.  What luxury, especially at about 4 dollars each a night.  Being used to sleeping on rock hard mattresses, the boys graciously let Rita and I take the bed – Thanks guys!

Despite our sleeping predicament, we immediately fell in love with Nong Khai.  It had a riverwalk just like NKP, but shops separated it from a busy road instead.  It’s a quiet, and clean, and also has everything you’d expect to find in a city.  We were, of course, taken a back by all the tourists and giant ex-pat population, but we took the opportunity to meet some of them.  We met a guy, Ryan, from Oregon, who’d just finished a month of teaching in a small village in another Isan province.  He was then taking the opportunity to travel around a bit, and was paying for his stay by playing guitar at the hostel’s restaurant.  He had similar stories to share, and it was fun to converse with someone outside the WorldTeach circle.  He even led us to an awesome sidewalk restaurant away from the fancy dancy riverwalk where we feasted on som tom, sticky rice, and rotisserie chicken.  It was so much fun to wander this beautiful city!

On Saturday, we spent a few hours at a sculpture park.  We’d read about in the guidebook, but we weren’t expecting much at all.  We pulled up, and were blown away by the sheer size and number of all the bizarre sculptures.  Unfortunately all the explanations were in Thai, so we didn’t really understand the purpose of the sculptures. We started out taking normal pictures, but then we decided it would be fun to pose in the same positions of the statues.  And thus began a hilarious photo shoot.  We probably made quite a scene, but we enjoyed it immensely.

One of the best parts of the weekend was surprising all the locals with our knowledge of the Thai language.  Being a pretty large tourist town, people would just start speaking English with us.  We'd try to reply in Thai as much as possible, and everyone was so impressed with what we knew. It was definitely an awesome feeling.

This weekend reinforced what I LOVE about traveling.  Finding yourself in a new place without a plan and just wandering around for a while.  Meeting new people, seeing new sights, and enjoying whatever happens. 

For pictures of the crazy sculpture park:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072718&id=1326450028&l=a9f5e654e1

The Perfect Week

This past week has been incredible.  I’ve been experiencing such highs and lows lately that its been kind of frustrating not feeling in control of my emotions.  This past week, however, I gained some control of emotions and was able to really enjoy the week.

First things first, I was able to convey the importance of me needing to bike/run alone everyday after school, if only for 20 minutes.  Nit understood and now allows me this freedom.  It’s incredible what this has done for my happiness in general.  It certainly helps that by the time I can go for a ride the sun is setting over of the rice fields and Kut Chim is absolutely beautiful. I’ve also felt so much more a part of the community here because of the rides.  Everyone is out and about and I say hello to everyone I see.  They always ask where I’m going “bai nai” or tell me that I’m strong “kang lang.”  Nit has even allowed me to go for short runs alone (she thinks biking is much safer, so I was pleasantly surprised at this).  As I started my run, all of my students were leaving school and started to follow me – I felt like Forrest Gump!  Although many of them couldn’t keep up (exercise doesn’t really exist here) it was just a hilarious feeling.  Just running through the village and saying hello to all the people has really helped me feel more at home here.

Another event that really brought me into the community was a string-tying ceremony for a newborn baby.  The English teacher at my school had a baby the day before I moved in, so all my teachers headed to her home after school one day last week.  String tying ceremonies are always special, but this one just felt really significant.  The only attendees were teachers at my school, so it was much more intimate that others.  As I tied a string around the infant’s wrist, I spoke in English all the things that had been wished for him in Thai.  It was a really special moment that I’ll never forget.

After meeting up with my fellow volunteers every weekend since we went our separate ways, I knew I needed to not make plans for the weekend.  It was a 3 day weekend because of the King’s Birthday and I was sort of worried about how I would fill my time.  I thought about going into NKP to meet up with friends, but I felt like I needed to stay in my village to prove to myself that I could spend all that time alone.  It’s definitely nice to look forward to some fun on the weekend, and now I’m so happy to know that even if I don’t make any legitimate plans, I can still have fun right in my own village.  

I woke up Saturday morning to some girls giggling outside.  I opened the door and found a group of students from That Phanom.  Their English teachers had given them an assignment to find a foreigner and interview them.  I’m not quite sure how they knew I was there, but word travels pretty fast.  I’d met a South African teacher from their school a few times, so I’m sure he told them that I lived in Kut Chim.  Once they got here, all they really had to do was ask anyone in town and they could direct them straight to my home.  I’m not sure how I feel about being so easily accessible (my phone number has been passed around as well – in the middle of the school day I get calls for “small talk” from people I’ve probably never met before) but I’m getting used to it.  Anyway, I sat through the interview – it was filled with questions like “Until you have been to Thailand travel to when?” and I managed to come up with answers that I thought might be the right ones.  I thought about editing their questions, but I didn’t really know what they were even trying to ask.  I asked about the South African teacher, and they told me that he only teaches the VIP classes (larger towns and cities have leveled classes – my village is too small).  This explains the fractured English from the interview. 

That afternoon I was reading on my porch and four of the neighborhood children came running down the driveway carrying hula hoops.  They started hula hooping and singing the ABC’s which I took as my invitation to join them.  They giggled at teaching me how (hula hoops are much bigger and heavier here and kinda hurt your sides) and we spent the afternoon taking turns hooping and singing and even practicing some numbers.  They even stayed and helped Nit and I make dinner (summer rolls – yum!) and I really enjoyed their company.  

Monday morning J called me up and said he was going for a long bike ride and that he would come down to Kut Chim if I wanted to join him.  J is in his second year of WorldTeach Thailand and has had ample time to explore nearby villages.  Living alone and being an older guy he never really experienced the independence issues the rest of us have faced.  We ended up spending about 2 hours on dirt roads around my village just seeing where the path would take us.  I was worried about Nit being upset that I’d been gone so long, but she didn’t say anything about it when I returned.  It was really nice to be able to feel so spontaneous.  That afternoon, J, Gen, and I headed into That Phanom, where we were dropped off and allowed to explore on our own a bit.  Again, more freedom!  We went to the temple, wandered the markets, and found a real café!

Back at school, I’ve really been enjoying my students.  I taught pictionary last week and they love it!  I also broke out a word card game, Scrabble Slam (thanks mom!), to practice making words with them.  Playing cards is actually illegal here (maybe it’s just gambling) so when they saw how proficient I was at shuffling they squealed with delight!  Through some miming and “tenglish” they explained about cards being illegal and I just gave them a little smirk and said “mai pen rai,” which I think really made their day.

I’ve also taught them the word “rules.”  We’ve had classroom rules since day 1, but “rules” is currently a vocab word.  Rs, Ls and ending consonants are difficult for Thai speakers…so imagine how this word really threw them off.  Discouraged, they seemed to almost give up.  Instead of letting them, I wrote a thai letter on the board, ง, and asked them to pronounce it.  They perfectly pronounced the Nga Ngu.  And then I tried…and failed.  This letter is really hard for English speakers.  Sure we make this sound at the end of words like sing and thing, but making this sound at the beginning is nearly impossible.  It seemed to be a really meaningful learning moment for them and they were more motivated to say the word “rules.”  

While not without some typical frustrations, there it is, the best week in a nutshell…no crazy festival, no traveling adventures; just small, unplanned, perfect moments.

For pictures of my hula-hooping friends:

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

Thai Thanksgiving

On Wednesday afternoon I found out that I would not be teaching either Thursday or Friday because of a leadership camp my school was hosting – which turned out to be more of the presentations similar to the ones at the temple a few weeks ago.  It was unfortunate for my students, but I was excited to have a “thanksgiving break.”

Knowing that I didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving Thursday cooped up in my cabin alone all day, I made plans to go observe Rita and Peter teach.  They are the volunteers that live farthest from me, so having two days off was perfect to make the trip worthwhile.  I was supposed to head to Rita’s school, Chok Amnuay, Wednesday evening, but instead Nit and I took a death-defying bike ride that made it too late to head to Rita’s.  Makes me wonder why it’s not safer to go by myself?  Ok, enough of my independence issues (more on this at a later date), and back to the fun!

Thursday morning I arrived at Rita’s just in time to walk to school with her and meet some of her students.  I always find it helpful to observe other teachers and get ideas from them, so I was really excited for the day.  As Rita was showing off her school, we ran into two of her teachers that told her school was cancelled for today because of some academic competition.  Mai pen rai…off to Peter’s we go!  We got to Peter’s school and many of the students were in the courtyard practicing for the color games (a week of school sports competitions that most elementary schools hold).  Only 2 of his classes showed up, but it was great to sit and chat and compare teaching notes.

Rita and I got back to her village just in time for our Thanksgiving feast!  She eats at a restaurant every night, and they cook her wonderful meals.  I was so thankful for someone to share a meal with on Thanksgiving, and the owner of the restaurant even gave us ice cream as our dessert! We got back to her house and watched a movie and quickly fell asleep.  The next morning we headed into NKP (after skyping in to various family thanksgivings) to meet Nit and watch the province’s culture show (I think that’s what it was).  But it required us to sit and listen to people speak thai for about 4 hours.  After about 15 minutes, Nit says to me “I don’t think you understand this. Paaw Aaw says to pretend we go to bathroom and we walk around outside.” Alright!  There were a lot of cool exhibits in the school’s field from all over Asia, so it was awesome to ditch the boring stuff and look around a bit. 

Then we all headed back to Kut Chim and completed many errands and some mashed potato shopping.  We had a lazy Saturday morning, and then it was time for Rita and I to get cooking.  Washing, peeling, and cutting all the tiny Thai potatoes took about 45 minutes – and then it was time to get the water boiling. Note to self:  boiling water in a giant pot over a tiny fire takes a loooong time.  We watched the pot not boil for a while, but then we headed off to lunch at my favorite, and only, restaurant in the village.  The place only serves Goi Tiow, which most closely resembles chicken noodle soup – except when it has chicken feet and pig blood in it (thankfully not at the place I frequent).  Gen had been dropped off by this time and when we arrived back to the house the potatoes were boiling and finished.  The 3 of us quickly got to mashing, and the potatoes came out perfect!

We headed off to Peter’s and assembled our pot-luck Thanksgiving feast!  We had all the usual fixings, albeit Thai-style and a little….off.  We ate off the floor and made make-shift platters out of beer boxes and plastic bags.  We were also able to share our traditions with some beloved Thai guests: Rambo (the security guard from Pla Pak), Pi Nok (Jes’ roommate and the amazing sister of WorldTeach), Pornchai (the education office’s director), and some random guy that drove Zach and crashed the party hahaha. While it didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful time and I’m so happy to have the WorldTeach family to share it all with.

No Thankgiving post would be complete without a list of things I am thankful for:

1. Family and Friends back home – Thank you for all of your love and support for this journey of mine.  I love getting your emails and calls that, no matter how seemingly mundane, mean the world to me. They keep me sane while I navigate this new world of mine.
2. WorldTeach Kru – You are the greatest support system to have here in Thailand.  Weekly gatherings and frequent emails keep me going and motivated to help my students “beat the system.”  I love you all.
3. My Host Family

Nit (mother)– For understanding me, despite our language barriers. For understanding when I’ve had enough and am overwhelmed.

Loi (father) – For the silent support and anticipation of what I need. He brings me whatever I’m in need of, without me asking, and without saying a word.

Cinto (brother, age 22)– For finally conversing with me and slowly overcoming his shyness.

Bo (sister, age 24, lives in Bangkok) – For the weekly check-ins by phone.

Chang (brother, age 19, at college somewhere) – Although I haven’t met him yet, I am looking forward to his arrival next week.

Pi (dog) – For being the best protector and questionable food eater in all of Thailand.

4. My students – The brightest part of my days. Some of my m.1s asked if they could have English class every day – and I’ve recently seen them show up in some classes that they aren’t actually a part of.  When I tried to convey Thanksgiving to my m.3s, I told them I was sad I’d be missing it at home.  2 minutes later, in unison, they said, “We love you Teacher Malee” (Malee is my Thai nickname and has completely replaced Heather).
5. Kut Chim Teachers – For always asking “Are you happy?” and wondering what the heck I eat for breakfast (breakfast, or differing meals for that matter, don’t exist here), but I eat an American breakfast of cereal or PBJ everyday.
6. My independence – While struggling with this here, I’ve become accustomed to cherish whatever freedom I do have, and work towards getting more. It was something I took for granted in the states, which I will never do again.  I’ve learned the value of independence, and for that I am thankful.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope yours was as special as mine was.

For Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071401&id=1326450028&l=604b774afe

Surin Elephants and Loy Kratong!

Last Friday evening all of the volunteers converged in NKP for a weekend of, you guessed it, more festivals!  We spent most of the night catching up on stories from the last week and watching Takraw, which is an insane sport, and awesome to watch.  Its basically volleyball, but played with feet instead of hands.  The kicks and flips the players do are incredible.

At midnight we piled into vans and were off to Surin to see the Elephant Round-Up. We got to our hotel around 6 am, dropped off our bags and were off to the stadium.  We wandered around the makeshift market set up for the event and had a breakfast of sticky rice and fried eggs, as “breakfasty” as you can get in a market. 

The cast of characters around were quite unusual to see.  First, there were the elephants – just roaming the streets until it was time to put on the show.  What a sight to see!  But perhaps the strangest sight of all was all of the tourists.  Everywhere we looked we would see a Farang (white foreigner).  Almost two months into our Thai adventure, we’d become completely accustomed to being the only farangs in town, with the few ex-pat or creepy husband exceptions. Here in NKP we play a game that entails earning points for spotting a farang (very similar to Yellow Car, I win!) but playing in Surin was impossible because of all the tourists.  It was definitely weird, especially because it was a lot harder to point out and gather all of us together.  We did find another volunteer group, CIEE, and were able chat with them a bit at first in the night market, and then again when they showed up at the same bar we’d found later that night.  Having looked into CIEE before deciding on WorldTeach, I was interested to see how their program compared.  To make a long story short, while their stipends are 3 times as much as ours (totally unnecessary), I am so glad I went with WorldTeach. 

Anyway, back to the elephants!  It was an incredible show, and so cool to see all those elephants all together.  The elephants and Thai performers reenacted religious and historical events, including an outrageous battle that included legitimate artillery.  By far my favorite part of the show was when they had the elephants do tricks and then play a soccer match!  It was like polo, but with elephants, and the elephants actually kicked the ball.  The elephants all displayed so much personality that it was hilarious to watch!

We spent the rest of the day napping and exploring the city of Surin, which was pretty cool.  We headed back to NKP bright and early Sunday morning to make it back to our villages to celebrate Loy Kratong.  Loy Kratong is an important holiday in Thailand, where people float (loy) either lanterns or small boats in the river to release all of their bad thoughts.  I celebrated in That Phanom, where the sight of all the kratongs was amazing.  Both the river and the sky were lit by these gorgeous creations.  After releasing all of my bad thoughts, I asked to be returned home, where I could catch up on my sleep and plan for the week’s lessons.

For Pictures:  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070603&id=1326450028&l=601641ef80

Next blog, coming soon (I promise)... Thanksgiving – Thai Style!

Weekend of Festivities!

This past weekend was full of festivities.  After just a half day of school on Friday (Paaw Aaaw moved my classes to the morning so I didn’t have to miss any!) I was able to go home and spend a much-needed afternoon resting.  Turns out though, that I couldn’t rest!  For the past 6 weeks it’s been a constant go, go, go, that being faced with a few hours without plans was quite a conundrum.  I had the internet, I had a kindle full of books, but it just didn’t seem real that I didn’t have a single ounce of work to do.  Laundry was done, lessons were planned, cabin was clean and finally settled. I wanted to go out and do something, but since no one was at my host family’s home, I was told to stay in.  I’m hoping to get a bike soon (thanks to Gen’s host mom, Pi Mok) so a leisurely ride through the village and rice paddies would be a perfect lazy afternoon activity!

After a few hours of pacing (literally – I had NO idea what to do with myself) Gen came over to go to a wedding with me and my family.  My host dad, Loi’s, friend’s daughter was getting married, so of course we could go to the party. It was actually pretty tacky and not at all what I was expecting of a Thai wedding.  Apparently though, the actual ceremony had been in the morning, so we were only attending the party.  As soon as we arrived we were ushered to an area where we were to take a picture WITH the bride and groom.  Never met them before, no idea who they were, but still, we took a picture with them, and they seemed to thinking nothing of having complete strangers, farangs no less, at their wedding.  The rest of the wedding was like a typical Thai party – karaoke, too much food on too many plates, a lot of whiskey, and a lot of people.  We didn’t stay very long, but we did go to another restaurant to eat a second dinner (remember what I said about too much food?!?) with some of my family’s friends.  It was fun, even though there was no real purpose of us being there.

The next day some volunteers met up at Gen’s house for an American dinner and a mini string tying ceremony.  It was great to see everyone in such a relaxed atmosphere.  Pi Mok’s house is incredibly comfortable, and as I’ve stayed there before, it felt like home to me, too.  The dinner, however, was weird.  We made spaghetti, breaded chicken, and garlic broccoli.  It was weird to eat such bland food after all the spices we’re used to.  It was still good, don’t get me wrong, but the spaghetti could have used a little chili sauce.  During dinner Pi Mok wanted to do a string-tying ceremony with us, which was really nice.  It was quiet and intimate, and really special.  I’d heard her asking the other volunteers to be her friends, but when she got to me, she asked if I would be her daughter!  It was really special to be so close with another host mom, and its great to know that if I’m ever stuck in a rut (or at the saawng tao stop without a ride) I have another caring woman to call.  After dinner, we sat out on Gen’s balcony (yeah, she basically lives in a palace by thai standards) and had a really great conversation about all sorts of things.  It was a beautiful night, and it was so nice to spend it outside with close friends.

The next morning we awoke pretty late (late is 7am) to prepare pancakes and French toast.  As we were cooking though, Nit called and told us to pack up the food and bring it back to my house.  Nit had planned a string-tying ceremony for me that morning, and wanted all the other volunteers to be a part of it.  When we pulled up to my house there was a tent set up in the driveway covering tables and tables of food.  There were a bazillion cars there and just about every person I’ve met since being in Kut Chim. We sat on my porch and the village elder presided over the ceremony.  Then, all the guests came around and tied strings around our wrists.  While they tie the string, they say things such as “have a happy year, good health, to be wise, etc.”  It’s a really special ceremony and meaningful in the Thai culture to wish someone well who is undergoing some sort of life transition.  I can’t even imagine all the tears that will fall from my face when they have a ceremony for when I leave Thailand.

Perhaps the best part of the day was that I was able to share it with some other volunteers.  While I wish all of them were able to come, I was so happy to have the seven that did.  For one, the whole ceremony and party would have been pretty overwhelming had I been alone.  But I loved sharing my home and family with all the other volunteers. We’re all in such different situations that I wondered what they would think of mine and what they would think of my family.  While I didn’t get a chance to get their opinions, Nit sure had some of friends.  Nit immediately wanted Zach to come back every weekend and be friends with my host brother, Cinto.  Cinto is 22 and incredibly shy (he won’t even say a word to me, and was sweating in the 5 minutes he made an appearance at the party).  Zach made one comment to him, and Nit was delighted and insisted he come visit often!  Zach is a superstar in Thailand.  He picks up languages in a jiffy, so his thai is half decent, not to mention the fact that all the girls swoon over him all the time.  Peter made quite an impression on her as well, and as soon as she heard he doesn’t have a thai “family” she wanted him to be her son.  When I informed her that she and Peter are the same age, she was disappointed but settled on being friends instead.  My host father, Loi, has not spoken one word of English the entire time I’ve been here, but wanted to impress my friends so much that he tried his best to tell them to “come back soon!”

The party went on all day long. 9 am – 9pm.  It was a long day, but very special.  Its been 3 days now, so I can finally cut the strings from my wrist and place them over my bed, and remove the banana leaf sculpture from my bedroom.  All of this tradition is to ensure that I have a happy and healthy stay in Thailand. 

To see pictures (and more of my house and students): 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068466&id=1326450028&l=068b9d4011

Back at school, things are going well.  My biggest frustration is attendance.  There’s a huge festival this weekend (Loy Kratong) that the students are preparing for.  That means only half the students in my classes actually show up.  I’m hoping it’s just because of this special occasion, but I don’t want to teach new material to only half the kids.  I’ve just been teaching lessons again with different activities, which has proven to be a really helpful refresher for the students that do come to class.

I’ve been relatively bored at school, with more free time than I know what to do with.  So I asked my Paaw Aaw if I could teach more.  Starting the next full week of school (who knows when that’ll be – hopefully soon), I’ll be seeing each of my classes 3 times a week instead of two.  This adds 6 hours to my schedule and he and other teachers were all concerned that I would be too busy.  I ensured him that I wanted more classes and that it would be good for the students.  Its still only 18 teaching hours a week and only 3 lessons to plan, but I’m grateful for more to do.  I was feeling that my time and energy wasn’t being used to its greatest potential, so I feel a lot better about that now.

My m.3 (9^th grade) class is my favorite.  I’ve never been one to pick favorites, but if I could end every day with my m.3’s it would just make my day.  I don’t know what it is about them, but they just seem to understand everything so much better than the other grades.  Activities go more smoothly, and in general, they just have so much more fun than the other classes.  They’re the only class that I saw twice the first week of school, and they asked me to be their advisor (still no idea what that entails) so maybe they’re just more invested in learning English.  I’ve also taken mini field trips with them to a fabric store, so I guess I’ve spent more time with these students outside of class too, which probably helps my rapport with them anyway.

Now its time for… Heather’s (Mis)Adventures in Thailand:

1. My family got a new washing machine.  Actual machines are few and far between in Thailand, so they had no idea how to use it. Guess who they asked?  Even though all the instructions were in Thai and the water hose is still manual they assumed I’d know exactly what to do.  Hilarity ensued.

2. I went to clip my fingernails out my window.  The clippers slipped and fell right into the pond. I was worried I’d have to turn into a nail-biter, but luckily Tesco pulled through and I found others.

3. Cinto had to use the family truck to deliver oil, so Nit and I had to take his motorbike home last night.  I was wearing a skirt. I was holding my purse. And my laptop. On the way, our dog, Pi, found us and started chasing us home and nipping at my heels. Interesting ride.

4. My computer cord broke this morning.  I was almost in tears with frustration and knowing it would be weeks before I could get a new one from the states.  I rely on my computer for everything, lesson planning, communicating with friends and family at home, multiple daily worldteach emails, entertainment, posting this blog, etc.  I was not happy.  When I showed Nit, we took a detour to a computer store in That Phanom on our way to school. About $5 and an hour later the cord was fixed, and I made it to school with plenty of time to spare before my first class. Mai Pen Rai prevailed today...of course now Nit basically buckles in my laptop whenever we get into the car hahahaha.

Next time: My trip to Surin for the Elephant Round-Up and Loy Kratong this weekend!