Going where I’ve never been

Some very good things happened this week!

First and foremost, Gabe returned to civilization and after two days of failed attempts (bad internet connections, “international” phone cards that aren’t international on top of a 14 hour time difference) we managed to get ahold of each other and talk. It was so good to hear from him, know that he made it safely out of the Grand Canyon and realize that he’ll be here in just a little over a week!

Secondly, after my little rant about the terrible running here, I decided to cross a street that I don’t normally cross and discovered that my short path actually extends for quite a long way! I’ve had 60-90 minute runs for the past few days, in a much nicer and less congested area and feel so much more balanced! Aron also told me that he knows a way to get to the parks on foot, but that it’s impossible to explain…he’s going to walk it with me one day this week so that I can run it. These sound like such small things, but to me, running conditions play a MAJOR part in the way that I feel about a place.

Due to running a new route, I discovered an actual sit-down restaurant with an actual indoor dining area and an actual patio with actual greenery and actual menus! You’d be amazed at how hard that is to find in our neighborhood…I love the eating options here, but every once in awhile it’s nice to have a place to go and sit down at. Raina and I took a walk there the other evening and it was wonderful – delicious food (still extremely inexpensive), really friendly waitstaff, and an atmosphere that almost made it possible to ignore the incessant traffice roaring by.

The entire past week was test week, which essentially means that I did not have to do anything. I have several tests on Monday as well, so the past week was just spent reviewing, something that actually gets these kids to be quiet! Monday is also payday which I am anxiously awaiting – it’s been two months since I’ve had any income and I’m getting a bit tired of it! We get paid in cash – I’m making about $1000/month and I’ve spent roughly $300 (this includes setting up a room and several trips!!) since I got to Bangkok a month ago. At this rate, I shouldn’t need to go to an ATM again until at least Christmas!

Last night was pretty low-key and I was planning to just hang around here, as we have several friends coming into town tonight and I don’t need two nights out. I went to a payphone down the road around 9 to give Gabe a call, and as I was walking back I passed some of the street vendors next to our place, all sitting at their little plastic table as they do at all hours of the day.

One of the women waved me over saying “come sit, come sit!” I grinned and walked over, one of the women gave up her seat, insisted I sit and then went to find another stool. The woman who had called to me spoke very good english and handed me a glass of whisky and soda water, asking “Thai whiskey okay? You have!” I couldn’t turn down such an offer, of course, so I accepted and we did introductions.

Mao (which coincidentally means “drunk” in Thai) was the english-speaker, and she works in a hotel nearby, which explains the language skill. She introduced me to Goy, a little man with a huge, permanent grin who apparently owns the mechanic shop we were sitting in front of. She listed off the names of the four others, but I honestly couldn’t repeat any of them.

Mao told me that she works very early during the week,  going to work at 4:30, but that on weekends she always comes to this corner to visit her friends and have a drink. She made me promise that we would stop and have a drink on weekends whenever we could, and that if “you need any help, I help you. The Thais, they think you tourist so they not always tell truth to you.” I practiced some of my Thai on them, making sure to tell the tea lady that her tea is “A-rroi mak-mak!” (delicious) – they loved it and one way or another, I was able to spend an hour “conversing” with a group of people who can’t even say hello.

This morning when I went out to run around six, the tea lady and two other women were still out there. She yelled “Hello! A-is-on!” and raised her beer bottle to me. Yes, at six a.m. I laughed and pointed at the rising sun, she just shrugged and laughed then took a drink from the bottle.

I will certainly be back to visit with them, and things like this are starting to change my opinion of Bangsue. The longer we’re here, the more smiles and waves there are – people are getting used to us and realizing that we’re not obnoxious tourists flashing our money around and knocking stuff over. You have to remember that this is a pretty low-income, low-educated area and it’s always tough to be different in such a place. These are people who are making about $200 a month and who will most likely never even leave Bangkok, much less Thailand.

When I put it in perspective and then think back to the all-too common view in America that “if you don’t speak English, don’t come here,” it’s absolutely amazing how much these people work with us. I’m in Thailand, working in a Thai school, barely qualified, making seven times what a Thai teacher makes and I hardly speak a word of the language – somehow, people remain extremely friendly and helpful.

At home, so many people are so vehemently opposed to the Mexicans (or whoever else) who show up wanting to work, yet don’t have a good grasp on English.  They’re wanting to work jobs that most of us would refuse and they’re told to “go back to where you came from!” I’m so glad that I have the opportunity to live and work here for awhile, as it is opening my eyes so much more than a vacation ever could!

I spent last Wednesday and Thursday at “camp,” just outside of Lopburi, yet another former capital of Thailand. We had the option of joining 400 students for the two hour bus ride or pitching in for gas and riding up in Aron’s car. Naturally the gas money was well worth arriving with our sanity in tact, so all five of us crammed in early Wednesday morning and enjoyed a quiet car ride to Lopburi. We stopped along the way for some coffee at a place specializing in beans from the northern hill tribes. For the most part, coffee in Thailand is of the instant, pre-creamed and pre-sweetened variety, a horrendous product created by NesCafe. The coffee that I received at the road stop was a pleasantly shocking surprise – dark, rich espresso served in an American-sized coffee cup! It was delicious, and I think that my heart rate stayed noticeably elevated well into the next day! Yet another reason to look forward to northern Thailand…

We got to camp around 10 and checked into our rooms at an on-site guesthouse (another thing that we easily agreed to pay for!). I opened the door and was greeted by things that have only existed in dreams lately: a bathroom with a sink, hot water, a refrigerator, a tv AND a bed that didn’t feel like a tabletop! I wanted to just shower and go to bed right then, but camp obligations and the coffee prevented it. We actually didn’t have many obligations; we hung around for a bit as things got going, meaning that all the kids had to sit in lines and sing stupid camp songs (like ‘if you’re happy and you know it” in Thai, 20 times), play stupid games and do other annoying orientation-esque activities. It went on and on, but luckily lunch wasn’t too far off.

The meals at camp were FANTASTIC. As much fun as I’m having eating in Bangkok, the freshness level of food made out in the country was incredibly nice. I got to try quite a few new things, and learned HOW to eat certain dishes the correct Thai way. After that we took off to sightsee a bit, coming back in time for dinner. That night there were “campfire” presentations, though there was not actually a fire. All of the groups had put together small shows and acts during the day, and spent all evening presenting them. As a department, we also had to do a short presentation, so we took the opportunity to have 400 Thai kids making animal noises and acting like pigs/dogs/frogs/elephants. It was fun (due in no small part to the flask of scotch that Joe and I shared beforehand), and so strange to hear how differently Thais interpret animal sounds!

I enjoyed an unnecessarily long shower, savoring every drop of hot water that came out of the faucet! I then had the best night sleep I’ve had since arriving in Thailand – Thais like hard beds, and mine in particular is full of coconut skin. No springs…just coconut skin. I would do anything to find an eggcrate pad, as I am not sleeping well at all in Bangkok, but I’ve had no luck yet. I can only find high-end tempur-pedic type things that I can’t justify purchasing for 3 months of use. Anyways, I couldn’t believe that I only had to shell out $7 for a night in a bed like that…it’s the small things!

The next day we ate breakfast, killed some time, ate lunch and then headed out. Our job (which was basically just showing our faces on occasion) was over! We stopped at the monkey temple on the way home, which you may have already seen on my Flickr site. It was so neat – there are hundreds of monkeys in Lopburi, and you can pay a dollar to go inside one of the ruins areas where they all congregate. They will take your things from you, so it’s wise to leave your bag behind. They were fascinatingly human-like! One of them snuck up behind me and jumped onto my leg, grabbing hold of it. I kicked him off, as the last thing I wanted was a monkey bite, and I swear that he laughed at me, quickly raised his eyebrows twice in an “I’m gonna get you” sort of way and did it again! It turns out this is the way they get people to drop things – I can only imagine the collection of stuff they’ve got hidden inside those ruins!

That part was neat, but the most fascinating thing is that the monkeys aren’t held captive in there or anything. They run all over the town, so you see monkeys on top of buildings, running on telephone wires, sneaking up behind unsuspecting food vendors. There was a lot more to see in Lopburi in terms of ruins, and luckily I discovered that it’s a 2 hour, 15 baht train ride away. I will return soon!

On Friday there were very few students who showed up, so it was a pretty relaxed day. That evening I went and enjoyed a really long run in a nearby park. It is so frustrating as there are three beautiful parks full of trees, paths and other runners less than two miles from here, but there is no way to get to them on foot. My only option (aside from running on a freeway or across a railroad bridge) is to take the subway, which just isn’t practical on any sort of regular basis. As it is, I’ve been stuck running here, which I really dislike. I spend the first ten minutes on my road, which is packed with traffic and food vendors and people waiting at bus stops (even at 5 am), then get onto a path that runs next to a canal on the next road.

The path is nice to have, as it’s too small for food vendors to set up on, but it still passes a lot of cross streets that have motorcycles flying off of them and goes through the middle of more than a few bus stops. I run until I hit a highway and can go no further, which gives me about 45 minutes roundtrip. If you know me, I consider that a warmup. Plus I spend that entire 45 minutes dodging vehicles, potholes, people and stares. However, it’s what I’ve got, so I use it (though my running has been far less than consistent since I arrived in Bangsue). It is just maddening to know that such a great park area is SO close!

Okay, back on topic. I had a great run, with other runners, and luckily recognized the King’s Anthem when it came on over the park’s loudspeakers. This anthem is played before movies, sporting events and at other random times in public areas. When it comes on, EVERYONE must stop moving, be quiet and wait until it is over. Not doing so is considered disrespecting the King, an offense that can actually land you in Thai prison! I’m sure that one of these days I’m going to zone out as I usually do when running and just keep right on going through the song!

Saturday was very refreshing! I had an early run then decided to go explore by myself for the day. It’s been wonderful having a group of friends here, but it’s also nice to go out alone and not be part of a big “pack” of foreigners. I discovered that the river is only a 20 minute walk from here, so I boarded a riverboat for the first time. These function just like a bus, but there’s no traffic, the breeze is cool and the scenery is great! For the first time I really felt as though Bangkok is a nice place to be! There’s a whole other type of life that goes on along the river, and the number of incredibly ornate wats (temples) is pretty mind-blowing. The boat cost a flat 15 baht fare and stops at every pier, you just get off when it’s your stop.

I rode to the end, about a 45 minute trip, then got off and boarded the skytrain, another ingenious form of transportation. The skytrain is basically an above-ground subway that runs way above the roads. I took this to a random stop, getting off at the Silom area and then did some exploring for a few hours. Two South African guys said hello to me at a crosswalk and when I said hello back, they grinned and said how nice it was to find someone who speaks some English! They were looking for a big day market in the area and I was just wandering, so I walked with them for awhile. I told them about Chatuchak and they seemed really excited and planned to go the next day. They asked where I was from and when I said Texas, they couldn’t believe it due to my lack of an accent. One of them said there’s no WAY I could be from “cowboy land” and then did his best impression of Texan-talk…he was better at it than I am! We came to Lumphini Park and I parted ways with them, but it was nice to have company for a bit!

Lumphini park is also huge and beautiful, full of trees and fountains and benches and playgrounds and outdoor gyms and big lizards that run around. I strolled around, sat on a bench and people-watched, just enjoyed the afternoon. I finally decided that I needed a drink (it was scorchingly hot!) and began the long search for the gate that I had come in through. As I was walking an elderly-ish Thai man, who looked like a park maintenance worker, came up beside me and said “Good afternoon!” That’s an odd phrase to hear from any Thai, as even the people with good English aren’t usually good enough to know alternative phrases for “hello.”

What I have noticed is that if a Thai person cannot speak English, they will avoid interacting with you/serving you unless they have to. If they can speak English, they’ll want to talk all day long! This guy knew his stuff, and asked if it was my first time in Thailand, if I liked it, how long I was staying, if I enjoyed teaching. He asked if I was from England and I said no, America. He then asked “Whereabouts in America?” which was so strange to hear out of a Thai person’s mouth, so I answered “Texas.” He goes “oh, Austin Texas?” He then told me how excited he is that we will have a new president soon, and that he “wishes for Obama, much better for your economy, much better for whole world!” I soon had to part ways with him as well, but thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. It’s really nice to go out alone sometimes!

I found some great street food then headed back to Bangsue by way of the subway, marveling at the wonders of public transportation. I was exhausted, but went out that night with Raina, who had attempted to go to a tiger temple that day but gotten on the wrong bus and ended up at the border of Cambodia. Needless to say, she did not see tigers and after 8 hours on a bus, she needed a drink! We met up with our friend Tim and some Thai girls that he has befriended, which was a whole new experience! These girls are extremely well-off and are of the ‘socialite’ variety, but they were really cool and all speak perfect English. They took us to some private party at a hotel, and I was blown away at how much cheaper things are and how quickly you get served when you’re hanging out with Thais! We got home extremely late and I (finally) had a good night sleep on my coconut-stuffed bed!

On a final, super-exciting note…Gabe gets here two weeks from tomorrow! I can’t believe the time is finally going to arrive…

I’ve gone from sitting in classrooms to being in front of a classroom, from feeling generally competent to feeling unsure as to how to order dinner, and from noticing “outsiders” to being the one who doesn’t belong. It’s good to put yourself on the other side of things sometimes, and I’m certainly getting my fair share of it in Bangkok!

I’m closing in on the end of the first month in Bangkok – yet again, how time flies! Teaching has definitely gotten easier (well, less stressful), though I can’t say that I’ll ever hit a point of actually liking it. There are things I like about it, but overall I’m pretty sure that this is not my calling in life… Next week is the first round of tests, so we’ll see if I’ve managed to teach anything to anyone!

Time has flown as it always does when you get into a daily routine, but it’s also passed by so quickly due to a lot of breaks in the routine! Last Thursday was Teacher Appreciation Day, which meant that all classes were cancelled (and about half the students didn’t show up the day before because they were busy with preparations). This special day consisted of sitting up on a stage with the Thai teachers in front of a couple thousand students (all of them quieter than I’d ever imagined possible!) and listening to extremely lengthy speeches in Thai by people that I assume are important. Then we sat some more as each student came to the stage with an elaborate flower arrangement they’d made, kneeled down in front of us, handed it over and we passed it down the row of teachers to another student at the end who set it in front of the stage. Since I don’t understand Thai, I have no idea what was really going on, but I do know that these kids could all be millionaire florists in the states – the creations were incredible! Thais are definitely talented when it comes to precision and beauty. Anyways, it was a strange affair, but it got me out of teaching and lunch was also provided at no cost!

Last Friday I headed to Khao San Road for the first time, which is the notorious “backpacker ghetto” in Bangkok. This means that it’s all foreigners, lots of bars, clubs, cheap accommodation and pad thai street vendors. I was excited to finally see a good portion of our training group again, as all of us that are living in Bangkok were planning to meet up there. I’m learning the ins and outs of transportation, and the most important thing is to INSIST that taxi drivers use the meter. I hate to admit it, but being white makes you an instant scam target, and everyone will try! The taxi driver tried to get us to agree to a 200 baht fare (only $6, but still…) but we refused to get in unless he used the meter. He finally agreed and the fare came out to 68 baht – these tricks are important! Another very important taxi trick is to listen to how Thai people say place names. If I tell a driver that I need to go to Bangsue, they will look at me like I’m from Mars. If I say “Bongsoooo,” off we go. Tonal languages are not easy to pick up!

Anyhow, as soon as we got to Khao San I felt like I’d arrived on another planet – I saw more white people in 30 seconds than I’d seen in the past three weeks combined! It was strange though, it felt more uncomfortable than anything. I’ve been living in a Thai neighborhood where no one is catering to me; if anything, people in Bangsue are more than helpful and friendly, but they aren’t quite sure why I’m there and it makes no difference to them whether I am or not. Arriving in such a tourist area, I couldn’t help but notice the hoards of loud, drunk, obnoxious backpacker types trampling all over the place. They’re all thrilled to be “experiencing Thailand” when in reality they’re doing exactly what they’d be doing at home, talking only to fellow foreigners, getting angry when a Thai person can’t understand what they’re ordering and getting even angrier when the bathroom/table/drink is not clean/spacious/cheap. They take pictures of the 8 year olds trying to sell flowers on the street and then laugh and wave the kid off afterwards. I’m generalizing of course, but this was the overall feel of things.

It was more than apparent on the face of every single Thai person working there that they are NOT impressed and consider westerners to be a necessary evil. This is exactly where the “ugly farang” stereotype gets started and is exactly why Thais aren’t particularly thrilled to see the white people walking into their shop or up to their foodcart. I’ve definitely gotten the impression that I’ve got to earn my respect, and I can now see why that is. In any case, I was more uncomfortable being white and blonde on that heavily touristed strip than I’ve ever felt walking around Bangsue! I did not want to be labeled.

Okay, moving on. I did manage to have fun with friends despite my tendency to think too much, and it was a very, very late night. The next morning I headed to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is one subway stop away from here and is one of the largest markets in the world, with over 15,000 vendors! It covers 35 acres and literally has anything you could ever imagine…everything from clothing to furniture to pet squirrels to komodo dragons to electronics to imported and handmade EVERYTHING. Want to try drinking snake blood? This is the place. It was hot, crowded, maze-like and incredible! I managed to stick it out for 6 hours on Saturday (with the help of bags of fresh pineapple, guava and handmade coconut “icecream”) and bought plenty of things for myself (despite my intention to buy gifts). It was frustrating, as there are so many hundreds of things I would LOVE to have for a house but of course, cannot buy here. Things you could find in a specialty import store at home, but at a tenth of the cost (plus, you can buy it from the person who made it). As a rule, I hate to shop, but Chatuchak made me love it!

It wore me out, and I was asleep by 8:30 that night. On Sunday, Raina and I headed back for round two, managing to spend more money and eat more coconut icecream. The great part is that by “spending a lot of money,” I mean that I spent maybe $20 in both days combined. This includes several items of clothing, a new handmade bag from India, food, drinks, perfume (I needed it!), incense (my room needed it!) and some jewelry. Everything is bargainable, and the more Thai you use, the cheaper it gets. Flexible pricing seems to be the key to making shopping an enjoyable experience for me – it’s like a game! I’m planning to go explore the riverboat system tomorrow and see other areas of Bangkok, but I have a feeling that I’ll end up back at Chatuchak at some point. I do have to buy gifts, after all!

I’ll have to get back to this later and touch on my camp experience (ie two days as a ‘token white person’) and the monkey temple! For now, I need to go pay the tea lady a visit…

This means that I won’t have time to write until Thursday, but I did want to mention that there are a few new photos up from last week and this weekend. There are a few of Teacher Appreciation Day (ie class-free day), my first taste of Khao San Road and the wonderful chaos of Chatuchak Weekend Market. I’ll write about them all when I get back, but for now I have to prepare myself for “campfire” songs, leading 400 Thai kids in “Simon Says” and a side trip to a monkey temple!

Will return with stories and (hopefully) awesome monkey (the students and the animal) photos in two days!

It’s no secret that American news media relies on sensationalism and the fear element – if it isn’t dangerous, threatening and imminent, it isn’t interesting. Even if you are aware of it, however, as an American it is so easy to fall into the trap and have an endless stream of  “what ifs” and “oh nos” running through your mind, making life in general seem so worrisome and so difficult.

Each day, news headlines from home look more and more ridiculous and absurd. This morning, for example, I opened my laptop, went to yahoo.com to check my email and was immediately faced with the all-important question “SHOULD YOU FEAR TOMATOES??”

The answer in the article was, naturally, that YES I should fear tomatoes! I should be more worried about tomatoes than anything else, at least until the next catastrophe! I was then conveniently presented with another slew of articles on which tomatoes are dangerous (all of them), why I should stop buying tomatoes (it could kill me!) and what it will do to the farmers once I stop buying them (total industry collapse!). They proved it to me with a headline about a man who DIED from eating salmonella-tainted pico de gallo! Never mind that, in the last sentence, the writer mentioned that the man “also” had cancer, a disease that was found to be the actual cause of death.

These articles led me to more articles about more dangerous foods, other industries that are in TOTAL CRISES, and how I really shouldn’t ever trust anything that I put into my mouth. I SHOULD, however, support the FDA getting a few extra million dollars for new “safety” programs that will save America from the brink of nutritional destruction!

Anyways, the tomato question caused me to immediately burst out laughing as I thought about the utterly “unsanitary” food storage, preparation and serving techniques here in Thailand. No one is fearing food here, they are just enjoying it. There are no regulations or rules or ominous headlines (and I do read the Bangkok Post) – if there were, people would go right on eating.

I can (and will) go on about the topic in much more depth, but I really had to comment on the tomatoes! There is so much more material wealth and comfort in the U.S than there is here – remember, entire families live in the same type of room that I’m living in, and it’s pretty standard. That fact is amazing to me, but what’s more amazing is how many more smiles I see here…

There a lot of Ayutthaya, elephants, the new place and, at my mom’s request, the bathroom. I’m working on documenting a bit of this crazy neighborhood this week, so stay tuned…

I just found the place where I’ll probably eat dinner every single night for the next four months! It’s a huge, seemingly endless ‘point-place’ – a point-place is what we’ve been calling any eatery with pans/pots of freshly prepared food, some identifiable and most not, which you can easily point to and have the cook put a big scoop right on top of a big bed of rice. These places require no Thai speaking skills, are unfailingly delicious and usually dirt cheap.

Anyways, I just stumbled across one down the road with upwards of 60 pots (no clue how they do it, nor do I want to know!) arranged on long tables with tons of people roaming around. I spent a few minutes sizing it all up, trying to figure out how it works and what I should do about ordering. Scoop myself? Find a plate or a bag? Where does the rice come from? I watched all the Thais and realized that the key is to be assertive – grab one of the people in aprons, point to what you want and let them know if you want a bag or a plate. Luckily the girl knew the word ‘bag’ since the Thai word, which I made an effort to learn yesterday, had already slipped my memory (although it’d be easy to point to that too).

A woman on the curb scoops steaming rice into small plastic bags, ties it up, then the girl puts that bag along with my bag of hot food into yet another bag (environmentalism has not hit this place quite yet), tells me what it costs, I pay her my 25 baht (again, 85 cents or so) and I’m on my way. It was way more food than I could finish, so I get breakfast out of the deal too!

Strangely, all of this food is making me lose weight pretty efficiently! It’s probably some combination of eating spicy EVERYTHING, eating artificial NOTHING, walking everywhere and, of course, spending only about an hour a day at a computer as opposed the 9+ that was the norm before I left.

In any case, it’s little things like this point-place that will really make me miss Thailand when the time comes to leave…

So, teaching…

I am just beginning the second week, and it is quite an experience! My work environment is great, I certainly lucked out in that regard. My direct boss is Aron, a guy from New Orleans who has been in Thailand for 11 years, five of which were spent living in the same building that I am living in and all of which were spent teaching at Wimol Business Administration College, which is my school. He speaks fluent Thai, has a Thai wife and, needless to say, knows all the ins and outs of Bangkok, my neighborhood, and anything else you can imagine. He is a wealth of information and is helping us out a ton!

My coworkers include Joe, who is one of the guys that I trained with in Phuket, Norelle, a 60 year old Australian lady who taught here two years ago and is back for more, and Aris, a guy from Manila who has been teaching English at Wimol for five years now. The five of us make up the foreign language department and have our own wing in the school – everyone absolutely adores Aron, which put us in a good starting position.

I teach 23 periods a week, each of which is 50 minutes long. A good portion of them are back-to-back periods, making them 100 minutes…we see every class 3-5 periods per week. Although our school is called a “college,” it is not a college in the American sense. These kids have all finished our equivalent of high school, at which point they choose to either go to vocational college, then to University for two years, or straight to University for four years. Most of my students are between 15-20 years old, though they mature much more slowly than I’m used to; a 20 year old in Thailand seems like a 16 year old westerner.

As you can probably imagine, teaching roomfuls of 20 (ie 16) year olds is a bit of a challenge, and definitely exhausting! They are very similar to the students that we had in teaching practice – super short attention spans, more talkative than you can possibly imagine, and really just interested in being entertained. Luckily I don’t have any classes over 25 students, and a have a few that only have 6-12. Again, there are no serious problems like you might find in the states, the biggest issue is just that Thais are very social and kids that age regard English class as social hour. They really are only there because they have to be, and really don’t take it too seriously.

Most of my classes are actually fun, and the quicker I learn how to not take it seriously either, the more enjoyable it is. There are some really intelligent, motivated students in each class, especially in my business grammar class. That group consists of 6 girls, all about 21-22 years old, all with great English, fluent Japanese, and career motivation. They are such a breath of fresh air (even though I’m terrified to teach that class – I do not know even basic grammar rules!) as you can actually have a conversation with them and get to know them beyond “My name is __________ and I like _________.” However, make up for it, I have a group on Mondays and Tuesdays of absolute hellions! Joe and I split a group of 50, and we were forewarned by Aron…these kids are all about 15, do not EVER shut up, could care less if you’re talking and bring in about three cell phones for every one kid.

They were tolerable last week, but today was a serious behavioral decline for both Joe and I. We’ve decided that Monday is officially “buy a big beer at 7-11 for the walk home” day and are brainstorming ways to at least get these kids to “not care” in silence.

It is so strange though, because they can still be so respectful! When they walk in classroom it’s “Good morning teacher!” and the second that it’s over they all come up to you and say “Thank you teacher, I will see you later!” with big smiles. They clean up all of the trash, take the dictionaries back to my office, erase the board. They want to talk to you in the hallway, eat lunch with you, everything…they just won’t listen to your lesson!

The most bizarre thing is that most of them just do NOT understand creativity. The Thai school system is a lecture and discipline-based system, and they are conditioned to look for very black-and-white answers to everything. If you have them write a dialogue between two friends at a party, they immediately want to know what should go first, what should the answer be? If you tell them to write about what they did over the weekend, you’ll get 80% identical responses – the one that someone had you check and say “good job!” to at the beginning. It’s been described to me more than a few times that most Thai students are great “parrots” and not much more – I can certainly see that after just a week.

I was told to embellish my age in order to get more respect, so as far as any of my students know, I am 28. I guess this would be true at home – if I’d had a 23 year old teacher when I was 19 or 20, I wouldn’t have given them the time of day!  The absolute best students are the ladyboys and the gay boys…they all speak great English, are extremely enthusiastic, funny and also very popular. All of the other students, boys and girls, will follow their lead and the class is so much more productive (and entertaining!).

No one ever comes on time – that is a Thai trait – and honestly, I love it! It turns every 50 minute class into a 40 minute class… Another thing that I absolutely love is the cafeteria! There are two at Wimol, each of which is a huge row of food stalls, everything from stirfries to curries to Thai bbq to sushi to Japanese noodles to icecream, and more! It all cost 15-20 baht (50-80 cents) and is delicious – if I’d had a place like that in high school, there’s no way I ever would have hoarded my lunch money (don’t tell my parents!). It’s open the entire day, from somewhere around 7 am til at least 5:00…any time you want to eat, go eat. The students certainly take advantage of it, and I do the same!

There are also lots of classes cancelled, for completely random reasons (ie “clapping practice”), quite often. I’ll get to enjoy that beginning on Wednesday, when everyone will be skipping class to make flower bouquets, which will be presented (along with a kneeling-at-the-feet) to all of the teachers (in lieu of class) on Thursday, Teacher Appreciation Day. Then next week is “camp,” which foreign teachers really have nothing to do with, yet are required to go. So next Wednesday morning we will load up in buses with the kids, go two hours away to the jungle and “enjoy” two days of crafts, singing, games, etc – luckily we’re getting a separate place to stay (at our own expense, and well worth it!) and plenty of time to enjoy NOT being in Bangkok. There go two more class days!

If all of this keeps up, four months will be a breeze! Last week I was definitely doubting my ability to stick this out, as the temptation to call it quits and just go travel is strong, and will only be intensified once Gabe is here in a few weeks. Today already felt easier though, and I think that each day will make lessons easier to plan, classes less stressful to face, and I will just take it less seriously overall, which seems to be the key. Besides, backing out means that I lose both my free accommodation AND my visa, two very important things. I’m sure that the first payday will increase my motivation as well!

I’m working on getting more photos up – I’ve got a ton on my camera from this past weekend, which I spent in Ayutthaya visiting a friend from our training group. Ayutthaya is the old capital of Thailand (a two hour, 15 baht train ride away) and is chock full of ruins (due to Burmese invasions), temples and GREENERY! It was a beautiful place and I can’t wait to go explore more! We met a bar owner who took us over to the elephant conservatory – it’s basically a big ranch for rescued elephants and their babies. It’s completely donation-funded, so they run an elephant-stay program where people pay to stay for any number of days. This covers your room and all food, along with an elephant. This elephant is “yours” for the time that you stay, a period during which you are responsible for riding it into the lake in the morning/evening for bath time, feeding it, playing with it, etc. I will absolutely be back to do that once Gabe gets here and cannot wait – it’s such a neat thing to support, the babies are incredibly cute and puppy-like, and come on…you get your own elephant!

I’ve been slacking when it comes to taking photos of my neighborhood and school, but it’s on the agenda for the next day or so – I’ll post here when they’re up!

Tomorrow is Friday and I am absolutely shocked that it’s hasn’t even been a week since I left Phuket! It’s been a full few days, and I’ll try not to ramble on too much (though in typical Allison fashion, I will)…

Myself and the four remaining group members embarked on a 13 hour bus ride to Bangkok last Friday night. We’d bought tickets for the “VIP” bus ($30 each) and figured it’d be a nice, comfortable overnight trip. The bus was extremely nice, a double-decker charter bus with TVs, fully reclining chairs, pillows, blankets, snack service – and we got the very front seats, which meant the very best view and the most leg room! About 15 minutes before departure, it started…Thai music videos with the sound at the most ridiculously uncomfortable level EVER. If you’ve never heard Thai pop music, consider yourself blessed – it’s like the worst Mexican music that you’ve ever been exposed to, with some nails-on-a-chalkboard thrown in. It isn’t helped by the fact that the film and wardrobe techniques all come straight out of 1993!

We figured that it was just to kill time during the boarding process, but noooo…it kept on, and on, and on. Finally it stopped, only to be replaced by some strange, Nickelodeon-in-1993 game show type thing, still at a sound level you might find in a sports arena. Sitting in the very front seats meant that we sat directly under the TV, and the speakers. I did what I could with my ipod (I can’t BELIEVE that I even considered coming without it!) and finally, after about two hours, the lights went off and a movie started. My ipod could handle masking the movie, and once it eventually ended around 10:30, it was easy to recline back and drift off to sleep…

Until midnight of course, when out of nowhere, every single light in the bus comes on and that music starts BLARING again! The five of us just looked at each other in amazement, wondering if the bus drivers were just screwing with us and keeping themselves entertained. It turns out that it was the signal for a rest stop, which we pulled into about 10 minutes later.

We had 20 minutes and I got off that bus and far away from the music as possible! A “rest stop” is actually a massive pavilion full of hundreds of vendors, millions of food options and rows and rows of squat toilets. I bought something in a banana leaf that was delicious but unidentifiable (egg? Chicken? Horse? Who knows??) then got back on board at the last minute. Luckily the music was gone and the rest of ride was dark and quiet…

We got into Bangkok around 6 a.m., and the first thing I noticed was that they have street sweepers on all of the overpasses and highways…literally, a person with a handmade broom, sweeping amid the traffic! We waited around at the bus station a bit but were soon picked up by Aron, the director of the English programs the TTC school group and my direct boss. He’s a great guy to know – he’s from New Orleans but has been in Bangkok for 11 years, has a Thai wife, speaks fluent Thai, and absolutely loves to help everyone…he’s an inexhaustible source of insider tips and advice.

We dropped off Chris and Tim at their school so that they could meet with their supervisor and be taken to their housing. Joe, Jim and myself were then taken to our new home, Rattanakorn Mansion. It was described as “dorm-style” accomadations, and it certainly is – aside from the fact that I don’t have to share a room, I more or less feel like I’m back at Smiley Hall in 2002!

The “lobby” is a small room with four washing machines, the elevator and stairs. We are on the sixth floor and each have a single room with a double bed, table, chair, wardrobe, bathroom (toilet and shower head, no sink and no hot water) and a balcony, which is a small square that would be nice to have if it weren’t for the huge A/C fan that was placed on it. So it’s possible to sit on the balcony, but there is no way to stand on it! The first few days it was all a bit uncomfortable (largely due to my paranoia about the huge roaches that supposedly will crawl up through the bathroom drain at times…I’ve been lucky so far, but the rainy season has yet to begin!) but it’s starting to feel a bit more like “home.” We immediately went to Tesco and bought a TON of stuff – bedding, towels, cleaning products, mirrors, all of that first-year-of-college stuff. We had to take two taxis to get back with all of it, and have made multiple trips since, but it is extremely cheap here and it doesn’t bother me that I have to part with it all in a few months.

As I wrote the other day, we are finally in Thailand. I’ll be honest, after a week in Bangkok I am already itching to get away, see a tree or two. It’s a shock after living in a place like Phuket for a month! We are most certainly the only foreigners in the vicinity and most people here don’t even know the word “hello” in English. The first day or two was an adjustment, getting used to being stared at, having no idea how to order food (unless it was pointable) and wondering how on earth I could possibly go running here. I’m steadily getting more and more comfortable, and liking it more and more. I certainly wish there was a bit more green (okay, a LOT more) and a convenient way to “get away,” but this is certainly a neat experience.

First of all, it is cheaper than cheap and the food choices are dizzying! Food options are pretty much limited to street vendors, the huge fresh market down the street (hundreds of fruit/vegetable/clothing/household goods/anything you could ever want vendors), a few open-air “restaurants” and 7-11. Our entire road turns into a huge night market after dark – just when you thought there couldn’t be any more food choices in one area, the number doubles! I’m quickly finding favorites – the two girls who have a pad thai cart around the corner are amazing! They have a big wok on a cart, one of them throws in the noodles, vegetables, tofu, peanuts, shrimp and chilies into the pan, the other quickly tosses it around in a bit of oil and egg, they bundle it up in some paper, put it in a bag with lime, onions, sugar, a pack of red peppers and give it to you in exchange for 25 baht – about 80 cents. It’s enough food to last me two meals and is PHENOMENAL.

Then there’s the tea lady… she mixes boiling water, powdered iced tea mix, sugar, powdered milk, lots of sweet condensed milk and then pours it into a plastic bag full of ice, sticks a straw in it and hands it over…it is heaven in a plastic sack! This sort of magic is replicated at every one of the hundreds of food vendors, and most meals are 10-20 baht.

People are beginning to recognize and know us, so while there’s still plenty of staring, there’s more and more waving and smiling every day. Everyone will ask if I am ‘ajarn’ (teacher), which earns me instant points, and I see my students all over the place. The biggest thing is just getting over myself and doing what I can to communicate – Thai are very helpful and if you look lost or unsure, they figure out a way to help you get your point across (enabling you to buy something from them!).

I actually think that Thailand has been easier for me to figure out than Europe was – things are very straightforward, there is always someone wanting to help, and it’s glaringly obvious that I am not from here. In Europe I would have people ask me a question or jump into a conversation in German, Czech, French, whatever – they had no idea that I was from the U.S. and weren’t expecting the confused look that I’d respond with.

It’s (finally!!) Friday and I need to get to school, but I wanted to at least get this posted up…I will write about the important stuff (teaching) as soon as I can, probably Sunday. Check back!

I have officially arrived in Thailand. I knew that Phuket was touristy, but had absolutely no idea how much so until I arrived in the Bangsue neighborhood of Bangkok on Saturday morning, my ‘home’ for the next four months.

Myself and three friends are the only non-Thais for miles around and there is not a word of English spoken or written anywhere.  I’m getting used to being stared at every time that I leave my room, and am slowly figuring out methods of ordering food. Until now, there was no incentive to learn any Thai aside from ‘hello’ and ‘thank you,’ but the need for a crash course has officially arrived!

There will be a huge blog entry here very, very soon, but right now I’m far too occupied with lesson planning for day two of teaching. Day one went smoothly enough and the next few days will help me to form a more solid opinion of what I think of it all. Check back in a day or two, as I am going to have a lot to say about this new world that I’ve landed in!