I made it 2 months!

This is probably going to be a short entry (yet somehow when I say that it always ends up being a novel) as not much happened this past week/weekend. We had our first 5 day week in 3 weeks and it made me remember how long the weeks can be. Time is very weird here: some days seem like they take forever and some seem to fly by and last week felt so long but when you look at my time here as a whole it's been 2 months already! I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder--can you believe it? Two months?!

We've had some interesting food experiences at school the last few weeks. I'm not sure why they eat some of the things they eat, but they really just shouldn't. We got to lunch one day and it looked fine and well; we were scooping our bowls full and came to the meat tray. On it were cubes of gelatinized pig's blood (we decided not to get those cuz they were in the soup a couple weeks ago and we aren't really fans.) I thought I'd never have to eat blood cubes again (my senora made them for us in Spain--sick) but lo and behold the Thais love their blood too! So, we bypassed the Type AB+ and started scooping what appeared to be pork and onions. Well we chewed the 'onions' and they were kinda chewy--well really chewy--so we just came to the conclusion that they were probably tentacles or seafood and kept on eating (they tasted okay..harmless enough). You know you've been here too long when tentacles are an okay thing to munch on. Then Michelle sat down and revealed the truth: the onions were not onions nor were they tentacles, they were strips of pig skin. Right as she said that Emily picked up a piece by one of the hairs that was still attached to its dermal layers and we almost all lost it right there. Let's just say we didn't eat much that day.

Other than the culinary adventures, not much else happened this week. We went to see Avatar this weekend which was an awesome awesome movie. It is visually stunning and the story was pretty great too. We've memorized some of the commercials before the movie and still get goosebumps during the King's anthem (oh yea and we're huge fans of the cheesy popcorn!). Sunday we watched movies, including The Beach with Leo. It was filmed on Ko Phi Phi Ley which is the island next to Ko Phi Phi Don (where we are staying for part of our holiday break.) After seeing the movie I can't wait to get down there. We leave Christmas night on a 13 hr overnight bus ($15) and will spend the 26-28 at my friend Jenny's dad's house on Phuket. He is picking us up from the bus station and taking us up to their mountain home overlooking the ocean--wow, I wish I had that. It is so nice of them to offer their home to us and it sounds like they are really excited to have us come down. Then the 29-2 we'll be on Ko Phi Phi in a hostel/bungalow setup and head back home on the overnight bus on the 2nd. It's gonna be so relaxing and so so so beautiful--Phi Phi is supposed to have the best beaches in Thailand!

Thais don't really get Christmas

We're all kind of in limbo about Christmas this year. They don't celebrate it here like we do, but we see trees/holiday decorations everywhere. We came to the conclusion that it's sort of a status thing that shows to visitors that they are Westernized (or westernizing). At school we got to decorate a couple of trees which was nice and there is a Christmas performance day on the 24th. It's weird though, because they ask us for help in explaining how we do things at home and whatnot, but then still kind of ignore us and do it their way. Little things like the Christmas tree: we said we should put the lights up, then the garlands, then the ornaments (which just makes sense anyhow) and they just went ahead and did it how they wanted it so they could get it up fast to show it off to the parents. They they asked us to come up with a Christmas skit for the older kids to do to show the meaning of Christmas, because they said last year it wasn't that meaningful, and it ended up that the kids wrote a script about a Christmas party and doing drugs/saying no to drugs and Dr. A was all for it. How drugs have anything to do with Christmas is beyond me and it kind of ruins the holiday spirit for all of us when they get us excited to help and then just do what they want in the end--sorry I don't mean to be a downer, because it's really nice to have some of home here in Thailand, but it's hard sometimes when you're so used to tradition and have that tradition get changed up.

Some lighter things:

Like I said we are helping with Matayum's (7th-12th grade) performances for the Christmas show and the other day katie, emily and I had to try to teach 50 kids how to sing Let it Snow and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We were able to laugh off our embarassment as the kids began to belt out 'ret it sanow' and 'ludolph the led nos-ed leindeer.' Can't wait for that video.
It's really great though when randomly throughout the day you'll hear a chorus of little voices echoing across the courtyard as different grades practice their Christmas carols.

On Christmas Eve they are throwing a party/gift exchange which will be fun! It may be kind of awkward though as the way they do the gift exchange sounds kinda weird. From what we understand we all have to buy a gift with a 200b minimum (no not maximum like you would think, but minimum) for an undisclosed person. Then at the party you draw a name and hand the person our gift, so they know who it is from and what you got them. Last year they said someone bought a rice cooker and got a pillow in return. Considering we really have no idea what Thais want, this could be kinda humorous! (I hope I draw an American haha) We've been trying to make up for some of the things at school by watching Christmas movies at Soi 18 and I plan on doing a lot of activities/projects with the kids this week, if nothing else, to make it fun for me :) I also have my room decorated with some ornaments (courtesy of Mom!) and have a box/stocking sitting under my Christmas 'tree' waiting to be opened on Christmas morning. I say 'tree' because it's actually this cool little plastic tree which gel window cling decorations that I could decorate it with. It's perfect for Thailand and I may just leave it up all year.

Another long weekend? We'll take it!

Bang Phli and Ko Si Chang (12/11-12/13) So we only had 2 days of teaching last week and it was really really great. I wish it were like that every week. This week's special occasion was Constitution Day when the Thailand stopped being an absolute monarch. Friday we got up after catching up on some much needed sleep and headed out to Big C to catch a Sohngtow. The plan for the day? The crocodile farm. We got in a Sohngtow that was headed for Bang Na and realized we really had no idea where we were going...but for 15 baht I guess I'll go anywhere. We got dropped off and had to take a 10b (total) tuk tuk ride for the 4 of us to the farm. We didn't end up going in as they tried charging us the 300 baht tourist admission fee rather than the 80 baht local fee. Now I'll never quite understand the rationale between charging foreigners more, but when it's blatantly over 3 times as much to get in some where I draw the line. We explained to the lady (in broken Thai) that we are teachers from Samut Prakan, etc but she wouldn't budge. So we said forget it and hopped in a cab to Bang Poo Seaside Resort. I'm hoping when we get our work permits we'll have better luck with entrance fees, because I don't feel like getting ripped off when I'm getting my salary taxed by the Thai gov't just like every Thai citizen is.

Anyway we pulled up to Bang Poo and let me tell you the word Resort is used in the lightest of senses here. It's very talked about destination in Samut Prakan and we got there only to find a cement walking pier covered in Asians and Sea gulls with nothing but a restaurant at the end. Hmmm, we weren't really sure what the appeal was. We decided to venture onto the Queen's Nature Path since it was right there as well. Nature Path is also used verrrrry lightly in this context. It was a tar walking path along the water which was nice, but there wasn't much to see except some birds in the water on one side and a stagnant, muddied drainage ditch on the other. Now, in this ditch were the some of the most horrifying little creatures I've ever encountered. They were sort of fish, sort of lizards. They could swim like fish/eels, but were able to use their front fins and long tail/body to slip and slide and scooch about on land. After some research I discovered it's called a mudskipper...Pretty sure it's the missing link in evolution.

After 'sightseeing' throughout Samut Prakan we headed back to Bang Phli and stumbled across a market along the canal behind Big C. It was kinda of closing down when we saw it, but it looks like a cool place to explore more in the future though. The best part was probably having to pay a whopping 1 baht to enter the market after walking across two rickety boats that they had tied together over the canal serving as a bridge. That night Katie, Emily, Josie and I went to Soi 35 and cooked some delicous homemade grilled cheese/tomato sandwiches and vegged out.

SATURDAY
Josie and I got up early and made the trek to Ekamai bus station to catch a bus to Sri Racha (where we would catch a ferry to the island of Ko Si Chang). To get the taxi we both got on a motorbike taxi on our street which was pretty hilarious. The drive wore josie's backpack on his front with her purse in the basket up front and I sandwiched her in while wearing my bag. 3 people on a motorbike definitely wouldn't fly back home, but makes for an exciting excursion. We hopped on a bus and shortly thereafter we realized we were on quite possibly the worst/oldest working bus in Thailand. There were ripped seats and it made stops like every 2 min which turned the 2 hr bus ride into a 4 hr trip. Additionally they didn't tell us when our stop was so after we passed through the town we thought we were supposed to stop at we asked where our stop was. They looked at us and pointed backward. Sweet--they pulled over the bus and let us off at the side of the road and kept telling us 'tuk tuk, tuk tuk.' So, Josie and I played human frogger, dodging cars to cross the highway, and came across a tuk tuk that took us to Ko Loi (the jetty/island where the ferry would pick us up) where we sat down and had some fresh crab over the water until our ferry arrived. It came and we realized all Thai 'politeness' goes out the window when boarding a ferry. People were pushing and throwing elbows trying to get on the ferry that they all had tickets for and knew there would be room for them on. Really?

Josie and I got a tuk tuk (which only have 3 wheels on the island and are basically motorcycles with trailers on the back) at the pier after battling to get off the boat and had him take us on a tour of the various bungalows on the island 'til we found one we wanted. We went to one on the other side of the island called Tham Pang Bungalows which were the only bungalows on the main beach of the island. We pulled up and a lady on the side of the road where the bungalows were said she was out of the cheaper rooms for two people but that she could offer us a room for 4 people for 1000 baht. We said absolutely not and she went down to 800-we didn't feel like searching all over the island and agreed. After paying her and getting our key we went in and realized what we did was just really sketchy (we didn't check in or anything and paid some strange lady kind of a lot of money). STUPID. We figured oh well, we're here, let's go to the beach and relax.

Josie went to buy some water at what we discovered was the front desk where a woman was just finishing telling a guy who just got there that she had a room available for 450 baht/night. We stopped in our tracks and began a little battle with the desk. You told us you had no rooms available at that price. "Oh someone just call and cancel so now we have." Oh really cuz we got here about 3 minutes ago and no one told us. "Oh they just call." Well we weren't notified and we specified we wanted a cheaper room. It went on like this for a few minutes until we finally just said we felt we were being taken advantage of wanted or money back and we would stay somewhere else. One of the male workers goes "okay okay 700 baht." I looked at him and said 600 baht or we go. They finally agreed so we ended up getting a room for 4 (2 big beds) with bathroom (well it had a scooper pooper not a flusher, but still not a squatty potty- i'll get into the types of toilets in a later blog) for 400 less than we were initially quoted. I'm still just not used to this price changing thing, but sometimes I guess it does work to your advantage.

We went down to the beach and got some chairs and just sat by the water and watched the sunset right in front of us over the gulf. The waters around Ko Si Chang are crystal clear and blue; so crazy that only 2 hours from BKK there is such a drastic change. After sunset we headed over to Pan & David which is a really famous restaurant on the island specializing in all sorts of food. It was kinda pricy for Thai standards, but well worth it- the food was great! We headed to bed early which apparently we needed to do cuz we slept for like 11 hours. Not much is better than waking up to the sound of water, putting on your swimsuit and heading down to the beach for the entire day. We got lunch at the restaurant on the beach and just laid in the sun and played in the water all day. It was some much needed tropical R/R to help remind us that we can do this for a year!

A school fair to remember

Dec 10 is another date that has been anticipated since we got to Satit Bangna: the School Fair. Basically it's an exhibition of different school departments showing off the kids' work with booths and games/activities and food as well as performances by the kids. All in all it seemed somewhat like a way for the school to make a TON of money, but I had a great time watching my kids on stage/helping out in the booth.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Question Tree.

This was literally the bane of our existence for the week. What started out as a posterboard tree with different English questions for kids to answer, earning them points which in turn would earn them prizes, turned into a production of the century (and as usual it was done w/ the least amount of common sense possible). It ended up that Dr. A and Oil fashioned a tree w/ a bamboo pole and real tree branches. Attached to the branches by strings were over 300 colored paper leaves (well 600 as there were 2 per string). Each color meant a category of question, which was a great idea, but the best idea was hanging all of the strings onto the tree before any questions were put in the leaves. That's okay though because we got to print out all the different questions (and then reprint them because they decided it was important that the questions were in the same color ink as their category-ie orange leaves had orange printed text) and place the questions inside the leaves and staple them shut so the kids could open them and the question would fall out. All fine and dandy when you get to do it 300 times and then realize that the stapled questions rip when you open the leaves as they are attached to the staples. They also had 3 different levels of ?'s for the various age groups and wanted us to scatter the levels throughout the tree and write which level was which on the outside of each leaf. After a 5-6 minute 'discussion' with them we finally convinced them that it made a whole lot more sense to put the lower levels on the bottom and the higher levels on top so we didn't have to search the tree for questions. They finally agreed after restating our plan and making it seem like they came up with it. We had some great laughs making that tree.

The best was when Dr. A thought our questions were too hard (ie Name a dinosaur or Name an endangered species) and printed off some of her own 'easier' questions. Some of which read: Name the 7 colors of the spectrum or There are 2 types of animals, what are they? (and she wanted the kids to say vertebrate and invertebrate)!! Wow, sometimes we wonder. Anyway, the kids seemed to like it, even though most of them had to be given the answers to the questions, and that's what counts!

Performances:

The best was watching all the kids perform whether it be singing, playing instruments, skits or dancing. Some of my favorites were 1st grade dancing to Barbie Girl, 4th grade doing the Macarena and 7th grade dancing to some hamster song. It was also so great watching the babies from Anuban (where the kids younger than 1st grade go (ages 2-6)) on stage dancing and singing. Some of the kids were dancing in homemade dog costumes while others were all punk rocked out. One little kid dance had some kids shaking it like they were on fire, while kids in the back were yawning and rubbing their eyes, while another kid was crying hysterically until someone took him off stage. There was some really great talent too (there's a saxophonist at our school who is amazing). I really did feel like a proud parent when my kids got on stage and then came up to me after all excited. 'Teacher teacher you see me you see me?' w/ plenty of high fives to follow. My P5/P6 were all really shy on stage which is funny, because when I had them practice what they were supposed to do in class they would be bouncing off the walls singing and shouting at the top of their lungs. The M3's (9th grade) were really embarassed too, because Rally made them all do a dance to Miley Cyrus.

Our Booth:

The EP and Foreign Language Booth turned out to be a pretty good time. We had a bunch of activities that kids could pay to do/they were required to do at least 4 activities before leaving the booth go get credit for being there-so bizarre. These were: Eco bracelets (where each bead means something different about the environment), Chinese charms w/ Ann and Cherry, Crossword (aka Scrabble which they are obsessed with), the question tree and the English Clinic (kids literally paid to ask English teachers questions like "how do you say..." or "what does...mean?" which they can do any day of the week--however, it was funny because the sign printed off representing this booth read Englsih Clinic!). The best station though was Josie and my station where kids came and made Christmas and New Year's cards. Some kids got really into and I'm sure it's because of the amazing sample cards Josie and I made before the fair :)

Overall the fair was great and kind of tiring. It was nice to see the kids in their element and having fun being kids rather than students (although sometimes I think they forget they are students in class) and I got to meet a few of the parents of my students. They were really welcoming and interested in their child's progress and very excited to meet me. I also found out that Minie, Bam and Pun (3 of my students) are all brother and sister--what great family names. I'm not gonna lie though, I was a little sad that I put all that effort into my Future Boats and it was just hung in the back of the booth along with other future boats even though they made it seem like our future boats were going to be the only future boats.

Chiangin' Out

Chiang Mai (Dec 5-7)

Friday after school Josie and I battled BKK traffic to get to Mo Chit bus station (you know it only took us 3 hours to get there) SO MUCH TRAFFIC. We met up w/ Jenny and hopped on our 10 hr. overnight bus to Chiang Mai. It wasn't horrible as I brought my big pillow from my bed--yes I was that guy, but it's the only way to go. They also played Waterworld in Thai which made the movie even worse than it is, but it was something to watch while falling asleep.

We got in about 7-8 after a fairly uneventful night (about 1 am we pulled into a bus station to pick up people and roof of the bus hit the ceiling of the station which was frightening to wake up to, but after a few minutes of scraping our way back out and quick roof inspection we were off). We met up with Leora and Reuven and headed to our guest house. After walking back and forth along the same road like 5 times we finally found where we needed to go: A Little Bird Guesthouse. The place was amazing and only cost 90baht a night (<$3). It's only been open 2 months and is run by a few amazingly nice and helpful young Thais. We couldn't check in until afternoon so they gave us a map and we headed out on a walking tour of the city.

Chiang Mai is so different than BKK and I really really liked it. It's well-kept/clean and just has a more relaxed/chilled out feel. It's definitely big, but doesn't have sky scrapers and crazy traffic/horns everywhere you look. We walked around for a while and saw some really cool temples from as far back as the 1300s. After a couple hours we decided we needed some good ol' fashioned Thai massages, so off we headed to the Chaing Mai Women's Prison. I kid you not we got massaged by some rough and tumble convict Asian ladies! They are all due to be released w/in 6 months and the prison teaches them a vocation so they can find work after their sentence. We were all too scared to ask them what they had done, esp. after we felt how they could throw us around. Thai massages aren't exactly relaxing throughout the entire massage. I did fall asleep during the head massage, but there were times when I actually thought my lady was going to snap me in half. At one point she had my foot backward over my shoulder and next to my face while another time she stepped on my legs while holding my hands and arched my back so I looked like the carved out figurehead they had on the fronts of ships back in the day. After twisting me around without telling me what she was about to do she would go "You okay meessta?" 'Uh yea, sure great. I stretch like this everyday' :)

After massages we got lunch in a cool garden restaurant and headed out to more temples (well we were actually trying to go home, but got lost and stumbled upon some others--worth it though). We checked into the hostel, where our Irish friend Alan and some other friends from the program were staying, and showered up before dinner. Of the 10 beds in the dorm-style room at the hostel, our friends took up 9 of them (poor Abigail from Wales). We also laugh when we go somewhere that is so inexpensive and find accomodations that may be better than our own at school. Needless to say the soft beds and hot shower were well-appreciated.

We got some dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was not quite as good at home, but still on par w/ Taco Bell or something like that. That night we had some drinks and played some games at the Little Bird and headed out to the night bazaar. Unfortunately we left too late and the bazaar was going to close so we went to some little bar which closed it's gates behind us once we entered. We found out later that because of the king's birthday the bars weren't allowed to serve until after midnight, so we were actually in our own version of a speak easy. Pretty fun though cuz it was just our group holding down the place. After that we headed over to Mike's Burgers which was an outdoor burger joint where they grilled up the burgers right in front of you complete with chili cheese fries and all the fixins=AWESOME

Day 2 found us up at a reasonable time and off in a Sohngtow (basically a pickup truck w/ benches in the back and a roof) to Doi Suthep. We got breakfast at a little place and I passed up eggs/bacon for Pat Thai--wow I must be getting acclimated. Doi Suthep is a pretty famous mountain in the area and we rode all the way up to the top to see the wat. They tried to get us to buy a ticket (there was a sign that said foreigners had to pay) but Leora and I walked past and ignored the men following us asking for money. It's pretty frustrating that they blatantly charge foreigners a higher price to enter most sites, esp since we are teachers in Thailand paying taxes. Hopefully once we get our work permits we'll be able to start getting our due discount. After the temple and some delicious street food we drove down the mountain to the Monthanthan Waterfalls. It was a beautiful hike along a series of waterfalls literally in the deep jungle; the water was clear and really cold and the bamboo/brush were reallllly thick. Josie and Leora stumbled upon a snake and I thought Josie's blood curdling scream and sprint back down the mountain were actually the result of someone being murdered.
At night we went to the Sunday Walking Street which was actually an endless street of vendors and food (cheap, delicous food). The weirdest things I ate were crab sausage and an omelette in a banana leaf filled with bee eggs. Not sure why I did that, but why not right? Later we went to the Reggae bar where our hostel owners were and watched/danced to a live band and saw some fire dancers. Then we headed off the Spicy, the afterhours hotspot of Chiang Mai. It is actually a really fun dance club-there was this crazy lady there who was way too old to be at this club but was challenging everyone to dance offs which was hysterical. We slept in late the next morning and got some food/visited some of Chiang Mai's many used bookstores before hopping on an uncomfortable bus back to BKK.

Doing My Part

December 3rd finally came after weeks of discussion: it was time for the Pattaya Beach Cleanup 2009. About 250 students/teachers boarded 5 buses (in matching P.B. Cleanup shirts) at about 8 am for the 2 hour journey where we met students and teachers from a bunch of local area schools. Josie and I got the best bus by far. We had M1 (grade 7), so they were too old to want to play travel games which is awesome (cuz Ryan and Katie had to entertain a bunch of little kids for the whole ride) and we got the best teachers. We had two of our favorite Thai teachers, Pay and Yok and the 2 Chinese teachers, Ann and Cherry. The 6 of us sat in this VIP section on the bottom floor of the bus and just hung out/slept/talked for the ride.

It turned out it was a pretty big deal--there was a huge stage and tons of tents/displays. We got off the bus to find no beach, however. Shocking that we would have a beach cleanup without a beach. The kids were let loose on the sea wall/rocks that were along the boardwalk to start cleaning up while a few others headed around the bend to a 'beach' which was actually a filthy little sand trap where boats pulled in to tie up. We all just did the ol' head shake and laugh and proceeded to enjoy the sun and being by the water. Why we were cleaning up an area that people clearly don't swim in is beyond me, but the kids had a great time and ended up picking up a lot of trash. It was funny watching everyone run around with latex gloves and trash bags trying not to get splashed by waves as they pulled in everything from dead fish to tires to used condoms to bottles to...well you get the picture!

After a 'hearty' lunch we drove over to Pattaya's floating market. It's been really cool to see these types of markets in a bunch of different cities to be able to compare them. This one is really touristy but laid out in a cool way with boardwalks/huts over the water. It also had sections devoted to all the regions in Thailand so you could see crafts/products from all over.

All in all the day turned out to be a good time (and a great excuse not to teach). Still looking back I'm not sure how much we helped the environment when we drove 2 hours each way to the beach, gave each kid a shirt that came wrapped indivually in plastic, ate styrofoam box lunches and only cleaned for 45 minutes. Still, it's the thought that counts right? :)

"You Make Future Boat"

Here's a little anecdote from last week that I forgot to mention.

So it's last friday (day after Thanksgiving) and we're all a little tired from the feast the night before. We're hanging out in the office (I was actually napping on the floor as I didn't have first period) when Sandra, a Burmese English teacher came to the door. We told her to come in and she said she just got done talking to Dr. Absorn and that she was told to come to us for help in making Future Boats. Yes, that's what she kept saying over and over and over. "You help make future boat. You make future boat"

Excuse me? You want us to make a boat? "Yes a boat" For what? "For school fair, Dec 10" Ohhhh? We have a school fair on the 10th and we had no idea we were supposed to make a boat, let alone one from the future and really had no idea what the heck that entails. Do we make a future boat out of wood or metal or plastic or paper? Is it supposed to float? Where are we launching the boats?

"Dr. Absorn want you to make 1 boat Math, 1 boat Science. So two future boats." So we have to make 2 boats and they have to be for Math and Science? "Yes 2 boat. I make 1 boat for my crass." Oh okay sure we can do that. 2 boats by the 10th. Thanks Sandra. After she left we all looked at eachother blankly (much the same way we had been staring at Sandra for the last 10 min trying to figure out what she was saying). After debating for a while we concluded she was talking about a Feature Board for the different subjects; something to display the kids' work/what they've been doing this semester for the Fair. At least we hope that's what it means (we still have yet to see the board to make these features on) or else we might not be able to set sail next week.

Cultural confusion: (Burmese English) Future Boat
Translation: (American English) Feature Board