Travels to Chonburi with my students

Two weeks ago Sunday, I left on a field trip with 130 students and about 20 teachers for 4 days. The students were all EP (english program) and while I don't specifically teach them, as an English teacher in the school, I was invited along on the trip (all expenses paid!). The plan was to leave at 5:00 or so from the school so everyone was to get assembled here around 4:00. All was going well until one of the buses failed to arrive. We waited for about an hour and a half until the third bus arrived and we were on our way! I was on the 2nd bus with M. 3 and M. 4 (the equivalent of 9th and 10th grade in the US). I sat next to a student named Mod (pronounced Maud) who was very quiet but very sweet. We listened to some English music together on my iPod and she shared her snacks with me. We must have stopped about every two hours and arrived in a province called Chonburi at about 7:30 a.m. Monday morning. (Chonburi is the province that is home to Pattaya, which is known around the world as being a major "red light district"/ beautiful beach travel destination in Thailand).  Matt (another volunteer) had brought me some of his Tylenol PM when he was last in town and, I have to say, it saved me during that bus ride. We would stop and I would groggily wake up, stumble to the gross gas station bathroom, stumble back up the steps to the 2nd story of the bus, and promptly fall back asleep. 

view from outside our bungalow

 Our Buses! Mine was that first one, the really blue one....at least it was easy to find! I was amazed at the amount of huge buses like this that are all over the roads here. It's a fairly normal way to travel.

Sunset on 'our' beach. 

I had no idea what our accommodations would be like and assumed they would be similar to those we had in Ubon - 30 people sleeping on mats in a big hall. To my (pleasant) surprise, we ended up staying at a naval base about 30 km south of the major tourist destination, Pattaya. It was called the Sattahip Naval base and is the largest base of the Royal Thai Navy. It was, in one word, incredible. We had a caravan of 3 huge double decker buses and there was almost no security when we drove into the base. Our driver talked to a soldier for a minute or two and we were on our way! Completely unfathomable in the US for sure.  It must have taken at least 15 minutes to actually get to where we were going to stay and then we found that it was directly on the water. It was gorgeous and every day we could see the sunrise and sunset....definitely above and beyond my expectations. As well as a beautiful setting, everyone got their own beds! Students and teachers alike. I stayed in a little bungalow with 7 of the other foreign teachers and we had a good time.

Three of the Thai teachers on the trip with us...all are among the smallest people I've ever met in my life.

It was a busy trip as we must have spent as much time on the bus traveling to different destinations as actually being tourists/ sleeping at the naval base. That first day, we had some time on our hands as everyone had to 'ap-nam' (shower), especially since no one was able to the night before. At this naval base they also have a Marine Turtle Conservation Center which draws tourists and it was about a 1-2 km walk from our accommodations. I went there with some of the thai teachers and they told me that to touch a turtle brings good fortune and luck. The Sattahip Naval Base is also within quick boating distance of a few islands. Unfortunately, we didn't make it there, but they looked great. I did some research and I guess you can take day trips to those islands from the Naval Base. This base is also home to the Navy's only aircraft carrier, which must have been to our left of our accommodations as there were several piers. 

 Rope bench on the way to the Turtle Conservation Center....would sit here with two of the Thai teachers every morning after breakfast and chat....it was so relaxing!

Despite being on the water and assuming that this field trip was so that we could go to the beach, we only made it there one day. We got to a lot of other travel destinations though, including the Pattaya Floating market, the Princess's Royal Herbal Gardens, Ban Phe (absolutely amazing seafood restaurants/market), and a museum called "New Siam" which had replica's of every major sight from around the world. They had a statue of liberty, an Angkor Wat, major temples from all over Thailand, the Eiffel Tower, and the Tower of London.   My favorite place we went to may have been the beach, just because the beach is one of my favorite places anyways. And it was sunset and I got to take great pictures. But Ban Phe was really interesting and had some of the best food I've had in Thailand so far. It's a seafood port as well as a ferry port for getting to nearby islands. I met a vendor there and chatted to her for a few minutes...in Thai! It was great. (Of course, I had to buy something after that). But she asked what I was doing and spoke slowly enough that I could understand her. She even let me take a picture of her, shown below. 

The Pattaya floating market was really interesting too, in that it was set up like a mini tour of all areas of Thailand. To the left you had the northeast and central thailand, and to the right you had southern and eastern Thailand, or something like that. Depending on the route you took, there were different souvenirs or food. I refrained from buying anything, despite wanted to buy it all up. I have to remind myself that I'm living here for another 7 months or so and I can buy presents/ souvenirs later! But I do plan on going back, or at least going to the one that is outside Bangkok. 

I don't think it was very busy when we went. A vendor/ boat driver was taking a nap underneath one of the bridges...his boat must have floated out into the open.

 

Some more vendors in the market...mangoes and sticky rice is among my favorite food here! It's soo good, though while I eat it for dinner, I think it's usually eaten as a dessert.

 

Some pictures from our travels: 

We passed a vineyard called Silver Lake and were told that it was some of the best wine in Thailand (though I'm not sure how true that was or how good wine from Thailand actually is). It had a gorgeous lake and amazing land but of course, we drove right by it to a golden buddha carved into the side of the mountain so that we could take pictures. This elephant was just outside the Silver Lake orchard and part of some touristy thing, though I couldn't really figure it out. I did find out that they were from Surin, which is where I went for the elephant festival back in November. 

The big golden buddha - I think it was lasered into the mountain. Those are two of the teachers at our school - one is the Chinese teacher and the other a Thai English teacher.

At "New Siam" they even had Mickey and Minnie! That's Venus and Alan, who take care of Kara and I like we're their children. They're Filipino, and have three kids back in the Philippines. They said they can make better money here than anywhere in the Philippines but I know they miss their kids a lot.

Part of the "New Siam" complex. It was huge and I admit, I didnt get down to this part of the museum as it was brutally hot and being a white foreigner, was pretty burnt by this point. The sun isn't that hot (yet) up where we are, and I had forgotten how harsh it is down around Bangkok.

We only spent a few hours at the beach but it was well spent time by the students. Most of the teachers stayed under tree cover as they didn't want to be in the sun, but I was right there in the water with the kids! I'll take all the sun I can get. One thing about going swimming here is that everyone went in their clothes. I brought my bathing suit but it would have been completely inappropriate to wear it, so I too went in with all of my clothes on. As it's seen as 'scandalous' to wear a spaghetti strap tank or really short shorts up in the Northeast, it makes sense that bathing suits wouldn't be okay. 

Some of the more adventurous teachers (and one student) on the beach! Once they saw I had a camera, everyone wanted a picture. It was a ton of fun to be a photographer for a day :)

M.3 students with a teacher. can you spot her?

A jumping picture...we did this many many times before we actually got it right. 

One of the M. 4 students taking a rest.

With the students and the Chinese teacher on our 'boat'

I felt like Christmas but that was the only shirt I brought with me to the beach...oops.

 

 

At the herbal gardens, one of the Thai English teachers.

As well as great accommodations at the naval base, we had great food. Every morning we had rice and this rice porridge for breakfast and a whole bunch of stuff for dinner. Lunch was usually on the road or snacks at 7-11. We stayed there for 2 nights and both nights turned into parties especially for the teachers, though for the students as well. They played some games, in which I participated in on the 2nd night and sang loooots of Karaoke. I had no choice as I was called my by my director over the loudspeaker... "teacher Alix! you sing English song for us now. NOW." haha. I made another teacher come with me and we sang a couple songs for the kids. It was all in good fun and I had a blast. On our way back to Nakhon Phanom on Wednesday, we stopped in Khon Kaen, as they have a new supermall, which is a tourist attraction to the students apparently. I was able to get some English magazines (impossible to find in Nakhon Phanom) and the students got to go shopping in a real mall! Of course, what was supposed to be an hour stop turned into over a 2 hour stop. We made it back to Nakhon Phanom at about 1 am. Most of the students didn't come to school the next day, but as I teach in the general program. I was back at school at 7:30.  Some of my students were actually upset with me for leaving on the trip, which I can understand, and some of them told me that they missed me and wished I had been teaching them earlier in the week, which was so sweet. It was so gratifying to have the students say that they actually wanted me to teach, espeically after some of the harder weeks I've been having. 

Now, two weeks later, I'm finished teaching for the semester!! M.3 ends earlier than the rest of the students because it's like they are 'graduating'. I had my last classes on Friday and was so excited as it means I get to do some traveling around now. It was bittersweet though, as 2/3 rds of my students won't be returning next year. they will be going to new schools or dropping out completely. Either way, they have exams this coming week and I plan to take a lot of pictures of them. One of my students asked for a picture early in the semester, and of course I complied. Well, on Friday, he presented his 'friendship' book to me (basically a book that the students decorate for each other and write messages in), and it had a page with the picture of me on it! He wanted me to write something so I wrote my name and said who I was (kruu asasamak --volunteer teacher) and wrote some encouraging words in English about his work this year. It was really sweet. One of my Thai teachers also went and got her hair curled because she said she liked my hair! So much of the time it seems like nothing I do here is appreciated but I think it's more because most of the students/ teachers don't know how to actually say so. So instead, I get pictures in friendship books and curled hair as an indication that they approve/ like what I'm doing here.

This week will be spent tying up loose ends and getting all of my materials together for the coming school year (it begins in May). I'm planning on traveling extensively around Thailand...a few weeks I'll be traveling alone as my school finishes earlier than most, but I'm confident that I'll be okay and plan to do a bit more studying of Thai before I go. Then it's off to southern Thailand for Songkran (a big Thai new years festival) and after that, Vietnam and Cambodia with two other volunteers. I'm really excited, so expect stories and pictures soon! 

'Over n out' from Nakhon Phanom.

Pictures from Scout Camp

Here are those long ago promised pictures from scout camp, courtesy of Ahjaan Samak - the physics teacher here who has sort of taken Kara and I under his wing. He is from That Phanom, and was the teacher who brought us there for the festival. He has been teaching at this school for about 20 years and his daughter is living in California! Small world.

The students sat in their respective groups during morning assembly to start off the day.

The girl guides waiting to begin their day.

taking attendance

Raising the flag during the national anthem

EP (English Program) M. 4 - the girl holding the sign just won a scholarship to live and study in the US

One of the 12 ropes courses that the border patrol guards made

Girl Guides doing the course - this one they called 'spiderman'

This one was awful and where I got most of my bruises...it just wasn't meant for someone my size! The students going through this were 12-15 and they're all quite small.

This one was easier and much more fun. That's Kara and Ahjaan Fon and I. They kids cheered us on the whole way!

The gym teacher here at NPW -  her name is Sandy and she's the only teacher who is allowed to wear pants during the school day.

The 15 hour party

Yesterday was a day full of surprises.

Haley's host family's company was having a work party that began at 10:00 AM. From what we understood, it was a belated New Year's party for workers in the company and was being held somewhere here in the city. We thought it was some sort of sit down lunch or maybe just a lunch outside and we couldn't have been more wrong! Haley, Matt, and I show up at this part with Tew (one of the women that Haley lives with and a teacher at Annubahn) at about 10:15 and we're told that there are going to be 100 people. Workers and their families came up from Bangkok and in from the villages for this party. There was even a live band with singers and backup dancers who came in from another town for this party.

Lunch was served around noon, but everyone had been drinking since at least 11:00. There was a beer stand set up and of course, the requisite bottles of whiskey. I held off until I had something to eat and then accepted a few classes of free beer. The food was good, though very fishy. Most of the big meals here are fish as we're right on the Mekong and I still don't like it so much...they did have chicken nuggets though, which was amazing and very good. Right after lunch was finished, karaoke was set up and being the only 'farangs' at the party, we were 'invited' to sing. Which really means we didn't have a choice. So Haley, Matt and I gamely get up on stage and request Zombie, as everyone in Thailand knows it and it's fairly easy to sing. By far the best part of my day was when an 80 year old woman with no teeth got up and started rocking out to our song. She loooved it and it make getting up on stage (which I'm slowly getting used to and don't particularly like) completely worth it.  There was also a dance party that took place until guests started leaving at 4:00. Already, the party was hours longer than I thought it was going to be.

We were about to take our leave and say bye to Haley's family (P'yot and P'yut) at 5:00 or so but we were informed the party was far from over. The caterers/ workers pushed four round tables together and we just kept on singing and dancing! And drinking of course. At this point there were about 20-25 people left - all family and relatives so it was great to be included. They always tell me to come over so that I am not 'lonely' since I don't live with a family. The father (P'yut) and mother (P'yot) who are Haley's host parents and who own the company are so sweet and a lot of fun to hang out with. Anyways, we stayed for a while longer, singing and dancing up a storm and ended around 7 or 8. This is the point where we expected to head home, but Nicky (Haley's host sister who is 25) ended up taking us to sing karaoke at a hotel along the river! Some of the other volunteers met us there and we had our own little fan club of several Thai families who were there for a birthday party. To be fair, we were their fan club when they went up to sing. Again, more drinking ensued. I'm proud to say i didn't drink too much of this free alcohol over the course of the day and feel fine today :).

When we got tired of the Karaoke (in which a very good piano player sang and played along with us) we decided to go to the Duck Pub, which is Nakhon Phanom's version of a dance club. I was exhausted but Nicky was still going strong and she had arrived in Nakhon Phanom earlier that morning, on the bus from bangkok so we figured we could keep up. Throughout all this, P'yut has been with us! I was amazed that he kept up and he must have been soo tired but he was a great sport. singing, dancing, and drinking along with us. We spent a few hours at the duck pub and finally decided it was time to call it a night at about 1 am. Certainly the longest party I've ever been to!

Soo some of the pictures won't load, but here are a few.

The band at the party

Dancing with the old Thai ladies!! Haley is dancing with Kun Yaa - her host grandmother...she's absolutely adorable and just jabbers at us in Thai all the time. And gives us the best hugs.

After singing Karaoke and in the middle of our 'interview'

Being silly at the karaoke bar

World Teach. Enough said.

Having some fun at the Duck Pub...tried to find as many fellow plaid shirt wearing people as possible...always a good time.

Some thoughts:

--Fruit here is incredibly cheap and soooo delicious. It's something like 50 cents to a dollar for the best pineapple I've ever had. I've been getting used to how the fruits come in and out of season as well, depending on their price. Just recently ripe mango came into season and it's woooonderful. Mango and sticky rice may be my new favorite food.

--I no longer have any qualms about singing or dancing in public...on a stage...sober! For some this may come as a huge surprise as it's nothing I would have done in the past. But hours and hours of karaoke with Thai people will do that to you. They love to sing and having a good or bad voice is a non-issue....everyone sings. 

--Some good song:
Lucky - Britney Spears
Zombie - the cranberries (they looove this song)
I beleive I can fly - R Kelly (also love this song!)
Imagine - John Lennon (a bunch of Thai people at the karaoke bar came up and started singing with us!)
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia

there are certainly more but i can' think of them at the moment.

Off to Bangkok/ Chonburi with 130 of my students! wish me luck.... should be interesting for sure.

English camps and cowboy parades...just another day.

So I've yet to get those pictures of the scout camp but they are on their way sometime soon! One of the Thai english teachers took the picture and it's just always hard to coordinate picture swapping time..

Annubahn English camp staff

In any case, I've got pictures from yet more activities - the English camp I participated in a few weeks ago and the one in Ubon. As well as the cowboy parade that took place last Friday. It was actually teacher sports day and a good excuse to start drinking whiskey- soda water at 11:00 in the morning. I'm amazed at the tolerance of some of my fellow teachers. I didn't know it at the time, but teacher sports day is a huge deal here.  There were 51 schools from around Nakhon Phanom province that came into the city for the parade and to participate in sports all day. It was held at Pia - the 'rival' high school in NKP city and there were tents and tables set up all around the perimiter of the field. Almost every individual school had some version of karaoke going with a mini dance floor and a buffet lunch for the teachers - it was incredible and so very surprising.

Kara and I with Venus!

Thai English teachers, and Venus and Al

I love these teachers :)

In our tent after the parade...before everyone raced to take off their costumes and makeup!

Fon, on my right, teaches with me and P'mai is just wonderful at English and a great help at school.

That's my assistant director in the skirt....he's a ton of fun and likes to crack jokes

To start off this crazy day, all the participating teachers (which was most of them) met on campus at 7:45 to get on a bus to bring us to the middle of town (only a 10 minute bike ride). Most of us were in cowboy costumes and apparently that was the theme of the parade becuase all the other schools had cowboys too! There were some amaazing costumes though. Some of the teachers had woken up at 2 am (not gone to bed?) to get their hair and makeup done for this thing. It was a big deal. They complained a little as it was sooo hot and they didn't really get to choose their costumes, but they looked great.  We walked to Pia's soccer field/ sports stadium and then lined up in typical Thai fashion and waited until the guest of honor arrived. This took approximately 2.5  hours. I was melting. Everyone was. Despite it still being the cold season, it's heating up here. Humidity is on the rise and temperatures are in the 90's! Please explain to me how that is the cold season!?

I hung out with the teachers and some of the other volunteers - Kate and Jay were there with their schools - for most of the day. We ate some pretty good food....sticky rice and this curry and vietnamese crispy bread, etc. Later that day I was getting picked up to travel down to Ubon (about 4 hours by car) for the English camp so I skipped out a little early and went back to pack up my things. Haley had met a guy at immigration when she went to get her visa extended who runs english camps around Thailand. It's called "Dragonfly English Camp" and they've got a pretty good thing going on. They are actually fairly well known around here as my teachers and directors knew what I was talking about when I told them where I was going. Haley, Val, and I were going to help out at one they were holding just outside of Ubon Ratchathani.  It ended up being an amazing and completely exhausting weekend. I would definitely do it again, though maybe not for a few weeks becuase I need some sleep! All of these activities have worn me out.




We arrived in Ubon late Friday  night and met the other teachers and discussed the days ahead of us. Then Haley Val and I had some very necessary girl time in our little hotel/motel. It really was a nice place, with air conditioning, a queen size bed, and hot showers! All anyone needs when traveling.  We were up bright and early the next morning to host camp and I had a blast. It was full of energy and lots of singing and action games. There were about 200 students, from M.2 to M.6 (13-18) and everyone was involved in the activities and it looked like they were enjoying it. We had games ranging from things like scattegories to team songs to 'Who wants to be a millionaire' to pictionary. It was very well put together and they  had a lot of great ideas that I will be able to use with my students.

The second night we were there, we were just hanging out on a mat in the parking lot - quite common actually. one of the guys had brought a guitar and life was pretty great. Everyone was relaxed (and exhausted) and we had not a care in the world besides getting ready for English camp the next day which was more fun than anything else. The family who owned the hotel was on a bench nearby and their little boys were playing around with their bikes and toys. It really was one of the most low key nights I had had in a long time.  We were sitting around, talking and listening to the guitar and someone noticed something in the road. It turned out to be an enormous field rat. I mean, this thing was big. And it was just laying there in the middle of the road which was bizarre. A few cars came by, slowed down and checked it out, and kept on trucking. Then on of the family members from the hotel went over with a plastic bag! The rat ran away, but the little boys and this guy kept searching and eventually we see them come out of the bushes with the rat in the plastic bag - you could see the long tail just hanging out. One of the common practices here in Isaan (much more so in the rural communities) is to eat rats. They're a source of protein and fairly easy to catch. However, juts a few weeks ago, a teacher died at one of the schools another volunteer is working at from eating the rat - it had been infected with something. While it was something we were horrified about and somewhat upsetting, I guess it's fairly common for things like that to happen. Every week there is a new story about a students family member who died in a motorcycle crash or a friend who's family all got sick and passed away. But it's a way of life here and something that they all take in stride which is admirable from one point of view and very sad from another, as so many of the accidents are things that could be prevented.

 

  

 

One of the teachers after the powder fight...he was a great sport!

With our rat however, the family must have realized it was sick (it was hardly moving when it was laying in the road) and they got rid of it. Crisis avoided! The next day was just as exhausting as the first but we knew what we were doing a little more. The last activity of the day was with johnson and johnson's baby powder - here they put baby powder or 'prickly heat powder' all over so prevent sweating and it actually works quite well. We had the students make two huge circles, one inside the other and sit down. there had to be enough room for us to walk around between the two circles. then we passed out about 40 baby powder containers and had them start passing them around while the music was playing. When the music stopped, whoever had to baby powder had to stand up and listen to the directions. as it was our first time there, we had nooo idea what the game entailed. So the students stood up, and the directions were things like 'pour the powder into your right hand and smash it into the face of the person next to you!". pandemonium. It was amazing. And the kids loooved it. So we did that for a while and then it was 'smash the powder into members of the dragonfly team' and they just took off after us! I escaped the first time but Haley didn't and I have not laughed that hard in months. I was on the floor and couldn't get up for a good few minutes. It was just completely unexpected and a shock to see. The next time though, I got powdered pretty badly haha. It was a meeesss. And a huge success.

After the powder fight, it was time to say goodbye and I can honestly say I felt like a celebrity. All of the students were coming up to us and having us sign their notebooks and name cards...it was crazy and again, completely unexpected. I'm used to my students here at NPW who are used to us and not that appreciative of the work we do anymore and it was soo refreshing to have students appreciate what we were doing. They wanted us to write them notes and take pictures...we must ahve stayed there an extra hour taking pictures with them and writing little notes. There were a few of the younger students (all in my group) who were so sweet and great at English so I gave them my contact information and told them to keep up the good work. One of them told Haley that she was their inspiration and another wrote 'i love alix' on the evaluation forms. I was floored. So for the weekend we at least made a difference in a couple kids lives which is a pretty good feeling.

Every school must have a cow....right?