This week has certainly been my most interesting and busy week yet (excluding the orientation weeks when everything was new and surreal). Starting last Thursday, my life has been full of activities spanning as many as 3 days. Activities or sporting events seem to be loads more important than schoolwork or at least more thought out. There are plans and schedules to follow that actually get implemented, versus the school schedule which, by the end of the day, seems to be run by the students instead of administration or the teachers.
In any case, the activities I witnessed last weekend were entirely different than any I had seen yet and actually quite fun to take part in. It started with "Boy Scout camp" which encompassed Boy Scouts, Girl guides, Red Cross girls/ volunteers and the young volunteers. Each group was about a fourth of the school and they all have different uniforms to wear. Scouts (for both boys and girls) is a lot more important here than it is in the States and continues on into adulthood. Every thursday, the students that are a part of these groups wear their given uniform and they have activities once a month or something. The young red cross volunteers also do something every month (I think). As Friday morning rolled around, there were groups of students scattered around campus. They were to partake in several activities throughout the day, cook their own food for dinner, have a bonfire (depending on the group) and sleep on campus in hundreds of tents. The girl guides and boy scouts had an 8 km walk around the city for their first activity. They also went to one of the local wats (what for, I couldn't tell you). Their walk ended at a 'du sho du' camp right behind our school so it was entirely unnecessary for them to walk all that way! The 'du sho su' camp behind our school is actually where border patrol sets up camp and lives in sometimes. It actually wasn't something I ever thought of, but we do happen to have border patrol here in sleepy Nakhon Phanom as Laos is only a couple hundred meters across the river.
I ended up spending most of my time with the girl guides. They were separated from the rest of the students and spent most of their day behind school at this border patrol camp. Border patrol also helped out at the camp - they were guides for the students and set up an elaborate ropes course for them to do! There were 12 stations, ranging from web crawls (they called it spiderman) to barbed wire crawls with actual barbed wire about a foot off the ground that the students had to shimmy under. So many of the stations were a huge liability and never would have been allowed in the US! Some were 12 feet off the ground with no harness and others were just silly like crawling through a long tube like a snake. But because Kara and I knew most of the students (they were M. 1, 2, 3) we participated in these crazy ropes course stations! It was fun and honestly, pretty exhausting. Most of the courses were built for students of Thai size and kara and I sort of bumbled through some of them but the children loved it. They thought it was great and cheered us on the whole way. We tried at least half of the stations and by the time we finished, I was tired out. It was worth it though and we won some brownie points with the students...always a good thing.
That night brought pandemonium to my front doorstep. I had left the scout camps for several hours Friday night to get some dinner with the other volunteers and just hang out. As I came back with another volunteer who was staying with me for the weekend, we were met with kids covered in mud and dirt and doing more activities in the football (soccer) field. They were having a ton of fun and it felt like I was back at Camp Nonesuch helping out with the camp overnight. Teachers were standing around talking with one another and watching to make sure the students didn't hurt themselves badly and the students were running around, getting the last of their energy out before 'lights out'. I had heard that the festivities were supposed to end around 9 PM...they didn't end until 10 or so (typical...we call it 'Thai Time'). Pandemonium occurred when the entire campus ran out of water - both to bathe with and to drink - at about 11:00. Students were knocking on my door asking to use my 'hong nam', bathroom, or to get some drinking water becuase they were thirsty and the water filters on campus were empty. Even if you could drink running water, there was absolutely none on campus! I didn't have that much to spare, but I gave what I could to soem of the students and they ended up taking bucket showers behind our house. Many of them were wandering around campus until 12 or 1 looking for any water they could find...It was crazy, to say the least. Most of the students who actually came to my house, I had never seen before. It was a little worrisome having over 1000 students on campus with no water but it had returned by the next morning and things went back to normal.
Saturday morning brought the end of the camp and students were packing up, lining the street outside of our camps and waiting for their rides. They were leaving around 8:30 or so and the only reason I saw them was because I was on my way to a two day English camp at a school up the road. (Pictures and stories on that soon). Myself and two other volunteers helped out at this English camp and just had to play games and sing songs with the kids. It was all weekend but really worth it.
The third activity of the weekend was called 'kao kai' which can sort of be translated into 'boot camp'. As I've said before, attendance is extremely hard to enforce and consequences are almost nil. Except when you have boot camp. About 250 students who habitually skip class and school activities were made to stay on campus all weekend and attend this boot camp. It was almost like re-education. They were up super early in the morning and went to bed super late, spending all of their time in the grand hall and chanting for hours on end. Saturday they sang a little bit and Monday (yes, they had to skip school to attend the boot camp that was punishment for skipping school in the first place...) they sang some more. Soldiers were running the camp, and the students had to wear special shirts designated them part of this camp. Another thing that most likely wouldn't have been allowed in the US. The fallout from this type of punishment was that the students were too worn out to come to class on Tuesday...I fail to see the logic in this plan as the students missed two more days of regular classes. Either way, it didn't seem to do that much good as the students who participated in that activity still didn't show up in class this week.
This weekend brings yet another English camp, though this one isn't in Nakhon Phanom. It's down in Ubon with an organization called 'dragonfly english camps'. It should be a great experience - we (three volunteers) have paid travel down there and are put up for two nights and also get paid!
Before I'm able to go to Ubon, however, I've got to be a drum leader in a parade tomorrow. It's teacher sport day (no school for the students...) and we have to get all dressed up to walk through town. For some reason, Kara and I have to be cowboys and it's been the mission of some of the English teachers to find us cowboy boots...a mission which has failed miserably. They simply do not have big/ western style shoes here and it's extremely hard to find any that fit! But I do have a cowboy hat and plaid (sort of) shirt and jeans to wear. So, should be an interesting day - I'll take lots of pictures for sure.
I didnt have my camera for most of the activities this past week so I'm going to take some from kara and the other English teachers and those will be posted soon.
Happy end of January!!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Who doesn't have time for a party?
This past week has passed quickly and mostly without interruption (at least during the school day). After a frustrating week last week where the communication barrier seemed somehow worse than other weeks, this one has been a breeze and a joy to teach. Last week was our first full week of school since I have been here - about three months - which probably accounted for the problems. No one, teachers and students alike, were used to having class all day every day! By the end of the week, behavior problems were in full swing and the attention spans were almost nothing.
Many of my students in Mo. 3 (equivalent of 9th grade in the US) will not be returning to school next year. Mo. 3 is the last year of required schooling in this area and many of the students are needed at their farms or in the villages. Especially in the lower level classes, they don't see the reason for high level education and will most likely stay in this province for the rest of their lives. This fallout from this in class seems to be that the students have little to no interest in any sort of written work. Worksheets? Not gonna happen. Getting to class on time? Forget it. It's similar to senior's in High School during their last month of school who aren't going to go to College/University. For this reason, I've changed most of my lessons into activities or games and it's been working well. With the lower level classes, I've simply been doing acrostic poems and I'll put a book together for the classes. For the higher level classes, I've been doing a vocabulary review Bingo game which they love. It's great to teach, especially when all the students are excited.
As the weeks have gone on, I've finally started to accept that you can't expect anything but the unexpected. For a long time I would ask our English Director, Surachat, if we had class the next day and it became a bit of a joke between the teachers because no one ever knew. While in the beginning, this bothered me immensely and was a source of great frustration, I've become pretty used to it now. Classes/ lack thereof are announced in the morning, at 8:00, during the morning assembly. Activities are commonplace and as a bigger school in the city, we've got facilities that other schools use almost every day. Sports are a huge deal here and there are provincial sports, color sports (intramurals), district sports, etc. They all seem to use our football (soccer) fields and eat in our canteen! Almost every morning, Surachat will call over the "native" speakers and we have a "3 minute meeting" where he fills us in on what was said that morning. Just this morning I was told that we would not have first period as all the students have to meet with their girl scouts/boy scouts coordinators. Surprise! Then I was told that this weekend, 250 students who have been perpetually absent for all of the sport games will have to be on campus playing sports. After that, I was informed that I will be part of a parade on Wednesday - what for, I still don't know - where they will dress me up in traditional Thai dress and I will have jewelry and loads of makeup on! Should be an interesting day...I actually can't wait!
Earlier this week, we had a guest speaker here at Nakhon Phanom Wittayakhom. A professor from a University in Australia came to speak about SME's (Small Medium Enterprises). The connection between the University and NKP is that one of the professor's students is from this province and he happens to be the districts education director's son. The lecture was scheduled for 5:00 on Tuesday though it started more around 6:00. (That's something else I've gotten used to - Thai time. Everything is either earlier or later than you think!) I showed up to the lecture in jeans and a polo shirt, having changed from my pink Nakohn Phanom shirt and black skirt that I had to wear for school and I was sorely underdressed! Of course, I hadn't been informed that it was a formal speech - something I guess I should have known. All of my teachers were dressed in black and red formal Thai silk, and the guests at this lecture were government officials and directors from schools all over the area - wearing their school uniforms or traditional silk suits. Whoops. I stuck out with a sore thumb, but that's nothing new. Despite my fashion faux paux, they were appreciative of the fact that I went and I think I earned some brownie points. The speech was in English which was great for me but troublesome for all the Thai guests so each presenation slide was translated into Thai, and then questions translated back into English - it was an exhaustive process and the presentation had to be cut short as translating took so much time.
Afterwards, we had a party! We had a party this weekend to attend which ended up being a "100 days funeral party" as well as about a week ago for the ending of color sports. Our school seems to have no limit on the number of parties they throw and they are always wonderful affairs. I am constantly impressed with the way that our school/ students are able to decorate buildings and rooms for presentations or parties. This one was better than most that I've been to as they were honoring their Western guest. The food was wonderful - they even had salad!! A rarity here. The food was not as spicy as to be considerate of the Western guest and I have to say I really enjoyed it. While I knew we were having dinner after the speech, I was unaware of how big a deal it was. Many of my students had been absent for the past few days doing dance and singing and I didn't know why. Well, this was the reason! We had our Nopowo band playing and some students singing. The cheerleading team did a dance as did other dance teams. The Nopowo traditional band also played traditional Thai music. There were hours of performance. It was very well done and fun to be a part of. Originally, the speech and dinner wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to, but turned into a wonderful night. This tends to happen a lot as the people I work with don't have the English vocabulary to truly explain what will happen at the various functions and I don't have nearly enough Thai to ask questions about it. So I go to an event I think will be boring or normal and am usually pleasantly surprised with a grand affair and wonderful food.
Tomorrow, we have no school again as there is girl guides and boy scout camp. They are doing adventure activities and camp at night. Most of the teachers are involved and while I haven't been told that I need to do anything, I may tag along with the girl guides and see what it's all about. I think it would be an interesting experience and the students appreciate it when I try to learn some about their culture. Sometimes in class I have to write the vocabulary in Thai or explain in (broken) Thai so that they will understand and a cheer almost always arises from the students when I do so, even if I'm wrong. Many time the students have to correct my letters or my tones, but hopefully they see that it's okay to make mistakes (something not taught in the Thai education system...to make a mistake means to lose face).
One last thing I've gotten used to - wearing long sleeves and 'jackets' in 80 degree weather! It's winter here now and I admit, the mornings are truly cold. Sometimes you can see your breath in the air which I absolutely never expected here! However, as my face tends to get red whether I'm hot OR cold, my students have taken to telling me, 'teacher, gam daeng'! meaning, "teacher, red cheeks!". They think it's great, for whatever reason and love to tease me about it.
Other than that, life goes on as usual. This weekend, after the scout camp, I'm going to be helping out at an English camp. It's held at Annubahn, the school Haley teaches at, and I'm looking forward to it.
Many of my students in Mo. 3 (equivalent of 9th grade in the US) will not be returning to school next year. Mo. 3 is the last year of required schooling in this area and many of the students are needed at their farms or in the villages. Especially in the lower level classes, they don't see the reason for high level education and will most likely stay in this province for the rest of their lives. This fallout from this in class seems to be that the students have little to no interest in any sort of written work. Worksheets? Not gonna happen. Getting to class on time? Forget it. It's similar to senior's in High School during their last month of school who aren't going to go to College/University. For this reason, I've changed most of my lessons into activities or games and it's been working well. With the lower level classes, I've simply been doing acrostic poems and I'll put a book together for the classes. For the higher level classes, I've been doing a vocabulary review Bingo game which they love. It's great to teach, especially when all the students are excited.
As the weeks have gone on, I've finally started to accept that you can't expect anything but the unexpected. For a long time I would ask our English Director, Surachat, if we had class the next day and it became a bit of a joke between the teachers because no one ever knew. While in the beginning, this bothered me immensely and was a source of great frustration, I've become pretty used to it now. Classes/ lack thereof are announced in the morning, at 8:00, during the morning assembly. Activities are commonplace and as a bigger school in the city, we've got facilities that other schools use almost every day. Sports are a huge deal here and there are provincial sports, color sports (intramurals), district sports, etc. They all seem to use our football (soccer) fields and eat in our canteen! Almost every morning, Surachat will call over the "native" speakers and we have a "3 minute meeting" where he fills us in on what was said that morning. Just this morning I was told that we would not have first period as all the students have to meet with their girl scouts/boy scouts coordinators. Surprise! Then I was told that this weekend, 250 students who have been perpetually absent for all of the sport games will have to be on campus playing sports. After that, I was informed that I will be part of a parade on Wednesday - what for, I still don't know - where they will dress me up in traditional Thai dress and I will have jewelry and loads of makeup on! Should be an interesting day...I actually can't wait!
Earlier this week, we had a guest speaker here at Nakhon Phanom Wittayakhom. A professor from a University in Australia came to speak about SME's (Small Medium Enterprises). The connection between the University and NKP is that one of the professor's students is from this province and he happens to be the districts education director's son. The lecture was scheduled for 5:00 on Tuesday though it started more around 6:00. (That's something else I've gotten used to - Thai time. Everything is either earlier or later than you think!) I showed up to the lecture in jeans and a polo shirt, having changed from my pink Nakohn Phanom shirt and black skirt that I had to wear for school and I was sorely underdressed! Of course, I hadn't been informed that it was a formal speech - something I guess I should have known. All of my teachers were dressed in black and red formal Thai silk, and the guests at this lecture were government officials and directors from schools all over the area - wearing their school uniforms or traditional silk suits. Whoops. I stuck out with a sore thumb, but that's nothing new. Despite my fashion faux paux, they were appreciative of the fact that I went and I think I earned some brownie points. The speech was in English which was great for me but troublesome for all the Thai guests so each presenation slide was translated into Thai, and then questions translated back into English - it was an exhaustive process and the presentation had to be cut short as translating took so much time.
Afterwards, we had a party! We had a party this weekend to attend which ended up being a "100 days funeral party" as well as about a week ago for the ending of color sports. Our school seems to have no limit on the number of parties they throw and they are always wonderful affairs. I am constantly impressed with the way that our school/ students are able to decorate buildings and rooms for presentations or parties. This one was better than most that I've been to as they were honoring their Western guest. The food was wonderful - they even had salad!! A rarity here. The food was not as spicy as to be considerate of the Western guest and I have to say I really enjoyed it. While I knew we were having dinner after the speech, I was unaware of how big a deal it was. Many of my students had been absent for the past few days doing dance and singing and I didn't know why. Well, this was the reason! We had our Nopowo band playing and some students singing. The cheerleading team did a dance as did other dance teams. The Nopowo traditional band also played traditional Thai music. There were hours of performance. It was very well done and fun to be a part of. Originally, the speech and dinner wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to, but turned into a wonderful night. This tends to happen a lot as the people I work with don't have the English vocabulary to truly explain what will happen at the various functions and I don't have nearly enough Thai to ask questions about it. So I go to an event I think will be boring or normal and am usually pleasantly surprised with a grand affair and wonderful food.
Tomorrow, we have no school again as there is girl guides and boy scout camp. They are doing adventure activities and camp at night. Most of the teachers are involved and while I haven't been told that I need to do anything, I may tag along with the girl guides and see what it's all about. I think it would be an interesting experience and the students appreciate it when I try to learn some about their culture. Sometimes in class I have to write the vocabulary in Thai or explain in (broken) Thai so that they will understand and a cheer almost always arises from the students when I do so, even if I'm wrong. Many time the students have to correct my letters or my tones, but hopefully they see that it's okay to make mistakes (something not taught in the Thai education system...to make a mistake means to lose face).
One last thing I've gotten used to - wearing long sleeves and 'jackets' in 80 degree weather! It's winter here now and I admit, the mornings are truly cold. Sometimes you can see your breath in the air which I absolutely never expected here! However, as my face tends to get red whether I'm hot OR cold, my students have taken to telling me, 'teacher, gam daeng'! meaning, "teacher, red cheeks!". They think it's great, for whatever reason and love to tease me about it.
Other than that, life goes on as usual. This weekend, after the scout camp, I'm going to be helping out at an English camp. It's held at Annubahn, the school Haley teaches at, and I'm looking forward to it.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Christmas, New Years, and Family visits :)
So it's been quite some time since I've updated the blog...I'm working on being better! I was on vacation for about 2 weeks for Christmas and New years and once back in NKP, work started up again fairly quickly.
Christmas was pretty uneventful, apart from getting sick for a few days (had to have my parents bring good old fashioned dayquil and nyquil out for me! Nothing beats American meds...) That week at school we were getting ready for the absolute final Dream School Presentation which was to take place on Tuesday the 29th. So we only had morning classes and students weren't quite in an academic mindset. For this reason, and also just holiday cheer, I did a Christmas lesson with all of my classes that week. I think they enjoyed it and I had a blast planning it. We had some holiday flashcards, some songs to listen to and fill in the words, and I downloaded Frosty the Snowman and other movies on my computer for the students to watch - sometimes they were a hit and then other times they weren't but that's how it goes! Christmas night I took the overnight bus to Bangkok to wait for my family (!!!) to arrive in Bangkok on Sunday. That meant I had two days to myself to travel and it was awesome. I stayed at this little hostel on one of the main roads, right next to a train stop, and met some great people. Lots of others' like me who were teachings and traveling for the holidays or people just traveling alone around Thailand. I hung out with these poeple for a couple days - went to Chinatown with them (most crowded place I've ever been including actual China....There were semi trucks and hundreds of people in the same alley that was maybe 9 ft wide. Oh. and it was raining!). The girls I met up with went out dancing one night to this small little club close to where we were staying. I got my haircut!! It was a little nervewracking to say the least as I've had long hair for a long time and I decided to chop it off seeing as the hot season is coming up soon. However, a liiiiitle more than I was expected got chopped off but I'm getting used to it.
Sunday night, my family finally arrived and it was wonderful. :). They ran into every possible problem getting here, including expired passports, and were delayed getting into Bangkok so they didn't make it in until 3 am or so. But I was ready and waiting at the hotel. I was watching TV - something that I don't get to do here. We spent 5 days in Bangkok and then flew up to Nakhon Phanom and they got to see where I live and work for 4 days, even managing to come to school with me on Monday the 4th!
The week in Bangkok was great, exactly what I needed after spending the last three months or so in smalltown NKP. We went shopping in the biggest malls I've ever seen. They're absolutely huge. There is one called Central World which apparently revamped itself over the past few years and is a megamonster of a mall. And there are others all around it. We went to Khao San road, which is a backpackers paradise - it's been named the gateway to southeast Asia (I'm definitely going back!). We took some river boat rides and I got to amaze my family at my Thai abilities :). Okay, not really but it was fun to use the little Thai that I know in the city. We also checked out the nightlife in Bangkok which is incredible. They've got crazy clubs and disco bars and decorations all over the place. As it was the holidays, there were more than usual. I walked through "Soi Cowboy" where all the go-go bars are, as well as Nana - one of the smaller red light districts. Tried to stay away from there as it's sad (from a Western standpoint, I suppose) and is crawling with creepy foreigners though it's accepted here as a way of life. I've been told a lot of the prostitutes in Bangkok come from Isaan as this region is so poor and it's one of the best ways to make money and send it back home. There are a lot of different takes on the prostitution industry here and it's very open and talked about - other volunteers have met former prostitutes and they aren't shy about their former profession. It's interesting, a little sad, and completely different than how we view it in the US.
New Years Eve was an event - almost all of the other volunteers were in the city as well and so we (and my sister!) all met up at my hotel and then went to RCA - Royal City Avenue. It's basically a street of bars and clubs that draw more of a Thai crowd than a Western crowd. Though more and more, it's becoming a tourist destination. We got there and it was this massive street party - 500 baht to get in (15 dollars) and you got drink tickets. We made sure there was hip hop and went on in! It was packed and loud and absolutely crazy. There were mostly Thai's but there were some foreigners and as we're in a group of 9 or 10 people, we tend to draw attention or at least questions from other foriegners as to what we are doing here. It was a great night, ending in the weeee hours of the morning.
Friday brought us to NKP in which we took a small flight from Bangkok (up until about a month ago, the planes had been shut down and they were just reopened). It was only about an hour and a half but it was quite small and there was no a/c and many crying babies. But we made it and we checked into the hotel and I showed my family my town :). We went to the night market and got all sorts of food for them to try - veitnamese spring roll things, meat on a stick, pork things, salads, grilled corn, coconut desserts, loots of fruit. It was a feast by my standards, though I think my dad was missing his big american style meals...
We did a lot of walking around, wandering to the different markets and also going to the river. We got to have dinner with a teacher and her husband one of the nights and I showed them where I lived during the month of orientation. They got to see the cows and absolutely obnoxious chickens that live around here. Monday, they were able to experience a day of school with me and it was chaos. We weren't sure if we had classes that day and so teachers and students alike were confused. Some students showed up when teachers didn't and teachers showed up when students didn't. But it was expected and I'm glad my family got a taste of the craziness that can be a school day here! After it was determined that classes were over, two teachers took us out to lunch and then to a 'secret wat' along the Mekong. It was a great last day but also very sad. They left at 6:30 Monday afternoon and it was far too soon. I put them on the overnight bus to Bangkok (flight only operates on Thurs, Fri, and Sun) and went back to life as a volunteer. It was an amazing couple weeks and I can't wait to travel again. The school year ends the last week in February, so I'm planning some trips for the 'summer break' for sure. I've got about two months if anyone wants to come out to Southeast Asia! ha.
The week we got back to school was color sports week - basically intramurals. I've got lots of pictures and info on that I'll post later.
So take care and enjoy the pictures! More in a few days.
Christmas was pretty uneventful, apart from getting sick for a few days (had to have my parents bring good old fashioned dayquil and nyquil out for me! Nothing beats American meds...) That week at school we were getting ready for the absolute final Dream School Presentation which was to take place on Tuesday the 29th. So we only had morning classes and students weren't quite in an academic mindset. For this reason, and also just holiday cheer, I did a Christmas lesson with all of my classes that week. I think they enjoyed it and I had a blast planning it. We had some holiday flashcards, some songs to listen to and fill in the words, and I downloaded Frosty the Snowman and other movies on my computer for the students to watch - sometimes they were a hit and then other times they weren't but that's how it goes! Christmas night I took the overnight bus to Bangkok to wait for my family (!!!) to arrive in Bangkok on Sunday. That meant I had two days to myself to travel and it was awesome. I stayed at this little hostel on one of the main roads, right next to a train stop, and met some great people. Lots of others' like me who were teachings and traveling for the holidays or people just traveling alone around Thailand. I hung out with these poeple for a couple days - went to Chinatown with them (most crowded place I've ever been including actual China....There were semi trucks and hundreds of people in the same alley that was maybe 9 ft wide. Oh. and it was raining!). The girls I met up with went out dancing one night to this small little club close to where we were staying. I got my haircut!! It was a little nervewracking to say the least as I've had long hair for a long time and I decided to chop it off seeing as the hot season is coming up soon. However, a liiiiitle more than I was expected got chopped off but I'm getting used to it.
Family picture at NYE dinner and short hair! What do you think?
Happy New Year, 2010 haha. One of my favorite pictures for sure
Sunday night, my family finally arrived and it was wonderful. :). They ran into every possible problem getting here, including expired passports, and were delayed getting into Bangkok so they didn't make it in until 3 am or so. But I was ready and waiting at the hotel. I was watching TV - something that I don't get to do here. We spent 5 days in Bangkok and then flew up to Nakhon Phanom and they got to see where I live and work for 4 days, even managing to come to school with me on Monday the 4th!
The week in Bangkok was great, exactly what I needed after spending the last three months or so in smalltown NKP. We went shopping in the biggest malls I've ever seen. They're absolutely huge. There is one called Central World which apparently revamped itself over the past few years and is a megamonster of a mall. And there are others all around it. We went to Khao San road, which is a backpackers paradise - it's been named the gateway to southeast Asia (I'm definitely going back!). We took some river boat rides and I got to amaze my family at my Thai abilities :). Okay, not really but it was fun to use the little Thai that I know in the city. We also checked out the nightlife in Bangkok which is incredible. They've got crazy clubs and disco bars and decorations all over the place. As it was the holidays, there were more than usual. I walked through "Soi Cowboy" where all the go-go bars are, as well as Nana - one of the smaller red light districts. Tried to stay away from there as it's sad (from a Western standpoint, I suppose) and is crawling with creepy foreigners though it's accepted here as a way of life. I've been told a lot of the prostitutes in Bangkok come from Isaan as this region is so poor and it's one of the best ways to make money and send it back home. There are a lot of different takes on the prostitution industry here and it's very open and talked about - other volunteers have met former prostitutes and they aren't shy about their former profession. It's interesting, a little sad, and completely different than how we view it in the US.
Just one small part of CentralWorld Mall - Each bell had a flag on it...pretty cool display, hard to capture in a picture.
Kelly making us take strange pictures in public...this one turned out well tho!
Yep, more strange pictures in public...also in CentralWorld. Sitting in Santa's Sleigh!
New Years Eve was an event - almost all of the other volunteers were in the city as well and so we (and my sister!) all met up at my hotel and then went to RCA - Royal City Avenue. It's basically a street of bars and clubs that draw more of a Thai crowd than a Western crowd. Though more and more, it's becoming a tourist destination. We got there and it was this massive street party - 500 baht to get in (15 dollars) and you got drink tickets. We made sure there was hip hop and went on in! It was packed and loud and absolutely crazy. There were mostly Thai's but there were some foreigners and as we're in a group of 9 or 10 people, we tend to draw attention or at least questions from other foriegners as to what we are doing here. It was a great night, ending in the weeee hours of the morning.
Big laying down Buddha at Wat Po - its something like 40 feet tall I think, pretty impressive
All the traffic in Bangkok! For that reason, best way to get around is moto taxi - but hang on cause it's a crazy ride.
Us Volunteers out in Khao San road
Friday brought us to NKP in which we took a small flight from Bangkok (up until about a month ago, the planes had been shut down and they were just reopened). It was only about an hour and a half but it was quite small and there was no a/c and many crying babies. But we made it and we checked into the hotel and I showed my family my town :). We went to the night market and got all sorts of food for them to try - veitnamese spring roll things, meat on a stick, pork things, salads, grilled corn, coconut desserts, loots of fruit. It was a feast by my standards, though I think my dad was missing his big american style meals...
Our night market meal! mmm sooo good.
We did a lot of walking around, wandering to the different markets and also going to the river. We got to have dinner with a teacher and her husband one of the nights and I showed them where I lived during the month of orientation. They got to see the cows and absolutely obnoxious chickens that live around here. Monday, they were able to experience a day of school with me and it was chaos. We weren't sure if we had classes that day and so teachers and students alike were confused. Some students showed up when teachers didn't and teachers showed up when students didn't. But it was expected and I'm glad my family got a taste of the craziness that can be a school day here! After it was determined that classes were over, two teachers took us out to lunch and then to a 'secret wat' along the Mekong. It was a great last day but also very sad. They left at 6:30 Monday afternoon and it was far too soon. I put them on the overnight bus to Bangkok (flight only operates on Thurs, Fri, and Sun) and went back to life as a volunteer. It was an amazing couple weeks and I can't wait to travel again. The school year ends the last week in February, so I'm planning some trips for the 'summer break' for sure. I've got about two months if anyone wants to come out to Southeast Asia! ha.
At Wat Po - giving money to the Monks - they get up at 3 or 4 am to walk around town and collect food for the day. They don't take money, I don't think. And these donations (half a baht each) helps to keep up the temple.
Playing Foozeball in one of the bars!
The super crowded club on New Years. It was a huge place too, and just one of many dance floors!
Aand of course, one last family picture. Miss you guys!!!!
The week we got back to school was color sports week - basically intramurals. I've got lots of pictures and info on that I'll post later.
So take care and enjoy the pictures! More in a few days.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Twin Sports Day and school happenings
On Saturday we had "Twin Sports day", which was really just a big soccer match between N.P.W and Pi'a - the other high school in the city. I believe they do it once a year and they alternate which school hosts it every time. So this year it was Pi'as turn. N.P.W's colors are black (or gray) and white, while Pi'a is blue and pink, so everything was decorated in blue and pink banners! The day started out with confusion as always. We met at 11 in front of the English office, thinking that we were going to sit in the stadium like the last sports day but we were hurriedly told that we had to be in the parade! Of course, we had no idea what this meant/ what we had to do but we grudgingly got into the van so they could drive us to the parade route. The parade route seems to be the same every time - it's down through the main street in town and then past the provincial buildings to the provincial stadium which conveniently is located next to our campus.
Luci, Mike and I (other foreign English teachers here) ended up sitting on this van/ bus thing for the parade and it was pleasant if nothing else. There were students behind us dancing and singing - they had these portable speakers with them. Of course, timing is not something that people here seem to worry about so we sat there for about a half hour before the parade started, having no idea what was going on . There were bunches of floats by both Pi'a and N.P.W....all very well done. There were students dressed in traditional village outfits and thai dance costumes and pictures of the king and queen...it was quite elaborate. Once we got to the provincial stadium, we had to wait for the governor or the former prime minister of thailand (I'm not sure which...as I said, we weren't really kept in the loop, so to speak). This waiting ended up lasting about two hours - similar to the last competition actually. So the students and teachers told us that we could go get lunch or something while we waited - we had at least an hour. Luci and I took this opportunity to walk home and get some food....that was our first mistake....
We got back form a pleasant hour of having lunch and playing with Luci's puppy (sooooo cute) to find that our English director guy had been frantically searching for us - we were supposed to be part of the opening ceremony. Originially, that's what we thought we were doing for the day buut we got put in the parade. We hadn't been told that AFTER the parade we had to go to the stadium to be in the ceremony....whoops! So we missed the opening ceremony, something the Director of the school wasn't so happy about I think...communication problems are frequent here.
We made it to the stadium in any case and watched the 'cheerleaders'. I explained a little about them before but they've got cheerleaders - like 10 or 12 of them all dressed up super fancy and everything....they are on the field. Then you have the cheerers...there's about 800 students in each half of the stands doing these cheers and it's really cool/ interesting to watch. This time, we had some students cheering across the field in the 'teacher' stands. And so they would call back and forth to each other. Pi'a was on the left and N.P.W on the right so they made signs to each other with pom poms....our side said "NO NO" (spelled out with pom poms held high in the air) and then an arrow pointing to Pi'as stands. haha. it was great. It's difficult to explain though. The students also put on different colored shirts to make different messages that we could see...I'm going to post some pictures and maybe that will make it more clear.
All the while I've been watching the parade finish walking through the stadium from my seat up in the stands and I went down to the front to ask one of the English teachers a question about the schedule of the day...before I know it, they've got me leading cheers! I had noo idea what to do. This one man, a math teacher, seemed to be in charge of the cheering and so our assistant Director was mimicking him....when all the teachers get together it's quite a party. Everyone is laughing and telling jokes - they just seem to be having so much fun that it's even fun to watch (though I don't understand much). So anyways, he pulls me up from my seat and says 'CHE-A!" and I was like, 'oh no'. I ended up just copying his movements and 'running' the cheer for the teachers. They were laughing at me of course becuase I was standing there clueless. But I chalk it up to good experience. Some of my students were there and started cheering for me "teacher alix! yay!". It was interesting for sure.
Most of our schools were watching this game/ involved in some way - both N.P.W. and Pi'a. The game was played and there was no score on either side so the official score went down as 0-0. I guess they don't do shootouts or overtime here.... After the game, we had a party! (of course...why not?). I was told we could change and so I went home to do so - I was quite sick of the uniform I had to wear all day. Of course when we get to the party (hosted by Pi'a) I was one of the only people that had changed! I stood out like a sore thumb. oh well. We took bunches of pictures in front of the hall and then sat down to dinner. The sitting didn't last long though as we had a band of sorts up front and after just a couple songs teachers were dancing and singing all over the place! About an hour into dinner/ the party, the former prime minister of Thailand showed up (He was the prime minister before Thaksin, who has been exiled from Thailand and causing some political strife here...he's now working in Cambodia and the Thai government isn't very happy about it. Thaksin was the prime minister before the current one.) This guy is pretty popular as he is from Nakhon Phanom (I think). He was very gracious and took pictures with anyone and everyone who wanted one. It was chaos but that's normal these days.
After the food was finished it turned into a karaoke/ dance party in the front of the hall. You just can't say no to these people soo of course I was up there dancing with them. One of the words they throw around a lot, like "beautiful" is "sexy". But I don't think they mean it the way we would use the word in the US. So they commented on our 'sexy dancing'. I think they used it as a synonym for 'beautiful', which is said about most everything. Sticky rice is 'kao niu' but regular rice is 'kao suay' - beautiful rice. holidays' are also beautiful as are things that are a lot of fun.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week I haven't done that much teaching but have been spending a lot of time with the teachers. We passed the last dream school rehearsal so we are getting ready for the presentation on Tuesday, the 29th. This involves a lot of canceled classes so that the school can be beautified and cleaned up and all the preparations can be done ahead of time. We had no class monday, and then just morning classes all week - it's a good bet that tomorrow we won't have any classes either.
I have seen my students around campus though and a few of them told me that they missed me! Which was great to hear as so many of the students are uninterested in learning English. For the classes I have had, I made some Christmas flashcards and we do a Christmas lesson - I think they enjoy it! I know I do. After we go over the flashcards (santa, candy canes, etc.) we either fill in the blanks for a Christmas song or we watch/ listen to Christmas cartoons (gotta love youtube). It's been a fun week though the Christmas spirit here is minimal at best. Oh well.
I'm leaving tomorrow night on an overnight bus for Bangkok to pick up my family on Sunday! wooohooo! I cant wait :). Best present I could have asked for for Christmas! I'll be spending New years in Bangkok (should be wild) and then will bring the fam up to Nakhon Phanom to see where I live and meet the people I work with. Probably won't post much for a week or two as it's holiday travel time
Merry Christmas!!
(the parade in front of my bus/ van)
(Annubahn students watching the parade)
Luci, Mike and I (other foreign English teachers here) ended up sitting on this van/ bus thing for the parade and it was pleasant if nothing else. There were students behind us dancing and singing - they had these portable speakers with them. Of course, timing is not something that people here seem to worry about so we sat there for about a half hour before the parade started, having no idea what was going on . There were bunches of floats by both Pi'a and N.P.W....all very well done. There were students dressed in traditional village outfits and thai dance costumes and pictures of the king and queen...it was quite elaborate. Once we got to the provincial stadium, we had to wait for the governor or the former prime minister of thailand (I'm not sure which...as I said, we weren't really kept in the loop, so to speak). This waiting ended up lasting about two hours - similar to the last competition actually. So the students and teachers told us that we could go get lunch or something while we waited - we had at least an hour. Luci and I took this opportunity to walk home and get some food....that was our first mistake....
(luci's puppy, Cookie)
(my students....student on the right is a boy!)
(students in my van)
(part of the parade)
(cheerers in the stands and the soccer teams)
We made it to the stadium in any case and watched the 'cheerleaders'. I explained a little about them before but they've got cheerleaders - like 10 or 12 of them all dressed up super fancy and everything....they are on the field. Then you have the cheerers...there's about 800 students in each half of the stands doing these cheers and it's really cool/ interesting to watch. This time, we had some students cheering across the field in the 'teacher' stands. And so they would call back and forth to each other. Pi'a was on the left and N.P.W on the right so they made signs to each other with pom poms....our side said "NO NO" (spelled out with pom poms held high in the air) and then an arrow pointing to Pi'as stands. haha. it was great. It's difficult to explain though. The students also put on different colored shirts to make different messages that we could see...I'm going to post some pictures and maybe that will make it more clear.
All the while I've been watching the parade finish walking through the stadium from my seat up in the stands and I went down to the front to ask one of the English teachers a question about the schedule of the day...before I know it, they've got me leading cheers! I had noo idea what to do. This one man, a math teacher, seemed to be in charge of the cheering and so our assistant Director was mimicking him....when all the teachers get together it's quite a party. Everyone is laughing and telling jokes - they just seem to be having so much fun that it's even fun to watch (though I don't understand much). So anyways, he pulls me up from my seat and says 'CHE-A!" and I was like, 'oh no'. I ended up just copying his movements and 'running' the cheer for the teachers. They were laughing at me of course becuase I was standing there clueless. But I chalk it up to good experience. Some of my students were there and started cheering for me "teacher alix! yay!". It was interesting for sure.
Most of our schools were watching this game/ involved in some way - both N.P.W. and Pi'a. The game was played and there was no score on either side so the official score went down as 0-0. I guess they don't do shootouts or overtime here.... After the game, we had a party! (of course...why not?). I was told we could change and so I went home to do so - I was quite sick of the uniform I had to wear all day. Of course when we get to the party (hosted by Pi'a) I was one of the only people that had changed! I stood out like a sore thumb. oh well. We took bunches of pictures in front of the hall and then sat down to dinner. The sitting didn't last long though as we had a band of sorts up front and after just a couple songs teachers were dancing and singing all over the place! About an hour into dinner/ the party, the former prime minister of Thailand showed up (He was the prime minister before Thaksin, who has been exiled from Thailand and causing some political strife here...he's now working in Cambodia and the Thai government isn't very happy about it. Thaksin was the prime minister before the current one.) This guy is pretty popular as he is from Nakhon Phanom (I think). He was very gracious and took pictures with anyone and everyone who wanted one. It was chaos but that's normal these days.
After the food was finished it turned into a karaoke/ dance party in the front of the hall. You just can't say no to these people soo of course I was up there dancing with them. One of the words they throw around a lot, like "beautiful" is "sexy". But I don't think they mean it the way we would use the word in the US. So they commented on our 'sexy dancing'. I think they used it as a synonym for 'beautiful', which is said about most everything. Sticky rice is 'kao niu' but regular rice is 'kao suay' - beautiful rice. holidays' are also beautiful as are things that are a lot of fun.
(cheerleaders! check out those outfits)
(self explanotory - dancing time!)
This week I haven't done that much teaching but have been spending a lot of time with the teachers. We passed the last dream school rehearsal so we are getting ready for the presentation on Tuesday, the 29th. This involves a lot of canceled classes so that the school can be beautified and cleaned up and all the preparations can be done ahead of time. We had no class monday, and then just morning classes all week - it's a good bet that tomorrow we won't have any classes either.
I have seen my students around campus though and a few of them told me that they missed me! Which was great to hear as so many of the students are uninterested in learning English. For the classes I have had, I made some Christmas flashcards and we do a Christmas lesson - I think they enjoy it! I know I do. After we go over the flashcards (santa, candy canes, etc.) we either fill in the blanks for a Christmas song or we watch/ listen to Christmas cartoons (gotta love youtube). It's been a fun week though the Christmas spirit here is minimal at best. Oh well.
Merry Christmas!!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Pictures from Ubon and Khon Kaen
Here are the pictures I promised!
This is in Khon Kaen, outside of the new mall, Central Plaza. There's a fairly large ex-pat community so there were Christmas decorations!! Here in NKP they don't do much for Christmas, though on Christmas Eve there is an event on the river some of us are going to attend.
This is in Ubon...it's the Candlestick that is in the center of a big park...they have a big candle festival in Ubon every year, though I'm not quite sure of the origins...something to look up perhaps.
This is the lake in Khon Kaen...it was a Sunday when I was wandering around so it was pretty quiet. It was picturesque with the Wat in the background...I didn't get to the wat as it was too far of a walk and I was heading back that day. They also set up food stalls on the lake and have a place where you can paint pottery! Picture Plaster FunTime in Boston or Fire It up in DC...it was only a couple dollars and you could get some paints and set up a table on the lake. They had paddleboating too but it was too hot.
That's about it on this trip. Lots of walking around and taking pcitures of things.
Yesterday was spent partaking in a parade and watching a soccer game between my school and the other big high school in the 'city'. Afterwards all the teachers from both schools had a party - food and drinking and dancing of course. The ex-prime minister of Thailand also came to the dinner! He is from NKP and apparently he was quite loved by his people becuase they were going crazy trying to take pictures with him! Of course, I took pictures so those will be posted soon.
Happy holidays everyone!
These were our sleeping arrangements. We each had one of those mats and a square pillow.
Two of the teachers who teach English to the general students at my school! Simply put, they're awesome. They are a lot of fun to work with and hang out with when we don't have class and both speak pretty good English.
Playing games in our room before dinner! It was sorta like camp for two days.
Dinner turned into a photoshoot and we took dozens of pictures. Here are some more teachers at my school, though they aren't all English teachers.
At the University in Ubon, where the educational tour/ competitions were held...this is a sculpture made out of wax. It was huge. The people figures are a little bit larger than life size.
This is the park at around 5:00 in Ubon. It was very quiet and pretty.
A super colorful tuk-tuk! Kara and I were walking some of the side roads on our way to this awesome vegetarian buffet. It was only 25 baht per plate (less than one dollar!) and it was great food. I would love to go back but it's quite far from NKP...
This is in Khon Kaen, outside of the new mall, Central Plaza. There's a fairly large ex-pat community so there were Christmas decorations!! Here in NKP they don't do much for Christmas, though on Christmas Eve there is an event on the river some of us are going to attend.
This is in Ubon...it's the Candlestick that is in the center of a big park...they have a big candle festival in Ubon every year, though I'm not quite sure of the origins...something to look up perhaps.
This is my little room in Khon Kaen! It was all i needed and about 4 USD per night. AND the bed wasn't made out of styrofoam. It was about a 20-30 minute walk to the 'nightlife' and right next to the food stalls with super cheap wonderful food.
This is the lake in Khon Kaen...it was a Sunday when I was wandering around so it was pretty quiet. It was picturesque with the Wat in the background...I didn't get to the wat as it was too far of a walk and I was heading back that day. They also set up food stalls on the lake and have a place where you can paint pottery! Picture Plaster FunTime in Boston or Fire It up in DC...it was only a couple dollars and you could get some paints and set up a table on the lake. They had paddleboating too but it was too hot.
Khon Kaen is the province where dinosaurs were found and it has since become known for it's dinosaur museum. I wasn't able to make it on this trip but I am definitely planning to go back. This was inside the new mall, they had a bunch of robotic dinosaurs as well as people running around in dinosaur costumes...
That's about it on this trip. Lots of walking around and taking pcitures of things.
Yesterday was spent partaking in a parade and watching a soccer game between my school and the other big high school in the 'city'. Afterwards all the teachers from both schools had a party - food and drinking and dancing of course. The ex-prime minister of Thailand also came to the dinner! He is from NKP and apparently he was quite loved by his people becuase they were going crazy trying to take pictures with him! Of course, I took pictures so those will be posted soon.
Happy holidays everyone!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Ubon, Part 2
I only spent two days in Ubon but I feel that I know the city pretty well – the layout anyways. It’s relatively small, though it’s considered one of the bigger cities of the Isaan region. It still seemed quiet and very ‘isaan’, despite its bigger population. I really didn’t feel the hustle and bustle of a city that I would have expected though. The other volunteer with me, Kara, and I walked all over and eventually ended up at the night market. Almost every place you go to in this region, village or city, will have their version of a night market. Vendors start setting up at about 4 or 5 and are there until the evening. In the smaller areas, such as Nakhon Phanom, they close down/ pack up at around 8 or 9. But the night market in Ubon went until at least 10! They have all sorts of food stands – lots of Vietnamese food and some Chinese. Lot’s of Laos influence here. They also set up little clothing shops or second hand clothing stalls. The vendors sell everything from clothing to jewelry to hair things to food to household items. And it’s usually the cheapest place in town. I end up there almost every night here…
Kara and I got some food and then headed to the park to eat and people watch. An activity that seems to be catching on here in Thailand is aerobics and in most major cities there are a few aerobics ‘classes’. They are held outside, usually in parks or in NKP, along the Mekong. In Ubon there must have been over 150 people in the park doing aerobics! It was crazy. They play this asian/euro hip hop music and just have a blast. I’ve done it once and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was made better by the fact that all the Thai women were ecstatic that we were there with them!
After Ubon we traveled to Khon Kaen where I was able to actually experience some hustle and bustle of a city. It was quite big and is the transportation hub of Isaan. It’s where all the planes come in, the train line ends (I think) and busses connect. They have a fairly large ex-pat community too. I hadn’t seen so many ‘farangs’ in ages! It was actually a little strange….
They have this new mall, Central Plaza, full of stores with American names. I went in for a little while and found an English bookstore! Everything is overpriced but I didn’t care at all, it’s impossible to get English anything outside of major cities and I can only watch so many movies. I spent most of my time outside though, wandering the city. They have a big lake that’s got several wats and the ‘spirit of the city’. It’s this huge pillar and I think many cities have them. But they are located at the old center of the city . They usually aren’t where the center is located these days but they are highly respected and have altars all around.
Khon Kaen was great and they even have a night scene! Two other teachers from my school were there so Kara and I met up with them and got a drink out on the town. It was nice to have things to do later in afternoon and also not see students everywhere we went. The following day was also spent wandering around and getting back to Nakhon Phanom. That turned out to be quite the ride as it was about 6 hours and we picked up everyone that needed a ride….it was like a local express or something. There were people jammed into the aisle’s and standing for hours on end….luckily I was at the beginning bus station and got a seat. It was quite hot but I couldn’t complain as I did get to sit down.
It was a wonderful trip and I hope to at least go back to Khon Kaen. It’s also a fairly scenic bus ride as it goes through the mountains in Sakhon Nakhon (province next to me). They have manicured all of the bushes into animals and the winding roads are relaxing, assuming you don’t get carsick. (Mom, dad, and Kel – that will be your bus route!! I hope you are looking forward to it….you’ll have a much nicer overnight bus though, don’t worry :) ).
At school though classes were canceled for most of the day. I think we only have a few more days of classes before January as it’s sports week next week….they go all out with floats and parades and crazy cheering routines. More on that later!
Kara and I got some food and then headed to the park to eat and people watch. An activity that seems to be catching on here in Thailand is aerobics and in most major cities there are a few aerobics ‘classes’. They are held outside, usually in parks or in NKP, along the Mekong. In Ubon there must have been over 150 people in the park doing aerobics! It was crazy. They play this asian/euro hip hop music and just have a blast. I’ve done it once and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was made better by the fact that all the Thai women were ecstatic that we were there with them!
After Ubon we traveled to Khon Kaen where I was able to actually experience some hustle and bustle of a city. It was quite big and is the transportation hub of Isaan. It’s where all the planes come in, the train line ends (I think) and busses connect. They have a fairly large ex-pat community too. I hadn’t seen so many ‘farangs’ in ages! It was actually a little strange….
They have this new mall, Central Plaza, full of stores with American names. I went in for a little while and found an English bookstore! Everything is overpriced but I didn’t care at all, it’s impossible to get English anything outside of major cities and I can only watch so many movies. I spent most of my time outside though, wandering the city. They have a big lake that’s got several wats and the ‘spirit of the city’. It’s this huge pillar and I think many cities have them. But they are located at the old center of the city . They usually aren’t where the center is located these days but they are highly respected and have altars all around.
Khon Kaen was great and they even have a night scene! Two other teachers from my school were there so Kara and I met up with them and got a drink out on the town. It was nice to have things to do later in afternoon and also not see students everywhere we went. The following day was also spent wandering around and getting back to Nakhon Phanom. That turned out to be quite the ride as it was about 6 hours and we picked up everyone that needed a ride….it was like a local express or something. There were people jammed into the aisle’s and standing for hours on end….luckily I was at the beginning bus station and got a seat. It was quite hot but I couldn’t complain as I did get to sit down.
It was a wonderful trip and I hope to at least go back to Khon Kaen. It’s also a fairly scenic bus ride as it goes through the mountains in Sakhon Nakhon (province next to me). They have manicured all of the bushes into animals and the winding roads are relaxing, assuming you don’t get carsick. (Mom, dad, and Kel – that will be your bus route!! I hope you are looking forward to it….you’ll have a much nicer overnight bus though, don’t worry :) ).
At school though classes were canceled for most of the day. I think we only have a few more days of classes before January as it’s sports week next week….they go all out with floats and parades and crazy cheering routines. More on that later!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Ubon, part 1
**I sent this email home to family when I was in Ubon last week (Wed to Fri) with my school. So this was written on Thursday, after the first day. More to come about Khon Kaen and of course, pictures!**
I'm in an internet cafe in a place called Ubon Ratchathani...It's the province that is the farthest southest in Isan...It's where Cambodia, Thailand and Loas meet. I'm a few hours from the border
though.
So it's been a very interesting two days so far and has definitely shown me a side to all the teachers that I work with that I never knew existed! It’s been great to just ‘hang out’ with them and experience Thai culture without any sort of Western influence. They mostly spoke in Thai so I tried to follow along and every now and then one of the better English speakers would explain a little.
We started yesterday morning super early - i was up at 4 am to get ready and get to the internet before I left on the trip - we were on a big double decker bus by 5 am and on the road at 520! I tried to sleep a bit but it was tough. Put a bunch of thai's together and you get mayhem...Everyone was excited and it felt a bit like a middle school or high school field trip. Aand of course everyone was taking pictures. It was quite fun though. I tend to provide a lot of entertainment for the teachers as I try to listen to their conversations and figure out what they are saying...usually I have no luck though. It took about 5 hours and then we sat in an hour of traffic to finally arrive in Ubon at 11 or so. We came for an
'educational tour' as some of our students are involved in a regional northeast English competition down here. There was an area that was having a fair/ exhibition of sorts but of course us English
teachers (foreign and thai alike) were sent to this school where we waited around for hours….no one was really sure what we were were doing. We eventually figured out that we were waiting for a our student to finish her part of the competition (public speaking and multi skills). However we were slotted number 56 out of over 60 schools.
We finally got to the exhibition and it was pandemonium then trying to figure out where 50 teachers are going to meet the bus. There were probably thousands of people who came for this competition, there were people and huuuge vans/ busses absolutely everywhere. It was really incredible and also a little overwhelming after spending so much time in a town of 31,000 people where moto’s rule the road! So we waited over an hour on the side of the road. The bus brought us to a 'resort' after it picked us all up. When us foreign teachers heard that we were like awesome! But apparently in Thailand it goes resort, motel, hotel in worst to best. So most of the teachers were laughing at me (yet again) when i told them that for us, a resort is the best place to go. Our resort turned out to not be that bad....as much of everything in thailand is, it was very pretty and surrounded by all sorts of trees and birds and such. Hoever, they are either rebuilding or just opening and they didn't have enough rooms for us....we all slept on the floor in this giant hall. there were maybe 30 of us sleeping on the floor on bed mats like 2 feet wide. It was nutty. I have a picture to post of course. All the other teachers called it a ‘homestay’
We ate and drank last night and sang karaoke (their favorite pasttime) and played card games. The first game was quite simple and was explained to me in English so I understood it. After dinner we played a different game and this time none of the teachers explained it to me in English, just in Thai. There are a couple teachers who only speak to me in Thai which is great for learning but does get very frustrated sometimes. And they speak English well enough, they just want me to learn. In any case, they kept saying “ngoo ngoo pla pla” which translates to “snake snake fish fish”. I found out later that day that it means ‘little knowledge”. Soo they were telling me that either I don’t know much in general orr I didn’t know much Thai. Either way, I don’t think it’s an insult, just an idiom of sorts. I was exhausted during the 2nd game but we were playing in the same room that everyone was sleeping in and it was impossible to sleep with the noise…I have no idea how the thai teachers did it. Whiskey is the drink of choice here in Thailand and there were a few bottles floating around late into the night. I finally went to bed at 1 or so (late for me these days!) and next thing I know it’s 4 am and EVERYBODY is awake…
I was laughed at by many people when i said it was too early. And the card game was up and running again, as were the bottles of whiskey. Amazing. I don’t have that kind of energy! I was completely exhausted and tried to go back to sleep…I managed until about 630 and then it was time for breakfast. Ah-han chao (breakfast) was either rice or noodle soup…it’s very plain and it’s actually their version of chicken noodle soup because they gave it to me when I wasn’t feeling well. It’s quite good though and I’ve gotten used to it in the mornings.
So off to Khon Kaen tomorrow and the adventure continues :)
I'm in an internet cafe in a place called Ubon Ratchathani...It's the province that is the farthest southest in Isan...It's where Cambodia, Thailand and Loas meet. I'm a few hours from the border
though.
So it's been a very interesting two days so far and has definitely shown me a side to all the teachers that I work with that I never knew existed! It’s been great to just ‘hang out’ with them and experience Thai culture without any sort of Western influence. They mostly spoke in Thai so I tried to follow along and every now and then one of the better English speakers would explain a little.
We started yesterday morning super early - i was up at 4 am to get ready and get to the internet before I left on the trip - we were on a big double decker bus by 5 am and on the road at 520! I tried to sleep a bit but it was tough. Put a bunch of thai's together and you get mayhem...Everyone was excited and it felt a bit like a middle school or high school field trip. Aand of course everyone was taking pictures. It was quite fun though. I tend to provide a lot of entertainment for the teachers as I try to listen to their conversations and figure out what they are saying...usually I have no luck though. It took about 5 hours and then we sat in an hour of traffic to finally arrive in Ubon at 11 or so. We came for an
'educational tour' as some of our students are involved in a regional northeast English competition down here. There was an area that was having a fair/ exhibition of sorts but of course us English
teachers (foreign and thai alike) were sent to this school where we waited around for hours….no one was really sure what we were were doing. We eventually figured out that we were waiting for a our student to finish her part of the competition (public speaking and multi skills). However we were slotted number 56 out of over 60 schools.
We finally got to the exhibition and it was pandemonium then trying to figure out where 50 teachers are going to meet the bus. There were probably thousands of people who came for this competition, there were people and huuuge vans/ busses absolutely everywhere. It was really incredible and also a little overwhelming after spending so much time in a town of 31,000 people where moto’s rule the road! So we waited over an hour on the side of the road. The bus brought us to a 'resort' after it picked us all up. When us foreign teachers heard that we were like awesome! But apparently in Thailand it goes resort, motel, hotel in worst to best. So most of the teachers were laughing at me (yet again) when i told them that for us, a resort is the best place to go. Our resort turned out to not be that bad....as much of everything in thailand is, it was very pretty and surrounded by all sorts of trees and birds and such. Hoever, they are either rebuilding or just opening and they didn't have enough rooms for us....we all slept on the floor in this giant hall. there were maybe 30 of us sleeping on the floor on bed mats like 2 feet wide. It was nutty. I have a picture to post of course. All the other teachers called it a ‘homestay’
We ate and drank last night and sang karaoke (their favorite pasttime) and played card games. The first game was quite simple and was explained to me in English so I understood it. After dinner we played a different game and this time none of the teachers explained it to me in English, just in Thai. There are a couple teachers who only speak to me in Thai which is great for learning but does get very frustrated sometimes. And they speak English well enough, they just want me to learn. In any case, they kept saying “ngoo ngoo pla pla” which translates to “snake snake fish fish”. I found out later that day that it means ‘little knowledge”. Soo they were telling me that either I don’t know much in general orr I didn’t know much Thai. Either way, I don’t think it’s an insult, just an idiom of sorts. I was exhausted during the 2nd game but we were playing in the same room that everyone was sleeping in and it was impossible to sleep with the noise…I have no idea how the thai teachers did it. Whiskey is the drink of choice here in Thailand and there were a few bottles floating around late into the night. I finally went to bed at 1 or so (late for me these days!) and next thing I know it’s 4 am and EVERYBODY is awake…
I was laughed at by many people when i said it was too early. And the card game was up and running again, as were the bottles of whiskey. Amazing. I don’t have that kind of energy! I was completely exhausted and tried to go back to sleep…I managed until about 630 and then it was time for breakfast. Ah-han chao (breakfast) was either rice or noodle soup…it’s very plain and it’s actually their version of chicken noodle soup because they gave it to me when I wasn’t feeling well. It’s quite good though and I’ve gotten used to it in the mornings.
So off to Khon Kaen tomorrow and the adventure continues :)
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