Bpai America prongnee kah!

"You, you, farang! Hello! :)" Oh how I'll miss the friendly greetings. Oh how I'll miss many things about this place. 


It's not easy to leave this beautiful country. But if change was easy, more things would change. I learn so much from change.  I've learned so much from my experience living abroad. I will always have my knowledge no matter where I live. 


I hope Thailand stays the beautiful country it is so when I come back (date unknown), it will still be awesome! Unfortunately the disgusting, stomach-hurting McDonalds I ate last night in Nakhon tell me the times are a changing. Oh Thailand, please stay a happy, loving and sharing beautiful place full of beautiful people. 


For now, it's time for new adventures in the life of Jenny! See you my friends somewhere in this small world. As for Thailand, I will be back someday! 

My happy, giving friends on Songkran!

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all

A preface: The beginning line of a Valentine to my friend’s student’s mom:

“Mom you are not beautiful but I love you”

In Thailand the “Thumper of Bambi” quote that is ingrained in our culture is non-existent. Westerners try their best to adhere to the age-old quote of “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”. In Thailand their culture is very different. Saying something that we find rude or offensive is not a cultural taboo whatsoever.

Calling people fat here is like stating a fact. I first learned this by hearing our Thai friends talk about their obese friend by saying “he fat, he like to eat food” in a matter of fact tone. It hurts overweight foreign teacher’s feelings to be called fat by their student’s parents or even their students. I recently learned about Thai-Californian pen-pals at Andrew’s school. The pen-pals send letters and pictures to each other. The Thai boy started his reply letter to an American girl by saying “you are beautiful but you need to diet”. Can you imagine? I hope he does not send that letter. It would be very hurtful to a 13-year-old American teenager but a Thai teenager sees it as fact, he doesn’t see the harm he could cause.

I’m not sure why their culture is like this. I do see many more overweight people in the younger generations so maybe because it’s a new thing, so it’s not yet a cultural taboo. It could be that they are generally concerned about the fat person’s health. Or maybe it just shows another one of the many differences between Eastern and Western cultures. A difference I cannot explain or try to understand because I have only been in Asia for a short time. I am just stating what I have witnessed and discussed. If someone knows why, let me know. 

Back to my beginning quote, my friend told her student that wasn’t a good thing to say to her mom on Valentine’s Day. Her student replied by saying “but if I said she was beautiful I’d be lying”.  I have not seen her mother but I agree you should not lie. You should find something nice to comment on. However, I worry, has our “Thumper of Bambi” mentality turned into lying to each other to make each other feel good? The honesty here could be a beautiful thing. 

Bonadonnathon

Bonadonnathon group!

I am surrounded by a bunch of creative, funny and amazing people in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Thailand who made the Bonadonnathon a success. This weekend, last year, a tragic accident happened just outside of town at a waterfall. One of the foreign teachers fell down into a whirlpool. I never knew Angelo Bonadonna but I’ve heard wonderful stories about him.

When I read my facebook invite to the Bonadonnathon event I was so happy people who knew Angelo were honoring his life in such a positive way. The Bonadonnathon was a series of games themed around Angelo’s life. It was a hilarious day. Which from what I know about Angelo that’s probably how he would like his life to be remembered, not sadly.

The day started with partners arriving bright and early in team themed costumes. With each new arrival I was impressed with the creativity. The winning team was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Another team was Fred Flintstone and Betty. We had a Christmas themed team, a Ben Ten team, sparkly amazon women, a Fabulous team, a painted team, M&M’s, and many teams that included cross-dressed men. I was very impressed with the clever costumes, you can see some costumes in the pictures.


My partner Andrea and I were pirates. We dressed in our most piratey clothes then each painted one of our legs brown to look like we had peg legs. Our team name was Saw Wat Dee Karrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was a clever name thought up by our friend Dee. If you haven’t been reading my blog or forgot, "Saw Wat Dee Kah (girls)/Krap (boys)" is the greeting in Thailand. So we figured pirates are a different class of boys and girls so we’ll make our “sugar on top word” be pirate like, “karrrr”.

Saw Wat Dee Karrrr!

Once everyone was settled down from the excitement of seeing all the amazing costumes, we started the first challenge of the day. Angelo was a math teacher at the school I teach at. So we started off with a math quiz. It was refreshingly easy! Then we had a pop culture quiz based on the pop culture Angelo liked. There were many Simpson questions and Chicago sports team questions. After the written challenge the teams headed outside for more challenges.

the written portion

The next challenges were a basketball shooting and a frisbee throwing competition, because Angelo played those sports. One teammate shot the basketball and the other shot the frisbee. I shot the frisbee so I was there to rebound while Andrea shot as many free throws she could in thirty seconds. Only the top five teams could earn points so we didn’t place in the basketball. But we actually placed fifth in the frisbee competition thanks to my luck! 

This is when it got a bit silly. The next challenge involved tying a long cucumber around your waist and thrusting your hips to move a tennis ball across the basketball courts to your partner where you then switch the cucumber device and the other teammate goes back. The first team to get the ball back wins! The flimsy cucumbers lasted for one round (my round) then we switched to water bottles. We again did not win but this was a very entertaining game to watch. 

Cucumber line up

thrusting 

The school, and host of the event, graciously provided everyone with my favorite weekday lunch, yellow curry rice with chicken, kao muk gai. After lunch we had desert in the form of two eating contests. The first contest involved us running to open mystery foil wrapped foods and eating them as quickly as we can before running back to tag our partner. There were six mystery items which we learned were; an orange, squid, five chewy candies (similar to starburst), an onion, crackers and cheese, and a cracker with spicy fishy sauce. We were allowed to pass our food onto our partner if we couldn’t eat it but it had to be eaten before we could open the next one. I was lucky I got the orange and the candies. I would not have enjoyed the squid. In fact we didn’t have to eat the onion or the squid because five teams finished before we got to those. It took me forever to eat the orange and the candies. I had to peal the orange then eat it and it had many seeds. I was making people laugh by spiting seeds out as I was frantically eating the orange. Then the five candies were individually wrapped and took FOREVER to chew. I’m glad Andrea and I didn’t have to eat the squid.

Opening the mystery foods

Feeding each other ice cream

To make up for the crazy foods we ate in that race we had an ice cream eating competition. Angelo’s goal was to finish an eight-scoop ice cream from Swenson’s but he was unable to do so. This is where the contest idea came from then Kait, Stu and Joe added their own clever spin. Each two person team had one bowl and one spoon and were told we could not feed ourselves, our partner had to feed us. Well it’s quicker if two people are eating so Andrea and I washed our hands and decided one person would get fed with the other teammate's hands. Once we sat down we decided we should both just use hands to make it fair. So Andrea and I fed each other ice cream with our hands. It’s quite interested picking up ice cream and feeding it to someone else with your hands as well as getting fed ice cream with someone elses hands. We didn’t win that round either but we did take our friendship to a new level.   

 Mac and I after the ice cream eating contest

It’s not over! Yes, we were hot and tired but yes, we were still excited and having fun! The last challenge was a scavenger hunt. At first Andrea and I said we’d do a few things then stop earlier than the three hours allotted to rest and shower since there was no chance we were winning. Our brown peg legs were melting in the heat as was our energy. But once we got started on fun picture taking journey around Nakhon, we couldn’t stop.

The scavenger hunt was a great way to explore the town and push ourselves to take silly pictures. We did not change our clothes before heading out for the scavenger hunt and many of the teams did not either. I wonder what the Thai locals thought of all the farangs running around in strange clothing asking them to take odd pictures with us. We asked local Thais to take a picture sharing a foot-long hot dog and a coconut. Those were some of the most awkward questions to ask the strangers to help us with but they were the most memorable pictures.

I witnessed these two riding around town dressed like this during the scavenger hunt, so brave!

Andrea and I ended up completing half of the 80 required tasks. Some of which include, doing a dance on camera (we did a pirate dance), taking pictures on a rickshaw as the driver/passengers, taking pictures on a bus, a boat, going down a slide, with random animals like an emu, eating strange foods that Angelo liked, sharing food with strangers, turning ourselves into toilet paper mummies. Some tasks we didn’t complete but others in the group did were; climbing trees naked, getting a tattoo (yes, some people did get tattoos), going to Angelo’s house (we didn’t know him personally so did not know where it was but apparently he lived in a tree house, super cool), taking pictures with shadow puppets and street vendors, on a horse ride at the shopping center and many others.

Once we turned our memory card in for scoring we were free to shower and nap. After being in the 95 degree sun and running around all day I was able to pass out for a good three hour nap. I woke up just in time to meet everyone at the Full Moon Bar for the results. Andrea and I did not place in the top three as there were twenty teams and we didn’t win many challenges. But I didn’t play to win. I played to support my friends in their memory of their lost friend. After the winners we were announced we danced the night away as our friends D.J.ed and hula hooped and fire poied. Their talents make me want to take up a cool hobby.

I was very impressed with the day. I give major props to Joe, Kaitlin, and Stu for planning this event. They have a great sense of humor that kept all twenty teams interested from 10 am until 5 pm. I admire their ability to laugh and enjoy the day when last year it was such a sad day.   

*pictures of the scavenger hunt coming soon

A day in the life of Jenny

My alarm goes off at 6:15 am. I push snooze for as long as possible to avoid the cold shower I am about to endure. After the unbearable yet necessary shower I make instant coffee using our only kitchen appliance, an electric hot water boiler. I make a sandwich if we have food. I throw clothes on depending on the dress code for the day at work. Mondays we wear red, white and black. Tuesdays we wear Thai style attire. Wednesdays and Thursday are business casual. Fridays we wear sports clothes aka track pants and a “styling” polo shirt.

I run out the door, hop on either my borrowed bicycle or the motorbike, depending on whether Andrew is home or not and head to school. School is a 10 min walk to school, a 4 min bicycle ride and a 2 min motorbike drive. On the way I grab rice and curry or chicken from a street restaurant for breakfast if we have no food at home. I sign-in at work and begin my day as a teacher.

The day starts with some preparation for the teaching day and greeting each student individually. The morning is a good time for one on one conversation although sometimes the kids are shy in front of their parents or sleepy.  On Wednesday mornings, I stand at the school gate to greet students coming to school. I say “good morning” and wai them. A wai is a Thai greeting where you bow with palms are together in front of your face. Saying “good morning” confuses the kids who aren’t in the English program. They say “good morning teacher” to me at all hours of they day because the Thai teacher standing next to me says “saw wat dee kah” which is a standard phrase for hello and goodbye similar to “ahola”. “Good morning” is what I was asked to say and it is what I would say in America, one day the kids will understand.

At 8:00 am the entire school gathers around the flagpole for the national anthem and school greetings. If anyone is late to walk out to the flagpole it’s respectful to pause where you are standing until the anthem is finished. After the anthem, a teacher leads the kids in a prayer. The school is Christian although most students who attend are Buddhist or Muslim. After the prayer all the kids wai and say “saw wat dee kah/krap” then some students head to the stage to sing the school song. After that the amazing art teacher, seriously he’s awesome, he always makes the kids laugh, talks for what feels like 20 min about current events and things completely irrelevant to the students. At least that is what my bilingual sources tell me he is talking about. 


The morning flagpole gathering explanation isn't finished yet.  On Mondays and Tuesdays the Chinese teacher sings a song with the kids. Wednesdays through Fridays the English teachers sing songs with the kids. I have sung a few times since there are only eight English teachers at our campus. After singing “Old McDonald had a Farm” in my beautiful voice in front of the whole school, all the teachers and some parents, I felt embarrassed until my students made me feel like a rock star. They thought it was so cool to see me on stage. A few times a week the assembly is ended with the kids meditating to a beautiful song, I want to record it one day. Other times they do aerobics, which means a few kids and the P.E. teacher lead aerobics. The P.E. teacher is always in an odd costume while wearing odd masks, one of the masks is Sadam Hussen’s face.

After the assembly, I lead my students to the classroom. They  turn in their homework and settle down for their Thai lesson. In the mornings I have time to work at my desk, usually I grade homework and prepare it for the next day or prepare displays for teaching. I cannot tell you how much I love this prep time, its a luxury American teachers have lost!

After their Thai lesson, the kids have snack. The snack is always milk and some sort of pastry. Now that the floods in Bangkok are cleared we have real white milk or chocolate milk. The first half of my time teaching, they were getting strawberry milk or sugary drinkable yogurts everyday. Typical snacks are; cakes, donuts, hotdog filled buns, banana muffins, gelatin snack of a sort, or cookies. The point of my long conversation about snack is that it is not healthy! Other than lunch the kids eat crap all day. Oh yeah they do get fruit for snack once a month. 

After snack it’s my turn to teach until lunch. My morning lessons vary based on the difficultly of my planned lessons. I like to have the hardest lessons first while the kids are at their sharpest and leave the fun, easier lessons for the afternoon. Usually I teach English and Math in the morning then Experience in the afternoon. Experience is a different topic each week. With these lessons I   teach the students the English words they know. We have had amazing topics such as food, Christmas, weather, animals, good children of Thailand and the world. People have asked me how I talk with my students when they don’t speak English. Well in experience lessons I introduce words and use them to talk to them. The weather lessons are how I explain that we can’t play on the playground on a rainy day. The good children lessons are how I get them to work together, share and clean up. And in teaching I use simple sentences, interactive games, songs and a lot of pictures!

After I teach I walk the students across a street (ok it’s a small road for cars at the school but still) out to the dangerous metal playground for the only ten minutes of outside play they get all day. Then it’s off to the lunchroom, everyday the kids have rice and some sort of soup for lunch. Sometimes the rice is flavored with meat mixed in. Sometimes the rice is plain and the soup has a lot of goodies in it. Sometimes they have fried chicken, cucumber or a hard-boiled egg on the side. The kids eat fairly quickly and head back to the classroom.

The students were learning about hygiene so they brush their teeth everyday after lunch. After lunch is the best part of the day, I wish I could join. The kids get to take naps. I guess this is how the young students can handle being at school from 7:30-5:00 (some of them). On most days the students change into pajamas. I help get them settled then hop into the mini-van with the other English teachers to drive to the big school for lunch. The lunch there is better so it’s worth the drive. We talk with the other twenty foreign teachers while we eat from the usually yummy Thai food buffet then head back for more work.

The afternoons are different everyday. Depending on the day the kids have swimming, P.E., art, music, Chinese language, or library. And some days I teach most of the afternoon. This is a really good program as the students have a lot of extra curricular classes. I love this job because of the prep time I have. I use every minute of it too. I am always grading worksheets, preparing art projects, planning fun active lessons. I wish I could transfer this job to California where the prep time for teachers is basically gone. I think eventually I would become more efficient and maybe bored but probably not because I feel that good teachers always have something to do.

School officially ends at 3:00 but only three out of my 25 students leave at 3:00. The rest play in the classroom. Sometimes they are finishing up an art project. Sometimes I read them stories but usually its snack/playtime. I think these kids need more playtime. Half of the students leave periodically until 3:45. At 3:45 the other half of the students head outside so Peeh Maeu can clean the room. At this point these kids go to an after school classes either art, swimming, or English. At 5:00 the kids finally go home. Their parents request homework so we, myself and Kreuu Nate, give them homework that probably takes the kids thirty to sixty minutes each night to complete. These four year olds are so busy!

I am allowed to go home at 4:00 pm but I usually stay until 5:00pm. I’m not really sure why. I just like this job and I like to do it well. Even with all my prep time I still have more to do after the kids leave. I usually check in at home for a few minutes, change into workout clothes and leave. I either go walk/run around the track at the stadium. Or I participate in 5 baht (16 cents) Thai aerobics class. Or I head to yoga. I like yoga the best. We found a great yoga instructor, Ling. She is so helpful and if we all go together to a later class she will teach the class in English instead of Thai. I like the English because I can perfect my poses. But when the instruction is in Thai it sounds like a song. It’s very peaceful to do yoga in Thai.

After yoga we head over to Food Barn for dinner. If I didn’t go to yoga Andrew and I head to the Essan restaurant at the stadium or meet friends somewhere else for dinner. We don’t have a kitchen so we eat out everyday! At first I missed cooking but it’s actually quite nice to eat out. It’s also cheaper to eat out unless you have a big family. The food is nicer too. I can’t cook Thai food like the chefs at the street restaurants. My favorite meals are Kao Mung Gai (yellow curry rice with chicken), gai yuung (BBQ chicken) with kao neow (sticky rice) and som tom (papaya salad) or one of the many amazing Thai soups or curries. I’ll miss the cheap Thai food when I go home. 

By time I’ve exercised and eaten it’s pretty much bedtime. Household chores such as dishes and laundry are done for me so my life is pretty easy. Laundry is dropped off at a laundry lady down the street and picked up a couple days later. Well usually, sometimes I feel like being cheap and doing it myself and hanging it outside to dry. Big cleaning is left for the weekends I am in town.

The weekends are either spent on a beautiful nearby beach or in town. If we stay in town we hang out with the fellow farang at night. We sleep-in in the morning, skype with family since it’s the only time that works and run errands during the day.

Life in Thailand is pretty easy. I like the pace of things here. I really have time to enjoy life and appreciate what I have. My prep time at work gives me time to make awesome lessons and really enjoy the time I spend teaching my amazing, adorable students. I hope the way I appreciate life here will be transferred to home. It’s always easy to get in a routine but doing it in another country really opens your eyes to the little things in life. I urge people to live abroad. I have learned so much! Daily life is just a little more interesting in a foreign country, especially a country as foreign as Thailand! 

Made up restaurant names and road rage

This weekend I went with a few ladies I work with to the nearest beautiful beach of Kahnom.  Instead of taking a death trap mini van I rode in a real car! My friend and co-worker Amy has lived in Thailand for five years now and is married with 1.5 (.5=pregnant) little girls so they have a real car, not a motorbike. The whole ride little Issara (Issy) sang English and Thai children’s songs to me in her sweet two-year old voice.

We met three other ladies we work with for lunch at a beach bar. We swam, read, and played in the water and sand with little Issy. The beach bar is an awesome concept. I just walked up to order anything; fresh coconut water, snacks, drinks, and enjoyed it while I relaxed in the sand. I had to chase palm tree shade to stay cool and not sunburnt. Palm trees are not the most reliable shade but the perfect temperature of the clear water is a great alternative. I know I’ll miss relaxing weekends on beautiful deserted beaches when I go home to California.

Andrew has been gone for the past two weeks. He went to visit family in England. I have been tackling Thailand on my own. I am very proud of my ability to handle things; Thailand is much different to the California I know. I do occasionally freak out, like when I get home and casually walk in the front door, take off my shoes and find I almost stepped on a cockroach. Ah I’ll never get used to those darn things in my house. Luckily they flip on their back and can't get back over. So I can sweep them outside when they are stuck, otherwise I'm pretty sure they run faster than me, creepy buggars. 

Andrew usually drove the motorbike everywhere since I don't like traffic here. With him gone I am driving and I've found I have more road rage than I ever thought possible. I have literally growled at people for being in my way because they were driving in the wrong direction on my side of the road. It's not really the Thai culture to confront people so I hope they didn't hear my frustrated growl but then again I hope they did. Maybe it will stop them. 

I don’t really know how to describe driving in Thailand. How about this, think of driving in traffic in America and add all the things people would do if there were no cops to stop them. There are cops here and I’ve heard of tickets for riding with no helmets and driving on the wrong side of the road.  But in my experience the laws of traffic here are more like guidelines or the laws here are just not the same as the laws in America. Stop signs don’t necessarily mean everyone should stop and take turns; they mean stop and wait for the flow of traffic to finish then your flow of traffic might get to go if the person in front is aggressive. If it’s easier to drive on the other side of the road than make a right turn then people do it. Yes, I meant right turn. Those are the turns that cross traffic in Thailand. I’m not sure I have mentioned that Thailand roads are opposite to American roads. In New Zealand it was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. In Thailand there’s so much more I don’t even think about the other side of the road thing.

Today after meeting some friends for dinner, at “Food Barn” I paid an electric bill for our house at 7/11. I found it quite funny. You can pay for so many things at the billions of conveniently located 7/11s. “Food Barn” is the name of the restaurant the farang (foreigners) gave the eatery. It’s a fitting name. We do that with many restaurants because most of us cannot read Thai.  เนื่องจากตัวอักษรที่มีลักษณะเช่นนี้ (Since the characters look like that).  Some our favorite restaurants have names such as “the curry place”, “the Muslim place by the gas station”, and “the Essan places by the stadium”. Today I was telling my farang neighbors where I was going for dinner and they didn’t know where “food barn” was just by it’s given name and “the Essan place by the stadium” is “the mat place” to them because you sit on bamboo mats. A much more well thought out, creative name than our practical one. Our system works well for the people who know these descriptors but not for people who don’t or our Thai friends. For the longest time our Thai friends picked us up every time we went to dinner because we couldn’t describe where to eat in a second language over the phone. Now we’ve got it down and we even met somewhere new. I think we are learning how to communicate.

Anyway I was just keeping the blog world updated. I’m off to sleep. I teach bright and early in the morning. I am really excited about making a farm book with my students. Amy and I thought of the idea as we were lying on the beach this weekend. My class is working together to make a big farm book. In an art lesson today the kids decorated the background pictures, they look awesome! Tomorrow we will add our words and pictures of animals. 

Saw Wat Dee Kah! คืนที่ดี (I can't read that, I typed "good night" in Google translate and copied and pasted, it's quite annoying to not know how to read again!) 

Teaching in Thailand-a whole blog devoted to teaching, that's why I am here right?

Last week I was told the day before my departure that I need to go to Penang, Malaysia. My visa/work permit has been a bit of a hassle these past few weeks. After a few four hour mini-bus rides, a few trips via motorbike taxi to the consulate, and a bit of stress my visa is sorted until mid-April!

The stress of a visa is the downside to working abroad. I was sad to leave my students for those three days in the care of substitute teachers. The topic that week was the world and I missed teaching it! The only upside was getting to shop for $150 USD worth of children’s books for my school in Penang. I bought so many books I could barely carry them back. It’s quite fun to spend other people’s money and I love children’s books. I sat in the shop for hours!

Speaking of work. I haven’t blogged much about my job. In today’s meeting we had quite a heated debate on holding students back in their year. I think even if you know nothing about teaching this debate shows a lot about the Thai culture. 

I teach on of three K1 classes along with two other amazing teachers, Amy and Jane. A few students in each of our classes were allowed to start when they were too young for the grade. A few months ago we were asked which of those young students we think should repeat the grade next year. This question was a bit difficult for me to answer and I struggled with it for a few days, thinking about each of those three students in all aspects of school. I was a bit frustrated that I could only consider the three youngest students because there are a few others that could benefit from a repeated year equally or even more than these three. I decided all three of my students would be better off repeating the year. If they repeat they will be at the top of their class instead of the bottom for the next year and the rest of their years. Amy and Jane each decided they should only hold back one of three of their youngest students. Then today, months later, we were told we have two choices; either hold back all of these nine kids back or none of them. 

You see, in Thailand and many Asian countries “loosing face” is a big deal. “Loosing face” is a term used for any embarrassment or social conflict.  It’s not in the culture to yell, confront someone, or call someone out. Holding some of the young children back and not others would cause the parents to loose face.  This is also why holding of age students back is not an option for me. Also in Thailand it’s literally impossible for a student to fail. If a student is failing, no matter what the age, the teacher has to give them more work and extra tests to make sure they pass.

All the foreign teachers are not used to this at all. We are used to students failing and being held back in school if it’s in their best interest. We also have not grown up in a culture where loosing face is a concept. Maybe we can’t fully understand. It’s hard for us to comprehend the fact that four kids have to suffer for the benefit of five or vice versa. This is a decision that should really be considered on based on the individual’s development, not an all or nothing based on age.  We realize that we are in a foreign country so we shouldn’t push the limits and upset the parents and teachers. It’s also quite difficult because this school is run as a business and they do not want to upset their customers, the parents.  

We are still debating this topic. It’s quite hard because we know it won’t hurt the students as much if we hold them all back. Except for the kids that may be bored and disrupt the class. Holding none of them back would make the parents very happy. Holding all them back may teach the school a lesson not to allow young students in. We may find a way to convince them out of their all or nothing policy. Who knows? I hope I didn’t bore the non-teachers or upset anyone at the school. A debate like this is bound to happen when two very different cultures are working together and I hope we find a middle ground. Hopefully the middle ground has the students' best interests in mind. 

Ok on a more fun note. I love my job. My students are adorable. I enjoy all the topics I teach. I enjoy talking to my students in their simple English. I enjoy playing games and singing (in my horrible voice) with them. I smile when I see them interacting, unless they are punching each other. Each of my students has their own adorable personality. When I think about flying back home and possibly never seeing them again makes me want to cry. Yes of course, sometimes I want to pull my hair out, like this afternoon when my students were hyper because it’s Chinese New Year. Mostly this job shows me teaching is the job I am meant to do.

I teach at a kindergarten. Also known as preschool. This preschool is unlike any preschool in America. The students attend from 8am to 3pm. Ten of my students stay until 5pm for an after school class. These students are expected to sit down, listen to the teacher, and complete worksheets ALL DAY. They only get ten minutes of outside playtime if I walk them out to the playground before lunch. The Thai teachers get to eat their lunch sooner if the kids don’t play so they prefer no play. This is literally the only playtime these students get. Its no wonder they are hyper in the afternoons. I work in as much activity in my lessons but  so much expected of these students. They have certain workbook pages they need to complete each week and so much material to learn by the end of the year. If I even miss one lesson due to some sports day or holiday activity I feel like we are behind on teaching and worksheets.

Schooling in the preschool is taken very seriously. And it works for the most part. These students are amazing. Forcing them to sit and write and learn all day really works. They can do way more in terms of writing and counting than most four year olds in preschools in America. I do wish they had more time to play though. Play is so important for development of coordination, social skills and imagination.

Andrew’s mom Mary Lou visited my class while she was here and was very impressed. What I remember most were her comments about our staff meeting. Today’s holding back debate was the most controversial meeting yet. Usually we chat about certain dates and life and leave. She used to be a kindergarten teacher in California and she said her meetings used to be that relaxed when she started teaching in the 1970s. But before she retired three years ago her meetings were about this assessment and that test and this budget. It’s really nice to teach in the environment I am in.

I feel like I painted a bad picture of the Thai teachers. I spilt the day teaching with Kreu (teacher) Nate. I feel lucky to work with her. Teacher Nate is 39 years old and she looks younger than I do, she is beautiful. She is an amazing teacher and very experienced. I wish I could understand everything she says because I could learn so much more from her. It’s only in the past two years that the ten minutes of playtime was added to the schedule so it’s not her norm to bring them to the playground. She never complains or objects when I insist they play.

The “loosing face” aspect of the culture makes Thailand such a great place to be. While I was in Penang, Malaysia I was literally yelled at by a man (not Malay). I have not been yelled at in months. I was yelled at for not knowing the address of my school that is usually written in a language I cannot read! I was really bothered by this interaction but it further opened my eyes to the beauty of the Thai culture.

I hope you enjoyed my school related post and learned something about schools in Thailand. If you are interested in teaching in Thailand, now is the time to apply for jobs. Schools are recruiting for jobs starting April or May and go until next March or April. I can offer any advice if this is what you desire. Yes it’s not all fine and dandy all the time but is life anywhere? For the most part this job is awesome. I enjoy it because it’s low stress and a job I’ve always wanted to do! It’s in a country that never seizes to amaze me with its beauty and culture. Everyday I see something or learn something new! I’m not saying Thailand is glamorous. In fact the Thailand I know is not at all glamorous. I have a new favorite saying, I made it up while Mary Lou was here pointing out all the little differences we have come accustom to. Thailand is not glamorous but it sure is beautiful! 

The North: Elephants; The South: Water

I am part of the lucky minority of foreign teachers that had time off for Christmas and New Year! Today I returned the 1000 or so kilometers from Northern Thailand back to my home in Southern Thailand after a week and a half of traveling.  The events of my journey home are the main reason I was so inclined to write a blog right now but I suppose I will tell some stories about my trip first.

On December 23 I worked an exciting half-day. My school is a Christian school so for weeks we had been learning about Christmas and preparing for a Christmas show. That Friday my students and I danced on an outdoor stage (after a twenty minute rain recess) to Jackson Five’s Up on the Housetop. My students looked absolutely adorable in their matching costumes dancing to the simple but cute moves I made up to go along with our class Christmas song. After a posing for a picture with each of my students, requested by their awesome parents and watching the other class's dances I was free to go home.

I rushed home to grab my bag then Andrew and I headed to a mini bus station to find a ride South to Hat Yai. We had to travel three hours South in order to fly North to Chiang Mai. We chose to fly because if we hadn’t, we would have spent 24 plus hours on a bus or train to get to the awesome city in Northern Thailand we have heard so much about.

Once we arrived in Chiang Mai, we walked into the center of town partly to save money and partly for the adventure. Our goal was to walk the entire way to the bus station but after realizing how far it was we broke down and took a tuk tuk so we didn’t miss the last bus out of Chiang Mai to Pai. The three-hour journey to Pai was a windy, sickening one but once we got there I was so distracted by the cuteness of the town that I forgot all about the less than fun journey getting there.

I’ll never get to the stories about today if I continue in this detail about our trip.  Let me focus on highlights.

Christmas Day was wonderful. After skypeing with family in the morning (on their Christmas Eve) we decided to sign up for an elephant ride. We jumped at the chance to go on the next tour. We figured riding an elephant was a pretty cool thing to do on Christmas day. I will never forget that Christmas Day! We rode 19-year-old Bomb Bam for two hours through the mountain and river. The mountain ride was beautiful; we enjoyed our scenery and singing along to a cheap music player repeating four English songs. Once we got to the river we saw our friends being thrown off an elephant into the thigh-high water. I was a bit nervous about that and told our mahout (elephant trainer) “mai ao” that translates to “I don’t want”. It didn’t look safe although everyone else I was with survived just fine. I had fun being sprayed with water from the elephant’s trunk and watching the elephants “len nahm” aka “play in the water”.

After the elephant ride we soaked in hot springs then got ready for dinner. I requested foreign food and wine for this holiday meal. Although Thai food is delicious I still enjoy mixing in some foreign food and indulging in the expensive imported wines. Thailand has it’s own affordable beers and hard alcohols but in a country with the wrong climate and no Charles Shaw, I miss my wine. Andrew and I had a very nice Christmas dinner to conclude a great second Christmas away from home. That being said, I look forward to spending the holidays with family in California next year or wait that’s this year now!

We spent a couple days in Pai then headed back to Chiang Mai because Andrew’s Mom was flying there from California for a short visit in Thailand! Andrew and I spent a day exploring Chiang Mai’s national park and hill temples. The next day Mary Lou arrived. After 36 hours and four plane flights we expected her to be sleepy and I’m sure she was but she was also excited to see Thailand and Andrew and I. Her excitement is how we convinced her to make the journey back up to Pai that very day. At first we were going to stay in Chiang Mai with Mary Lou but after seeing Pai we had to take her back there. So again we endured the “curviest road” Mary Lou has ever been on.

Back in Pai with Mary Lou we explored local waterfalls where we watched the locals jump into cold pools of water from high cliffs. And Andrew slide down a rock-slide into a pool of water.  We also signed up for a second elephant ride so Mary Lou could experience it. She was an awesome elephant rider. She climbed up and enjoyed the ride despite sitting on the elephant’s uncomfortable backbone and reaching across me to hold the rope for half of the ride. Elephants are amazing creatures. We climbed up her leg while holding onto her ear wondering if we were hurting her. But after she picked a whole mango tree to eat and we read that elephants eat hundreds of kilos worth of food each day we realized carrying three people is probably like humans carrying a backpack with a couple meals of food in it! 

We started the our New Year celebration early with a BBQ at our resort. I love how laid-back Thailand is. The owner of the resort, Aqua, (resort and owner’s name) decided to BBQ a whole pig for his guests to enjoy as well as provide side dishes at no charge or even asking us to bring anything other than our own alcohol. If we had been in America we would have been asked to pay for the BBQ and maybe even asked not to bring our own alcohol so we’d have to buy the resort’s stuff. But instead this was super relaxed. Because we did not want to take advantage of such kindness, we decided we should bring some fruit for dessert just to contribute. After cutting up the fresh, delicious, tropical fruit, we enjoyed the fire and the BBQ and the company. At midnight the sky was lit with hundreds, maybe thousands, of sky lanterns and dangerous, loud fireworks. It was beautiful as well as something a camera could not capture. The lanterns are not so beautiful the next day. We found them grey from the fire and wilted in fields, trees and in the streets. I can see why they are illegal in most countries.

The first night of the New Year was spent at the Sunday Walking Street back in Chiang Mai. Here we found wonderful crafty, unique gifts for friends and family members at home as well as goodies for ourselves. My favorite find was a wooden journal with a map of Thailand to follow my almost finished wooden journal with a map of New Zealand on it. I feel so lucky to have had to opportunity to live in those two countries; journals I write my life into are perfect ways to remember those places.

This brings me to the last day of my trip in Chiang Mai walking around with Andrew and Mary Lou awing at 700 year old temples then having nice conversation with wine/Thai beer and pizza, then to the events of traveling home to Nakhon by myself today. I booked my flight out of Chiang Mai a day before Andrew and his mom so I would make it home to work on time. They don’t have to be back yet because Andrew is still on vacation.

This morning Andrew rented a motorbike to drive me to the airport in Chiang Mai. I couldn’t walk this time because I volunteered to take all the goodies acquired at the Sunday Walking Street back with me so they can enjoy their trip better. I walked through the airport worried about being asked to check my large bag of goodies for a price I don’t want to pay on my cheap Air Asia flight. But Thailand is not like other places I have been were they weigh your every bag to make every cent off of you.  

Waiting at the gate, I was intently reading To Kill a Mockingbird (a book I grudgingly read in high school and ten years later can’t put it down) and ignoring every announcement.  After a chapter, I look up and see the screen now has a different flight’s information and the time is 10:20 am, the time I clearly remember my gate was meant to close. I thought I read through the whole boarding and jumped up to find out what happened. I found the first man I figured would speak English and he happened to be from America and on the same flight as me, they switched the gates and it was boarding late. With that figured out, he, his Thai girlfriend and I started chatting. Eventually our conversation led to me discussing my worry about how to go find a bus to Nakhon from the airport in Hat Yai. They offered to help me.

After reading through the entire two hour flight and while I waited for them off the plane, I got into a car with them that was apparently a taxi that you have to know how to find. They told the driver to take me to the bus station. Once we got there I offered money and they wouldn’t accept it. I found it very friendly of them to pay for my cab from the airport! I wish more people could be that nice. I jumped straight on a mini bus to Nakhon. I planned on having to wait an hour and getting back when it was dark but boarding right away got me to the city during daylight hours. Luckily I got to Nakhon while it was light because getting to my house was an adventure.

My mini bus driver said “don’t worry I take care you” when I told him where I live in the city, only to have a horrified look when he couldn’t drive the company van through a flooded street just a mile or so down the main road to my house. I told him “mai bien rai” (no worries, never mind) I’ll just walk. From the view I had it looked as though the sidewalks were unaffected by the water. I walked for a block completely dry while people tried to push their bikes through the ankle high water on the street. Soon the sidewalk was covered as well and before I knew it, I was walking through ankle deep water until I came to the end of the sidewalk. Here I realized there has to be a step down but sadly the water was not the beautiful clear water I see at the lakes and oceans in Thailand. It was murky and I could not see down to make sure I was stepping over the gutter. The last thing I wanted was to hurt my self or fall over in the gross water. This thought process of how to continue forward lasted for a couple seconds until a family of six walked by and I decided I was going to follow them. The dad carrying the baby walked confidently down onto the street were the water was thigh high. I linked on with the mother and her older daughters to brave the deep water. I walked for a block holding the mom’s hand then over a dry bridge with dirtier water almost over top of it then through another block holding the mom’s hand again, all the while saying “Mai chawp/mai chawp nahm” (I don’t like/I don’t like water) and laughing. We parted ways after our wade through the deep water by saying “chock dee” (good luck)!

On dry land again I was left to decide what to do next. I found a man on a motorbike and tried to ask him for a ride only to realize he broke his bike by trying to ride it through the flood. Then I saw food and remembered I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and better eat before I get home to no food/where I’ll possibly be stranded. While eating I called a fellow teacher who lives near me and heard good and bad news. The bad news: her house was flooded. The good news: school is canceled until Monday! This means my week and a half of vacation is now two full weeks and tomorrow I get to met Andrew and his mom on the dry, sunny side of the Southern peninsula to spend the weekend on beaches and islands!

With this good news I still figured I should get home since I was so close. I found the nearest market, stocked up on water and started walking home. The family I bought water from must have felt my stress in the brief interaction they had with me and ran after me to offer me a beer. I accepted thanking them and started to walk again then they called me back to offer me a ride home. I jumped on a motorbike with a man and he drove me fast all the while water spraying my face. But I arrived in one piece to my new neighborhood, I again offered money and he said no. Aww, I was finally home to a dry house on a dry street! I nearly forgot about my fear of finding a million cockroaches in our new house. Andrew and I moved out of the mansion into a big cool house with cockroach roommates. Of course I found, I kid you not, fourteen upturned cockroaches, some still wiggling their legs, downstairs. But after my eventful journey home I didn’t let it bother me.

Now I am showered, enjoying my free beer upstairs away from the creepy roaches and reflecting my day. I love how willing people were to help me today. It makes me have restored faith in the human race after reading to Kill a Mockingbird all day, which is a book about how black people were treated in Alabama in the 1930’s. With that being said I’m off to finish the last few pages of the book and relax at home before I set back off for more traveling in Thailand! These flood days couldn’t have happened at a better time! Now I get to go with Andrew and Mary Lou on their fun adventures instead of working while they have fun! Although, I was looking forward to seeing my adorable students again!