I'm still posting!

I feel like I haven’t blogged in such a long time!  I have seriously meant to do some bloggin’.  The last week I told myself maybe three times that today would be the day I would sit down and finally write one.  It’s just that I’ve been getting tired when I get home from school and want to chill, or I have to lesson plan, or go out for a drink with friends… the list goes on.  Jenny has been doing an excellent job keeping up with what’s been going on in our lives.  We moved into an apartment, have done a little traveling, and purchased a motorcycle.  In order to not sound redundant I will try to focus on my experience teaching.  Maybe, if I find my writing groove, I’ll talk about the new people and friends we’ve made.

I don’t really know where to begin as I describe my first couple weeks as a 7^th and 8^th grade science teacher.  I like to teach.  It is a lot of fun to re-learn the things I’ve forgotten and break it down into more simple terms for the students. I enjoy coming up with lesson plans and I enjoy being responsible for someone’s education in science.   It is also very frustrating.  I preface the following by saying that I love teaching many of my Thai students.  They are fun and smart and understand what I’m talking about.  However, a lot students are rather lazy and won’t work on activities unless I am hovering over them.  Also, many would rather copy word for word from their neighbor than actually learn.  I’ve also found out the hard way that even if a Thai student has no idea what you are talking about, and I mean they don’t even understand the words that are being formulated out of your mouth, they will nod in agreement and pretend they understand.  This became very obvious as I gave a midterm to my students, which was failed miserably.  The entire time spent explaining concepts I would stop and say, “I don’t want to continue until I know everybody understands this”, which was always followed by a “we understand” from the students.  I really thought they understood!  I know better now that each one needs to be asked individually to explain what we are talking about which makes teaching incredibly sloooooooooow.

So I like teaching, but am frustrated.  I am sure all the teachers out here can empathize.

I’ll let you in on a little secret… I’m blogging during my lunch hour!  I have a class that starts in five minutes so I have to go.  If anyone is interested, my 8^th grade class is about to do an experiment with a ball and incline ramp, investigating the effect that ramp height and mass have on velocity and acceleration!

Andrew

        

Beaches and Orphans and Sparkles!

The beach in Khanom, gorgeous and oddly empty

This weekend Andrew and I headed 1.5 hours out of Nakhon to the nearby beautiful beach town of Khanom. We ventured there because the other teachers in Nakhon were helping out at an orphanage benefit and because we heard it was beautiful.  We hopped on a van from Nakhon to Khanom. We were last on and had to sit in the way back. They pack these vans overly full. The ride it was beautiful and great to see the surrounding area.

Once we got to Khanom, I hoped of the van way before Andrew. Throughout the ride I had inched my way towards the front so I could watch the road to prevent carsickness. Right away a motorcycle taxi said “50 baht Where you go”. This was when I realized we had no idea where we were going. Our plan to go into town with the other foreign teachers was ruined when we overslept on Saturday morning so I said “mai rue”  (I don’t know). We asked to be pointed in the direction of the beach and started walking. We texted the teachers to try to find them and in the mean time enjoyed exploring.

The exploration and the getting to the orphanage benefit was half of the fun. If we had only been in Thailand for a couple of weeks for a holiday then our attitude towards walking in unknowingly in the right direction for two hours would have been different. Since we have almost a year in this country we were quite happy to walk for a while in this new town.

After about twenty minutes of walking we found the beach. Andrew suggested walking in one direction down the LONG beach so we just walked at this point searching for a nice place to sit, swim and relax for a bit.  We were the only people in sight on this huge beach. It was quite nice to enjoy a beautiful beach with no one around. I was a bit put off by the fact that no one was on this beach. It was absolutely beautiful and my first thought was that it’s too beautiful to be empty what’s wrong with it. But we survived, enjoyed a nice swim in the clear, calm ocean water and continued walking.

Once we got hungry and thirsty, because this happens when you walk for hours, we decided to head up to the road to ask directions toward food. There, we learned the closest food is about a kilometer down the beach in the direction we were already headed. This food establishment happened to be the CC Beach Bar which we recently learned from text message that that’s the very place the orphan benefit was! I found it funny that we had walked for hours exactly towards our original destination without even knowing it and without veering off path. I’m glad we ended up walking because we got exercise, saw the sights, enjoyed the empty beach and saved a measly 100 baht on taxis.

We arrived at the orphanage benefit three hours late. But we jumped right in to help, well after some food and water of course. I laughed at the kids having a great time playing and splashing in the water. I talked to some kids about their face paint. Then I served as a human post for some races by holding the green team's flag. The green team racers had to run around me and back to their team. Holding the flag for these races was so entertaining my face hurt from smiling and laughing this whole time. One of the races involved the kids running with a egg-filed spoon in their mouths. Their faces were too cute during this race. Then four legged race was underway, in which Andrew loaned his two legs to be tied to two kid’s legs. It was hilarious to watch the teachers running with two kids on either side of them. Some teachers just picked the kids up and ran. Some kids were falling over, pulling the teachers down with them, everyone was laughing. It was so cute to see these kids having such a good time.  I heard from the other teachers who had actually been there all day that most of these kids had never even seen the beach. Which is so sad because they live in Nakhon and it’s RIGHT next to the beach! Some kids were drinking the ocean water because they wanted to take the ocean with them, aww.

I was sad when they left. But we all smiled and waved until the busses pulled away. There were about 80 kids there and they all had no parents and this is just from one orphanage in one town in one country. I can’t imagine, poor kids. They seemed so happy on this day but I wonder what everyday is like in their lives. It was odd though 95% of the kids there were boys. I’m not sure if it was an all boys orphanage or only the boys were allowed to come or if there’s something about Thai culture that would result in only boys being in an orphanage. I shall find out.

After the kids left Andrew and I searched for a place to sleep that night, we found a cute beach hut near the ocean, next door to the CC Beach Bar. It was convenient to be there because that night all the teachers met back up at the beach bar for a party. I enjoyed getting to know the other foreigners that choose to come to Thailand to teach. They have great stories and are pretty cool people.

After hours of talking with the fellow teachers, drinking and eating horrible wannabe burritos, we headed towards bed. Walking for two hours in the blazing sun then playing with kids then drinking takes it out of you. A couple teachers stopped us from leaving so soon because we had to experience the phosphorescence in the water first.  We had to seize this opportunity so we jumped into the ocean in the middle of the night to see a sparkling glow following our every move. We would look down in the water and see our feet sparkling. Then swim and see sparkles in our swimming paths. It was so neat! I had seen this phenomenon in New Zealand but it was only with my hand from a kayak at night on a cruise up in the Bay of Islands. Swimming and sparkles coming off of you is incredible!  I feel lucky to have experienced this. Andrew could explain the science behind the phosphorescence (or I could google it) but he’s too busy being a science teacher to write blogs. So you’ve got me!

Saturday was an awesome day even though no live pink dolphins were seen L Hopefully I’ll see a pink dolphin one day because I plan to not leave Thailand until I do!

A horrible picture of a pink dolphin statue, I want to see a real live pink dolphin!

            

Motorbike :D

We now officially have a motorbike! It’s pretty nice to have. Andrew uses it to get to work because it takes less time than the song-ta-ous and walking. We have taken it once across town to dinner. Andrew drove and I rode on the back! It’s pretty scary mainly because of the crazy traffic and drivers in this city. Also, I know Andrew doesn’t have the most practice driving a motorbike. I was much more nervous riding with Andrew than anyone else I have rode with in Thailand so far.

I have rode with three other people on motorbikes; one was a random Thai teacher. That’s actually a funny story. I turned up at a school for an interview last week and one person in broken English told me the English Program campus is across town and she’ll get me a ride. Then a motorbike with a Thai teacher shows up and I hesitantly hop on. He told me to trust him. I said that I really have to because in my country with ride with helmets. Not to mention I had to ride sideways because I was wearing a skirt.  I wonder if I should tell my family that I rode sideways on a stranger’s motorbike with no helmet but hey I lived to tell a great story. This story really shows how nice the Thais are.

I was less scared riding with stranger than I was riding with Andrew. I bet the guy I rode with grew up on motorbikes. Looking around Thailand you see families riding all the time and the kids are comfortable as can be. You see them eating and not holding on and not wearing helmets. Maybe 10% of kids I’ve seen on bikes have helmets. 50% of the time I see the kids without helmets parents are wearing one. I’m still trying to understand the logic there. Maybe kids helmets are hard to find or they grow out of them too quickly? I don’t know but someone should get all the kids in Thailand helmets.  Any takers? I didn’t think so. Well I bought myself a helmet and use it! And Andrew and his big head are still trying to find one to purchase but are borrowing one.

On the motorbike! It's an 07 Honda Click! 

I am finally eating at street vendors without Andrew. I have decided that the food is better at the street vendors and it’s 1/5 of the price of a “real” restaurant. My current criteria for eating from street vendors are that they have to have a wok and cook my food then. I’m not sure if I’ll graduate to eating already prepared food for a long time, if ever. The chefs are so nice. Yesterday where I ate my vegetable fried rice (ordered by using all my Thai food words rather than saying the Thai term for vegetable fried rice) the family was so cute. They had a baby girl a little over a year old. After I ate I was attempting to talk to them and they just handed me their baby. This shocked me, in America who would hand their baby to a complete stranger? She was adorable though! Today when I ate at a street vendor I tried to order pad-thai but ended up with white rice with chicken breast and soup and cucumber on the side (cucumber is always on the side). It was good but I really need to study the Thai words for food if I am going to continue eating at street vendors.

Last night was nice. I went to dinner at a pizza restaurant owned and managed by an Italian. Yummy! It was delicious. I went with two teachers from Andrew’s school that are originally from California.  It was nice because I could refer to towns in California and we all knew where they were. Also we ate outside during the sunset and the sunset was absolutely beautiful. I took a picture but it doesn’t capture the beauty.  During dinner we laughed about stray dogs coming up to the table. There are so many stray dogs and cats here!

Sunset in the city!

After dinner I met up with Andrew who didn’t come to dinner because he was busy playing basketball with his students (one of whom broke his glasses).  Together Andrew and I went to a bar with a guy Andrew works with and his mom. Taan is Thai, he speaks English and Thai, and he works at Andrews’s school to help the students who need to build their English vocabulary. Taan’s mother works as a director at a government school. They are very cool people. They brought us to a reggae bar. This bar was awesome. I loved the atmosphere. It was all outside. The tiles were painted beautifully. They had hammocks and instruments. Andrew and Taan played around on instruments for a while. They played some nice songs while I relaxed in the hammock. Some other fa-rung teachers came as well and we chatted with them about life.

My view of the guys playing from my hammock!

Awesome tiles at the reggae bar!

            Today I went into my future classroom. The kids are finishing up their first semester and did a performance for their parents today.  I was introduced to all the parents. They are very happy to see that I am here and going to be teaching their kids for the second half of the school year. I will be the third teacher this class has had. I really hope nothing horrible happens because I promised to stay until the end of March.  The parents are not happy with the school this year because of so many teachers in that classroom. They say it’s having a huge effect on their kids. I believe them; I bet it really confuses the little ones. I hope I can make up for lost time.  I’m already thinking of all the fun things I want to do with when school starts again in a month so I think I can make up the lost time.

            I love Thailand so much! I feel so lucky to be here! In a couple of hours I am meeting Andrew and other teachers at Andrew’s school and we are all taking a bus up north to a nice beach town. Here we will hopefully see the PINK dolphins that live there (oh my fingers are crosses five hundred times, I so want to see a PINK dolphin).  We will also hang out with the other teachers. And the coolest thing that we are definitely doing (the real coolest thing would be to see a PINK dolphin) is helping at an orphanage fundraiser. The far-rung teachers have been planning this for a while and asked us if we’d like to come help. Of course we said yes, it sounds awesome, I’d love to help orphans! We won’t have any designated duties but will jump in wherever needed.  I guess there will be a lot of games and activities for the orphans so we’ll get to play with them on the beach. Afterwards we’ll enjoy the beach and the beach town. But maybe I should tell about what we did instead of what we plan to do. See you in a few days blog! 

Elephants at dinner?

Last night I blogged about mundane things like finding jobs and houses and possibly motorbikes (turned yes today, yay, it was just a dead battery) many more exciting things have happened in the past few days in between searching for houses, jobs and motorbikes. Hum, where to start?

On Friday we met a bunch of other teachers for drinks. Everyone is super friendly and from all the native English-speaking countries you can think of (except New Zealand, boo).  Other than it being the get together of the only white people (is that the politically correct term?) in Nakhon nothing else exciting happened. Although I will mention that there aren’t any rules about where to smoke here and after an hour or two of being surrounded by chain smoking we weren’t feeling too well. California spoiled us with its great non-smoking laws.

Saturday we house and bike searched. Sunday we moved in. Our apartment is a bit on the outskirts of town so we have less choices with restaurants. We have to eat out because most homes have no kitchens, unless we wanted to furnish our own house, which isn’t the smartest thing to do when we want to leave in less than a year.  We walked three blocks to a street restaurant. This restaurant is set up daily, it must take them forever, they have a lot of stuff and I’m pretty sure they use motorbikes with side-cars attached to move everything. They set up a nice dinning area with tarps in case it rains and bamboo mats on the ground and short tables. You order your food before you sit down, which is hard because they have no menu. One time Andrew asked them to make anything they want for him, he’s a brave eater. After you order you sit down under the tarp on the ground at the little table. It’s really cute to see all the families eating there. We feel like locals eating there.

Each time we have had dinner at this street restaurant, a local elephant owner happens to be walking the streets looking to earn some money by charging 20 baht for a bag of food to feed the elephant. He literally takes the elephant to your table and asks if you want to feed it. I can’t take my eyes of the elephant the whole time it’s there.  It’s such a funny sight to be sitting there on the ground, eating local food from the short table, surrounded by the locals, while an elephant wanders around. Talk about cool. Moments like those remind me of why I am living so far from home. We plan to bring our camera to dinner next time we eat there and hopefully our elephant friend will be there. I want to share what this place looks like.

Yesterday we were told about a festival that is going on right now. We never would have known about it if we weren’t told. We walked for about 15 minutes in a direction we haven’t explored yet to this awesome park. I do have pictures of this park. It’s so cute. There’s a pond and someone built bridges and walkways all across the pond. You can walk over a bridge to a picnic table surrounded by the pond. We enjoyed the picnic tables while we ate delicious festival food (but more on that later). On our walk back across the bridge a little boy was feeding huge fish. We stopped to watch the huge fish jump for the food. I talked to the little boy in Thai. I said hi, what (to ask what the food was) and big (to say the fish were big) I know so many words haha, that’s why it works to talk to four year olds. His mom found me entertaining with my knowledge of three words. The park has pedal boats for rent. I want to rent one someday.

The view of the pond from a picnic table, cute right! I didn't get a good photo of the bridges, they are just metal anyway.

This park also has a zoo of sorts. It’s pretty cool to see the different animals for about one second then the rest of the time you feel depressed. For example the zoo has some really exotic birds but then I went near a birdcage and the bird freaked out and flew in circles and hit the edge of the cage. There was a sleeping tiger. And the zoo has ostriches and emus together in the same area. The ostriches chase the emus around like they are in charge because they are bigger. These big birds are from different continents, so not fair.

Then the monkeys made me want to cry. Poor things look so depressed.  About 25% of them spent the whole ten minutes we were there, circling their cages, and running into the corners trying to find a way out. I hope that’s not what they do all day but I have a hunch they may. The monkeys that were doing that must have been caught from the wild. The other monkeys just sit there looking depressed in one way or another. One seemed to be asking for food. One was eating a leaf that fell into its small, metal cage so it seems like the monkeys aren’t cared for much. Another seemed trained and had a collar on and showed us how it could pick up small things and put them into a can. I feel so bad for the monkeys especially because they are such smart animals and they are forced to be in cages when they obviously don’t want to be there. Part of me wants to go there in the middle of the night and set them free. But the other part of me wonders what angry, wild monkeys would do in a city. 

He's the most content of the caged monkeys actually, the other ones are more depressing. I wouldn't make this sadness up!

On a happier note, the festival that was at this park was the main reason we ventured to this side of Nakhon. We walked in on the side with booth after booth of awesome plants. If I knew whether or not we were staying at this apartment the whole time we live in Nakhon, I would consider buying some to put out on our porch and make this house feel more like home but I’ll wait.

Pitcher plant I want one, it traps bugs in its water!

Then we walked to the food area. Andrew, being Andrew spotted a booth that was selling bugs. To eat.  Yes. He bought some. And ate them. So gross. I have a picture. I didn’t try them. I had a kebab stick with BBQ chicken and veggies then some noodles. Andrew also supplemented his bugs with some chicken soup.  Later after wandering for a while we stopped at booth to buy some BBQ corn-on-the-cob and some fried bananas and something unknown BBQed and wrapped in leaves. Fried bananas are delicious, they are definitely meant for dessert. The food wrapped in leaves was some sort of desert too, we are guessing it’s coconut maybe mixed with rice with cinnamon flavor, pretty good but couldn’t eat too much because it was super sugary. Speaking of sugary, the coffee here is pure sugar I can’t drink coffee in restaurants so we bought an electric kettle and instant coffee with NO sugar to make at home. I’ll get back to the festival topic; I’m not done yet.

Grub anyone?

The coconut desert wrapped in the leaves, enjoyed at the picnic tables over the bridges at the pond!

While wandering around the festival we saw rides. They look like your typical fair rides, although some look quite rusty.  This summer Andrew and I took the kids I nanny to the Mid State Fair in Paso Robles, California. Our experience on those rides deterred us from even considering riding a fair ride in Thailand. Fair rides are not fun for adults. Near the rides, your typical fair games were set up with stuffed animal prizes.

We also saw a snake show at the festival. It was insane! The show started with a guy provoking small snakes to bite at him. I was pretty scared, especially because a shin high rope was the only thing separating the snakes from the audience. The angry snakes totally could have slithered into the audience. But the four men in charge of the show kept the snakes on a tarp. After the small snakes they brought out the cobras. First a small cobra then a large one, we left while the large one was quite mad. Not sure what happened after that, hopefully nothing scary.

An angry cobra. See the safety rope too?

Apparently the festival isn’t even officially open so it will get bigger. We’ll have to go back it was very entertaining.

It’s quite nice having some time off from work. I am enjoying being domestic. I’ve cleaned and organized our apartment. I’ve sewed some pillows. I started with a pillow cover for the chair pillow I am currently sitting on. It was a dirty childish looking one before. Then I made one pillow for our couch, I have to make one more to match. After that I will try to make a circular type pillow to cover the bottom of our door to stop the light from coming in at night. It’s fun to sew. Since I have time and it makes no sense to buy a machine, I’m doing it all by hand.

The childish pillow inspired my pillow sewing! Mine is so much better!

I’m also shopping for things we need for the apartment. I still have to go out today and get some things like tea and shampoo. I will be in charge of keeping our fridge stocked with fresh fruits and veggies to supplement the large quantities of fried rice and noodles I am eating.
I got my hair cut yesterday. I'm glad I waited for Thailand. I had my hair washed, cut and blow dried in a nice salon for less than $10 USD. The salon was cute, I walked over a small bridge over top of a coy pond to get inside and the girls have the cutest hair-dos. 

Andrew has a week and half off this month so we will go down to Malaysia to sort out our visas. Needing to leave the country to be granted a work visa is a great excuse to see another country. When we get back I’ll have two weeks until I start work. I’m keeping busy with domestic activities as well as studying Thai and helping Andrew with lesson planning and teaching type advice. But I don’t think I could be unemployed much longer than a month I like to be busy. 

 Well I’m excited to finish my pillows; they make our hotel-like apartment feel more like home! Adios or should I say la-korn!

I'm proud of my pillow! The makings for the second one are there too!

Home Sweet Home

View from the bus driving into Nakhon (only two minutes before we hit the city) I can't wait to explore the area more!

Andrew and I are finally getting settled. Over the past few days we have acquired an apartment, a motorbike, and I got myself a job. It feels good to have those things secured. Although, the bike didn’t start the morning after we got it so that actually may not work out. The guy who sold it to us is nicely giving back the money and taking it to the shop to figure out what’s wrong with it. After we find out what’s wrong we may or may not actually have a motorbike. That’s alright , the sorng-taa-ou and our good ol’ walking feet work fine for now.

            Sorng-taa-ou are what Andrew earlier described as tuk-tuk-trucks. They are pick-up trucks with two covered benches in the back (I’ll work on getting a photo). They only run on the main roads in this town so I take them ten or so blocks from our apartment into the center of the city and walk everywhere else. Andrew also takes them to school until we work out the motorbike situation. To ride them, you just stand on the side of street and wave when you see one driving towards you and they will pull over for you to hop on. There aren’t any bus stops for them, they are more like public taxis. When I’m at my desired destination I push the buzzer to let the driver know to stop. I then hop off and pay the driver my ten baht by passing it through the passenger window. I could go on and on just about these sorng-taa-ous (like seeing 20+ school children stuffed into them from time to time, I think they also act as school buses) but I think you want to hear about our house and jobs!

            My job is working at as kindergarten teacher in a class of 25 students. I am really excited because the kids are adorable and I’ll get to act like a dork and sing fun kids songs with them and play and do arts and crafts. And they even have nap time, how lovely! But since most Thai schools have all of October off, I don’t start until October 25. But funny story, the classes previous teacher, Sam, had to go home (because she was sick, not funny) and the last overseas job I had, I replaced a Sam. Also funny is we ended up with her apartment.  I guess I’m meant to replace Sams’.

Bathroom, see the shower, just there on the wall.

View from the back door that leads to our balcony.

            Our apartment nice but not exactly what we had in mind. We have only committed to one month so we can move if we really don’t like it. It’s a living room and bedroom in one, with a bathroom, so like a studio without a kitchen ,so really like a large hotel room. It came with furniture, so we have a couch, a TV, a refrigerator, a wardrobe, a make up table and a very hard bed. My initial survey of two beds proved true, Thais do like HARD beds! The bathroom isn’t my favorite bathroom in the whole world. The shower head is just mounted on the wall next to the sink, there’s no separate shower area. So I’m working on a system to keep the bathroom floor dry. The shower is only cold water, which surprisingly doesn’t bother me because the bathroom is warm. Since Andrew’s job gives a stipend that covers the cost of this house, all we pay for it water and electricity, so being cheap we use the fan instead of the air conditioner. This way our monthly rent will be around $50 instead of $150 USD total.  We are slowly turning the place into a home (by unpacking and sewing pillows) and daily I like the place more and more. But we will see how we like living here and take it month by month.

Our place, view from the front door.

            Andrew seems to be enjoying his job. He has worked two days. The school has been waiting for him to arrive in Thailand so he was thrown into the job before the students have midterms. He’s doing a great job reviewing with the students and preparing them for their midterms on his first week. He probably has better stories that he can tell you himself. He’ll be much less long winded about it as well.

Dressed to teach in his tailored clothes (tie is missing though)

It’s bed-time. We can actually sleep because I bought a mattress pad for our hard bed! Tomorrow while I am not working I will blog about the fun things we have been experiencing. Oh so many! I’ll loose sleep wanting to tell the stories about the elephants and monkeys and festivals!

The mattress pad aka sleep saver, although the bed is so hard mattress pad may need a friend.

--Jenny

"We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto"

So much has happened since we last posted. It sure has been an exciting week! I really enjoyed seeing Nicolina and Sophie again! I always hoped to see some of my friends from New Zealand again, who knew it would be so soon!  Andrew so nicely summed up our last few days. So off I rant about other things…

Each day seriously feels like a week due to the fact that I feel uncomfortable at least five times a day. I feel uncomfortable when we get dropped off on a random corner and have to ask directions in rudimentary Thai to get to our hotel.  Or when a random old lady stares at me without stopping for who knows what reason. Or when a different random old lady yells at us in a fast spoken foreign language for walking by her on the street(?). Or when I go to use the toilet and get chased away by cock roaches. Or when I am covered in sweat due to the heat and humidity. Or when we wander the streets for an hour starving because no-where looks clean enough to eat. Or when we wander dark run down streets looking for a bar Lonely Planet said farongs (foreigners) go to. Or when I’m trying to find something in a store and can’t explain due to the language barrier. Or when I am just walking down a street and get a lot of stares because I’m the only white person in a five-mile radius (other than Andrew). Knowing what it feels like to be the minority in looks and language is a valuable lesson that I hope everyone gets to experience some day.

Even though I am often uncomfortable, I know in those moments I am growing all the more. And there are moments when I feel so happy and so welcome that out-weigh the uncomfortable moments. Like not being able to stop staring out the window at beautiful nature followed by towns, followed by beauty, for hundreds of miles. Like when a little girl giggles to her mom when I say hi to her in Thai. Like when ten shop employees come to help me find what I’m looking for and it turns into a whirl of laughter and “mai reus”. Like when a cute old man gives us the same big smile and hello each of the five times we pass him. Like when I step back and realize I’m in a beautiful foreign country. I am on yet another adventure.

I can already tell I will learn so much from Thailand, it’s so different to the United States. Anywhere I look, I see the unfamiliar. Be it the food markets with a mix of fresh veggies and foul smelling raw meat hanging. Or the people riding by on scooters with no helmets. Or seeing too many old run down buildings and homes. Or the unorganized shops. Or the so-called nice restaurants with plastic chairs. Or the garbage on the streets and beaches. Or the uneven streets and sidewalks. Or the tangled mess of electric wires (sometimes chilling on the wet ground ek). Or the monks walking down the street with shaved heads and orange robes. Or the ornate temples with huge Buddha statues.  Thailand is awesomely different!

Many people ask why we choose to come to Thailand. Here’s the answer. We had a year to travel and the map of the world. We discussed many options and incidentally all of them had Thailand in them.  A common idea was to travel in Thailand for a month then go to live in South America to teach and learn Spanish. But the more we researched, the more we saw that Asia had the best options for teaching English. So after talking to our friends who had been to, taught in, or lived in Asia, we decided Thailand is actually the place for us. The people are friendly, the natural beauty is amazing, the culture is different to ours, the jobs are in high demand and decent paying, it’s not expensive to live, eat, get around or shop. Basically Thailand had it all, except Spanish. So here we are in this awesome country attempting to speak the tonal language completely unfamiliar to us.

We choose to come to Thailand in September because with research we found out that most schools have a break in the month of October and many schools are hiring around that time. So that gave us a little over a month to travel around, find a job, and get settled.  We looked and applied for jobs on-line while we were home in California but most of what I read said it’s best to be there in person. I mean who wants to hire someone three months in advance who may or may not end up showing up.  But out of pure chance Andrew tried applying for a Science teaching job through a job website and was hired right away (of course, he’s so smart)!  We think things happen for a reason because Nakhon seems like a great place to be settled for the year. It’s a very Thai town, so we are truly experiencing the culture. It’s near the beaches and awesome islands. And the town hopefully has an awesome job awaiting me as well!  I am working on finding a job to use my teaching skills and come back to California fit and ready for any teaching job!  Well off to job search and explore my new home! By the end of October I’ll be employed but not sure where yet! :-) 

Like I keep saying to Andrew when we experience any of the crazy "or"s I mentioned, "We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto!"

--Jenny

Phuket to Nakhon!

September 15^th 2011 8:00pm

Home sweet home!  We reached Nakhom Si Thammarat last night and have checked into a local hotel.  I start teaching this Monday… yikes!

While still in Phuket, Jenny and I met up Sophie and Nicolina, a couple of Jenny’s friends she met while living in New Zealand.  Sophie is Swiss and Nicolina is from Sweden.  Both of the girls were really nice and I enjoyed meeting them.

We all decided to rent a car and I got to drive!  Thailand drives on the left side of the road which was new for me.  Also, the car had a manual transmission, making the experience that much more memorable.  Having a car and not having to pay the outrageous taxi fees in tourist trap Phuket was cool and we were able to roam about the island at our leisure.  We stopped at the Big Buddah which is a 45m tall marble statue of... Buddah.  It was on top of a mountain with a beautiful view of the surrounding area.  After that we went to a nice, secluded beach that we couldn’t find on the map.  Sophie and I attempted to snorkel but it was super dangerous and decided against it when we were about waist deep.  The ground was littered with sharp rocks and the visibility sucked.  I imagine it would be awesome place to snorkel given the right conditions, but mai pben rai.

After the beach we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant, yummy and cheap as usual.  We then got another massage (my third so far… I’m such a lush) and called it a night.

The next morning we left for Nakhon by bus!  It was about a 7 hour journey and the view was beautiful.  While on the bus we practiced Thai and watched Thai music videos.  About 70% of the videos had to do with teenage girls crying due to some sort of twisted love triangle.  The other 20% was of guys in similar situations, and the final 10% were of some popular Thai singer who always wore a cut off jean jacket and looked Peruvian.  I’m not kidding!

The fun really began after we got dropped off in what seemed to be the middle of downtown during rush hour.  We had no idea what was going on but they shuttled us onto what could best be described as a cross between a tuk-tuk and flat bed truck.  After about 10 minutes on the tuk-tuk-truck they dropped us off and pointed us in the general direction of the hotel.  Words can’t describe how sweaty I was while lugging around a 30kg luggage bag up flights of stairs for about 20 minutes as we were trying to find our hotel.  All’s well that ends well, and after a shower and beer I stopped complaining about it to Jenny.

Nakhon is MUCH different that the touristy areas that we’ve been in so far.  Foreigners are few and far between and not much English is spoken by the locals.  While I was in Bangkok and Phuket I thought I was hot shit in my Thai speaking abilities, but coming here as really exposed my lack thereof.  After eating at a little Thai shop we went to a local teacher hangout for a drink and randomly bumped into, Allison, the teacher who hired me at Nakhon International City School.  She was on the way out, but we chatted for a bit with her and her friend who was also a teacher.  Inside, we met a few of other teachers and shared a beer with them.  I haven’t been drinking much on the trip, and combined with the fact I’ve lost about 10 pounds (literally) since coming to Thailand, I got tipsy from one large Chang beer.  Talk about being a light weight.

Today was spent lesson planning and getting acquainted with the town.  Jenny and I need to find a scooter to buy and an apartment to live in for the year.  Until then its taxis and hotels!

Andrew   

Jenny’s additional thoughts on "Bangkok to Phuket"

Chatuchak market- The best market of life. I am counting down the days until I get to go back! I wish we had more time to wander there but we had a train to catch. I could literally spend two weeks straight wandering around that market and never get bored. Maybe the only that would stop me would be hurt feet but it’d be nothing a Thai foot massage couldn’t fix.

I learned a few things about that market. One: if you find something you like and it’s a decent price, buy it because you will never find that stall again. Two: Go with lots of time and a small group. Actually I’d prefer to go by myself so I could get lost in my own world of too many things to look at. Three: Remember that $100 in Thailand really means $3 USD and that’s a dirt-cheap price for a cute shirt or dress. Four: That’s the best market in the whole world.

Train/Bus- At first I was afraid of the train. It was dirty and looked old. I felt like I was in a horror movie. But that soon changed after Andrew and I got lost in a humorous conversation with the locals about language, while enjoying Singha beers. Then the bed sold me on the train. It was the best bed in Thailand so far which is funny because it was on a tiny bed in a second-class train but it was the softest and I slept very well, minus waking up to the train stopping and crazy noises.  

Then the bus ride was so beautiful I stared out the window the entire time. If the train had windows like the bus I probably wouldn’t have slept. Oh how I wish pictures were easily captured through moving vehicle windows.

I don’t even want to get started on the two hours of being lost in a van when it should have taken 10 minutes and not eating breakfast or lunch! Mai Bpen Rai!

Phuket Area- Very beautiful. This is the Thailand I pictured. In a way it’s nice to be here in the rainy season because there are fewer tourists, better prices and we have to get used to the rain anyway.  Our hotel is very nice. It’s time to go jump in the pool! Nothing better than swimming during a warm rain after drinking a Chang Beer! 

Bangkok to Phuket

A lot has happened during our trip these last few days!  We took an overnight train to Surat Thani and then transferred to a bus that just arrived in Phuket.  The train was an interesting experience, but let me start where I left off in Bangkok!

On Friday we met Oam, a friend of my close family friend, who lives in Bangkok.  We went out to a Thai food ‘American diner’ (think Elvis Presley) in Siam Square that was pretty yummy.  Oam was really friendly and teaches science at a university in Bangkok.  After dinner we got Thai cell phones!  If anyone wants to call me my Thai number is 0845380523 FYI.  Having Oam there to do the translating made the whole process super easy.  The phones are ‘pay as you go’ and you can recharge them at any of the millions of 7-11’s throughout Thailand.  Later that night we met a couple of Belgian guys named Michael and Haag.  As it turns out, Haag knows Jeannine and Guido, friends of my grandparents that live in Ghent- talk about a small world!

On Saturday Jenny, Haag, Michael and I met Oam at the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok.  This was the biggest market I have ever seen in my entire life.  You could literally buy ANYTHING you wanted here.  Well almost anything, apparently, because Jenny couldn’t find a coin purse she liked (Jenny says there were just too many choices she couldn’t decide).  The prices were good- I got a couple of nice button down dress shirts for $5 each and some genuine leather belts for the same price.  After that it was off to pick up our tailored things from MBK and then to the train station to catch our train.

I know you probably think all we have been doing is shopping, and yeah, you’re right.  Our rationale is that we have a lot of time in Thailand and can always go back to Bangkok and see the famous Wats (temples) eventually.  We needed nice teacher clothes and had to buy them.  I think that’s a pretty good excuse- plus everything is cheapo.

On the train we sat next to a lady named Gnat (Thais love nicknames) and a school boy named Grit whom we talked to and practiced Thai.  Thai people seem to appreciate farangs (foreigners) that attempt to speak Thai since it is a hard language to learn.  We also bought beer that was equally shared by the train server who seemed to consider us her best friends ever.  Our seats on the train were called “2^nd class no air conditioning sleepers”.  The seated folded out into beds that were actually quite comfortable.  I slept pretty well even considering I woke up about 8 times during the night when the train would screech to a stop.   

The 12 hour train ride was then followed by a 5 hour bus ride from Surat Thani to the Phuket province.  It was actually much longer than this because we took a shuttle from the bus stop into the city by a driver who had no idea where he was going.  This situation Thais would consider ‘Mai pben rai’ which loosely translates to ‘nevermind’, as in, it is not a big deal.  So now we are in lovely Phuket!  Southern Thailand is much greener than Bangkok and I like it a lot more.  It is rainy season down here and it has been raining on and off since we arrived.       

 Time to jump in the swimming pool!  The beaches here have really rough waves because of storms so this is the best we can do for now.  More to come later!

-Andrew

Food and Shopping :)

I’m officially Jet lagged. Night is day and day is night.  Last night, I woke up at 3 am, super hungry. I had to wait four hours to eat because it was too dark and scary to go out and Andrew wouldn’t wake up and come with me! 

When we finally went out to find food the only places open were street vendors.  I should take a picture of these. The conditions are not sanitary to American standards.  For example Andrew ordered curry with noodles and the lady picked up the noodles with her hands to put them into the soup.  And some places have the food just sitting out and people pass money and breath over the food. Who knows how long the food has been sitting there.  Maybe I’m just paranoid to not want to eat that. Today where I was eating my breakfast was this back alley food court. A few little bugs were crawling on the tables and there was a lizard on the wall.  Stray cats and dogs hang around some of the street vendors.

            Andrew is the bravest eater I have ever met, he’ll eat anything even if he doesn’t know what it is. He has had some crazy looking fish and meat these past couple of days. (I should take pictures) I’m working on trying new things. I tried a papaya salad yesterday and the only thing that scared me was that it wasn’t cooked and was made on the street but it was good. I also drank coconut water out of a coconut.  I love coconut water. If I try something new everyday by the end of my time here I’ll maybe be eating some of the things Andrew is eating now….maybe.

            We took the Skytrain and the metro/subway today. We were proud of our ability to navigate the system. Although, it was probably so easy because it was all translated to English. (but maybe I shouldn’t say that so we sound cooler). The goal of taking the two types of trains was to go to the Bangkok train station to buy our tickets to Phuket. We will take a twelve-hour overnight sleeper train then a four-hour bus ride to get to Phuket City.

            Then we shopped some more. We have been wandering around the MBK shopping center in Siam Square, Bangkok for hours. It’s fun to see everything that is for sale. We are pretty good at bargaining. Andrew studied Thai a lot before we left and everyone is very impressed with his ability to speak the local language. I can tell the vendors get a great smile on their face when he speaks Thai. It helps lower the prices of our items.  It makes me want to be cool like him.

            Walking around Bangkok is different because it’s so busy. Some of the sidewalks are uneven. It’s hard to cross the street because the right of way goes to what ever is biggest and fastest. In the busy intersections there are steps to pedestrian overpasses.  I need a Thai foot massage soon from all the walking!  

Ok off to study Thai. Laa-gor!

--Jenny

Bpai Sai-yahm Sa-quare mai?

Thailand is sweet.  I really like it here.  I think I must have been Asian in another lifetime.  It’s about 730am and we’ve been up since around five this morning.  I blame it on Jenny’s jet lag- she’s been up since three.

So far we’ve had an awesome time just walking around interacting with the friendly Thai people.  I’m really glad that I spent a good amount of time learning how to speak a little Thai because it is coming in handy.  We haven’t seen any of the touristy sites in Bangkok yet, and I’m not sure if we actually will.  We have A LOT of time in Thailand and I think we will be back in Bangkok eventually.  Right now we’re just trying to get acquainted with the Thai lifestyle.

I really like street vendor food!  Every time we walk by a stand I stop and see what they’re offering.  I seem to always get something interesting and unexpected in my food.  For instance, I think I ate chicken feet and chopped liver in a soup this morning. 

At the moment we have no concrete plans for the day.  We need to stop by the tailor to pick up our clothes and then figure out the bus/train schedule to Phuket.  We are meeting some of Jenny’s friends she met in New Zealand (Sophie and Nicolina) who I’ve heard a lot of good things about.  After Phuket we’re off to Nakhom Sri Thammarat to start our teaching careers!     

-Andrew

Arrival in Bangkok

We made it to Bangkok last night! Our flight landed at 1:15am. It took a while to go through customs then we found a verified local taxi with a meter and took it to Khao San Rd. It was a long drive through the city but the cab cost less than 300 baht aka ten U.S. dollars. When we got out of the cab with all our bags in the tourist section of Bangkok we were greeted with open arms and offered a beer.  We turned down the warm welcome since we had been mostly awake and traveling for more than 24 hours.  We took the first bed we found for a price a little higher than what we’d normally pay and it worked out because we were welcomed with a hot shower and nicely decorated room with air conditioning.

After a few hours of sleep we awoke excited to explore the city. We set out to find some breakfast and coffee. Andrew was excited to try street food so we found a clean one where they cooked our pad thai right there in front of us. The meal cost us each one U.S. Dollar. We walked along the street shops enjoying our delicious, spicy breakfast and trying to ward of tuk tuk drivers offering us too-good-to-be-true deals. One tuk-tuk driver did follow us around making sure we’d take his tuk tuk over his competitors. He was very friendly but I read a warning about scams in tuk tuks and it was too cheap to be a real deal, he was offering a scam. We shook him off and packed our things to get out of the tourist area.

We took a metered cab to another part of the city, practiced our Thai with the driver and ended up blocks from the hotel we wanted. So a nice business man helped us get a Thai -speaker deal on a tuk tuk. The tuk tuk experience was interesting and I see why most people prefer cabs. We rode along streets at a high speed with no seat belts enduring the humid, smog filled air. We made it to our desired hotel. This one is a good price and is a good location near shopping and the skytrain. The only complaint I have it that Thais like very hard beds (my survey of two beds in Thailand led me to this conclusion). That’s ok though jet lag allows me to sleep like a baby.

We spent hours making circles around shops near Siam square. Thailand offers great shopping. I practice my bargaining skills and talked a girl down to half her price for a new purse.  Andrew went into a tailor to get some pants and I ended up getting tailor made pants, skirts and shirts for a great price. We’ll see how they fit tomorrow.

Thailand is super cool so far. The locals seem very friendly. The food is good. Andrew likes to eat at the unsanitary street vendors as part of the adventure. I made him eat inside once and the food was great but so spicy! Andrew ate crazy seafood. I ate vegetarian.  He hopes I’ll be more adventurous in my eating by the end of the trip. I just don’t want to get sick!

Bangkok is a very busy, modern city. There are the basic fast food chains you’d see in America all over such as McDonalds (of course), Subway, Starbucks, Burger King. The shopping centers remind me of normal malls with Market style stalls mixed in.  The sidewalks are somewhat uneven and sometimes taken up almost completely by street vendors.  The weather is hot and humid and rainy.

We are enjoying the shopping and seeing other travelers in Bangkok but also look forward to heading down to Phuket in a couple days to meet up with some of my friends from New Zealand! Nicolina (from Sweeden) and Sophie (from Switzerland) have been there for almost a week and seem to love it. On every trip I went on in New Zealand at least one of those girls was there so we became quite close. I am really excited to get to see them again!

Well it’s time to try to sleep. The jet lag is getting to us. California and Thailand are 14 hours different so you can image the difficultly of switching your night and day. Despite our efforts to stay awake all day we passed out for a couple hour nap today but I’m confident I can sleep some more.  Good night. Will stay in touch!

--Jenny 

Taipei lay over

This is my first attempt at a blog... ever!  Jenny and I are sitting at the airport in Taipei waiting for our connecting flight to Bangkok.  We are sleepy.  We arrive in Bangkok approximately 1am local time on September 8th.  The only plan we have so far is to take a taxi to Talson Road and find a hotel for the next two nights.  Okay, that's all for now, stay tuned for more soon!

-Andrew