Kalasin and Oil's Birthday

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!! My schedule has recently changed dramatically at school and I am no longer teaching P1 or P2 math. What used to take up 14 periods on my schedule no longer exists, instead I am teaching P3 and P5 English. So far I am embracing my new schedule and it has been a very nice change in pace. My classes seems a little easier and I am really enjoying teaching the older students. These changes have led to a pretty easy Friday for me with only three classes. Yippee!

Here a few pictures of my trip to Kalasin and a recent celebration for Teacher Oil's birthday.

Nathan, Dena, myself, Lizzie, and Rochelle all squeezed on a songtaew bench.

The group post tubing.

After our 4th of July BBQ! It was a lot of work to get everyone to

gather in the scorching sun for this pic.

Out to dinner with fellow teachers for Oil's birthday.

Oil, Emily, Nathan, Mitchie, me, and Dr. Absorn

Celebrating America.... Thai Style

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate back home. It is always filled with sun, cabins, boats, and lots of great friends. This year was a little different, but we managed to still have a wonderful weekend and thanks to Thailand there was no shortage of sun... or fun.

After school on Friday we made our way into to Bangkok to catch a bus to Kalasin. Where is Kalasin you ask? Well, it is about eight hours from BKK in northeastern Thailand. Myself and six friends were on our way to visit Reuven and Dena who teach there. It was a long journey with overnight buses on Friday and Sunday, but it was well worth it! Our bus got to Kalasin at about 2:15 am on Saturday so one Dena and Reuven picked us up from the bus station we were all quickly asleep in their apartments. Even though they are in rural Thailand there apartments were nicer than mine! They have TV and air-conditioning... can we say jealous?

We woke up on Saturday morning fully refreshed and ready for our agenda-heavy day! A songtaew (trunk with benches in the back, a very common form of transportation) picked all of us up to go to a nearby dam for a day of tubing and sun. I think everyone there was a little overwhelmed when 11 farangs showed up!! The service at the lake was great and the food was even better, very cheap too. We each paid around $9 for a tube, lawn chair, tables, beer, fried chicken and sticky rice. After we had had enough sun we packed up and our driver brought us back to town. Next up was a dinner and karaoke evening with Dena's and Reuven's fellow teachers.

The Thai teachers in Kalasin were unbelievably nice and welcoming! They pre-ordered an enormous meal for us on Saturday evening and a local restaurant they often frequent. After eating som-tom (spicy papaya salad), pad-thai, cashew chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and boiled fish it was time to move into the karaoke part of the evening. Believe it or not this was my first karaoke experience in Asia. There was a constant mix of Thai and English songs and I think everyone sang at some point throughout the night. After having our fair share of singing we moved on to a local club called MV. It was among the stranger clubs I have been to in Thailand. It was completely uninfluenced by Western culture which is rare to find in BKK and on the islands. We got there when the band was taking a break so the 'dancers' took the stage. Dancers is in quotes because they were horrible!! They were entirely unenthusiastic and unsynchronized. It clearly wasn't a job any of them were excited about doing. All in all the night was a lot of fun and I got to experience a whole new side of Thailand.

On Sunday afternoon one of the Thai teachers was gracious enough to host a 4th of July BBQ for all of us foreigners. It felt so much like home and the summer BBQ's we get to have. A few things were missing though including hamburger and hot dog buns, pickles, beef for the hamburgers (we used pork, still good!), and maybe a few fireworks. One of the teachers even bought us all a table-runner size cloth hand woven in Issan, the province.

I missed everyone from home on the 4th, but I think I celebrated in a pretty unique way! I didn't take any pictures over the weekend, but will post some once my friends put them online.

A gem of a fruit

I just spent far too long revamping my blog. It is always amazing how long you can sit and tediously click away on your computer, not amazing in a good way though. Oh well, I think the look is pretty cute. I know my mom will like the hummingbirds on the side too :) I want to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day and my grandma a happy birthday tomorrow!

Now onto this gem of a fruit my title is referring to. Rambutan. It has changed my life. I simply love it. I had no idea this fruit even existed before coming to Thailand and now I am afraid I won't be able to find it anywhere in the states. During rambutan season a kilo only cost about 15 baht. That is about 50 cents... so not only is the fruit delicious but it is crazy cheap. Double bonus. cheap.

Here are a few pictures depicting the steps on eating rambutan, because let's be honest the first time I ate one I had no idea what I was doing.

Step 1: Laugh about the obscurity of a rambutan.

Step 2: Crack it open and try to avoid being sprayed by juice.

Step 3: Eat around the seed and avoid eating wood chips. YUM!

Wai Kru Day!

Every Thai school celebrated Wai Kru day last Thursday which is a day for students to honor and give thanks to their teachers. There were two ceremonies, one for pratom (grades 1 to 6) and one for mattyom (grades 7 to 12). Each student brings a bouquet of flowers, candles, and incense to be given to teachers as a symbol of appreciation. The bouquets they bring are similar to ones given as offerings at Buddhist temples. This ceremony happens at the beginning of every school year to bring luck and happiness to teachers and students. Thanks for taking great pictures Teacher Oil!

Pratom 1 regular program students all lined up with their flowers.

Nathan, Emily, Lynn (a Chinese teacher), and myself receiving flowers from students. Please notice the mask on the boy giving me flowers :)

Funny happenings

I have had several funny experiences with students this week that really need to be shared. Several times I have been in class teaching and literally just can't stop laughing at the things the kids say and do. For some reason this has happened several times this week.

The funniest experience was with a boy named Mon(moan) in P6. This kid is notorious for being incredibly strange but a real sweetheart. His claim to fame among the American teachers is his need to pet our arm hair while he works. He will be very off task, but as soon as he can pet our arms he will do his work. Like I said, very strange. Well yesterday he took it to a whole new level when he would not let go of my arm! He sat in his chair kissing my entire arm while saying "I love you" for nearly the entire class period. So I spent the entire class laughing and trying to escape his strong grasp and not really teaching. After class I quickly ran to the bathroom to wash my arm with soap.

As I mentioned in the last post, some of the first grade boys are seriously impossible to get settled down but they are really dang cute. There is one boy who started the semester thinking his nickname was Ferd, but as classes passed his name became First. I am still not sure what exactly happened there, but he now knows his name is First. He still gets a little confused sometimes though and will end up writing Fird. Anyway, today we were doing a math worksheet which he knew all the answers to, but he kept writing the wrong numbers just to see my reaction. He honestly thought it was the funniest thing in the entire world. I think he was hamming it up because he saw I just couldn't stop laughing either.

I also just had a second grader ask me if I had a baby and she was shocked when I said no. It sparked a classroom discussion in Thai and I would really have loved to know what they were saying. This happened moments before there was an announcement over the loud speaker that the Princess was coming to Bangplee and school would be ending earlier so the vans could avoid the traffic jams. Of course I didn't know what was being said so the homeroom teacher translated, "Teacher, Princess, Bangplee." The kids were beyond excited, but at this point I didn't know school was being let out early. I just kept on teaching and after ten minutes the teacher came back and said it was time to go home. These situations just make you love Thailand :)

Is it really June already??

My second semester is well underway as it is already week five of a 20 week semester. I frequently find myself wondering how that has already happened? Time going quickly is a good thing, but don't get me all wrong I am definitely counting down the four months until I return home. Part of me hopes time will fly by, but another very large part of me knows it will be very very sad to leave this country, my students and the wonderful people I have met here.

Now, let me get into the shenanigans this semester has cooked up for me. Satit Bangna was undergone a lot of changes this semester including the departure of four American teachers. Emily, Nathan and myself are currently the only three American teachers so we got a heavier load of classes this semester, but so far we have been able to handle it. My biggest challenge so far has been teaching 80 minute long math periods to first graders. It is exhausting and by the end of 80 minutes I find myself a little defeated. Those kids have much more energy than I do! Expecting six year olds to sit for 80 minutes is just outrageous especially considering about four of them have no idea what English even is. The girls in the class are little angels, but the boys are a handful! As I have mentioned many times before though it is so hard to stay upset with these kids though because they are just so cute. I will have to take some pictures of the new first graders soon! They have some good nicknames too my favorite is a girl named Mameow. It cracks me up every time.

My first graders from last semester have now graduated to the second grade and something happened to these children over the summer because they are wonderful little students this year! I have always been slightly obsessed with the kids because they are great at English and Math and all have very strong personalities. I get to teach them eight periods a week and they are definitely some of my favorite classes! They will be without a doubt very hard to leave.

Another very very exciting thing this semester is that my office has air conditioning (air con as the Thais say) and so does every classroom I teach in! It sounds so simple, but this makes my day about 10 points better.

This week all Thai schools have what is called Wai Kru day. Kru means teacher and a wai (why) is the bow Thais give each other as a form of respect. Thai students are expected to wai to their teachers every morning and at the end of each day. So wai kru day is a day for students to honor teachers. We have been told students give teachers flowers, but I will let you know more after it happens on Thursday.

The weekends have been really fun lately and the protests in Bangkok have stopped so it is now safe to return! Thank goodness, I was getting worried about not being able to go into the city this semester.

Hope everyone is well at home! My tentative return date to America is set for Oct. 2oth. Just in time for Halloween festivities :)

Vomiting Vietnamese

Vietnam has an abundance of motorbikes weaving through traffic and very few cars. This lack of cars means that people get motion sickness easily. I mean very easily. People, mostly women, throw up everywhere! I'm talking vomiting in cars, buses, bus stations, airplanes, and ferries. It was astonishing, confusing, and disgusting all at the same time.

The first time we encountered a vomiting woman we were in a taxi that had scrunched 11 people into a seven person car. Keep in mind we don't know these people and they don't know each other so everyone's personal space was more than invaded. Nathan, Emily, Mark, and I had to squish in the back of an SUV onto two seats. We were driving along and my head was basically between the people in front of me who had wedged four people into three seats including a very elderly grandmother. All of sudden people begin talking in Vietnamese and I see a plastic bag handed to the lady in front of me. She then proceeded to vomit into the bag. I would have to say she did it politely and soundlessly, but nonetheless she puked in a car where everyone is already too close. She held onto the bag for a while before reaching over another woman and tossing the bag out the window. This was our first experience with vomit, but not nearly the last!

We saw a woman step off our bus and walk right over to a wall in the parking lot to throw up, a woman on our airplane was throwing up, a woman on the bus we took to the plane was throwing up, and I am sure there were a few more encounters. We quickly began to notice that every bus and plane seat had plastic bags tucked in the backs of the chairs. It was then that we realized seeing so many vomiting women was not just a coincidence. After talking with a few other travelers we learned that Vietnamese people are not used to riding in cars, buses, and planes because motorbikes are the main form of transportation. Apparently they never get used to sitting inside a moving vehicle; therefore, they get sick frequently! Sorry if this post irks your stomach a little, but we all thought it was a funny phenomenon.