a wildflower in the land of smiles

Monday, November 22, 2010

Loi Krathong, is here!

This past weekend was the long awaited Loi Krathong festival!

Loi Krathong is a big festival that takes place on the night of the full moon in November (the 12th month in the Thai traditional calendar). "Loi" means to float and "Krathong" is traditionally made from a section of a banana tree trunk and are decorated with flowers..., candles, and incense sticks. The Thai people will float their krathong down the river or in a big body of water. The act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People will also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Many Thai believe that floating a raft will bring good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

My school hosted our own festival. Jess and I got there way too early to get into our Thai attire and we realized that everything runs on Thai time, or 30 minutes after we are told things will start. After waiting an hour, my Thai teacher, teacher Kookkai, helped me fasten up my costume and put my hair back in a braid. Many people wanted a picture with us foreign teaches, they got a huge kick out of us in our Thai costumes. Some people tried to be sneaky and attempted to take candid shots of us. We had numerous carnival-like booths set up, balloon darts, bingo, throw the ball into the hole, throw the ball at the bottles, a bouncy house, snacks etc. 2 other foreign teachers, a Thai teacher, and I ran a booth game of throwing the ball into the cup. The participants had three balls and depending on how many balls they make into the cup determines what type of prize they get. It was actually a really challenging game (we played with tennis balls and the cup was pretty small) and we weren’t too strict on the rules. There was also a beauty contest to determine what child would be this years Mr. and Mrs. Loi Krathong. The girls in my class performed a dance, which was adorable.. They had been practicing for weeks! My Thai teacher did I wonderful job teaching and choreographing the dance, which I didn’t realize the song to the dance is about Barbie (the song is in Thai). All the money earned from the school festival is saved for the end of the year teacher trip! Woo!

The next day, the actual day of Loi Krathong, Jess and I checked out the festivities at the university. Well, it seemed like the entire city did the same thing! It was extremely crowded but great fun, it reminded me of the Del Mar Fair (known as the San Diego County Fair to those that are not San Diegans). Pushing our way through the crowd, we got many stares, some “Welcome to Khon Kaen!” yells, a few “FARANG” (foreigner) screeches, and a couple groups of girls asking to take pictures with us. There were lots of things for sale, including turtles, birds, eels, and fish to set free into the water for good luck. There were thousands of krathongs to choose from and I narrowed down my choices to one for 20 baht with beautiful flowers. After taking the much needed photographs, Jess and I made our way to the water to push our krathongs into the lake and receive some good ole’ Thai goodluck. We were shocked to discover that there were young boys and a few men wadding in the DIRTY water, begging. When the police got close, they swan and hid under the dock but quickly came back, holding onto the dock. I felt extremely uncomfortable as I was trying to put my krathong into the water while these boys were staring at me with their hands out. I have found that I am often pinpointed by the homeless and others seeking money because I am white (little do they know, I am now making a Thai salary). I ended up kind of tossing my krathong into the lake to escape and continue onto the rest of the festival. We ended up getting some Pad Thai (what a shocker!) and rode on the sketchiest ferris wheel I’ve ever been on. We decided to head home early to beat the crowd out and jumped on what we thought was the last songtell home. We got a wonderful tour of the Khon Kaen University campus, as the songtell was making its final stop in some very random location. We met some girls on the songtell who are studying English at the university (thank goodness!) and they called us a cab to take us home.

Overall, it was a fun weekend!

Check out more pictures! :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071406&id=1054560056&l=cd262aab18

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Each One With His Krathong

Thursday, November 11, 2010

4 weeks

This week has been the fastest one yet! Yesterday was the four week mark.. I have officially been in Thailand for four whole weeks! I feel like it’s been so much longer, but four weeks is a good amount of time. I’m getting more settled into my new apartment but still need to completely finish unpacking my suitcase. There isn’t as much drawer space here as my last place had so it is currently serving the role as another dresser drawer or two. I did join the gym and have been going every day since, except for today. There are some awesome classes offered and I did the abdominal one the other day. It was intense but a ton of fun and included some hula hooping at the end. There is a taekwondo class that I may look into, I never thought of martial arts being something for me but hey, I’m in Thailand! And I heard you get a belt if you do the classes! I am keeping busy, checking out new markets, and seeing new places. I’m getting more into the school routine and teaching is getting a little better. Although of course I miss home (so much!!), I am a lot less homesick than I was at my last place. Being able to connect to the internet (AKA the outside world) whenever I want/need has been helpful in the homesickness, I think. I am really liking it here.

We are just finishing up our “Space and Sky” Theme. We have made a solar system for our class and a sun with our classes handprints. The kids seem really into the solar system and planets and LOVE when I have video clips from YouTube to show them about it. They are still loving that planet song and request it on repeat everyday.. this song will probably remain stuck in my head until another annoying song comes around. Next week’s theme is Thai Culture, which will be a learning experience for me too.. especially since I am teaching it. I better start researching.

Highlight of the week: My mom sent me an AMAZING care package that I received today! It was filled with some special candy requests, ritz cracker snacks, granola bars, chocolate covered pretzels, some clothes I forgot in the dryer (and a new pair of knee length shorts.. not exactly my style but more accepted here than my typical shorts I wear”), and some magazines feature Taylor Swift on the cover. Thanks mom!

Here are some interesting facts about Thailand.. and my life here.

Everyday, whenever the kindergarteners go somewhere (example: leave the classroom for the flag ceremony, leave the flag ceremony for the classroom, leave the classroom to go to the playground, leave the playground to go to the class, leave classroom for lunch, music class, sensory center, PE, swimming, computer class, home, everything!) the kindergarteners have a script. Each week, there is a lady leader and a gentleman leader. The kids get into two lines (ladies and gentlemen) and the leader is at the front. It goes something like this.

Leader: Lady liiiiine

Ladies: UP!

Leader: Line, line, liiiiiine!

Ladies: Up, up, up!

Leader: Where are we going?

Ladies: We are goiiiiing to the (insert location.. ex flag ceremoooony)

Leader: Are you sure?

Ladies: Sure.

Leader: Are you ready?

Ladies: Yes, I am.

Leader: Lets go.

Coming here, I knew there would be a language barrier. I don’t speak a speck of Thai (now I can “Hello”, “Thank you”, and “I don’t want shrimp/crab/crustacean thingys” in reference to my Pad Thai). I had no idea that I would resort to Spanish when someone has trouble understanding me. When my student wasn’t sure where to write her name, I pointed to the line and said “aqui”. Other words and phrases are always crossing my mind like pollo, come estas, and ahora. It’s a little strange but very instinctual. When I do spit out Spanish, I just get looks a notch above confused, bewildered perhaps.

People purposely stay out of the sun or wear layers of clothes covering all their limbs and body even in the heat. No, not to avoid skin cancer.. but to stay white. Being dark is seen as being in the working class and having to work outside in the sun. Pale/white skin is a highly desired here. It is a serious business. There is whitener in almost all types of lotions and sunscreens (I had to hunt for some without it). In my mind, it is almost like bleaching the skin to be lighter. The kids at my school put some on their face everyday and you can find products to buy all over the mall. Ideally, Thai people love westerners and find us beautiful because of our skin. However, I am naturally not pale. I haven’t sat in the sun since I left a month ago and I am about the shade of an average Thai person (a Thai compared her arm to mine one day and said “Same!” She was a little surprised when I said I want to be darker.). I do get a few complements sometimes about “being beautiful”, but not nearly as many as my friends with paler skin. I plan on maintaining my tan because to be honest, I look better with a little color. I could never pull off the vampire look and my skin can’t even get near that shade of pale. Plus, I have to keep on representing California, and that is done with a tan.

The current weather has been partly cloudy and in mid to high 70s. This is Thailand Winter. Kids and teachers come to school bundled in jackets and scarves and I show up in my knee length skirt and t-shirt. There has been a time or two that I thought it was a little chilly, but never jacket weather. Nevermind the fact I only brought one pair of jeans and one hoodie. If this is winter, I am dreading summer weather. It can’t be good.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Living, Learning, and Learning to Live

Wow! Another crazy week!

Last week, Jess and I took a look at a friend’s apartment after we had dinner. We met Caitlin at orientation and traveled with her on the train to Khon Kaen, she is in the same city but at a public school. After looking at her clean, lizard free, internet connected apartment, and mold free shower, Jess and I both realized that our apartment at Kong Thong wasn’t as nice as it could have been. On Monday, I casually mentioned to our school coordinator that we were thinking of moving downtown to a different apartment building and she immediately looked into it. Since it was the first of the month, she got us set up to look at an apartment in the same building as our friend at the lunch break and we both decided that day to go ahead and get our own apartments! And we are still next door to eachother. We moved in that evening and I honestly can say this is the best decision I’ve made yet in Thailand. My apartment before was nice in that it was close to school and had AC, but honestly that was about it. My new apartment has air conditioning, furnished with new furniture, dresser with mirrors and desk (only a fridge though, no microwave), TV that we don’t need to pay per month to have, cable, internet ALL THE TIME, porch, and clean and big bathroom. Although I am much farther from school, I am right along the songtell path so getting to school is no hassle. I am within walking distance of the HUGE mall (Central Plaza), numerous restaurants, many bars and the Khon Kaen weekend night life, the five star hotel with a gym and pool (I’ve been planning to join all week but hopefully finally will tomorrow), the night market that has many food choices for good prices (and the best Pad Thai I’ve had!!), and a smaller shopping area with a grocery store, starbucks, and various other places. Oh, and of course a 7/11. We are also just one block away from the city’s spirit house, which is a huge landmark and sometimes seems to have festivals and fun community events. I’m much happier at my new apartment! At the last one, I would often need to take a tuk-tuk to find something to do. I didn’t realize it at the time but it’s kind of in the middle of no-where. With my apartment now, I have so many more things to do and won’t have many opportunities to sit around bored watching Law and Order. I’m hoping that joining the gym and being able to walk to the night market every night will help time pass faster. Now that I am more in town (the heart of downtown actually), I can honestly say that I am genuinely enjoying it here! (pictures of my new place will come soon once I’m completely unpacked!)

Teaching is going okay. Our theme now is “Space and Sky”. I taught all about the planets and the kids seem really intrigued. There is a song that we have on a CD to help the kids remember the order of the planets, the kids love it but us teachers hate it. I find myself singing it at home when I don’t even realize it. Its one of those annoying songs you can’t get out of your head. “I bought a MERCURY to visit friends on VENUS but how on EARTH will I ever get to MARS?” blah blah blah it drives me crazy, the song doesn’t even make any sense! I know all of my kids names now which has made teaching a lot easier. However, I have four “naughty boys” that refuse to listen to me. Two of them are only half Thai so they know and understand English well. I think all four are at the stage where they are testing the new teacher to see what they can get away with, but boy are they pestering! They sure know how to push my buttons! I’m planning to come in Monday refreshed from the weekend and ready to lay down the law. After talking to a few teachers, I have realized that being more strict in the beginning is beneficial so they know that I mean business. Later on, I can be fun and play with them, but after they respect and listen to me. I have some really great kids in my class, and I absolutely adore all of the girls, but these same four boys have been absolutely driving me insane. I just have to tell myself that it’ll be better as more time goes on. I don’t know how you teachers do it!

Me and my Co-Teacher, Teacher Kookkai

Our school week was only four days long this week. Our school canceled class on Friday so all the teachers could go on a fieldtrip to a “world class” school to observe their teaching methods. This school has some interesting concepts, like the children don't write until they are 6 and 7 years old, the school doesn't give any formal tests, no bells (to teach time management), the students all agree on what curriculum to be taught (collaboration with teachers and students on topics), focus a lot on self-esteem and confidence, and teachers use very quiet voices (never raising them or yelling so students learn they need to be quiet to hear). To be honest, it seemed a little cult like. Maybe that was because everything was in Thai, so us foreign teachers didn’t understand a word of what our guide said, what was going on in class, or the question and answer portion with the principal. We did have another teacher there to translate but only got portions of it. The campus was beautiful though! It had huge outdoor play areas, play grounds, and many things to explore and learn from outside. One of my favorite things was parents bring a huge bundle of bananas and hang them in the tree in the play yard every week so kids and pick and eat the bananas when they are hungry. They also showed us a video of how children learned how to cook. They video began showing the children digging and looking for worms, then fishing with the worms, catching fish, cooking the fish, then making dinner, and eating it! Even though I couldn’t understand the commentary, it was pretty cool to watch. They are much more focused on hand-on learning rather than the traditional classroom style. Although we left Khon Kaen at 4am (meaning I was up by 3am!!!), I’m glad I had the opportunity to go.

After the school, we went to see some ruins. The other foreign teachers weren’t interested in seeing the ruins so they took a van back meaning Jess and I were the only foreign teachers on the bus. We went to the Prasat Phanom Rung ruins, “the Hindu religious sanctuary located on the top of the Phanom Rung mountain, an extinct volcano and constructed between 11^th – 12^th century AD.” The school paid for our admission, Thai people 20 baht each and foreigners 100 baht each! After exploring for an hour and many of the Thai teachers obsessing over taking pictures with us faragans (Teecha teecha!! Pictcha!), we then headed back to Khon Kaen.

Anyone wonder what 50 Thai teachers do on a bus back from a fieldtrip? They connect their laptop to the bus TV, turn the music on extremely loud, and sing karaoke! But not before stopping at a 7/11 for beer. That’s right, the three hour bus ride back turned into a six hour trip with all the stops for beer, bathrooms, and dinner. The songs they sang were all in Thai with Thai subtitles but they wouldn’t be satisfied until Jess and I sang a song. They had a few English songs so Jess picked “Barbie Girl” and they just about had a fit, they loved it!! Luckily, Jess did all of the singing because I’ve been fighting off a nasty cold and was not feeling too hot. After waking up at 3am and being on the go since then, I wasn’t in the best mood. The karaoke was fun at first, but after the first hour, I just wanted to get home, get into my bed, and sleep. My cold was getting worse along with my patience. Finally, we got home and after taking some Nyquil, I immediately passed out until 11am the next morning! I never am able to sleep in, so this was a huge accomplishment for me.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I am planning to feel better (I have either a cold or some sort with a gross cough, or some hardcore allergies) and to finally join the gym and check out a market at the lake. (Just to clarify, markets are just like farmers markets or like the food court at the fair. People have carts and make food right there. And there are people selling stuff, like a swap meet but most of clothing, shoes, or handmade crafts. Everything is super cheap, much cheaper than the mall!) They sure love markets here! Maybe, just maybe, I’ll try something different from Pad Thai and rice.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween!

This kid was cracking me up all day

Friday was the Halloween celebration at my school. The three levels of kindergarten got together and had a fashion show to show off the costumes, a scary face contest, play pin the nose on the witch game, and hit piñatas. There were many spider mans, princesses, and some other creative costumes. One kid dressed up to what I thought looked similar to a doctor without his tools but was a Thai spirit hunter of some sort. We had our class practicing trick-or-treating by going to other classrooms around school. In the afternoon, I did a lesson on Halloween and what the holiday really is. I had my class do a worksheet with a connect the dots to make a jack-o-lantern and a haunted house maze on the back. The school tries to have a special activity every Friday and it was a fun transition into the weekend.

Scary Face Contest

Friday night, Jess and I went on a search determined to find pad thai. We went to the night market because there are dozen and dozens of different food stands, so one had to have it. We scoped out what people were eating and found a stand, asked for pad thai (luckly one of the girls there spoke English) and BINGO! We found it! It ties for the best meal I’ve had in Thailand with the pad thai I got in Bangkok. They didn’t have chicken so we basically ordered whatever pad thai the girl said they had, which was pad thai with egg. It was very heavy on the peanuts but still very tasty. I took a picture of the menu and the sign of the vendor so we can have someone translate the menu and also so we can find the stand again next time we go. We walked around a bit and missed the last songtell home since they stop running around 8pm. Luckly, our school coordinator Teacher Joke drove by as we were waiting for a songtell and she easily spotted us and gave us a ride home. Faragns are easy to spot here!

Yesterday, Jess and I explored our surrounding more. We walked down the main street past our school since we’ve never been over there. While we were walking, I spotted a little girl, Dream, whom I recognized from school. She yelled “Teecha Chelsea!” and ran right over. Her mom was full of smiles and I was very surprised that Dream remembered my name. She is in the KG2 class and spotted me doing playground duty one day and marched right up and asked me who I was. I have only seen her once or twice and she’s as cute as could be. Some kids are very shy around new foreign teachers, but Dream is just the opposite. She gave me a big hug and Jess and I were on our way. Some foreign teachers have described almost having a celebrity status here in Khon Kaen. Because there are so few foreigners in my town, people recognize you around town and teachers run into their students and parents all the time. There are not too many places to go other than the markets and mall, so I expect to have the occasional run-ins also.

Jess and I found a small market down the street from our school with lots of fresh fruit. I was able to buy some bananas! I have been on a search for them but have often only found the small bananas. This basically made my day. We’ve also found a restaurant with delicious cashew chicken about a ten minute walk from our house, which we have determined is our “go-to place” AKA “if we are too tired to search for something else, we go here”.

I’m beginning to get settled into a routine and almost know all of the kids names in my class. I’m still getting the hang of the whole teaching thing but hopefully I’ll get it down in a month or so. Even though I’m still homesick, I’m doing okay. :)

A songtell

A tuk-tuk

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Teecha Chelsea

I wrote this on Tuesday.

Today was my first day of teaching! I have to say, I think it went pretty well. The way the classroom works is different from any experience I’ve had.. there is a Thai teacher and an English (or foreign, faragn in thai) teacher working together. However, one teacher is specially assigned to each lesson so we end up pretty much splitting the day in half. My partner teacher is Teacher Kookkai. She seems to be in her late 20s and is very fun and great with the kids. I’m very excited to work with her. Before entering the classroom, shoes are to be removed and left in the hall. There is a KG building and our classroom is located upstairs. Our classroom also has AC!

The schedule is pretty similar every day.

8:45 – 9am: Flag ceremony. All three kindergarten classes and the preschool (so maybe 100 students) join near the playground to sing either the national anthem while two students raise the flag, then do a movement song. The movement song can be something like “heads, shoulders, knees, and toes” and various Thai songs that involve moving your body. Today we did a song about a bunny and the kids hopped around with their hands on their heads as ears. The idea of this is to start the day right and fresh for students and get them moving.

9-9:50: Home Room. This is a general opener for the day. The teacher goes over the days of the calendar, weather, and some review of shapes, colors, basically anything the teacher wants. I’ll be doing this time 4 times a week.

9:50 – 10am: Milk Time. The school provides a warm glass of milk for each student. They do a Thai prayer (I’m not sure if it exactly a prayer, but it resembles something like that) then sing a song to the tune of “Mary has a little lamb” but instead sing “Can I have some milk please, I am thirsty”.

10 – 10:50am: Theme. This is almost like time for an English lesson time. There is a designated theme for every two weeks, this week is transportation and next week is planets and sky. The teacher (who will mostly be me for this time) will go over new and review vocabulary and have a fun/interactive activity planned to go along with a theme. A song and movement is also encouraged.

11-11:50am: Centers. This is my favorite time of the day. The students choose between playing blocks, legos, books, home (like dress up and dolls), and art (play-doh and paper). There is a certain amount of kids at each center and they basically do free play. I should be grading homework at this time.

12- 1pm: Lunch. Lunch is served to all students, and teachers. Again, the students do a Thai chant all together once they sit to eat and I have no idea what they are saying. The teachers sit at a different table for lunch and I’ve heard that sometimes it’s not the best food. A few of the other teachers often go to 7/11 for lunch. Rice is always served along with one of two other dishes. Today was decent, rice and chicken curry and some egg dish thing. The cooks specifically lay off the spicy for the foreign teachers.

1-2pm and 2 – 3pm: vary everyday from other activities. Once a week is a Thai, computer, art, swimming, wrap up, math and science, and dance twice a week. Sometimes these activities will replace center time from the morning. Second semester (our current semester) has many festivals and an end of the year performance. Dance class is essential and necessary for them. Numerous teachers have told me that no one really takes second semester seriously because of all the festivals and holidays. I find it all very fun and fascinating. I have also found out that I will be teaching kindergarten math and science every week. I was a little worried at first but it looks like it’ll mostly be counting, adding and subtracting, and colors. I think I got it under control and hope none of the kids can out smart me. Other than math and science, the classes are taught by teacher with a specialty in that area, so hopefully I’ll have some free time in this time. Our school has great wifi so maybe this is a good time to skype!

3 – 3:30pm: Get ready to go. The kids have another milk break, but this time they drink what they brought from home and receive a snack provided by the school. The teacher goes over the homework and also goes over what they learned today. The most interesting part of this time for me is the teachers are to do all of the girls’ hair. Teacher Kookkai in my classroom is a master at this and puts the girls’ hair in elaborate braids, French braids, pigtails, everything that looks amazing. I want her to do my hair! I find this an interesting custom but I guess it’s only done in kindergarten. It’s a custom of getting ready to go home, I guess.

3:30 – 4pm: Playground/Pick up

Today for my first day, I was responsible for the theme and center time. For theme, I needed focus on air transportation. We talked about helicopters, airplanes, rockets, hot air balloons, and I showed them a whole bunch of pictures of space ships. I didn’t expect to get questions about the spaceship pictures and more specifically, satellites. After quickly stumbling to answer satellite questions, I had the kids make paper airplanes. We folded the paper, colored them, then headed outside to the field to throw them around. Teacher Kookkai and I had the kids line up to see whose airplane would fly the farthest. The kids loved it! I’m so bummed I forgot my camera at home! After this fun, we headed inside where I had the kids get into centers. The transition went smoothly and I had the kids wear nametags so I could learn their names. I was sitting with a few boys are the art table, some were playing with the play-doh and two were cutting and drawing on paper. When they flipped over the paper to the other side, they realized that my picture was on it. At the end of last week, the KG teachers sent out a newsletter introducing me and I guess they use the extra as scratch paper. Mathew and JJ got a huge kick out of cutting out my picture, yelling “TEECHA CHELSEA” and coloring the black and white photo with bright yellow hair and peach skin to look like me. They thought it was the funniest thing to have my picture. They then moved to something else but yelled my name about every two minutes to show me the new creation they made.

After having a pretty good day, I got very homesick on the walk home from school. It sounds like the school is already hinting at Jess to stay another semester (year and a half total, so extending our year long contract) and I’m already expecting to be approached with this idea too. Jess and I discussed the possibility on the way home, which is thinking WAY too far ahead since we’ve only been in the country for two weeks. The discussion of staying longer eventually made us both feel very homesick. Everything is so different here, including small things like they drive on the other side of the road and the drivers seat and steering wheel are on our passenger side (it sounds silly but I confuse myself when crossing the street). The closest gym (which has a total of like 10 machines, nothing like the YMCA or UCSB Ucen) and mall are across town (I’m so spoiled back home) and its strange to be one of the few non Thais in the city (and I’m 99% sure I’m the only Californian around.. representing!). The heat isn’t bothering me too much yet (but it is their winter right now), but the humidity is driving me crazy. Finding dinner eat night has almost become a chore which I dread (I don’t have a kitchen, only mini fridge) and being unable to communicate with the waiter at the restaurants often leaves me discouraged. I feel like I am missing out on things back home and feel very far from friends and family that are very important to me.

I came back to my apartment feeling down and wondering what the heck I’m doing here, but a few hours later Jess and I went on a desperate search for dinner and more specifically Pad Thai. We decided to try a sit-down place that we passed on our walk home from school and one of the waiters there spoke broken up English. We ordered chicken, rice, and vegetables and received exactly what we thought we ordered. Our spirits were instantly lifted.. we can do this! I know that I’ll learn to feel more comfortable here, it’ll just take time. And once I do, I’m sure the year will fly by.

I have also created flashcards so I can learn some Thai. Jess also has Rosetta Stone, so hopefully we can learn some key words asap. Friday is the big Halloween festival! I’ll be sure to bring my camera.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Exploring Khon Kaen

I wrote this on Monday (yesterday). Recently, I’ve been drafting blogs in word documents to post when my internet is working.

This weekend was my first weekend in Khon Kaen! We had today off of school (Monday) because of some sort of King holiday. My friend Jenna came up from Bangkok to spend the weekend with Jess and I since she doesn’t start teaching until November 1^st. Jenna arrived late on Friday evening, her bus was supposed to get in at 5pm but was 3 hours delayed because of the heavy flooding that is going on south of my city, but she arrived just in time to join Jess and I for dinner with five other teachers from our school. We decided to go to a restaurant that served European food (wahoo!!). Their menu had everything from pizza to pasta to burgers, definitely a good choice. I ordered ravioli and French fries, which hit the spot. My favorite condiment is ketchup, thank goodness they have it here!!

It was nice experience to meet with the other teachers and get the inside scoop on our school and hear their stories of how they got here. Two of the teachers in their late 30s have been here for about 5 – 7 years, two girls in their late 20s (one from US and one from England) have been here for about two years. The girl from England was only supposed to be here for only one semester, and went back to England after teaching, but missed it here so much that the school let her come back. Just one year ago, another teacher who is 23 was in the same exact boat that I’m in now. He came over to Thailand with the same program and was placed at the Patanadek School. His contract was to last for the ten-month semester (same as me) but agreed to do one more semester. In Thailand, the school year goes from May to September and November (or late October) to March (March to May is summer). He said that it was somewhat of a challenge for him to start teaching in the middle of the year, (me right now), and signed on for another semester so his students could start out fresh with a new teacher at the beginning of the year instead of leaving them half-way through.

After dinner, the three 20-something year old teachers showed Jess, Jenna and I the Khon Kaen night life. Its very different than what I’m used to at UCSB and San Diego, but it was fun. Everywhere we went had a live band or someone doing some live singing. We got a lot of looks because we were the only non-thais I saw all night but it was fun to be in a crowd of our age group.

The next day, Jenna, Jess, and I explored the night market, which had dozens and dozens of food vendors, clothing stands, and accessory shops. I got the BEST chicken kabob I’ve ever had, it had pineapple, zucchini, and the spiciest pepper I’ve ever had (I know now to stay away from this one next time) and covered in a sauce of our choice. The woman asked us “sweet or spicy sauce??” and laughed when Jenna and I immediately yelled “sweet!”. All Thai people know that westerns can’t handle Thai spicy. She dipped it in a sweet and sour terrioky-like sauce and we were on our way. All three of us also got corn in a cup and were surprised to find that they pour sweetened condensed milk on top and our choice of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla syrup. It was very sweet and pretty tasty! I picked up some sliced pineapple to bring back home for the next morning. With the food and transportation, it all cost me about 3 US dollars!

On Sunday, the girls and I woke up early to check out the big lake in Khon Kaen. After getting there, we realized that we came too early in the day. It looked like there was a carnival the night before and that it may open later in the afternoon. There seemed to be some sort of plant and bird contest going on in a plaza while we were there, but couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. We decided to take a walk around the lake and even attempted to ride a three person bike. I wasn’t exactly feeling it (I had trouble getting my feet on the pedals and balancing, I have much longer legs than most Thai people), so it was mostly Jess and Jenna giving it a try. It quickly warmed up and the humidity magnifies the heat, so we hopped in a cab to go to the five level in-door mall called Central. The cab driver couldn’t understand where we wanted to go when we said “Central Mall” and tried to show him where on the map. The mall is so new that it wasn’t on the map, so I think I confused him even more when I was pointing to an empty spot on the map. He pulled over to a nice hotel and the valet person was able to translate. Once we got there, this mall was heaven! There is a Billabong store, a huge department store called “Robinsons”, McDonalds, a movie theatre, bowling alley, Starbucks, and various other things! I will be going here at least once a weekend!

We decided to get Sizzlers for lunch since again, we were craving American food. We sat at a table at the window and again, got numerous looks, points, and waves from the various people walking by. I’ve learned to just smile back and they get a huge kick out of it. Jess and I shopped for some teaching-appropriate tops and found some in various colors. They are collared shirts but kind of non-attractive. To make matters worse, Thai people are SO tiny that nothing smaller than a large would fit. I bought both a pink and green since we have days at school where the teachers are encouraged to wear certain colors. I have accepted the fact that I won’t be finding any more clothes or shoes for me here, what I brought is basically what I’ll have for the next year! After shopping, we went to Swansen’s for dessert, ice cream with bananas and chocolate syrup in a huge cone for only 55 bahts (1.50)! I’ll be going to the mall just for this place. They have numerous ice cream sundae choices and banana splits. I am ecstatic! There is also a very large super market there with some international snacks. I splurged and got some nutella, bread, and cookies (mom, I miss our chocolate chip cookies so incredibly much! Store bought will have to do for now), it feels like a little taste of home.

I know I have mentioned my apartment in a previous post, but I’ll get into more details. It is actually pretty nice. My apartment building is only a few blocks from Khon Kaen hospital, an easy landmark to refer to when lost. I have made a collage out of my pictures and put a few maps up on the walls for decoration. I also got a new comforter for the bed and although its still rock hard, its more comfortable than before. My gecko friends keep me company and my AC is mostly working. It has been acting up a bit but keeps my room cool enough. I have found a TV station with Law and Order and Criminal Minds in English so I’m feeling right at home. Jess is literally right next door so it is nice to have a friend close by to venture out looking for lunch and dinner together. We are on a side street right from the main street and it takes us a minute and a half to walk to 7/11 and we are right on the songtell and tuk-tuk path.

Today, we ventured out for lunch and I was a little discouraged in the difficulty in finding something that looked tasty (I’m more picky here than I think I’ve ever been, that may be a good thing). Many places we walked by look like mystery meat on a stick or literally an entire cooked fish. I love the pad-thai noodle dishes but couldn’t find any vendors or open restaurants with it today. I usually try to go to the restaurants with the picture menu so I can just point and smile and hope for the best. I was ready to turn around to go home to 7/11 to find something there but Jess insisted we try to just sit some place and give it a try (thank goodness for Jess, I would probably live at 7/11 or not eat if I didn’t have her!). As soon as we sat down, a Thai woman came up and smiled and asked “chicken and rice?” We were ecstatic. “Yes! Chicken and Rice! Perfect”. I think it was the best chicken and rice I’ve had the whole trip, she brought out different sauces for us to try with it. I’m learning to appreciate the little things like those two words, chicken and rice. I really should learn how to say them in thai.

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching! I’m nervous/excited and hope the kids like me (and listen to me)! I can’t wait to get into a routine. I feel like I’ve been here for a month but reality it is only been two weeks, and I know this is just the beginning!