I have been getting a lot of requests for my address, so here it is! However if you are wanting to send me something (no pressure!), I have a few tips.
-I will be gone until the beginning of January (my birthday is in February ☺ ), so don't send until the first week of January.
-It generally takes ten days to get here
-The United States Postal Service is the cheapest way to send, they measure by size instead of weight!
I am leaving Khon Kaen early tomorrow morning (which is Christmas Eve) for my first big Thailand adventure! Last week, I found an AMAZING deal on a backpacking backpack.. in the states its about 200 dollars but I bought it on sale at Central for 37! Armed with my new gear, I am ready to take on 2 – 3 weeks of traveling! I am meeting 5 other girls at a nice hostel in Bangkok for Christmas weekend. We have arranged a secret Santa gift exchange and have plans to go to a nice Christmas dinner somewhere. It’ll be really nice to be with friends since I am so far from home, cold weather, and anything that feels like Christmas. After the weekend, Jenna and I will do a little traveling for a few days to some ancient ruins and sunflower fields. After, we will spend 4 nights and 5 days on Ko Phi Phi island in Southern Thailand and I couldn’t be more excited. A 15 hour bus ride and 2 hour ferry ride from Dec 28 – 29th.. this place better be amazing! Jess and her sister will be meeting us there as well. I have heard great things about Ko Phi Phi and I think it’ll be an amazing place to ring in the new year. Jenna needs to go back to school on the 4th, however I don’t need to be back until January 9th. I think I might use that time to do some solo traveling. I have never traveled alone before and have never been in a city, island, or really anywhere where I don’t know a single person. I think I may pick an island to go to from Ko Phi Phi and spend a couple days there. I normally have no problems meeting people so I’m not too concerned. If the gal from Eat Pray Love and go to Italy, India, and Indonesia by herself, I can do it too! I’m planning to be back home a few days before school starts and will update my blog then! I’m leaving my computer at home and will be doing some true traveling, hoping to get some good stories along the way.
Happy Highlights of my week
Receiving not one, not two, but THREE carepackages this week! Thanks Mom, Mr. Harney, and Brian!!! ☺
Teaching my kids about Christmas and that they LOVE seeing pictures of Milo dressed up as an elf. And that everyday, they remember his name and ask about him.
Having a class of Thai children sing “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and "Jingle Bells" multiple times a day
Getting gifts from my kids and their parents.. I got a teddy bear and candle, huge tin of cookies, bracelet, shall knit by grandma, and a pink umbrella with a bunny as a handle!
Using the candy canes Mr Harney sent me to bribe my kids to behave.. Its been working! I have uncovered the secret to making the naughtiest of the naughty listen, well, for the most part!
Dī māk dī, which describes how I am feeling today.. very very good! Not only did I have a pretty good, but busy, day teaching the kids all about Christmas (which again included pictures of Teacher Chelsea celebrating Christmas in America, Teacher Chelsea in the snow, and of course Milo dressed up as an elf.. which they LOVED!), I received not one but TWO care packages in the mail! Beside the fact that carrying two large packages home from school and on the songtell was a little challenging (I fell out of my seat on the songtell and into the woman next to me.. opps!), I was ecstatic! One from my mom which included the necessary magazines to give me my celebrity gossip fix and cosmo advice as well as spaghetti os, chicken flavored top ramon (Thailand has something like top ramon but it is all fish flavored), peanut butter, McDonalds sweet and sour sauce (only have plum sauce here at McDonalds.. anyone who knows me knows that along with ketchup, I LOVE sweet and sour and can’t eat nuggets without it), microwavable easy mac, and best of all homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate fudge! Nothing says Christmas like my moms homemade fudge. Thanks Mom!!
My second package came from someone special, my fifth grade teacher Mr. Harney! Mr. Harney is my most favorite teacher I have had in my entire educational career. He has always been a creative teacher with a great sense of humor, encouraging to students and a wonderful role model (Mr. Harney, you tell your students they don’t know how good they have it! J ) In fifth grade, I learned how to follow the stock market, follow baseball stats (also learned to love the San Diego Padres), how to write a check, how to balance a checkbook (well, I could still work on budgeting my money), and basics of traveling around the United States (maybe that is what sparked my travel bug!). We have kept in contact and he has been so supportive of me over the years, including my decision to come teach in Thailand. In my box sent by Mr. Harney, which his awesome daughter Julianna helped with, were ritz crackers, four different types of cookies (you know me too well), almond snacks, and my new favorite candy Peanut Butter M&Ms. Also included were Christmas candy to coerce my kids to behave, such as candy canes and sponge bob gummy krabby patties. Julianna, wonderful job with the treats! So wonderful in fact, that it’ll be hard for me to share with the kids.. Thank you SO much Mr. Harney and Julianna!
Yesterday was a special day for me too. Last weekend, my school coordinator took me to the local orphanage to look into volunteering there. Khaen Thong Childrens Home, the only orphanage in Khon Kaen has about 200 children aged newborn to six years old. Yesterday was my first volunteering day! A few weeks ago, I decided that I really wanted to volunteer while in Thailand. From all my involvement with the Wellness program at UCSB, I had learned giving to your community and volunteering in general doesn’t just benefit the give-y, but greatly affects the quality of life and overall happiness of the giver.. and boy is that true. I showed up at 9am Sunday morning, ready to just play with some babies. When I went last weekend with my coordinator, they were very excited that I wanted to help out and even said they wanted me to be around the 2 – 3 year olds that are in the process of being adopted by foreign families in hopes that the children would get more used to the foreign face. They just needed me to fill out a quick application with my information to be approved by the supervisor and when I called on Wednesday to check up on it, they said I was good to come on Sunday morning. But when I showed up yesterday morning, there was only one woman there in the office and she happened to speak not a word of English. But even so, she encouraged me to sit down and began trying to communicate with one another, very awkwardly and unsuccessfully. She then pulled up google translator on her computer, and we began to communicate that way.. thank goodness for technology! She asked if I were here “to visit children” and I typed that I was here “to volunteer. Application already finish” (keeping English simple is a good idea here). She immediately lit up and was so excited that I was here to volunteer. She grabbed another woman who was maybe from a side office who grabbed her phone to call a friend who could interpret for us. The woman on the phone asked all about what I’m doing in Thailand, volunteering here, etc. Then, the ladies hung up the phone and asked if I could wait about 15 minutes until the 2 – 3 year olds were done with snack time. Then with google translator, the women asked all about me.. What is my name? exchange student? University? What do I do here? How long been in Thailand? For how long? Do I like the weather? Where I come from? Where do I live? Do I have teacher for Thai? How did I get there today? How old I am? Do I have friends? Basically, a million questions. To answer the questions, I tried to use my new Thai phrase book, which thankfully has a glossary in the book with English, Thai pronunciation, and Thai symbol. And with every answer, they smiled bigger and bigger.
Then, the woman with the phone took me to the kids. It was just around the corner from the office and the kids were still eating snack, so she took me inside the building and told me to sit on a grass mat on the floor in a very empty room, except for cots stacked up in the corner and a television set in front of me. She turned on the TV, maybe to avoid the silence, and we watched some Thai dance for a few minutes. Then, a little boy and girl both in some sort of cat pajama set, came running into the room like little tornados. The Thai woman greeted the children and they immediately stopped for about ten seconds and stared at me. Of course I sat smiling, saying “Hello!” in about has high pitched as I can get, and said “Sa wat dee ka”, and like a flip of a switch back on again, the children both came barreling at me and both crashed into my lap. They wanted hugs, to be held, and love. For the next 2 hours, I played with this group of 15 toddlers. They have a set schedule which I couldn’t read because its in Thai, but I was there at the play outside time from 9:30 to 11. The caretakers which are two older women put a grassmat outside for the children to sit and play on with toys. The toys they played with while I was there were more of flat plastic fruit and food cutouts and plastic plates, forks, and knives. The children didn’t really seem to pay much attention to the toys though, many of them were more focused on getting my attention. I was often sitting on the ground trying to balance one kid on each of my legs and as soon as one stood up, another child would plop down. I held one little boy in my lap for at least 30 minutes and he completely stole my heart. He was so sweet and wouldn’t take his eyes off me for the rest of the time I was there. I spent this time hugging, tickling, and playing with these beautiful children and I think this very moment was the happiest I’ve been in Thailand so far. I feel a little selfish when saying that because it completely breaks my heart to see these amazing children, many too small to be 2 or 3 years old, have no family and no toys but it made me so happy to be with them.. I feel like just for a short time, I can make a difference in their day. I am already in love with these babies! (bringing my camera next time)
I walked the 30 minutes back to my house with a smile, picked up some fresh pineapple, finished the day with a Starbucks session and finished the book “Eat, Pray, Love”. I like it here. Feeling very very good.
Nothing too exciting going on, but here are highlights of the past week and a half.
This week and last weeks theme was “People of the World”. Naturally, I dedicated an entire lesson to America. I made a slide show with pictures of Obama, the flag, American money, American food (hot dog and hamburger), American football (which Matthew yelled “DAAANGEROUS” when he saw my slide including a picture of a charger pileup and LT sailing over it) and also focused on California.. I even showed a youtube clip of the video that is shown on the ride Soaring Over California at Disneyland (which they LOVED)! I explained that Teacher Chelsea is from a city near Mexico (which didn’t mean anything to them) and next to Disneyland (or Mickey Mouse’s house). I showed pictures of Teacher Chelsea in America, which included graduation, charger games, with my family, with the kids that I nanny for in Santa Barbara, any pictures that I felt were appropriate to show. They had a ton of fun picking teacher Chelsea out of my friends. My last picture was one of me and my mom, brother, and Milo Boo. Dogs are viewed differently as they are in America.. in America they are a member of the family. Here, they wonder the streets and are often abandoned when they are no longer puppies. When they saw this picture of me holding Milo, they yelled “TEECHA CHELSEA AND DOG!”. I said “Yes, this is Milo! He is my baby!” And little Kiwi in the front, with a huge grin on her face said “Teacher Chelsea, I like to EAT Milo!”. A little mortified, I was speechless just for a second.. I then realized that “Milo” is a chocolate brand, just like Nestle.. they make candy bars, coco puff-like cereal, and even chocolate milk. I laughed awkwardly in hopes that she meant chocolate.
Last week was Khon Kaen’s Silk Festival.. which honestly didn’t have much silk to sell. It was an even more intense version of like a county fair. It had rides, food, and junk for sale. And when I say junk, I mean JUNK. Like used shoes, 99 cent store stuff, ton and tons of cheap watches, clothing.. I did find a cool sea shell mobile thing for my room, but nothing else appealed to me. Because my city is not really a tourist spot, events like these seem to cater to the Thai people, who apparently want old cheap shoes. Or baby bunnies, squirrels, or porcupine. I was tempted to pick up a furry friend, but decided against it once thinking of ways I could smuggle him through customs when coming back to the US.
The people at the gym no longer call me Chelsea.. it’s now Maria, as in Maria Sharapova. One of the instructors even told one of my workout classes that I am Maria.
Christmas is very prominent in Khon Kaen.. Thai people LOVE Christmas decorations, but I don’t think they actually celebrate the day. They love the idea of Santa, Snowmen, and Christmas trees, which are all mega-sized at Central Plaza mall! I even come across Santa Claus himself while I was leaving the gym today, he made an appearance at the Pullman (5 star hotel which my gym is at) to do their tree lighting. Me and Santa were leaving the hotel at the same time (it looks like he’s lost a little weight) and with a twinkle in his eye, he looked at me and said “Ho Ho Ho!”.
As you all know, I sure am picky when it comes to food. I have found a place at the Central Plaza food court that I love! The food court is just like it sounds, is a big area with maybe like 6 different counters that’ll make different kinds of food (all Thai). There is one for Pad Thai, some soupy thing, and my very favorite fried rice with an omelet! Normally, this order comes with seafood creatures that all have eyeballs (I made the mistake of ordering it the very first time because I thought it would just be shrimp.. I didn’t know that the shrimp would have a face and bring along other sea friends). So the next time I went, I said “Mai ow seafood ka” which means “I don’t want seafood please”. From then on, they know my order! Just plan old fried rice with an omelet, which actually isn’t an omelet at all, but just a flat egg. And it is always the same two women working and cooking. Yesterday when I went for dinner, the women, who speak very little English, asked me my name. When I said “Chelsea”, they looked so bewildered and disappointed like they could never learn to pronounce my name. So they had me write it down on a piece of paper. I asked them theirs but immediately forgot. I’m not sure how they feel about me piling my plate up with six or seven spoon-fulls of American ketchup, but they sure smiled big when I told them that it was “Aroi” or delicious.
I’ve been in Thailand for two months now! I feel like I am finally getting into the swing of things. However, I still know VERY limited Thai. I am having my kids teach me a word a day, which little Pao Pao LOVES doing. He now translates almost everything he can for me from English to Thai, he is one of the few kids with amazing English. I am finally going to pick up a language book this weekend.. next week I have three weeks off for Christmas break! I will be doing a lot of bus time and maybe can finally get myself to learn a little Thai. I just feel so unmotivated since I have gotten away with not knowing any. At least my kids taught me how to count to ten. That’s a start! :)
This past weekend was the Kings 83rd birthday, so to celebrate the King gave us all a three day weekend! Father’s Day is also celebrated on the Kings birthday, so school on Friday was filled with fathers day celebrations. There was a morning assembly filled with games (such as feed your father blind-folded and another game that looked very similar to the famous Lady and the Tramp scene of kissing with spaghetti.. but in Thailand instead of spaghetti it’s a string of something fishy) and many took their children home at lunch, so I only had five kids after lunch. We spent the rest of the day playing in the classroom, practicing our India dance for culture fair in two weeks, and playing on the playground. I spent the rest of the day anxious to get home, pack, and get on my way for the three day weekend! I had plans to meet a group of girls at Ko Samet, and island 3 hours away from Bangkok!!
Friday night, Jess and I had tickets for the 12:30 overnight bus to Bangkok. At 11:30pm, we made the 20 minute walk from our apartment to the bus station. Everything went very smoothly, except for the fact that sleeping on the bus was not comfortable whatsoever. We made it to Bangkok at around 6am and needed to catch our next bus from the bus terminal across town, so we took a cab to the sky train stop (like a subway), and the sky train to the other bus terminal. Neither of us have had experience in exploring Bangkok yet, so it was a little bit of an adventure but we made it just fine. We hopped on the 7am bus, snagging the last two seats available. Exhausted and relived that we were almost to our final destination, I was getting a little restless and frustrated that the last three hour bus was making plenty of stops to pick up people on the road and putting them in the two open seats next to me, way in the back. I think the bus driver pockets money by picking up people (all Thai people, looking like they are going off to some farm) who don’t officially buy tickets at the bus station and only need like an hour ride to the middle of no where. I never felt unsafe, just anxious that we kept stopping.. I was ready for Ko Samet! After getting to Ban Phe, we needed to take a ferry (which was a janky old boat that I honestly thought was going to break down, or tip over on the way) to Ko Samet island, then walk about 20 minutes to get to the beach and our hotel! 12 hours later, 2 busses, 1 taxi, 1 train, and plenty of walking later, we finally arrived!
Me and famous Ko Samet statue
Keep in mind.. this is the LONGEST amount of time in my entire life that I have been away from the ocean. I have been so completely spoiled by growing up in San Diego living only like 3 miles from the beach, and going to school in Santa Barbara literally living on a house on a cliff hanging over the ocean. Finally seeing the Gulf of Thailand was amazing and I felt at home. At this very moment, I promised myself that I would never live this far from the ocean ever again.
At one point, the fire man sat on my back
The rest of the day, the girls and I (8 or us total) just hung out at the beach, in the sand enjoying the sun. The beach was filled with lots of western tourists, a few Thai vacationers, and various Thai people selling sarongs, fruit, and massage and pedicure services.. you can get a Thai massage and pedicure right on the beach! The food on the island was AMAZING! That first night, we grabbed some Chang at 7/11 (Thailand version of cheap beer) and brought our own drinks to dinner at a place called Ploy, which had a bunch of tables and pillows set up on the beach to eat at. It had a live band and promised us an amazing fire show. They seated the 8 of us girls at a table right in the front, next to the stage and near the bar. We ordered dinner and sang along with the live band from the Philippines, who sang songs we know from America by Lady Antebellum, Sublime, Eminem, Jason Mraz, everything we could have ever wanted to hear.. and they were great! All the workers at the restaurant spoke great English, and we found out practically all of them are from South Africa. After the music was the fire show.. 10 “fire men” to perform trick and acrobats with ropes of fire, they twirled, tossed, threw, spit, and jumped with fire. The “fire men” then got the crowd involved by setting up fire games for us, like fire jump rope, jump through the hoop of fire, fire limbo, tug of war with fire.. I normally have a HUGE fear or fire, but this was just amazing. Along with the club like music, it turned into something like an outdoor club atmosphere with fire games. The girls and I enjoyed Ploy the rest of the night by drinking, dancing, singing, playing fire games, and playing with neon body paint. I ended the night with a roady.. a fried pancake with a filling of my choice, nutella and banana. Needless to say, I got a few more of these the rest of the trip. It was a fun night.
The next morning, the girls and hit the beach fairly early, but not before grabbing breakfast. We found a little restaurant that had a large variety of American and Thai food, and it was good! For breakfast, I ordered scrambled eggs and toast, and lunch I got a chicken burger with cheese, and fries.. AMAZING! The rest of this December day, we sat in the sun enjoying smoothies, massages, drinking out of coconuts, swimming in the Gulf of Thailand. I love island life.
That night, the Kings birthday was being celebrated. We decided to check out a different bar that was said to have a fire show also, called Silversand. After an hour of being there, we realized that it was a gay bar (just like Wildcat Sunday nights for my UCSB friends!!), and it was a lot of fun! Great dancing music and lots of fun people! At midnight, the bartenders handed out candles to sing happy birthday to the king, along with other Thai songs. They then lit this huge sign that read “long live the king” and everyone stood and cheered for the king. Obviously I was unable to chant along, but it was a lot of fun. Happy Birthday H.M. King!
The next day, Monday, was time to trek home. Again, Jess and I traveled 12 hours back in multiple forms or transportation to make it back to Khon Kaen. Along the way, we had an hour and a half break between our buses, so we got off at a stop on the sky train that had a huge mall, called the Paragon. It was all decked out for Christmas and we had heard that in the basement was a stand called “Sunshine Tacos” with Mexican food! Along with not seeing the ocean, this is the LONGEST time I have ever not had Mexican food, I have it like 4 times a week back home! We both bought chicken burritos and splurged quite a bit to add cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.. but it was worth it. A perfect ending to an amazing weekend.
This week is only a three day week.. Constitution day on Friday! At this moment, I’m loving Thailand. I’m planning island trips every chance I get.
I’ve been a little reluctant about blogging this week. A mixture of being really homesick around Thanksgiving and not much really going on during the week played a factor in not updating in the past week and a half. But here is a little update.
"Turkey dance, JJ?" "NOOO, Ben 10!"
Por-Por
Last week was Thanksgiving, my first Thanksgiving not home with my family. And the first time I have ever had to work on Thanksgiving, and not go Black Friday shopping. That Thursday was like any other day, except I got an hour in the afternoon to teach my kids about Thanksgiving. I made a power point and gave them a brief history lesson on pilgrims, Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving dinner. Then I showed pictures of the traditional Thanksgiving foods (mashed potatoes, turkey, pumpkin pie, ect.) and explained the concept of being thankful. Another teacher had a copy of “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” in Thai, so I’m hoping they understood more once we watched the show. After, I had the kids make handprint turkeys. They have turkeys in Thailand.. chickens and ducks but no turkeys. So the concept of a turkey is NOT a chicken was a little challenging.. and funny. Once I told the kids that turkeys "gobble", they got a kick out of gobbling with their handprint turkey. I’m not sure how much they really understood what Thanksgiving was and it honestly might have been more fun for me than them.
That night, Jess and I ventured out to this place called “Pizza and Bake”. We heard they had American food, and of course I was NOT having Thai food on Thanksgiving, a big American holiday! We both ordered macaroni and cheese.. it was no easy mac but it was better than Pad Thai for Thanksgiving. We picked up some cheese cake at the 5 star hotel on the walk home.. Again, not quite cheese cake from Cheese Cake Factory, but more like an attempt at success. We went home and watched “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (in English) and were disappointed to find we didn’t even own a bottle opener to open up our sparkling wine. Feeling very homesick and defeated, we called it a night and gave up on an American Thanksgiving for the day.
On Saturday, the other foreign teachers at my school had a big dinner at one of the teachers house. It was a potluck and everyone brought something to contribute. I put in for the apple pie; one of the teachers took all the pie material to the bakery and told them how to make an apple pie.. it didn’t turn out anything like my mom’s pie (this crust was VERY thick and not all the way baked, but the apples were good) but it hit the spot for the day. We also had turkey (which can only be bought at one big bulk store, like a Costco, like an hour or two away), corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, pumpkin squash stuff, macaroni and cheese, and stuffing. After having a week of being very homesick, it was very nice to sit down with a group of other English speakers and have a home cooked meal. For a minute, I almost forgot I was in Thailand.
Like I mentioned, the week of Thanksgiving was the most homesick I think I’ve ever been, in my life. I was sick with some strange bug last Wednesday.. I woke up feeling VERY nauseous and dizzy but not with a stomachache. I went to school anyways and embarrassingly started crying when another teacher asked if I was okay when she saw I wasn’t doing too well. At that moment, I wanted to be home in my own comfy bed with my family and friends near by, I was feeling SO far from home. I think I scared the other Thai teachers with my tears and they encouraged me to call it a day and head home. I was at school for only 5 minutes, went straight home, and slept for the rest of the day. I sure needed it! The next day I woke up refreshed and feeling healthy. I am feeling A LOT better this week and not nearly as homesick. Today, I am in good spirits and feeling really happy. It’s a three day weekend for the Kings Birthday and Fathers Day, so Jess and I are meeting other girls from orientation at Ko Samet, and island near Bangkok. It’ll be fun to get out of Khon Kaen and explore a new place.
After extremely missing my friends, family, food, and everything about home, I decided I needed to make a list of things I like here. I’m trying to focus more on what I’m doing now and less on later.. (10 more months!)
Things about Thailand that make me smile
When I go to the gym, I clean myself up there so I’m not going to dinner all sweaty and gross. Yesterday when I went to return my locker key in exchange for my gym card, my favorite instructor that teachers the gym ball and abominal class was at the front desk. Normally he gives a simple “Bye, Chelsea. See you tomorrow!” but yesterday he said something about tennis. At first I thought he was telling me that he teaches a tennis class on Tuesdays and thought I would be interested. I quickly told him I am awful at tennis and he responded with “I think Chelsea and Maria Sharapova same same”. The other instructors laughed and said “Chai! Chai!” (yes, yes!) I realized he was telling me I look like some tennis player, not asking if I want to play tennis. Having no idea who this “Maria” is, I googled her.. I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m flattered.
Fresh fruit is easy to find.. ALL THE TIME! I eat fresh pineapple everyday for lunch (along with rice). The fruit is cheap (10 baht.. 30ish cents for a huge chunk), clean, and tasty
So at the end of the school year, our school has a huge event called “Pride Day”. At this event, the kindergarteners graduate to elementary then all the classes do a dance performance and this years theme is Disney. My class is performing dances to different songs from Aladin. For some reason, the school asked me to be the “story teller” for the event.. meaning they would pre-record my voice of me reading a story then at Pride Day, I would sit on stage, “read” a story to a group of kids as they played the recording.. I’m not sure why I wouldn’t just read the story then, but this is how its always been done. When I found out they picked me, I was a bit hesitant at first, especially when they told me I needed to dress up as an angel, then a fairy godmother. But when I asked if I could dress up as a Disney Princess instead, they were all for it. Now, I’m really excited to be Cinderella for the day. Hey, if I can’t find a real job once I’m back in the US, maybe I can be a princess at Disneyland! Just kidding, kind of.
WARM WEATHER! Its 70-80 degrees here everyday. I LOVE IT! Its going to be grueling in March and April, but I’m loving the weather now, especially when I hear that my friends are scraping ice off their windshield back home
Last night, I found a new place to eat at the mall!! A smoothie place called “Squeeze”.. has all the flavors and tastes just like Jamba Juice!! It’s real smoothies and not “smoothies” like we find at the night market, where they throw in fruit, sugar water, sweetened condensed milk, ice, and mix it up. It’s the REAL Jamba like smoothies. I also found a waffle place! I think I can survive here now!
The hotel down the street has huge signs for "Thailand's Got Talent".. For some reason, I get a huge kick outta it.
Most of the time, my kids make me smile. Especially when they like to take pictures with me on my laptop in PhotoBooth
I’m leaving in an hour to catch an overnight bus to Bangkok to spend the long weekend on an island called Ko Samet! Jess and I are meeting Jenna and a few other girls. This is the longest I haven’t seen the ocean in my entire life, so I am SO excited!! Another reason why I like Thailand.. Easy to travel around! :)
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.
Jess found a wiggling caterpillar clinging on to a piece of lettuce in her salad from the salad bar at Sizzlers. We were so desperate for greens we just pretended it didn’t happen until after we were done eating. We first hand are learning that standards of “clean” are much different here. We both didn't feel well the next day, we won't be going back for a while.
After a bit of frustration over the Thai sizes (some of my friends, and especially my Mom, knows how frustrated I can get when I can’t find what I’m shopping for!!), I found an outfit for Loi Krathong! Hallelujah! It took me trying on a few skirts to find one that finally fit (Thai people have tiny waists and no booty). I settled for a pink traditional style dress for the festival we are having this Saturday (I will post pictures!). The set includes a full length skirt, top, sash, and costume jewelery. I wasn’t originally too fond of the pink, but then decided that maybe I’ll be able to pull off the “Barbie goes to Thailand” look. (Here is a link about Loi Krathong) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Krathong
My usual Pad Thai vendor is GONE! I went to the market on Friday and Tuesday and their cart is nowhere to be found! I’m basically a little heart broken and may starve. Well, starving is exaggerating.. I have already found a replacement Pad Thai vendor but it doesn’t taste nearly as good.. and they don’t know how I like my Pad Thai. And I’m not sure how to tell them how I like it.
I had a break through with one of my “naughty” boys! On Tuesday, he listened to Teacher Chelsea when I asked him to sit down and not to talk. He even raised his hand to answer questions in class! I am trying more positive reinforcement and he is immediately responding to it. Its possible he was on good behavior because the king of the naughty boys was absent that day.. but I’ll be experimenting the rest of this week and will keep you updated.
I am officially booked to spend New Years on Ko Phi Phi with my friend Jenna (from UCSB, she’s teaching in Bangkok.. I’ve mentioned her a few times before) and I can’t be more excited! Jess and her sister who will be visiting will be spending New Years on the same island. On my more challenging days, I remind myself that in just over a month I will be spending 5 days and 4 nights on one of the most beautiful islands in Thailand to celebrate the New Year! Having something to look forward to helps keep me sane.
The theme for my class this week: Thai Culture and Thai Games. I am teaching kids material I know nothing about. Today, I taught about the “Thai Map” and Thai geography. I had a worksheet for the kids to label “North”, “South”, “North East”, “West”, and “Central”. They asked me on a big map where Khon Kaen is and I couldn’t even tell them, the map is in Thai! Krathong is one of our vocabulary words, it is a raft made from a section of banana tree trunk decorated with flowers and candles to send into a large body of water, like a lake (Thanks Wikipedia!). My kids and I go over our vocabulary for Thai Culture and Games everyday and whenever I get to this word, they can’t control their laughing. Apparently I pronounce it funny. I ask them to teach me how to say it and they all yell "KRAAAATHONG!!!", I repeat it exactly how I hear it, and even more uproar. I try to avoid saying it at all costs to maintain control of my rowdy kids. But it's still a little funny.
We sing this song everyday as we prepare for Loi Krathong. We play it in Thai and English. Here is the English version. Be careful, it’s one of those songs I hate that I love, its a bit catchy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSkriTLhM7A
