Beyond the Sea

Hello, this is Erin writing. Dan and I just got back from our 2 week break, and it was amazing! I don't think I have ever been this tan in my life. The sun shone at least once every day, and the surroundings were gorgeous. Luckily, I didn't burn. Dan wasn't as lucky, but I made sure we had plenty of aloe before we left so he was ok. During our trip, we traveled to the south of Thailand, to Koh Phi Phi, for a week and then hopped on a flight to Bali in Indonesia! Hopefully the pictures will explain how beautiful it was. Its times like that that I'm really happy I chose to live here for a year.

Before we left, I made a big purchase- I got a new camera! Since we were planning to be in the water, Dan and I also decided to get an underwater case for it. It's a fancy piece of machinery, but we spend a lot of time using it while in the ocean. Our second day on Phi Phi, Dan and I went scuba diving! I would love to do it again. Since we are not certified divers, we went with an instructor. She was great, but on the first dive she told us not to take the camera with- and rightfully so. It took a lot of practice just trying to get used to breathing and keeping at the same depth. On the second dive neither Dan and I felt comfortable enough to take it with us. While diving, we saw huge pieces of coral, tiger fish and a moray eel! Crazy. No snakes though, thank goodness (thanks again, Mom). While we could not capture that part of our adventure, we spent a lot of time snorkeling and put the camera to good use there.

This photo is Dan levitating under water. His talents of levitation have expanded beyond land. :)

The photo above is my favorite photograph from snorkeling. The picture is of a field of pink and white anemones, with some "Gill" fish (from Finding Nemo). The water was so clear, it was amazing. This was taken in Candidasa, Bali. It was my favorite spot snorkeling because the visibility was so clear and I have never seen so many fish before in my life! At one point, I was completely surrounded with little blue fish about as long as your index finger. We also (from a slightly longer distance) saw a bigger school of fish as long as your forearm. That was a little more scary, but still pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the site was also the most dangerous. The undertow and current were pretty strong, so after about 45 minutes I had to climb back in the boat.

A great many sunsets were seen on our journey. This is one from our hotel in Candidasa.
Another sunset photo, this time in Kuta Beach. It was a busy part of the island in Bali, but the sunset was spectacular. If you could see what we are looking at (beyond the camera), all the locals came out to play soccer on the beach, while kids played in the tide pools. Very charming.

More fish! This photo is from the reef outside our hotel in Candidasa. Surprisingly, there was a lot to see in our little bay :)

Dan and I went on a sunset tour on a fairly cloudy day in Phi Phi. This photo was taken on the smaller island, Phi Phi Lei. The island is not inhabited, except by maybe about 6 locals. The cliffs are mind blowing. To get there, however, was slightly dangerous. If you can see behind me, there were quite a few waves and the wind was pretty strong. Since the swells were so big, we couldn't use the "main entrance." Our boat parked in a harbor, and we had to jump ship and swim to a set of ropes that brought us to some stairs so we could climb up the back side of the island and arrive at the beach from behind. It was by far and away the most beautiful beach I have ever been to, and lives up to it's reputation. The movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was actually filmed in this bay. Luckily, since the weather was a little questionable, there were not many people there. I think that made the experience even better.

Phi Phi also hosted a great number of fire shows at night. Dan, being the photographer that he is, loved the chance capture it. Personally, I think he did a great job. These guys used fire lanterns and torches with both ends lit. It was pretty impressive, and they went through about 5 gallons of lighter fluid to keep everything lit for a show that lasted at least 30 minutes. The smell was intoxicating.

While in Bali, Dan and I decided to see who could take better pictures of the gigantic waves with their camera. Since I had the waterproof camera, I was sure I had an advantage. This is Dan's photo of me getting rocked by the waves as they threw me around the beach.

This is my photo of me getting rocked by the waves. I'll let you decide who won that competition haha.

(Sorry these photos are much smaller, but it was going to take forever to reload them as larger versions). Our hotel in Candidasa was beautiful, and Dan and I had the suite room. We were not big spenders, we just happened to meet the right guy who arranged our stay. We considered ourselves pretty lucky. The pool was located next to the restaurant, and both areas looked onto the ocean.
This is the "garden walkway" that leads to that pool / restaurant, and this is the view starting at our room.
Finally, our suite room! It had a sitting area inside as well and the biggest bath tub I have seen in my life. Around sunset, they would fill a teapot with hot water so you could have coffee on the verandah. As you can guess, it was like having coffee in a forest, so we had to use lots of bug spray before stepping outside. Luckily in Phi Phi, I found 15 % deet Off and the mosquitoes didn't dare touch me after that.

And that's our trip! On Tuesday we start classes again, and I'm looking forward to seeing my students again. Its strange to think that our time in Thailand is half way done. I have a feeling these last 6 months will go by very quickly. Plus, Dan and I have so many things to look forward to! Around Christmas, Dan's parents and Becca will come to visit. Shortly after that my mom and a few family friends will make the trip as well. And if my luck holds out, Mariel will travel with me for a bit before I head back home in March! So exciting. That's it for now, but hopefully more updates to come again soon :)

Lopburi and Floating Markets

This is Dan, and I apologize that no one has updated this blog in over a month. It has definitely been a busy month, but more than anything I think the strange sights and smells that inspired the early writing have fallen back to an "everyday life" status. When we first arrived in Thailand we were told that we would go through several phases of living abroad and looking at it now I couldn't agree more. After passing first through the "honeymoon" phase of seeing everything as new and exciting like a vacation, we passed into the phase of trying to make sense of our place here. This means comparing the USA to Thailand (unsuccessfully). Trying to compare the two cultures is a dangerous thing because it just reminds you that you are a foreigner and don't fit in. Everytime something bad happens it gets blamed on the country and that is not a fair way to consider the differences. Then we got a new girl who joined us at our school and we stepped into a position of authority over our surroundings and we saw how much we really do know about this place. I'm not sure where I stand right now but I am convinced that Thailand is a wonderful place to visit and travel in but I could not work here forever. The sense of work ethic and integrity is maddeningly different than western nations.


This is not to say we don't have great experiences all the time though! For example, 2 weeks ago our school coordinator took us on a trip to one of the tallest temple pagodas in Thailand called Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakhom Pathom. This pagoda is reputed to be "as tall as a free dove can fly," a description which I really like. At all Buddhist temples there are bells which followers will ring three times to elicit good luck from the gods. Erin and Whitney were able to do this without a problem but when I tried, our boss took the stick out of my hand and said, "If you don't ring them loud enough, the gods can't hear you!" The best part of it was how completely serious she was about this. She was also very nervous to go into a cave which led to a small altar because of the "ghosts" that were in that place. Thai people are very afraid of ghosts and they consider them to be almost everywhere. When we went swimming at night at the ocean once, a very worried Thai man came to check on us. This was not because he was afraid we would drown, but there are ghosts on the beach at night. My school kids won't go to the bathroom alone because they think that ghosts are waiting for them when they are alone.

After Phra Pathom Chedi, we went to a floating market. This is an elaborate system of canals dug first to provide irrigation and trade routes, but later used to establish a trading post right on the water. Shop keepers open up around 6am and the canals are full of long tailed boats, some carrying shoppers, some carrying vendors of fruits and others full of tourists like me.


Last weekend we wanted to get out of town but only had one night to do it. So we hopped on the northbound train for 27 baht (about 90 cents) and took it 3 hours north to Lopburi, an old provincial capital of the Siamese state. This town is now home to several temple ruins and several thousand macaque monkeys. They mostly live near one of the larger temples where they are somewhat protected and fed. We paid a man 20 baht to act as guardian against the more aggressive monkeys. Weapon of choice? Slingshot. Our friend Meghan was not a big fan of the monkey packs and immediately invested in a slingshot only to find that if you act afraid of them, the monkeys will not fear you. That night, we found a Thai motorcycle gang that was holding a party for the opening of a new bar in Lopburi. They fed us and to repay them we regaled them with American Karaoke until late in the night.

On Sunday, Erin and I are taking a 2 week vacation. Here is our tentative itinerary: Sunday night hop on a 12 hour bus south to Krabi in order to catch a ferry to the world-renowned islands of Koh Phi Phi and Phuket, Thailand. After 5 days of tropical Thai paradise, we will fly from Phuket airport to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We will stay only one night here and catch an early morning flight to Bali, Indonesia. We will spend 2 nights on the southwest beach area known as Kuta Beach. On Monday morning we will travel east to Ubud, in the central part of the island to enjoy local art, culture, and the terraced rice paddies for which Indonesia is famous. Spending only one night here, we will travel on the next day to the eastern shores of the island, near Candi Dasa. Here we will be close to many world-class snorkeling and scuba-diving sites, as well as several semi-active volcanoes. Not only are the volcanoes interesting sites on their own, but their stature and destructive force has long been a hub of religious piety and sacrifice and many temples have been built in honor of the volcano gods. After a week in Bali, we will head home to begin another semester with Yothinburana School in Bangkok. Erin recently bought a new camera and I bought an underwater case for it so that we can take pictures underwater, I am extremely excited and I look forward to sharing the pictures on here as soon as possible.

Oh 3/1, How I love Thee

This is Dan, giving a description of why my M3/1 class is the best class in the school.

First, you may not know how the classes are set up. M3 is "Mattayom 3" which is the third year of their high school, equivalent to western 9th graders. The levels are further separated by ability, so the 3/1 class is supposed to be more intelligent than the 3/4 class. (In fact they are and the contrast is staggering)

In class, they are a dream. When I walk in the door, they all run to their seats, smiling and giggling before the leader calls out "Please stand up!" After which they all rise, give me a wai, and say "good morning teacher!" All classes are supposed to do this, but most do not. Many of my classes are not lecture-based. Since I teach reading and writing, I think it is important that they learn this skill through practice and self-reflection. After they have made their opinions, I open the floor to their responses to the given questions and draw attention to any idea which is unique or wrong. Both are important because this gives them the chance to review their own answer, decide which is better, and comment on why one answer is better than another. I frequently tell them that I would rather have a wrong answer with strong reasons than a correct answer with no thought process. The best part is that they truly take this to heart, and when I walk around to help the small groups analyzing a piece of writing, they rarely want my help because they want to do it themselves.

I recently accompanied the students on a day trip to a province called Chonburi. It was basically an excuse to get them out of school and do something fun, since nothing about the trip was educational. I was quite popular on this trip and I remember commenting to Erin that if I had charged 5 baht for every picture I took with students I would be a rich man. Students that usually don't say much opened up and were very willing to chat with me on this trip.

One groups of girls in the back are so advanced that after they finish whatever work I give them, they ask me questions about the spanish language. Most Thai people love European League soccer and so they like to know about the spanish speaking teams and players. It makes me laugh when they ask me about this because I can see the thought process working very quickly: 1) Think of the question in Thai
2) Translate the question into English
3) Hear a response Spanish and explanation in English
4) Translate from Spanish to English and then to Thai
5) React and respond in kind
Teaching Spanish in English to Thai people is just kind of funny to me.

They are also prone to drawing me pictures. We are reading "Black Beauty" this semester and to shorten the writing on the board I will often write "BB." However, when they see "BB" they think of a "BlackBerry" cell phone. Thus, I recently got a collection of cartoons showing me doing various things with a "BB" including "Ajan Daniel talking on BB" with a picture of me with a small horse up to my ear; "Ajan Daniel riding BB" with a picture of me sitting on a very large cellphone that looks like a magic carpet. They also listen to certain quotations of mine and draw me saying them. At least this shows that they listen to me!

Long story short, if I could spend all day in one class, it would be 3/1. We laugh and play guitar together, we teach each other English and Thai, and we joke about life in general. They are some fine individuals.

Other Side of the Mountain Gr

It's Erin. I'm back! Grandma- this update is just for you. Sorry its been so long, I will try to post more regularly. I miss you :)

WHAT a week already this one has been. Saturday night we were out with friends and I wasn't feeling well, so I went home early. It turns out that I had food poisoning or something like that... the doctor called it an "intestinal infection" but whatever the name, I was a sick sick girl on from 10pm Saturday till about 6pm Monday. I missed school Monday and stayed home to sleep and watch movies that Kels put on my computer before I left for Thailand. The one called "Rocket Science" was pretty funny. Luckily, I have Dan and he took SUCH good care of me. He was running to 7/11 for tylenol to break my fever and 7up when my stomach wouldn't keep anything down. He's incredible. Much thanks to him, I'm feeling almost 100% better. I'm just waiting for my appetite to come back... I'm sure it will come soon.

That was the beginning of the week. Yesterday Dan, Whitney, and I had to miss class in order to get our work permits- what a disaster! As of today, (Aug 4), Dan and I have been in Thailand 90 days! Which is awesome, but that means that the visa we entered the county in has expired and we need our permits so that we can stay longer to continue teaching. To make a very very long story much shorter, we waited in traffic and stood in line at government offices for 10 HOURS to get this done and we still don't have permits. The system of communication here is lacking and we didn't have the right materials and went to the offices in the wrong order. I just wanted to scream and stomp my feet in protest at the end of the day. I didn't! But I really wanted to. We have one week left for things to get sorted out and will miss another day of class to wait in line... but hopefully with a better result. Otherwise I will be returning home much sooner than I originally expected haha.

Dan has a swanky new camera (I can't remember if I mentioned that earlier) but he's been taking some amazing photos. Last week we had a 4 day weekend and traveled up north to the city of Chaing Mai and into the mountains with a group of friends. When we were up in the mountains, it was actually cold outside! It was kind of scary. I think it was a mistake to choose to live in Bangkok, because it was also just beautiful. And clean, which goes a long way in my opinion.

Either way, I have stolen some pictures from him to post on here from our trip. One night we stayed in a really nice guest house with soft beds, then two nights we stayed in a youth hostel. I hate to say it, but I much preferred the guest house even though the hostel was cheaper and gave us free breakfast. I guess thats a sign of growing up... but really does anyone prefer to stay in a youth hostel? I don't know. We saw waterfalls, lots of green land, rode mopeds, ate bugs and ate the some of the best "foreigner" (American) food in Thailand. It was pretty amazazing

Dan and I in Chiang Mai with the city down below :)

That's me getting ready to eat a bug. It was a cricket, and it wasn't half bad!

And finally, we made it to the other side of the mountain. It was beautiful!

The Problem With "Nam Som"...

This is Dan starting... ... ... now!

Few things bother me more than when I go somewhere in Thailand, actually knowing how to say what I want, and the people won't even respond to you. This happens all over the place because there is a common (but not ubiquitous) sentiment that since I am white, I am rich and do not speak any Thai. Both of these are in fact wrong, because I am a teacher who is paid in Baht, and have a decent grasp on basic Thai. There are two sides of this situation as always, but Im going to be negative and tell you about the unpleasant side:

Sometimes, people just won't listen.
-On a bus to a major intersection, I asked the attendant to go to "See-Yan." Immediately he walked away and called for another attendant who must speak a little English. She said "bai nai?" (Where are you going?) "See-Yan" said I, exactly the same as before and with no questions or problems we were on our way.

- I love spicy things.
While Thai food has a reputation for being very spicy, a lot of it comes very bland but with a full compliment of additions and condiments. Namely: prik pon (crushed red pepper), nam som (crushed pepper in a sweet water), nam tan (strangely sugar since literally it is brown water!) and nam plah (fish sauce=garbage to me).
So when a dish is served up at a regular restaurant (as opposed to street food), you usually have to ask for extra seasonings. The two I want are prik pon and nam som. (more on nam som in a minute) The problem is when I ask for it, I get blank stares every time no matter how I try to change my tone or accent. I've finally learned that I am saying it completely right, but they are not listening. They take one look at me and decide that I could not possibly have asked for what they think I said. Which is always funny because once I get it, I ask them what it is called in Thai and they respond, exactly the way I said it, "prik pon."

*More on why nam som is confusing*
Thais use the word nam=water for a HUGE variety of phrases and words. Foe example, tears are "eye water" (nam tha), orange juice is nam som (orange water), vinegar is nam som (orange water), sweet spicy sauce is nam som (orange water)... Wait, there's no way they could use the same word for 3 completely different things... is there???

It turns out that yes, my friends, nam som is the name of at least three completely different things, and these without tonal difference. (for example the word "mah" can mean come, dog, horse, grandmother... depending on tone)

It's really no wonder I'm not understood sometimes, what with the tones and inflection. But that's not what bothers me. This is the Land Of Smiles, to be sure, but it is not without its scoundrels and selfish-folk alike. I've never felt the effects of racism so acutely as I have here and I've never more wanted to just blend in and not be noticed as the "farang" (white foreigner) walking down the street. 95% of the people are happy to see you and share their world with you, but the other 5% (4.5% of which are taxi and tuk-tuk drivers) just think you are some rich whitey with nothing better to do then invade their country and cause them 10 seconds of inconvenience. The worst part is that I am a legal alien, an attentive local, a speaker of the language (at least to a decent degree) and a teacher of THEIR CHILDREN!

Thailand if you weren't so beautiful sometimes we wouldn't get along so well.


A note on the pictures: both are in Saraburi (not Sarah- burry but sada-boodi!) the first is on our way to a nice "restaurant" when we were caught in a torrential downpour and the second one is at the saraburi train station, as I hope is clear from the sign.

2 months in and I'm doing alright!

This is Erin. Dan has had the last few posts so I'm finally back to contribute a few of my thoughts.

School has been SO busy! I still stay at least an hour after the last bell rings trying to finish things up and am still taking work home at night because preparing for classes is never ending. But on a very positive note, the last 2 weeks have been pretty great. AND I have finished writing my midterms! Things in my classes have been going so much better and things are clicking. I'm getting to know my students pretty well and they are so funny. I had my club singing along to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Justin Beiber this week... Like any 13-15 year old girls, they LOVE Justin Beiber.

Last weekend for 4th of July Dan and I got out of town and went to Hua Hin with some friends. It was sooooooo good to get out of the city. Nothing really compares to 4th of July at home, but taking a break from Bangkok with an amazing group of people helped curb the homesickness... plus the area we stayed in had a ton of American food! I had an omelet and toast 2 times AND a club sandwich. I think its really hard to visualize how much rice I eat in a day, let alone a week... but having American food options just made the weekend that much better. We also went to a monkey temple and got to feed the little guys... monkeys are so much scarier than you would think and they FIGHT for food. You can see in the picture one of the guys is pulling at Dan's shorts. They will climb on you without thinking twice to get some bananas. Its crazy. This weekend we stayed in BKK again, but I think next weekend we are going to visit our dear friend Rory in Saraburi and the weekend after that we have a 4 day weekend so we are going NORTH to Chang Mai. I'm so excited!

A monkey!

Dan feeding monkeys. Notice the cage in the background... Thats where they keep the food.

This photo is of Rory and myself. To celebrate the 4th I decided to get an ice cream sundae for us to share... as you can see I was very excited!

After 2 months of living in Thailand, things seem pretty normal. For example, my day today will consist of cleaning up the apartment, doing laundry and grocery shopping... maybe finding someplace to work out and going to bed early because I have work in the morning. All in all, my daily routine is not very different from what I was doing in Madison. The good news is that I'm not getting as homesick anymore, but I still have my moments where being here is too far away from home. Last night we met up with some other teachers from school who have been living in Thailand for 3+ years... while that would be exciting that's not the life for me. 10 months of this heat will be plenty, plus I don't want to miss out again on raspberry picking and jam making with Grandma, Kelly and Mom. And yes Mom, I am jealous :)

Homemade Mac and Cheese

Most recent cooking discovery:

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese with Seasoned Bread Crumbs

So I went to the store to buy stuff to try and make from-scratch jambalaya. No dice. What I though was a huge wall full of canned tomatoes and beans was actually the largest variety of canned mackerel in tomato sauce I've ever seen. After thinking to myself, "What kind of country doesn't have canned ____________? (insert tomatoes, beans...) I imagined a Thai person in super target cursing the day he landed in the US, "What is this uncivilized place without even ONE brand of canned mackerel in tomato puree???" The cultural bias is clearly staggering.

Erin, in her infinite wisdom, happened across a bag of elbow macaroni noodles and I was a bit skeptical. However, when she suggested mac n cheese, my heart skipped a beat. We bought buy-one-get-one free extra sharp cheddar (one of 2 cheeses available, the other of which is the slimiest, greasiest, snottiest mozzarella this side of Papa Johns) and headed home. This is my story.

Directions=
Take used ends of any bread laying around and chop finely. Melt a decent amount of butter in rice cooker and add crumbs, black pepper, Giada's Italian Seasoning (thanks tyler) and a touch of garlic powder. Stir to coat. Continue to cook at high heat until you can hear the crumbs dinging against the walls of the cooker. Your bread crumbs are now delicious and crispy.

Set crumbs to the side and boil macaroni noodles with salt-seasoned water. While noodles boil, grate as much cheese as you think you can handle. Sharp cheddar is nice, but it can be pretty intense if that's all you have. I recommend a blend of 2 or 3 cheeses, something sharp (cheddar or a hard parm-like cheese, something gooey and meltable, and something in the middle as your main cheese (a medium cheddar perhaps?) While noodles are still a touch al dente, drain.

Return noodles to rice cooker and add a cup or so of milk, half a stick of butter, and cheese a small handful at a time. Stir continuously (easiest if you have help) and add remaining cheese. If it's too thick you can always add more milk but don't over do it. Serve with a handful of seasoned bread crumbs on top and options of salt, pepper, prik pon (red chili powder) and italian seasoning.