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.

Ants, Tuk-Tuk Drivers, and Bamee Moo

Greetings from the mind of Dan

As I write this, we've been banished from the main room to the secondary room while the ant spray slowly kills every last one of those terrible creatures. I'm convinced that I can hear their screams of agony as the poison overwhelms them and it is music to my ears. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for living in harmony with all of God's creations but when you enter my home and walk on all my stuff, we're going to have a problem. This sentiment goes for ants, dogs, people, or anything that drags dirt and disease into or around my food and sleeping quarters. Hopefully, the ants will learn their lesson and we won't have to make the apartment a mass grave for invasive species anymore. It hurts me as much as it hurts them. (Well, maybe not exactly)

On another, more positive note, among all the tuk-tuk drivers, cabbies, and store owners constantly trying to rip us off, there exists a shining soul who goes by the name of Dang. Dang is one of our local tuk-tuk drivers who has risen above the greed all around us and become a valuable friend and service provider. He can be found working nights, usually hanging out at the end of our alley and always with a smile on his face, which brings me to our story. Today, we went for a walk to explore the nearby piers known respectively by distance as Tha Nam Bangpo and Tha Nam Kiak Kai. As we were walking it began to rain, slowly at first but then to a point that was no longer pleasant. At that time we were fairly close to the Kiak Kai pier and a small open-air bar that was showing a world cup game. As we sat down and ordered beers the rain picked up to a full downpour but by then we were safe and dry. After a short time, the game, the rain, and our beers had all finished and so we started our walk home. Hot and tired, the walk was not going to be very enjoyable so we inquired about the fare home from the first driver we saw. The man quoted us "Hah-sip Baht" (50 baht) but what he really meant was, "You're white foreigners so I'm going to try to rip you off because, being white, you're rich and probably don't know how much this should cost." No deal was our response and we were about to walk home when our buddy Dang saw us and waved us over and, of course, he had a big smile on his face. He asked us what we were doing so far from home and we told him that we were trying to get back but couldn't get a reasonable deal. A short discussion yielded "For you, 30 Baht" and we were on our way. I don't think he stopped grinning the whole ride home. Among other things he's done for us: taking us to a closer metro stop so it would be cheaper for us, helping us get a cab and give the driver proper directions, and shaking hands with any friend we bring around. What a guy.

After that adventure we were hungry so we stopped into our Erin's favorite place for "Bamee Moo" which is pronounced like "bomb-ee moo-oo" with the second pair of "oo"s in a short, higher tone. Erin's favorite part of this meal is the pork wontons inside the soup. Bamee is a yellow noodle that looks like Ramen noodles and moo means pork. The dish consists of those noodles, some greenery, sliced pork and the aforementioned wontons in a light yellow broth. Garnish with crushed red pepper, pickled sweet peppers and sugar for a delicious meal. We go there so often that when we walked in today, the woman in charge said "same same?" and we realized that we had become regulars. For the information of the viewing audience, we are now known regulars of the corner bar nearest us which features a garden patio and ducks, rabbits, and dogs running around; the Bamee Moo place; and two forms of transport: the moped taxis and Dang the tuk-tuk driver.

A final note, this past Thursday was "Wai Kru" day which means teacher day. On this day the kids make fancy flower creations and compete to see which class can make the nicest one. Teachers are given gifts of flowers and there is a big ceremony in the morning. I've posted two pictures here: the first is my homeroom class. Though they are loud and not all that bright, I still really like them. The second is me with some of my other students who found me and gave me a flower creation they had made for me. More to come on teacher day in later posts.

Post Script- I dropped a 1000 baht on a bottle of Bombay Sapphire to help me with those long days at work. A thousand baht is a lot of baht, but every sip makes me remember why I got it.

Rough day at the Office

So today in class, I gave a quiz on the first chapter of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The class is the lowest section of my level fours but they are surprisingly intelligent. The quiz was very short: 5 multiple choice questions and one vocabulary question asking them to write the given word in a sentence. Since I'm such a nice guy, I had planned to give out extra credit points to students who could supply extra vocabulary words and definitions from the chapter. No sooner had I cleared the desks and passed out the test do I see a suspicious looking kid in back trying to hide a dictionary under his desk. I snatched it away and continued explaining the directions to the kids. A minute later, another girl had tried to use her pocket dictionary to look up a word, so I took that one away too. As I was explaining how the kids could get extra points with their definitions, I noticed two students in the back discussing their answer to a question and that's when I stopped.

I can handle the talking, I can handle the blank stares, and I can even handle being completely ignored when I'm speaking to them but I CANNOT deal with cheating, and all the worse while I'm trying to improve their grades by offering extra credit. Thus for the 4/4 class, no extra credit was offered and many did very poorly since they had not read the book. The quiz covered 24 pages, and we're in the 4th week, I don't think that it was an unreasonable amount to read.

I know that all kids try to weasel their way into a better grade, I certainly have always tried to get the best grade with the least work but I simply abhor this type of disrespect. ("abhorrent" was one of the words on their quiz) The cheating problem is not restricted to this quiz, in fact several of my students have turned in Wikipedia entries as their own works and one kid copied an entire 5 paragraph essay word for word from a website online. The worst part (and this is where I start to feel sympathy for my old teachers) is wondering to myself, "Did they really think I wouldn't know?"

I'm not convinced that Thai kids do it any more that American kids and it's something that I will have to find a different way to deal with. It seems that reason and friendliness are not the best ways to deal with these students. Unfortunately the alternatives to those qualities are not really in my repertoire.

USA!

Weekends in Bangkok are the best. This weekend, after having a pretty uneventful Friday night (no joke I was in bed and asleep by 10pm... it had been a very long week) Dan and I had friends over Saturday night and it was so much fun! We hung out at our apartment, sat down by the pool, then finally headed out to Kao San Road for some late night World Cup action- USA vs. England. Kao San is very well know backpacking street with lots of bars, really good food, and a pretty good night market. This is the place to go if you are young and traveling in Thailand, so it made for the perfect place to watch the match... lots of Americans and Brits! As we were sitting outside, I actually looked over to Dan and said "My God, I had no idea there were so many white people in Bangkok!" I was pretty happy that the game ended in a tie and not a loss. Everyone was very good natured about the rivalry, so it was fun chatting with other foreigners.

This morning, after sleeping off a hangover, I went to the Chatuchak Market by myself (because its always good to have independent adventures) while Dan figured out the new rice cooker. This is the 3rd weekend I've been and I'm still finding new areas! Today I discovered the "vintage" area and got a super cute dress for 100 baht (about $3) and some jelly shoes. I'm getting really good gift ideas to send home and I know Kelly will be excited when that package arrives :)

And speaking of packages, Dan and I also received some mail from his parents this weekend! I was so happy it arrived safely, the Thai postal system seems a little sketchy. The contents included easy mac and velveeta, which truly is a little bit of heaven so far away from home. It really has been a great weekend.

(This is one of the pictures taken on Kao San of us watching the game... we're living the life these days)

Well Look Who Decided to Show Up

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the show. I'm your co-host, Dan Ursin, along with the lovely and talented Erin Sharratt and together we'll be guiding you around this truly amazing country known the world over as "The Land of Smiles." In just a few moments we'll be embarking on our voyage but before we do, I'd like to make just a few simple disclaimers:

(1) The things you are about to read DO, completely, reflect the thoughts and opinions of the editors and board of directors of this page.
(2) Some of the things you see will be verbatim truths. Others will be shadows of facts, remembered in the way that best retells the story while not always adhering to rigorous journalistic integrity.
(3) We are living in a foreign country that has a distinct culture far removed from our own. While all reasonable attempts have been made to assimilate ourselves to our local surroundings, it is nearly impossible to forget one's upbringing and avoid judging another culture based on your own moral values.

Having said all of this, I think it is time to start the show.

The people of Thailand are amazing and never cease to surprise me. They cover the gamut of personalities from extreme generosity to back-alley thievery; inspirational open-mindedness to needless hostility; and some are uniquely insightful while others can barely see the moped in front of them, so to speak. So far, we've been affected by at least one of all these people. In this first post of mine, I can't help but generalize but I have to say that people all over the world have one thing in common: we all share the idea that wherever we're from is the only reasonable place to be. I would like this blog to debunk some of this rumor by showing that the problems and virtues of all cultures share, at least at some level, a common multiple.

Tune in next time when we discuss some specific examples of clashes and unions in the sweltering setting of Bangsue, Bangkok and the surrounding areas of the Ratcha Anachak Thai.

Teaching Moments

Today was an extremely frustrating day at school, especially considering that I only teach 3 classes on Thursdays. The problem, however, did not happen in class. It happened during my 5th period classroom check.

Here's a little background before the story gets going. My class of M2/3 students drive me crazy. BY FAR, they are the most difficult class I teach every week. They are hard to focus, there is constant chatter, and a wide range of English ability... some students understand the material too easily and others cannot understand a single word that comes out of my mouth. To make matters worse, ALL the girls sit in front and ALL the boys sit in back. The naughty ones sit in the middle (its like their mocking you by talking when you are standing closest to them) and the quiet ones sit on the side. In particular, I am having problems with the girls. On Tuesday, I had 4 girls show up 30 minutes late to my 50 minute class. They said that a Thai teacher sent one of them to get different socks, and so on and so forth and that was why they were late. Either way, I let them in and told them not to be late again. The next day, I took a cell phone away from one of the same girls for the entire day because she was texting after I had already made her stand up for talking. Its a bit of a nightmare, but all the teachers are having problems with this class.

Today, when I was doing my period check, lo and behold I saw the same 4 girls who had been late on Tuesday skipping their 5th period class. I was so mad! Not because they were being disobedient, but because at 13 they should be learning and not be wasting their good brains by blowing off class. SO I brought them to their classroom, the teacher reprimanded them and sent 3 to the English Program office with myself as their escort. The girls started crying when they learned they would be speaking with the director. This was all discussed in Thai so I just stood and watched. Later, I learned that these girls have been a bit of a problem since last year and every teacher I spoke with about the situation just put them in the category of "bad kids." They said that if they're skipping class, at least they're not disrupting it. For me, this is so discouraging! Maybe these girls have never had someone who actually tried to show them something different. Maybe if they were not believed to be so bad they would act better. On the other hand, maybe they are a lost cause. But I feel like I should do something different with them. Its a hard lesson to teach, but eventually these girls need to realize that being smart and trying hard counts for so much more than they give it credit for. Its frustrating. The school really doesn't do much as far as these things are concerned and they let students get away with so much because the government won't fail them. I'll have another entry later on this I'm sure, but today was just one of those days when I realized there's too much work to do and the system is SO far from perfect. This job might just be the end of me.

Welcome to the Apartment

So I tried putting up a video, but it wouldn't load. These pictures will have to do for now. At least it should give you an idea of where Dan and I are living. We each have a little studio with a queen bed, wardrobe, desk and television (we also have cable and get American movie channels, seriously we're living the dream!) Dan just commented on how he liked that I called the place a "studio" instead of a closet... it can get pretty small, especially when its messy (and by that I mean when my clothes are everywhere). Dan and I spend most of our time in the apartment that I took the pictures of. We got lights at the market so it looks more like home. We put up maps of Thailand on the wall and we also have a picture of King Rama IX (as I mentioned before, he's a pretty big deal here). All in all its comfortable. We still need something to sit on however, because all we have now is a bed and a tall block of wood they call a "chair." Dan keeps telling me that one day I will come home and there will be a huge sofa in the room.

Our neighborhood is VERY residential. Dan and I draw a lot of attention to ourselves walking down the street because we are clearly not Thai. Very few people speak English but the good news is that my Thai is improving and ordering food is becoming easier. For instance, tonight Dan and I ordered some really good wanton soup... to get that far at a restaurant would have been pretty tough 3 weeks ago. The only thing that really bothers me about our area (and many parts of Thailand in general) is that we frequently get charged more for things because we are "farang," even though we are not tourists. It makes me mad and I hate the feeling that I am being taken advantage of.

This picture is the outside of our place. It looks nice but its in a "shady area" (and it literally says that on the pamphlet advertising the place!) Below I posted one of the pictures from our balcony and you can see the little tin roofs we look out on to. It looks kinda scary, but really its not. I feel very safe walking down the streets. I've come to accept the fact that the majority of Thai people really don't care about what their buildings look like on the outside so long as the inside is nice. I always think when I walk to school, "This neighborhood would drive my dad crazy!" because everything needs a paint job and some fixing up.

This is the alley that leads to the main street. Our neighbors in the middle of the road have a rooster, so I get to hear it crow on the walk to and from school. Its pretty funny. Dan and I are trying to figure out if they keep it to eat it or just as a pet. Also, everyone has about 5 dogs or cats that just hang out outside. There are a lot of animals in this neck of the woods.

Our place also has a pool, which I used for the first time today! Its nice and pretty secluded with lots of plants surrounding it. I arrived when the woman was finishing cleaning it so I feel confident that the water is good for swimming and not just looking. Hopefully I'll snag a picture of that soon as well.

(Last but not least) This is the picture from our balcony. It sounds amazing when it rains because of the metal roofs. Also, somehow thunder storms here are SO much louder than the ones at home. When they arrive, I wake up jumping out of bed because the boom just gets into my brain. I think the rainy season will be 5 months of pure thunderstorm entertainment.

Morning Traffic

So usually, Dan and I walk to school. When we leave the house just before 7am, the walk 20 minutes long and the weather is already hot but its doable.... you sweat a bit, but its not ever as bad as sweating on the walk home at 4:30pm. Once we took the bus, but it turns out its not faster because the traffic is TERRIBLE. Its bumper to bumper for 3 very long blocks and no one is going faster than a very slow crawl. The only people that are getting anywhere fast are the moped taxis, and here is where the story begins!

Today I woke up late and as a result left the house late and was going to be late for school unless I wanted to run. I don't think I will ever run in Bangkok, its way too hot. So the only other alternative to being late was to take THE MOPED TAXI. The moped taxis are these guys with orange vests driving mopeds through morning traffic. If there is a space in front of or in between cars, they will fit in it. If there are not too many cars coming from the other side of the road, they will cross the center line and drive into oncoming traffic. These guys are so crazy! They can violate every moving vehicle law in the US within 2 city blocks. Nevertheless, instead of being late to school this morning, Dan and I decided to take a chance and get moped taxis. So for 20 baht I got there in 5 minutes... and had the most insane ride I have had in my life. Most passengers just sit very calmly like its no big deal. There was a woman in front of me this morning who was sitting side-saddle and not even holding onto the seat. I, on the other hand, was clutching on for dear life. It was probably the riskiest thing I have done since arriving in Thailand, but it was amazing. Dan and I agreed that for 100 baht a week, it might be worth it to sleep in an extra 20 minutes and travel to school in true Thai style.

(PS. Don't worry too much Mom, I have health insurance in Thailand.)

1st Day of School

This is our 1st day of school photo. Its a tradition... even when you're the teacher!

Well, I am SO happy to report that I survived my 1st day of school! It actually went well, but my kids are much smarter than I expected them to be... the next lesson will have to be more challenging haha. I am teaching English Reading and Writing for M1 and M2 students, which is the equivalent of 7th and 8th grade in the United States. The m2s like to talk A LOT and work ahead of what we are doing at the moment... its a little tricky but I'll get the hang of it. The m1s are shy about using their English but they behave so well, its very endearing. All together it was fun, but extremely exhausting. I have just under 40 kids in 8 different classes (each grade has 4 sections) so there are a lot of students to remember and they all have different nicknames. The most memorable ones from today were "Golf" and "Bank."

It felt good at the end of the day when as I was walking out of the school and my students continued to day "goodbye teacher" and smile as I passed by. I'm going to take that as a good sign.

This is the outside of the school. King Rama IX sits above the sign, looking as cool as ever.

Below are mine and Dan's "all done with the first day of school" photos. It was a long day.

While Bangkok was burning, they put me on a beach

On Monday morning (May 17th), I was awoken to the sound of Whitney (my friend and fellow teacher at Yothin) knocking on my door with some pretty amazing news. We were going to an Island, and it was going to be free! Our host organization didn't think it was safe in the city with the protests going on, despite the fact that all of the teachers placed in Bangkok were far away from the main areas of action. So to be "500% safe" we were moved out of the city to the Island paradise of Koh Lahn, just off of Pattaya.

In my last entry, Kelly said I talked too much, so I'll try and be brief. NOT a lot of tourists go to Koh Lahn, except for the Russians (who like to take pictures of themselves posing in the surf... so funny to watch) and our hotel was very local... no one spoke English very well. Even as we left this morning it took Dan 30 minutes to try and explain "no meat" in the fried rice. Our meals were payed for also, but we had a choice of 6 entrees for breakfast lunch and dinner. This was great, but after 5 days the novelty wears off a bit. The idea of eating more mama noodles and boiled rice soup makes me a little sick to my stomach. Between the 7 teachers in Bangkok, we had 4 beach houses that also housed gecko lizards and marching ants at all hours of the day. We also had no flush toilets (you just have to dump more water in from a bucket to make things go down) and lots of mosquitoes. Being from Minnesota I feel confident in saying I know how to handle mosquitos, but these are a totally different breed. They are quick and they bite hard- even through bug spray, and I don't have malaria pills... this makes me just a little nervous. All this being said, it was an amazing week and I am now sporting a nice tan and only a little sunburn.

I'll quick explain the pics: The one in the back of the truck was how we got into town to buy things and briefly check email at night. The boat we ACTUALLY went fishing on, and its a genuine Thai fishing boat. Our guy was catching fish without bait, it was crazy. The picture of the building "COMPTALAE" is where we stayed, that specifically was the restaurant outside that looked over the ocean. The other pictures are by or near our beach. Its pretty amazing stuff.

I'm even more nervous to start on Monday but I'm SO excited! Tomorrow I am going to figure out my lesson plans for the week. My syllabus says I am supposed to give a pop quiz on the 1st day, but I think thats just mean.