The night we got into Chiang Mai the Sunday night market was going on. It was so close to our hotel that the taxi couldn’t take us to our hotel. It just dropped us off at the market and we had to walk the rest of the way. However, after we checked into the hotel, this made it easy to run back out and wander the market. I saw a fortune teller and remembering previous conversations with Noi about fortune tellers, I decided to have her read my cards for fun. Something about headaches, lots of work, lots of money, making jewelry, true love (but not until next year). As with most fortune tellers there was a lot of vague things that seem to be unique to me. We’ll see what happens…..
We had a day in Chiang Mai before Andy headed back to Singapore. I looked up museums in Chiang Mai and we found the Insect museum. We decided that sounded unique. It was. We got up to a house and there was a sign on the gate that said to ring the doorbell. A lady came and opened the museum for us, charged us the fee, and gave us some water. The museum was full of fossils, bugs, rocks, elephant statues and all sorts of other interesting things. The insect collection was incredible. Incredible and creepy all at the same time. There were also many many many signs about love, life and loving the world around us. The couple that started the collection were both malaria and mosquito researchers and this collection is part of their life long passion for their work. The woman who let us in, was in fact, Dr. Rampa Rattanarithikul herself. The highlight of the museum was getting to read all about her and her husband and then meeting her.
After the museum we took a taxi to a nearby waterfall. It was rather underwhelming. After the waterfall, we found a man selling bugs and Andy decided it was a good plan to buy and eat some bugs while I videoed it. I don’t know how he did it. It grossed me out just videoing it. He said they were horrible. We walked through the arboretum and then found some lunch. I’m not sure if I am ill or what, but I’ve been feeling tired and dizzy a lot lately. This hit around lunch too. The heat probably added to it too. So after lunch, it was nap time.
In our search for things to do we saw an advertisement for a cabaret show. That sounded fun so we went to the night market, found the show and bought tickets after dinner. The theatre/stage looked like we were going to see a cabaret in someone’s backyard/garage. The show was very armature, but it was also fun and cheap. So, overall, I’d say we got a good value for our money.
Tomorrow Andy is heading back home to Singapore. After he was so nice and introduced me to his friends and showed me around Singapore, it was nice to be able to show him around Thailand a little. Andy, Ivan and Judy should be back in Thailand in October. I am hoping I can meet up with them then.
Our hotel has this very annoying wakeup call system. They put the dining room on top of some of the hotel rooms including ours. So around 7:00am you are awake, ready or not, because all the early birds are scraping their heavy wooden chairs across the floor above you. There seems to be nothing except cheap plastic furniture in Thailand except in our hotel where the dining room chairs are made of such heavy wood, you couldn’t pick them up if you wanted to.
The tour we booked for yesterday went to a lot of places. The tour started off with going to an overlook off the side of the highway. It was overcast so the pictures aren’t the greatest, but the view was wonderful. It was 23 year olds tour day for sure. Our van seemed to be on the same circuit of tourist sites as a 5-10 others as everyone we saw at the overlook we also saw at every other stop for the day.
The next stop was Lod Cave where we were supposed to do bamboo rafting also. I think they invented a new sport. I’d call it speed caving. They put me and Andy with two girls that could barely walk. They were so out of breath they couldn’t keep up with the guide who had the only light. So, then going through the cave became even more difficult for them since they kept falling behind. Speed caving was not the sport for them. It was basically a long line of tourists and guides winding it’s way through a very impressively sized cave. We had to move so fast and keep in the line that there was no time to really enjoy looking at the cave. A river runs through the cave and they put us on rafts and we went about 2 minutes to another part of the cave. We did some more speed caving, came back to the rafts and then back out the way we came in. Overall, this could have been the highlight of the tour, but it turned out to be my least favorite part of the tour.
Next was lunch. It was ok. After lunch was a hot springs. It was a luke warm river. It was very beautiful and I got in for a minute or two, but then it was jam packed with 25 year olds and became way less relaxing for me. After that was a waterfall. It was the kind where it’s a series of smaller falls. You can climb the rocks and wander from pool to pool. It was very beautiful. The same vans of people were there too. The final stop was Pai Canyon. It looked so big in the pictures, but was less so in person. Still, it was my favorite part of the tour. It was a series of rock fins in the middle of the Pai canyon. You could see all the way around, the canyon floor stretching out in all directions to then be met by large mountains all around. It reminded me so much of Colorado. It was very beautiful.
After we got dropped off in town we went to the cake place. They had at least 20 different types of cake, a coffee shop and PIE! So, my mission of taking a picture of pie in Pai was complete. We also added the symbol pi just to round out the mission. This made me very satisfied. And the pie was delicious too. Dinner, wandering around the walking street, and an unimpressive foot massage finished out the evening.
Today we got a taxi driver to take us to an elephant camp and a waterfall. It cost as much as the tour we did yesterday. But, it was nice to go at our own speed and not have the crowds of people. After lunch we got on van and came back to Chiang Mai.
I got to the bus station in Chiang Mai and had a little trouble finding Andy. He said he was at the ticket desk for the van company. I couldn’t find the ticket desk. He said it was in the parking lot across from platform 12 so I went to platform 12 and looked across the parking lot. There was no van company, but I did see another bus station. Huh. Two bus stations next to each other. I’ve been there several times and never noticed there were two bus stations. We managed to exchange our tickets for an earlier van ride, grabbed lunch.
A few hours later we are in Pai. It’s up in the mountains and so beautiful. It reminds me of Colorado, not up close, but as you look off into the distance it looks similar. Makes me homesick. It’s a bit cooler too, not cool, but cooler, which is a nice relief. Our hotel was beautiful with farm land and mountain views in the back. We asked about tours and they told us to go into town. One of the reasons I booked at that hotel was because they had a tour desk. They also gave us a much smaller room than I paid for. But when I asked about that, they just said “sorry, all rooms full”. Then when I asked about a refund, of course, her English couldn’t handle that. We gave up and went into town and were able to book a tour of the area for the next day. We wandered around the walking street and a few other streets checking out street sales, had some dinner, and had a drink. We went in search of pie because I wanted a picture of having pie in Pai. No luck on the pie mission. But we did find a closed cake shop so the mission will continue tomorrow. I’d heard that Pai is popular with Thais because of a movie. I had heard the rest of the tourists are backpackers. From our short survey of the area I’m pretty sure that all the tourists except us are backpackers in their 20’s. And it appears there are more tourists than locals.
This week has just been frustrating. I’m very annoyed about the whole thing where I was told I needed to go to Mae Sot on a weekend and then I find out I could have gone last week. I’m not sure why I can’t let it go. Then Wednesday this week, Pat asks if I want to go to Mae Sot with her, Robin and the Director. They have to go to renew his visa. I asked why I had to go last weekend if I could have gone this week. I got the whole story again about how Robin’s visa is different and the Director has to be there in person to sign paperwork. That didn’t answer my question and now I’m more annoyed than before. I really wanted to go because they were going to turn it into an entire day of sight seeing, but I have way too much work to do and don’t see how I can get it done if I go. So, I stayed and worked all day Thursday. I’m all caught up on lesson plans except one so that is good.
But I still have to do a curriculum and syllabus. On Monday I was told that the curriculum I did was the country standard and couldn’t be changed. Well, then why did you tell me to change it? Then I have to do another curriculum. And Pat will ask the lady for the correct other curriculum which is the one I can’t change anyway. I asked for an example and she just told me to pick a few things from the country standard and then put in my curriculum. You might as well have said “lakjoiy lslieyhh” as that would have made just as much sense. Later in the week Pat sent me an example, but I’m avoiding opening the email as I’m just not ready to deal with it yet.
The day before exams, Pat asked me to change the cover sheet of my exam because it had the wrong information on it. I looked at it. It was the right grade, but not the cover sheet I created and had someone else’s signature on it. Then I looked inside and it wasn’t the test I created. I told Pat it wasn’t my test and she and I just looked at each other blankly. I was told the correct test showed up later. I assume I have to grade exams too, but no one gave me the finished exams so I don’t know how or when that will happen. I probably should have asked about them, but if I got some cryptic answer that had nothing useful in it, I just might break my contract and never come back from the upcoming long weekend.
On Sunday Noi had told me that on Tuesday afternoon we would go to local temples to give the big candles to the monks. I had no idea what that meant. Pat failed to tell me about this until an hour before. I chose to go with Noi’s group. It was 6 teachers and about 8 students in our group. We went to two temples. The students had bought giant yellow candles, put them in pails and decorated the pails. They also had money donations in an envelope.
At the first temple we had to wait because the monk was bathing. I found that odd, but ok. A temple cat came up and decided to lay next to me and then scratch Noi. So, that was my entertainment as we waited. Finally when he came out they presented the candle, there was a lot of chanting and bowing and conversations I didn’t understand. Then he asked who owned the pink motorbike and one of the students said he did. The monk directed him to wash it and himself in holy water. I gathered all this by what happened not that I could understand what they were saying. He took a cup of water from a big wooden cask and splashed it all over his motorbike and then himself. Then later Noi filled me in that the monk had seen a bad spirit standing behind the bike while they were chanting. The spirit was gone, but the bike and it’s driver needed to be cleaned with holy water to keep it from coming back. Fascinating. When you sit in a temple you have to have your feet pointing away from the Buddha and monk so you either sit on your knees or you sit on one side with your legs folded under you and feet pointing behind you. Usually on a marble floor. Well, we had been there so long, I could barely stand when it was time to leave. My legs had cramped up completely. This being devout is hard work. The second temple was just as interesting. It was in a very poor part of town. Seeing all the farmer’s houses makes mine look like luxury. The temple was ornate and pretty, but another building (ordination hall?) next to it looked run down and in bad need of a new paint job and a weed whacker. Noi kept asking me “Isn’t this temple just beautiful”? This was similar to the other temple in that we waited awhile for the monk then there was chanting and bowing and talking. This one there were two opalescent vessels with water that two of the teachers poured into matching bowls while all the students and teachers touched each other’s shoulders or arms to form a chain from one vessel to the other. More chanting and bowing. More cramped legs. Even though I don’t understand and probably wouldn’t believe if I did understand, I love this part of living in Thailand. I love seeing how others live and worship.
After the temples, we took one of the students home and then went to the house of a lady Noi knew. The lady had such a kind energy to her. We picked longan from her longan farm. Oh, and there were cows on the road – once again proving my theory that it makes you happy to see cows walking along the road.
Thursday night I went to get a pedicure. I went back to the only lady in Thailand that didn’t try to take my toenails off completely. While I waited her young son (4 years old?) tried to have a conversation with me. It was cute even though I told him I didn’t speak Thai, he kept trying. Then when I sat in the chair he pulled up the stool, sat down and pulled the cart up with all the pedicure tools and polish in it as if he was going to do my pedicure. One of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
I got to have dinner with Tip. Reading lessons for her daughter turned into pouting and then when Ging and her daughter came over all was lost. I ended up teaching English to Tip and Ging again. It was nice to get to spend some time with them.
This weekend is a 5 day weekend. My friend Andy is visiting from Singapore so I’m going to meet him in Chiang Mai and we are going to Pai. Noi asked me to go spend 2 days with her family doing fun water things up at another dam. It turns out that’s the day Andy leaves so I’m out the money for a hotel room for one night, but it sounds fun and I’m excited to meet her family. She will pick me up in Chaing Mai and take me to the dam and then bring me home after.
The trip back from Mae Sot was boring. There were no more open seats for Green Bus so I was told to wait and I could take another bus and pay on the bus. I wasn’t happy about this as I didn’t want to ride a janky bus in the mountains. I debated trying to get a taxi to the station where the minivans pick up. Then a minivan pulls up and they tell me to get in. It took me, for free, to the minivan station. Ha! You’d think I’d learn by now that it will just magically happen. The minivan to Tak cost 78 baht ($2.20). Thai people’s systems for remembering things, getting around, and keeping everything organized are crude and basic, but they work. If we tried to operate this way in America, the whole country would fall apart.
To make up for how easy that was, the Tak bus station was not easy. No one would sell me a ticket. They kept pointing to the next ticket sales window and saying stuff. One lady told me to sit down and 1:00. So I waited in the bus station for 2 hours, completely lost to what was going on. Then at 5 til 1:00 I got up and went back to the lady that told me to sit down. We went back to the pointing to other windows game. I tried to look as clueless and helpless as possible. Finally she pointed to a bus. I went to it and the other window lady looked at me like she was annoyed I wanted to get on the bus. Then she said 30 baht and let me on the bus. I could have sat there all day and never gotten help.
Noi picked me up from the bus and took me to lunch and then home. After that I got a massage and it was the guy which is good. It was so painful. My calves and hamstrings are a little better, but you might as well take my shoulders off an throw them away because they aren’t working right anymore. He showed me stretches to do. It wasn’t new information, they were stretches I already knew, but it was a huge “…..duh….. I should be doing stretches every day”. So, a new resolve to do stretches every day.
Here’s a couple of cool photos of the market when it’s empty. It looks abandoned and you would assume no one uses it anymore, but come Tuesday and Friday evenings, this is full of people, food and other things to buy.
My hotel had breakfast included. I probably can stop looking for that as a bonus when I book a hotel. No hotel in Thailand is going to get American breakfast right. It was edible, but not good. I should just embrace the way the rest of the world eats breakfast and eat what looks like dinner, but I’m too conditioned and still can’t do it yet. Chicken and rice for breakfast isn’t what I want. Still, it was nice to not have to go walking in the rain looking for breakfast.
After breakfast I got a taxi to the border. The border is a bridge over the river with a large archway building at either end of the bridge – Thai Immigration on the east side and Myanmar immigration on the other side. So, technically, I could get my passport stamped as departing, walk across the street and get my passport stamped as arriving. But, I decided to spend the morning in Myanmar, see some temples, see a fence with lions on top of it, and have lunch.
It was barely raining as I crossed the bridge and stood in the middle over no country. I noticed boats full with people on either side of the river so it doesn’t look like border patrol is very strict. Most people walk over the bridge like I did, but there were a few cars going over as well. Most of the traffic was large semi trucks delivering stuff back and forth, or small pickup trucks with more stuff than a semi. I had read that it was easy to get a taxi on either side. I had also read about a pagoda not far from the border and some more temples a little farther into Myawaddy. I got to Myanmar Immigration and they asked why I didn’t have a visa. I didn’t think I needed a visa. He asked how long I was staying. I said a few hours. For 500 baht ($14) I can go in for a few hours. They kept my passport. I didn’t mind paying 500 baht, but I didn’t like walking away from my passport. I didn’t see any taxis. I saw tons of people just standing around and there were a bunch of vans and motorbikes. Nothing identified any of them as taxis and I assume there is no such thing as an official taxi here. I think if you have some spare time and anything that slightly resembles a vehicle you are a taxi driver. I felt very out of place and quite uncomfortable. I almost just turned around there and ran back to Thailand. Basically Myanmar looked like a slightly dirtier version of Thailand with more men in skirts. Some people asked where I was going and I said I wanted to go see the pagoda. They quoted me some price in Burmese money, but I had no interest in changing money for the small amount of time I would be there. I asked if they would take baht and they said 400 baht. In Thailand it would cost 20 baht to go a few blocks and I knew one of the pagodas wasn’t that far away. So, I told them they were crazy and kept walking. I found the pagoda within 5 minutes. I wandered around and took some photos.
Then I walked back to the main street. At this point, I thought maybe I should just skip the original plan and go back to Thailand now. I didn’t feel like walking all over this dirty town in the rain. I didn’t see one place I would feel safe eating in so I wasn’t staying for lunch. Then I ran into a guy with a strange motorized cart like thing that wanted to be my taxi and tour guide. It was like a cross between a tractor, a motorbike, a backwards trailer, and a wheelbarrow. He said 3 wats (temples) 300 baht. That seemed a little high, but a much better deal than the last guy. Plus, it was this or go back and I really wanted to ride in the wheelbarrow death trap thing.
The first wat was the one I had just come from, go figure. I tried to explain that, but just ended up saying “Wat 2” until he got it and took off for wat 2. I had read about the crocodile wat on line, but it was still shocking to see a giant alligator with a temple on it’s back. There was a pavilion with 20-30 life sized dioramas of different Buddha stories. It was the definition of creepy. There was a huge gong in the middle of the pavilion. I could barely hold the mallet. Then there was a huge hall that we went in. There was a shrine at one end of the hall with all sorts of disco led lights behind a Buddha. I didn’t stay long. The temple on the alligator was closed.
At this point, it’s raining harder so I get my rain jacket out. And we go down dirt roads that this vehicle should not go down, but I don’t see how this adventure would be complete without bad roads. On to wat 3. I had read about this one too. It was called standing Buddha. There was a pagoda, a large hall and a very very large standing Buddha. The guy who was working at the temple (not a monk) wanted to show me everything in the temple underneath the towering Buddha and in the hall. He pointed out all the many statues made of marble and all the shiny gaudy things in the temple. The hall also had a shrine at one end with disco lights. There was an ornate gold thing with a magnifying glass in front of it that he was so excited to show me. Encased in glass encased in gold with some disco lights in the background was a piece of Buddha skin. You had to use the magnifying glass to see it. Scientifically, I don’t see how this is possible, but now I can say I saw Buddha’s skin. That’s it – what more could you possibly want to see in Myanmar? Buddha Skin – my adventure here is complete.
I’m now soaked and hungry and done with this adventure. I just want to go back to Thailand. I’m not even going to try to mime lion topped fence. I already gave up on lunch. But no, there’s a 4th wat that I don’t want to see, but I have to. It’s another pagoda and there’s a giraffe and other animal statues. Now it’s 400 baht. After that I get him to take me back to the border. He pulls up to the border and starts saying something that I think is some explanation of why I should pay him more. I paid him 400 baht and walked off as he was still talking. It was no issue getting my passport back or getting back into Thailand. Whew. I got a taxi back to my hotel for 50 baht and my hotel is a 20 minute ride away. Myanmar is a country that is trying to get back on it’s feet after such a long road of war, government corruption, poverty and other horrors. It has a desperate feeling and it appears it has a ways to go.
I went back to the café I took the cooking class at in February. I remember the food being so good and the tea garden being cozy and comfortable. I walked in and caught the eye of a very cute very young man who was working at the table next to mine. We chatted off and on during my lunch. I learned that Isaac had worked in Phuket for a while and now was wandering around Thailand. I did some engineering work. After a couple hours I left. I wanted to go find an art studio I had read about on line. Art studio and Thailand – the two words don’t seem to go together. I haven’t seen any art, much less a studio where you could work or take classes. They have pottery, batik, and drawing. I went looking for a taxi as it was a 30 minute walk. Near the market, I found a few motorbike taxi stands. I asked the first one and he didn’t know where it was, refused to look at a map and then refused to talk to me. So I went to the next stand, but they wouldn’t talk to me at all since they saw that the first guy wouldn’t take me. Once again, I wonder where the “Thai people are the nicest people in the world” concept comes from. Well, a 30 minute walk won’t kill me and might do me some good. So, google maps and I set off to the Puzzle Box Art Center. A couple minutes later a very large motorcycle / dirt bike pulls up in front of me with a smiling Isaac on it asking if I wanted a ride. The bike was so tall, I barely got on it. Now, I’m not a girl that has a thing for men on motorcycles – I couldn’t care less, but I have to say, this bike was awesome and I very much enjoyed my ride to the Puzzle Box. Far better than a typical Thai motorbike taxi driven by an old man.
The Puzzle Box was a neat little art studio. If I ever get back to Mae Sot, I will definitely sign up for a class. I asked about the possibility of working there in the future. They don’t have enough money to hire anyone, but if I could do training for their staff, it might be possible, but then it would only be a short term thing. They also gave me the name of an art company in Chiang Mai that they may partner with in the future for funding reasons. It’s a long shot, but maybe I could work there for a month or two in the future. I miss creating very much.
I set off back for the hotel. I didn’t see one taxi on the 40 minute walk back. I kept expecting to see Isaac drive up, but he didn’t. The walk was more than I expected. Normally, a 40 minute walk would be nothing, but since I haven’t been exercising lately, I was tired out by the time I got to the hotel. A massage and dinner and I was done. I got to watch HBO at the hotel. I haven’t seen a movie in forever – that was actually a wonderful way to end the day.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Thai Border ControlThai Customs and ImmigrationWalking on the bridge from Thailand to MyanmarNotice boats on either side of the riverMyawaddy MyanmarI don’t think anyone in Myanmar can afford designer water – what is designer water?Myanmar Border Control
The drama of the day is who will drive me to the highway to catch the bus. I had asked Noi to drive me after class and she said she would. Then Pat told me the school driver would take me because Noi had to be in a meeting. Noi said she had plenty of time to take me. So it became up to me to decide. Oh jeeze. I decided to go with the school driver. Pat seems so stressed lately, I think she might implode. I don’t want that.
I had to leave school at 3:00 since my bus is at 4:30, which means I get to sit at the side of the highway for over an hour. I don’t understand, but this whole thing is ridiculous already so I just went with it. The bus was late so I ended up sitting on the side of the highway for 2 hours. This is why you never go anywhere without a book to read. I got stared down by a stray dog for at least a half hour of this time. The bus ride was ok except that the road from Tak to Mae Sot is terrifying. It’s full of steep switchbacks. There’s construction going on. There are huge drop offs to nowhere. There are tons of construction vehicles and large double semi-trucks taking stuff to the border. Most of the semis struggle going uphill which makes the bus driver go around them, pulling blindly into possible oncoming traffic. The bus driver seemed to have a mission to make up for being late. I’m not sure how the bus wasn’t struggling with the hills, but it didn’t. It must have turbo drive or nitrous or magic. There are lines on the road to tell you where to drive, but he didn’t see them, maybe because he was going so fast. He road down the centerline a lot and spent quite a bit of time on the shoulder very close to the edge to nowhere. But, now I’m safe in Mae Sot. My hotel room is nice and I’m waiting for a burger, fries with ranch dressing and a milkshake. Yes, ranch dressing – I’m quite excited.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
The stare downSee that pavement, that’s the part of the road we should be driving onSome serious dedication to farmingWe are supposed to be on the other side of that yellow lineHuge hotel roomNo one is getting into my hotel room…..
Today two of my three classes were canceled. I completely could have gone with Noi to Mae Sot. That just refueled my being annoyed. I’m not quite sure why this annoys me so much. What part of me can’t just let go? It serves no purpose to be annoyed.
Today after school it was raining real hard. I don’t mind a little rain, but this was intense. So I figured I had 3 options. 1. I could go get my umbrella and walk home. 2. I could go get my umbrella and ride my motorbike home. That’s the way the Thai teachers would do it. I’m not quite sure I could pull off driving a motorbike with one hand and holding an umbrella with another with a purse and a computer bag throwing off my balance. 3. I could wait and see if the rain stopped or let up to a reasonable amount. So, I chose option 3. Then I saw all the minivans driving up to the school to get the students. Usually they wait outside school for the students. And all the students not riding minivans came running out heading for their motorbikes. Ok, so I hadn’t thought of option 4 – Fuck It just run! I got bored of waiting and walked home. The rain never let up until sometime in the night. I was supposed to go to Ging’s house for coffee, but I had to cancel as I now didn’t have the time and didn’t think riding my motorbike in that much rain was safe.
I’m really annoyed. I need to do a border hop every 3 months, leave the country and come back in in order to keep my visa valid. Pat told me the school won’t take me to Mae Sot to do my border hop, that I had to do it on my own time on a weekend. Then when Noi found out what I was doing this weekend she asked why I didn’t ask to have the school driver take me. I told her that I was told I had to do it on my own time. She didn’t believe me and insisted that the school driver could take me. Then she said I should have told her. She’s going to Mae Sot on Thursday to take students for a field trip and I could have gone with her. How was I supposed to know that? I already booked and paid for a hotel. Then I find out Robin has to do his border hop next week and the school is only taking him because he has a different visa than me and has paperwork the School Director has to sign at the immigration office. Why couldn’t I have gone with them? I’m trying to tell myself it will be fun to get to a bigger city for a weekend, but it’s not working. I’m just annoyed. Pat said she’d call and order my bus ticket, but every time I ask her about it, she acts like I’m asking her to drive the bus herself. She’s so busy and this is such an imposition. She offered and I’m paying for all of this myself so that I may stay in the country three more months to work for them. How am I the bad guy in all this?
I’m almost caught up on lesson plans for next week and Pat comes to me with a task to write the curriculum for the MEP (Mini English Program). This will be submitted to Bangkok and will determine if they get to have the MEP program next semester. What? How am I qualified for creating a document for school policy and programming? This is a job for school administration or the head of the language department. She gave me an example another school wrote. I pretty much rewrote a couple sections and reformatted it since it was so badly formatted it didn’t fit on the pages. But, it took up all of my free time the rest of the week. Next I have to create a class syllabus, but I have no idea what that entails or what it should look like. It’s half way through the semester and now I have to create the syllabus for what I’m going to teach? I guess half of it will be easy since I’ve already taught it. I’m pretty sure “I’m going to wing it and hope that what I decide to teach is new and useful information since I have no idea what they already know or what the country would like for me to teach them” is not a good syllabus description. So, I’ll have to come up with something for the second half.
My monk class is so much work to prepare for and by the time school is done, I’m exhausted and I don’t want to do it. But, it always ends up being fun and the looks on everyone’s faces makes it more fun. They are really enjoying learning English. Ging has decided to join the class. She made me dinner tonight and brought it to me at class. That was so nice and so much better than what I was going to try to scrounge up at home since my refrigerator is almost empty.
It is now the scariest part of the evening. It’s time to go to bed and I’ve been sitting in my somewhat safe room most of the evening. Now I have to go downstairs with just a headlamp to use the bathroom one more time. I’m sure something will jump out from under the stairs or reach up and grab me as I’m going down. Nothing ever does. Then almost as scary is the flicker of the florescent light as it tries to come on. It’s like a bathroom disco. Then I do the snake check before entering the bathroom. No snakes? It might be safe to go. Whew…. back safe in my room.
Rraine Drops 