Category: Uncategorized

Lots of Lunch

On By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Teaching, Thailand, Uncategorized2 Comments

I would have written a blog yesterday, but wifi seemed to disappear off the face of the planet for a day.  I couldn’t connect to the school wifi and although I could connect to my portable hot spot, it didn’t allow me on any websites.  All day today was the same issue.  Tonight, I seem to have wifi, so fingers crossed that I have it at least for the time it takes me to write this.  I find that this wifi difficulty puts me into a downward spiral of “I want to go home” and “I don’t think I can do this until October”.

I had three exploration goals for yesterday, one of which scared me quite a bit.  1.  I was almost out of gas for the motorbike.  I had been told the cheapest gas would be from the mechanic who fixed the bike, who I don’t like very much.  So, this scared me a bit – would I make it to the next village without running out of gas, would he be there, would I be able to communicate what I needed, and would he rip me off?  I’m not sure why I don’t trust him, but I don’t.  Maybe because he doesn’t smile and everyone here smiles?  But, I got there without running out and he was there and understood my charades.  They store the gas in old liquor (?) bottles.  Not sure if I got ripped off or not.  Next time I’ll go to a gas station and see how much it costs.  The gas stations scare me a little too.  They aren’t like gas stations in a big city, but that will be a blog story for another day.  2.  My second goal was to go to the Sunday Market.  It’s only on Sunday mornings and I have been asked several times if I went to the Sunday Market, but because of my lack of transportation, I had not been able to.  It’s held on the grounds of the village temple and part of a school’s athletic field.  It was quite impressive for a small town.  It took me over an hour to walk through it all.  I stopped to get a few things.  I definitely turned some heads as I am the only foreigner and probably looked lost.  I did see a few students.  I also ran into my new best friend, Noi’s husband who was playing in a small band.  3.  My third exploration goal was to go to a new coffee shop.  There were at least two I saw in this village.  The first one I went to was closed.  The second one was tiny – two tables.  After making my latte, the owner sat down at my table with me and struck up a conversation.  I use the word “conversation”  lightly.  Her English was as bad as my Thai.  We tried to use the phrase book I had, but that only helped a little.  We showed pictures of our family.  But, no matter how difficult it was, I think she might have sat there all day with me.  After I paid for my coffee and was about to get on my motorbike she came running out with a bag of fruit and handed it to me saying Valentine’s day.

I accomplished my 3 things.  I have a ton of online stuff I need to do, but can do that later when it’s dark out. I should go explore somewhere else during the day.  Wrong – I had no internet that night.  But, I didn’t know that would happen so I went home and had some soup that the teachers made for me Friday night.  They made me soup that wasn’t too spicy.  Shortly after eating the soup, I got a call from Noi.  She asked if I would have lunch with her.  My past attempts to reschedule have all failed and I know that “No” is not the correct answer so I said yes.  She came and picked me up and took me to a restaurant I hadn’t been to yet.  She ordered pad thai and I have to say it’s the best tasting meal I’ve had yet in Thailand.  So, I ate the whole thing and felt like an umpah lumpah by the time we left.  She then took me to the roadside drink stand I had been to with the military students.  She showed me a fruit that looked like a tiny grapefruit and asked if I had ever had it.  It was a type of citrus.  Of course I haven’t.  The lady juiced it and added some soda water and a tiny bit of sugar to it.  She said she figured I didn’t like too much sugar so she made it less sweet.  How did she know that?  It was perfect.  I tried to pay, but Noi wouldn’t let me.  She said next time.  Then she laughed and said she thinks she won’t let me pay next time either.

So, after I get dropped back home, I still have daylight left.  I had asked Pat where I could get a massage.  She said at the golf course.  I haven’t had a massage in awhile and I’m hurting, but the golf course is up by the dam and the whole dam area is kind of ritzy so I assumed this would be out of my price range and I might need an appointment.  But, it can’t hurt to find out.  I needed my phrase book to ask for massage, but it worked and they led me to a small house next to the clubhouse.  There were just two mats inside, but one was open.  I asked how much bracing myself for what would be cheap by American standards, but probably expensive by Thai standards.  150 baht for an hour.  This is 100 baht less than in a bigger city.  This is about $4.20 us dollars.  DEAL!  She was pretty good too.  So, I now think that if I can get a massage a week, I might survive living here.

I pretty much forget every bit of Thai I learn within 5 minutes of learning it.  This is very frustrating.  I’m going to start carrying a notebook and writing things down and see if that helps.  My brain is quite foggy and from time to time just tries to shut down altogether.  I think if I can either make more of my own meals or somehow get my body to adjust to amazing amounts of carbs, I might be able to use my brain again.  Another thought that has come to me is that the foggy brain, wanting to shut down and not remembering anything might actually be part of my awakening process.  I’m starting to disengage more from my ego identity and stories and I feel like my brain wants to reboot.  I keep getting pulled back into story because I have to teach or I have to buy gas or I have to make a hotel reservation or some type of activity my ego use to do.  I just want to lay around and do nothing, but there are things to do so I’m kind of stuck in the middle right now.

Today I was woken up by a man speaking over a loud speaker at 5:00am.  My ear plugs wouldn’t block it out.  This has happened before and it was the monks telling religious stories during a religious holiday.  I’m not sure if it was the monks, but it was an unpleasant time of day to be woken up, especially when I don’t wake up in the best mood to begin with.  At lunch, Noi calls me and asks if I am coming down to the cafeteria.  They have noodles today.  I tried to explain to her that Pat made me lunch and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I was going to eat with Pat.  Noi called me a little later asking where I was and I tried to explain it again.  I think she got it this time.  Nope.  About 10 minutes into lunch, a student comes up to where Pat, Mae, and I are sitting and hands me a bowl of noodles.  Now I have two lunches again.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore20160205_191140

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Yes, That’s a Pikachu Pancake
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New Restaurant
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Ping River
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The making of the Pikachu Pancake
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My new buddy at the coffee shop
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Time to defrost
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My first mail from the US!

 

Tired

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday was another long day.  It started at 7:30am, but I was the last one there.  Some teachers had been up since 5:00am getting the scouts up and moving.  They were all in formation and doing morning assembly stuff when I got there.  They handed me breakfast (meat and rice).  Most of the morning was similar to the other morning.  The younger students were only doing the one day and one night.  After the singing and tunnel thing, they set off to trek.  Pat and I sat by the main road to help them cross the street.  They trekked up to the lake I had been to the previous day and then back to school.  We had lunch and then sat around for hours watching them set up tents.  It was market day so that made me feel better.  I decided to eat dinner at home since I had to go back for another long meeting in Thai and the evening campfire activities.

At 7:00pm they were all standing in formation ready for the campfire.  There’s no campfire in sight.  There is a large white basin in the middle.  I assumed this is where the fire would be.  There were about 11 older people dressed in their scout uniforms who attended.  They had special seats.  I assumed they were retired teachers or town officials.  There was a full drum set.  One of the older men was the MC of the night.  He did a lot of talking, singing and getting the kids all fired up.  He was also quite funny, as everyone was laughing the whole time.  He had so much energy and was jumping around and dancing most of the evening.  Some small fireworks went off and the fire was “lit”.  It was one of those fabric fires with a fan below it and a red light so the fabric looked like dancing flames.  At some point earlier in the day, I was told I could dance with them.  There was a group of girls that came out in long silk skirts and Tshirts.  They walked around the circle doing a luau type dance.  A group of boys followed them, mimicking them.  Then, I was pulled out of my seat and shuttled down to the circle to join them.  I tried my best, but I’m sure I looked like the farong (foreigner) trying to dance.  They loved it.  There were more speeches, games, plays, singing, speeches, plays.  I figured I could at least follow the plays the students put on – no.  It’s funny, but the students don’t sing, the teachers do.  The guests (retired teachers?) were the life of the party.  They were the band and the singers.  The current teachers waited on them, bringing them drinks and snacks.  The part I liked the most was when one of my best students came out to introduce his group’s play, he introduced it in perfect English “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Thai History”.  It must have been a play about Thai History.  Overall, it was a fun evening, but way too long.  About half way through, I thought, “ok, I can live here”.  Then the last hour was, “how much longer”?  It was done around 11:00pm.  And of course, at 11:00pm they tried to feed me rice soup.

I was back at school at 8:00am and morning assembly was underway.  Similar breakfast, speeches and singing.  It wrapped up around 10:00 and then we “helped” them break camp.  Even though it was a long 2.5 days, I think it was good to spend more time with the other teachers and be exposed to some of the school culture.

I made a new best friend.  He is Noi’s husband.  Noi is the teacher that is my Thai Sister.  He has just as much energy as her.  He is a retired English Teacher.  He kept saying that he gets a headache when he tries to speak English, but then follows me around asking me questions.  I enjoyed speaking with him over the past two days.  He is in the third video playing the xylophone.    The first two videos are of his wife, Noi.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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That’s a bucket of frogs at the market
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The best thing I’ve eaten here – ginger and herbs wrapped in leaves
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That’s one green bean

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Mixing paint to put on the Scout’s faces
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Bamboo Rice that I helped make yesterday
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School dog got hurt – fresh back from the vet
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Lizard at the market

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“campfire”
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School DJ spinning the tunes

Scout Day is Long

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The weird day kept going.  One teacher came up to me and asked if I wanted to help make bamboo rice.  Sure.  I watched them cook the coconut milk, put sugar and salt in it.  Then they put rice in the bamboo shoot.  I helped pour the coconut milk in after.  Then they take a large leaf, roll it up and stick it in the open end so the milk and rice doesn’t come out.  Then it’s grilled.  After that we went to another area of the school and had a teacher’s meeting about what was going to happen tonight.  Huh?  I started at 8:00am and it’s now 4:30pm.  The meeting went for almost two hours.  The best I could tell is there were 15 stations.  I was going to be at station 4 with Q, my next door neighbor.  They brought out dinner.  Pat said all the food was spicy and sent me off with her husband to get dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We got back at 7:00pm and the scouts were meeting, getting the lowdown on the activities for the evening.  Q and I went to our station.  It was about 10 strings of barbed wire near the ground.  Each group of scouts had to figure out how to hold up the barbed wire high enough for students in the group to crawl under the barbed wire.  This is what I did all night.  I have no idea what the other stations had.  One was definitely a short zip line because I could see it off in the distance when a group shined their lights on the person zipping.  One station was at the top of a very high hill and involved singing.  We did this until 10:00pm.  Then we went back to the main meeting hall and had rice soup while they spoke to the scouts again.  I got home around 11:00pm.  Breakfast is at 7:30am tomorrow.  I wonder what the day has in store tomorrow – more scout stuff.  My missing helmet was sitting next to my door when I got home.  Sleepy.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

Not sure what happened

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today was weird. I was supposed to go out with the military students to do military training. But when I got to school it was all scouts, no military. The scouts raised the flag and sang the national anthem twice. Then they had announcements or meeting or who knows.  After that a bunch of the teachers got together with drums, microphones, and cymbals and sang Scout songs. They gave me a set of symbols. While the teachers were singing the scouts went through a tunnel and then got their face painted with mud. Then the Scouts headed out to go trekking. Just as I was about to go back to the house to get my computer so I could work on lesson plans, a couple of the military students came by to pick me up. They took me out on a motorbike.  For about an hour we went down trails that a mountain bike shouldn’t even be on.  The student driving me was a good driver.  At some point we came across a bunch of other military students all with black painted faces. They dropped me off with them and we hiked for a little while. Then we came to a lake where most of the other military students were.  I’m guessing the ones with the black faces were the new military students and the ones on the motorbikes were older.  I watched as some of the military students took a metal tin and some hay and used it to cook a chicken. They had coconuts and opened one up for me to eat . Just about the time the chicken was done, a car shows up with some of the teachers and the rest of the food.   After lunch, they asked if I wanted to go back by car, motorbike or walk. I said it didn’t matter. Somehow between that and trying to find my helmet, I ended up on a motorbike with one of the students. We drove to a small coffee shop and got coffee and then I got in the car and they dropped me back off at school. Now I’m sitting here not sure what to do.  I have no idea where my helmet is.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore20160211_08214620160211_08254420160211_08372520160211_09105720160211_11173620160211_11225420160211_113652

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The cooked chicken is to the left of the two boys

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Chicken on a plate
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These were at the coffee stand

Dam

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Since I have a motor bike now, I took it Saturday to the top of the dam.  It was beautiful, but not as pretty as I had seen in pictures.  The sky is constantly hazy here from the smoke of everyone burning stuff.  I wanted to see mountains and lake going on forever.  However, it was beautiful in an eerie kind of way.  I got a few pictures that captured it pretty well.  I had heard that there was an island not too far away with a temple on top.  It should just be a matter of walking down to the water and hiring a boat.  So, I went into the gift shop to get a snack.  Potato chips here are just horrible.  The flavors are all spicy and/or meat.  I found a bag with a picture of cheese!  Yay!  Oh, wait, there was also a picture of a chili pepper.  That would probably kill me.  So, I opted for the one flavored Hot Pot.  I like steak.  Steak flavored chips can’t be bad.  Then I got a strawberry flavored soda, because, why not?

I headed down the hill to where I saw a bunch of floating buildings with boats attached to them.  As I walked by a bunch of men sitting on a bench they all called Good Morning and Good Afternoon out to me.  It was morning so I said Good Morning back.  I get down to the floating buildings and watch groups of people get on to them.  Then a boat drags the floating building out into the lake.  Then another comes in and another leaves.  I try to ask someone how to get a boat, but the whole conversation fails.  I have no idea what is going on.  I decide this is a challenge for another day and head back up the hill.  I see a man coming up from a building/boat combo and manage to say boat for hire in Thai.  He motions to the dam and then his motorbike.  So, I let him take me on his motorbike back up to the good morning good afternoon guys.  Now I feel silly.  I say boat for hire again.  They say 1? and ask where?  I mention temple.  One guy puts his hands over his head making a triangle shape with his arms.  That could be the international sign for temple so I said yes.  The price is 600 baht which is a lot on a Thai salary, but is about $17.  I don’t plan on doing this again so it all seems fair.  Then another guy takes me back down the hill on his motorbike and goes to get the boat.

The boat driver keeps asking me “Chaing Mai”?  I keep saying No.  Does he want to know if I’m from Chaing Mai or if I want to go there?  Technically, you can get from the dam to Chaing Mai by boat, but it would be a long long way.  So, I’m either going to an island temple, Chaing Mai or somewhere else.  I decide to eat my snack on the boat.  You guessed it, steak flavored chips are not good.   A little while later I see an island with a temple at the top of a giant hill.  Whew.  It was a long trek up the hill.  It was windy which set off all the wind chimes.  It had a main temple and 7 or 8 other smaller temples.  I wandered around for awhile and then headed back down.  I had lunch on the floating building that was docked next to the island and then headed back to the dam.  As the boat driver was taking me back up the hill on his motorbike, he asked me again “Chaing Mai”.  I responded with kru (teacher) Sam Ngao Wit (name of my school).  He got a look of understanding and was quite satisfied with my answer.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, rearranging my bedroom and cooking.  Sunday I decided to go to the coffee shop and then to the next village to explore.  The fuel gauge on the motorbike said almost empty and it wouldn’t start.  I know it was half full when I returned on Saturday.  So, my motorbike has a leak.  I took the bicycle to the coffee shop, but the village is more than I want to do on that bicycle.  By the time I got home from the coffee shop, the bicycle had a flat tire.  I tried to take the bicycle to the mechanic nearby but he wasn’t in.  A woman was there and she pointed down the street I just came up and said a bunch of stuff, basically motioning me to go that way.  I have no idea how far down the road he might be.  I wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him.  Is he just hanging out with a friend?  Is he working somewhere else?  At a loss of what to do, I just walked my sad bike back home.  I had a half a day of freedom and now I’m stranded again.

The wifi doesn’t work at all this weekend, which is why you didn’t see a blog until now.  My portable wifi doesn’t work either.  I know I have to put more money on it, but I have no idea how to.  The sim card doesn’t have the phone number.  There’s no buttons so I can’t dial the number that tells you what your phone number is.  I’ve left messages on line with the phone company.  Someone suggested putting the sim card in my phone and then getting the number.  That didn’t work.  Someone suggested going to the phone store.  We don’t have a phone store and the electronics store that has a few phones is in the village I can’t get to.

Today – same as most – morning dreads.  I almost didn’t get up because of the dreads and because it was cold again.  I got up.  By mid morning I felt ok, so that’s actually a huge improvement.  Someone is working on my motorbike today.  I don’t know what they found, but I know someone is on it.  Last week they asked if I wanted to go trekking with the scouts Thursday and Friday this week.  I said sure.  Then today I found out I am going to military training on Thursday with the military students.  They asked if I was ok wearing a mask and crawling under things.  I think they mean an obstacle course.  I said sure.  I’m not sure I am ok with that.  Curiosity is winning this one so I guess I’m going and will report back later.  I’m still going trekking on Friday.  Is trekking hiking?

I had my first M6 (oldest grade) class today.  They have been in test prep since I got here so I hadn’t taught to them yet.  I did introductions mostly.  Since I will only see them a few more times before they graduate, I asked them what they wanted me to teach them.  They said things like reading, conversation, vocabulary.  I asked what topics?  They came up with the topics of Crime and Travel, not together, just two separate topics.  This should be fun.  I don’t know where to start.

I got a post card today from Colorado.  Eeeeeeeee!  Thanks Jay!

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Motor Bike

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’m still waking up with the dreads.  But, at least I’m doing better by mid day.  Pat makes me lunch every day.  Then I get all foggy brained in the afternoon from all the rice.  Can’t win.

Yesterday I didn’t have any classes because the ones I was supposed to teach were in tutoring all week.  They are getting ready for the end of the year exams.  Some of the English teachers brought me test examples (last year’s test) and asked me questions on some of the ones that didn’t make sense to them.  They didn’t make sense to me either.  One of them was written so badly that none of the answers were correct grammar.  Another one said something to the effect of “Why did the wife suggest her husband shouldn’t bring his camera to the concert?  a.  They don’t allow cameras at the concert.  b. She didn’t want to end up carrying it.  c.  She thought he might forget it.  or d.  she thought he might take pictures the whole time instead of enjoying the concert”.   wtf?  How is this a question on an English exam?

Yesterday after school, Pat took me to get the School’s motorbike which was at the mechanic’s.  It’s old, but the school is going to lend it to me for free.  The mechanic turned it on using a screwdriver because it didn’t have a key.  It also didn’t have a battery so the horn and lights barely worked.  He asked if I wanted a key and a battery.  Um, yea.  I got to test drive it though.  It has 4 gears.  I’ve never driven a motorbike with gears so I was nervous.  A shaky start, but it’s easy enough.

I spent most of the evening texting with my roomies from Hua Hin.  We are going to go to Vietnam in March!  We figured out where we wanted to go.  But, we haven’t figured out dates yet.

Today, as with every day, I’m awake before the alarm goes off.  Not wide awake, but awake enough to be aware that there are a lot of roosters in this area.  A lot.  They are so noisy and just non-stop.  Then, after my alarm goes off, I take my ear plugs out.  OMG there is so much going on in the woods.  There are pigeons living under the roof.  They are making so much noise in the morning.  Thank got I have bug screens on the windows or they would be in my house.  There’s always something running around in circles.  I can hear it rustling the leaves.  I think it’s a stray dog, but who knows?  There a ton of other birds trying to out cry the roosters.  I should try to get a sound clip.

Today I got the motor bike.  Made it home ok.  I have a little trouble starting it so I have to practice that.

I taught teachers again tonight.  I went over pronouns.  I also went over some of the sounds we have in English that they don’t have in Thai so they struggle.  They have trouble with B so Crab becomes Crap.  V is difficult so Volleyball becomes Wolleyball.  Th is a mystery.  Last week when I was teaching the word Athlete, the kids kept saying Asslete.  They can’t say S followed by a consonant.  Sweet becomes Saweet.   Then they asked a bunch of questions.  What’s the difference between street, road and esplanade.  How do they even know the word esplanade?  They wanted to know about idioms.  I used “It’s raining cats and dogs” as an example.  Blank confused stares.  I’ll have to work on that.

After class a different teacher took me out to dinner.  Mae, is a young teacher fresh out of college.  She joined us tonight and Monday night too.  They are taking me to dinner as payment for teaching.  But, I think they are just taking Mae because she’s young and they are taking her under their wing and trying to take care of her.  It’s beautiful to watch.

Today’s pictures are random:

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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My school
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ugh toilet seat spider = nightmares
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morning assembly
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Thai students are great artists.  This is my favorite
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The mechanic’s house/shop

Sticky Rice

On By rrainefioreIn Teaching, Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Back to teaching.  My lesson that I planned for this week was way to easy for the M5s (high school Jr).  They have a great grasp of English vocabulary.  They do great repeating if I give them a dialogue to say.  Then, if I have them try to come up with sentences or dialog on their own, it breaks down.  I have to come up with ways to get them to try experiment/play around with what they know.  Now, I feel dumb.  How do I do that?  Then I think, I can’t say in Thai what I’m asking them to learn in English.  It’s hard to wrap my brain around that.

After school yesterday I did an English class for the teachers that were interested.  There were 6 teachers.  I had no idea how many would show up and how much they would already know so I basically didn’t prepare anything and hoped it would go well.  I started with “How are you”?  They know this well, but the answer always is “I am fine”.  I tried to show them that the answer could be good, great, not good, hungry, cold, hot, etc.  They came up with great questions, like what is the difference between “How do you do”? and “How are you”?  I had trouble explaining that someone could be funny or fun, but if you answer “How are you” with “I am funny”, it might not mean funny ha ha, it might mean funny not right.  I didn’t quite explain this one well.  They had questions like what’s the difference between cool and cold.  My favorite was what’s the difference between “I’m thinking of you” and “I miss you”.  I pointed to my head and said in a calm tone “I’m thinking of you”.  Then I pointed to my heart, collapsed around my heart a little and said with feeling “I miss you”.  They got it.  I’m also trying to show them that there is formal/polite ways of saying things, but we don’t use them that often.  “How do you do”? is more formal, but hardly anyone says it.  There is a common way of saying things that isn’t as personal as just with friends, but isn’t as formal as what is usually taught as polite.  Then one of the teachers took me and another teacher out to dinner.  I’ve only been to one restaurant here, 3 times, taken there by 3 different teachers.  They all love that restaurant.  It probably was one of the best Thai meals I’ve had yet.

Last night I was woken up several times by a lot of noise coming from the kitchen.  It sounded like someone was throwing plastic water jugs around.  I’ve heard this before and wondered what my next door neighbor was doing in the middle of the night.  My next door neighbor isn’t home.  Crap, something else is making this noise.  It was a rat.  I don’t know what the heck was doing to make that noise, but I came downstairs to find him in the kitchen looking very confused as to why I was there looking at him.  It didn’t appear that he had been in the food.  wtf was he doing to make that noise?  Why do I have to have so many visitors?  I’d rather have the frog back than a rat.   Today Pat took me to get “chemicals” that rats don’t like the smell of.  They look like moth balls.  I plan to put them around the kitchen floor and see if they work.

Today was similar where I just don’t want to get out of bed and I just don’t want to do anything, but go home.  But, by the end of the day, I feel better.  I wish I could get rid of this morning dread, but I don’t know how.  It’s not a new thing.  I had it for years when I lived in the US.  I’ve had it off and on for most of my life.  It had disappeared completely over the past 3 years so I figured I had worked through it.  I thought it was part of the not wanting to be here issue from a young age, being adopted.  So, either I still have more work to do on that issue or it’s something similar, but slightly different.

The afternoon market is Tuesday and Fridays.  We went after school.  I like the market.  I love the idea of buying food from the people that grew or cooked it.  I much prefer this to a grocery store back home.  It also has fascinating and weird things which I like too.  For instance, tonight I saw 5 lizards tied together so they couldn’t run off.  They were alive and for sale for food.  On one hand, I find it gross, on the other, I find it sad and yet so fascinating.  I asked Pat if she eats lizards.  She said no, but some do.  I saw two catfish jump out of a bucket and try to get away.  They got pretty far before someone scooped them up and put them back in the bucket.  I saw what looked like pig skin, but the entire pig head.  I have seen them cooking stuff in bamboo and heard it was sticky rice.  You see the bamboo grilling and you want it even before you know what is in it.  Tonight Pat’s husband bought me one.  I had it with dinner.  The rice was sweet and had black beans in it.  If I have to eat rice, I vote for bamboo sticky rice.

I am probably just as interesting a sight at the market.  I tower over everyone.  I have to duck constantly because I am taller than the fabric they have hung between the food stalls.  One kid about 6 or 7 almost fell over staring at me with a confused look on his face.  I often get this stare from younger kids.  Some people don’t pay attention to me.  Some look surprised and delighted when I smile or wai.  Some come up to Pat and tell her they want to talk to me.  One guy always wants to talk with me and has pretty good English.  Tonight he told Pat he didn’t want to talk to her he wanted to talk to the other teacher (me).

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

Restaurant Cat
RraineThai – Sausage salad and sticky rice
Sticky rice

Sukhothai

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Saturday morning I slept in until 8:00am.  I had an American breakfast at the guest house (fried eggs, the smallest piece of bacon known to man, ham, a hot dog, toast, real butter, coffee and juice).  Oh how I miss butter and enjoyed the heck out of buttered toast.  Then I got on the motor bike and braved the highway again to go to the Old City.

Here’s what Lonely Planet has to say about Sukhothai:  “The Sukhothai kingdom flourished from the mid 13th century to the late 14th century.  This period is often viewed as the golden age of Thai civilization, and the religious art and architecture of the era are considered to be the most classic of Thai styles.  Sukhothai is typically regarded as the first capital of Siam, although this is not entirely accurate.  Sukhothai’s dynasty lasted 200 years and spanned 9 kings.  The most famous was King Ramkhamhaeng, who reigned from 1275 to 1317 and is credited with developing the first Thai script”.

There are ruins everywhere in the old City.  I went to the main part which is the Sukhothai Historical Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  They suggested you rent a bike and ride around, but I took my time and walked through the park.  Most of the morning, I just felt at peace, a feeling I haven’t felt in awhile.  Ok, so apparently, I just want to be a tourist and travel around seeing cool sights.  By 1:00, this peacefulness had changed drastically. I was agitated, very unhappy, and physically uncomfortable.  I have no idea why.  So, I went to get lunch and drink some water.  I drove around on the motorbike looking at more ruins that were on the map, but outside the park.  There were some ancient kilns so being a potter, I decided I wanted to see those.  They were unimpressive, but I ended up in the middle of a herd of cows being moved from one place to another.  That was odd and cool.  I got lost a few times looking for other ruins.  By now, the general distaste for life had not faded so I decided maybe it was time to call it a day on the sight seeing.  There is a pottery museum that I didn’t get to.  I’d love to see that and will have to make that my focus next time I go.

I looked for a Tesco on google maps, but couldn’t find one.  It’s kind of like a Walmart and there were things I needed like a pillow case, office supplies, a cutting board, etc.  I did drive by a Big C and remembered that was similar.  I went it and got a bunch of stuff, way more than I could put in my backpack.  Well, I’ve seen a family of 4 on a motorbike.  I’ve seen a dining room table on a motorbike.  Surely I can get a pillow and 3 bags of stuff to my guest house on a motor bike.  I had so much trouble in the parking garage just getting the motorbike backed up and the bags kept falling.  The garage attendant came over and hung the bags from the rear view mirrors for me.  I made it back to the guest house, but it was sketchy.

I went to a pizza place with the other teachers that live in Sukhothai and their neighbors, about 12 expats.  It was great to have a real pizza and to have a normal conversation in English.  I was a bit jealous as it seems they are quite enjoying living in Sukhothai.  After dinner I went and got a massage.

Today I got up, ate breakfast, refilled the motor bike with gas and took off to the bus station.  I managed to say ba tan cu an (entrance to the dam) correctly and get on the right bus.  When my stop was getting closer, I pulled out google maps just in case they forgot that’s where I needed to stop.  They remembered and one of the guys on the bus came and got me to tell me my stop was coming up.  The stop is on the side of the highway so that was weird.  The bus trip, with stops was about 2 hours – not bad.  After the bus pulled away, I saw the taxi stand that I doubted would actually exist.  I was able to say long rien sam ngao wit. (sam ngao wit school).  I’m carrying a decent sized heavy overpacked backpack, a purse, a pillow and two bags of groceries and I’m going to get on the back of a motor bike.  The taxi driver put the pillow and groceries in between his feet and I sat sideways on the back.  I had one hand on his shoulder and the other with a death grip on the back of the bike.  A half an hour of this going 80kmph with no helmet.  My legs hurt so bad, but I didn’t dare adjust the way I was sitting.  This is the most terrifying thing I have experienced yet in Thailand.  Talk about no control.

Well, home safe and sound.  I feel a little better about living here knowing I can take weekend trips without a ton of hassle.  Ok, now the ridiculous amount of photos and a cow video:

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Yay!

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I made a friend at the coffee shop

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Yep – An entire isle of rice cookers
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And an entire isle of rice
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The bus stopped so the bus driver could buy eggs!
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This little girl fell asleep next to me on the bus holding my purse strap

 

Clinic

On By rrainefioreIn Thailand, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday was rather uneventful.  I woke up with the same foul mood that I do every morning.  It slowly fades as the day goes on.  I taught some classes.  I brought a salad in for Pat.  She thought it was a funny thing to eat.  Another teacher and Pat’s husband joined us for lunch.  The other teacher found the salad strange too.  Pat’s husband finished off what they didn’t eat with quite a bit of excitement.  I bet he had a bunch of energy the rest of the day and didn’t even know why.  It was still cold most of the day, but tolerable.  I decided to brave the cold shower – I survived, but barely.  Then I ate what was called a pizza and looked like a mini pizza with bread, cheese, ketchup and radishes.  I am not positive about what it was, but my best guess is the cheese was a sweet glaze kind of like frosting.  It was most definitely not cheese.  Cheese was the part I was most looking forward to.  The bread was bread and the ketchup was ketchup.  I think the stuff that looked like radishes was fish.

Today was teacher meeting day so I didn’t have to go to school because it would be hours of me not knowing what they were talking about.  They asked me to come for lunch, though.  I feel quite uncomfortable with how much people are feeding me.  I feel like, if I didn’t work and didn’t attend meetings, I shouldn’t get free lunch.  I assume they feel the same, but they probably don’t.  So, another thing to investigate – receiving.

I went to the coffee shop this morning and had what tasted like cookie crumbs with yogurt and jam on top.  Then washed it down with coffee flavored sugar.  Pat’s husband came into the coffee shop while I was there and wouldn’t let me pay for my sugar.  There it is again – uncomfortable.

They asked me to do English lessons for the teachers after school.  I agreed.  One teacher asked me how much and I said free.  This makes me feel a little better.  They have taken such good care of me that I wouldn’t feel good about charging for this.

In the afternoon, Pat took me to Tak to go to the clinic.  I guess as part of my work visa I need to have a doctor certify that I don’t have tuberculosis, leprosy, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, elephantiasis or tertiary syphilis.  Where do they come up with that list of illnesses?  The doctor wasn’t going to be in for another hour or more.  So she gave me the list and took me to the bus station.  I got on a bus to Sukohthai because I need a weekend of sight seeing.  She said I could go to a clinic in Sukohthai and get the certification done.  Oh jeeze, I have to navigate that task alone?

I was going to stay on the couch of some of my TESOL classmates that live in Sukohthai, but I decided I’d rather have my own place where I can hopefully stretch out and sleep well.  I found a place near the bus station for $11 a night.  I got to Sukohthai ok and to my guesthouse ok.  The people at the guesthouse were nice and spoke good English.  The room has a double bed, air conditioning and a hot shower!  I don’t have to sleep under a bug net and there are no frogs in the bathroom!  I got to have a hot shower for the first time in over a month.  This is the best $22 ever spent.

The guesthouse rented me a motor bike for 200 baht a day ($6/day).  So, I set out on my motorbike to find a clinic.  Thank god for google maps!  I love you google maps.  I think you have saved me much drama and will get me out of trouble in the future.  So, I haven’t ridden a moped in over 15 years. Now I’m going to drive it 2 blocks and then get on the highway driving on the other side of the road from what I’m use to while trying to find a clinic.  It was simply terrifying.  Turning and accelerating at the same time almost did me in a few times before I got the hang of it.  And by hang of it, I mean not in panic mode, but on extremely high alert.  Oh, well, it had to be done sooner or later.

The first clinic I went to was no where to be found.  The second one told me I needed to go to the hospital to get the certification.  Luckily, there was a hospital a block away.  The people at the desk didn’t speak English, but a nurse did.  I had to show my passport, sit and wait, then go to the pharmacy to pay for the tests then sit in a new spot to wait.  Then the nurse took my blood pressure and moved me to another spot to wait.  Then I got moved to a chair in front of a door to wait.  All these different spots to sit and wait were all in the same room.  Then the door opened and I went in to see the doctor.  He used a stethoscope to listen to my lungs, signed some paperwork, gave it to me and sent me on my way.

I went next door to a restaurant and had a lime slushy and a ham and cheese sandwich.  Even though it cost about 3x as much as a Thai meal would have, it was a wonderful break from Thai food.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Someone put a shirt on the school stray dog

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The tree in front of my house
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Nothing but sugar
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And more sugar (and gelatin, of course)
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Guest house in Sukohthai
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A double bed with no need for a bug net!!!
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Small, but wonderful for $11/night
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No frogs here
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And the best part – a hot shower!