Two thing I normally wouldn’t eat because I don’t like or dislike them are: oranges and cucumbers. But, here, cucumbers are served with most meals. And someone is always handing me an orange. So, I’m eating a lot of both.
Normally I put lots of cream and sugar in my coffee. But the amount of sugar the put in coffee in Thailand is astounding. I’m actually craving and enjoying (when I can find it), coffee with no sugar.
(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
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
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
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
PSA: If you are in Thailand and see a pizza that looks like it has ketchup on it, it does. Don’t eat it.
(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rraine Drops 