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.
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.
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
My schoolugh toilet seat spider = nightmaresmorning assemblyThai students are great artists. This is my favoriteThe mechanic’s house/shop
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).
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
Someone put a shirt on the school stray dog
The tree in front of my houseNothing but sugarAnd more sugar (and gelatin, of course)Guest house in SukohthaiA double bed with no need for a bug net!!!Small, but wonderful for $11/nightNo frogs hereAnd the best part – a hot shower!
I am still waking up every morning with “I don’t want to”. It got a little better as the day went on. It was so cold this morning and pouring rain. This is the third day of cold that I don’t have the right clothes for. I did a wet wipe bath this morning – there is no way I am taking a shower – I don’t have hot water. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow so there is hope for a shower in my near future. I can’t wait to wash my hair.
I signed paperwork for my work permit today. Friday they are going to take me to Tak for a health physical. I think this is part of the work permit process? Then Pat said she’s show me the bus station in Tak. I will take a bus to Sukohthai and hang out there Friday night. Sukohthai use to be a kingdom from 1238 until 1583. The old city is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and they made a park out of it. I want to go see that. Plus, this will give me practice trying to navigate the bus system. I’m a bit nervous about that, but it’s got to be done sooner or later.
Not much else to report on today – still the same as yesterday. It’s early, but I’m going to go curl up in bed soon and do some reading or lesson planning or something. Here’s some random photos for your entertainment. The video is of a green jelly dessert.
(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Still RainingThe solution to the ever wet Thai bathroomGreen gelatinous stuff in milkI like the marketCheerleaders from Sports Day. Pat is the teacher on the left in the upper photo
Rraine Drops 