Back to Sam Ngao

On February 22, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I tried to sleep in as late as I could, but I just feel yucky. I try to cry or scream or figure out how to release this, but I can’t so I just get up. Maybe leaving Mae Sot will help and that’s on the schedule for today anyway.

I had another meh breakfast and then my taxi arrived early to take me to the bus station. So, I was way too early, but that’s ok. I didn’t have any issue with my ticket bought on line so that was good. It was a different bus station than the one I came into and the bus was sold out so I’m real glad I got the ticket ahead of time on line.

The bus has a stewardess of sorts who takes our tickets, finds where we are getting off, gives us water and a very random snack. When I tell her Ba tan cuen, she doesn’t understand me although I know she does. I tell her about 3 or 4 times and she keeps saying Chaing Mai (the final stop)? She repeats Ba tan cuen with a distrusting look several times and then walks off shaking her head. Several times during the trip she asks me again. I try to explain I live and teach there, but she thinks I’m nuts.

I was told or read somewhere that this stretch of road is dangerous on a bus. I rode in on a van and was wondering what it would be like on a bus. It’s not scary so much as it’s just intense. There are a lot of trucks and buses on the road. It’s steep and full of switch backs. There’s not much you can do as you are getting tossed side to side a lot. I try to read, but writing or typing on the computer is out of the question. There are no run away truck lanes like there would be in Colorado, but I don’t smell burning brakes either. Some of the hills, the bus struggles to even get up. I’m sitting on the wrong side again to get any pictures of the mountain views. I tried to get pictures, but they don’t do it justice, of course. I’m dropped off at the correct stop even though she still looks skeptical and then I have to take the motorbike taxi back home.

Now I’m guessing the police stops on the way into and out of Mae Sot may have something to do with refugees. I’m not sure, but that makes the most sense. I did some research on line about the Burmese refugees. It was quite eye opening, but that is all I will say about it.

I wanted to go out to the temple tonight to see what the holiday celebration might be like, but by the time I heard the monks on the loud speaker, I was tired and just wanted to shower and eat so I didn’t go out after all. Now, I’m kinda bummed I didn’t go.

I’m using my new phone as a wifi hot spot as I write this so that’s a huge hooray!

My house is just full of bugs and I’m over it. My bedroom floor was covered in wings when I got home. There were some bugs. I don’t know what they were – termites, flying ants? I swept it all up and didn’t do much looking at the bugs because I just don’t want to know. My head has been itching for days so I wonder if I got bugs in my hair now. I feel like I’m 8 years old again. I washed my hair twice today although, I doubt that will do any good. I looked at my sheets and they were covered in tiny dead gnats that I’ve been battling every night when I try to read on my nook. Still, the amount of bug on the outside top of the bug net lets me know it’s not a complete failure. Guess I’m sleeping on my sleeping bag tonight and washing sheets tomorrow. I did get an electronic bug thing that Laura recommended. It’s for mosquitoes, but maybe it’ll deter other bugs too. Fingers crossed. Alright, I’m going to leave it on that note so all of you reading this can share in my creepy crawly feeling.

Mae Sot 2

On February 21, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Awakening, Thailand, Uncategorized4 Comments

So, there are roosters in Mae Sot too. No sleeping in. I debated leaving the hotel or not. I’m still not sure what this mix of hating and loving Mae Sot is. I have the thought that if I decide to stay in Thailand, but leave Sam Ngao, I’d like to live in Mae Sot. But, I don’t want to leave the room. There isn’t much in the way of sights to see. I thought about trying to get to see a waterfall since there should be some fairly close, but decide on going to the Border Market instead. But first, I have to get my bus confirmation for tomorrow printed, get breakfast (free at the hotel) and figure out how I’m getting to the bus tomorrow. Google translator for the win. Bus confirm printed and they will call a taxi for me tomorrow morning. Breakfast was disappointing, but good enough to tackle a market. They call a taxi for me since it will probably be an hour bike ride. The hour ride to the market might be wonderful, but then it will get hot and I won’t want the ride back. Lonely Planet says the market is unique because of all the Karen, Hmong and Burmese crafts that can be found there. Plus lots of jade and gems from Myanmar. It’s the best market I’ve seen in Thailand. Not too big, but so many things, textiles, clothes, electronics, cosmetics, jewelry, jade, jade, gems, jade, metal work, wood work, furniture, strange food, on and on. There was one entire row of dried fish products. It was right next to the Friendship Bridge that goes over the river that is the border. There were tons of cars on the bridge, but people walking over with suitcases too. I read that this border was only opened in 2013. I also read that there are tons of refugee camps near Mae Sot. There were people camping next to the river and both sides were run down and horrible looking. Even though it’s just lines on a map, it’s very weird to stand in one foreign country and look at another.

So glad I took the taxi because it got hot. As I’m sitting waiting for a taxi, I realize why I’m having such polar opposite feelings. I like Mae Sot. It’s not a big city like Bangkok, but it’s a city and everything is moving. Product moved from here to there and then over there. Stuff and people in and out and around. There are plant nurseries, warehouses, mom and pop shops all next to houses and farms. There are animals and cars and bicycles all going down the street together. Cultures and religions are all intermixed. The city feels like it’s breathing on it’s own. There’s a rhythmic flow to all this movement that I don’t understand, but it does and it is just doing it’s thing. Then, on the other side of the river is a country that is trying to rebuild and figure itself out. There are thousand of Burmese refugees living in refugee camps in Thailand. Some of those camps are near Mae Sot. The feeling at the bridge is tentative, movement, but forced and uncomfortable. Many of these refugee camps have been set up for 20 to 30 years. Many refugees have never known a life outside a camp. Even though the border is open and it appears easy to come and go, I’m literally sitting under the bridge between a relatively free, vibrant country and a very uncertain country. There’s a lot of opposites and an energetic line of fear and confusion in the middle. This is what I’ve been feeling so strongly. And of course, it resonates with all the parts of me that want to trust in the flow of life and all the parts that still don’t trust it’s a safe world. I don’t cross the bridge, mostly because I don’t want to pay any fees, but symbolically because I want to live in the flow instead of the fear. I will have to cross that bridge another day in the future when I need to do a border hop for my visa. We’ll save it for then.

I had signed up for a cooking class at 3:00. I have 2 hours to kill so I head out on bike in search of a coffee shop. Either there are no coffee shops in Mae Sot, or google maps is lying again. I give up and find a restaurant that has coffee. Then I arrive at the place where the cooking class is and it’s delightful. It has a fair trade hand made crafts store in the front, the kitchen and then a tea garden in the back. The tea garden is so nice. There’s one other lady in the cooking class. They give us a cookbook full of local dishes (none are Thai). We get to pick a snack, main dish, salad and drink to make. Then we go to the market to buy the ingredients. We make the dishes and then get to eat them in the tea garden. There’s enough food for at least two more meals so I’ll get to eat them tomorrow. We picked a lime basil juice which might be one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. We had a ginger salad, Karen pumpkin curry and banana coconut wraps.

There was another lady in the tea garden at the same time and three of us got to talking. The woman in the cooking class with me works for the US government and is here for 6 weeks interviewing refugees. It sounds like it’s part of the process of deciding which ones will be allowed to relocate to the US. The other lady is here for about the same amount of time working in a clinic for refugees. She’s in between medical school and getting a job back in the UK. I learned a lot more about the refugee issue, although I mostly learned that I don’t really know anything about the subject. This cooking class is the most enjoyable thing I’ve done since I got here.

20160221_102647 — They put water in these powders and put all over their faces

20160221_102744 20160221_103235 20160221_103523 20160221_114728

20160221_115339 — The Friendship Bridge looking toward Myanmar

20160221_115609 — Standing in Thailand with Myanmar behind me

20160221_115708

20160221_132247

Mae Sot 1

On February 20, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn Thailand, Uncategorized1 Comment

So I got up super early and drove to the hospital. I was told to park there since the bus stop is next door. Riding an old motor bike in the dark with bad headlights is sketchy, especially when you come upon a dog sleeping in the middle of the road. Dogs are a major source of motorbike accidents in Thailand. There was no one at the bus stop at 6:30. There were a three kids there by 7:00am. So, I was obviously told the wrong time. Was it a joke on the foreigner? Oh well, at least I wasn’t late for the bus. It was a big loud bus full of students. There were adults too, but mostly students. The bus honked at everything that moved and as it was approaching every stop. It was standing room only by the time we got to the bus station in Tak. It was nice to see a teenage boy give up his seat next to me for someone else. It’s typical for younger people to give up their seats for older people. I then had to change to a mini van to get to Mae Sot. The seats on the mini van were tiny and every seat was full. It was a very interesting drive. The roads were steep and very curvy. Of in the distance you could see row and row of mountains (shadows of mountains really since it’s so smoky here). We drove through several national parks so there was nothing but jungle. The steepness of the roads reminded me of Colorado, if Colorado had jungle.

We went through 3 police check points. I found that odd. At the 3rd one, a policeman checked IDs. I wondered what they were looking for. Drugs, gems, poachers? When we got to Mae Sot I got a motorbike taxi to my hotel, well to the wrong hotel and then to the right one. This was foreshadowing for my afternoon. Mae Sot looks different than anything else I’ve seen in Thailand. I can’t quite identify what it is that is different. It’s a border town near Myanmar and has a large concentration of hill tribes, Karen and Hmong. It also has a large Muslim population and Chinese population. The only thing I can figure is these influences made tiny differences in buildings, streets, clothing, etc and creates a distinct, but indescribable difference. I tried to define it or capture it in a picture but i just can’t.

I got to my hotel and I didn’t want to leave. I was overcome with a strong feeling of “I like Mae Sot” combined with “I hate it here”. There was a lot of fear and I just wanted to crawl in bed and hide. I watched tv for awhile and tried to find a phone store on google maps. I tried to convince myself that it was ok if I locked myself in my room all weekend. The part of me that needs a new phone and reliable wifi won. The hotel had bicycles I could use for free and “how do I rent a motorbike” was not being understood. So, I took the bicycle into town on a wild goose chase sponsored by google maps. The first place it took me was a Tesco which are like Walmarts here. They usually have other stores around them including phone stores. I went in and there were only two rows of shelves with stuff on them. It was creepy. The next place didn’t seem to exist. It kept taking me down roads that I swear were in the wrong direction. I had no idea where I was. The streets are narrow, full of cars, bicycles and motorbikes. Terrifying and fabulous all at the same time. There’s that mix of opposites again. There are stores and delivery trucks everywhere. The variety of things being sold and/or delivered was mindblowing. I still can’t process it and I saw it. The third place I went was a print shop. A guy across the street was drunk and bathing with a hose, fully clothed. Then he came over and sat in front of the print shop and then back across the street. Back and forth, soaking wet. I decided this would be a good time to go eat. The combination of Lonely Planet guide book and google maps got me to a Canadian restaurant that boasted having cheese. I tried to regroup. I had a cheese burger and fries. I got a hold of the phone company by Line (a text program widely used in SE Asia) and they told me there was a store in Robinsons and one in a different Tesco. Some British people eating next to me told me where the other Tesco was.

I have a new resolve to get this phone since I don’t want to go through this again tomorrow. On my way to Tesco, I stopped for a pedicure. She tried to get rid of my ingrown toenails which I usually don’t mind because they drive me nuts, but she cut too deep and my toe bled and still hurts hours later. So, now I’m grumpy, scared, hot, lost and injured. I found the dtac store and no one speaks English. I try using my phrase book and the guy behind the counter pulls out his phone and has me speak into it. It translates what I said to Thai. It doesn’t do the best job of translating. Some of the things he said got translated horribly to English, but it was enough to get a new phone that can be a mobile hot spot and to get a data package paid for. And I asked him to download the translator app too – google translator, who knew? Now, hopefully, it works at my house! I went back to the hotel and locked myself in. I tried to nap, but couldn’t. Around 8:00pm I decided I needed to go out and eat and see if I could get a massage. I used my new translator to ask where to go for a massage. They said 2 hours in my room for 500baht ($14). Deal! Who needs dinner?

20160220_105913 — Can I just stay here forever?

20160220_133420 — Cheese on my burger and fries

20160220_143426 — On the phone store hunt

20160220_144005 — Those are funny looking dogs, no goats

20160220_144027

Disappearing Cow

On February 19, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This week has been ok. The morning dreads have been replaced with the morning “nooooooo”. But I think that is a little better. The main issues I’m having is the foggy brain, just being so tired early in the evening and the very frustrating lack of wifi. I want to learn Thai, but nothing is sticking. I can’t go watch videos on line because I can’t get on wifi. The wifi hotspot that Xplore Asia sent me is useless. The school’s wifi might work for an hour or not at all. It seems like after school I cook or do one or two things and then it’s late or I’m tired. There might be a time warp in my house that also take brain cells away. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. It’s getting hotter so that may contribute too.

Monday, I only had two teachers show up for teachers English class. I wonder if I’m not making it fun enough. Is it too hard? Do they think they want to learn English, but really don’t?

Tuesday, a teacher brought me breakfast. It was a “sandwich”. This sounds wonderful. I look in the bag. It’s a hotdog with butter, ketchup and lettuce. I don’t care for ketchup so it was a hotdog with butter. I’ll make a salad later with that lettuce. That evening, I went to the market. I also got gas for the stove in my house. So, now I can fry things. Next week I’m looking forward to eggs for breakfast! Tuesday night I cooked up a ton of greens that my next door neighbor bought from a student. He bought them to be nice, but he doesn’t cook. So I kept some and left the rest in zip lock baggies at his door. I hope he eats it, but who knows? Maybe if I had cooked rice too.

Wednesday evening I went out to dinner with the missionary, Laura. I got to go see the church she is working on. She is overseeing the building of the new church. It’s also a nice time to spend with another native English speaker. She’s lived in Thailand for quite a while so she has some good pointers too. She also understands that salads are not a strange thing, but can be quite delicious.

Last night I was supposed to teach teachers, but there were none. I think there’s still some interest, but I think maybe once a week is more their speed. Who knows? I took the opportunity to do laundry. After that, I thought I’d go see if I could get a pedicure. Laura had shown me a place where a lady does hair and will also do nails. But, it wasn’t open. Well, that’s about the extent of the things I can think of to do in town so I went home. The rest of my evening was cooking and defrosting the refrigerator. Defrosting the refrigerator in 5 easy steps – take food out, unplug refrigerator, open door and let ice melt all over kitchen overnight, put food back in, plug in.

Wednesday during the afternoon assembly, I looked over and saw a cow in front of the school. He was too far away to get a picture, but I thought it would make a great picture of rural life. I figured I’d get the picture later when I was waiting for Laura to go to dinner. Not more than 20 minutes later, I go looking for the cow, but she is gone. Then Thursday as I’m coming home with a bag of wet laundry balanced just so on the back of the motorbike, who do I see, but the cow walking down the street. If I stop for a photo now, it will unbalance my bag. I’ll just go home, hang the laundry and get a picture of her when I head to get my nails done. Five minutes later, she’s gone. How far could a cow get in 5 minutes? Where did it go? They don’t move that fast, do they?

Today when I got to school, a student brought me breakfast from one of the other teachers. I have no idea who it was from since my ability to remember teacher’s names is only slightly better than my ability to remember Thai words. It was something beautifully wrapped in leaves and the leaves smelled horrible. I unwrapped one and of course it involved rice. It looked like sticky rice around some pink fruit. It tasted ok. Later in the morning, I ate the other one. On closer inspection, it looked like half a banana wrapped in rice. The pink color is a mystery. After school today, my plan was to go get a massage! Yay! It wasn’t open. I waited for awhile, just in case. I texted the phone number on the window. I figured calling them would be a waste of time since they didn’t speak English and I could say massage in Thai, but I’d have no idea what their answer would be. Maybe with a text they could translate. But, no response. Well, let’s go do that pedicure. Not open either. I settled for a lime vanilla ice cream bar from 7-11. Once again, I ran out of ideas for a night on the town.

Now that I’m sitting in the time warp, I’m thinking how is it 8:00pm already? Screw it, I’m going to bed. I have to finish packing for the weekend and then I’m done. I have to get up early because rumor is a bus will come to the bus stop around 6:30am and there may not be another bus to Tak in the morning. Or there may be many. No one seems to know. I’m going to Mae Sot for the weekend. It’s a larger town on the border of Myanmar and should be something interesting to see for the weekend.

20160216_074321 — So exciting – These two bananas grew in one skin

20160217_082633 — This cat followed me around for a half hour

20160217_105710 — The shutters in one of my classrooms

20160217_165913 — One of the houses at school

20160217_171444 — Laura, the builder and the church

20160217_173150 — Church builders’ garden

20160218_190916 — Let the defrosting begin

Random Thoughts on Food

On February 18, 2016July 24, 2016 By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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.

Lots of Lunch

On February 15, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

20160214_091743 — Yes, That’s a Pikachu Pancake

20160214_091521 — The making of the Pikachu Pancake

20160207_113422 — My new buddy at the coffee shop

20160208_135637 — My first mail from the US!

Tired

On February 13, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

20160205_165715 — That’s a bucket of frogs at the market

20160206_172242 — The best thing I’ve eaten here – ginger and herbs wrapped in leaves

20160212_081505 20160212_083214 20160212_083423 20160212_091303 20160212_091602 20160212_091612

20160212_092015 — Mixing paint to put on the Scout’s faces

20160212_122832 — Bamboo Rice that I helped make yesterday

20160212_144015 — School dog got hurt – fresh back from the vet

20160212_183836

20160213_095423 — School DJ spinning the tunes

Not sure what happened

On February 11, 2016July 24, 2016 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.

20160211_121609 — The cooked chicken is to the left of the two boys

20160211_122123

20160211_133813 — These were at the coffee stand

Dam

On February 8, 2016July 24, 2016 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!

20160206_105003 20160206_105106 20160206_105257 20160206_105424 20160206_105438 20160206_105722 20160206_110157 20160206_110200 20160206_110258 20160206_110653 20160206_110656 20160206_113613 20160206_113619 20160206_113712 20160206_114013 20160206_114111 20160206_114153 20160206_114211 20160206_115631 20160206_115754 20160206_115759 20160206_120155 20160206_120338 20160206_120433 20160206_120635 20160206_121054 20160206_121117 20160206_121915 20160206_125455 20160206_125803 20160206_132610 20160206_140731 20160206_143332

Motor Bike

On February 4, 2016July 24, 2016 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:

20160203_171610 — ugh toilet seat spider = nightmares

20160204_140047 — Thai students are great artists. This is my favorite

20160204_150545 — The mechanic’s house/shop

	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Going Home
	delicately4f6d967f14 on Icebergs
	delicately4f6d967f14 on ATV Tour
	eaglegenuinec87d1476… on Kluane

Rraine Drops

Tag: Work Abroad