So I definitely fell off the wagon in terms of my writing after leaving Thailand. The last 5 days or so of Thailand were a complete whirlwind, followed by another whirlwind of apartment shopping, couch hopping and life-beginning once I got back.
So the end of Thailand. Where to start? I hate how its only been a month and I'm already starting to forget things. Well the last week of school we taught for one day, and had English Camp for the last two. The last few days went by really quickly. I played "bunny bunny" with all of my classes instead of really teaching. Not that I was "giving up" on the last day, but honestly-due to circumstances out of my control (swine flu...) and poor planning on behalf of the program (who decided that it would be good for the volunteers to teach during a time period chock full of holidays and midterms?)I only actually taught 3 out of the 7 weeks. So frustrating. So yea that whole idealistic, "I'm going to make an impact" thing didn't really happen and instead of trying to teach one last grammar lesson that would go in one ear and out the other, bunny bunny was the next best choice. Not exactly sure how I feel about that being my legacy, but oh well.
Well originally, we had planned to leave on Friday morning for Bangkok, but because Crystal's host family wanted to take us to the beach for a party and celebration before we left, we ended up leaving Wednesday night. Getting the entire group organized and ready to leave for Bangkok ended up being a nightmare. Our program director (who was supposed to be in charge? right?) broke the phone that he had been borrowing (question mark) and all of a sudden disappeared for 2 days while we were trying to coordinate our departure. That was super helpful. We had to make sure that the other volunteers were able to get to Taphanhin in time to leave with us, coordinate with their host families, our host families, and everyone-and it was a huge mess. Especially given the language barrier. (Note to self: next time someone assures you that yes, you can teach English effectively even though you do not speak the local language at all-THEY ARE LYING). Ultimately, we left the program director behind and I got the girls all ready to leave. We went to Bangkok Wednesday night and we were dropped off at "Na Dau"'s house for the night.
Na Dau is the older sister of my host Mom and Crystal's host Dad (they have 9 siblings!) and lives in Bangkok. She was in charge of us for our time in Bangkok. She has to be the most hilarious woman I have ever met. She told us herself (complete with giggles in the appropriate places) that "I have nothing to do, so I always go shopping and go to yoga!" The woman is my hero. She literally does just that. Her day consists of driving her daughter to school, yoga, shopping and picking her daughter up from school. So we went to yoga on Thursday morning with her at the fancy California Wow gym. After yoga, we were picked up by Crystal's host family in the good ole family van to drive out to Hoi Hin, a beach about 3 hours south of Bangkok. After the requisite stops for snacks, we arrived at the resort and all had a collective sigh of happiness once we saw our little villa. While I was living in the relative lap of luxury all summer, the other volunteers were drooling at the real beds, hot water and Western-style showers. We laid on the beach all afternoon, and in keeping with Thai style, I stayed out of the sun and read instead of swimming. Somehow, the thought of squeezing myself into my bikini (damn those Thai desserts) and exposing my pastey whale of a body on a beach with mostly conservative Thai families really didn't get me going. Crystal's host sister, Bui Fai, was of course not allowed to play in the sun until about 5 pm when it was less strong, and by play, I mean she was followed around by her nanny, mother and father who all helped her with everything (shoveling sand, walking, sitting in sand, making sand castles...).
After a relaxing afternoon, we showered and got ready for our big dinner party. We went to this restaurant that was right on the water and it was absolutely beautiful. Crystal's host parents even brought wine! I ate until I was stuffed to the brim-delicious fried oysters, spicy Thai dishes-yummm, and thoroughly enjoyed my 2 glasses of questionable quality white wine-whatever, begger's can't be choosers. After dinner we went to the night market in town, then straight home to bed.
The next day, we headed back to Bangkok for our last couple days. Na Dau, in her typical fashion, showed us a fabulous time-completely unrealistic of real Thai life-but fabulous nonetheless. We went to her fancy gym downtown, had Thai massages, shopped all day, and ate fabulous meals. I kept thinking to myself, as we were driving around in her BMW-I could totally live here. This would be great. Umm yea, if I suddenly became independently wealthy, or married myself off to some Thai prince. I'll get working on that.
Time with Na Dau was great, but by Sunday afternoon, I was ready to get on the plane and be a few steps closer to home. One of the other family members picked us up on Saturday night, took us to Sizzler (yes, that was my last meal in Thailand) and then to the airport. Checking in and going through security was completely surreal. I kept feeling like I was going to see the other volunteers and my host family again, like I wasn't really going home. About 24 hours later however....there I was, arriving into Dulles in DC.
Side note: I have pictures of this toilet seat in Japan that I absolutely fell in love with. First of all, it cleans itself. Second, it heats itself according to your wishes. It ALSO plays sounds, and according to the other instructions could pretty much run your life. I LOVE the Japanese. Seriously.
So at this point its been what feels like forever since I left Thailand. I sometimes forget that it actually happened-it feels like such a blur. Overall-I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Everyone asks me "Omg, how was Thailand?!" expecting me to exclaim, "It was AMAZING, the BEST experience ever!" and go on and on about how I helped "save" the locals and this and that. Not really. I'm not going to lie-it was really hard, and honestly-disillusioning. I don't think that besides giving exposure to American language and culture (which really-what does that do to kids in rural Thailand? In the long run? They know more from you-tube than from me), I didn't do all that much. I fault the program, I fault my inability to speak Thai, I fault my lack of training in any sort of teaching or ESL, I fault my attitude at some points (wow-taking responsibility for my actions-it happens sometimes) and all sorts of other things. Mostly I think I fundamentally disagree with a lot of the theoretical and philosophical justifications behind a lot of international volunteer and development work. Thinking that a few privileged college students could make an impact in 7 weeks is naive and self-righteous. Who are we to say we know anything about anything really? Anyways...I guess that's a muddled place to leave the trip, but c'est la vie. God knows I'd sleep better at night if life could be easily organized into lists and labelled.
Since Thailand, I have found an apartment, moved into said apartment, furnished said apartment (ouch, I hurt just thinking of my credit card bill....), started my job, gotten staffed on my first project, gone to training, and now.....well here I am. Real life is interesting (my favorite noncommittal word). I've been so busy that I haven't really had a chance to let it all sink in-and I think that's the best strategy. Musing on how this is what I'm doing for the rest of...eternity...isn't overly uplifting. My life consists of comparing savings at the grocery store with my roommate, discussing what we will make for our lunches, working 5 days a week, squeezing in a social life and doing it all over again. I like my job so far-despite the menial excel work (I'm starting to become a huge excel nerd-it's frightening), the bigger picture is interesting and the people I work with actually are great-it's not just a recruiting cliche.
I'd say the jury is still out...but it's looking pretty hopeful :)
PS-here it is Dad...the "epilogue". :)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
8/1 Damn my American stomach
So that bbq that I told everyone about? Yea about that. I must have eaten some meat that wasn't completely cooked, or something, because its pretty clear after 48 hours that I have food poisoning. Or some sort of bacteria. Looking back, the fact that the pork, fish and shrimp skewers were sitting out for over 2 hours before they were amateurishly grilled by myself and a bunch of 14 year olds, it doesnt come as a huge surprise that I am sick. Also, we are talking about Thailand here (although my French host family wasn't big about keeping raw meat refrigerated either... but I think that was just them though and their complete lack of hygiene in all areas of their existence). I am surprised its been this long already and this is my first serious incident. Refrigeration is not their strong point here, actually outside of the US it doesn't seem to have completely caught on (are we just paranoid germ freaks?) anywhere. A little bacteria will probably do my system good. I'm on anti-biotics now so I'm on the road to recovery. Seeing as I want to maintain some semblance of dignity after my host mother told everyone at my school, including all of the teachers who told all of the students, and apparently everyone who works in the pharmacy about my "issue", I'll leave the story of food poisoning to two words: squat toilet. 'Nuff said.
So since I've been, slightly indisposed, I've pretty much been laying around, bored out of my mind. The only thing to do here is eat, and while I can't do that, and really shouldn't given my ever-expanding midline, I'm at a complete loss. I've tried to get into reading Catch-22, I saw it at the English bookstore and I felt obligated to buy it and read it since its one of those books that "everyone" has read and I felt inadequate as a human not having read it. Yea not feeling it really. Luckily I'll be trapped on a plane for 16 hours so I'm sure that I'll get through a good chunk of it out of necessity.
So yesterday afternoon I got home from school to find a random man in our house reading palms. My host mom asked if I wanted mine read and I say sure why not? So with my host brother translating, this man wrote down all of these numbers relating to my birthday and read my palms. First he told me I need more vitamin C because my palms were spotty (must have had something to do with the food poisoning), but what he said was really creepy. First he decided that my number is 7, which means that I am always moving around and traveling and I'm happiest that way. Next he said that I worry too much about things I can't control, even as a small child I worried about things unnecessarily (definitely absolutely true. I am a serious control freak with anxiety issues!). Next he asked if I had a boyfriend at 15 and 19. Um yea those were the ages I started what I consider to be my "big" (if emotionally disastrous) relationships. How did he just pick those ages out of thin air? I don't usually believe stuff like that, but this random Thai man who has no idea who I am all of a sudden tells me this stuff. Makes you wonder.....but there is good news! I am apparently going to have a boyfriend at age 22 that will be wonderful. Bring it on! I hope he's fabulously wealthy and famous and the heir to a small country or something. Hey a girl can dream...
Well today I asked if I could help cook lunch, as I have been doing on the weekends, and I got to go to the market too! The cook came and picked me up on her motorcycle (motorcycles are the most ubiquitous form of transportation in Taphanhin. Everyone uses one to go everywhere) and we went grocery shopping-Thai style. Every morning and evening there is a huge market in Taphanhin where everyone gets their fresh veggies, fruit, meat, etc. There isn't a grocery store in the American sense in our town, and you have to drive 30 minutes to get to a Carrefour (American wal-mart). So, everyone goes to the market everyday and buys what they need for that day. My job was the basket holder and on the back of the motorcycle I hold a big blue basket that we put the food in. The cook has her master list of what she needs for that day's meals and we wind around the market on the motorcycle to the different vendors to pick out what we need. May is the cook's name and her English is rudimentary, but every time she would pick something out she would let me smell it and say the word in Thai. Works for me! I did however, decline to smell the kilo of chicken feet we bought Ikkkk. Everything is so fresh and looks so wonderful. Even better-its dirt cheap! I kept laughing looking at all of these fresh, "exotic" (in the American view) veggies that would be so pricey at a trendy, yuppie-filled Farmers Market whereas we are getting enough food to feed my host family, Crystal's and the people who work in the pharmacy (about 20 people) for multiple meals for literally, about $15. Crazy! Also, when you buy fish, you pick out the live fish from this huge tin basin and they kill it and clean it right there in front of you. Super fresh, although I have to use the I'm an American! card and say that I like my meat products already dead and wrapped in plastic and in the refridgerated section. Each to his own I suppose. Everyone in the market had a field day with the crazy white girl on the back of the motorcycle shopping for food. I am endlessly entertaining apparently.
This afternoon I hopped on the back of my older host brother's brand new motorcycle (which he is verrrry proud of-it looks like he won the argument between him and his parents about whether or not he should get one quite triumphantly) with my other host brother (the younger one was putting behind us on the older motorcycle with just a tragic look on his face. it was so funny and cute) to go to the opening of...wait for it....KFC in Taphanhin! This is the first time Taphanhin has ever had a fast food restaurant or anything like this so it is a BIG to-do. There were flowers, speeches, Thai dancers (The same ones we had at our party actually....they look like "baby prostitutes" with their make up according to Crystal) and the works. My host brothers were so excited to order, I even got a free "I <3 KFC" teddy bear with the amount of food they ordered. So pumped about that. I politely refused the KFC, luckily my stomach has been a great excuse to get out of eating less desireable things, like the shrimp burger they ordered. No thanks.
After an afternoon of laying around and organizing my room and suitcase, I went with the host fam to walk at a sports complex near the edge of town for exercise. Little did I know that when we all piled into the car that it would also be driving practice for my 17 yr old host brother. Ay dios mio, I can barely handle it when I drive, or when my little sisters drive (I recognize I am an awful, obnoxious and hysterical backseat driver) but this was beyond my ability to remain cool, calm and patient (as I have actually really learned how to do here! Sort of). Teng had only been driving for 2 days and was attempting to drive a manual transmission (we were stalled in the middle of a 4 way stop for I kid you not, 5 minutes) admist Thai traffic which includes motorcycles, bicycles, carts, animals, people...its a zoo! Also, my host mom's reaction to our close calls and brushes with death were the same as any other situation-hysterical laughter. So I'm squished in the backseat with the entire Thai family laughing and yelling in Thai while a 17 year old who has never driven before is in charge of the vehicle and therefore my life. Never again. I managed a weak smile but on the inside I was clawing at the windows begging to get out.
I did live to experience dinner though. At dinner, my host father inquired about my weight and whether or not it had gone up. My host mom volunteered the information that she had a scale in her room and that I could weigh myself. Right then. So we go up to her room and I step on the scale with her and one of my host brother's watching. She reads my weight, announces it to the family back at the dinner table and we discuss how it has gone up since I have been in Thailand. You can imagine how great I feel about this. How the hell is it NOT suppoesed to go up when I have to eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Also, after cooking the food myselfs, its hard to remain slim when EVERYTHING, including veggies, meat, whatever is seasoned with a tablespoon of sugar. Next, my host mom informs me excitedly that I was invited to a wedding and that I can wear a dress and wear "make up!". I said awkwardly, "Oh, I don't have any make up, do I need to wear it?" and she sort of gave me a blank stare and then said "Oh I guess you don't have to". Really? I look that awful? Great. Did a whole lot for my self-confidence and self-esteem. In Thai culture, discussing someone's weight and telling them they are "fat" is not looked up as rude for some reason. Are American's just hyper sensitive? I can't imagine anyone enjoys this!
I have 6 more days until I can choose when and what I eat. I can also choose when I go places, I can choose where to go and how to go there. I can be....an adult! Yippee! I love my host family-I could not have asked for sweeter, more generous people-and I love Thailand, but this whole innate individualism-thing Americans have going on is hard for me to shake. After learning in France that I do not really "mesh" well with a culture that is inherently rude (ok that and the following sentences are crossing the line. That is totally not true at all and a completely exaggerated and irrational judgement made from my one personal experience), I began to discover how "American" I really was. I like showering (French host family, not so much), I like saying excuse me when you bump into someone (French people, not so much) and I also enjoy not openly mocking people (French host family, again, not so much).
Allright I'll get off my soap box.
3 days and I'm off to Bangkok! Cannot wait to see someone and eat my cheeseburger in the land of the free and the home of the brave. xoxo
Stace
So since I've been, slightly indisposed, I've pretty much been laying around, bored out of my mind. The only thing to do here is eat, and while I can't do that, and really shouldn't given my ever-expanding midline, I'm at a complete loss. I've tried to get into reading Catch-22, I saw it at the English bookstore and I felt obligated to buy it and read it since its one of those books that "everyone" has read and I felt inadequate as a human not having read it. Yea not feeling it really. Luckily I'll be trapped on a plane for 16 hours so I'm sure that I'll get through a good chunk of it out of necessity.
So yesterday afternoon I got home from school to find a random man in our house reading palms. My host mom asked if I wanted mine read and I say sure why not? So with my host brother translating, this man wrote down all of these numbers relating to my birthday and read my palms. First he told me I need more vitamin C because my palms were spotty (must have had something to do with the food poisoning), but what he said was really creepy. First he decided that my number is 7, which means that I am always moving around and traveling and I'm happiest that way. Next he said that I worry too much about things I can't control, even as a small child I worried about things unnecessarily (definitely absolutely true. I am a serious control freak with anxiety issues!). Next he asked if I had a boyfriend at 15 and 19. Um yea those were the ages I started what I consider to be my "big" (if emotionally disastrous) relationships. How did he just pick those ages out of thin air? I don't usually believe stuff like that, but this random Thai man who has no idea who I am all of a sudden tells me this stuff. Makes you wonder.....but there is good news! I am apparently going to have a boyfriend at age 22 that will be wonderful. Bring it on! I hope he's fabulously wealthy and famous and the heir to a small country or something. Hey a girl can dream...
Well today I asked if I could help cook lunch, as I have been doing on the weekends, and I got to go to the market too! The cook came and picked me up on her motorcycle (motorcycles are the most ubiquitous form of transportation in Taphanhin. Everyone uses one to go everywhere) and we went grocery shopping-Thai style. Every morning and evening there is a huge market in Taphanhin where everyone gets their fresh veggies, fruit, meat, etc. There isn't a grocery store in the American sense in our town, and you have to drive 30 minutes to get to a Carrefour (American wal-mart). So, everyone goes to the market everyday and buys what they need for that day. My job was the basket holder and on the back of the motorcycle I hold a big blue basket that we put the food in. The cook has her master list of what she needs for that day's meals and we wind around the market on the motorcycle to the different vendors to pick out what we need. May is the cook's name and her English is rudimentary, but every time she would pick something out she would let me smell it and say the word in Thai. Works for me! I did however, decline to smell the kilo of chicken feet we bought Ikkkk. Everything is so fresh and looks so wonderful. Even better-its dirt cheap! I kept laughing looking at all of these fresh, "exotic" (in the American view) veggies that would be so pricey at a trendy, yuppie-filled Farmers Market whereas we are getting enough food to feed my host family, Crystal's and the people who work in the pharmacy (about 20 people) for multiple meals for literally, about $15. Crazy! Also, when you buy fish, you pick out the live fish from this huge tin basin and they kill it and clean it right there in front of you. Super fresh, although I have to use the I'm an American! card and say that I like my meat products already dead and wrapped in plastic and in the refridgerated section. Each to his own I suppose. Everyone in the market had a field day with the crazy white girl on the back of the motorcycle shopping for food. I am endlessly entertaining apparently.
This afternoon I hopped on the back of my older host brother's brand new motorcycle (which he is verrrry proud of-it looks like he won the argument between him and his parents about whether or not he should get one quite triumphantly) with my other host brother (the younger one was putting behind us on the older motorcycle with just a tragic look on his face. it was so funny and cute) to go to the opening of...wait for it....KFC in Taphanhin! This is the first time Taphanhin has ever had a fast food restaurant or anything like this so it is a BIG to-do. There were flowers, speeches, Thai dancers (The same ones we had at our party actually....they look like "baby prostitutes" with their make up according to Crystal) and the works. My host brothers were so excited to order, I even got a free "I <3 KFC" teddy bear with the amount of food they ordered. So pumped about that. I politely refused the KFC, luckily my stomach has been a great excuse to get out of eating less desireable things, like the shrimp burger they ordered. No thanks.
After an afternoon of laying around and organizing my room and suitcase, I went with the host fam to walk at a sports complex near the edge of town for exercise. Little did I know that when we all piled into the car that it would also be driving practice for my 17 yr old host brother. Ay dios mio, I can barely handle it when I drive, or when my little sisters drive (I recognize I am an awful, obnoxious and hysterical backseat driver) but this was beyond my ability to remain cool, calm and patient (as I have actually really learned how to do here! Sort of). Teng had only been driving for 2 days and was attempting to drive a manual transmission (we were stalled in the middle of a 4 way stop for I kid you not, 5 minutes) admist Thai traffic which includes motorcycles, bicycles, carts, animals, people...its a zoo! Also, my host mom's reaction to our close calls and brushes with death were the same as any other situation-hysterical laughter. So I'm squished in the backseat with the entire Thai family laughing and yelling in Thai while a 17 year old who has never driven before is in charge of the vehicle and therefore my life. Never again. I managed a weak smile but on the inside I was clawing at the windows begging to get out.
I did live to experience dinner though. At dinner, my host father inquired about my weight and whether or not it had gone up. My host mom volunteered the information that she had a scale in her room and that I could weigh myself. Right then. So we go up to her room and I step on the scale with her and one of my host brother's watching. She reads my weight, announces it to the family back at the dinner table and we discuss how it has gone up since I have been in Thailand. You can imagine how great I feel about this. How the hell is it NOT suppoesed to go up when I have to eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Also, after cooking the food myselfs, its hard to remain slim when EVERYTHING, including veggies, meat, whatever is seasoned with a tablespoon of sugar. Next, my host mom informs me excitedly that I was invited to a wedding and that I can wear a dress and wear "make up!". I said awkwardly, "Oh, I don't have any make up, do I need to wear it?" and she sort of gave me a blank stare and then said "Oh I guess you don't have to". Really? I look that awful? Great. Did a whole lot for my self-confidence and self-esteem. In Thai culture, discussing someone's weight and telling them they are "fat" is not looked up as rude for some reason. Are American's just hyper sensitive? I can't imagine anyone enjoys this!
I have 6 more days until I can choose when and what I eat. I can also choose when I go places, I can choose where to go and how to go there. I can be....an adult! Yippee! I love my host family-I could not have asked for sweeter, more generous people-and I love Thailand, but this whole innate individualism-thing Americans have going on is hard for me to shake. After learning in France that I do not really "mesh" well with a culture that is inherently rude (ok that and the following sentences are crossing the line. That is totally not true at all and a completely exaggerated and irrational judgement made from my one personal experience), I began to discover how "American" I really was. I like showering (French host family, not so much), I like saying excuse me when you bump into someone (French people, not so much) and I also enjoy not openly mocking people (French host family, again, not so much).
Allright I'll get off my soap box.
3 days and I'm off to Bangkok! Cannot wait to see someone and eat my cheeseburger in the land of the free and the home of the brave. xoxo
Stace
Thursday, July 30, 2009
7/30 Awkward turtle
Only 10 more days! I can't believe a) how quickly it has gone by and b) how long I've already been here. While sometimes the days are painfully slow and I want to rip my hair out, it doesn't feel like its been 6 weeks already.
Teaching at our temporary school has continued to be great, rewarding and a lot of fun. I have taken to playing the "Hokey Pokey" with my 6th graders to learn body parts, and they are endlessly entertained by watching me dance around. My 11th grade class is also absolutely adorable. They have requested continuously after many refusals that I sing them a song, so tomorrow I will don my best Taylor Swift hat and attempt to not massacre one of her songs. They brought me cute little snacks today and I am totally obsessed with them. At my other school, my students were great and the teaching was good, but I think I'm actually going to be sad to leave them. Its all downhill from here, 1 more day at the temporary school, then 3 days back at Taphanhin school, then a trip to the beach on the way to Bangkok (not sure how this will work out, Crystal's host dad has planned some sort of adventure), a weekend in Bangkok, and back to DC!
Mr. Pairoc is the head of the English Department at our temporary school who has essentially been tasked with stalking us, with only the best intentions of course. He insists on following us around everywhere we go, waiting for us after we finish teaching, walking with us to the bathroom (thats a little awkward...), takes us to lunch everyday (we said we liked noodles at one point and have eaten every kind of noodle available in our town thus far) and is like our shadow. At first I thought, oh how nice! Day 4 and I'm about to scream. I think one of the main issues with us in Thailand-that leads to the groping, the giggling at, the inappropriate conversational topics-is that everyone treats us like children. In their society, we still sort of are. I'm used to being a full-fledged (well almost...) adult in the US. I have my own job, I will have my own apartment (everyone pray) and I generally take care of myself. Here, everything is done and planned for us. We are treated as if we are mentally incapacitated and must have our hands held everywhere we go. I drink a TON of water since I'm in the middle of the freakin jungle and I went to the bathroom twice one day, and the second time I came out, he runs up to me and says, "Stacy! You have gone to the toilet a lot! Do you have diharrhea?" WHY oh god WHY are our bowel movements the interest of so many people? So yea, having Mr. Pairoc sit across the table from me staring on every single free period I have is getting a little old. He is also, how shall I put this, very open-question mark? We were discussing our students and he was telling us how some of the girls drop out early to get married, and asked us creepily if we were married (umm no?!) and then if we had boyfriends. We awkwardly laughed it off and said no no, and tried to change the topic of conversation. Ha. Next thing we know Mr. Pairoc (who is married, has two little daughters and a beautiful wife who works at the school) proceeds to tell us that before he was married, he was a "playboy" and he "made love with many women", but that when he knew he was to be married, he stopped "making love" and got tested for HIV every 3 months for a year.
T.M.I.
I sat in the front seat, mouth open and unable to speak. Crystal was able to mumble the appropriate "oh..." before I jumped out of the car the minute we pulled up to the pharmacy. So we are two young, female volunteers who he has known for approximately 3 days, and he feels the need to share his sexual history and health with us? Really? Is this actually my life? It creeped me out even more this morning when he said that I looked "Very beautiful today" because I painted my toenails. Cringeeeee.
Ok but he is a really nice guy. Lets just hope he stays happily married and HIV free. For all our sakes.
Last night, I had a Thai-style bbq. Kind of like a Barry Shelden bbq, except lacking the bbq pit, delicious meat, Kingsford charcoal, beer and an expert grill master...I'm not homesick or anything... My host brother finished his mid term exams and brought 8 friends home with him. 9 fourteen year olds...yikes! The bbq was so funny and completely different from an American bbq. We had these clay pots that had charcoal in them with grates over them, and we sat on mats around the makeshift bbqs and cooked kebab skewers. The kebabs were pretty good (minus the shrimp and fish ball ones. Shrimp balls....very chewy) but I got eaten alive. I haven't had this many insect bites since the first week here when I thought I had fleas. I am covered from head to toe, it is so miserable and I look like a leper.
Well I'm off to bed before my last day at Tessaban Song (the temporary school). I am sure the last day will be filled with awkward "Teacher! Picture?!" as the students will bombard me with their camera phones. I'm not going to know what to do when I get back to the US and people don't find me interesting enough to take pictures of. It will surely be a big blow to my psyche.
xoxo,
Stacy
Teaching at our temporary school has continued to be great, rewarding and a lot of fun. I have taken to playing the "Hokey Pokey" with my 6th graders to learn body parts, and they are endlessly entertained by watching me dance around. My 11th grade class is also absolutely adorable. They have requested continuously after many refusals that I sing them a song, so tomorrow I will don my best Taylor Swift hat and attempt to not massacre one of her songs. They brought me cute little snacks today and I am totally obsessed with them. At my other school, my students were great and the teaching was good, but I think I'm actually going to be sad to leave them. Its all downhill from here, 1 more day at the temporary school, then 3 days back at Taphanhin school, then a trip to the beach on the way to Bangkok (not sure how this will work out, Crystal's host dad has planned some sort of adventure), a weekend in Bangkok, and back to DC!
Mr. Pairoc is the head of the English Department at our temporary school who has essentially been tasked with stalking us, with only the best intentions of course. He insists on following us around everywhere we go, waiting for us after we finish teaching, walking with us to the bathroom (thats a little awkward...), takes us to lunch everyday (we said we liked noodles at one point and have eaten every kind of noodle available in our town thus far) and is like our shadow. At first I thought, oh how nice! Day 4 and I'm about to scream. I think one of the main issues with us in Thailand-that leads to the groping, the giggling at, the inappropriate conversational topics-is that everyone treats us like children. In their society, we still sort of are. I'm used to being a full-fledged (well almost...) adult in the US. I have my own job, I will have my own apartment (everyone pray) and I generally take care of myself. Here, everything is done and planned for us. We are treated as if we are mentally incapacitated and must have our hands held everywhere we go. I drink a TON of water since I'm in the middle of the freakin jungle and I went to the bathroom twice one day, and the second time I came out, he runs up to me and says, "Stacy! You have gone to the toilet a lot! Do you have diharrhea?" WHY oh god WHY are our bowel movements the interest of so many people? So yea, having Mr. Pairoc sit across the table from me staring on every single free period I have is getting a little old. He is also, how shall I put this, very open-question mark? We were discussing our students and he was telling us how some of the girls drop out early to get married, and asked us creepily if we were married (umm no?!) and then if we had boyfriends. We awkwardly laughed it off and said no no, and tried to change the topic of conversation. Ha. Next thing we know Mr. Pairoc (who is married, has two little daughters and a beautiful wife who works at the school) proceeds to tell us that before he was married, he was a "playboy" and he "made love with many women", but that when he knew he was to be married, he stopped "making love" and got tested for HIV every 3 months for a year.
T.M.I.
I sat in the front seat, mouth open and unable to speak. Crystal was able to mumble the appropriate "oh..." before I jumped out of the car the minute we pulled up to the pharmacy. So we are two young, female volunteers who he has known for approximately 3 days, and he feels the need to share his sexual history and health with us? Really? Is this actually my life? It creeped me out even more this morning when he said that I looked "Very beautiful today" because I painted my toenails. Cringeeeee.
Ok but he is a really nice guy. Lets just hope he stays happily married and HIV free. For all our sakes.
Last night, I had a Thai-style bbq. Kind of like a Barry Shelden bbq, except lacking the bbq pit, delicious meat, Kingsford charcoal, beer and an expert grill master...I'm not homesick or anything... My host brother finished his mid term exams and brought 8 friends home with him. 9 fourteen year olds...yikes! The bbq was so funny and completely different from an American bbq. We had these clay pots that had charcoal in them with grates over them, and we sat on mats around the makeshift bbqs and cooked kebab skewers. The kebabs were pretty good (minus the shrimp and fish ball ones. Shrimp balls....very chewy) but I got eaten alive. I haven't had this many insect bites since the first week here when I thought I had fleas. I am covered from head to toe, it is so miserable and I look like a leper.
Well I'm off to bed before my last day at Tessaban Song (the temporary school). I am sure the last day will be filled with awkward "Teacher! Picture?!" as the students will bombard me with their camera phones. I'm not going to know what to do when I get back to the US and people don't find me interesting enough to take pictures of. It will surely be a big blow to my psyche.
xoxo,
Stacy
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
7/28 Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous
I had the most extravagant, ridiculous and wonderful weekend in Bangkok. After all of the drama surrounding the flu epidemic, schools closing, trips to the North canceled and "interesting" emails, it was exactly what I needed. We drove to Bangkok Thursday afternoon, and arrived just in time for a dinner boat cruise on the main river in Bangkok. I really should be able to tell everyone the name of aforementioned river, but everyone always says it quickly in Thai and I can never quite catch it and on the inside sometimes I'm a lazy American. Note to self: learn the name of the river in Bangkok and stop being an ignorant American like everyone assumes you already are (as well as lazy, rude and fat lets not forget!)
The dinner boat cruise is a must-do for tourists in Bangkok. You get to go on a boat which is exciting in itself, the poor servers are dressed in humiliating sailor outfits, there is delicious Thai food, and of course karaoke-painful, embarrassing and while horrifying, creepily entertaining. We ate our weights' worth of Thai seafood dishes, and set out on the cruise to see the sights. Everything was so gorgeous at night on the water. We saw the ancient cities, the old temples and all of the new fancy hotels. Some people bemoan the mix of the old traditional buildings right next to huge new skyscrapers-oh capitalism what have we done? but, I love the juxtaposition. It totally captures Bangkok. There are temples that are hundreds of years old and at the same time monuments to their growing economy and development. I was talking with an English teacher yesterday and he was concerned about what he saw as Thailand's focus on money and their move away from self-reliance. The way he explained it, in the past people would grow whatever they needed for food and only sell things if there were extra. Now, there are big farms that are only for export and sale, where he said that they "grow so much rice and corn that the price is cheaper" and that people were using banks and loans to do business. He seemed to be upset that the traditional way of life was being lost in his eyes, but I couldn't help but see the whole situation as a basic lesson in econ. Thailand is transitioning away from small, subsistence based farming towards a modern economy. Macro 101 came flashing back and I didn't say it, but I kept thinking-"yea! they should be doing that stuff!". I suppose my Western-liberal education in economics grounded firmly in the Washington Consensus totally clouds my world view, but I am always skeptical of the "oh we're losing our way of life" people-yea your way of life was small based farming where you had to work 16 hours a day just to survive...anyways enough of my self-righteous ramblings
So the boat cruise continued, and the whole family ate and ate and ate. After an hour, a woman got up on the makeshift stage and with a keyboard, started singing. It took me a few songs to realize she was technically teaching in English...I couldn't understand her at all. The song that gave it away was "Hopelessly Devoted" by Olivia Newton John-a total classic. She was pretty decent, I have to say. After a few songs, she opened up the karaoke machine to the passengers. Now I had been watching some of the other boat cruises as they went past, and some of them were packed with people, with a dance floor, drinking and it looked like a total rave. Our boat? Not so much. We were probably about half full, and the passenger makeup consisted of families, and old creepy guys and their young girlfriends (I wonder why they're with them?). Rave wasn't exactly how I would describe the atmosphere. It was more the we're at a dive bar that's really empty and kind of sad and its at the end of the night and the only people left are kind of weird-atmosphere. My experience with karaoke is that it is always better in a really crowded venue where people are intoxicated so that even if you're not Celine Dion, nobody really cares. This was not the case here. People, stone cold sober, went up in front of the half-empty boat of strangers and sang horrible old English songs off tune at the top of their lungs. I kept cringing and laughing quietly on the inside every time the speakers would squeal, and every time a verrrry drunk old man forced his cute young girlfriend to get up and "dance" with him to the karaoke (I use the term dance to mean he drunkenly groped her standing up).
The next day, we woke up early and went to Yoga at "California Wow", the American-import gym chain in Bangkok. Na Dau, who is my host mom's sister, is the queen of vouchers and coupons, and so we had a free pass to go with Crystal's host parents. The gym was great-definitely where the kept women of Bangkok work out, and it was so funny to see these tiny little Thai ladies working away on the cardio machines, in flip flops. At least half of the women were working out in rubber sandals, it was ridiculous! Hello shin splints! Yoga was fun and it felt good to get some good stretching in. After yoga, we raced home, showered and headed to the Shisedo salon in the Saim Paragon Mall (this is essentially the Rodeo Drive of Bangkok-LV, Gucci, the works!) where we got facials. Thanks to Na Dau and her awesome coupons, we all got 1 hour facials-for free! I had never had a facial before, but I am definitely a convert. I think I look younger, which is good seeing as I'm 22 and all. After our facials, we ran off to Oishi Grand, which is a really nice Japanese restaurant in the mall. We got the buffet-which was, one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me. I couldn't stop giggling and smiling, it was like Christmas. I ate a TON of yummy sushi and dumplings and just went absolutely crazy. After lunch, we of course had to go get 2 hour Thai massages. My host uncle insisted that we must go through "the full course" as he calls it, the entire 2 hours. It was absolutely divine. Thai massage is interactive, but so relaxing. After our really stressful day of being pampered and rubbed and scrubbed, we went home and were supposed to go to a night market, but it was pouring down rain so we stayed in and ate noodle soup and relaxed. Essentially I thought that this was my perfect day. Little did I know that the next day...Na Dau and her love of shopping and coupons would rock my world.
So after a lazy morning, we headed off to what Na Dau kept calling "Pratinum", turns out its called "Platinum Fashion Center" and it is a huge, 10 story shopping mall that sells super cheap, trendy clothes, shoes, accessories and bags. It was ridiculous. We got the CUTEST stuff for so cheap, and it was even cheaper if you would buy 2 dresses instead of 1, for example. Ridiculous. We shopped for 4 hours straight and I now have cute Asian-trendy clothes that will make me feel more stylish. It was a little bit difficult since you weren't allowed to try things on, and everything was "one size fits all"-but although I feel like a giant compared to the tiny Asian girls, at just barely 5'4 I am lucky enough to be able to squeeze my big "falang" butt into these itty bitty clothes.
After shopping like crazy, we went to an English bookstore-yipeee! I now have real things to read and I am so grateful...it will make the 16 hour flight from Tokyo to DC hopefully a little less painful (maybe...). We again ate a delicious dinner, and then got to see Harry Potter! In English! On the IMAX! I am so spoiled it is not fair, but the movie was great. In Thailand before any movie, there is a mandatory 5 minute video that they play that praises the King, and everyone has to stand up. I was all settled in with my popcorn and snacks and 3D glasses on, but I had to stand up for 5 minutes while watching a video on how glorious the King is. Thats a monarchy for you I guess...in Thailand you can get put in jail for not standing up when the King's song is played every morning at 8 am, or for saying anything bad about the King. Note to self: Always praise the King.
Well that was my fabulous weekend in Bangkok! Only 11 more days. We have 2 more days of teaching at our temporary school, 2 days next week of teaching, 2 days of English camp, and then the whole group is off to Bangkok for the weekend before we fly out on Sunday night. Crazyness....I am going to be sad to leave my host family, but not at all sad to have a cheeseburger and a beer. My food cravings have only gotten worse and worse...I start to salivate at the thought of a steak. I can't even talk about it!
Can't wait to see everyone! :) xoxo
Stacy
The dinner boat cruise is a must-do for tourists in Bangkok. You get to go on a boat which is exciting in itself, the poor servers are dressed in humiliating sailor outfits, there is delicious Thai food, and of course karaoke-painful, embarrassing and while horrifying, creepily entertaining. We ate our weights' worth of Thai seafood dishes, and set out on the cruise to see the sights. Everything was so gorgeous at night on the water. We saw the ancient cities, the old temples and all of the new fancy hotels. Some people bemoan the mix of the old traditional buildings right next to huge new skyscrapers-oh capitalism what have we done? but, I love the juxtaposition. It totally captures Bangkok. There are temples that are hundreds of years old and at the same time monuments to their growing economy and development. I was talking with an English teacher yesterday and he was concerned about what he saw as Thailand's focus on money and their move away from self-reliance. The way he explained it, in the past people would grow whatever they needed for food and only sell things if there were extra. Now, there are big farms that are only for export and sale, where he said that they "grow so much rice and corn that the price is cheaper" and that people were using banks and loans to do business. He seemed to be upset that the traditional way of life was being lost in his eyes, but I couldn't help but see the whole situation as a basic lesson in econ. Thailand is transitioning away from small, subsistence based farming towards a modern economy. Macro 101 came flashing back and I didn't say it, but I kept thinking-"yea! they should be doing that stuff!". I suppose my Western-liberal education in economics grounded firmly in the Washington Consensus totally clouds my world view, but I am always skeptical of the "oh we're losing our way of life" people-yea your way of life was small based farming where you had to work 16 hours a day just to survive...anyways enough of my self-righteous ramblings
So the boat cruise continued, and the whole family ate and ate and ate. After an hour, a woman got up on the makeshift stage and with a keyboard, started singing. It took me a few songs to realize she was technically teaching in English...I couldn't understand her at all. The song that gave it away was "Hopelessly Devoted" by Olivia Newton John-a total classic. She was pretty decent, I have to say. After a few songs, she opened up the karaoke machine to the passengers. Now I had been watching some of the other boat cruises as they went past, and some of them were packed with people, with a dance floor, drinking and it looked like a total rave. Our boat? Not so much. We were probably about half full, and the passenger makeup consisted of families, and old creepy guys and their young girlfriends (I wonder why they're with them?). Rave wasn't exactly how I would describe the atmosphere. It was more the we're at a dive bar that's really empty and kind of sad and its at the end of the night and the only people left are kind of weird-atmosphere. My experience with karaoke is that it is always better in a really crowded venue where people are intoxicated so that even if you're not Celine Dion, nobody really cares. This was not the case here. People, stone cold sober, went up in front of the half-empty boat of strangers and sang horrible old English songs off tune at the top of their lungs. I kept cringing and laughing quietly on the inside every time the speakers would squeal, and every time a verrrry drunk old man forced his cute young girlfriend to get up and "dance" with him to the karaoke (I use the term dance to mean he drunkenly groped her standing up).
The next day, we woke up early and went to Yoga at "California Wow", the American-import gym chain in Bangkok. Na Dau, who is my host mom's sister, is the queen of vouchers and coupons, and so we had a free pass to go with Crystal's host parents. The gym was great-definitely where the kept women of Bangkok work out, and it was so funny to see these tiny little Thai ladies working away on the cardio machines, in flip flops. At least half of the women were working out in rubber sandals, it was ridiculous! Hello shin splints! Yoga was fun and it felt good to get some good stretching in. After yoga, we raced home, showered and headed to the Shisedo salon in the Saim Paragon Mall (this is essentially the Rodeo Drive of Bangkok-LV, Gucci, the works!) where we got facials. Thanks to Na Dau and her awesome coupons, we all got 1 hour facials-for free! I had never had a facial before, but I am definitely a convert. I think I look younger, which is good seeing as I'm 22 and all. After our facials, we ran off to Oishi Grand, which is a really nice Japanese restaurant in the mall. We got the buffet-which was, one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me. I couldn't stop giggling and smiling, it was like Christmas. I ate a TON of yummy sushi and dumplings and just went absolutely crazy. After lunch, we of course had to go get 2 hour Thai massages. My host uncle insisted that we must go through "the full course" as he calls it, the entire 2 hours. It was absolutely divine. Thai massage is interactive, but so relaxing. After our really stressful day of being pampered and rubbed and scrubbed, we went home and were supposed to go to a night market, but it was pouring down rain so we stayed in and ate noodle soup and relaxed. Essentially I thought that this was my perfect day. Little did I know that the next day...Na Dau and her love of shopping and coupons would rock my world.
So after a lazy morning, we headed off to what Na Dau kept calling "Pratinum", turns out its called "Platinum Fashion Center" and it is a huge, 10 story shopping mall that sells super cheap, trendy clothes, shoes, accessories and bags. It was ridiculous. We got the CUTEST stuff for so cheap, and it was even cheaper if you would buy 2 dresses instead of 1, for example. Ridiculous. We shopped for 4 hours straight and I now have cute Asian-trendy clothes that will make me feel more stylish. It was a little bit difficult since you weren't allowed to try things on, and everything was "one size fits all"-but although I feel like a giant compared to the tiny Asian girls, at just barely 5'4 I am lucky enough to be able to squeeze my big "falang" butt into these itty bitty clothes.
After shopping like crazy, we went to an English bookstore-yipeee! I now have real things to read and I am so grateful...it will make the 16 hour flight from Tokyo to DC hopefully a little less painful (maybe...). We again ate a delicious dinner, and then got to see Harry Potter! In English! On the IMAX! I am so spoiled it is not fair, but the movie was great. In Thailand before any movie, there is a mandatory 5 minute video that they play that praises the King, and everyone has to stand up. I was all settled in with my popcorn and snacks and 3D glasses on, but I had to stand up for 5 minutes while watching a video on how glorious the King is. Thats a monarchy for you I guess...in Thailand you can get put in jail for not standing up when the King's song is played every morning at 8 am, or for saying anything bad about the King. Note to self: Always praise the King.
Well that was my fabulous weekend in Bangkok! Only 11 more days. We have 2 more days of teaching at our temporary school, 2 days next week of teaching, 2 days of English camp, and then the whole group is off to Bangkok for the weekend before we fly out on Sunday night. Crazyness....I am going to be sad to leave my host family, but not at all sad to have a cheeseburger and a beer. My food cravings have only gotten worse and worse...I start to salivate at the thought of a steak. I can't even talk about it!
Can't wait to see everyone! :) xoxo
Stacy
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
7/22-28 So about that whole "teaching" thing..
I have been incredibly lax in updating my blog recently. I do apologize and I would never want to keep my public waiting (Are all bloggers this narcissistic?), but the past week has been a complete whirlwind.
So remember how I said that we don't really teach because there are always random holidays and random activities that take precedence over education (scout day-super important. must dress up in girl scout and boy scout uniforms once a week and parade around for an hour or all will be lost)? Well, our school is all of a sudden closed this week for the flu pandemic that has been going around Thailand. Horray for the Swine flu! We had no classes last week for "mid term exams", we had a 3 day holiday the first week we started teaching, and now this. So our school will reopen on August 3 and English Camp has been moved to that week, August 4 and 5th (god knows we wouldn't want to cancel English camp). So now, I won't even see some of my classes again. Obviously the flu is a random inconvenience that couldn't be avoided, but I am really disappointed. All in all, of the 7 weeks I will have spent here, only 3 will be spent teaching at my original school. Que sera sera I suppose...
Well I drove myself crazy with boredom sitting around last week. I was so bored that I agreed to go to Pichit-desperate times resulted in some very desperate measures, as witnessed by my adventure to Pichit. Pichit is a larger city about 30 km away from Taphanhin, and is the capital of the Pichit province (imagine that). From our first week here, the dreaded teacher Tessani (from English Camp) offered (threatened?) to take us to Pichit to see the "crocodiles!". Apparently, and as we found out that morning, Pichit's mascot is an enormous fake crocodile named "Chalawan". This is for some reason a huge tourist attraction. Last Tuesday night, after a day of mumbling around Taphanhin, when my host mother offered to have us go to Pichit with her for work, I jumped at the chance ( I think I was delusional from the heat). Why wouldn't I want to see a large crocodile statue named Chalawan? Done and done. So last Wednesday morning, we jumped in the van, dropped my host mom off at her meeting in Pichit and Crystal, the driver and I picked up a woman named "Mon", who was a friend of my host mom and our host for the morning. We first stopped off at the local temple, of course, to pray to Buddha and all that good stuff. Then-Chalawan! I have to admit, it was pretty interesting. Chalawan sits on the edge of a large pond in Pichit that was quite pretty, and there was even an "aquarium" (I use quotations b/c there were about 20 fish) where we saw some fish, and got to feed popcorn to the vultures of carp-looking fish in the pond. Hey-it beats sitting around the pharmacy. I got some great Asian tourist pictures complete with peace signs-not a total loss. We got to go to lunch and eat super spicy and delicious papaya salad and make awkward conversation with our random tour guides for the day, always a good time.
Back in Taphanhin, we headed to school to help record sound bites for the English-computer game the teachers use. The two English teachers who asked us to help are these two adorable little old ladies that cannot for the life of them operate the recording equipment and giggle incessantly. Everything takes twice as long as it should, but they bring us yummy snacks and drinks, so I let it slide. We are doing the sound for all of the software, so it is very, very tedious-reading out sentences and vocab lists. This was our third, two hour session of reading "Vocabulary. 1. orange", over and over again. This is when we found out that school was canceled. No one contacted us or our host parents. No one contacted our director. These two little old ladies just casually mentioned that school would be canceled...so once we went home and told our host parents, they naturally jumped into hyper-planning mode action. They decided that we would go to Bangkok for the weekend, and then Llong Mink (Uncle Mink-Crystal's host father) almost died of happiness when he heard that we might be able to go to "Tilasu", which is a city wayyy in the North of Thailand. He has been talking about taking us there since we arrived, and despite our protests that we cannot just leave school and run off to Tilasu (we are technically supposed to be here to teach), he keeps insisting that it is totally fine and that we can just be "absent" because we absolutely must go here. Tilasu is apparently where the women put the gold rings around their necks...and I've only seen pictures in the stereotypical National Geographic article on "exotic" cultures...so I was really excited. I am also kind of warming up to car trips in the family van with our family. We get to watch English movies and they stuff us with yummy snacks, which of course I love.
Dum dum dum....once we told Daniel, our program "director", he nipped our whole adventure in the bud. After some "interesting" emails and phone calls back and forth, it was decided that we could not violate the "laws" ( I personally think that calling the loosely applied rules of a completely disorganized and poorly run volunteer organization laws is a bit of a stretch...) of Learning Enterprises and not teach for a week. So it was A-ok for us to sit around while the students had mid terms (which should have been found out beforehand in my humble opinion) and do nothing, but because of the flu, our mini-adventure planned by our gracious and adorable host families would violate some innate "law" of LE. Umm yea about that. Next time I sign up to go on a trip organized by a random non-profit run by college students, just shoot me. Whatever. Not a battle worth fighting at this point-
So the bright side of all of this is that we were lucky to be invited to another school in the area as guest teachers for the week. This school is where we should have been all along! It is a small, government school that takes students who cannot pass the entrance exam to get into our other school (I didn't even know there was an entrance exam!) and so it attracts the poorer students who have less opportunities. After long conversations with the head of the English Department there, I am so grateful to be teaching there and totally inspired for what feels like the first time this entire trip. The students in Taphanhin whose parents are wealthy have tutors and extra help and classes that enable them to be able to pass the entrance exams and go to the "best" school in the area. The students whose parents collect plastic bottles for a living, or who dump them with their grandparents and go off to Bangkok are the students at this school-out of 28 students who made it to 12th grade last year at this school (most of the students drop out early-the girls around 13 to get married...the boys to work), only 5 went on to university! So Crystal and I are guest teaching English there this week and absolutely loving it. First of all, nobody has treated us like a circus animal yet. Can you believe it? There was no song and dance, but the teachers and director of the school have been down to earth, sweet and so welcoming. We are teaching all different ages, and the students are definitely a little bit behind compared to Taphanhin school, but they are so eager to learn and adorable. I'm absolutely loving it! It's too bad that I only have one week with them, but for next year we are insisting that they send volunteers here.
More updates to come on my weekend in Bangkok which did happen and was amazing and totally ridiculous.
I miss everyone, only 12 more days until I get back to the land of cheeseburgers, beer and cereal. I would give a kidney for some Heart to Heart right now...soon enough!
xoxo
So remember how I said that we don't really teach because there are always random holidays and random activities that take precedence over education (scout day-super important. must dress up in girl scout and boy scout uniforms once a week and parade around for an hour or all will be lost)? Well, our school is all of a sudden closed this week for the flu pandemic that has been going around Thailand. Horray for the Swine flu! We had no classes last week for "mid term exams", we had a 3 day holiday the first week we started teaching, and now this. So our school will reopen on August 3 and English Camp has been moved to that week, August 4 and 5th (god knows we wouldn't want to cancel English camp). So now, I won't even see some of my classes again. Obviously the flu is a random inconvenience that couldn't be avoided, but I am really disappointed. All in all, of the 7 weeks I will have spent here, only 3 will be spent teaching at my original school. Que sera sera I suppose...
Well I drove myself crazy with boredom sitting around last week. I was so bored that I agreed to go to Pichit-desperate times resulted in some very desperate measures, as witnessed by my adventure to Pichit. Pichit is a larger city about 30 km away from Taphanhin, and is the capital of the Pichit province (imagine that). From our first week here, the dreaded teacher Tessani (from English Camp) offered (threatened?) to take us to Pichit to see the "crocodiles!". Apparently, and as we found out that morning, Pichit's mascot is an enormous fake crocodile named "Chalawan". This is for some reason a huge tourist attraction. Last Tuesday night, after a day of mumbling around Taphanhin, when my host mother offered to have us go to Pichit with her for work, I jumped at the chance ( I think I was delusional from the heat). Why wouldn't I want to see a large crocodile statue named Chalawan? Done and done. So last Wednesday morning, we jumped in the van, dropped my host mom off at her meeting in Pichit and Crystal, the driver and I picked up a woman named "Mon", who was a friend of my host mom and our host for the morning. We first stopped off at the local temple, of course, to pray to Buddha and all that good stuff. Then-Chalawan! I have to admit, it was pretty interesting. Chalawan sits on the edge of a large pond in Pichit that was quite pretty, and there was even an "aquarium" (I use quotations b/c there were about 20 fish) where we saw some fish, and got to feed popcorn to the vultures of carp-looking fish in the pond. Hey-it beats sitting around the pharmacy. I got some great Asian tourist pictures complete with peace signs-not a total loss. We got to go to lunch and eat super spicy and delicious papaya salad and make awkward conversation with our random tour guides for the day, always a good time.
Back in Taphanhin, we headed to school to help record sound bites for the English-computer game the teachers use. The two English teachers who asked us to help are these two adorable little old ladies that cannot for the life of them operate the recording equipment and giggle incessantly. Everything takes twice as long as it should, but they bring us yummy snacks and drinks, so I let it slide. We are doing the sound for all of the software, so it is very, very tedious-reading out sentences and vocab lists. This was our third, two hour session of reading "Vocabulary. 1. orange", over and over again. This is when we found out that school was canceled. No one contacted us or our host parents. No one contacted our director. These two little old ladies just casually mentioned that school would be canceled...so once we went home and told our host parents, they naturally jumped into hyper-planning mode action. They decided that we would go to Bangkok for the weekend, and then Llong Mink (Uncle Mink-Crystal's host father) almost died of happiness when he heard that we might be able to go to "Tilasu", which is a city wayyy in the North of Thailand. He has been talking about taking us there since we arrived, and despite our protests that we cannot just leave school and run off to Tilasu (we are technically supposed to be here to teach), he keeps insisting that it is totally fine and that we can just be "absent" because we absolutely must go here. Tilasu is apparently where the women put the gold rings around their necks...and I've only seen pictures in the stereotypical National Geographic article on "exotic" cultures...so I was really excited. I am also kind of warming up to car trips in the family van with our family. We get to watch English movies and they stuff us with yummy snacks, which of course I love.
Dum dum dum....once we told Daniel, our program "director", he nipped our whole adventure in the bud. After some "interesting" emails and phone calls back and forth, it was decided that we could not violate the "laws" ( I personally think that calling the loosely applied rules of a completely disorganized and poorly run volunteer organization laws is a bit of a stretch...) of Learning Enterprises and not teach for a week. So it was A-ok for us to sit around while the students had mid terms (which should have been found out beforehand in my humble opinion) and do nothing, but because of the flu, our mini-adventure planned by our gracious and adorable host families would violate some innate "law" of LE. Umm yea about that. Next time I sign up to go on a trip organized by a random non-profit run by college students, just shoot me. Whatever. Not a battle worth fighting at this point-
So the bright side of all of this is that we were lucky to be invited to another school in the area as guest teachers for the week. This school is where we should have been all along! It is a small, government school that takes students who cannot pass the entrance exam to get into our other school (I didn't even know there was an entrance exam!) and so it attracts the poorer students who have less opportunities. After long conversations with the head of the English Department there, I am so grateful to be teaching there and totally inspired for what feels like the first time this entire trip. The students in Taphanhin whose parents are wealthy have tutors and extra help and classes that enable them to be able to pass the entrance exams and go to the "best" school in the area. The students whose parents collect plastic bottles for a living, or who dump them with their grandparents and go off to Bangkok are the students at this school-out of 28 students who made it to 12th grade last year at this school (most of the students drop out early-the girls around 13 to get married...the boys to work), only 5 went on to university! So Crystal and I are guest teaching English there this week and absolutely loving it. First of all, nobody has treated us like a circus animal yet. Can you believe it? There was no song and dance, but the teachers and director of the school have been down to earth, sweet and so welcoming. We are teaching all different ages, and the students are definitely a little bit behind compared to Taphanhin school, but they are so eager to learn and adorable. I'm absolutely loving it! It's too bad that I only have one week with them, but for next year we are insisting that they send volunteers here.
More updates to come on my weekend in Bangkok which did happen and was amazing and totally ridiculous.
I miss everyone, only 12 more days until I get back to the land of cheeseburgers, beer and cereal. I would give a kidney for some Heart to Heart right now...soon enough!
xoxo
Monday, July 20, 2009
7/20 The Cupid Shuffle
The past few days have been really weird. I haven't had anything to do really. Since the minute I stepped off the plane (and got 3 hours of sleep the first night I was here), it's been go-g0-g0. This past weekend, minus the one hour verrrrry informal volunteer meeting (that was supposed to take a day and a half...question mark) I had nothing to do. Saturday night I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic with my host family for my birthday and had birthday cake, then went to bed early! It was looong way away from last year's birthday (copious pitchers of frozen strawberry margaritas at Lauriol Plaza) but it was refreshing and relaxing. Sunday, I woke up and went to the English tutor with my host brother. He goes to an extra class on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I thought I was going to sit in on class, but I just had do the mandatory zoo animal routine-say hello, have everyone giggle and stare at you, then duck out the back. After that I just hung out at the pharmacy, and then I got to make homemade green curry with the cooks!
I have been asking to cook since I got here, but I haven't had time yet. I was put in the charge of "May", one of the young women who works in the pharmacy. All of the people who work in my host mom's pharmacy also have second jobs as our family's go-to people it seems. I'm not really sure of the exact relationship, but anytime we need to be driven anywhere, or anything needs done, Na Pet, my host mom, just calls on someone working in the pharmacy and they snap to it. We desperately tried to find fresh soymilk at the market on Sunday morning for the other volunteers, but had no luck. We asked where we could find it, and before I knew Na Pet had ordered someone to drive and go get it for us. So Na Pet told them I wanted to cook, and May put me to work! Her English consisted of hand motions and smiles, but we had a great time. I love cooking-the whole process is calming. I sat and peeled Thai eggplants (little green bell-shaped veggies) and picked fresh basil and had the best time ever just sitting and doing something with my hands. The curry was surprisingly easy to make and it was SO delicious. Much better than Bangkok Bistro, although our Americanized version noticeably does not add the kilo of chicken livers that we did to ours (which stayed floating in the bowl after I was done eating). I'm also going to need to find an Asian food market to get the green chilli paste, but I am so excited to wow people with my Thai culinary delights when I get back to the US. This week, I am going to learn "Tom Yum Gun", a spicy seafood soup with lemongrass and ginger. Its so yummy, I can't wait.
I had a serious case of the Mondays yesterday (speaking of which I need to watch Office Space asap, its been too long). I think knowing that we had 4 days off put me in a funk. Also, only about half of my classes showed up. Teaching has been pretty good so far, but also disillusioning. The teachers don't really take us seriously-they are the ones constantly joking and laughing at us-so asking the students to take us seriously is really out of the question. In the teachers lounge it is SO painfully obvious everytime they are talking about us, laughing and pointing. My favorite is when this Thai teacher, who I think fancies himself to be the sort of "Big Man on Campus", finds it absolutely hilarious to walk up to us, speak quickly in Thai and ask if we understand. Well lets see, lets think about this. We have been here for a month now. Everyone knows that our Thai consists of please, thank you, hello, and I'm full. You know this. Yet it still amuses you to the point of incapacitating giggles (and lets remember you are a full grown man giggling at young girls) to speak Thai to us when we clearly do not understand. Why? Really? Can I help him find that missing something in his life so that this little routine becomes unnecessary? Also, most of the teachers weren't even told that we were coming to teach. The first few days there were multiple awkward, "umm hi, can I teach your class" situations in front of the students- really helped establish that authority.
Anyways, my students show up about half of the time. One of my classes was supposed to write letters to the younger students in Phitsanulok where the other volunteers are teaching for homework (it was our original, misguided and ineffective "service project" that has since been abandoned). So Friday, when I ask where the letters are, an entire class says oops, we forgot and by the way, we have Friday games and activities, so see ya later and everyone just leaves. I'm left in the classroom with a full lesson plan and no students. Monday was frustrating because I had to have other classes quickly write generic letters for the students in Phitsanulok, I kept trying to explain the situation and how they were doing me a "favor"-it was totally lost in translation. I just had them copy the generic letter. Oh well. My last class copied the letter with confused looks on their faces, and after attempting to explain the concept of community service to them (I need to create a service project at some point before I leave in 3 weeks, whoops!) and getting completely blank stares, I gave up. I pulled out my laptop, wrote down the chorus of the cupid shuffle on the blackboard, blasted the song and made them get up and dance. "To the left, to the left...". They looked at me like I was clinically insane and should be locked up when I demonstrated the dance. I just had to dance it out tho-it wasn't even a choice. After repeated and desperate "Cmon guys!", some of them got into it. The 4 boys in the class hid literally in the corner, but then again so do most guys at Tombs when people get onto the dance floor. My students might think I'm primed for the looney bin, but after a long Monday, in my frumpy teacher dress, sweating like a pig in a classroom in the middle of East Jesus, Thailand, it was exactly what I needed.
After a nice jog with my host uncle, I settled in at home. I tried to figure out the DVD player in the family room, but after failing at that I decided to watch some Thai tv. For some reason, its endlessly entertaining to me. Mostly, I love the commercials. They are all either for whitening creams or hair products. They are absolutely obsessed with being pale. Its almost creepy-all of the celebrities and models practically look Western-they have eye surgery to make their eyes bigger, and they work so hard at being pale, with crazy whitening creams and wearing long pants and long sleeves in the sweltering heat at all times. Different standards of beauty I guess! Seeing as how my 46 yr old host mother looks like she is about 23, literally, they must be onto something. Meanwhile, I spent most of my highschool years roasting in the sun smothered with baby oil.
All for now, I'm off to start cooking again! xoxo,
Stacy
I have been asking to cook since I got here, but I haven't had time yet. I was put in the charge of "May", one of the young women who works in the pharmacy. All of the people who work in my host mom's pharmacy also have second jobs as our family's go-to people it seems. I'm not really sure of the exact relationship, but anytime we need to be driven anywhere, or anything needs done, Na Pet, my host mom, just calls on someone working in the pharmacy and they snap to it. We desperately tried to find fresh soymilk at the market on Sunday morning for the other volunteers, but had no luck. We asked where we could find it, and before I knew Na Pet had ordered someone to drive and go get it for us. So Na Pet told them I wanted to cook, and May put me to work! Her English consisted of hand motions and smiles, but we had a great time. I love cooking-the whole process is calming. I sat and peeled Thai eggplants (little green bell-shaped veggies) and picked fresh basil and had the best time ever just sitting and doing something with my hands. The curry was surprisingly easy to make and it was SO delicious. Much better than Bangkok Bistro, although our Americanized version noticeably does not add the kilo of chicken livers that we did to ours (which stayed floating in the bowl after I was done eating). I'm also going to need to find an Asian food market to get the green chilli paste, but I am so excited to wow people with my Thai culinary delights when I get back to the US. This week, I am going to learn "Tom Yum Gun", a spicy seafood soup with lemongrass and ginger. Its so yummy, I can't wait.
I had a serious case of the Mondays yesterday (speaking of which I need to watch Office Space asap, its been too long). I think knowing that we had 4 days off put me in a funk. Also, only about half of my classes showed up. Teaching has been pretty good so far, but also disillusioning. The teachers don't really take us seriously-they are the ones constantly joking and laughing at us-so asking the students to take us seriously is really out of the question. In the teachers lounge it is SO painfully obvious everytime they are talking about us, laughing and pointing. My favorite is when this Thai teacher, who I think fancies himself to be the sort of "Big Man on Campus", finds it absolutely hilarious to walk up to us, speak quickly in Thai and ask if we understand. Well lets see, lets think about this. We have been here for a month now. Everyone knows that our Thai consists of please, thank you, hello, and I'm full. You know this. Yet it still amuses you to the point of incapacitating giggles (and lets remember you are a full grown man giggling at young girls) to speak Thai to us when we clearly do not understand. Why? Really? Can I help him find that missing something in his life so that this little routine becomes unnecessary? Also, most of the teachers weren't even told that we were coming to teach. The first few days there were multiple awkward, "umm hi, can I teach your class" situations in front of the students- really helped establish that authority.
Anyways, my students show up about half of the time. One of my classes was supposed to write letters to the younger students in Phitsanulok where the other volunteers are teaching for homework (it was our original, misguided and ineffective "service project" that has since been abandoned). So Friday, when I ask where the letters are, an entire class says oops, we forgot and by the way, we have Friday games and activities, so see ya later and everyone just leaves. I'm left in the classroom with a full lesson plan and no students. Monday was frustrating because I had to have other classes quickly write generic letters for the students in Phitsanulok, I kept trying to explain the situation and how they were doing me a "favor"-it was totally lost in translation. I just had them copy the generic letter. Oh well. My last class copied the letter with confused looks on their faces, and after attempting to explain the concept of community service to them (I need to create a service project at some point before I leave in 3 weeks, whoops!) and getting completely blank stares, I gave up. I pulled out my laptop, wrote down the chorus of the cupid shuffle on the blackboard, blasted the song and made them get up and dance. "To the left, to the left...". They looked at me like I was clinically insane and should be locked up when I demonstrated the dance. I just had to dance it out tho-it wasn't even a choice. After repeated and desperate "Cmon guys!", some of them got into it. The 4 boys in the class hid literally in the corner, but then again so do most guys at Tombs when people get onto the dance floor. My students might think I'm primed for the looney bin, but after a long Monday, in my frumpy teacher dress, sweating like a pig in a classroom in the middle of East Jesus, Thailand, it was exactly what I needed.
After a nice jog with my host uncle, I settled in at home. I tried to figure out the DVD player in the family room, but after failing at that I decided to watch some Thai tv. For some reason, its endlessly entertaining to me. Mostly, I love the commercials. They are all either for whitening creams or hair products. They are absolutely obsessed with being pale. Its almost creepy-all of the celebrities and models practically look Western-they have eye surgery to make their eyes bigger, and they work so hard at being pale, with crazy whitening creams and wearing long pants and long sleeves in the sweltering heat at all times. Different standards of beauty I guess! Seeing as how my 46 yr old host mother looks like she is about 23, literally, they must be onto something. Meanwhile, I spent most of my highschool years roasting in the sun smothered with baby oil.
All for now, I'm off to start cooking again! xoxo,
Stacy
Saturday, July 18, 2009
7/18 A Thai-style Birthday
Well, it looks like I'm 22 years old. 21 was so exciting. I couldn't wait to casually saunter into a bar, order a drink and whip out my legitimate ID like it was nobody's business. 21 opened up a whole new world in DC-happy hours, different areas of DC, senior year, the TOMBS (I so miss $7.95 pitchers of Busch light!) all sorts of stuff. 22 is, well, 22. I have a job, bills and a 401K. What the hell happened?
So far, my birthday has been wonderful! I didn't even want to tell people it was my birthday, because I didn't want anyone to make a big deal about it. Everytime I mention something, or show the slightest interest (like "what is that fruit?" at the market), it is delivered to me. I am so spoiled by my hosts and I feel incredibly guilty and I just didn't want any hooplah. After the adorable homemade cards at school on Friday and the sweet students wishing me happy birthday, I started to get more excited about my bday though. Last night, my adorable host brother "Tee" went out and bought Thai desserts and we had a little picnic in the kitchen, binge eating and talking. He is so kind and adorable, I just want to poke him. He is essentially an over-sized teddy bear-a little bit tubby (how can you not be with his mother? she is constantly feeding us!), very shy and a complete mama's boy. During one car trip, my host mother started cooing and applying acne cream to his face in front of the entire van-he is 14! I was appalled, can you imagine a 14 yr old boy in America allowing this? It would of course call into question his "independence" and "masculinity" (snort) and would never ever be allowed, but Tee just let her fuss over him like he was a 5 year old. Anyways I digress. Tee is awesome and I love helping him practice his English. We also share a common love of food-every time I take a bite of anything, he exclaims "Is it very delicious!?" with a little bit of a lisp. Loves it.
So in Thailand on your birthday, it is tradition to wake up early and wait for the Monks to walk around the village and give them food. I decided to go 100% Thai for this one so I set my alarm for 4:30 and went to bed early. 4:30 came all too early and I swear I saw wrinkles on my 22 yr old face in the mirror, but I hauled myself out of bed and Tee and I walked to the middle of the town with instant noodles, juice and water to wait for the monks. Every morning around 5 am the monks walk around the town and people give them food-its how they eat since they aren't allowed to buy anything. I guess the monks slept in this morning, because we sat on the steps of a building for close to 40 minutes, eagerly searching the streets for the sign of a monk (sort of like little kids waiting for the ice cream man...sort of...). Finally-monks! You approach the monks, put your offerings in their silver bowl that they carry around since you are not allowed to touch them, then kneel down and they pray and bless you. I gave food to about 8 monks so I think I'm pretty blessed-up for awhile. Good to know. At 6:30, Tee and I headed back home and back to bed for an hour before getting up and getting ready for my volunteer meeting, before which my family insisted on giving me a birthday present while Tee played "Happy Birthday" on the keyboard. I now have a traditional Thai dress that is absolutely beautiful...the spoiling continues! I hope everyone is ready for the brat I have become. Watch out.
This weekend is "mid-point break" (oooohhhh we're halfway there...ohhh oh! living on a prayer!) so the two other volunteers, Deven and Nhaca, are in Taphanhin for the weekend. We did some planning this morning and generally just chatted about our different experiences. Deven and Nhaca are in very rural areas and are having more of the romanticized, "help the poor villagers" experience that I imagined I would encounter when I decided to do this. The community is much less well off and mostly consists of farming families. Their students often drop out after grade 9 to work, or hardly come to school as they have to work on the family farm or help out at home. It's a different world from my students who prance about with their fancy camera phones, mp3 players and friend me on facebook (hooray limited profile!). They are loving their experience, but every school has its challenges. Their teachers seem even more unreliable than ours-they both teach almost all day since there are always unsupervised classes where teachers just didn't show up. Deven is also teaching 6 yr olds, who can barely write in Thai, nonetheless English and Deven is finding near to impossible to communicate with them not speaking Thai. The whole not speaking the local language but still teaching English idea is a little suspicious to me. I could be 100 times more effective if I spoke even rudimentary Thai. Oh well...lesson learned. I love my cushy little set up complete with A/C, wifi and students whose English is relatively quite good, but I am secretly a little jealous of their "real" experience. The little peace-corps wannabe inside of me is screaming to run off to the jungle and probably misguidedly "help" by imposing my Western ideals and perceptions of what development is upon them My family is great and I am so grateful, but I might as well be in the states some days.
Tonight I make my return to aerobic dancing in honor of the other volunteer's visit. I figure if we all go it will be a huge spectacle anyways and I might as well take advantage of it. I am also in desperate need of exercise after all of the delicious desserts that I have consumed. Our housekeeper made homemade sticky rice with coconut milk and rambutans this afternoon-very delicious. Time to burn some calories! There is also hope of going to Phitsanulok to watch Harry Potter (in English!) tomorrow afternoon since our volunteer meeting took about 1 hour. So excited for that!
I miss you all, thanks for the birthday wishes!
So far, my birthday has been wonderful! I didn't even want to tell people it was my birthday, because I didn't want anyone to make a big deal about it. Everytime I mention something, or show the slightest interest (like "what is that fruit?" at the market), it is delivered to me. I am so spoiled by my hosts and I feel incredibly guilty and I just didn't want any hooplah. After the adorable homemade cards at school on Friday and the sweet students wishing me happy birthday, I started to get more excited about my bday though. Last night, my adorable host brother "Tee" went out and bought Thai desserts and we had a little picnic in the kitchen, binge eating and talking. He is so kind and adorable, I just want to poke him. He is essentially an over-sized teddy bear-a little bit tubby (how can you not be with his mother? she is constantly feeding us!), very shy and a complete mama's boy. During one car trip, my host mother started cooing and applying acne cream to his face in front of the entire van-he is 14! I was appalled, can you imagine a 14 yr old boy in America allowing this? It would of course call into question his "independence" and "masculinity" (snort) and would never ever be allowed, but Tee just let her fuss over him like he was a 5 year old. Anyways I digress. Tee is awesome and I love helping him practice his English. We also share a common love of food-every time I take a bite of anything, he exclaims "Is it very delicious!?" with a little bit of a lisp. Loves it.
So in Thailand on your birthday, it is tradition to wake up early and wait for the Monks to walk around the village and give them food. I decided to go 100% Thai for this one so I set my alarm for 4:30 and went to bed early. 4:30 came all too early and I swear I saw wrinkles on my 22 yr old face in the mirror, but I hauled myself out of bed and Tee and I walked to the middle of the town with instant noodles, juice and water to wait for the monks. Every morning around 5 am the monks walk around the town and people give them food-its how they eat since they aren't allowed to buy anything. I guess the monks slept in this morning, because we sat on the steps of a building for close to 40 minutes, eagerly searching the streets for the sign of a monk (sort of like little kids waiting for the ice cream man...sort of...). Finally-monks! You approach the monks, put your offerings in their silver bowl that they carry around since you are not allowed to touch them, then kneel down and they pray and bless you. I gave food to about 8 monks so I think I'm pretty blessed-up for awhile. Good to know. At 6:30, Tee and I headed back home and back to bed for an hour before getting up and getting ready for my volunteer meeting, before which my family insisted on giving me a birthday present while Tee played "Happy Birthday" on the keyboard. I now have a traditional Thai dress that is absolutely beautiful...the spoiling continues! I hope everyone is ready for the brat I have become. Watch out.
This weekend is "mid-point break" (oooohhhh we're halfway there...ohhh oh! living on a prayer!) so the two other volunteers, Deven and Nhaca, are in Taphanhin for the weekend. We did some planning this morning and generally just chatted about our different experiences. Deven and Nhaca are in very rural areas and are having more of the romanticized, "help the poor villagers" experience that I imagined I would encounter when I decided to do this. The community is much less well off and mostly consists of farming families. Their students often drop out after grade 9 to work, or hardly come to school as they have to work on the family farm or help out at home. It's a different world from my students who prance about with their fancy camera phones, mp3 players and friend me on facebook (hooray limited profile!). They are loving their experience, but every school has its challenges. Their teachers seem even more unreliable than ours-they both teach almost all day since there are always unsupervised classes where teachers just didn't show up. Deven is also teaching 6 yr olds, who can barely write in Thai, nonetheless English and Deven is finding near to impossible to communicate with them not speaking Thai. The whole not speaking the local language but still teaching English idea is a little suspicious to me. I could be 100 times more effective if I spoke even rudimentary Thai. Oh well...lesson learned. I love my cushy little set up complete with A/C, wifi and students whose English is relatively quite good, but I am secretly a little jealous of their "real" experience. The little peace-corps wannabe inside of me is screaming to run off to the jungle and probably misguidedly "help" by imposing my Western ideals and perceptions of what development is upon them My family is great and I am so grateful, but I might as well be in the states some days.
Tonight I make my return to aerobic dancing in honor of the other volunteer's visit. I figure if we all go it will be a huge spectacle anyways and I might as well take advantage of it. I am also in desperate need of exercise after all of the delicious desserts that I have consumed. Our housekeeper made homemade sticky rice with coconut milk and rambutans this afternoon-very delicious. Time to burn some calories! There is also hope of going to Phitsanulok to watch Harry Potter (in English!) tomorrow afternoon since our volunteer meeting took about 1 hour. So excited for that!
I miss you all, thanks for the birthday wishes!
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