We got schooled

View from school.  You can see a bit of the Gulf of Thailand.

Although it may seem like we are just here for an incredible vacation, we have actually been in school all month.  From about 9:30am to about 4:30pm we have been in a classroom learning how to teach.  Class started a few weeks ago with "How to write a lesson plan" -- I almost quit halfway through the day.  Seriously couldn't handle it.  I spent some time drawing a very elaborate, super-branchy tree in a notebook.

I went back the next day with a SUPER positive attitude - I know I'm still a rookie teacher, and I have plenty of room for improvement!  Day 2 was not better.  Then they decided it would be a good idea to put all 95 of us in one classroom for a session on "Basic Classroom Management"- small screen, Powerpoint presentation, no air-conditioning...

On the positive side, at least I learned a lot about South African animals from a few of my classmates.  The springbok is my favorite.  I also learned that out of all the English-speaking countries, the US is the weirdest one.  We pronounce everything wrong and we have weird measurement systems.  (Zebra is not zee-bruh, but zeb-rah. Spread the word.)
 

School.  3 buildings, 4 floors, courtyard/parking lot

I survived the 3 week course, written exam, and 2-day English camp for Thai kids.  I learned a LOT at camp.  I taught 3rd and 4th grade, and these kids know about 5 words in English.  Lesson directives quickly went from something like "Ok, students, go back to your seats and listen carefully.  Now we're going to draw a picture of a time when we felt one of these emotions."  to something more like "Stop. Listen. Draw." while doing lots of dramatic acting and pointing.

Some 4th grade boys. They totally understood the emotions -
obviously the result of my incredible acting skills.

I enjoyed being greeted with students standing to say "GOOD MORNING TEACHER!" and ending class with another standing "THANK YOU TEACHER!"  I moved classrooms every hour, so this happened a few times.  They also asked my fellow English teachers and me for our autographs.  Standing ovations AND autographs?? Can you say  G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S.  (Did you sing that like Fergy? If not, you'd better try again.)

Third grade cuteness

Eric (my partner for day 2) and I walked in to some kids fighting in class - with fists.  But Thai teachers are allowed to hit the kids with sticks (really), so if you threaten to take them to the Thai teacher they start acting like angels.  We'll only use that until we have our own classes. Then, I'm sure we won't need to threaten them because none of us will ever have a problem with our students misbehaving. Ever.

Now we have a couple days to chill here in Hua Hin, and then we move to Hat Yai this weekend where we'll stay for the next 5 months unless they fire us.  

Escape to Monkey Mountain

 There's a small beach at the end of the main road in Hua Hin.  A staircase, looking like it comes right out of the sand, leads up the hill toward a Buddhist temple.  Somewhere in between the beach and the temple is a small tourist area with a shop and a few market-like stands selling cold drinks, ice cream, etc.  Perfect place to run into a bunch of monkeys.

In English, it's referred to as Monkey Mountain

The one who stole the apple core.

Kevin had been saying he wanted a monkey to sit on his shoulder in Thailand.  I don't know if he would have said that knowing that it was totally possible.  We got part way up "monkey mountain" and a monkey ran over to take the apple core out of his hand.  There were monkeys ALL OVER.



                 

It took Kevin a minute to agree to buying a small bucket of fruit from a strange Thai lady, but he did.   It was INTENSE!

Too tired to hold its head up...

 I just couldn't stop taking pictures! 
  The babies were the cutest.

 

Thief!

 These monkeys are obviously used to people, so we'll have to take a real trek through real Thai mountains and find some animals in a more natural setting.  But this was still pretty fun.

We're Buddhist now

This was the day I had to wear too many layers of clothing.  Shorts, tank top, sweater, and a long skirt to pull over my shorts at the temple.  But at least it was only 90 degrees...

Chinese Buddha (riding a dragon?)

Thai Buddha

We visited a Chinese-Thai Buddhist temple. Everyone had to dress very modestly out of respect for the monks who live there, hence the sweater and long skirt.  Although we knew where we were going, we had no idea that it's totally normal to get your fortune told there. (?)  You shake a cup full of red, numbered sticks, then grab a piece of paper from the corresponding box.  It really was amazing how only one stick jumped out for each person. I got number 9.

"Just like a fish transforming into a dragon.  Improvement and development envisaged. Traveling south or west shall yield good fruits. Parted persons reunited.  Love affairs not yet concluded in immediate future. Patient's condition worsening. Good lucks approaching. Keep trying hard, success waiting not far away."

None of it really makes sense to me - except the fish transforming into a dragon part.  Because I'm magic.

We then learned the proper way to enter a temple and light 3 sticks of incense - one for the Buddha, one for the Sangha (Buddhist community), and one for the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha).  You stick them into a pot of sand, which I'm sure is called something else. Then, you kneel with your forehead to the floor three times and stay and meditate as long as you want on the cold, hard ground.  In the temple, you have to kneel or sit with your feet facing away from the Buddha.  It was super peaceful, but my knees and feet started to hurt after a few minutes. 

See all the incense sticks?

Side note: People hate feet here. You have to take off your shoes before you enter someone's house or anywhere Buddha is present, including some stores and restaurants.  It's also very disrespectful to show anyone the bottoms of your feet, so I have to start sitting with my feet on the ground like a normal person. boo.


After our group did the incense/meditation process, a monk came in and blessed us and our families back home, and he gave us bracelets.  I haven't taken it off yet.

This temple was built into a hill/mountain, so we climbed up a never-ending staircase to the top. (It was a good thing we got so much practice in Cinque Terre. This wasn't nearly as bad!)

BIG Thai Buddha

At the top there is an enormous statue of the sitting Thai Buddha as well as a beautiful view of the beach and Gulf of Thailand.

The view - which made us all want to go jump in the water... d.r.i.p.p.i.n.g. s.w.e.a.t.

This was all the same day as the pineapple plantation/elephant experience - so much love for this country!

Wish you all were here!

PS - the water is actually super warm and not refreshing, but I won't complain about that. :o)

How much is that elephant in the window?

We went to a pineapple plantation to pick up pineapples that were too ripe to send to supermarkets for humans.  We loaded them into our songthaew and took them to the elephant rescue.

Pineapple farm

SO juicy!

Songthaew full of pineapples

We had to ride in this to the elephant rescue.  It was uncomfortable.  But the elephants liked the pineapples!

My new friend

I cannot possibly describe how much I loved these elephants.

A very old elephant whose name I can't pronounce.

Just in case you haven't seen this one yet...

This 5-year-old loved giving hugs!

Check out the cuteness:

Chan pud Thai mai dai

First, our internet connection is awful here.  I’m keeping track of blog entries, but can’t always make them post right after I write them… so I may end up posting 2 or 3 entries at a time even though they were written days apart.  Oh well.

Second, our placement may not be what we thought.  A month ago we were told the province of Trang would be our home while in Thailand.   Today we were told that that information is incorrect, and we really could end up anywhere.  All 95 of us here with the program will be hired by schools in different parts of the country in the next 3 weeks.  That should probably worry me a little, but they’ve done this before.  This organization has connected 2,000+ schools with teachers in Thailand.  We’ll let you know where we end up.

Now, as you can tell from the blog title, we are almost fluent in Thai.  We can say about 4 complete sentences, and we can count to 10.  It’s a super easy language.  For example, the word ka said with a normal tone means to obstruct or get stuck in.  Ka, when said with a low tone, means galangal, which is an ingredient in some Thai dish.  Ka, when said with a falling tone, means servant or slave.  Ka, when said with a high tone, means to make a deal/trade.  Ka, when said with a rising tone, means leg. Got it?  …Me neither.   Here’s a picture of a dog to make us all feel better:
 

Her name is Fresh Milk.

Kevin killed a guy yesterday. (That’s not true.)  We went to a Mui Thai gym and had some Thai guys teach us how to fight properly.  So don’t worry, Mom.  Now that I know how to uppercut and push-kick, I’m not even afraid to walk around alone at night or hang out in dark alleys.   

We also learned how to make pad thai and roll spring rolls.  Aroy maak – It was delicious!

 

Our new friend, Lexi.

Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise

We skipped Saturday.  We left Chicago Friday night, traveled for about 24 hours, and arrived at our hotel in Bangkok at noon on Sunday…so weird and confusing.  We are now 12 hours ahead of Chicago time (CST), so 8:00 Tuesday night for Illinois is 8:00 Wednesday morning for us.  “WE’RE IN THE FUTURE”  (you’re obviously supposed to read that in Kevin’s voice) hence the blog name. 

It really is 8am on Wednesday, and I feel like we’ve been here for a month.  Not because we’re used to being here already, but because we have done a LOT in the last couple days.  We traveled from Bangkok Monday morning to Hua Hin. We got bank accounts opened, cell phones working, unpacked our suitcases, and PARTIED ALL NIGHT*.  Here’s what our home-for-the-month looks like:

We explored the local mall, which has a store called D’Club and a food kiosk called Daddy Dough.  Kevin giggles every time he says those names.  For those who are curious, they also have Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Auntie Anne’s, and Starbucks.  We have not been to any of these places, except for Starbucks. They have no idea what “pumpkin spice” is, but they do have different iced tea flavors than in the States.

Other than the mall, Hua Hin has beaches to visit, a 7-11 every 8 feet, street food every 4 feet, tourists, and lots of smiling Thai faces.  Also, the KING is here.  The King of Thailand, whose name is impossible to pronounce, is visiting Hua Hin.  He stays in a big compound surrounded by military guards, and he is almost 90 years old.  We ride by him every day in our songthaew on the way to class.  

This is a songthaew.

Today and tomorrow we have classes on Thai geography, culture, and language.  I’ll teach you everything I know so far: Thailand is the shape of an elephant’s head and the people speak Thai here.  I’ll fill you in again when I learn more. 

*PARTIED ALL NIGHT = fell asleep at 8:52

PS – Hilt, there’s an Oregon fan here named Rick! 

PPS - Can you do PS notes on a blog?  I don’t know the rules.

Here we GO!

The international terminal is the BEST.  We're sitting at our gate right now people-watching, writing this blog entry, and trying not to puke from excitement.  There are so many people here speaking so many languages... I could just sit and observe for hours.  How many of these strangers are going on vacation, or going home, or going on an AWESOME ADVENTURE like Kevin and me?!   I'm so excited that I don't even mind having to sit on a plane for 11 hours to Istanbul, then wait 3 hours in that airport, then fly another 9 hours to Bangkok... ugh... maybe I'll just tone down the excitement and sleep all the way to Thailand.  Then I'll get excited!  I'm going to learn to speak Thai, eat delicious noodles, try some stinky fruit, meet lots of people that won't have any idea what I'm saying, kiss an elephant, sweat a lot (ew),  teach some Thai kids, and kiss another elephant

I'm too scatter-brained to say anything else right now.  I should probably do some meditation or breathing exercises or something so that I'll be able to sleep... time to board!