Christmas in Thailand

Santa and students dancing to "Aloha Christmas"

They sold festive headbands and santa hats in the school shop

Thailand is heavily populated by Buddhists and the country is home to over 40,000 temples. About 1% of the population is Christian, and there are supposedly a few Christian churches around, but I have yet to see any, so imagine my surprise when Thailand put on more of a Christmas celebration than what I've seen in America. All month long the christmas spirit has been spreading throughout Thailand and the kids started learning the words to Jingle Bells and doodling snowmen and Santa Claus on their papers. We were told that we wouldn't have to teach on Christmas day, instead there would be 'activities' in the morning. In the past two months anytime they say there are school activities it usually just means that the students sing a lot of Thai songs and do some prayers, so I was pretty excited and surprised when we showed up to a Christmas celebration on Friday. All of the teachers wore red and many students were dressed up in anticipation for their performance on stage. All morning we had groups of students dancing and singing to various Christmas songs and some of the classes even did a present exchange. Of course Emily and I were put on the spot and got put in charge of announcing each performance before they came on stage, which made no sense because then a teacher would translate it into Thai so everyone understood what we were saying, but it was still fun to be included.
Later in the day I headed into Pattaya to pick up a package from the post office (thanks mom!) and was pretty bummed to see that the Christmas celebrations didn't spread outside of school. Pattaya is a huge expat city and I was really expecting to see some sort of celebration going on, but it appeared to be an ordinary day in the city. Many friends from home were shocked to hear that we had to work on Christmas day, but honestly I preferred that so much more as opposed to having the whole day off, especially after seeing that Pattaya wasn't celebrating. Even if we spent our day with those who probably don't even fully understand the history to Christmas it was still great to be surrounded by those in the Christmas spirit. Obviously some weird things happened too, because it's Thailand and nothing is ever completely normal. The end of the Christmas celebrations concluded with a fashion show made up primarily of guys wearing outfits that I can only imagine were hand crafted at school. On top of that, all of the kindergarteners seemed more dressed for Halloween as opposed to Christmas. Majority of the girls were wearing princess dresses and many of the boys were wearing superhero costumes. I'm not sure of the logic behind that, but it was adorable either way!
Holidays away from home are never easy, this is now my second Christmas abroad and I'm hoping it will be my last, but I'm also extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience a different culture, especially at such a fun time of year

Ending the Christmas celebrations with a fashion show

Island Life in Thailand: Ko Samet

Living right on the Gulf of Thailand I'm fortunate enough to spend a lot of my free time on the islands of Thailand, but we mainly stick to the small and quiet island of Koh Larn (more info on Koh Larn here) because it's closest to our mainland location of Pattaya. However, this past weekend was our Thai friend, Papae's, birthday and she wanted to celebrate on the island of Ko Samet which is about an hour south of us by car, followed by a 50 minute ferry ride. Ko Samet carries the reputation similar to some of the party islands in the south of Thailand and I was more than eager to get a new island experience, especially because the islands we have seen so far have been extremely mellow (and because hotels have warm showers, which is something my apartment is lacking).
Within the first hour, Ko Samet did not disappoint. We made it just in time for the nightly fire show and the night went up from there. The beaches of Ko Samet are littered with various bars and restaurants, all welcoming the tourists in with the lure of neon body paint and the promise of deals on buckets (essentially a small beach bucket usually made to build sandcastles, but instead filled with your liquor of choice).  Needless to say, our evenings stretched far into the early mornings, and we spent our afternoons relaxing on one of many of Ko Samet's beautiful beaches.

Our beach for the day that we shared with about 10 other people

We stayed a short walking distance from Sai Kaew beach, which is one of the most popular beaches on the island, but that means it's also one of the most crowded beaches, both with human and boat traffic. We opted for a short hike down the east coast of the island to find a smaller and more secluded beach, which gave us the quiet atmosphere we were hoping for. Growing up on Lake Erie I have very little ocean experience and am constantly causing myself pain by opening my eyes under water or by swimming out too far into a swarm of jelly fish, but I'm sure one of these days I'll learn my lesson.

A little fire limbo to get the night started

Before moving to Thailand I knew that Asia was cheap, and I pictured myself having the life of luxury while lounging on some exotic beach. One thing that I never found mentioned anywhere in my research is that although Asia is cheap, alcohol is still the same price. This is something that continuously bums me out because a large portion of my paycheck now goes towards alcohol, which is not something I usually did in the states. During our weekend on the island I ended up spending as much on alcohol as I did on our hotel room, which is a reality that frustrates me. Obviously the logical solution would be to not drink as much, which is a habit I've easily adapted during the week days, but I still enjoy having a fun night out with the girls and splurging on a few buckets on the beach :)

Went on a little hangover trek which was a
struggle, but the view was worth it

Although I definitely get to enjoy my weekends around Pattaya, our trip to Ko Samet felt like the first true vacation and it gave us all an opportunity to act like tourists in our new country. Ko Samet is known as Bangkok's island, because it's one of the biggest and most popular islands close to Bangkok ("close" being a relative term, it's about 2.5 hours from Bangkok) and is a good weekend trip for backpackers who won't make it down south. We spent our evenings getting to know travelers who have been backpacking Asia for months at a time, but who always took the time to come back to Thailand and slow down a little on the islands. We had a great time on the island and I would definitely advise it to anyone that's in the Bangkok/Pattaya area.

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Logistical Info

The island of Ko Samet is a National Park, which means there's a 200 baht fee to enter the area. However, the payment area is on a main shopping street and we found that if you are just casually strolling along with only a backpack they won't stop you to pay the fee. Those who took song taews and motorbike taxis automatically stopped to pay the fee, but no one even glanced our way when we walked through on our own.

We spent two nights at Sea Breeze Bungalows, which were a short walk to Sai Kaew beach and also walking distance to the ferry dock, saving us the cost of a taxi ride elsewhere. Rooms were 1000 baht per night for a two person room (you could probably squeeze a third into the generous sized beds).

Like most other islands in Thailand there are a few 7-Elevens and minimarts scattered around the island, but prices are a bit higher than the mainland. Next time we plan on bringing a small supply of water and alcohol.

The fire show we saw takes place each evening at 8pm at Ploy Bar, which is located on Sai Kaew beach. Although many bars and restaurants offer a show on the island the one provided by Ploy Bar is boasted as the best and biggest show on the island.

Thursday Musings

Christmas setup along the beach

We're wrapping up the seventh week of school, but it turns out that the month of December doesn't actually involve too much teaching. We started the month with the King's birthday followed by a government holiday which led to two long weekends in a row. Then this week we had to take off two days of school to handle some legal work which involved two trips to immigration, and next week we have a day off to attend some sort of festival (details to follow because I don't know much now). So December is shaping out to be a pretty easy month! The Christmas spirit is starting to spread into the smaller towns of Thailand and we can now see Christmas lights in our own city instead of having to venture down to the touristy areas of Pattaya, which is pretty exciting, but still absolutely nothing like the states. This is my second holiday season away from home and I'm learning that I do better when I adapt to a life of denial, as opposed to embracing all things holiday. I tried not to make a big deal about Thanksgiving because fully acknowledging that I was missing my favorite holiday with my family would probably make me cry in the middle of school; so instead I pretended it was a normal Thursday in Thailand. Although I plan on skyping my family for their christmas morning I still have to go through the entire day at school, so for the first half of my day I'll try to just focus on the present, and I'll allow myself to fully embrace Christmas once I'm settled in front of my computer with my family on the other side of the screen.

Another perfect day at Koh Larn Island

Because Christmas isn't a legit holiday in Thailand there isn't as much holiday time as I'm used to. We'll still be teaching the full week of Christmas (minus the random and unrelated festival on Wednesday) and we're just getting a long weekend for New Year's Eve, so while everyone in the states is home for the holidays and buzzing with Christmas spirit, things are relatively calm in our neck of the woods. Last weekend we had a four day weekend so we had some fellow English teachers visit from the Northeast of Thailand, which gave us our first try of being tour guides in our own city! Of course we went to Koh Larn Island (it's becoming a regular place in my life) and we tried out some of Pattaya's clubs at night. We decided to "splurge" on a hotel room in Pattaya instead of dealing with taxis after a night out. I say "splurge" because the hotel room was a total of $14 USD, which we then split three ways.. big spenders! I'm still constantly baffled by the prices in Thailand and am continuously amazed when I add up my spending at the end of the week only to find that I spent a grand total of $10 all week on food.

The prices in Thailand make it all too easy for westerners to come over and enjoy themselves for practically nothing, but I'm constantly reminded that this is a huge difference between ourselves and the local Thais. Although some of the teachers at my school seem to have a decent amount of money from their parents or spouse, most are living off of the mediocre teacher's salary that they're receiving each month. As someone who loves to travel, my form of small talk usually steers down the path of travel (shocker, right?) but I'm finding that that's not something I can talk about with many Thais. Many of the local teachers have been to some of the nearby islands but beyond that they really don't have the means to do anything else. Only about a quarter of the teachers appear to have ever left Thailand, and I know of none that have left Southeast Asia, and whenever I ask why, their answer is always about money. It would take three months salary to afford a roundtrip ticket to the United States and that's just not a feasible option for many people, no matter how badly they want to go. It seems that most Thai people can easily live within their means and lead a comfortable lifestyle within Thailand, but it's been interesting to see how well they would do outside of their country. I can't imagine how a Thai person would react to paying $25 for a meal or $5 for a coffee. As someone who was born and raised in an economically comfortable lifestyle it's been a crazy experience to come to Thailand and to see the differences between myself and Thais. It's been extremely humbling and has made me realize how fortunate I am to come from America. It has also made me realize how many habits and expectations I could ditch in my daily life. Do I need to go to the coffee shop every day, do I need to have an endless supply of outfits in my closet, do I really need ten different purses (maybe) and a huge collection of shoes? I plan on traveling as much as possible while I'm here, because this will most likely be my only time living in Southeast Asia so I plan to take full advantage of that, but besides that, I've calmed down a lot with my daily life and what I spend money on.

Got milk?

One thing that I've found particularly amusing about Thai culture is their affinity for milk. I can't even count the number of teachers who have asked me about my milk drinking habits: how much do I drink, what's the best time to drink milk etc. I'm slightly convinced that they think milk has magic powers. The government provides free milk to our school (pictured to the left) and the students drinking it multiple times throughout the day. Obviously I understand that milk is good for growing kids, especially when it comes to bone health, but many people have also talked about the importance of milk for the brain and how it's best to drink it in the afternoon or before important tests. It's all a bit confusing to me. I'm also baffled by the form their milk comes in. Apparently once a month we get a huge shipment of milk to the school which is supposed to last for the entire month. It was weird enough that the milk arrived in a non-refrigerated truck and was stored in the non-refrigerated teacher's lounge, but it's also supposed to last for a month? Perhaps it is magic milk if it's sitting around for that long..
While we're on the subject of milk, Thailand loves condensed milk (and everything else sugary). I had no idea that this ingredient would become a regular in my life. Every iced coffee gets topped off with a hearty serving of condensed milk and it is sold it small bags at every market I've visited. Any freshly made dessert will most likely have a large serving of condensed milk and I've even see some people drinking it straight from the can (the same cardinal brand we have in the states). I've accepted that my weekly frozen coffee is most likely 10x more unhealthy than it should be. I imagined myself eating exotic foods every day and smoothies made of fresh fruit, but in reality I'm just eating a ton of rice and mass amounts of ramen from 7-Eleven, although the fresh fruit is still a reality, so that's nice! And my tolerance for spicy foods has increased drastically, which is an added bonuses.  Add an extra serving of mashed potatoes on your plate for me on Christmas!

Thai Holidays

Loi Krathong 

Krathongs floating at the local temple

Two students representing our school during the parade

This past week and upcoming days are exciting times in Thailand. Last week on the full moon was Loi Krathong, which is arguably the biggest holiday in the country. It's a celebration once a year where Thais come together to thank the water goddess and make wishes for the future. In the north they also thank the sky goddess and send off fire lanterns into the sky. We spent the day at school learning about and making our own krathongs (the floating thing you 'give' to the water). Krathongs are made of all natural materials, usually using parts of a banana tree as the base. It's then formed of banana leaves and flowers to add color and decoration.

Krathongs made at school

All of the schools in our district came together for a small parade throughout the town which ended at the temple that's right next to our apartment and school. Once we were at the temple we lit the candles on our krathongs and placed them in the water that had been built around the temple. From my understanding you either go to a natural body of water or most temples provide a water source for your krathong. Because we live right on the ocean we also had the opportunity to send off a krathong on the beach as well. That seemed to be a less popular option because it was low tide so it involved wading pretty deep into the water in order to properly send the krathong out to sea. Either way, I'm glad we got the experience of sending off a krathong both at the temple and in the sea.

A small party happening on the beach

My Thai dress for the evening

Everyone involved in the parade wore traditional Thai clothing so in order to fit in I was given a dress to borrow for the evening. Our school has an entire room filled with Thai clothing, accessories and makeup which they use for the teachers and students during shows and events such as Loi Krathong.

The King's Birthday

Just as the excitement of Loi Krathong died down it was time to get ready for the month of December which is used to honor the King of Thailand. His birthday is on December 5th and that day is considered a National Holiday throughout the country. The King's color is yellow, so throughout the month of December we're supposed to wear yellow as much as possible, especially on and around his birthday. This year his birthday falls on a Saturday and the country takes the long weekend to celebrate and honor the King. On Friday we won't be teaching at school, instead we spend the day doing a mix of activities. When I first heard "activities" I pictured games, snacks and maybe a movie, the classic staples on a celebration day in the States. However when Thailand says "activities" it usually involves a lot of prayer, ceremonies and singing. Friday morning monks from the local temple will be coming to our school for the students to give them food (not really sure why, I'll get back to you with details later) and then we will have various ceremonies and prayer time. In continuation of celebration we won't have school on Monday, which is a much welcomed break. 

School Pictures

I was bummed when I first realized that school doesn't have air conditioning; most days reach into the high 80s, if not the 90s, and I didn't think I would survive working each day in that heat. Fortunately our school is designed really well and I was grateful to find both ceiling fans and standing fans in most classrooms. Most of the classrooms have more windows than walls which makes for excellent cross ventilation. They usually only close the shutters when the sun is shining directly into the room or when it's raining. The 'hallways' are basically outside. Most of the halls overlook the two story gym that's in the center of the school. The only downside to all of this openness is that it can get extremely loud. The doors to all of the classrooms face out towards the gym, so whenever students are in gym class you can basically hear it from any classroom. Even if you close the door to the classroom there's still an opening above the door that lets sound in. Even if my class is dead silent I'm usually teaching at a notch higher than a normal speaking voice, just so I can be heard over anything that's going on outside of the classroom. But no complaints! I'd rather have a little noise and a nice breeze than a closed off room.

Most classrooms have a Thai flag, a framed picture of the King
and a small shrine to Buddha

My school is pretty basic when it comes to technology. During training we talked about making power points and using youtube videos to help with the lessons, and I was pretty bummed when I realized that none of my classrooms have any projectors or computers in the room. I was given a whiteboard marker on my first day and was told to go from there. I've found a way to do the majority of my lessons without many advanced visuals and instead spend a lot of time drawing things on the board and having the students mirror that onto their own papers. It's been frustrating at times because I am a guest in each classroom so I have to follow the rules and wishes of the teacher who's room I'm teaching in. There have been many days when I walk into a room and go to erase the board and the teacher tells me that I can't, because they need that info for the next lesson. In those cases I'm stuck standing in front of 40 kids with literally nothing except my voice, and let me tell you, listening to a foreign language for an hour straight will not keep the kids entertained. 

I'm teaching Kindergarten through third grade. This week with my non-kindergarteners I'm teaching about daily routines. I draw on the board and have the kids draw/write the same thing on their own paper. I have them speak out loud everything they're writing but I'm getting the sense that many of the students really have no idea what they're actually writing about. It's also really hard to get some of the students to actually speak English. They already have a Thai English teacher, who teaches them about the English language, but in Thai. So they're already getting an English lesson with her; I'm here for them to hear my accent and practice speaking with me. So although these paper activities can be useful, it's really not beneficial unless they're actually practicing their speaking. 

On the bottom of this paper you can see my student's name written out. Each Thai name is usually something extremely long, so parents also assign a nickname along with their full name when the kid is born. Some are random Thai words or nonsense sounds such as po, mai, noom etc. But there are many that have English words as their nickname like king, pink, asia and june. 

My kindergarteners practicing their
English letters with clay. 

My kindergarteners don't follow the same plan as my older kids, I usually just sense out the atmosphere of the room when I walk in and figure out if they'll be better with a passive or active day. Each kindergarten classroom has clay, so this week I've been having the kids make each english letter one at a time while singing the alphabet. We also spend a lot of time drawing animals and practicing their names, and I've recently taught them 'duck, duck, goose', but using the words 'shoulder' and 'head' so they can practice some vocabulary. 

It's taken me a really long time to fully get a grasp on this whole teaching situation. I came in with very little experience or knowledge of the actual situation and I struggled a lot in the beginning. We're closing in on week five of teaching, and there are definitely still classes where I have a hard time with he students, but for the most part teaching has become rather enjoyable and it's no longer quite as challenging to make my lesson plans and teach a successful class. 

Random Tidbits 

The spirit houses at our apartment complex

Most properties have their own "spirit house" which is a shrine put in place to protect the land. I've gotten a few different answers when I've asked about them, but my general understanding is that they're put into place so the spirits have somewhere to land while looking over the property. It's extremely common to give offerings to the spirits in the form of food or drinks, so many times you'll see a bottle of water or some crackers sitting on one of the pedestals. These spirit houses can be seen all over Thailand. These particular ones pictured are at our apartment complex. They can also be seen in people's front yards, on school property and in the parking lots of stores. 

- A christmas tree was put up at the mall in Pattaya and the inside of the mall is decorated with giant christmas ornaments hanging from the ceilings. The Starbucks at the mall is playing christmas music and they're selling peppermint mochas. Christmas is in full swing here (at least in the touristy areas) so it was startling to find out that the majority of Thais barely know what christmas is. Most of my students can sing Jingle Bells, and when I say christmas they respond with "ho ho ho!" but when asked what christmas is it's usually returned with a blank stare. Keep in mind that Thailand is almost 100% buddhist, so I wasn't even expecting them to acknowledge christmas, but I find it funny that they learn all about it but don't actually know that it's a religious holiday. Even a few teachers have asked why we celebrate christmas and what we do on that day. The majority of Emily's students believe that christmas falls in the springtime, so I'm not sure if they would even associate it with the decorations on display in Pattaya. I was grateful to see that the touristy areas have a hint of holiday spirit to them and it'll be interesting to see if it grows throughout the month.

- Just as Thai names are long and paired with a nickname, so are many Thai cities. In fact, the official name of Bangkok is the longest city name in the world. Last weekend while driving around with our Thai friend Pupae I asked her if she knew the full name, and she explained that they're taught a song when they're young to remember the name, however she was only able to remember about the first half. To me it sounded like she was performing some sort of chant or telling a really long story, but actually she was just saying the following: 

Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit

In Thai it's written:

กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

-  Although I'm at school for about eight hours each day, I'm only teaching for half of that. The rest of the time I spend sitting at my desk, usually reading. As a result I'm flying through books, currently averaging 2-3 books a week. So if you have any book suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! Feel free to leave a comment, email me or facebook message me if you've read anything good lately :) 

A shot from last weekend on the island of Koh Kham. As winter begins to hit in the States keep in mind that it's always sunny and warm in Thailand if anyone wants to visit :)

Life at School

The day to day life in Thailand has quickly fallen into a predictable pattern and things are starting to feel much more normal. School has become a lot easier as I'm slowly discovering news ways to teach my classes and I'm finding it less of a struggle to get my point across. I've accepted that I won't be teaching my kindergarten kids very much throughout the year, instead most of my energy goes towards keeping them inside the classroom and stopping them from beating each other up (a very common occurrence). I've taught them "duck duck goose" using the words "shoulder" and "head" instead, so they at least use a little bit of their vocab. Each kindergarten class provides the kids with their own ball of clay so we spend a lot of our time making letters and singing the alphabet. They're also a huge fan of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" although I've learned that they think their toes are called "and". They also think it's a letter of the alphabet, singing " w, x, y and z." I've found I have to eliminate every single unnecessary word when I'm talking to them, or else we all end up confused.
I noticed right away that Thai kids are so much more violent that American kids. I've seen a 4 year old girl punch another girl in the face for presumably no reason at all. The boys are a huge fan of 'boxing' where they basically just take turns jabbing each other in the stomach for fun. Kids at school are kept in line by the teachers through violence. Each teacher carries around a ruler or a stick that they smack the kids with whenever they're misbehaving. During morning prayer the boys who aren't kneeling properly get smacked in the head with no warning at all, they only know they're wrong because they got hit. When I'm teaching a particularly troubling class one of the good kids will hand me a ruler and motion to hit the bad kids. I once struggled with a class misbehaving and in the end I had to go get their homeroom teacher to come in and bring order to the room. As soon as she stepped foot into the classroom she grabbed a ruler and every single bad kid stuck their hands out, palms up, knowing what was coming for them. I find it extremely frustrating that this is the most successful way to make the kids behave because it's not something I'm willing to do. No matter how annoying or disrespectful a kid is being there's no way I can take a ruler and slap them. It's also frustrating because these kids are seeing violence on a daily basis and often find it amusing. Most students laugh if their friend is being hit, finding the pain funny. This then carries into their daily life both when they're playing and when they're angry. I'm doing my best to encourage good behavior through positive reinforcement, focusing my energy on the kids who are doing well as opposed to the ones who are misbehaving, but the violence is definitely something that is already engrained in them.
I'm two days into my fifth week of teaching and so far every single weekend the other Thai teachers have had some sort of weekend commitment to the school. It's amazing how much time the teachers put into their jobs especially for how little money they're earning. School hours are 8am-3:30pm and that's exactly when I've been told to arrive and when I can go home, however the rules aren't the same for the other teachers. The earliest come around 6am because some students get dropped off by working parents, and most teachers stay until at least 4:30, but many don't leave until 6pm. On top of that every single weekend there are always some teachers that have to come into school. So far they've had to come in for parent teacher conferences, sports day (which Emily and I also participated in), some sort of clay sculpting competition for kindergarteners, and training days. On top of that, some teachers have to come in this coming Monday even though it's a holiday. Apparently teachers are used as 'security' on holidays because there have been issues of theft in previous years. I'm not 100% sure on how much the teachers are making but based on some comments I would guess on average they make around $500 a month. Keep in mind that the cost of living is extremely low here, with rent in a one bedroom apartment being around $100/month, but that's still not much money to live off of, especially for those who want to travel or indulge a little.
While we're on the subject of money: Thais love to talk about money. So many teachers have been extremely forward with me straight up asking how much money I'm making, what my rent is, how much I paid for my plane ticket here, how much my outfit is and the list goes on and on. Whenever I come back from a weekend of shopping or time on an island they ask how much I spent. We were warned from the beginning that we make more than the Thai teachers and that most of them already know this fact, but I was still hesitant to truthfully answer their questions. I make more than double some of the low key teachers such as the gym teacher and librarian. I spend my weekends free from school commitment, usually lounging on an island or going out to the bars in Pattaya, and when I come back to school on Monday many of the teachers are curious about what I did in my free time and when I ask about theirs in response it's usually followed with "I was at school all weekend." It's an awkward situation that sets me apart from the other teachers.
Although teaching is becoming much more enjoyable and less stressful I still absolutely hate the language barrier. I had these images of myself befriending both the kids and teachers and being a role model for the classes I was teaching. This cannot happen unless I magically learn the complicated language of Thai. It's so frustrating when a girl comes up to me crying and all I can say is "kerd arai kheun" (what happened?) and then I have to pass her off to someone else because I can't understand her Thai rambling. I'm constantly depending on the other teachers or older students to help me out in the classroom. It would be absolutely impossible to get through a kindergarten class without the help of their homeroom teacher. I'm also finding it extremely frustrating that I use more Thai with the younger kids as opposed to English. I've even had a few teachers suggest that the kids would listen to me better if I learned how to speak more in Thai. Well obviously they'll listen to me better if I'm speaking their language, but I didn't fly half way around the world to speak Thai in the classroom. I've spent long periods of time explaining that "sit down" means "nang" but ten minutes later I'll repeat "sit down" countless times with zero results, and then I'll utter "nang" and all of a sudden every student is sitting. At times it's been fun because my Thai vocabulary is constantly increasing but there are days where I feel that I've learned more Thai than the students have learned English.
This experience is much more frustrating and different than I ever would have imagined, but knowing all of this I would still do it again. Each day I'm learning something new and am finding better ways to teach my classes. I will probably never build strong relationships with any of my students, but we still greet each other with excitement each morning and exchange the usual conversation of "how are you today", which is often followed by blank stares or giggles.

Weekend Adventures

Before I arrived in Thailand I had this luxurious picture in my head of myself traveling Asia, laying on white sandy beaches and playing with elephants. I think I was avoiding reality a bit, because I failed to think about the fact that I would be spending Monday-Friday at school all day, leaving just the weekend open for my luxurious dreams. It was almost a shocking disappointment when it hit me that I will not be traveling Asia anytime soon, because I'm locked down in a 40 hour/week job.

However, my placement in Thailand continues to be a blessing because I'm located quite close to many of the things I've been dreaming about. Cue the white sandy beaches and elephants!  

Yavette is one of the other girls who is signed on with AYC and she's living about 25 minutes away from Emily and I. Fortunately Yavette is quite the social butterfly and has found many Thai friends who love American company and want to practice their english. Through Yavette we've befriend a Thai girl named Pupae who was born and raised in the Pattaya area and has happily signed on to be our part time tour guide. With Yavette and Pupae we've visited temples, mountains, beaches, overlooks, sanctuaries and floating markets. And we're only in our first month of adventures! It's been amazing having Pupae to show us around, not only because she has a car and is fluent in Thai, but because she's a genuinely fun, kind and interesting person and she's always up for whatever crazy plan we have next! 

Pattaya from above. We live in the string of lights in the back left corner

Koh Larn Island

A cold beer, a good book and a stunning view

Pattaya is often our home base for many of our adventures. It's the closest city to us and is bustling with both Thai people and a huge expat community. It's also where the ferry dock is located which can take you to many of the surrounding islands. This past weekend Yavette, Emily and I took the ferry over to Koh Larn island, which is a 30 minute ride away from the mainland of Thailand. There are a handful of beaches on the island and we chose Samae Beach which is on the far end of the island hoping it would be less crowded, and we were right! The water was a stunning color of blue and the beaches were clean (unlike the beaches in Pattaya), it was a perfect place to spend the weekend. There's just one resort on the beach of Samae and it seemed that only around 10 couples/groups were spending the night so we had very quiet evenings and mornings until the tourists came over.

We rented a moped to make exploration a little easier (and more fun). Mopeds are the main form of transportation in Thailand and it was good to practice on a smaller, less crowded island before trying to drive in the busy streets of mainland Thailand. 

Living the dream: drinking out of
a coconut on an island

Tien Beach on Koh Larn Island

Going to the island was a great way to relax and gave us a short glimpse of the stereotypical Thai vacation. The ferry ride over is under $1, which makes it a practical location for us, even if we just go for an afternoon

Sanctuary of Truth

The Sanctuary of Truth is a temple that is currently being built just north of Pattaya. It is extremely unique because it is constructed completely out of wood; even the nails are made of wood. It represents images from both Buddhism and Hinduism, and has architectural influences from Thailand, Cambodia, India and China. We took a guided tour of the sanctuary and learned that the creator wanted the temple to provoke thoughts of "ancient visions of earth and philosophies." Inside the temple there are many statues based on mythologies and the cycle of life, meant to bring people back to their roots and focus on the important aspects of morality in life. Personally I didn't agree or enjoy some of the thoughts being shared within the temple mainly because most Buddhist beliefs make me feel guilty for living a life of "gluttony and sin" (I like alcohol and material goods too much for Buddhists) however, there was one corner of the temple that I thoroughly enjoyed. There are theories that humans are grounded and linked through cosmic energy and they believe that our birthdays give us direct connection to one planet and one of the four elements. Our tour guide helped us through some complex lunar calendar which presented us with one planet and one element, kind of like an intense horoscope. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but it was really interesting to hear our own individual results. 

The sanctuary had three elephants on site which people could ride around the perimeter of the temple, but I'm highly against riding elephants and keeping them in captivity (that rant can be found here) so we opted for feeding them some bananas instead. I've never been this close to an elephant before and it was crazy to see just how big they actually are! I can't wait until I have the time to go up to Chiang Mai to volunteer at an elephant sanctuary. 

Pattaya Floating Market

I've heard about the floating markets in Thailand for a while now but couldn't fully comprehend the concept, however that pondering was finally answered after spending an afternoon at Pattaya Floating Market. It turns out that the market isn't truly floating, instead it's more like boardwalks and little huts built above and around the water. There are a few Thai boats that float around and dock along the boardwalks, and there you can buy food or drinks. The rest of the markets contain just about anything you could possibly need. There are all sorts of bizarre Thai foods (pigs tails, duck beaks etc) and yummy drinks such as fresh smoothies and iced coffee. This is also a great place to purchase any sort of souvenir you could dream of; shirts, bags, elephant pants, bamboo dishes, jewelry and art.

Buddha Mountain 

Buddha Mountain (also known as Khao Chi Chan) is home to the world's largest carved Buddha. It was created in honor of the King's 50th year on the throne, which was in 1996. (That's right, do the math. He's about to enter his 70th year on the throne). The image was carved out with lasers and then laid with gold. When I learned that this is real gold I was amazed that vandalism/theft hasn't been a problem and I am continuously amazed at the loyalty and kindness of Thais and Buddhists.

No matter where you go in Thailand you'll be in close proximity to numerous temples and beautiful sites. I'm grateful for what I have around me, but I also know that I would've discovered equally beautiful locations regardless of my city.

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Logistical Info

The ferry from Pattaya to Koh Larn runs 7 times a day and costs 30 baht (less than $1) for a one way ticket. There are plenty of song taews on the island to take you to the beach of your choice, usually for 30 baht. It's also easy to rent a moped for the day, usually for 200 baht.

The Sanctuary of Truth has an entrance fee of 500 baht ($14). There are usually two traditional Thai dance shows a day, 11:30 and 3:30. 

Pattaya Floating Market has an entrance fee of 200 baht ($6) for non Thai people. A Thai work permit will most likely give you a free entrance. 

Buddha Mountain is free, but donations are accepted. 

Life outside of school

Although most of the day is consumed by school I'm trying to do something new every day outside of school that helps me get a little more settled or knowledgable about my new life in Thailand. The week days are often exhausting and I'm so tempted to take a long nap as soon as I get home (which sometimes I do..) A normal week day doesn't involve anything too exciting, especially because it's been storming most evenings, but I have managed to get down somewhat of a small routine. 

School finishes at 3:30 each afternoon and Emily and I stand near the gates to greet parents and say goodbye to our students. We're home by 4 each day and take a quick shower to rinse off the day. Our school has many windows and fans, but it's no competition for the days that quickly soar into the 90s and a shower is greatly needed before doing anything productive. Because we don't have a kitchen we always go out to eat. Sometimes we'll just dash across the street to the market, bringing stuff home to eat in our room. Other nights we make a trek to the mall which is about 10 miles north of us. We hop into a song taew (the trucks mentioned in a previous post) and arrive at the mall within 20 minutes. Although I'm doing my best to adjust to this crazy asian culture it's kind of a breath of fresh air to have the mall nearby. There are some decent restaurants inside where we can find american food (salads, pasta, pizza) and there's also a great food court that offers a wide variety of Thai foods. It's nice to be able to find everything we need all in one place, and it's also a joy to be inside air conditioning. Even at the mall we still stand out and many people have asked if we're teachers; it seems that tourists just never make it to this area, so it's the only logical reason that we would be here. 

The clouds as seen from Koh Lan Island

Ferry ride home from Koh Lan Island

Our weekends have allowed for more free time and exploration. Last weekend the 5 AYC teachers in the area took a trip out to Koh Lan Island, which is a 25 minute ferry ride off the coast of Pattaya. A lot of the water near the mainland is polluted and filled with fishing boats, but the beaches and water around the islands is pristine and clean. It was a surprisingly chilly day (by Thai standards) and rather overcast, so we didn't swim, but we still enjoyed our day wandering around the beaches, eating fresh fruit and doing some shopping. The islands are the stereotypical views that most people conjure up when they think of Thailand: small stalls selling coconuts, shops selling beach gear and everyone walking around in bathing suits and hats. I love that some of these islands are so close to us and I look forward to returning soon.

I couldn't resist a picture with Ronald doing the typical Thai greeting of a "wai"

Our school provides all of the teachers with free lunch each day which has given me the opportunity to try countless new foods over the last two weeks. The majority of Thai foods are spicy enough to turn my face red which is always a source of amusement for the other teachers. We're often told "this isn't spicy for us, so it's kind of spicy for you, don't take too much!" Most teachers can't translate the foods into English, so I'm never fully sure what we're eating but each day there's always one or two things that fills me up.

Observations

- Whenever we go to a restaurant the waitress hands us the menus and then stands at our table until we're ready to order. At first this stressed me out because I felt pressured to pick a dish quickly, but now I'm able to ignore them until I'm actually ready.

- "Restaurant" is a lose term for where we often eat in Thailand. It's usually just a small outdoor or three-walled hut type thing with a handful of tables and a tiny kitchen, sometimes just a hot plate and mini fridge. The food is often made one dish at a time and comes out whenever it's ready. That being said, I've quickly ditched the habit of waiting to eat until the whole table is served. Here, you eat whenever your food comes out because it could be a full 20 minutes until everyone is served. 

- Practically every store and restaurant I've been to in Thailand has been overstaffed. Because restaurants don't have full kitchens there is really only room for one or two cooks, yet you'll see five people standing behind the counter. A visit to the cellphone 'store' (a corner with a desk) staffed six employees. There was barely enough room to fit a customer into their area. I've been employed for over seven years and every job I've had was a follower of the rule "if they're not necessary, send them home." Money is tight here and I'm very curious about minimum wage/general payment information, because everywhere I go seems they can afford to pay employees to stand around. I'll have to do some scoping and get back to this later! 

- Thais value light skin. Those who are tan have obviously been in the sun a lot, which often means they are working class. The children at school are fascinated by my white skin and countless teachers have called me beautiful because I'm "white, and not ugly tan like Thais." I'd heard of this stereotype before arriving but was somewhat startled with how seriously it's taken. The darker your skin the less you are valued. The popular kids are the lighter kids, and those who are shunned or bullied are almost always darker. Our visit to the beach last weekend also proved this theory strong because the majority of the Thais there were swimming in their clothes. Even on the beach in 90 degree weather the only ones we saw in normal beach attire were foreigners who aren't afraid to get tan. 

First week of teaching

I've been so focused on just surviving in Thailand that I forgot why I'm actually here: to teach. Orientation went through a lot of useful lesson plans, games and ideas to keep our class entertained and out of trouble. However; all of these games and worksheets only work if your class actually has an understanding of English, and mine do not. I will be spending the next five months teaching 3-8 year olds how to speak English, and week one has shown me that this is not an easy task. Most kids have a general understanding of the alphabet and colors, but getting to the next step is harder than I imagined. I was advised by many teachers to not teach more than 3-4 words in a day but I have an entire hour with each class. So I teach them "chair" and they repeat "chair" and then we do it two more times. Okay good, they know chair. 30 seconds have passed, at most a minute. Now what? I walk around the room and point at things and they tell me the name. Quickly the class is losing interest, I went from having 40 kids paying attention to maybe 10 or 15. The other 25-30 are just goofing off in their seats or running around. There are two forms of relief in my day, the first and most obvious is when I'm done teaching and I get to go sit in the teacher's room with my book. The second is when a kind Thai teacher pops into my room to get the kids to quiet down, which buys me about 30-45 seconds of quiet. I'm at a loss. Keeping the attention of 40 kids at one time would be a struggle even if they spoke English, but add in the language barrier and it's 1000x worse. I'm working on some worksheets and coloring activities, but I'm not quite sure if I have access to a printer/copier and it's unclear if the kids have markers or anything with them.

I'm only teaching 3-4 classes a day but I have never been so drained. I spend the majority of my day making tangled small talk with the Thai teachers and then screaming at the top of my lungs during class. To keep the kids quiet and gain respect the teachers use whips and sticks on the children. When I'm having a particularly rough moment a child will run up to me with the stick and start motioning to hit the kids, but that's not something I'm willing to do, so I have to figure out another way to get either respect or fear from my students.
This job is stressful. I've tried playing a few games in the classroom but the kids can't understand my instructions, and they start talking to each other instead of attempting to understand me. They have another english teacher who speaks Thai to them to teach english grammar, spelling and vocabulary, so my job is basically to just speak with them and make sure they're pronouncing their words properly. This is a challenging thing to do with 40 kids at a time. My smaller classes (25-30 kids) are going better but even then it's still something that I was never expecting.
Some of the kids are amazing and adorable, I have children who run up to me yelling "hi teacher!" as soon as I walk into school. The little ones just want to play and be hugged and some of the older kids just like using their english to ask questions or tell me abut their day. I can tell that many of the students are excited to have Emily and I in their school, and I'm hoping that soon enough we'll find our groove and become a little more successful in the classroom.

Our school has around 1,000 students and somewhere around 30 teachers. Many of the other teachers don't speak a word of English, so we haven't gotten to know a huge clump of them, but the ones that do speak a little English have been kind and welcoming. On our first day of teaching one of the teachers took us out to dinner in Pattaya (20 minutes south) and showed us around the area, which was extremely friendly and helpful of her. There is a bit of awkwardness with some of the teachers though. It's known information that foreign English teachers usually make more money than the regular teachers in Thailand. On top of that, they're very forward when it comes to money and I've gotten numerous questions about my rent and salary. Many of the teachers are at school for 12 hours a day, whereas Emily and I are only there for around 8 hours, and only teach half of our time there. It's understandable that there would be some resentment towards us, and I'm doing my best to just smile at the teachers who seem unhappy with our presence. Besides that small glitch everyone else has been extremely welcoming. Parents say hello and smile as they pick up their kids at the end of the day, and people all over town acknowledge us when we enter shops or stroll down the street. 

We had been warned that everyone in town would recognize our presence, but it's startling how true that is. Basically every time I leave the apartment I am approached by a student or parent who want to say hello. It's exhausting to constantly be on guard with a poker face, even when it's raining and I'm hungry just trying to get home, I still have to smile and pretend that everything is dandy because the people walking past me are students or parents. We get stares for buying beers at the corner market on a Tuesday night and get pointed at when we're standing near the road waiting for a song taew. Emily and I are the only two white people in our town and it often feels that we are on display for everybody walking past. It's been a huge adjustment but has also been kind of cool. Tourists don't come to this area of Thailand so even if they don't know us personally, most already know that we're teachers here and often thank us for coming.
It's only been a week but I already know this is going to be an extremely challenging and humbling experience. This week I hope to gain access to the copier in our school so I can make some worksheets that'll allow the students time to talk during class while staying on task. I'm also hoping to be a little less exhausted at the end of our day so we can use the afternoons and evenings to explore some of the streets near our school and apartment.

Bangkok --> Chonburi

Our time in Bangkok flew by, and all of a sudden it was time to pack our bags yet again and say goodbye to our new friends as we all took off in separate buses to spread throughout Thailand. I'm extremely grateful that we had this time at orientation to get to know the other AYC people, I already feel like I have a huge support system ready to help me out. Emily and I both headed to Chonburi, along with another AYC girl, and then there were two older AYC teachers stationed in this same area ready to meet us when we arrived! So all together there are five of us within about 30 minutes of each other, three who are new, lost, and confused; and two who have been here since April and actually know what they're doing! In my daily life I'll just be seeing Emily, as we're living together and teaching at the same school. But during weekends we'll easily catch up with the other three in this area.

Sunset from our last night in Bangkok 

Our technical location is Chonburi (still conflicted if that's one or two words), but in reality we're much closer to Pattaya, so it seems that's where we'll be spending more of our time. Our first full day here we headed into Pattaya with all 5 AYC people and set out to explore the area. Pattaya is only about 10 miles away and easily accessible if you know what you're doing. Thanks to the older AYC teachers we simply hopped onto a song taew and headed towards the beach. A song taew is a strategically colored truck with a cage type thing over the back that houses all of the passengers. Each colored truck has a different route, and as far as I can tell you just learn that through trial and error. Thanks to the older AYC teachers they knew which truck to hop into and we were off to Pattaya. Song taews are great because they have no set stops, you just flag one down if you want to hop on, and once you're inside you just hit a buzzer and they stop immediately so you can hop out. A 25 minute ride to Pattaya cost a total of 20 baht, which is about 60 cents. I have now found my new favorite form of transportation. 

Song Taew

Thailand continues to surprise and startle me in new ways each day. Pattaya reminded me a bit of Key West, Florida. A party city situated right on the ocean with open-walled restaurants and bars luring customers in with the promise of cold drinks and AC. But of course there's an Asian flair to this city; motorcycles flying past, song taews honking in the streets and food vendors lining the sidewalks selling every bizarre food you could think of.
It's still a hard adjustment for me. Thailand is not as clean or nice as I have been conditioned to be comfortable around. Most streets have some sort of smell to them, there are stray dogs everywhere you turn, the normal place to eat is food stands or small open-air restaurants, but I would run away from anything looking like that in the states. This experience has pushed me very far outside of my comfort zone, and it hasn't even been two weeks. I love my western amenities; I like normal toilets that provide toilet paper and soap, I like food places that actually look like clean and healthy places to eat, I like coffee shops. I am constantly questioning myself and my surroundings as I slowly try new foods and go one block further than I've previously been before. I can't stop myself from thinking "this would never happen in the states", but I'm trying very hard to get that thought out of my mind, because of course I'm not in the states. The culture shock of Thailand has blown me away, but each day I learn a little more and am one step further ahead from where I started.

Pattaya Beach

The beaches in Pattaya are not very clean and there are a lot of fishing boats off the coast that pollute the water, so it's not the best place to be swimming. However, off the coast is an island that is rumored to have the pristine white beaches that everyone pictures when they think of Thailand. This coming weekend we're hoping to take a 30 minute ferry ride to check out the island and beaches. 

Home Sweet Home

AYC usually sends teachers to the same areas, so our new school has already hosted AYC teachers. As a result of that, the teachers usually stay in the same apartments each year. We have the option to find our own living, but I chose the easy way out and decided to sign where the previous teachers lived. Our new apartment is right around the corner from our school and located just off of a main street in Chonburi. We are walking distance to 7-Eleven (a staple in Thailand), numerous markets and restaurants. We can also easily catch a song taew from our corner which can take us south to Pattaya or north to the mall. The street itself is four lanes each way but thankfully we have a pedestrian bridge to make crossing the street a breeze. 

Our pedestrian bridge, decorated with Thai colors and the Thai royal family

Our apartment is very basic for American standards and has taken a bit of time for adjustment. It's not common to have any sort of kitchen amenities in an apartment because most people prefer to eat out (especially because it's so cheap to do so). I know some other AYC people were able to get apartments with a fridge, but we didn't even get that luxury. For me it's a bit of an inconvenience; I'm a big believer in breakfast and was really hoping to have at least a fridge to hold some milk for my cereal each morning. I quickly got rid of that thought and have learned the art of eating out instead. Emily and I will be living together which is great for many reasons, including the fact that we share rent. The grand total comes out to $112 USD a month, which means we're each only paying $56. It constantly amazes me how inexpensive Thailand is. We'll also be paying a water and electricity bill each month, and even with AC blasting all evening long it shouldn't come out to more that $60-70 total. 

Who needs a shower curtain when you can just
 get the whole bathroom wet, right?

As you can see, our apartment is extremely basic. We have a small table, a wardrobe cabinet and a bed. No complaints though! Our bed is a massive king size, we have functioning AC and we also have a front and back balcony. We've managed to make it a little more homey after the first few days with a trip to the mall. We sadly learned that Thai bed sheet sets don't come with an actual blanket, so we went a few days using towels to keep us cozy until we had time for the mall. Today we bought actual blankets, some more hangers, and an electric kettle for coffee.
As weird as it might sound, although I love to travel I'm a huge home body. I don't want to invest a ton of money into a temporary home, but I'm hoping to make a few more purchases to add a little bit of color and life to our new apartment. And as you can see, we have a huge bed and plenty of floor space, so visitors are always welcome!