Kids will be kids

It's Lori with a post about the kids.

Despite being absolute terrors today, I really like my students. They are super fun kids and most of the time they have great attitudes.

Here's a picture of the classroom from the front. I put up the bulletin board at the back for my Science course.

The students sing and dance at assemblies and here they are performing this past week.


Also, some of the students are in Thai dance club. These clubs often perform at assemblies and important events in the life of the school. Here are a few of the girls at the assembly.


And then there are the kids in my classes. Here they are making "models" of the digestive system out of balloons, straws, and yarn:


In grade four they are just entering the too cool for school phase. They just kept posing for me.



A bunch of the boys were way to excited that I was taking pictures. They cheered when I agreed to take a picture of them:


And naturally the girls wanted a shot as well:


So, just a little taste of life at school.

Erewan Falls - the day of the lost ring

This last weekend Lori and I went to Kanchanaburi. It was our first trip with just the two of us and we had to fight the urge to go to the beach with a group of other teachers. Kanachanburi is one of those cities that is very easy to get to, has lots of tourist attractions and is easy on the wallet. We caught the bus from the main street near our house for 100 baht each and 2 1/2 hours later we were in town.

The main reason for going to Kanachaburi was to hike the Erawan falls, a national park near Kanachaburi. It normally costs 200 baht per foreigner but because we are teachers it only cost us 40. Belows is a few pictures of our hike. I was very excited to get back into nature. Plus this park has fish in the different pools that will nibble at your feet if you let them. Apparently this is somthing that people pay money for in Korea.


In the park they take waste collection and sorting very seriously. They even required that we separate our Hazardous waste from the Rubbish and the Garbage. It was funny watching other tourists who didn't speak English as a first language open each one in turn to see if the words did in fact have a different meaning. They don't.

We could swim in seven different waterfalls and go right behind the falls in a couple of them. Lori and I took pictures of each other behind the falls. Unfortunately, to get behind the falls you have to climb on the rocks a little and if you look closely at the picture of me you will see something missing from my left hand. That's right! I lost my wedding ring in Erewan falls. I first noticed when we were packing up to go. I am have a habit of rotating my ring with my thumb and pinky when I am waiting around and when I went to do it, I felt nothing. I quickly checked both hands to make sure I was looking at the correct hand but to avail. We looked every where. I was completely shattered. I just hung my head and almost cried right there. It was arguably the worst moment of my life, or at least in the top two. Lori was great though. She kept telling me to keep looking and that it would be ok. I went behind the falls again to look and I almost didn't come back out. It was terrible.
I went to look in the water a bit but it is filled with minerals (mostly lime) that make it very blue but you can't see the bottom. We gave up looking and decided to report it to the park office in case someone turned it in but we didn't really expect something. In broken Thai and English we communicated our predicament. The park ranger asked which of the falls we had been swimming in and then said she would call a friend. A young man comes out of the back, hears the news and goes back to get a mask. That's right, he intended to go looking for the ring in a deep pool full of carnivorous fish with just a mask. I love the Thais. After pointing where I thought I lost it he did a few laps along the bottom of the pool. When he was about to give up I went in with him to look one last time behind the falls. We went to the left of the big rock in the picture in that tiny gap and I hear a little "okay." Not sure at first if it meant he was finished searching or what, just like that the fine young man found my ring! I couldn't believe it. I was astounded, amazed, bewildered and confused all at the same time. I swam over and gave him a big hug right in the pool. He was a bit uncomfortable but there was no possible way to communicate the extent of my gratitude. The day went from being the worst to the best in about 30min. I was ecstatic for the rest of the trip, continually reliving the moment when he found the ring and when I got to put it back on (and swimming to shore close fisted.) Even now, watching my fingers type, I see the shimmer of the ring and my heart skips a little.



These are the little fishes that eat the dead skin off your feet. However there were much larger ones - up to 10-15 cm - that ate off of my feet but there are no picture of those. It was very hard to get used to but after a little while it felt fine. In one of the pools there were quite large fish that were more aggressive, but for the most part the fish just nibbled here and there. I still have lots of dead skin on my feet so I thinking I will need to go back (I will keep the ring at home though.)

Here I am standing on a vine that was fun to climb on. You can see some falls in the background. The foliage was incredibly rich and everything was so beautiful. Last time Lori was here there were lots of aggressive monkeys but today just birds flying in the trees and fish nibbling at your feet.

And waterfalls to stand under and get wet. The cave behind Lori was really neat to go into. The minerals in the water actually build up the rock and then erode that rock. Almost all the way up the trail you could see where water had flowed before, where it built up walls and then changed directions.

Here you can see the cliffs are actually growing down. It was really cool. Whole plants and trees were sometimes swallowed up by the mineral onslaught.

Here is the happy wedding ringed couple. It was a great weekend.

Oh ya. And this is the bus that brought us there. Note the different fluid intakes (oil maybe) are wired into the cab. I guess it makes for easy access.

A quick snipit of Cambodia

Here's a few shots from our trip to Cambodia to pique your curiousity.

Ta Prom


Anchor Tom

Can you find Lori?

S-21

Sun rays on a sad day.
Night market/people's homes

Wai hello there. The colours of the week.

Anchor Wat here we come!

A glimpse of light coming through the whole in the ceiling inside the Wat.

Update!!

It's Lori here. Just a quick update.

We have done so much since we last posted. Many trips, school is flying by, friends are leaving, new people arriving. Some highlights have been a trip to the village of our principal's wife - a very traditional village in the Northeast, an ice cream eating contest and a trip to Cambodia.

We went to visit Burriram (Boo lee lamb) at the beginning of July. Our principal's wife is building a traditional Thai home. She has literally done everything, from cutting down the trees to putting up the house.



In Thailand 99% of scaffolding is made of bamboo. We had the opportunity to climb the ladder and check out the interior.


While we were there his wife, Muang took us to a neighboring village where they weave silk during the off season (meaning not rice season). Rice planting had just begun, so no one was weaving, but we got to see the silks they produce and the looms, etc.


While we were having a coke the neighbor boys put on a little show for us. They loved the attention.


We took a stroll through the village and got to see the looms.


Everyone was walking and biking around.

Then we headed back to the house for some Masaman curry and watermelon. Delicious home cooked meal.


Here's the whole gang of us enjoying the meal next to the hay stack. It was the single largest quantity of foreigners ever to visit the village at one time.


So we decided to take a stroll and meet the locals.


It was really neat to see the rice fields. Rice is planted in small fields, once the seedlings get bigger they pull them up and plant them in larger fields, spread farther apart. This field was probably planted within the week.


Here are some of the actual locals - on their way home from the fields.


Loren decided to help out by pushing the planter home. It was really funny and the people thought he was wonderful and crazy. The tires are just put on top for on the road, normally the wheels don't have the rubber on them.


People travel around on the back of these trailer sort of things.


Just a normal day in the village. A fire to burn some palm leaves on the side of the road, some cows heading down the street, you know.


The next day Muang's neighbors were planting rice. The grandparents and kids were planting. In Thailand what often happens when people have children is the children live in the villages with their grandparents while the parents work in the city.


Anyway, just a taste of village life for you. More to come on Cambodia in a later post.

In terms of daily life we have just completed our first semester at school. This week is exam week and everyone from K1 (2 and 3 years old) to P6 (grade 6) is writing exams. I am finally getting into the swing of things and I am looking forward to making some changes for next semester. I am beginning to realize how long it takes to get to know your students. It's hard because there are 47 students between my two classes. Some of my teaching goals for the coming semester are introducing more cooperative learning to my classrooms (with such big classes it is hard to plan the logistics), getting my students to do more formal oral presentations - I think now that they are more comfortable in the classroom this might be more realistic - and trying to do more projects. As it is I'm just trying to get though marking.

During the past three months there have been 6 students from the U of M teaching at our school. They had their last day yesterday. This means that there are also new staff members who started today. It's really hard to go through these transitions. One of our closest friends here in Thailand is now leaving - someone that we have spent a lot of time with and done a lot of our traveling with. I've been so busy it's been easy to avoid thinking about it, but this sort of transition is spurring on some homesickness - something that I haven't experienced at all thus far.

Riceroni: the sticky grain

Did you know that rice is a grain? I didn't but now I do. I thought it came from woven nylon bags. Actually I thought it grew underwater because rice patties are always submerged. I have been enlightened.



We took a trip with our cab driver friend, Wan, and he made a point of showing us rice in its various stages of maturity. When we say some rice almost ready for harvets he stopped the car, went into the field and asked the farmed for a stalk.



There are problems in this Times,but none of them mineIT

And this is a combine. Lori took some very good pictures and there is a video we will try and post now that our internet is working consistently (and the human error factor has been dealt with).

Just a little something

We'll post more pictures soon, but here's a little something to tantilize your tastebuds.

Sooo Busy

Back by popular demand, new posts.

I've been trying to post video of our apartment but to no avail. Instead I'll tell you a little about teaching.

I'm teaching grade 4. A typical day, you ask? We get up around 7 and get ready for the day. We often eat breakfast at our apartment. We keep foods like granola, yogurt and sometimes muffins in our fridge. Then off to school. It takes about a minute to get to school. We have to sign in before 8 o'clock. Then up to the 5th floor where we have a staff room. The room is split. One part is full of common computers, the other part is full of desks where we each have our own workspace. I have the best desk. It is right in the corner next to the window facing the whole room. So I can look out the window or watch everyone else, but no one walks by so I can concentrate when I need to.

Then classes start at 8:40. Our schedule for each day is different. We normally have two 50 minute spares throughout the day, and teach the remainder. One day a week we have three spares. I lucked out and got my extra spare on Friday. But Monday is really busy as I teach all 4 morning slots.

We are sort of like guest lecturers. We keep all of our materials at our desks on the fifth floor and take everything we need with us to the classes. I teach in two classrooms. The P4/1 and P4/2 rooms. One of my classes has 22 students and the other has 25. They talk a lot. Often they are helping one another, but it is still frusterating when you are trying to communicate with them and they won't stop talking. So I have employed a number of strategies, only a few of which prove truly useful.

Loren and I both have lunch at 12 (most teachers have it at 11:10) so we eat together. The cafeteria prepares vegetarian food for us (mang sa me lat) which is actually pretty good. It's also a good way to try many foods that you don't know how to say. At lunch some of the Thai teachers try to teach us to speak Thai for fun. We know how to say "delicious" "full" and other things. I think they like it when we try and end up saying something wrong. Actually, the other day we found out that the way we normally say "no thank you" can mean "no sex show" if you use the wrong intonation. This is probably why people leave us alone when we say it. Someone on the street: "Do you want to buy some flowers?" Me: "no sex show."

The last class ends at 3:30. We have to be at school until 4:30, so we are often marking or preping for the next day.

I have class on Tuesday and Thursdays from 4:30 to 7ish. It ends this coming Tuesday and then I will have a break.

Our neighborhood is great. Everything is so acessible. In the basement of our building we have a smoothie/coffee place, a photo studio, a massage place, an internet cafe and a margarita bar. We went to the margarita bar for the first time last weekend. You can get a pitcher of margarita for $3.25. And directly across the street there are 3 restaurants.

Alright, I've got work to do: marking and poster making here I come!

May Long Island Adventure

We hereby acknowledge and lament the tardiness of this blog post.

On May long, while people back home were brushing the snow off of their canoes and wishing for summer to begin, we were enjoying our third long weekend in a row with a trip to Koh Chang, an island about 4 hours from Bangkok.

This was our first time taking a night bus and let me tell you, 4 hours is not long enough for a night bus. We decided to go to the bus station early so that we would be able to buy our tickets. That meant getting to the station at 8:30 for an 11:30 bus. We did go out for supper after getting our tickets but we still had a long time to wait in the station before the bus left. When the bus did leave we tried to get ourselves settled in but the seats were too small. We did sleep for a while, but as I said, only for 4 hours at which time the bus stopped at the side of the road and a person in uniform came down the isle asking people where they were going. People going to Koh Chang were asked to get off. We knew we needed to take a taxi to the pier but we were not expecting what we found. Getting to Koh Chang was good discipline in gelassenheit except in this case we turned everything over to Thai people who know what when and where we needed to be. We made it to Koh Chang by 7am.

The weekend itself was filled with fun and adventure. We rented a hut on the beach and slept the rest of the first day on the beach. Needless to say the majority of my tan has come and gone as a result of that day. Fast forward two weeks later and my stomach is still pealing. Our sleep was facilitated by loungers at a neighboring hotel and spa. It has become a tradition to sneak into other hotels and use their pools and loungers. Not only is their water not as salty as the ocean but there is often a poolside bar that can be charged to a fictional room. Just kidding about the last part. We are too scared of being kicked out of the pool area to take advantage of the poolside bar.

Koh Chang is also famous for its BBQ's and we tried to enjoy one our first night. Unfortunately as Lori and I are vegetarian there is not a lot to BBQ. We did have some roasted potatoes and corn and the free salad bar, but we also ordered a pizza to round out our meal. I should explain that I have modified my vegetarianism so include some seafood (mostly squid) and some fish. I prefer to eat animals that can still be recognised as animals. Hence squid tentacles are good, as are whole bbqed fish (gutted but with the head still on) which I enjoyed the second night on the island. It is kind of hard to understand but from my perspective, if I need to acknowledge that it was in fact an animal then at the very least I am not demanding a sterilized relationship with meat no longer associated with its living form. Some people explicitly prefer to not know where their food (particularly meat) comes from but I do. So that is my modified, inconsistent, loosely principled vegetarianism.

On the second day on the island we went snorkeling...for 4 hours. I, being not a very good swimmer and somewhat phobic of drowning, enjoyed myself immensely. I didn't enjoy it when salt water went into my mouth or when I would breathe through my nose and disrupt the tentative seal. Naturalists might find cleaning your nasal cavity with a saline solution rejuvenating (I believe it is called a "Nelly Pot") but I don't recommend using ocean water for this purpose. We did see tons of fish and corral. Lori was very excited to swim amongst huge schools of fish and she swam around many of the islands that we went to visit. We visited 4 islands in all and snorkeled for an hour at each one. The last one was the island of Koh Wai and we are contemplating going back there to stay at their beach side resort. It is rustic by every stretch of the imagination. The day was very long and hot and further contributed to the sunburn but totally worth it for less than $20 each, including lunch.

There is still a lot to see on Koh Chang and we intend to go back. There are water falls you can hike to and an elephant trek (believe it or not the elephants are not native to the island but are solely a tourist attraction) and many other beaches to explore. I would recommend renting a scooter even though I didn't do it and the last time I drove a scooter I almost drove into a pole. The streets are very quiet most of the day so it wouldn't be like driving in Bangkok. If I do it in the future, I will blog about it and let you know how it went, if I am able.

So that was our weekend in Koh Chang. Good times at the beach. There is a story about a silver lemay bikini in there somewhere, but I will let Lori tell that one.

Literally paradise

Another day, another adventure, that seems to be how things go here. Something fun, something funny, something absolute driving you to the edge of your sanity. For me it's been the welts of mosquito bites that cover almost the entirety of my legs. I should have taken a picture of them yesterday when they were in their glory. We are talking 2 inches across. They just kept getting bigger as the day went on.

This weekend we went to Kanchana Buri. On the way, Loren stopped for a corn pie. Think McDonald's apple pie, but with cream corn instead of apple filling. There are so many funny foods to try. Last weekend we tried hotdog flavoured chips. They tasted disturbingly like hot dogs.






The view on the way out of the city was beautiful..hazy mountains in the background:



We stayed at a wonderful hotel with nice pool, but we didn't spend much of the day there. Saturday morning we were off to the Floating Markets by 7am. Here's our boatload of people: Me, Jen, Shelley, Ashley, Lisa and our tour guide Jang (missing is Loren Braul):


They took us by some houses and smaller parts of the market, where boats would go to the houses to sell their wares:


And also to the bigger parts of the market that were crowded with people and tourists:


We learned that if you touch something you have pretty much bought it. This is how we accidentally bought some elephant key chains. We picked them up to look at them, and then our boat driver just left us waiting there while the woman bartered with us. It went something like this, "You like, 500 baht" Us: "no" The lady: "450" Us: "no, we don't want them," The Lady: 200 baht," us: "We don't want them," The lady: "100 baht, us:"I guess if we don't buy them we can't leave"


So it was a busy morning, but we didn't stop there. That afternoon we were off to the Tiger Temple. A monastery where the monks have an animal sanctuary that is open. Sort of like a zoo, except without cages.... Loren pet a tiger:


Then I worked up the courage to pet a tiger. I even pulled its tail, see: you can tell it didn't like it because it's roaring and about to claw my leg. Just kidding.


There are these amazing vibrant red trees everywhere. I finally got a close up at the sanctuary.


There were beautiful roosters there. They were actually one of the most stunning animals, in my mind.

And there were water buffalo. Naturally when I saw them I said, "everybody has a water buffalo, mine is fast but yours is slow." Only one person got it. We laughed together.


To illustrate our proximity to the animals, I took a picture of Loren with some camels. Honestly, we probably could have pet some of them, and people were feeding the antelope. It was pretty crazy.


Ah yes, our mode of transportation (when not in vans)... Sawngthaews (song t-ow). Basically, these are pick-up trucks with seating and a roof. I was on the end, which is the best spot because you can see everything and the wind cools you down. I was not angry, I was just trying to look cool...


Kanchana Buri is on the river Kwai (pronounced kway not kw-i). Which is the site of the famous bridge over the Kwai, part of the Thai-Burma railway that was built by Japanese prisoners of war during WWII. You may have seen a movie about it. Anyway, we only took pictures at night:


Then on Sunday we headed over to the resort where our opening retreat was held. The resort was probably about a half hour from the Burma border. It was a great way to get to know some of the Thai teachers at the school. They had the most beautiful welcome for us, where they gave each of us a hand-made flower lei. Here I am receiving mine.


And Loren and I together.



The resort was absolutely gorgeous. Here we are in the hugest pool. The water was the perfect temperature, as I'm sure you can imagine.


And we tossed the disk around for a while, which turned into diving for it. Naturally this led to Loren laying out across the pool. I believe this may be the finest form I have ever seen:



And the classic shot from the balcony of our hotel room:



Some of the Thai teachers performed a traditional dance for us at our evening meal.


What I failed to mention was the actual team building activities that we did during the day. They were basically like those Asian extreme challenge shows. It was insane. We had to walk across bamboo raft walkways, paddle actual bamboo rafts, walk across ropeways overtop of this lake, go down a zipline. It was really fun, but we all sustained mild injuries. Here is a serene morning after picture of some of the course:

Ah yes, and the crazy spider I saw. It had to have been at least the size of my palm, at least.


And now it's back to reality for a few more days. We are finally getting into yearly plans, and the resources are flooding in from every direction. It should be lots of fun and I am getting excited about teaching, though nervous as well.