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.