Mai Bpen Writes

We're back!

2009-04-29T09:33:00.001-07:00

You may have figured out that we're back in the US now. The trip back was uneventful, but the first night back in Cleveland it snowed. Jet lag doesn't compare to that kind of shock.

I doubt we'll be updating this any more (as the US is boring), but thanks for your interest, and as soon as we do something new and cool, we'll post it here.

Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

2009-03-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Richard and I have spent the last couple days in Chiang Mai. We took it easy two days ago, wandering around the artsy university neighborhood, reconnecting with some friends we made when we were taking our course, and checking out the Chiang Mai Museum of Insects and Natural Wonders, which was weird quirky and seemed to exist mostly to convince visitors that mosquitoes are wonderful, benevolent creatures. Yesterday, we took a cooking class, which was amazing. We got to spend the whole day with this guy:

He should have his own cooking show. He is endless entertainment, and taught us how to make some great stuff. We started off the class with a trip to the market where we learned about all the different vegetables and herbs that we would be using:

Then we chopped:

We massaged ground coconut with water to make coconut cream:

Then we cooked! We each chose five dishes, so we got to see at least 15 different dishes prepared throughout the day.

Some of Richard's and my handiwork:

We also learned how to make roses out of tomatoes, which was way too hard, but looked really cool:

One other student and I picked som-tam, the spicy papaya salad, so I finally got to try out a mortar and pestle:

Mmm, som-tam:

I was really impressed with the class. The food tasted great, and if I can recreate it at home, it will certainly help ease the transition back to American cuisine.

Cooking Class

2009-03-15T04:19:00.000-07:00

Laura and I just wrapped up a cooking class here in the foreigner-friendly area of Chiang Mai. It was a lovely experience. We went to the market and bought fresh veggies. We were expertly guided through a battery of curries, soups and stir frys. After a needed digestion break, we came to the curveball of the day, decoration. This involved making a rose out of a cut up tomato. Sound impossible? Well, let's just say everybody but me got the hang of it quickly but one. One named Richard. I made such a mess of this tomato that the other people at the table couldn't help but point and laugh. The instructor with the help of a more capable student managed to turn my fiasco into a frankensteinish abomination of a rose. I believe Laura took pictures, and maybe she'll post them if I let her. The rest of the class was great, and the people were lovely, and I fully recommend the Eagle House Cooking Class to anyone near Chiang Mai.

Chiang Rai

2009-03-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

Richard and I spent the last few days in Chiang Rai, the northern-most big city in Thailand. I really like it here. It's similar to Chiang Mai, but smaller and more laid-back. The night market is way less obnoxious than the one in Chiang Mai, and there are two stages with live music and dancing. It's pretty nice. We walked around a lot, hit the market three times, ate at some fun restaurants and went on a day-long trek. Two days ago, we went to the restaurant "Cabbages and Condoms," which was started as part of an effort to raise awareness in Thailand about birth control and STD prevention. The first restaurant was in Bangkok, but now there are locations all over Thailand. It has lots of great condom paraphernalia, including the Santa Claus made out of condoms!

We were browsing in a local bookstore when we learned that Richard has written a book about Thailand!

Because there are a lot of hill tribe people still living in villages around Chiang Rai, a lot of people come up here to do treks, where they hike out to hill tribe villages with a guide. Richard and I knew some people who had gone on treks and loved them, so we figured we might as well do it. We checked out the Chiang Rai hill tribe museum first, which made us a little wary about the whole operation. It gave lots of good information about the different hill tribes, which include the Akha, Lahu, Karen, Hmong and Lisu, but it also made sure to point out all the ways that trekking contributes to the destruction of their way of life. That gave us pause, but we decided we'd regret it if we didn't give it a try. We did a trek with the Akha River House, which was the guest house where we were staying. The guest house and trekking business are all owned and run by Akha people, and profits all go towards their village fund, so it seemed like a pretty socially responsible way to do a trek. We just went on a one-day trek, and it was a lot of fun, but the hill-tribe interaction was definitely disappointing and kind of pointless. We walked through or around four different villages, most of them located in a national park, and the people either ignored us or aggressively hawked their goods. I feel like we've gotten a much better glimpse of the Thai traditional way of life, just by walking around the neighborhoods where we teach, or in any town a few blocks away from the tourist center. So, that whole part of the trek felt silly, and I did feel a little bad for contributing to the whole business. On the other hand, the hike through the national park was beautiful and our guide was awesome. He knew a lot about the plants and wildlife, gave us a few edible plants to try, and explained a lot of the hill-tribe farming methods while we were walking through their planting areas. We saw and played in a beautiful waterfall.

All in all, it was a fun day, but not worth the hype. All the people we know who loved their treks did an overnight trek, where they stayed with a hill tribe, had dinner, drank their homemade whiskey, etc. Perhaps an overnight trek is more exciting. Speaking of exciting, and to change the subject a little, Richard and I went to see the coolest wat today, Wat Rong Khun.

It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a Thai artist who does a lot of melding of Thai traditional Buddhist art with modern pop culture, and this temple definitely did that. Every part of the temple represents something important in Buddhism. I won't get into much of the symbolism, because I didn't actually grasp all of it. One of the unique elements was what seemed to be a depiction of the underworld, but I think actually represents the evils in the mind:

Then there was a bridge, symbolizing the path to the Abode of the Buddha. But first you had to get past this guy:

Inside the wat, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was amazing. Along with the standard Buddhas was a huge mural of all sorts of pop-culture, sci-fi elements, all mixed up with the images of demons that you see in many other wats. There were some star wars pictures, Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, and even a picture of a plane crashing into the twin towers. According to Wikipedia, the pictures represented an "escape from the defilements of temptation to reach a supramundane state." I'm not really sure what that means but it was awesome. Chiang Rai has been tons of fun, now we're heading back south a few hours to Chiang Mai.

Sukhothai and Lampang

2009-03-09T23:32:00.001-07:00

After Ayutthaya, Richard and I headed to Sukhothai, which was the capital of the Sukhothai kingdom when it ruled Thailand in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Sukhothai era is sometimes seen as the golden age of Thailand, a time of peace and prosperity. We rented bikes and pedaled around the ruins. While the Ayutthaya ruins tower over the modern city of Ayutthaya, the Sukhothai ruins are located in a park. It's a little less awe-inspiring, but more peaceful.

These little kids are kneeling in front of a statue of Ramkamhaeng, the most famous king of Sukhothai. I feel like he's regarded a little bit like we regard George Washington. He united a lot of Thailand under Sukhothai rule, promoted the arts, and created the first version of the Thai alphabet. The kids, barely more than toddlers, ran up, took their shoes off, carefully climbed up the stairs, and gave their offerings.

Old ruins are cool and all, but after two days of them, Richard and I started to get a little goofy.

After Sukhothai, we took the bus to Lampang, a town that's a little farther off the tourist path. Its mascot is a chicken, so there are statues of chickens all over the place. We were pretty excited to find little shops selling local artwork and crafts near our guest house, instead of the usual knick-knack junk vendors. It was very refreshing. I also got a lovely hour-long, three-dollar massage that hurt much less than the one I got in Chiang Mai. We rented a motorbike, and had fun riding around the city and to the sites a little ways out of town. We visited the Wat Phra Tat Lampang Luang, which is possibly the oldest wooden building in Thailand. Here's a picture, featuring the famous Lampang horse-drawn carriages.

We got some delicious food at a restaurant called Aroy One Baht (Delicious One Baht) which was delicious and cheap, living up to its name. And then we stumbled across a bar with a weirdly awesome dinosaur theme.

This morning, we went to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, which has an elephant hospital and provides free medical care to ailing elephants. We wanted to ride an elephant while supporting a worthwhile organization, and I think we succeeded. There's a lot of space, the elephants seem to be well treated, and the hospital is definitely providing a good service. The elephant ride was great!

We're tempted to stay a little longer in Lampang, but Chiang Rai calls.

Ayutthaya

2009-03-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Richard and I kicked off our travels two days ago by zipping to Bangkok, running some errands, and then taking the train to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1350 until it was invaded and destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767. Most of the ruins of the city lie on an island-like piece of land that is bordered by three rivers. The modern city of Ayutthaya has grown up and around the ruins, so you really just stumble upon them in some parts of the town. Richard and I rented bikes and rode around all day. Without further ado, Ayutthaya:

Goodbye Hua Hin!

2009-03-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

Richard and I finished teaching on Thursday, so we've been hanging out around Hua Hin, but will leave as soon as we get our last paycheck. Our plan is to travel back up north and see some more of the country before we come back home, probably on the 17th or 18th. I'm going to miss teaching here so much! I just wanted to put up a few more pictures of my school. But first: hanging out with our co-teachers! Richard and I took Chrystal and Noi out to dinner and it was tons of fun! We should have done it more often. Here are some more pictures of my school and my kids. The ones where they're holding flowers are from Maka Puja, a Buddhist holiday they celebrated in February.

A day in the life

2009-02-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

It's been hot and gross the last few days and my body has not been handling it well. Since I had two crazy days in a row, I figured I'd take the day off (as my co teacher has done this 5 times in the last 4 weeks). I've been sleeping and sitting under the fan for a long time now and finally feeling sabai (healthy). Here's what I've been working on to post for a little while:

I wake up around 6:30, shower, occasionally shave, drink a little coffee, generally put on a king shirt like this.

I walk out onto my little side street

Sometimes I pick up a little breakfast from a street cart, like these kanom klot (fried coconut balls, or something like that)

I hop on a songtao instead of walking 30 minutes.

I get to my side street, but it's another 10 minute walk to get to my school. It's a lovely walk with a sketchy railroad crossing, a Seven Eleven, some chickens and some cows.

Finally, I get to school. I have a few minutes of being harangued and printing worksheets before it's time for assembly.

And what assembly is complete without aerobics?

Then it's time to teach! Professions to 3rd grade, god knows what to Kindergarten 1, and transportation to 4th grade. After that it's time for lunch!

After lunch (and toothbrushing!), I sit in on 6th grade getting ready for an exam, teach numbers to 1st grade, and then food and drink to 2nd grade.

The boy second to the right is ridiculously funny. He's always pointing at kids and saying "Teacher! Autistic!". They usually respond by pointing back "Teacher! UFO!". They know enough English already. I'm not needed here.
This picture conveys what teaching 1st grade feels like.

Here's an especially entertaining 2nd grader. He's an orphan as far as I understand, and he's always acting like a monkey. He likes me a lot, and I like him a lot. Oh, and his name is Bang!

On Wednesdays, I usually teach a conversational class for the teachers, but today I have to leave early to get money from the municipality office before it closes early. Gov't offices are the same everywhere. But love for the king isn't the same everywhere. Here are the two king-worshipping bridges I pass on the way to and from school.

"We love the king-god who rests on/above our heads"

Then I go home and soak in ice and cry the pain away until tomorrow. That's approximately my life. It's not so bad.

Jams

2009-02-17T07:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sorting through the crapload of pics from my school, but in the meantime, here are some Thai jams that Laura and I have been into lately. The first one we heard at a bar among 'N SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, the Macarena, etc. Neither of us recognized it, but assumed that it came out around the same time (especially with the lyrics that are topical for the late 90s). It turns out it's an oddly skanky Thai pop song from 2006.

This one is in my head all the time. It doesn't hurt that it's my co-teacher's ringtone, and people answer their phones whenever here. Anyway, it's a serious jam that's all over the place these days.

I vow to put both of these on every mixtape for the next 5 years. Be prepared.

Prachuab Khiri Khan

2009-02-17T03:42:00.000-08:00

Richard really promises to do an update about his school soon. It should be great! To hold you over, here are some more monkey pictures! Richard and I spent the last weekend in Prachuab Khiri Khan, a seaside town a little ways south of Hua Hin. It's really peaceful there. We stayed in a hotel with a balcony that looked over the ocean, did some kayaking, ate some seafood, and walked up to a lookout point with a temple that is completely overrun by monkeys. There were way more than at the monkey wat in Hua Hin. They were very territorial. Some growled at us. Others got in fights with each other. We enjoyed the experience, but were glad to be off the hill by sunset. We were starting to get a little creeped out.

Making Pad Thai

2009-01-31T22:47:00.000-08:00

After teaching kindergarten last Monday, the teacher gave me a bag of these:

Khap koon Kha! Thank you very much! I took them to my desk and puzzled over what they were and what I should do with them. My co-teacher Chrystal told me that they were tamarinds, the fruit that is used to flavor pad-thai. Clearly this was a sign that I should finally try my hand at cooking some Thai food. First step: break the tamarind pods open, pull out the fruit, remove the seeds and tough pulp, and force the rest through a strainer:

I clearly was unable to do this without making a mess. But eventually, the mess payed off and I had a plate of tamarind paste:

Eww. Not very appetizing, right? But after that, it was simple. Stir-fry the paste with rice sticks, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and shallot, veggies, and egg. Top with crushed peanuts. Voila!

It turned out a bit mushy. I think I need to do the stir-frying a lot faster to end up with perfect pad-thai. Also, broccoli and carrots are not authentic pad-thai vegetables. But mai pben rai. I was pretty happy with my first pad-thai attempt. In the future, I think I will just buy the tamarind paste and forgo the messy stage. But given a random gift of tamarinds, it's worth the effort. Mmmm.

Motorbike and Temple Fun

2009-01-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Richard and I have been wanting to rent a motorbike since coming to Thailand. It's really the cheapest and most efficient way to get around. It may also be the most dangerous, but what's traveling without a little danger, right? It was a bit terrifying. People on motorbikes in Thailand don't so much follow traffic laws. Lane lines and speed limits are seen as little more than suggestions. It is also not unusual to see whole families of up to four or five people on one motorbike, as in the picture above. Helmets? Who wears those? The worst is when you see parents and kids on a motorbike and only the adults are wearing helmets. At least put your kids in a helmet! Despite our objections to some of the principles of motorbike travel, we had a lot of fun. We saw places around Hua Hin that would have cost a fortune to get to otherwise. We went to a park with a lookout point over Hua Hin, and we went to the Wat Huay Mongkol, which is one of the most popular wats in the area. It has a huge statue of the monk Luang Por Thuat, who is famous for performing miracles.

It's definitely more impressive in person. So we had a fun weekend. I also had the chance yesterday to observe a unique ceremony. Every Wednesday, some of the students at my school walk to the local temple to donate food to the monks. Yesterday, grades four and six were going, and I got to come along. All of the kids brought food from home, and most of them had these really cool tiered lunchboxes. We got to the wat and they arranged the food for the monks.

Then there was some chanting.

And then kids brought the food to the monks and the monks ate. Apparently lunch is a pretty significant meal for monks because they're not allowed to eat anything at all until the next day. Life for a monk is full of rules like this (227 to be exact). It's not an easy life. After the monks ate, the students cleaned up, and then we got to eat! Delicious as usual.

Mai Bpen Rai

2009-01-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted much recently on the blog. I'll use this opportunity to explain the title of it. The phrase "Mai bpen rai" is the third most common phrase you'll hear in Thailand (right after "Sawatdee" (Hello) and "Khop Khun" (Thank you)). It functions as "No problem", "Don't worry", "You're Welcome", "Whatever", "It's not my problem", etc. It's sometimes called Thailand's unofficial motto. And what a great motto, eh? A lot of foreigners get frustrated with the Maibpenrai culture of logistics, bureaucracy, or just the fact that any given meeting time could mean anywhere in a two hour or two day span. I am thrilled by it, and I would like to warn any future employers that this will be my slogan in America as well.

I'm amassing pictures, and I will do a school specific post soon to match Laura's. Watch out! My school is way cooler than hers.

Pajamas!

2009-01-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

One of the cutest sights we regularly see here on slightly cool evenings is Thai kids, out and about, dressed in their pajamas. It only ever gets cold here at night, so all kids seem to own at least one pair of warm pajamas. Other warm clothing is perhaps too much of an investment? Maybe. For whatever reason, whenever it gets a bit cool, we see Thai kids dressed in their pajamas, all over the place. Especially babies, but sometimes older kids too. I've been wanting to get a picture of this, but couldn't figure out how to do so without being creepy. Finally, I just succumbed to being creepy and took a picture of this kid in the supermarket down the road from our apartment.

More Craziness

2009-01-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

Don't insult the Thai royal family.

Seriously.

Some Unpleasant News

2009-01-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

While I'm talking about Thailand's treatment of the "sea gypsies" I might as well mention some recent news. Thailand has been accused of sending migrants who have washed ashore back out to sea, many of them to their deaths.

Here's a New York Times article about the events.

It sounds like Thailand gets a lot of immigrants fleeing the oppressive regimes of surrounding countries, and doesn't always handle refugee situations very well (to say the least). I'm glad these problems are getting some international attention. Thailand is a country that cares about it's reputation and seems to actually respond to international pressure.

Mu Koh Surin

2009-01-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

Richard and I were expecting to have to work this weekend. Friday is Teacher's Day, so it was supposed to be a day off, but Hua Hin decided to have English Camp for all of it's 4-6th graders this weekend, and we were expected to work there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was going to be a long two weeks with no break. But then...surprise! Somehow the budget didn't come through for English Camp, so we suddenly had a three day weekend. Hmm, what do do on a three day weekend when you are a mere bus ride away from southern Thailand? Visit an island, of course! After we finish teaching, Richard and I want to travel around northern Thailand, so this was looking to be our one island trip. And we wanted to do it right. So many of the Thai islands have become completely built up and turned into gross, expensive tourist traps, but we learned about the Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea, which are protected by national park status. One of our friends from our program went there and raved about his trip. Everything about the Surin Islands looked perfect. So, away we went.

After work on Thursday, we took an overnight bus ride to Kuraburi, the town where you can catch a boat to the islands. It was uncomfortable and long, and we arrived in Kuraburi at around four in the morning. The "bus station" there was a couple benches outside a little office that was closed. We were a little bit worried for a moment, but within three seconds, a songtow pulled up and a woman got out. "You want to go to Surin Islands?" She opened up the Sabina Tours office, which was right next to the bus station, gave us coffee and a brochure, and then booked us a spot on a boat to the island. We still had to wait around for a while, but then they gave us a ride to the pier, where we were able to get breakfast and check out the park information center while we waited. At nine, we got on the "big boat" that took about two and a half hours to bring us to the islands. When we first got on, everyone was given life jackets, but no one bothered to put them on. About halfway into the trip, though, the waves got pretty rough, and we often felt dangerously close to tipping over! No one was too cool to wear life jackets anymore.

We finally reached the islands and pulled into one of the little bays. We got into little long tail boats, and were brought to the pier at the park headquarters. I could not handle how beautiful it was there. Clear water. Blue skies. Mountains. Beaches. Little fishing boats bobbing in the water. The pictures I took do not come close to capturing it. Richard and I rented a tent, some bedding, and some snorkeling equipment and got down to the serious business of Having Fun. There was a nature trail leading from our beach to another beach with a reputation for good snorkeling, so we set off. The trail was only 2 km, but it was pretty rough. We crossed at least a dozen rickety bridges and did a bit of climbing. The whole way, we could see the water through the trees on our left hand side, and there were several lookout points, and even a few empty beaches. It was a great little hike.

We got to the other beach, which had a similar campground to the beach where we were staying, put on the snorkel gear, and went exploring. There are coral reefs all over the island, and there was quite a bit of coral at this beach. The water was pretty shallow, so we could see the coral really well. It wasn't bright and colorful like coral you might see on the travel channel, but it was filled with all kinds of fish. I'd never been snorkeling before, so I thought it was pretty awesome!

After that, we lied on the beach for a while, hiked back to our campgrounds, and got ready for the night. The camp headquarters ran a little restaurant, so we got a great dinner, and then crashed super early. I think we fell asleep by 8:30. Taking night-time buses can do that to you. We slept well enough, got up, sat on a rock by the water and ate crackers for breakfast. We played some frisbee on the beach and then decided to go on a tour to see the Moken tribe, an indigenous group that has settled on one of the islands. We took a long tail boat to the island. When we got close to shore, we could see a bunch of the Moken children playing in the water with little homemade rafts, many of them naked. It looked like a pretty fun place to be a kid.

We got out of the boat and waded to the shore. The village was really cool. All of the houses were on stilts, right on the beach. The people were friendly. They're definitely used to tourists, and a bunch of people were selling bamboo handicrafts and little boat sculptures. It felt a little weird to just be wandering around their village. The indigenous tribe tourist industry is pretty established in Thailand, especially in the north, where it's really easy to go on a trek to visit various hill tribes. I don't know how comfortable I am with the whole system. On the one hand, it's pretty exploitative. A lot of people profit off of this tourism, and you can't really visit an indigenous tribe without severely altering their way of life. On the other hand, the tribes generally get some benefit from it too, receiving a cut from the tourist companies and getting a chance to sell their handicrafts. It's also hard to feel comfortable with the situation of the Moken tribe. Their traditional way of life is to live as "sea gypsies," living off their boats and traveling from island to island, only settling on land during the monsoon season. However, it seems that the Thai government has forced them to live in permanent settlements. At the same time, perhaps it's pretty nice of the Thai government to let them live on national park land at all, which is technically supposed to be free from settlement. The moral implications of all this are a little too complicated for me to sort out. I enjoyed visiting the Moken tribe, and I hope taking part in this tourism isn't something I need to feel too guilty about. Here is a picture of the village, and of some girls that sold me a bracelet.

Another interesting tidbit about the Moken: their village was destroyed in the tsunami, but no one was killed because they knew to get to high ground before the wave hit. Pretty cool. After visiting the Moken village, Richard and I only had a little bit of time left. We hit the water one more time, did some last minute snorkeling at our beach, packed up, ate some lunch, and caught a speed boat back. The trip home was long and tiring, but we made it by two in the morning, and we have all day today (Sunday) to get ready for the week. It was a wonderful trip.

My School

2009-01-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

There have been so many holidays here that every post has been about something unusual, so I feel like it's time for me to describe my everyday life here. I work at a school called Tessaban Baan Bo-Fai. I take a fifteen minute songtow northward every morning, and then walk for five minutes once I reach the Bo-Fai village. Sometimes one of the other teachers will see me waiting for the songtow, and will stop and give me a ride on her motorbike. I need to be at school by eight for the morning assembly. The assembly is (obviously) in Thai, so I usually space out. They play the national anthem and raise the flag, make some announcements, and then do aerobics. Aerobics! It's hilarious.

After assembly, I wait for kindergarten to finish their milk break, and then I teach either K1, K2, or K3. I lead them in a rousing rendition of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or I review colors or the alphabet. Then I help them fill out their English worksheet of the day. They are always tons of fun, and indescribably cute. Sometimes I wish I could teach Kindergarten all day long. During the rest of the day, I teach one to three other classes. Our school goes from kindergarten through grade six, and I see each class about two times a week. I have a very vague syllabus to follow, and the kids have books, and there are tons of picture cards that I can use, so I'm actually pretty well supplied with materials.

Class usually goes pretty well. I have a co-teacher. Her name is Chrystal (she was born in America, hence the American name) and she teaches English. The picture at the top shows Chrystal and me with some of the students. Most schools in Thailand have a Thai English teacher, but they really like to bring in Farang teachers because we have fluency and desirable accents. Sometimes Chrystal helps to translate when the kids don't understand my instructions, and she also helps with classroom management when the kids get a little crazy. This is how classroom management works in Thailand: the kids are getting a little noisy. If it's first or second grade, a handful of kids have started getting out of their seats or are hitting each other. The teacher grabs a stick and bangs it on the desks until the kids shut up and sit down. If there are still problems, then the kids get some smacks. The teachers at my school don't hit the kids a lot, but they do occasionally, and at some other schools it happens all the time. Julia, one of the other girls in our program, asked her co-teacher for help with the first-graders, and the co-teacher told her that she just needed to hit them. Luckily, at my school, no one expects me to hit the kids, and usually Chrystal is in the classroom to help out. When Chrystal isn't in the room, I do my best to use various methods of positive reinforcement, but it can be difficult when the language barrier is so huge. I have no way of explaining to my 45 first-graders, "if you get five stickers, then you get a prize!" In general, things are going well, though. I try to keep things as interactive as possible, and get the kids talking. It's hard because they know a lot of nouns, but can't really construct any sentences. Hopefully I'll help them make some progress.

Outside of class, the kids couldn't be sweeter. Everywhere I go, "Good morning, teachaah!" "Good aftanoon, teachaah!" "How are you, teachaah?" That's about all they can say, but I appreciate it. The kindergarten kids see me and yell "Koon Kru Lala!" ("kru" means teacher) and then they wave and giggle a lot and run away. I get called "Lala" about as often as I get called "Laura" since the "r" can be hard to pronounce.

I'm usually done with school at 3:30, except on the days when I am teaching an English class for teachers. This is supposed to happen once a week, but has only actually happened once so far, since people are always making excuses and then not showing up. My co-teacher and the school director are the only teachers at my school who speak English well, so I often get frustrated with my inability to communicate. I'm working on my Thai, but I have not gotten very far yet.

So that's about it. I enjoy my job. Friday was another unusual school day because Saturday was children's day, so we had a bunch of games for the kids. Then on Saturday, there was a big celebration at the Sip Go Rai park. I was voluntold to emcee a performance of the chicken dance at the celebration, and that was pretty fun. Every school had a student performance, and our coordinator, Amy, runs a Saturday school for learning English, Chinese, and Thai. Her students did a Chinese dance, then sang the John Lennon song "Imagine" and then danced the chicken dance. It was entertaining. Yay Children's Day!

:(

2009-01-05T04:06:00.001-08:00

The only way I've been able to cook in our apartment was with a crappy rice cooker we bought from the Tesco Lotus, the Thai equivalent of Wal-Mart. I was able to make quite a variety of things in there, from spaghetti to scrambled eggs. But lo and behold, I try to turn it on today and find that it has melted itself to the top of our mini-fridge. I guess this is the downside to living in a tiny apartment with no kitchen. I hope we can get it unstuck...

Sawatdee Pee Mai!

2009-01-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Richard and I have had five days off for the New Year holiday, and it has been wonderful. After having to work on Christmas, it was a needed break. There have been lots of fun festivities in Hua Hin for the new year as well, so we've been enjoying ourselves. On Tuesday, at my school, we started the day with a donation of food to the monks. Monks from the nearest temple came to our school, and everyone gave them bags and baskets of food to take back to the Wat. Then we spent the rest of the day deep-frying various food items in the classrooms, stuffing ourselves, and exchanging presents. Pretty fun, in all.

For New Years Eve, Richard and I went to the celebration at Sip Gao Rai, a park in our neighborhood. There was a huge carnival, with rides, games, lots of food, and a band. We failed to win any prizes at the dart and slingshot games, but we gave it our best shot. After the countdown, there were fireworks, and monks spraying water at the crowds. I'm pretty sure that I got sprinkled with holy water, so that has to bode well for the new year.

On New Years day, Richard and I went to the Kaeng Krachan National Park. Our coordinator's sister runs a resort there, so we were given a free stay. We got really excited about staying at a resort and hiking in the park, so we packed our laptops, swim suits, and hiking shoes. When we got there, we realized that "resort" actually meant "camp ground." We were staying in a little bungalow with hard mattresses and nothing resembling internet access. And then we learned that we couldn't actually access any hiking trails or sights in the park without a car or motorbike. Our national park vacation was looking a little less exciting. But we had lots of fun! Ally, or coordinator's sister, let us ride the staff motorbike around the camp grounds. At first she was going to let us ride it to the park, but then she saw our shaky motorbike skills, and changed her mind. "My staff can give you a ride to the park, I think...." But we totally got better! Pretty soon we will be motorbike champions.

The next day, we went to the park and walked around its outskirts. There's a large dam at the entrance to the park, which has created a huge lake with mountains rising out of it. Tons of Thai families were camping around the lake. We were able to get an hour-long boat-ride around the lake. It was beautiful. Then we crossed a swinging bridge to a little island and walked around it. So, we got some hiking in. Maybe a whole half-mile! Maybe. We also saw monkeys.

Back in Hua Hin, there have been outdoor concerts at the same park. Two nights ago we saw a band called Sweet Mullet. Which is definitely a sweet name. Before the show, they brought audience members onstage and had a death-metal-scream contest. I was very worried about the music we were about to witness. But the show turned out to be great. The death-metal -screams were not overused, and the music was fun. Last night we saw another band called Black Vanilla, which is a totally teeny-bopper, hipster-pop group. They were also awesome. The coolest thing about the show was that Richard and I walked up to the stage when the band came on, and were easily able to get within ten feet of the stage. And these were free concerts featuring some of the most popular bands in Thailand! Their videos are all over the music-video station. Had I been just a little more aggressive, I could have been amongst the throngs of teenage girls screaming and trying to touch the band members. Maybe next time. Here's our favorite Black Vanilla video.

There was also a takraw game going on at the concert. Takraw is awesome. It is like a combination of volleyball, soccer, and acrobatics. More on that later. Happy New Year!

Merry Kissma!

2008-12-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

It was a lovely Christmas in Hua Hin. It was hot, and I had to teach three classes, and then perform for the Christmas assembly. It was pretty odd, but I feel like they do Christmas right here. It's all about games and songs and fun. There's no rush to buy a million presents and spend money and worry about calling them holiday trees. I think it works because adults don't care about the holiday, so the national understanding of it is based on children's perspective (read: Santa Claus and presents and snowmen whatever those might be).

I had a great time singing Jingle Bells with the kids, because they scream "Jingle Bells Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!" and then mumble "Oh what mmm it is mm mmm m mm m m m mm m m m " then scream "Hey!". I realized quickly that it was useless to explain a "One horse open sleigh" as most American kids don't really know what that is.

The highlight might have been when I told the nativity story in the simplest English I could muster, and then gave a little quiz with prizes. First question: Who was born on Christmas 2000 years ago? The first kid sprints up, I give him the microphone and he proudly says "Santa Claus". See? Kids aren't any different here than they are in America.

A Little More on Laos

2008-12-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

I wasn't kidding when I said that the bread in Laos was super exciting. There were sandwich carts all over the place, and we got the most delicious sandwich I've ever had! It was a baguette loaded up with mystery meat, various sauces (one spicy, one sweet), lots of cilantro, and some veggies. It may sound sketchy, but it was sooo good.

The other interesting thing about Laos (okay, probably the legitimately interesting thing) is that it is a communist country. There are hammer and sickle flags everywhere. The one touristy thing we had time to do was climb the Patouxai arch, a monument to honor fallen soldiers. It was a pretty impressive monstrosity.

Now we're back in Hua Hin, getting ready for the week. We have to teach all week. No Christmas break for us! Although we may or may not have Friday off, due to some meeting. I have been asked to choreograph the kindergarten Christmas dance for the Christmas celebration on Wednesday, and Richard is playing Christmas songs at his school. I had one dance practice so far, which involved ten tiny girls in Santa hats, lots of miscommunication, one child breaking down in tears, and a whole lot of Cute. Christmas is definitely recognized and celebrated, but more as a Western spectacle than anything else. I'm getting a little sad to be missing Christmas at home, but we have some friends here in town, so we'll make sure to celebrate. Happy holidays!

Visa Run

2008-12-18T02:19:00.000-08:00

One of the big hassles of living in Thailand is the struggle to stay legal. Richard and I knew we'd have to do a visa run at some point. We got a 60 day tourist visa before coming to the country, but we need a non-tourist visa to legally work. We were always planning to get this visa in Bangkok. It takes about three weeks to process, so we were planning on putting in our paperwork, and then dashing to the Myanmar border for a stamp to renew our tourist visa while the non-tourist visa finished processing.

However. Our coordinator here insisted that we needed to go to Laos to get our visa. This was news to us, and was going to be a much more expensive trip than we had budgeted for. After explaining that we really couldn't afford to go to Laos, our coordinator offered to pay for a van to take Richard and me, along with the three other teachers from our program who are in Hua Hin. to Laos.

So, here we are in Laos! We took the van overnight, got to the border at 5 am, and spent the day until about noon waiting in various lines to get into the country and get our visa processed. After a nap, some food and some coffee, we're ready to explore Vientienne, but we've only got a night here. We pick up our paperwork tomorrow, and head back to Thailand.

Laos seems pretty cool. There are baguettes everywhere. Good bread is hard to get in Thailand, so this is very exciting. Apparently northern Laos is beautiful, but we have no time to see it. Hopefully we'll get a chance to come back. That's my only insight so far. Bread! Mmmm. I'm pretty sleep deprived.

Happy Monkey Day!

2008-12-14T01:10:00.000-08:00

This morning, Richard informed me that it is monkey day today. So happy monkey day! Speaking of monkeys, Richard and I saw a bunch yesterday. We took a songtow to Kao Takiab, and there are monkeys who live at the Wat there. Kao Takiab is a mountain that juts right out into the gulf, and there is a beach right next to it, so after climbing a mountain and seeing some monkeys, we played frisbee on the beach. Living in a place with both mountains and beaches is pretty exciting.

Richard and I have both been at our schools for a week, and things are going pretty well so far. I haven't really had to teach yet, but I start for real tomorrow. Richard had to teach on his first day, with no time for lesson planning. But it seems like it's gone pretty well. We're both realizing that classroom management with kids who know practically no English is going to be challenging, but we'll do our best. I'll write more about my school after I've been teaching a little longer.

Now that we're not staying downtown, Richard and I are starting to really like Hua Hin. The weather has been beautiful, the beach is gorgeous, and the sea food is plentiful, delicious, and relatively inexpensive. Our coordinator here treated us to this meal last week. Mmmm.

And here's me on the beach at Kao Takiab:

Kids with a dog on the beach:

An elephant, just walking down the road:

And the principal of my school, with a dog in a car:

There was a random dog show at my school on Friday. My school is really close to the palace where the royal family stays when they're not in Bangkok. Apparently the dogs who performed were the grandchildren of the King's favorite dog. It was pretty entertaining.

So that's it for now. I hope everyone has a great monkey day!

Hua Hin is like Florida but more Thai, so don't worry

2008-12-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

We moved into our apartment yesterday. It's a spacious studio apartment (oxymoron, right?) in a neighborhood full of students. I'm sure we'll take some exciting pictures as we spent 1500 baht at the local Walmart equivalent decking it out. It was interesting to learn that in Thailand, even in the most westerner friendly store in town, non-fitted sheets do not exist.

Our neighborhood is nice and Thai, people stare at us when we walk by instead of trying to get us to buy suits and massages. In short, it's nice and what we wanted.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! My birthday was pretty fun. We had a bunch of people down from Bangkok for the weekend. We went out Friday night, I had a bit too much SangSom (it turns out, it doesn't take much), and did not win my birthday party, as no one should do.

Ouch

2008-12-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

So, now I'm the girl who let her boyfriend climb out of a window in the middle of the night, and didn't even wake up when he left this hole in the roof about a story below us. Sorry, Richard.

The government was voted out! New elections! Exciting.

We're in Hua Hin now. It is such a beach town. So much like Florida. We're staying at a guest house until Saturday, when we get to move into our accommodations. And then we start working on Monday...

Crazy story

2008-12-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

After a late night celebrating the end of our course we went to bed. At some point during the night, during a dream, I found myself climbing over something and reaching for the ground with my foot. I couldn't reach it, so I hung from the edge and let myself drop. After I found the ground, I walked around a little and scoped out my surroundings, then I tried to climb onto something else, and started falling. I caught myself, pulled myself up, and woke up.

After I woke up, I realized that I had climbed out my third story window, dropped onto the corrugated metal roof of a building just outside mine (breaking through the metal, walked around on it, tried to get onto the balcony of someone else's hotel room, fallen through the metal there, and pulled myself up. At this point I'm fully awake, in my boxers, bleeding, and stuck on top of this roof. I walked all around it trying to figure out how to get down, but short of shimmying down a palm tree, I can't figure anything out. So I lie on the roof until I hear someone walk by and I call out in Thai and English, "Help!" Eventually someone from our program hears my voice and calls the front desk. They come and let me into a side window and I scramble half naked back to my room.

It takes about a dozen bandages and gauze pads to get me covered up, by that time it was about 5:30am. I went back to bed (with the windows and doors locked) and woke up a bit of a wreck at noon. I eventually decided that, even though my cuts weren't that bad, I'd rather not get tetanus, so I went to the emergency room. There was no wait, and I got my cuts cleaned a tetanus booster, all for 100 Baht (about $3). I paid the hotel 800 Baht ($25) for the substantial damage to their roof and now all I have is a bruised heel, a handful of small wounds, and terror of falling asleep to show for the whole ordeal. I am really lucky that that's the worst that I've got.

As far as I can tell I've never sleepwalked before. I know my sister used to a long time ago. I talk in my sleep pretty regularly, but this is just crazy. It's good to know, I guess. I can make sure that I keep windows and doors locked. I could sleep handcuffed or in a tight sleeping bag or something, but that may be overkill. I'd be a lot more terrified if I hadn't heard Mike Birbiglia's story on this episode of This American Life.

Anyway, I'm fine now. Of all the weird things to happen in Thailand, I sure wasn't expecting this.

How Many Farang Can You Fit In a Tuk-Tuk?

2008-12-01T07:13:00.001-08:00

At least six, but probably more. (Ben's up next to the driver taking the picture). And a teaser: Richard's got a crazy story coming up soon...

All done with the practice kids....

2008-11-29T02:44:00.000-08:00

We got through the test batch nicely. After a week of teaching short lessons to (relatively) well prepared and behaved children, we start in Hua Hin on the 8th. That gives a week to chillax until we get started. Also, I hear there are lazy stray monkeys all over Hua Hin. That sounds so eerie and awesome, I don't really know what to say.

But as far as teaching goes, my lesson on Tuesday was discouraging, but the rest of mine went well enough (on my self evals they hovered between C- and C+) and the other teachers have been giving me enough positive feedback that I've resigned myself to the fact that I may do okay at this. Laura's a star, she doesn't need any reassurance or anything, she's great. But I think I may be able to hang. Also, compared to everyone else in our program, we've got a pretty posh teaching situation. Only 250 kids in the school, 30-40 per class, estimated 18 contact hours a week and minimal outside class work (no leading English clubs or teaching in English camps, just "gate duty", whatever that is). And if it's terrible, we'll just go to the beach every day and play with the monkeys.

Thai Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T02:23:00.001-08:00

I was a little sad to be missing Thanksgiving at home, so I decided to pamper myself on Thanksgiving day. After I finished my lesson planning, I went to get my first Thai massage. For 100 bat (3 dollars), I got an hour's worth of pummeling, stretching, and kneading. I was warned that Thai massages are a bit intense, but it seriously hurt! About half of the time it felt really good, but the other half was incredibly painful. Knees and elbows were used, and my body was contorted into positions that I didn't think were possible. I felt pretty good when it was done, though.

Some people were going downtown for a Western-style Thanksgiving dinner, but the rest of us went to get a more traditional Thai meal of soup in clay pots. All of the ingredients came on separate plates, and we added them one by one to let them cook. It was delicious. We even had a guitarist playing some great music in the background. It wasn't the Thanksgiving I'm used to, but it was a good substitute.

The political situation in Thailand has been a bit intense as of late, but we haven't been very affected by it. Traveling into Bangkok is a but challenging, but Richard and I may be able to get to Hua Hin without going through Bangkok. It will be interesting to see how the conflict works itself out. The government seems to be trying hard to avoid violence, but I think the police are starting to try to clear protesters from the airports today. Here's a more qualified source on the subject: BBC News Article

In other news, Richard and I finished our teaching practice and we're now completing a Thai culture course that we need to legally teach in Thailand. We spent most of today learning how to make toys and bamboo flowers. Not too strenuous. We finish the course tomorrow and then we have a week before we start teaching. Teaching! There's Richard at teaching practice. The kids at our second school were freakishly good. I saw Richard teaching twice and he did a really good job, so don't believe his horror stories. It will be sad to say bye to all the people we've spent the last three weeks with. We ended the course with some crazy karaoke, and then tomorrow, we all go our separate ways.

Teaching?

2008-11-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

"It's been really fun" - Laura

I can't believe we've been in the same school.

This teaching thing is crazy. I didn't sign up for this. What's going on? Since when do kids not know the word 'sad'? It's like they're not even trying. Always jabbering on in their silly nonsense talk and "reading" the curliwigs that are all over the place. Honestly!

But seriously, I have hope, but my lesson today was terrible. It's kind of embarrassing how badly it went. I undershot their abilities and underprepared for them to sneak away, stock up on straws, and hit each other with them. The guy after me didn't even get to any material because he just had to focus the kids. I'm dumb.

I am excited about Hua Hin, though word on the streets is that there are kids there too and I will be expected to be around them in some capacity. Dammit!

Teaching Practice

2008-11-24T22:59:00.000-08:00

Richard and I have had two days of teaching practice so far, and it's gone pretty well. We were initially surprised at how low a level the kids were at. Richard was teaching a lesson on emotions, and he made a happy face, and asked the kids how he felt. They knew "happy," but when he drew a frowning face and asked the same question, the kids were stumped. "Face" was the best answer that he got. But we both got through our lessons pretty well. I had really little kids today, and they were so cute! They know a lot of basic words, like animals and colors, but have a lot of trouble with sentences. It's been really fun. The kids have been pretty well behaved in my group, but Richard encountered some terrible behavior today. Like kids anywhere, they'll start hitting each other, speaking out of turn, etc. And when they get excited, it can be difficult to settle them down. But at the beginning of the lesson, they all say in unison, "good morning teachaaaaa." And at the end, "thank youuuuu teachaaaaaa." Cutest thing ever. But, as Richard says, "cute is dangerous." I'm gonna have to be careful.

Right now, I'm in one of the millions of cafes that surround the university here. This might be the only one I've found so far that serves affordable food, serves coffee, and has wi-fi. I wish I'd found it sooner. It's lovely. I'm getting used to this lifestyle. Having a full-time job again is going to be a shock! But hopefully a good one.

Oh, and some news! Richard and I will be teaching in Hua Hin (see picture above). It's a beach resort town. It's fairly touristy, but is supposed to be really nice. A lot of Thai people go there for vacations, so it won't be all farang (foreigners). There are lots of beautiful beaches around there! We're pretty excited.

Muay Thai Pictures

2008-11-19T02:04:00.001-08:00

Here are the promised pictures.

Tiny Boxer (grinning with victory):

Blindfolded Boxer:

Kick to the head!

Bpai! Bpai! (Go!) Richard and I cheering.

Ladyboy:

That's about it. It was a great show. We went to a cool reggae bar afterward. It was fun.

Still having a blast! Teaching practice begins on Monday. Hopefully it will go well!

Muay Thai with Cabaret

2008-11-18T21:09:00.000-08:00

We went to a Muay Thai fight Monday night that was followed by a Ladyboy Cabaret. Where it was clearly targeting tourists, it was real fighting and real ladyboys.

We paid 350 baht to get in (a whopping $10.50) and had to fight to get the table we'd reserved, and after sitting a while, we noticed that the first fighters couldn't have been older than 8. What have we gotten ourselves into? Luckily that fight was relatively short and moved on quickly to real adults kicking each other in the head. Other highlights included a match where 5 blindfolded guys duked it out with one sighted referee making trouble. The real fights were pretty exciting, and Laura, who claimed to only come for the cabaret was standing and cheering and taking pictures at the most grisly moments. She does have bloodlust after all. Maybe we'll take a class together one of these days and she can take out all that latent rage.

Next came the ladyboy cabaret. It was like a normal drag show at first, with cheesy American pop, lipsyncing, makeup and camp. Then the tops came off, and those were boobs. Wow. Quite a show. Pictures will come soon.

Day Off!

2008-11-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

We had six days of class this week, so Richard and I wanted to make good use of our one day off. We decided to hike to Doi Suthep, a Wat on top of a mountain that we can see from our hotel. On the way out of town, we ran into Adam, a guy in our program, so we set off together. Things started off well. We came upon Wat Phai Hin within five minutes. It was a beautiful Wat, and there were about a dozen young monks playing in the yard.

We kept walking, and found ourselves on the grounds of a fancy restaurant for tourists. There was a waterfall! We climbed up it for a while, but it didn't seem to be a faster route up the mountain.

There's Richard and Adam at the waterfall. Things got a lot more difficult from this point forward. Every direction we went. we ran into an entrance to the Chiang Mai Zoo, and no one seemed to be able to tell us how to get to the Wat. Finally we backtracked a ways, started out again, and found a trailhead! We followed a trail up the mountain for about half an hour and then found the Wat Palat. This isn't the Wat we were looking for, but it was really cool! In addition to the normal assortment of beautiful Buddha statues, there were also old, stone figures wrapped in orange cloaks, and other statues of various people and creatures. I need to learn more about the stories behind these statues.

We decided that to try for the other Wat another day. We went to the Sunday Walking Market in the afternoon and I spent too much money on pretty things. We really liked this market, though. The night market in Chiang Mai turned out to be really touristy and kitschy, but the Walking Market was pretty laid back.

You have to barter for things, and its really easy to get caught up in the moment and spend more money on something than you're planning on. I think I still managed to get a couple decent deals. Anyway, enough of these rambling posts about pretty things. Next up: Thai Boxing and Lady-Boys.

Funeral

2008-11-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today is the funeral of the King's sister, Princess Galyani Vadhana. She died in January, but her funeral is just happening today. We were told that everyone would be wearing black today to show that they are in mourning. So, Richard and I dressed in black. Then we got breakfast in town. And no one was wearing black. But us. We feel kind of dumb.

Obamaaa

2008-11-12T17:31:00.001-08:00

When we were in Bangkok two days after the election, every time someone asked us where we were from and we told them America, they immediately would say some variation of "Obamaaa! You like Obamaaa?" Last night when we were downtown for Loi Kratong, I saw this lantern with Obama's face on it! Since we keep writing about Loi Kratong, I might as well give some more details about that. It's a festival to honor Buddha and to give apologies to the river for polluting it all year long. People float lanterns into the sky and small banana-leaf rafts down the river as an act of letting go of all the bad things in life. There's one more day of the festival, so after that, things should return to normal, and I won't have to worry about firecrackers exploding in my face every time I walk down the street!

I'm enjoying the class so far. The best dialog yesterday was as follows:

A: My favorite drink is Mekong River Snake Whiskey. What's yours?
B: My favorite drink is _______.
A: Let's have a drink.
B: Sounds good!

We've been learning about some other basic warmups and activities. I hope we start learning the details of teaching grammar soon, but I think everything we've done so far will be useful. The whole final week of the course will be teaching practice, which is great!

So we came to teach...

2008-11-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

We just got through our first day of teacher training, and it was quite an adventure. We spent a ton of time getting down these four-line dialogs that involved one fill in the blank. Here's an example:

A: I would like to be a doctor, what would you like to be?
B: I would like to be a ____________.
A: Good luck to you.
B: Good luck to you too.

Getting a room of college educated, English native adults to get through this exercise was hard. I can only imagine getting 50 rambunctious Thai kids through it.

After that, we went to see some more Loi Kratong festivities at the river. It was slightly less beautiful than the scene that Laura posted pictures of, but only slightly. It was also nice to see the locals shooting fireworks with the same care and consideration as Texans in the parking lot of a fireworks stand on the Fourth of July. There are hicks everywhere.

Bangkok and Loi Kratong

2008-11-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

So, it sort of bothers me when people go abroad and start a blog and then don't write anything until they go to a cool festival, and then post a whole bunch of pictures. But that's what I'm going to do! My excuse is that we haven't had consistent internet access. But right now, Richard and I are in a cute coffee shop with free wi-fi, where I got maybe the most delicious latte I've ever had. I am happy to know that I do not need to give up my coffee habit here.

We spent a day in Bangkok after flying in. Bangkok: well oiled machine for ripping off tourists. Everywhere we went, we were harangued by people trying to sell us things for jacked-up prices. We didn't love it there, but we saw some cool things. The Grand Palace was beautiful!

Bangkok was a bit of a disappointment, but Chiang Mai is lovely! We're staying right by Chiang Mai university, and the area around our hotel feels like any college town, with tons of little coffee shops and restaurants. I put on a long skirt to go out, and was surprised to see Thai students in shorts and tank tops, and generally looking more stylish than I ever do. Most of the restaurants don't have any English on their menu, so it's been fun to try to order things in Thai. Richard has been very successful with that, but all I ever really say is "thank you."

Last night, we were lucky to run into another person in our program who knows English teachers who have been living here for a while, so we got a chance to join a big group of people heading out of town for the first night of the Loi Kratong festival. We crammed 12 people into a songtow with another 3 hanging off the back and traveled out to a big field where thousands of loi (hot-air paper lanterns) were released into the sky. With fireworks constantly being set off, it felt a lot like the Fourth of July, but without any safety regulations. Seeing the sky lit up with floating lanterns was surreal and one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

Those photos don't even begin to capture it. Maybe I'll post a link to some better ones. Our certification course starts tomorrow, so we'll let you know how that goes. Sorry for such a long post! I'll try to be snappier from here on out.

We leave in 4 hours

2008-11-04T22:06:00.001-08:00

This is Richard and Laura's Thailand blog. We are Grinnell College graduates, and after a year or two of less satisfying work, we are looking to doing possibly awful work on the other side of the world. We're hella looking forward to updating you all with pictures, stories, and other embarrassing hoohah for the next 6 months. Enjoy!