A day in the life

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.