Thailand: It's Easy!

Time for some deets on exactly what I've been up to while I've been wondering around SE Asia for the past few weeks. The adventure began with a trip to the BKK airport to pick up Megh to bring her back to show off our little hometown among the rice paddies.  Suphanburi is small so we were able to show her the whole town in a day - the school, the market, the dragon, the tower, and then on to our favorite Som Tom restaurant.  If you've never had Som Tom - spicy papaya salad - I highly recommend you test it out, I'm not sure if it's as good in the States as it is here with all the fresh fruits and veggies, but add some sticky rice to the meal and you are golden.

That night we headed into Bangkok to hit up the bumping backpacking hot spot that is Khao San Road, home to countless street vendors, beer tanks, and blasting techno music.  It's definitely the place to be for backpackers.  The next day we tried to cram in as much of Bangkok as possible - The Grand Palace, Siam, and Chatuchak Market before hopping an overnight bus to the island of Koh Chang.

 Unfortunately, the overnight bus ended up only taking 4 hours, so we left Bangkok at 11:30 pm and were dropped off literally on the side of the road at 3:45 am.  Luckily, we were dropped off at a tourist office where we hopped in a songtow for a ride to the island ferry and we finally made it to the island and to our hostel (exhausted!) around 7 am.

Koh Chang is a gorgeous place and one of my favorite island stops in Thailand so far.  We stayed in a great little hostel called Rock Sand Resort with a balcony that was directly over the clear blue ocean. Our first major character of the trip was the hotel owner who we lovingly nicknamed Mr. Whiskers due to the very long hairs growing out of his chin - a trend we spotted all over Asia.  We could not understand anything he said to us, in Thai or English, during our stay there, but he would finish almost every answer to our questions with "It's easssssy." One of our first stops was a trip into the main area for one of the more interesting massage experiences I've had so far in Thailand.  As soon as we got there they had us strip down and covered us with little hand towels... interesting.  Due to some lucky timing on our part, there just so happened to be a parade going through town at that very moment, and the ladies doing the massage couldn't bear to miss it so they opened the curtains wide, and as we lay there covered in hand towels a line of children dressed like dragons and beating drums strolled past the windows while we put on a show of our own for the crowds outside.

Our last day in Koh Chang we had to give Megh the typical Thailand experience of riding an elephant.  We had a friendly elephant named Hong Thong (after a brand of Thai whiskey) who took us on a journey through a bit of jungle, over some rocks and through the trees.  Megh got her turn to sit on the elephant and play mahout and was quite the driver, if not a slightly nervous one.  We finished up our time in Thailand with another sampling of Pad Thai for dinner and toasted with some Singha beer.  Next stop: Cambodia!

Bangkok: Hot and Muggy

I have arrived!

After a very, very long flight from Chicago to Seoul to Bangkok, I finally arrived on Tuesday evening.  So far it's been go, go, go with orientation by CIEE's partner in Thailand, the Overseas Education Group (OEG).

I've had my first Thai lesson, my first teaching lesson, an introduction to Thai culture, and yesterday Nell and I finally got some details on what we're doing at our school when we had a chance to meet with our coordinator.  We will be teaching in the English Program, a special program at the Sanguan Ying School for students who have been selected because they are good at speaking/understanding the language - sweet! I will be teaching 7th grade or M1 reading and writing and 9th grade (M3) reading and writing and fundamental English (basically conversation).  I will only have 25 students in each class, about 16 per week at 50 minutes a piece.  This is definitely lucky considering the other teachers at our school have been told they will be teaching to a class of 40-50 students. We were also informed that on Tuesdays we have to wear a pink shirt, on Wednesdays a white T-shirt for the English Program, and on Thursday a school uniform.  Guess it's time to go shopping for pink!  We're teaching in the city of Suphan Buri in the province of Suphan Buri and our apartment is supposedly right next to the school, which will make for a very easy commute.

So far a highlight of Thailand has been the food, obviously.  It's been entertaining to walk up to a food stand and point to a picture but have no idea what I'm ordering, and what I get always looks vastly different than the picture -but it still tastes delicious!  A few of us went to dinner one night and when they brought the food out none of it looked like anything we had ordered, so we all just picked a dish that looked good and went for it.  I'm definitely going to have to get over my picky eating habits since I will likely have no idea what I'm eating for the next year.  I've at least mastered the food basics: Chicken (Gai) and Pork (Moo).  I'm still learning the proper ways to eat - Thais don't ever use knives, they use the fork as a knife to push the food onto a spoon, which is what they use to eat everything.  I've had some difficulty trying to cut my food with a fork and spoon - especially chicken wings with last night's welcome dinner...it was not pretty.  

We went to the Grand Palace yesterday, a beautiful sight to see, last time I went (in 2004) we had no tour guide, so it was great to hear a bit about the Palace and Thailand history as we explored. Up next: a few more Thai lessons, some teaching practice, and on Monday - a trip to Kanchanaburi to ride elephants and go bamboo rafting.  From there it's off to my new home for the next year - Suphan Buri!  I can't wait to finally not be living out of a suitcase and to explore my new digs.  Here's a few pics of my adventures so far...