Jub Jub Suphan! Chan Ja Kit Tueng Suphan Mak Mak!

The time has come. Suphan has been a wonderful home these past 12 months. Thailand has made me a very calm, blessed and happy person, mee kwarm sook mak loey! Here's just a few of the things that I have loved and will really miss about living in Thailand:

Sights: the wai greeting, cute students, dogs riding shotgun on a motorbike, pictures of the King in every store, restaurant and home, food carts pushing their way down the street, bugs for sale at the night market, elephants walking down the street, geckos climbing all over the walls, standing to watch the tribute to the King at the beginning of movies in theaters, peace signs in pictures, shoes lined up in the hallway, students walking single file into school, Oat climbing all over our table at Dton's restaurant, 555 all over my facebook wall, stuffed tuk-tuks, people sitting on chairs on top of bags of rice on a moving truck, old shirtless men sitting on their stoops late at night, babies on a moped...

Sounds: tuk-tuk motors, chanting monks, the students daily greeting "Good Morning Teacher," the Thai language, the band at Chaba Cafe, old-school Thai music, the Suphan accent, Thaienglish, people yelling "farang" at me, the gecko squeak, the national anthem every day at 6am, 8am, and 6pm, the ding every time you enter a 7-11, motorbike drivers going past yelling out "I love you!," the Thai reactions "oh-hooooo","aow","oyyy!", "chon gow, mot gow" at the bars, traditional Thai tv show at PTL, chup chup!, Grandma babbling in Thai at PTL, 25 Hours concerts...

Smells: fresh coffee, Thai street food, bug spray, loaded up on sunscreen, toasties from ImD. (Okay, I'll be honest, there are more smells here that I won't miss than those that I will...)

Touch: Thai massages, cramming my longish (in Asia) legs into a seat on the public bus, riding on the back of a motorbike, hugs from the students every morning when I walk down the hall, dancing to too much so much very much whenever it comes on, tuk-tuk rides around town, hot and sunny weather all year long...

Tastes: chili peppers, fresh fruit, som tom, Thai style iced coffee, bamee noodles, flower water, rice bread, banana shakes, pocky, sticky rice, pad thai, khao soi, beer with ice, fried donuts, grapow moo, Thai style omelettes, locally grown rice, cornettos from 7-11, kai jiew, siracha sauce...

I've now pretty much moved out of my apartment and I'm no longer an official "resident" of Thailand.  I'm off to live the backpacker life and be a vagabond for the next 5 weeks. Michaela has arrived and starting on Saturday we will head to Bangkok, up through Northeastern Thailand, into Laos, then I'll go back to Chiang Mai, and on to Pai and Mae Hong Son, back to Bangkok to pick up my brother, down to Koh Lanta, one final night in Suphan, and then on to Seoul, South Korea for a few days before I head back to St. Louis, Missouri, USA!

It's been amazing, Thailand. I'll always consider Suphan home and I'm so happy I've got such a big family here to come back and visit. Khop Khun Mak Mak Mak Mak Mak Ka!!

SYEP Good-Bye Ceremony
Photo by Clare

I love sweating, sweating's my favorite.

I have decided that my hardest job the next year may be staying hydrated.  It is so hot here I literally start sweating the moment I enter my hallway, I've been drinking tons of water, but this heat is hard to beat. (Did I mention this is their cool season?) The humidity is also something special, Nell and I made it about 5 full days before we both broke down to buy hair straighteners...I thought I could go without, but it was an out of control frizz fest.

I'm really liking my new digs - I've spent some time the past 2 days walking around, exploring the sights, and being a spectacle in town as one of few foreigners or "farangs".  Literally every time I walk down the street, into a store, or into a restaurant, everyone looks up and stares and giggles.  Occasionally I will hear a "Hello" or even a few "Yo"s, but for the most part it's a lot of smiles and "wais"  (a wai is a slight bow and the Traditional Thai greeting, I'm def. bringing this back whenever I return to the US).  There are very, very few people in our town that speak English.  Even the fellow teachers in the English Program that we met today (the English nicknames they chose are Bird and Star) were hard to converse with - I will be practicing my Thai daily!

My apartment is really nice, I have a massive King Size bed, Air Conditioning (!!), a TV (only 1 or 2 English channels, but hey, it will help out my Thai), a balcony, and a "wet bathroom".  The bathroom is...different.  The shower has no walls or shower curtain, I was scared the first time I took a shower that it would flood everything, but I actually managed to do OK, there's a slight step from my bathroom to my apt. so that water can't escape.  It's definitely something new.  There's also no hot water, which I thought would be awful, but it really is so hot here that it doesn't matter that much.

That's about all for my home tour - plenty of space for visitors though...start researching your tickets!  Our town is cute, lots of action in the markets, so many street vendors, and I've already identified several good places to buy a Thai iced coffee (gah-faa yen), so aroi! (delicious)  Today Nell and I checked out the Giant Dragon in town which is a Chinese temple and the Dragon Descendants Museum.  It was pretty sweet, we got a great view of Suphan Buri from the top and we made friends with two Thai women who laughed at every attempt we made to speak with them...at least we're trying! 

Also, you may have heard about the flooding in Thailand - no one here seems to be too concerned when we ask them about it, but I'm also not sure they understand the question, good thing my apt. is on the 4th floor!  We have noticed a lot of stores building cement walls around their entrances, which we're guessing is their way to protect it from the flood, I'll keep you updated if I'm taking a boat around town in the next few days...

New pics on Facebook.

If you would like to contact me, there are a few ways:

• Cell Phone: 084 542 0589 ( Country code is +66)
• Skype: sarah.e.rall

Thailand Tidbits:

• Not only am I living in the future because I'm 11-14 hours ahead of the US in terms of time zone, it's also the year 2553, because their calendar is the Buddhist Calendar.  
• There are more than 28 different varieties of bananas in Thailand!