Blog posts!

Hi all,

I am a in Chiang Rai. Internet is spotty and having trouble translating the available desktop computer to full English. I have my post ready I just need to transfer it to web with pictures. Sorry it's taking a while.

Hot Tuna

Yesterday was a dandy.  My class went well and I have been receiving good feedback from my instructors. My Thai is getter a little better day by day, but let it be known that I have barely taken the edge off.  In other words I know nothing.  On Tuesday night four of us went in search of some live music. Success on Walking Street.  We visited an outdoor cantina-like bar. The band, Hot Tuna.  5 Thai men, not taller than 4'11.5" signing and playing, Classic American Rock.  They were excellent, I was impressed. Doug and Twin you would approve.

Later we headed to a night bar for an hour.  It has more of a club feel.  Neon and black lights.  Few people were there, as we were early.  If there's one thing I have learned, the night life is just beginning around that time.  We danced to mostly American pop music. Favorite song choice of the night was Gangnam style.  This song makes everyone smile, doesn't matter the age, gender, or ethnicity.  Several of the Thai's were laughing at us.  I am sure we looked ridiculous, I for one lack moves. To the left muy thai on the streets. Back to homework I went.

Yesterday in class, one of the ladies brought longan (left) to share.  This fruit was interesting.  The exterior looked like baby potatoes.  Once you peel the fruit, a white segmented fleshy clear-white fruit awaits.  The name comes from it's appearance.  Once peeled it looks like an eye.  The occasional black seed in the fruit resembles a pupil.  The name means dragon eye.  The texture is like that of a grape and the taste is similar to a mild sweetened grapefruit.  I like them chilled, traditionally served at room temperature in Asia.  The fruit is native to China and India.  The  fruit grows in clusters on tree in sandy regions, fruits from November to March.  1/2 cup of longan's is about 60 calories, high in potassium and vitamin C.  The fruit is commonly seen in Chinese medicine.




 For supper I had a Thai vegetable stirfry. I asked for spicy but it didn't seem spicy in the least bit.
In the evening I made a stop at Friendship Supermarket for some yogurt (below).  I decided to buy flavors that I have not had yet.  In the evening I tried the top left yogurt.  I chose this one specifically due to the fact that pic looked pretty.  I broke the seal and it had a honey nut smell to it.  The color, a pale brown with brown chunks.  I took a spoonful, hmm, the taste? I'm gonna go with a pungent  "foot and celery" taste.  Yes, I too wish you were there for the experience as well.
This morning I had the tropical one below it.  This on the other had was good.  I have yet to try the other two.  Cranberry yogurt? Sounds good to me. The other (bottom right container), is corn, cereal, and bean yogurt - jealous?  Ha, looking forward to the flavor explosion tomorrow morning. Off to teach I went.  One of the students gave me 2 bottles of chilled water and 2 bottles of interesting orange drinks, with 4 straws.  Straws are necessary in certain settings, drinking straight out of the bottle can be seen as poor manners.  The orange drink I tried, in appearance resembled Tang.  I am not much of a juice drinker, but clearly I wouldn't miss the opportunity to try something new.
I took a sip once I got back to my apartment and a mysterious chunk floated in my mouth.  This caught me off guard, but then I realized it was a fruity-gel.  Then I remembered that many Asian juices/drinks have fruit-jells in them.  Honestly it wasn't bad.  Hmm, it may go well with my corn, cereal, and bean yogurt tomorrow. Ya?

I had my Thai listening, written, and verbal examinations today.  The testing went well.  I don't have my scores back but I am not worried.  The test consisted of numbers in context, writing directions in Thai and translating Thai to English; listening to Thai speakers and filling in blanks with Thai phonetics; answering questions about a written dialogue in Thai phonetics; and answering questions in full sentences that my instructor asked in Thai, ie what is your last name?, Where are you from? What is you favorite drink?

 Tonight my friends wanted to get food at a coffee house.  The food looked descent, but the fact that it was a 'chain restaurant' was a big turn off to me.  It reminded me off a Starbucks that served food. The food was portioned oddly, almost like an upper-scale TV dinner.  Instead of dining, I socialized with them during their meal, then headed off to a vegetarian place that I have been to three times now.  Each time I order something different.  The food is good and inexpensive.  This evening I ordered the yellow vegetable curry, 70 Baht.  I splurged and got some brown rice for 10 baht.  Not many places serve brown rice.  I ordered it take away, meaning to go.  While I was waiting (7 minutes maybe) I was served chilled safe water, amazing.  Don't take chilled water for granted.  Most places in Asia charge for their bottle water. Total cost, 80 baht ($2.60) and I will have the rest of it for lunch tomorrow, all in all good meal choice.  Not only that, the staff is so friendly.  If I was a local, I would frequent this little restaurant.

Thought I'd share a little activity of mine that I did in class yesterday. We were talking medical situations.  Keep in mind that none of my students have a medical background and they are at high beginner to intermediate English.  I gave them each a term.  There were to write three related words under the term.  The one that got me was under the word "stomachache" - student writes one word: "intravenous drip."  It was obvious that she just pulled this out of her book.  Later I looked at her book, in the medical section there was a picture of an examination table, termed: couch in English.  I have to say, translations keep ya smiling in these parts.

Tomorrow brings my last day of teaching.  I love my class of ladies, there are so sweet and grateful for the time I give them.  But.... I am so ready to depart Pattaya. It's been a busy couple weeks with projects and homework.  Moving onward. Where to? Chiang Mai! This is northwest Thailand.  A region I have wanted to explore.  I leave Saturday afternoon via bus.  It should be about a 12 hour trip (with some stops).  It won't be bad as I will travel mostly through the night.  I am excited. So excited. Ready for some fresh air.  I am dying to go for a run. There is no place to run in these parts - how is that possible? Trust me on this.  I am certain that if I started jogging or running here, people would think that I was A) an idiot, B) running from something, C) I just shoplifted or D) I am trying to commit suicide.

I have my final review tomorrow early afternoon and then hopefully receive my certification.  In the afternoon the LC program is taking us to a Japanese restaurant. I am looking forward to it, I have heard good things.  Until we meet again! Love, H

Kindergarten Monday

Monday began with 3-5 year olds.  To the left is the kindergarten school that I was observing as a part  of my training.  The kids were a little crazy since it was Monday, getting back in the swing of things.  Two girls I am training with teach these 32 kids.  Yes, several of them are still in diapers.  There are teacher assistants (TAs) in the room that take care of the bodily fluids and strict discipline.  These TAs carry rulers with them.  They don't always use the rulers, they are more of a threat than anything. But I did see a kid get a firm tap while I was there.  The kids all wear uniforms.  Girls in plaid dresses and boys in plaid shorts with pale blue button-down shirts.

Shoes at the door, I sat barefooted on the tile flooring within the small school house and observed the kids, learning fruit and color associations.  The kids started out well enjoying some songs they learned last week; a hello song and a name song.  The new song was, Peel Bananas. Some kids were into the songs, others were more interested in straying off.  I found it interesting to watch the different behaviors with such a large group of young kids.  Overall, typical behavior for the given age group. There was a little boy that kept smiling at me, he was turned away from the activity circle.  Pretty cute.  Two little girls would watch me and would randomly come sit by me individually.  They would each take turns.  One would sit by me and smile and say nothing. The other, in the picture to the right is showing me her stickers that she just got in class.  Adorable!  She talked very softly and would point out the colorful fruit stickers and smile at me.  As I continued to observe the rest of the class, I watched kids tearing each other's stickers, some eating the stickers, and others calmly involved in the activity.  At the end of class the head teacher gave me and the two teachers lunch, rice and a vegetable tofu soup.  The soup had glass noodles, carrots, tofu, and leafy green in it. It was simple but good.

After class I went to my dorm, had lunch and FaceTimed.  I was a bit tired for Thai class, but was ready to make the most of it. Ten minutes in, all the power went out.  The power outage took out the half the street for about 45 minutes.  The classroom was rather dark so we had a break.  I went to work on some projects.  The lights resumed and we returned to our classes.  I rather enjoyed the blackout. The picture to the left is a typical electrical situation in Thailand.  This one isn't bad, as it's actually more than 6 feet off the ground.  If you look at most of the power lines here, they look like clumps of tangled wires.

In the evening I grabbed supper with the girls, we wanted to eat outside.  When we got to the eating place, the menu had pictures with all of the food. Turns out the pictures are nothing like the actual food you get.  My friend ordered garlic stuffed pork.  When the plate came, it looked like she got fried, sliced bird necks.  The looked like tubes of meat that were cut in 1" pieces.  She was a trooper and tried them, but couldn't chew them.  We were certain she did not get pork.  We still have no idea what it was, the waiter assured us that it was garlic stuffed pork.  There was nothing garlic or stuffed in these fried meat chunks.  I ordered cashew chicken with stir-fried vegetables, but they were out. So, I asked for something similar.  I ordered the stir-fried vegetables with spicy Thai chicken.  I was surprised and confused when I saw my plate.  I was so hungry, I thought I would eat anything...wrong.  The first bite was a very fibrous vegetables that was a combination of bitter fiery horseradish stewed tree trunk.  I couldn't quite swallow it all, some of it was not chewable.  I think to myself, well the chicken should still be good.  I chopstick through my plate and realize that all the chicken is in the form of chicken bones/joints.  The joints/bones were mostly gristle and fat, I didn't see any meat.  I would say that broth was 'ok,' but I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the plate.  But all in all, this is probably one of the only not-so-great meals I have had.  It was inexpensive, but I felt bad wasting it.

Today, Tuesday morning, class went well.  I had 4 students today.  I taught them about seasons, seasonal clothing and language articles (a, an, the). For snack, one of the ladies brought bananas and fresh sticky rice.

And in case you are like Nick, wondering if there is sauerkraut in Thailand... the answer is 'yes.'

 

Flash Weekend

Thai cashew nut chicken

Miss me yet? I have been keeping myself busy.  Leaving off with Friday, I finished with teaching and Thai classes and moved onward to the weekend. First stop,  Friday night karaoke - downstairs. In the lower level of the dorm, the building shares foundation with the "Margaritaville Bar."  Let me tell ya, hopping place.  I would say the main customers live above the bar.  This includes 4 retired white men with their Thai wives or mistresses.  I assume they live here, there are always in the bar area visiting.  I don't see much drinking going on.  Within five minutes of the Karaoke experience, the one white male (~65 years maybe) was 2-stepping with his younger Thai wife to... Brittney Spears. I cannot compete with that.  It was a rather chill night for me after a busy week.
 
And Saturday, the ladies and I tackled a nearby island beach.  The island is approximately 20-30 minute boat ride from mainland.  I will leave few details out. Me and several foreigners (Russians and Italians) drifting away to a magical island of foreigners and Thai employees.  I spent 100 Baht on a chair, originally being told that included a cold beverage.  Turns out just the chair. Fine, and cheap enough..not a big deal. Soaked subtle amounts of sunshine and shade.  I swam some, but the overcast weather began to chill me soul. Despite the busy beach, I enjoyed the company of my friends!

Sunday, Sunday... Let's finish this weekend off with a giant smile, shall we?. How do we do this? Let me take you for a safe and well planned adventure.  Bus to arrive at my dorm building between 1:15-2pm.  And 2pm we have a bus.  A bus of English brothers, 1 young docile Aussie and his non-talking/moving female Thai companion. We pay up for a full day of adventure at an "elephant sanctuary."  Off we go chaps.

We arrive at the "sanctuary." We are about to turn. Oh goodness, what beholds my eyes. GIANT WORDS - Tiger ZOO TIGER ZOO TIGER ZOO..nothing that says "Sanctuary,"and nothing in Thai. "Oh splendid." At that point I was so giddy that I could not stop my leprechaun toes from River Dancing my way into paved lots of GIANT MEGA BUSES. How many Mega buses?  Too many to count.  It was then that I associated the giant buses with lots of happy faces.  1/9 of China was at the zoo that day.  If you know my love of cultural immersion and bottle-necking, then you know the exceeding level of happiness that overcame me a that moment.

The van halts. I leap out of the van in my knee high tube socks, Birkenstocks, a digital watch (with three times zones) and my flannel fanny pack.  Yes, a Fanny pack, always a must - fully equipped with my Polaroid camera, Disney ears, and a lighter.  Within moments seconds a perky Thai slapped a brick-size name tag on my blouse. It MY NAME IS Holly.  Yay, I screamed in merriment, as I realized this was the heavy duty adhesive tape.  We made way to the gates and all huddled in a group with our name tags, cameras, and fanny packs. "This is going to be be swell," I say quietly to myself, looking to the eastern sky.

Without missing a beat I find an itinerary, secured in a plastic sleeve, with in my hands.  Perfect. I take a glance. Perfect. I have from 3:30-5:30 to see an entire zoo and four animal shows with a traveling zoo group before I frollic back to the bus-van. "But how will we stay together?," I think to myself. WRISTBANDS, we got matching WRISTBANDS. Lavender in color.  "It's 3:30:05 we must get going," said the Zoo Tour guide.

FLASH FLASH FLASH some Asian took my photo. 

"Now everyone look here through the freshly finger printed glass window.  These are tigers drinking milk from a pig" says the guide.  A pig. "The tiger says RARH", says the perky guide. Its now 3:30:45. We see bunnies through glass, well somewhat. "Attention group, to see the bunnies please look through the eye piece of your new Chinese friend's camera 6 rows in front of you. Perfect. I saw it all. Thank you Nikon super lens.  FLASH FLASH another Asian takes my picture.

"Anyone want a photo holding and feeding a tiger cub with fake flowers, a fake tiger, and fake logs, and zoo logo in the background?" I knew this was my calling, as my mom has for years talked about feeding and holding a tiger cubs. How great. I pay. I am taken to a booth. I sit on a perfected fiberglass log. I sit within seconds there is a magnificent red towel brilliantly draped on my legs. A cub is handed to me with a bottle already positioned in its mouth. I hold the cub. FLASH FLASH. The tiger is removed from my hold within seconds. I am not going to say it was the best moment of my life, but I would say it's the best 7.5 sec experience of my life?

We moved onward to miraculous circus-like shows, as indicated in our I-tin-ERARIES. Wow! Do you know what we saw? We saw.. crocodiles with teeth, elephants with trunks, tigers with stripes, and Asians with floral print and Nikons. And it's 5:29. Making my way out of the zoo, I see a keepsake ceramic plate with my face on it. Yep. Not time to purchase, itineraries are itineraries.  I look at my itinerary and check the last item off, "LOAD THE BUS PROMPTLY at 5:30 pm.  I look down and see that my HELLO MY NAME is Holly is still in place. Success. To home I go.

I called that handsome gentleman of my exotic adventures. Together, we reconnected our weekends over FaceTime plumbing. Another success. Leaking shower, no longer leaking.  With his skill and my encouragement, we made it though the job.  Cheers! Happy Thai weekend to all.

Walking Street

 Good news, I now have my Blog settings in English. My class yesterday went well. Tan, brought me bananas - the night before I had went to the Friendship Market to buy bananas. I know have enough bananas for me and my Monkey friend. I have minis and the regular size.  Cutting to the chase yesterday I went for a night walk.

 Friendship Market - my typical grocery stop

Shall we go for a walk? I am so in love with Thai night markets. So many beautiful fruits and vegetables.  I just wanted to spend the rest of my night there.  There are so many vendors that run up and down the streets.  I am excited to spend more time exploring other Thai markets and night markets.  These pics were taken quick because the girls were in need of food.  This happened on the way to Walking Street.

 Sushi anyone? So beautiful!

 

mango and tamarind

 Turns out MN State fair isn't the only place with things on a stick.

 

 

Thai cashew nut chicken with peppercorns - really good

 

Walking Street

Walking Street is a combination of Vegas meets, red light, meets Ripley's.  Plenty of better places to spend your time. Lots of bars and some Thai ladies. The food was good.

Walking Street

Happy Valentine

To answer the question for all, "Do they celebrate Valentine's Day in Thailand?" Yes, appears so.  Likely more of a Westernized influence. I saw flower shops on my walk last night with various chocolates, stuffed animals, but mostly fresh cut pink, white, and red roses. People were buying roses late into the night.  Hope all of you had/or are having a sweet day.


 I called my crush over my lunch break, and then around 7:30 pm in the evening (when it was Val Day for both of us). We had a date. Our first of three Val Day's that we have have had together. Well, somewhat together anyway. I stopped at the market for some wine. I chose an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon merlot. I was impressed with my selection.  I sipped the bottle in the classiest of ways. But not before I gave him his 6:30 am wake up call. Soon enough the coffee grinder was going.  He set me right in front of his coffee pot as it was brewing, romantic. Then off I went to his liquor cabinet. With full view of his kitchen as he cooked breakfast. I was there for every egg crack, slice of burnt toast, and of course the scramble of the egg. And yes the date wouldn't be right without some wine and coffee, Cheers!

I had some late night adventuring, but for now be patient. Pictures to come. I must go teach.

Khun bpen khon chaad arai, ka?

Water - CHECK. Successful shower - CHECK. One of the fastest showers I've taken in a while.  I didn't want to get caught with shampoo in my hair if the water went out.  Today was day 2 for teaching.  I had a fellow student as an observer, along with one of my Thai instructors.  The class went well, today we explored jobs and contractions. Excitement for me included birds passing in and out of the windows next to me.  During the break, Tan, one of my students brought fried taro root. The taro was sliced to the width of matchsticks, seasoned with toasted sesame seeds.  They were good.  If you have every tried vegetable chips, there is a similar taste.  Taro (a root-vegetable) is white-ish in color, with purple flecks. See picture, above.

My guest room in yellow, L side, 2nd floor

We didn't have a sit-down Thai language class today.  We were to venture out in the neighborhood and survey 5 people with 5 questions in Thai.  While I don't know Thai characters, I was able to listen to the words and tones used.  I then phonetically wrote their answers out. Curious how this went?  I started with a young high school girl, Malee.  She was talking with 3 boys (who were all sitting on their motorbikes, curbside).  She would giggle when I said some of the words in my questions, but then said them for me so that I could repeat them correctly.  She was sweet.  I asked the boys if they wanted to too.  Mali said, "they are too shy."  They just smiled and turned their heads when I looked their way.  For my other four interviews, I walked a little further down the road and saw a food vending cart. I talked with a couple young girl customers, the vendor (~40 year old woman), and the vendor's oldest son (~25 years old).  They all seemed to enjoy it and were quite friendly.  The son laughed when I would say certain words that involved deep ngggah-like sounds.  The vendor asked me to wait before I asked her the questions.  She wanted me to sit next to her.  As I sat next to her she prepared some Thai dishes, perfect! This was so neat.

She had an electric burner that sat a few feet above the ground, with a wok sitting on it.  She put a few tablespoons of oil in the walk, then two tablespoons of fresh chili pepper sauce. She let it simmer briefly, then added fresh cut chicken from her cooler.  She stirred the mix vigorously.  She then added sliced peppers, onions, and some thinly sliced, coined carrots. She then added three different sauces.  If I were to guess I would say fish sauce, fish paste, and soy sauce.  They were all dark brown/black in color.  She let this simmer for about 3 minutes.  She took about 1.5 cups of rice out of her heat cooler, placed it in a Styrofoam bowl and topped it with the small portion of spicy-chicken stir-fry mix.  It looked amazing, it's likely that I will be going there try a dish.

After I had finished with the questions, she and her son asked me their own question.  "Where you from?," where you live?" The woman said, "you beautiful" and giggled, "you very beautiful, you smile."  She also commented on my "beautiful skin.  She asked me if I cook Thai food, I said "I want to learn."  She smiled and said, "oh, very good, very good."  I told them I like spicy food and they both kinda laughed and said "ahh spicy....SPICY."  Overall, good assignment and great experience - ready to do some more of this.


Now, I have outside homework from the states.  My handsome half has asked that I find myself an exotic beverage today or tomorrow.  He clarified that it could be my today or his today or my tomorrow or his tomorrow.

I will say that I did make a trip to find a market.  As I headed down the street I hit the corner.  At the corner I noticed a Johnny Bravo-looking white man on a motorbike with two Thai gals on the back.  If that wasn't enough to stop me in my sandals his predator gaze would've without question. Within seconds he fires.. "Shah-Kst-shuTUV-ak-Muh-KOSH-gRSH  ((giant gust of vocal air))  -trush-Gz-ICH - ((spit)) - feeffen-PISH....." I follow that vulgar-filled, vowel-less display of ?words with thoughts of: "So if I wanted to not think twice about those words I would say he wanted to.. end my life,..with a little more thought I figure he just wanted directions to the nearest hair parlor.  It was odd and made me wish I knew a tiny bit of Russian.*

Onward, I make it to the "Friendship Market,"with its temple-looking architecture.  I have a tendency to spend a long time in grocery stores checking out new items and such.  It only gets worse when I see foreign items. I am seeing certain trends, globalization at its best and not-so-best. Common items include Oreos (many flavors), Kit-Kat, Pringles, pro-biotic yogurts, energy drinks, coca-cola light (only diet soda I have seen), Fanta (assorted flavors).  Interesting items include paprika or lobster flavored chips/processed snack foods, wasabe and seaweed flavored cashews, most cereals are European or American (up to $10 box, 300 baht) brands. And to my Wisconsin friends, quite a variety of cheeses.

I purchased some interesting beverages, on the right is a beverage called, Prove. "It is a natural source of phytonutrients, high in vitamin A,C,E...and best of all 13.52 mg of Lycopene - soon to have one healthy prostate.  The beverage contains: gac fruit (orange spikey fruit), grapes, pineapple, passion fruit, and berries. The two small containers are some sort of yogurt drink, the brand is Betagen. I see them all over in Asia.  There were several flavors, I couldn't choose so I decided on the ones that had pretty colors on them.

In the upstairs of the market I bought a tub to wash my laundry.  Manual agitation required Cindy.

Thoughts concluding the day
- Where is the Thai-underground passage to Russia?
- Do all Russian males fear bathing?

- I wonder if I could find a Russian yoga bar*
- Spanish Soap opera...in Russian*
* Dear twin, I am happy knowing that you follow me.
Stay tuned to see what kind of love finds me tomorrow.  Love you all.

Front and Center

Sabai dee mai ka! Yesterday, we started our training classes and lesson planning.  It went well. We went over some basics in Thai culture and greetings.  Also, we learned to Wai (pronounced "Y"). We learned four ways to Wai. In addition we did our lesson planning and went over the structure of our remaining weeks of training.

Last night, the 5 of us headed out in search of some basic teaching and food necessities.  We went to a department store called Big C.  Think of it as an Asian version of Walmart.  I was bought a notebook, muesli, whole grain cereal, and mango yogurt.  While in the store, I have never had my picture taken by so many strangers. Perhaps they know I am not from around these parts. We walked home, some ate out. I chose the mango yogurt with cereal for supper, delicious. 



I woke up this morning with no water, no shower.  Getting ready was easy enough.  I went to my class was in the upper level of the Pattaya Baptist Church (see picture).  It maybe about a 1 minute walk from where I am staying.  I got to the room and there was one student there.  She appeared seemed to be the "church lady-type."  She was tidying up the room and greeted me with a big smile.  She introduced herself and asked if I wanted coffee or tea.  The next student came in (early 40s) and she began cutting up mango she had purchased at the market on her way in.  She also had fried bread (similar to a donut hole) and sticky rice.  The sticky rice is cooked in a banana leaf - has a clay-like texture.  Once you bite into the rice, the center is pink (I don't know what the pink is)..my homework.  The class filled up with seven students, two were in their early 20s and the rest, 40-50 years old.  They were all very kind and happy to be learning English. The is something to be said about that.  Because Thai names are long, they each have shortened names or nicknames.  They each wanted to write their names on the board for me to see.  My favorite, Jame^^.  When I asked how it was pronounced she said, Jaim.  I repeated it, it still sounded like Jaim to me.  Then she said, "James,"... you know James Bond?"  Her name is JamesBond. Yep.  The funny thing is she is cute, young, and shy.  I just love thinking about how she came up with this name.

Sticky Rice in a Banana Leaf, student made

Overall, this class of women appeared very appreciative.  The class ended in a prayer.  I am assuming it was a Baptist prayer, it ended in Amen - the only word I recognized.  "See you tomorrow teacher" - this was weird hearing.  I haven't really thought of myself as a teacher.  It is also interesting being so highly respected by those that are much older than I.  Teachers are highly respected in Thailand.  The government subsidizes much of the English learning programs and English speaking schools.

PS - I showed a couple of ladies in class my bite on my arm.  They started talking to each other in Thai.  The one grabbed a jar from the shelf. Two words, Tiger Balm.  She rubbed it on my arm and said, "there."  My mind went straight to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where the father sprays Windex on everything - believing it's the miracle cure all.

After class, I had some extra time and still no water to do laundry, so I Skype'd Nick. It was pretty successful.  He was dressed in his John Deere stocking hat, a sweatshirt, and pants... I was in shorts and a tank top.  Only in two different world would we be in such opposite roles.  Time went by fast talking with him, then off to class I went.

We kickstarted our first Thai class, this was interesting and rather fun.  We worked with the 5 tones in Thai, Ex. "maa" can me said in high (high tone to high pitch), flat, rising (start low and ends high), falling (sounds whiny), low (from the throat) tones. For the "maa" -> flat tone means to come, low and falling tones have no meaning, high tone means horse, and rising tone means dog.  Have you mastered that yet? If not, maybe just start with a good ol' hello/hi : Sabai dee mai ka/krab. You end with ka if you are a girl speaker and krab if you are a male speaker.  This can be used to say hello or goodbye. Kinda cool stuff.  The class ended with lesson planning.  Tomorrow I am teaching conjunction pronouns and job related vocab.  I have some fun activities planned lets see what happens.

After class, I went for a walk.  Some of us got some food at a hut-like bar.  I ordered spicy chicken with herbs and spices.  I had no idea what I was ordering.  There was a flavor explosion I cannot explain - tangy, herb-y, spicy.  I liked it but the texture was so odd to me that I couldn't finish it. So.. I got frozen yogurt. Vanilla chocolate chip and coconut. Coconut wins hands down! Fresh coconut was pureed into it.


My water still fails to work tonight. Supposedly we get water every afternoon. Let's just say that if I don't have water in the morning it may not be pretty.  Not in the warm humid weather. .And there's my laundry that I haven't been able to hand wash yet.
Until tomorrow. Cheers!

Sihanoukville to Pattaya

We left for Sihanoukville Friday afternoon.  We stayed in a guest house, I lucked out with my own room.  I decided to hangout by the beach.  I visited with friends a 4 little Thai girls.  They spoke English well.  They were selling bracelets to pay for their schooling.  They called them, "boyfriend bracelets."  They asked a couple of my friends if they had boyfriends, when my friends said, "no," the girls said, "that is why you need a boyfriend bracelet." One 12 year old girl was asking me lots of questions and singing American pop songs to me. She asked, "do you have a boyfriend." She said, oh I make you bracelet, you love him. I write your name heart and his name."  She was very eager to make a bracelet. I told myself, I don't need a bracelet and was not going to give in...  She said you come back tonight. I said yes, I was going to have dinner with my friends.

 That night we had supper together as a group, along the beach.  There was a boardwalk that stretched the beach, many restaurants/bars. Food was displayed in simple glass cases with seafood, pork, chicken, and beef.  The tables lined the sand.  We sat in papasan chairs with our feet in the sand. We had water view and lantern lighting. I ordered a Khmer spicy lemongrass chicken kebab which included grilled bread, khmer salad (similar to coleslaw but with dressing on the side) and a potato. Delicious and fresh.  Everything we ordered grilled right next to us by young Khmer boys.  Soon enough the 12 year old girl found me. She said, hello, I have bracelet, two dollars.  There before me was a bracelet.  I have officially funded her education as well as another girl who conned me into rock paper scissors, I failed and owed her a dollar for a bracelet. Lesson learned. Later that evening, a few of us strolled down the boardwalks, fire dancers, fireworks, and lots of night music - much of the music was again, American pop music.

Saturday rolled around early. Nine of us set off for a boating adventure.  For $20 dollars we went on an all day boat cruise.  It included a tour guide, basic breakfast, jumping ship at 3 stories high, snorkeling (equipment included), lunch, swimming on a secluded island, white sandy beaches, lots of sunshine, trekking through forest, a game of Jianzi, Cambodia game where you kick a shuttlecock on the beach.

On the way there is was smooth sailing until we were in more open water, the boat was rocking with the waves.  We all chatted and told stories til we anchored down near an island.  We jumped ship - this was so much fun, never done anything like it. I did it a time or two.  Then I swam out to the island shore in my snorkel gear, always wanted to snorkel.  I saw lots of coral and spikey looking things.  I didn't see a lot of fish. It was so fun.  We then set out for Sun Island.  Enroute I heard yelling and commotion from the lower decks.  We looked over the side of the boat and there was a huge sea snake making its way though the salt water waves.  The snake was no wear near land 1/2-1 mi at the closest. It was about 5-6 feet long, dark brown. I liked my distance.  We ended up seeing another one making its way through large waves.  Soon enough I saw white sandy beaches ahead.

One we neared Sun Island, we had the option to being taken to shore by swim or boat. I swam.  The water was beautiful and warm.  I swam in the water and got stung by a jellyfish, the sting was minor and faded within 5-10 minutes.  We then set off with one happy tour guide, I think he smiled the whole time.  We walked barefoot through forest trails.  He pointed out several snakes "sleeping" in the trees.  What kind of snakes? The non-existent kind, I was gullible the first two times when he would point them out in trees - neither time did I look hard.  Turns out he was pointing out curled up vines within the trees. Hilarious fella'.  He through out several wise-cracks along the way. We trekked he climbed some trees and pointed out plants along with uses.

The trail ended and we looked down at a lagoon, there was only one way out of the forest.  We lowered ourselves into a knee-deep lagoon, ~90+ degrees.  The water was brown, as you would look down your legs looked golden.  The water is colored by the tea trees.  The Khmer consider the waters to be healing.  As we made our way through the guide pointed out mango trees.  As we went further along the waterway, we followed him single-file.  He then pulled up a net that stretched the length of the winding lagoon.  He wanted us to see what was in the waters.  We saw saw several fish, some dead, some alive.  Then the guide let out a yell and jumped back. I was near the end of the line so I had no idea what was going on.  Yep, a snake. Thankfully it was dead - the best kind.  Not sure on the type, but it was about 3' long.  Once we reached the end of the lagoon, we made our way up the banks and made our way to some beautiful, clear blue salt water. Then we spent the next 1.5-2 hours back to mainland.

Later Saturday night, Chinese New Year's Eve, we all met up for supper. Above I am enjoying fresh coconut shakes.  Susan and Mel are joining me in Thailand. I ordered a Khmer beef satay - was pretty good, but it was no SD beef. We all planned to go to a "night market" that would involve music, art, and entertainment.  We were told by an Aussie to visit it, we all forgot the name of the festival.  After paying two tuk tuk drivers that both took us the exact same wrong places, we gave up on the idea.  We went dancing near the water, which was just enough fun.

Sunday morning, we all met up for some for breakfast to say our see ya laters.  We left at 8:15 in the morning, for Thailand. To be an 8 hours trip. We set off, 1.5 hours in.  The van's silence by a loud crash of a noise.  As we moved from pavement to unpaved road, the abrupt slant of the road was enough to kill the suspension in the happy Asian bus. Our bus drivers spoke next to no English. He made several calls as we sat on the side of the road.  He talked very loudly into the phone, like a Russian speaking Khmer, with the occasion bit of obnoxious laughter.  I was in the front seat and kept staring at his long pointed finger nail, I'm just gonna say it - Creepy. He then turned the van around, us girls not having a clue what was going on.  He then drove two miles and parked in the center of the median, 4 miles east of the center of the sun. We asked how long, he said about 4 hours... We were speachless.  But within half our, the other van of the LCs that were heading back to Cambodia showed up, with confusion. We then switched vans since we were to have a mountainous trip back.  We then said our see ya laters to the rest of the group.  This was nice beause I didn't get to say bye to everyone in the am.  Moving on.. we made it to the border.  The van stopped and our driver darted out.  The sliding door was opened and 8 young men were at the door wanted us to "must leave" "get out" get you stuff" "you have passport"... We all said no, and grabbed our own things and put them on a cart.  We already had our visas but needed to get them stamped.  This all takes place outside.  This involved the usual e-fingerprinting and picture taking and some paperwork.  A woman pushed our cart of luggage to our new bus as we were checked by security.  We of course were to tip her 30 baht (1 USD).  I was fine with this, we had about 4 tons of "girl luggage" to hike blocks up a hill.  She was a small women with a lot of fight.  She wouldn't let us help her.

Roadside food, enroute to Thailand, in a shack -$1.25

Once we were loaded up, we were about to leave the border in the next happy Asian van.  Then the security guy stopped up.  One of the girls said "hey there's a little monk over their smoking." We smiled.  The security officer opened the door of the van and stared in.  We finally realized he was asking if we could give the monk a ride. We said yes.  He hoped in the passenger seat (front left side of happy Asian van).  He was smiling and happy.  So worth it.  He fell asleep on the way.  We dropped him off somewhere.  In the meantime I began to get car sick, as well as two others, as the driver would speed up, then pump the breaks 3 TIMES.  The starting and stopping was obnoxious.  Not a fan.  We hit a lot of rush our traffic coming in.  Our 8 hour trip became 12, fine by me - I am safe and sound in my destination country.

 Notice the giant monkey on the wardrobe in the back.

We are staying in a guest house.  I have my own room.  It's complete with a giant fuzz monkey on my closet. I have a microwave and a refrigerator, it's a start to some self-cooking possibilities. Today, Monday, I did not have to teach class, as we arrived too late Sunday night to make much of the lesson planning.  I was so grateful.  Today was our first day of class, we got acquainted with our positions and future job planning information.  Our instructors are great.  Tomorrow, 9-11 I teach women, ages 40-60.  I am told that it will be a small class, as not everyone typically attends.  It is a five minute walk from where I am staying.  I hope my lesson goes well.  I am teaching possessive pronouns and routines.  This is a part of my training, I guess you could call me a student teacher.

I am so tired, hoping you enjoy this blog and that I got some detail in their for you. On a final note, I have an odd bite on my arm that appears to be getting more defined.  It looks like an infected bite with a pink raised finger-like lines spreading outward from it.  I will spare you the pictures. I you wanna see a picture I can send you one. I will be researching this tomorrow. I originally thought it was just a scrape, but may be more than that.  My US friends think it's a spider bite.

Until we meet again!