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!

Hello Thailand

Hey all, I just arrived in Pattaya, Thailand. An 8 hr trip that turned into a lucky 12. suspension went out in the massive Asian van (they call them buses). I will plan to fill you all in with my Sihanoukville weekend details soon. I start back again with training tomorrow morning. This is so crazy. And it's Chinese New Year today, it is celebrated in many parts SE Asia. I am a little tired but hoping to work on a new post tonight or tomorrow at the latest. I have lots to share.

Cambodia Eh

I am about to close a week and half of a small part of my adventures.  I have not been top notch for the past few days, but that has not shorted the sweetest of things.  I thought I would fill you in on some of my favorite moments of this week thus far.

First off, laughing to tears with my friends - with my Barbie-Shrek dialogue.

One of the greatest parts of this experience has revolved a lot around food.  I will say that I enjoy trying new food and getting a piece of culture by plate.  But, I do miss cooking.  I am feeling more like a nomad, keeping my things in a suitcase and walking the street for some food.  A few days ago, 4 LC students and I went out to grab some dinner.  In Cambodia, most restaurants/buildings are set up looking like one or two stall garages.  So they are left open all day and typically have an outside patio in the front.  I was sitting there took a glace to my left and it was like a live commercial - the commercial I am thinking of is the one where you are asked to donate money to fund a child for a year. Then, they run the picture of a barefoot child in torn and dirty clothes before you. The 6 year old girl I say had big brown eyes and long brown hair, she stopped for a moment in her dirty clothes and sandals emotionless.  After about 10 seconds, she ran off before I could even react.  Her face stuck with me up throughout the meal. I had ordered a simple vegetable curry.  I wasn't hungry, not feeling the greatest and couldn't finish my $2 meal.  As I was sitting there two young boys, I would guys they were both around 4 or 5 years old.  They spoke no English.  They too were in dirty clothes.  They were standing off to the side of me.  The waiters were shooing them away, the two boys took a few steps back.  I pointed to my stomach as and the food and asked if they were hungry.  They just looked at me.  Typically children put their hands out for money, but these boys (and the young girl I saw didn't appear to be asking for money).  I motioned them to come closer.  I took two bowls from the table and filled each of them with my vegetable curry and gave them chopsticks.  Meanwhile, my friends are noticing looks from others around us.  The place wasn't busy.  But a Frenchman looked over the scene is disgust.  As I looked around the waiters were watching us, they were emotionless - I had no idea what they were thinking.  At this point I wasn't sure if this was culturally acceptable, but I wasn't going to change my actions.  The two boys immediately sat down next to me at the curb and ate every last bit of the food.  One boy handed me his bowl and took off.  I noticed a waiter walking my way, I was thinking to myself, 'here it comes, he's going to tell us the is not acceptable in the restaurant.'  He picked up my plate and scraped a small piece of bokchoy that I had missed, into the boy's bowl.  I smiled inside. The other boy sat there quietly holding his bowl.  My friend filled his bowl with some of her food. He sat there and ate more.  He later looked up at me handed me his bowl and walked off.  All I can say is, those boys were hungry.  I keep thinking about them.  Often kids are out late at night walking around barefoot.

It is frequent that handfuls of kids will be seen scattered around the streets, days or night.  Some wanting to feather dust window for money. Others waited along side tuk tuk's wanting money.  Obviously I can't give money to everyone.  I often turn them down.  From what I have gathered, these children's parents have the kids go out asking for money.  In America these kids would be playing, sleeping, or in school. 

Last night, some of us chose to do a night boat cruise down the Mekong. This was quite beautiful.  The weather was calm and cool, and some nightlights lined the banks.  The boat was large.  It was $40 for 2 hours - $3 each. As we set out, there was some "interesting chanting music in the distance, kinda had an eery yet awesome feeling as we set out into the darkness.  And then there were fireworks, ending the celebration in honor of the king, we picked a good night.  I may have been pulled into a California blonde conversation that lasted a beautiful 20+ minutes...I'll cut it short...it involve about 18 - So, ya like umm.....so like I (LONG PAUSE) think that darkness is super creepy, like if you look over there, how it's so dark, like ya know, (LONG PAUSE), you know what I mean like. Just look. Like don't say anything, just look at it then listen. Do you like get what I'm saying. It so like creepy.  The conversation was good because I was forced to be creative and think of 18 synonyms for "yes, ya, uh huh, yep.." She's cute, really. What will be even sweeter though, is her class of twenty or so.. that she will be teaching the hallmarks of the English language. She is a nice girl, gin or no gin.

After the cruise, some of us chose to head out to go dancing. However, we quickly found out that Wed night was the last night of silence.  So no music.  It was fine by me.  Some of us went to sit in a outside bar to visit.  A couple of us girls noticed a little girl, 8 years old, came over to our table.  She didn't get to close.  She was SO cute! She was really shy.  Just behind her were her two parents.  We quickly found that she knew English and it was obvious that she and her parents were so proud of it.  He dad was just as cute as she.  Whenever we would talk to her, she would smile and shyly look away.  Soon enough we asked her if she knew animals, she nodded.  Her parents at the table behind her/us kept looking at us smiling.  Her dad repeatedly would get up and tell her things in Khmer (I think he was telling her to talk and tell us words in English and Khmer). He must have gotten out of his chair ten times. Did I mention how cute this was. This dad was so happy.  Then, he brought his daughter a pen and napkin.  She then started writing animal names, in flawless handwriting..."deer, dog, monkey, lame (lamb), cat, etc" She was so proud.  As we asked her more questions she would say English words then say them in Khmer.  This made my night even better.  This is seriously what me being here is all about. I am looking forward to more of this.


Today I finished my last day of training in Cambodia at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (picture on L). Wow, it has been truly great.  Tonight is the seeing us off night at the LC hotel.  I was outside after getting back from class and was talking with some kids ages 6-10.  Boy 1: What is you name? What fruit do you like? What do you job? What is your dad's name? Where you live? Boy 2: Asking me know if I know the song Africa - we both sang and did some dancing with it, he laughed with me then walked away? Several little girls: What is your name? Boy3: Hey, you know Gangnam Style, this was my transition into some random dance moves with him. Hes was so cute. He laughed the whole time.  The security guards were laughing at me too.

Girl 1 (never met her before): YOU! - I make I contact with her emotionless face as she puts her hands up and out.  There was no communication.  She looked serious. I turned my head to see if my friend was outside yet. The girl turned toward me quickly said one word LOUDLY to return my attention.  Her hands out again.  We then broke into the ABCs with hand claps. It was intense. Then she stared me down again, emotionless and with no words.  We then proceeded into vertical and alternating hand-claps with the ABCs.  The song ended. We made eye contact. We both walked away in silence. - I don't think just anyone can do this..it was like I was being called upon.

What do you get when you mix some German, Swedish, SoDak, deep Texas, and a a few Khmer? ..some feather kickin' fun.  In Cambodia, it's popular to play a badmitten-like kicking game.  It looks like a feathered dart with 8 plastic rings at the base instead of a needle/stem.  It is was less arrow dynamic than a hackey-sac.  We kicked it around for a while, kinda fun! They had a BBQ for us, with the weekly Karaoke Thursday.  All of my friends have told me that I have to do Barbie Girl after my exposure in my presentation this week. I keep getting laughs about this as the week has trailed on.  I will miss my new friends as we part ways.

Tomorrow we set off for Sihanoukville, Cambodia. This is to be a fun weekend trip after intense coursework this week.  We leave tomorrow morning (Friday).  Those of us leaving for Thailand training will depart Sunday morning for Pattaya, Thailand.  I am not particularly looking forward to the overall location, but there are bound to bee good attributes.  I have been told that Pattaya is a very touristy area, run by Russians, overused beaches.  I will make the most of it as I get into my training. Come Monday, 8am I will be in teacher mode.  I will be working with English beginner level English speakers 20+ years old.  This will be for two weeks, as a part of my graduation requirements.  In about a week I will be setting up job interviews. 

I just got my Thai visa today, things are getting real. I am so ready for more.  "Oh, goodness I am being called for some Barbie Girl karaoke." Yikes, this is crazy, I don't even like the song unless Julia is singing it, what did I get myself into?  People in Cambodia are really serious about Karaoke.

Love ya all, thinking of you all everyday.

PS I am almost to 1700 page views, kinda cool. And I have 12 official blog members so far (some of you need pics on yours by the way - you don't have to use a pic of yourself).

PPS I am not proofing this because I am not as perfect as my twin. Instead I will embrace my rugged influences.