Author: Paula HuYoung

Sorry guys…But there hasn’t been much happening on the Thaifront. I’ve been wrapping up the end of the term, getting my last minutes in with friends that are headed home, and still trying to plan out the next step.

It’s a little hectic over here with the end of the school year coming up. Classes unexpectedly cancelled, tracking down students that I haven’t seen in weeks to get them to take their exam, awards and prizes being given out to everyone all the time. Everyone seems to be in a good mood though.

I had my last classes with my students last week. My emotions linked to that thought depend on which class we are referring to. There are the classes that I wouldn’t go as far saying I will miss them and the classes that tried their hardest to get on my nerves right until the last minute. And then there are these guys…

My 4/1’s..the class that stole my heart.

Let’s talk for a minute about how darling these guys are. They made me a memory book filled with a picture and a note from each of them about how much they are going to miss me. They all insisted that I have a picture with each of them individually. When the last bell rang on our last day of class nobody moved.  They all just sat and stared at me with sad eyes after I said goodbye. Eventually someone spoke up with a simple “teacher, no” and I almost lost it.

This week the teachers are grading their exams, which I have already finished so I have loads of free time. I have to go into school at some point everyday to sign in… not 100% why. But after I show my face I get to leave and do as I please. I spent today walking around the city visiting a few temples.

My timeline:
13 more days in Nakhon
14 days until mom and dad arrive
25 days left in Thailand

I don’t like goodbyes and I don’t do well with transitions so we’ll see how well we can keep these weeks anxiety free.

xx

Reasons why I might be turning into a Thai person:

1. Someone extended their hand at me the other day and I got really weird-ed out thinking “what is he doing? Does he want what’s in my hand? I’m not evening holding anything.” …A handshake. He wanted to shake my hand. I forgot that people do that. On the flip side, my wai is impeccable.

2. It got down to a chilly 75 degrees F the other day and I put on pants and a long sleeve shirt to go outside.
(But if we were having a competition the people with the fleece jackets in the 85 degree heat would win hands down.)

3. People are starting to understand what I say in Thai the first time I say it. Sometimes.

4. I am always hungry. And craving rice. Even though I eat it everyday. twice a day.

5.  I don’t know how to act when I am around more than two people that speak English. Everyone’s talking quickly in full sentences and understanding everyone else. Going back to America is going to be a bit overwhelming.

6.  Someone asked me a question about distance the other day and I thought in kilometers. Weird.

7.  Foods that used to be staples in my diet make my tummy hurt. Like peanut butter. and carrots. It’s unfortunate.

8. I was told I have black skin because I’m so much tanner than when I first came here. That adjective has  NEVER been used to describe my skin color before.

9.  I’m getting better at not caring about things. Everything turns out just fine if you don’t care if it turns out at all.  Mai pen rai.

I’d say I adjusted well. Well-ish.

The count down is on. Three more weeks of school. 39 days until the parents arrive. In the mean time, I’m back on that emotionally unstable train with so many things about to end and just as many new things and unknowns to look forward to. But how exciting is it that?

xx

My school was closed last week because most of the students were going on school trips. But turns out the school would most likely have been closed anyway. The government is having elections in one week which means the protesting is getting pretty intense around these parts. Most government schools closed last week due to protesters showing up and whisking away students to join in the festivities.

So with a few unexpected turns of events and a bit a spontaneity I ended up in Phuket again. After looking at a map, pointing to a random town and hopping in a taxi we spent a few days filled with sunburns, ocean sunsets, rooftop parties, and BUNGY JUMPING…

Check that off the bucket list

The number of toy guns was slightly disturbing and even more so how well they knew how to use them

But look at those faces!

As fun as it was I don’t know if I’ll be going back. The kids were instantly attached. Some of them wanted to be held every second that we were there and a few got pretty upset when we would try to play with other children. We had to sneak out while they were distracted by lunch or else I don’t think we would have made it out of there with out tears coming from both side of the fence.

Merry Christmas!!

My Christmas was of the nontraditional variety this year (as you probably could have guessed)

On the afternoon of the 23rd I was asked to put together a Christmas show. Let me emphasis. That’s about a day and a half to figure out what to do, find students that are willing to participate, and prepare them. I think they enjoy watching me struggle. But I’ve realized that these last minute requests are not going to stop anytime soon so my new attitude: If it’s not important enough to tell me in advance, it’s not important enough for me to worry about. So I decided before hand that this was not going to be a top notch kind of show. It was going to be a thrown together, last minute montage of Christmas spirit. And I’ll tell you what…my students sure stepped up (after I slightly forced them) and really helped me out. I’m pretty sure speaking English in front of large groups of people is their least favorite thing to do.  But we pulled it together and gave the school the kind of show that probably made them regret asking me to do it in the first place. You know, the kind where no one knows what they are doing and forgets what they are supposed to say. But I was dressed as Mrs. Claus so how bad could it have been? really…Let’s take a look.

My rock star 4/1 class. On deck. So merry.

We sang Bing Crosby’s Jingle Bells…which they though was hilarious.

Making fool of myself because the students lost where they were, not that anyone could hear them anyway…. they were practically whispering because they were being shy. That’s Sai next to me. She’s a doll. She also got me a pink teddy bear for Christmas. And a note that said I was an angel. (I promise I don’t have favorites…maybe. Stay turned for a story)

And a little Santa Claus is coming to town dance, choreographed by the gem front and center.

Would you look at that… Santa made an appearance…with sunglasses and a Filipino accent.

Spreading some Christmas spirit via throwing candy and the children

A few words from the big guy

So it turned into me laughing a lot and making stories up as I go (because I can do that because no one knows what I’m saying anyway) and students looking at me like I’m from another planet (which they pretty much do anyway so that’s not much different). But I think my new goal is to see how ridiculous I can act before they stop asking me to so things in front of the whole school. They probably won’t stop though….so here’s to making my students think I’m crazy…Mai pen rai.

Another story worth sharing:
I was teaching about Santa’s naughty and nice lists and asked my students “If people on the nice list get presents what do the people on the naughty list get?” Without hesitation Sai says “beer”….aaaand I had take a minute to compose myself before explaining that, that system would be majorly flawed.

I am feeling so loved with all of the packages and letters I’ve been getting from family and friends. I can’t thank you guys enough. I was still able to over load on Christmas cookies (the most important part of Christmas). I shared a few with my Thai friends…who devoured them as well.

Side story: There is a group of guys that live/hang out next door. They are extremely generous and invite me to eat with them whenever they are. Everyone in Thailand has really long names so they all have nick names as well to make things easier. These gents have given me a Thai nick name. ( the fact that my name is short is irrelevant) My new name is Sha-ba which means flower in Thai….”you can call me flower if you want to”

Back track: this was my Christmas Eve.  I showed them pictures of snow from home and we ate cookies. Close enough to traditional right?

Hope everyone had a great holiday! One more day of work for me and I’m off to paradise. Have a happy new year! Talk to you next year 🙂

xx

December 5th is the kings birthday in Thailand which is a national holiday and called Father’s Day. They celebrate the king and honor the monks by giving them food and water. (Also it means no school for a day)

But Wednesday at school we had a ceremony and celebration in honor of the king. It was about three hours of me having no idea what was going on or what I should be doing with my hands. Lucky for me I was sitting next to a teacher that was kind enough to nudge me whenever my hands weren’t doing the right things. There was singing, dancing, monks, and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. What more does a celebration need?

Look at them! Aren’t they great? …Since you don’t know them I will just tell you. Yes. They are great.

A couple of vice directors

And then all of a sudden all the teachers were lining up in front of the shrine sooo I followed. Everyone’s wearing yellow because the king was born on a Monday and yellow is the color of Monday, so it’s his birth color.

And then this happened…I’m not exactly sure why but everyone was going crazy for the duration of this particular dance. And if I could figure out how to upload videos I could show you. But for now this picture will have to do.

Side note: It’s still rainy. It seems that everything I own is always wet. I think I just might start putting my dirty laundry outside in the rain. Bad idea? probably. Resourceful? absolutely.

Another side note: New Years Eve has been booked.  A bunch of us are going to the island of Phuket.

I’ll be spending five glorious days looking at this. There will quite possibly be elephants involved. I. Can’t. Freaking. Wait.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My day was not your ordinary Thanksgiving day it was still pretty great.

-I spent the day at school teaching my students what it is all about. I chose to keep it simple and talk about food and football.  Though, trying to describe mashed potatoes is harder than I would have thought. A few comments from the class I was trying to charade to them what mashing is…

• “French fry!!”  ….no
• “oh! chip! Lays.” …at least we’ve got the potato part right but still no.
• “Like hamburger?” …no no go back to the potatoes.
• “Like put hamburger in potato?” …I think I’ll just look up a picture for you.

We pulled up a picture of a masher and the finished product and we figured  it out.

-Also, I would argue that Thanksgiving it one of the hardest words for a Thai person to say.  We spent a good portion of the class trying to get that one out.

-I said “gobble gobble gobble” at one point and they went into a five minutes laugh fit.

-Of course we talked about what it means to be thankful. And of course we drew turkeys using our hands. It got interesting….

Someone has their priorities straight.

Things my students are thankful for, a few honorable mentions:

• milk
• Teacher Erin..that’s right
• facebook, instagram, twitter
• the world

That night my friend Lauren came into town and we ate the most Thanksgiving like food we could find. Chicken with gravy and mashed potatoes. Close enough. There was no pie to be found though. We settled for cookies and brownies.

Pretty decent day if you ask me.

So this last weekend had a lot of highs and lows.

Let’s start with the positives. I have been traveling around and spending my weekends with other teachers that came to Thailand through the same program as me. We all live within about an hour and a half of each other here in Thailand. It’s been very refreshing to spend sometime with people that speak English. During the week I don’t get much of that, if any.

Anyway we all went to an island of the coast last weekend called Kho Phangan. It is a very touristy place that hosts the famous “Fullmoon Parties” here. It was a beautiful place and it was actually the first beach I have seen since being in Thailand. Exciting stuff.

Bungalows we stayed in for a night

On Saturday we were ready to explore the island. We rented motorbikes which is one of the main modes of transportation. They are everywhere. We decided snorkeling was going to be our adventure of the day. But we didn’t quite make it that far. On our way there was a little bit of an accident.

Long story short…
I fell off.
I cut my knee.
Had to get stitches.
Five to be exact.
Thai hospitals don’t seem to be the most sterile. but…
They cleaned me up
They gave me antibiotics and painkillers.
I’m going to be fine.

Having a doctor attempting to communicate in another language that I need stitches while a nurse is scrubbing my open wound is not an experience I plan on reliving.  It put a little bit of a damper on the weekend but I tried to make the most out of it. We ended up going to a part of the island that night that is only accessible by boat and staying until sunrise. It was an exhausting night but worth it.

These pictures don’t do it justice. It was phenomenal.

And here is proof that I am actually teaching here as well….

One of my students drew me on the board.

…even though there have only been two. This one takes the cake. We headed to Khoa Luang National Park and were in search of a resort we had heard about. So it begins….

We were dropped off in a small small village in with not clue as to which way to go

Village welcoming committee

Good thing there were signs to guide us…not. We just started walking and got lost a few times but

I didn’t mind

Pit stop on our journey to feed some fish…and get some ice cream

Four miles later we refueled at a restaurant/bar next to the river

RIGHT next to the river

After lunch we continued on our way up the jungle mountain … But after a grueling hike up the mountain our search for a “resort” did not end as we had hoped. The higher we hiked and the farther from civilization we got, the more we believed the Thai have a different definition of the word “resort”. We came across several empty, hut type structures with nothing in them but a toilet.  I wasn’t exactly picturing a swimming pool and cocktail resort but this wasn’t what I had in mind either. So we headed back down the mountain. The setting sun was not on our team and the bugs don’t mess around up there. We found a place stay across from where we had lunch and owned by the same person….

Meet Tet (the man with the plan in the middle) Look closer at his shirt…. Really close… Yea. That says Mackinaw, MI. How crazy is that?

One of the most generous and accommodating people I have ever encountered. He made us dinner, fixed up our rooms, went to the market in the morning so he could make us breakfast, and told us he was going to take us to the waterfall we were hearing so much about. “Number one beautiful” he was telling us. With Tet as our guide we hiked back up the mountain, did a little rock climbing and wall scaling (it’s amazing we all did it without a scratch) and we made it!

I was not disappointed. And special thanks to my impressive friend Lauren who did all that with her camera so we could have some pictures.

After our waterfall adventure Tet continued to be as helpful as ever and drive us back into the big city where we all needed to catch our buses. And he wouldn’t except our money for part of the weekend. Of course we insisted and sneaked into his bag, but come on! how incredibly giving he was.

And that is the story of how I had the most brilliant weekend with some fantastic people.

I sure do love this place.