Dear Charles, #7
i thought i was going to try and not post as much but...screw that. too much happens here that i want other people to think are cool. so you better think this is cool.
so monday was 'australia day', i know all of you that celebrate that know what im talking about :) so i went with kyndra and some of the people she works with to this american/australian restaurant a little ways away from bandu where we live and had some good 'ol fish and chips. there are like 4 australians that she works with and one lady who grew up in england but lived in australia for many many years, so shes like...honorary auzzie. but she sounds english. so most of the night i again, looked stupid while i admired their accents, while they said simple things like "i would like a hamburger and a bbq chicken pizza" aahhh so cool. plus they called ketchup, 'tomato sauce'. but it was all in the accent. plus for the first time ever i had an auzzie tell me that i had an accent. thats one of those things i always knew but, thought that i didnt really. just like they dont think they have an accent.
anyways so we played australia trivia games that i knew non of the answers too, and sang the australian national anthem. which i just hummed.
on tuesday night i got to go up to the mountains and visit an AKA tribe with kyndra. one of the women she works with is from there so she invited a couple girls to come up an celebrate the laos new year. it was so great- (i just got my camera charger [thanks mom] so i can take pictures finally) i have pictures of the house we ate dinner in that i'll put up when i figure out how to do it. so we had a thai style dinner which was basically, we all are in a circle on a mat on the floor of this wood/bamboo house and there were plates and bowls of rice and mysterious meats and curries. we ate family style and it was so delicious. they had sticky rice and regular rice, and lemme tell you, you have not had sticky rice till youve had it here. its so...sticky! and the thai word for white rice translates to 'beautiful rice' which i think is funny.
so after dinner we made our way up the mountain a little higher (in the dark..its a wonder i didnt fall on my face through the trees and roots and things) to a place where more AKA people were playing music and dancing around a colorful and lighted monument kinda thing. in the beginning i just sat around with the other farangs ('foreigners'...however this is the last time im giving you the cheat sheet for that, from now on you gotta just know it. ooo im gettin tricky on you guys!) untill this little woman from the tribe grabbed my hand and brought me into the dance. she was so precious and little and was trying to teach me how to do it. of course im pro and got it right away...oh yeah and im totally proud and dont have a humble bone in my body. (arent you proud parents? haha im totally kidding)
so it was a great night, good food, good dancing, cute old ladies.
oh yeah i also thought i would mention to you all that im in the tutoring class with esther right now and i had to sneeze and so i joked that i was going to sneeze all over her and she put her paper over her head in fright and told me that i was quote 'a gross girl'. then later on i was biting my nails and she looked at me and said, ' youre actually chewing on your fingernails? thats why i called you a gross girl' hahaha im getting to a place i think where i know shes going to talk that way, so sometimes i say dumb stuff just to hear what she says to me.
im such a great teacher.
sawadeeka-anna
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Dear Charles, #6
alright alright alright, so much to tell you about! i dont even know where i can start. i'll start from friday afternoon at 4:30 pm:
so me and amber got tickets to go to chiang mai for the weekend on this VIP bus. the bus was pretty much better then first class on an airplane. the seats were huge, they reclined, with a foot rest! they had cup holders and the stuartest gave us water and orange juice and a little thaibiscuit thing (that i didnt actually eat cause it smelled sweet but looked like it had ground beef and raisins in it, and i wasnt that hungry) it took us about 3 and a half hours to get there but i just had the sweet vocal serenade of chris thyle from nickel creek put me to sleep.
so we got there, and off the bus to be bombarded by short thai men holding signs for tuk-tuks to take you into town...so we found one guy and told him where we were staying and he got a confused look on his face, which naturally gave us a confused look. so he asked another driver, i can only assume was how to get there...so the two of them talked for a few minutes then finally the driver came over to us and nodded and pointed to his tuk tuk. "i take you der now" so we hopped in the back of his little transportation device and off we went through the streets of chaing mai. luckily he got us to the right place *phew* transportation is so crazy here- but i'll talk more about that later
so me and amber checked in. the lady that owned the place we stayed at was a christian who spoke really good english, she was so cute. we dropped our bags in our little hostile type room, and decided to head down to the night bazaar they have there. so we're walking down these streets to find out that not two blocks over, we're suddenly in the red light district of chaing mai. there are bars, after bars, after bars, and old white men, after old white men, after old white men. you know you hear about that and you read about it but when you actually see it, it is so different. we hurried past that part of the street and kept going on our way to the bazaar. we finally got there and looked around for about an hour, got an american hamburger (amber was so excited, she's been here since september so i obliged when she asked to eat american even though i dont miss it at all yet) and decided we should go back to the room and sleep. we did get a tuk tuk on the way home cause we assumed the bars were probably getting a little routy since it was later.
so saturday morning we wake up to find that our toilet is not working and our shower and faucet will only produce cold water. oh goodie. we did our best to bypass that and get going with our day (that turned into me not actually showering the whole weekend, and finding interesting ways and places to go to the bathroom). amber was really needing to get a coffee maker so we went to a mall there and shopped around for a little while. i was reluctant to do such american stuff but amber really needed the "break from thailand" and i didnt want her to be a grumpy gills. (you were great amber and i was happy to do it)
so after killing an afternoon with looking around little shops and stuff and buying beautiful thaijewelry, we hopped on a song-tow (bigger version of a taxi, smaller version on a city bus) to a different part of chaing mai where we went to a night safari!! it was so great. we got there about an hour before the tours were gonna start so we walked around this huge lake they had and looked at the animals they had there. which was an impressive selection...tigers, hippos, panthers, monkeys. it was pretty much like a zoo, but more wild and...well in thailand which makes it way cooler.
so just before the tour they had this laser light show over the lake which lasted an impressive 8 min. and was shown to a variety of songs from popular movies. haha it was so funny- pirates of the caribbean, lord of the rings, star wars, all playing out to vibrant and neon lights in the forms on eagles and lions. ( it was super cheesy) me and amber decided to get in line before the light show was over and beat all the old asian women with the grandchildren to the front of the line.
so we get on the night safari..safari thing (like a bus with no doors, whats the word im looking for?) and ended up getting sandwiched between a boisterous family from isreal and an obnoxious family from italy behind us. this made for an interesting and annoying journey.
the tour guide asked that no one use their flash on the tour which apparently the two families didnt hear or didnt understand. they were takin flash pictures like crazy and standing up and talking loudly to each other..that mixed with the thick thai accent of the tour guide and the baby that started cryng two rows up made it really hard to concentrate or enjoy to the fullest. however i did still get to see the animals and silently enjoy them and praise God for his amazing creations.
that night i could hardly sleep in anticipation for the next day, because i was going to go play with tigers for the morning. yes i said it...and no i didnt groom them, unfortunately. i did cuddle with them though. i have an album on my facebook of pictures, so until i get some up here if you have facebook then go check it out. the girl's name was pancake and she was wonderful. she was asleep but still wonderful. i got to play with the baby tigers too...im still waiting for the pictures from amber for that one, but they babies were just...oh my heart was melting. they were just romping around and yelling and playing. it was the best ever.
so when i got into the cage with the big ones...guess who was there....the italians. im not kidding. the lady that sat two over from me was wearing a "chiang mai night safari" tshirt and everything. this was a really obnoxious just...oh i was not stoked to see her again. she kept walking right in front of me and being all, italian and stuff. *hrmph*
so after the best morning of my life playing and cuddling with tigers we went back to town and hung around a day market till we had to catch our bus back to chiang mai. i met a really nice couple from ireland that was retired and had been traveling around asia for the last 6 months while amber went to get some american lunch (her last chance before going home) we talked for like 15 min. i just sat and smiled staring like a fool listening to their accents :)
it was a great weekend. there was way to much to do there in the short amount of time i had so i'll definitely be going back. when conner comes and visits me i think i'll take him back there cause there is a place where you can go feed and hang out with some monkeys...obviously thats super cool and he loves monkeys so we'll be doing that for sure. hope your weekend was as exciting if not more exciting then mine! oh wait.... im in thailand and played with tigers, nothing is more exciting then that. maybe next time :)
alright alright alright, so much to tell you about! i dont even know where i can start. i'll start from friday afternoon at 4:30 pm:
so me and amber got tickets to go to chiang mai for the weekend on this VIP bus. the bus was pretty much better then first class on an airplane. the seats were huge, they reclined, with a foot rest! they had cup holders and the stuartest gave us water and orange juice and a little thaibiscuit thing (that i didnt actually eat cause it smelled sweet but looked like it had ground beef and raisins in it, and i wasnt that hungry) it took us about 3 and a half hours to get there but i just had the sweet vocal serenade of chris thyle from nickel creek put me to sleep.
so we got there, and off the bus to be bombarded by short thai men holding signs for tuk-tuks to take you into town...so we found one guy and told him where we were staying and he got a confused look on his face, which naturally gave us a confused look. so he asked another driver, i can only assume was how to get there...so the two of them talked for a few minutes then finally the driver came over to us and nodded and pointed to his tuk tuk. "i take you der now" so we hopped in the back of his little transportation device and off we went through the streets of chaing mai. luckily he got us to the right place *phew* transportation is so crazy here- but i'll talk more about that later
so me and amber checked in. the lady that owned the place we stayed at was a christian who spoke really good english, she was so cute. we dropped our bags in our little hostile type room, and decided to head down to the night bazaar they have there. so we're walking down these streets to find out that not two blocks over, we're suddenly in the red light district of chaing mai. there are bars, after bars, after bars, and old white men, after old white men, after old white men. you know you hear about that and you read about it but when you actually see it, it is so different. we hurried past that part of the street and kept going on our way to the bazaar. we finally got there and looked around for about an hour, got an american hamburger (amber was so excited, she's been here since september so i obliged when she asked to eat american even though i dont miss it at all yet) and decided we should go back to the room and sleep. we did get a tuk tuk on the way home cause we assumed the bars were probably getting a little routy since it was later.
so saturday morning we wake up to find that our toilet is not working and our shower and faucet will only produce cold water. oh goodie. we did our best to bypass that and get going with our day (that turned into me not actually showering the whole weekend, and finding interesting ways and places to go to the bathroom). amber was really needing to get a coffee maker so we went to a mall there and shopped around for a little while. i was reluctant to do such american stuff but amber really needed the "break from thailand" and i didnt want her to be a grumpy gills. (you were great amber and i was happy to do it)
so after killing an afternoon with looking around little shops and stuff and buying beautiful thaijewelry, we hopped on a song-tow (bigger version of a taxi, smaller version on a city bus) to a different part of chaing mai where we went to a night safari!! it was so great. we got there about an hour before the tours were gonna start so we walked around this huge lake they had and looked at the animals they had there. which was an impressive selection...tigers, hippos, panthers, monkeys. it was pretty much like a zoo, but more wild and...well in thailand which makes it way cooler.
so just before the tour they had this laser light show over the lake which lasted an impressive 8 min. and was shown to a variety of songs from popular movies. haha it was so funny- pirates of the caribbean, lord of the rings, star wars, all playing out to vibrant and neon lights in the forms on eagles and lions. ( it was super cheesy) me and amber decided to get in line before the light show was over and beat all the old asian women with the grandchildren to the front of the line.
so we get on the night safari..safari thing (like a bus with no doors, whats the word im looking for?) and ended up getting sandwiched between a boisterous family from isreal and an obnoxious family from italy behind us. this made for an interesting and annoying journey.
the tour guide asked that no one use their flash on the tour which apparently the two families didnt hear or didnt understand. they were takin flash pictures like crazy and standing up and talking loudly to each other..that mixed with the thick thai accent of the tour guide and the baby that started cryng two rows up made it really hard to concentrate or enjoy to the fullest. however i did still get to see the animals and silently enjoy them and praise God for his amazing creations.
that night i could hardly sleep in anticipation for the next day, because i was going to go play with tigers for the morning. yes i said it...and no i didnt groom them, unfortunately. i did cuddle with them though. i have an album on my facebook of pictures, so until i get some up here if you have facebook then go check it out. the girl's name was pancake and she was wonderful. she was asleep but still wonderful. i got to play with the baby tigers too...im still waiting for the pictures from amber for that one, but they babies were just...oh my heart was melting. they were just romping around and yelling and playing. it was the best ever.
so when i got into the cage with the big ones...guess who was there....the italians. im not kidding. the lady that sat two over from me was wearing a "chiang mai night safari" tshirt and everything. this was a really obnoxious just...oh i was not stoked to see her again. she kept walking right in front of me and being all, italian and stuff. *hrmph*
so after the best morning of my life playing and cuddling with tigers we went back to town and hung around a day market till we had to catch our bus back to chiang mai. i met a really nice couple from ireland that was retired and had been traveling around asia for the last 6 months while amber went to get some american lunch (her last chance before going home) we talked for like 15 min. i just sat and smiled staring like a fool listening to their accents :)
it was a great weekend. there was way to much to do there in the short amount of time i had so i'll definitely be going back. when conner comes and visits me i think i'll take him back there cause there is a place where you can go feed and hang out with some monkeys...obviously thats super cool and he loves monkeys so we'll be doing that for sure. hope your weekend was as exciting if not more exciting then mine! oh wait.... im in thailand and played with tigers, nothing is more exciting then that. maybe next time :)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Dear Charles, #5
howdy-doo non thailandians! ....because after being here two weeks i am almost 100% thai. my life long dream of being an asian is panning out nicely. the fact that i eat rice at least twice a day and i 'wai' everyone i meet are good signs of 'asian turning'. haha...oh im so getting struck by lightning this weekend.
oh! speaking of this weekend! after school today me and my friend amber, who is another volunteer here (she's teaching kindergarten) are hopping a VIP (ooooo) bus down to chaing mai! chiang mai is like a bigger version if chaing rai but a smaller version of bangkok. its somewhere in the middle of a hill-tribe and big city. so ive heard about tons of cool things to do there but i wont tell you guys any of them until i come back so i dont say..."they have this tiger grooming class where you get to groom real tigers" and have you guys think im doing something really cool when im not. or wont get to depending on how much it costs. ahhh money is so dumb. although everything is super cheap here. i eat for about 30 baht every night....and our exchange is about 35 baht to an american dollar so...i'm eating for less then a dollar, and i get lunches free at the school (one of the perks of being a full time volunteer.....you know, not getting paid and paying my own rent, but hey free lunch! im not bitter.)
its so funny how im getting used to the pricing already so much here. like the other night amber asked me if i wanted to go get some dinner with her and we went to this really nice place near our house called 'barongs' i opened the menu and i was like..."95 baht?! are you kidding!?" haha you guys thought i was cheap and froogle before i left the states, after living here for six months im not gonna want to spend any money on anything over there. so you all better like your souvenirs cause its all youre getting from me for the next 10 years until i can get a real job.
my escapades with 3rd esther, the girl i tutor on mondays/wednesday/friday are getting more interesting. on wednesday i was sitting in my classroom waiting for her to come in..she walked in and looked at me for like 30 seconds then said "um...actually i usually sit in that chair" (she sat in it on monday..the first and only time i had met with her thus far" so i calmly responded "well do you think it'd be cool if i sat here today?" so she thought for a minute...and VERY reluctantly said "yeah...i guess thats fine"
so she started to work on her worksheet and about 15 min in she asked for my help. SOOO, i got up, looked at her problem and told her what it was that she needed to fix and how to get the correct answer...after we figured it out and the answer we got was different then her original one she was like..."no but i think this is wrong, this is not what i got..." (inner thoughts: "AAAHHHH BE QUIET LITTLE GIRL!") so i have to like hype up my patience before i meet with her. i wish i could video tape a class with her so you could see her and hear her...its all in the looks and the tones. so we had a whole other side of the worksheet that wasnt done yet and class was like 10 min from being over and it was taking her a really really long time to subtract 15 from 17, so i asked her if i could show her an easy way that i use to subtract things and she says " no i dont have time for that, i dont have much time and if you show me how to do that we're wasting time" so i said" so you dont want me to help you find an easier way?" and she says " no and now we're talking and wasting time..look we've been talking and i just wasted time i could be working" so....ha ha....theres esther. ooohhh shes a jem. pray for me to have patience with her.
on a lighter note im getting along swimmingly with my housemate kyndra. shes actually from washington (reppin' it up for WA!). shes working at another ministry here called Banam Jai (thats not how you spell it but its initially 'home of the open heart'). its a ministry that works with kids that have HIV. She's really funny...much like me...*cough cough*. shes been really good about showing me around our town and writing down good things to order at our favorite food place, 'grumpies'. (its not actually called grumpies but thats what we call it because the lady that works there has zero patience and when you walk up shes just like...'what do you want" ,"well whats good?" "just tell me what you want i dont want to tell you whats good, just order" [in thai of course] hahaha, shes really actually great, the other day i went to her place to get some fried rice and she looked me up and down and was like 'oh you actually look cute today'.... really a sweet sweet lady)
so kyndra is great, we watch friends together and go get fresh squeezed orange juice. its orange season here right now so the oranges are exceptional and the juice is like...oh so good. me and kyndra are on like sarcastic love/hate terms which is the best kind. i had to go get more money on my cell phone and i was like..."kyndra! i just put like 200 baht on here last week! stop texting me stupid!" and she just responds..."stop..calling me. stop being dumb" etc. etc. so its going really great.
yesterday at school was very exciting because once a month here the school serves farang food (foreign food...american food) and everyone is so stoked. as for me i havent been here long enough to really miss american food, im still in 'excited about everything thai' mode..which im really hoping doesnt ware off or my last few months here are going to be misery. so we had this pasta meat thing. it was pretty good, and it got served with bread and butter which i have to admit...simple enough -but it tasted so so good. but im good without eating american food for awhile.
this last weekend a couple that lives in my neighborhood took me and amber out for lunch to "barry's" (you can tell by the name that this was a american- golf themed restaurant, and barry was middle aged). i refused to get a hamburger like everyone else and stuck with curry and rice. plus farang food is really expensive here. you know like...200 baht a plate. whoa, kinda steep for me.
alright so im tutoring steven this next period so im gonna go get ready for that. wish me safe travels this weekend in chiang mai! ill tell you about all the cool stuff i actually did when i get home. sawadee-ka, anna
howdy-doo non thailandians! ....because after being here two weeks i am almost 100% thai. my life long dream of being an asian is panning out nicely. the fact that i eat rice at least twice a day and i 'wai' everyone i meet are good signs of 'asian turning'. haha...oh im so getting struck by lightning this weekend.
oh! speaking of this weekend! after school today me and my friend amber, who is another volunteer here (she's teaching kindergarten) are hopping a VIP (ooooo) bus down to chaing mai! chiang mai is like a bigger version if chaing rai but a smaller version of bangkok. its somewhere in the middle of a hill-tribe and big city. so ive heard about tons of cool things to do there but i wont tell you guys any of them until i come back so i dont say..."they have this tiger grooming class where you get to groom real tigers" and have you guys think im doing something really cool when im not. or wont get to depending on how much it costs. ahhh money is so dumb. although everything is super cheap here. i eat for about 30 baht every night....and our exchange is about 35 baht to an american dollar so...i'm eating for less then a dollar, and i get lunches free at the school (one of the perks of being a full time volunteer.....you know, not getting paid and paying my own rent, but hey free lunch! im not bitter.)
its so funny how im getting used to the pricing already so much here. like the other night amber asked me if i wanted to go get some dinner with her and we went to this really nice place near our house called 'barongs' i opened the menu and i was like..."95 baht?! are you kidding!?" haha you guys thought i was cheap and froogle before i left the states, after living here for six months im not gonna want to spend any money on anything over there. so you all better like your souvenirs cause its all youre getting from me for the next 10 years until i can get a real job.
my escapades with 3rd esther, the girl i tutor on mondays/wednesday/friday are getting more interesting. on wednesday i was sitting in my classroom waiting for her to come in..she walked in and looked at me for like 30 seconds then said "um...actually i usually sit in that chair" (she sat in it on monday..the first and only time i had met with her thus far" so i calmly responded "well do you think it'd be cool if i sat here today?" so she thought for a minute...and VERY reluctantly said "yeah...i guess thats fine"
so she started to work on her worksheet and about 15 min in she asked for my help. SOOO, i got up, looked at her problem and told her what it was that she needed to fix and how to get the correct answer...after we figured it out and the answer we got was different then her original one she was like..."no but i think this is wrong, this is not what i got..." (inner thoughts: "AAAHHHH BE QUIET LITTLE GIRL!") so i have to like hype up my patience before i meet with her. i wish i could video tape a class with her so you could see her and hear her...its all in the looks and the tones. so we had a whole other side of the worksheet that wasnt done yet and class was like 10 min from being over and it was taking her a really really long time to subtract 15 from 17, so i asked her if i could show her an easy way that i use to subtract things and she says " no i dont have time for that, i dont have much time and if you show me how to do that we're wasting time" so i said" so you dont want me to help you find an easier way?" and she says " no and now we're talking and wasting time..look we've been talking and i just wasted time i could be working" so....ha ha....theres esther. ooohhh shes a jem. pray for me to have patience with her.
on a lighter note im getting along swimmingly with my housemate kyndra. shes actually from washington (reppin' it up for WA!). shes working at another ministry here called Banam Jai (thats not how you spell it but its initially 'home of the open heart'). its a ministry that works with kids that have HIV. She's really funny...much like me...*cough cough*. shes been really good about showing me around our town and writing down good things to order at our favorite food place, 'grumpies'. (its not actually called grumpies but thats what we call it because the lady that works there has zero patience and when you walk up shes just like...'what do you want" ,"well whats good?" "just tell me what you want i dont want to tell you whats good, just order" [in thai of course] hahaha, shes really actually great, the other day i went to her place to get some fried rice and she looked me up and down and was like 'oh you actually look cute today'.... really a sweet sweet lady)
so kyndra is great, we watch friends together and go get fresh squeezed orange juice. its orange season here right now so the oranges are exceptional and the juice is like...oh so good. me and kyndra are on like sarcastic love/hate terms which is the best kind. i had to go get more money on my cell phone and i was like..."kyndra! i just put like 200 baht on here last week! stop texting me stupid!" and she just responds..."stop..calling me. stop being dumb" etc. etc. so its going really great.
yesterday at school was very exciting because once a month here the school serves farang food (foreign food...american food) and everyone is so stoked. as for me i havent been here long enough to really miss american food, im still in 'excited about everything thai' mode..which im really hoping doesnt ware off or my last few months here are going to be misery. so we had this pasta meat thing. it was pretty good, and it got served with bread and butter which i have to admit...simple enough -but it tasted so so good. but im good without eating american food for awhile.
this last weekend a couple that lives in my neighborhood took me and amber out for lunch to "barry's" (you can tell by the name that this was a american- golf themed restaurant, and barry was middle aged). i refused to get a hamburger like everyone else and stuck with curry and rice. plus farang food is really expensive here. you know like...200 baht a plate. whoa, kinda steep for me.
alright so im tutoring steven this next period so im gonna go get ready for that. wish me safe travels this weekend in chiang mai! ill tell you about all the cool stuff i actually did when i get home. sawadee-ka, anna
Monday, January 19, 2009
Dear Charles, #4
so i had my first day of work today. wasn't really how i thought my first day would go but it was alright. my schedule is like, crazy, crazy, crazy. i am working with almost every grade level from 1st through 10th grade, which is a good variety but i feel like i am constantly changing my mind set, and who i am talking to and how etc. especially because they're not only different grade levels but different languages. or...different levels in their english more like. i am doing a lot of one on one tutoring with ESL kids and helping them refine their papers or homework assignments, and then one on one with elementary helping them with spelling and word comprehension and stuff.
there's this one little girl named esther, and i am tutoring her on her math...shes in third grade, and from india, just to set this scene a little bit. so i was going over some multiplication/division cards with her and then she had a work sheet with long addition, subtraction, multip., and division to do. of course i am a graduated american teenager who only ever uses her calculator anymore (my argument all through grade school that i would always use a calculator has proven to be true...told you mom) so i had to re-teach myself how to do these problems and fast so that i didnt look like an idiot in front of this girl. so the first couple problems i let her do by herself...then my freakin job came in, she needed help. great. i did the problems with her and then checked my calculator (haha) on my ipod for help and got a different answer then she did, so i re did my math and realized the mistake and told her that we needed to fix it and she shook her head and said " no i think your computer is wrong, i learned it this way so its right" so clearly i have a case in my hands. we worked through it and i got her to understand how to work the problem out the right way. *phew* i thought i was gonna have to take out a third grader there for awhile.
the rest of my day was pretty slow...im not exactly sure what im really doing yet so i think everyday will be a bit of an adventure. and to think these people are letting me teach their children. hahaha. its weird for me to think that the current events class that i am teaching to 10th graders i am totally coming up with as i go along...and this is their high school education. but i guess i can give an assignment that i dont really know anything about and they do the research and come up with their own knowledge. it all works out. so lucky for me i can pretty much do all of this without knowing what the heck im doing. haha good good good.
i have to admit that everyday i just look forward to when i get to eat. the food has not let me down yet. except for the crickets i munched on this weekend...they were a bit of a disappointment. and by disappointment i mean they were gross and weird. but i'm trying everything that is offered to me...including steaming cups of mysterious liquids and food that looks like someone just threw it up. usually ends up pretty good...but its also usually pretty spicy. (the person just ate like 60 hot peppers, yay for me)
as for entertainment....i wont tell you guys that my house mate has all the seasons of 'friends' *cough cough* that i have been watching almost any free moment i get. YOU KNOW, all those moments that IM NOT enjoying this beautiful country and getting out and experiencing the culture or meeting strangers and creating memories that will last a life time...*cough.......cough..* alright im gonna go eat some yummy curry or something. Sawadee-ka, Anna
so i had my first day of work today. wasn't really how i thought my first day would go but it was alright. my schedule is like, crazy, crazy, crazy. i am working with almost every grade level from 1st through 10th grade, which is a good variety but i feel like i am constantly changing my mind set, and who i am talking to and how etc. especially because they're not only different grade levels but different languages. or...different levels in their english more like. i am doing a lot of one on one tutoring with ESL kids and helping them refine their papers or homework assignments, and then one on one with elementary helping them with spelling and word comprehension and stuff.
there's this one little girl named esther, and i am tutoring her on her math...shes in third grade, and from india, just to set this scene a little bit. so i was going over some multiplication/division cards with her and then she had a work sheet with long addition, subtraction, multip., and division to do. of course i am a graduated american teenager who only ever uses her calculator anymore (my argument all through grade school that i would always use a calculator has proven to be true...told you mom) so i had to re-teach myself how to do these problems and fast so that i didnt look like an idiot in front of this girl. so the first couple problems i let her do by herself...then my freakin job came in, she needed help. great. i did the problems with her and then checked my calculator (haha) on my ipod for help and got a different answer then she did, so i re did my math and realized the mistake and told her that we needed to fix it and she shook her head and said " no i think your computer is wrong, i learned it this way so its right" so clearly i have a case in my hands. we worked through it and i got her to understand how to work the problem out the right way. *phew* i thought i was gonna have to take out a third grader there for awhile.
the rest of my day was pretty slow...im not exactly sure what im really doing yet so i think everyday will be a bit of an adventure. and to think these people are letting me teach their children. hahaha. its weird for me to think that the current events class that i am teaching to 10th graders i am totally coming up with as i go along...and this is their high school education. but i guess i can give an assignment that i dont really know anything about and they do the research and come up with their own knowledge. it all works out. so lucky for me i can pretty much do all of this without knowing what the heck im doing. haha good good good.
i have to admit that everyday i just look forward to when i get to eat. the food has not let me down yet. except for the crickets i munched on this weekend...they were a bit of a disappointment. and by disappointment i mean they were gross and weird. but i'm trying everything that is offered to me...including steaming cups of mysterious liquids and food that looks like someone just threw it up. usually ends up pretty good...but its also usually pretty spicy. (the person just ate like 60 hot peppers, yay for me)
as for entertainment....i wont tell you guys that my house mate has all the seasons of 'friends' *cough cough* that i have been watching almost any free moment i get. YOU KNOW, all those moments that IM NOT enjoying this beautiful country and getting out and experiencing the culture or meeting strangers and creating memories that will last a life time...*cough.......cough..* alright im gonna go eat some yummy curry or something. Sawadee-ka, Anna
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Dear Charles, #3
bobar kept me up all night last night...he's a snor-er. so i woke up a little grumpy. however i usually wake up really good here. unlike in the states (ive gotten accustom to saying 'in the states' as opposed to 'america' cause thats what everyone says here) where i would moan and fight my way to stay in bed. then again waking up early might have something to do with my singing neighbor. oh yes i said it right. my neighbor lady wakes up at about 4:30 or 5 every morning and starts singing her heart out, and doing laundry and dishes...and maybe ceremonially breaking a few plates or something. maybe she's greek....hhmmm i'll have to look into that. whatever it is its noisy, but sometimes the tropical birds and the sound of the wind in the trees drowns her out. oh wait...no....that would be the noise of her two rot-whilers fighting to the death. aahh the natural sounds of thailand. so beautiful.
so i made it through my first week in this foreign place, and i love it. and yes for those of you who were wondering, i have eaten strange substances from street venders and ridden on the back of a strangers motorbike (dont tell my dad). everyone and their mom rides a motorbike here, they even have special motorbike parking areas in the grocery stores. its a really effective way of getting around, but im sure the people that dont wear helmets and end up in the hospital would tell you different. i get to school every morning with a family named 'Fish' i hop in the back of their pickup and it takes about 7 min or so to get to school from my house. you definitely cant be persnickety about a hairstyle here and ride in the back of a truck to work. the wind in your hair at 50 miles an hour on the super highway does a number to it.
earlier on this week i asked my room mate kyndra where i could buy a hair straightener and she told me to talk to a woman named nok who works at the cafe we frequent and that she would love to help me. so i walked to the cafe around mid-day and asked pi-lu (the owner) if nok was working and he said she was out but asked if he could help me, so i snickered, feeling a little silly asking this 40-something thai man about a hair straightener but he was very helpful. he pointed me to a beauty supply store (where you can obviously just go and pick up some spare beauty, luckily enough for me) across the street and told me i could buy one there. he proceeded to walk me across the super highway (streets here are something between a freeway and a normal street- many cars at fast rates) to the store and said that nok would be right over. he left me there and a few min later nok and her partner ak came into the store over-joyed to help me find this hair straightener. the two of them have been speaking english for about 3 months, which made everything a little trickier, and of course i know how to say..hello....how are you and...no which did me very little good. they were speaking to the sales lady in thai and trying to convey to me what was going on which was...well i had no idea what was going on. i ended up getting the idea that the ones they had were no good and that we should go somewhere else, so back across the super highway we went to a diff shop where they were no good either. i felt horrible that i couldnt converse with these two, but they did pretty good at saying what they could to me in english. all i really remember was them pointing at a orange and white striped cat on the street and saying ' oooo you lie ga-field moobie? ga-field da cat" haha i nodded and we agreed that odi was an exceptional dancer. SOOO, we went back to the cafe and pi-lu said that we could use his truck to go to a store in town to find one (this all became a much bigger deal than i meant it to be) so i hopped on the back of a motorbike with nok and we went to go get pi-lu's car. we got in the truck and went to a different beauty supple store and finally found what we were looking for. nok was so happy that we got there and found a good one that she bought one too :) afterwards she asked me if i wanted to do some more shopping, so i agreed and ended up buying a pair of converse all-star tennis shoes for like $9 which is tight cause they're like 40 or 50 in the states. nok did her best to teach me thai in the car, but i of course failed miserably. she taught me like 5 or 6 phrases but al i remember is..'chai' which means 'right'.
so within my first 5 days of being in this country ive never been, i ended up going all around town with this girl i just met who spoke hardly any english and came out victorious with shoes and a hair straightener. i thought it was so funny while we were going across the super highway on her motorbike that i was in the situation that i was in, and how i got there with three words of thai. haha, and here's to many more adventures to come. sawadee-ka, anna
bobar kept me up all night last night...he's a snor-er. so i woke up a little grumpy. however i usually wake up really good here. unlike in the states (ive gotten accustom to saying 'in the states' as opposed to 'america' cause thats what everyone says here) where i would moan and fight my way to stay in bed. then again waking up early might have something to do with my singing neighbor. oh yes i said it right. my neighbor lady wakes up at about 4:30 or 5 every morning and starts singing her heart out, and doing laundry and dishes...and maybe ceremonially breaking a few plates or something. maybe she's greek....hhmmm i'll have to look into that. whatever it is its noisy, but sometimes the tropical birds and the sound of the wind in the trees drowns her out. oh wait...no....that would be the noise of her two rot-whilers fighting to the death. aahh the natural sounds of thailand. so beautiful.
so i made it through my first week in this foreign place, and i love it. and yes for those of you who were wondering, i have eaten strange substances from street venders and ridden on the back of a strangers motorbike (dont tell my dad). everyone and their mom rides a motorbike here, they even have special motorbike parking areas in the grocery stores. its a really effective way of getting around, but im sure the people that dont wear helmets and end up in the hospital would tell you different. i get to school every morning with a family named 'Fish' i hop in the back of their pickup and it takes about 7 min or so to get to school from my house. you definitely cant be persnickety about a hairstyle here and ride in the back of a truck to work. the wind in your hair at 50 miles an hour on the super highway does a number to it.
earlier on this week i asked my room mate kyndra where i could buy a hair straightener and she told me to talk to a woman named nok who works at the cafe we frequent and that she would love to help me. so i walked to the cafe around mid-day and asked pi-lu (the owner) if nok was working and he said she was out but asked if he could help me, so i snickered, feeling a little silly asking this 40-something thai man about a hair straightener but he was very helpful. he pointed me to a beauty supply store (where you can obviously just go and pick up some spare beauty, luckily enough for me) across the street and told me i could buy one there. he proceeded to walk me across the super highway (streets here are something between a freeway and a normal street- many cars at fast rates) to the store and said that nok would be right over. he left me there and a few min later nok and her partner ak came into the store over-joyed to help me find this hair straightener. the two of them have been speaking english for about 3 months, which made everything a little trickier, and of course i know how to say..hello....how are you and...no which did me very little good. they were speaking to the sales lady in thai and trying to convey to me what was going on which was...well i had no idea what was going on. i ended up getting the idea that the ones they had were no good and that we should go somewhere else, so back across the super highway we went to a diff shop where they were no good either. i felt horrible that i couldnt converse with these two, but they did pretty good at saying what they could to me in english. all i really remember was them pointing at a orange and white striped cat on the street and saying ' oooo you lie ga-field moobie? ga-field da cat" haha i nodded and we agreed that odi was an exceptional dancer. SOOO, we went back to the cafe and pi-lu said that we could use his truck to go to a store in town to find one (this all became a much bigger deal than i meant it to be) so i hopped on the back of a motorbike with nok and we went to go get pi-lu's car. we got in the truck and went to a different beauty supple store and finally found what we were looking for. nok was so happy that we got there and found a good one that she bought one too :) afterwards she asked me if i wanted to do some more shopping, so i agreed and ended up buying a pair of converse all-star tennis shoes for like $9 which is tight cause they're like 40 or 50 in the states. nok did her best to teach me thai in the car, but i of course failed miserably. she taught me like 5 or 6 phrases but al i remember is..'chai' which means 'right'.
so within my first 5 days of being in this country ive never been, i ended up going all around town with this girl i just met who spoke hardly any english and came out victorious with shoes and a hair straightener. i thought it was so funny while we were going across the super highway on her motorbike that i was in the situation that i was in, and how i got there with three words of thai. haha, and here's to many more adventures to come. sawadee-ka, anna
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Dear Charles #2
guess what?! im in thailand fools! i just arrived yesterday, and have not had internet access till today. haha how conformed am i? "oh no! no internet for 3 days! what will i do?" really i was just anticipating coming to my blog to tell you all about my crazy last four days. not at all to see which of you love me enough to write me and wish me a safe and happy journey. so far only 6 of you have proven to be true friends. thanks true friends, you know who you are.
so my disgustingly long journey has brought me to Chiang Rai, Thailand. it is absolutely beautiful here. theres something about this place that makes me feel like ive been here a long time, and another part that is wondering why i havent come sooner. everyone here is so nice and have been so good to me. creepishly nice and helpful....as if someone wrote them....and told them i had.."special needs"...i might have to have a talk with some of you. hhmm.
so i traveled for, i think 2 and a half days? im way to lazy to calculate out the time change and find out what it really was. plus i get a bigger reaction if i say two and a half days as opposed to just one or two. you know its all true too. here's how it goes. "so ive traveled for about a day... response: oh, huh, thats not horrible but still a bummer. im sorry." REVISED CONVO- "yeah man it took me two and half days to get here....response: two and half days?! man thats brutal!" so this is how it goes. anyone saying different is lying.
also...i promised him we would try and find his mother while we're here. alright so, my first plain ride was 11 hours to alright so on to the travel. first off id like to introduce you all to bobar. he is my very best travel companion ever, and a gift from my brother conner for christmas. he is a teal elephant, and he will undoubtedly be making appearances in this blog. he's new to thailandtokyo. that sucked. the guy i was sitting by spoke one word of english, which was hello, so you can imagine how far our conversation went. eleven hours after that he shocked me by waving as he walked away...but it was a wave from the heart, it was all in the flick of the wrist, i knew he'd miss me. so when i got off the plain i had another flight to bangkok shortly after, and when i got off the walkway thing you take to go to the plain there was a small asian woman who was saying something about a transfer flight to bangkok, so i told her i was going to bangkok and she quickly told me to go up the stairs and look for another lady, that i had to hurry because the flight was boarding, and she said a few other things in japanese. she was pretty frantic. so i got pretty nervous that i was going to miss it, so i started running. looking completely foolish no doubt, with a backpack twice my size jumbling around on my back and a purse full of nerds that were rattling with every step. so i find a line to security and a small japanese lady pops out of a crowd with huge eyes and says " o you fo' plain do ban-kok?" i said yes so she hurried me to the front of the security line, passed a woman in a wheelchair (my conscious will be heavy for years) and quickly to a group of three other people who were also on the flight. so we all started running through the airport, behind this woman who was no taller then me but still half my size with a sign over her head that said the flight number and gate. after about 5 min. of running like fools, peeking over bags and people to find the woman we were following we made it to the gate. we ran up to the counter, i was panting, and sweating (no big shock there) the person looked at my ticket and just said.."no no no- you wrong flih" hahahaha, i was not on that flight! there was a list of four people on this woman's list of people that were coming from my flight from seattle to the flight to bangkok so shortly after. i looked at the list and the woman was pointing to the name "flogarty" so i laughed and said im not flogarty im peirson! so she got huge wide eyes and put her hands on her head and started rambling in japanese, so she turned and ran back to the gate to find the real flogarty, while i found my real gate # for my flight and calmly walked there. it turns out my flight was delayed 2 hours. ahaha, isnt that just how it goes?
so i made it to bangkok at 2:00 am and had to wait there for 12 hours! for my flight at 2:00 pm the next day. i tried to get some sleep but i had all my bags with me because they didnt get checked through all the way to chiang rai, and i was too paranoid that someone would steal my 48 lb. bag right in front of me to go to sleep. looking back that was dumb. but i met some nice people while waiting. one man was about 85, he was thai...i could hardly understand anything he was saying but we talked sure enough for about half an hour.
so now im here! im at the school that im gonna be working at right now, in the library. its so funny to be writing to you all and hearing a gaggle of thai students talking to each other in the background. haha i guess i d better get used to it.
i'll write when i can. i hope you all are doing alright and that tacoma is recovering from my absence. i understand if youre all in shambles, i would be too. love to everyone! peace-anna
guess what?! im in thailand fools! i just arrived yesterday, and have not had internet access till today. haha how conformed am i? "oh no! no internet for 3 days! what will i do?" really i was just anticipating coming to my blog to tell you all about my crazy last four days. not at all to see which of you love me enough to write me and wish me a safe and happy journey. so far only 6 of you have proven to be true friends. thanks true friends, you know who you are.
so my disgustingly long journey has brought me to Chiang Rai, Thailand. it is absolutely beautiful here. theres something about this place that makes me feel like ive been here a long time, and another part that is wondering why i havent come sooner. everyone here is so nice and have been so good to me. creepishly nice and helpful....as if someone wrote them....and told them i had.."special needs"...i might have to have a talk with some of you. hhmm.
so i traveled for, i think 2 and a half days? im way to lazy to calculate out the time change and find out what it really was. plus i get a bigger reaction if i say two and a half days as opposed to just one or two. you know its all true too. here's how it goes. "so ive traveled for about a day... response: oh, huh, thats not horrible but still a bummer. im sorry." REVISED CONVO- "yeah man it took me two and half days to get here....response: two and half days?! man thats brutal!" so this is how it goes. anyone saying different is lying.
also...i promised him we would try and find his mother while we're here. alright so, my first plain ride was 11 hours to alright so on to the travel. first off id like to introduce you all to bobar. he is my very best travel companion ever, and a gift from my brother conner for christmas. he is a teal elephant, and he will undoubtedly be making appearances in this blog. he's new to thailandtokyo. that sucked. the guy i was sitting by spoke one word of english, which was hello, so you can imagine how far our conversation went. eleven hours after that he shocked me by waving as he walked away...but it was a wave from the heart, it was all in the flick of the wrist, i knew he'd miss me. so when i got off the plain i had another flight to bangkok shortly after, and when i got off the walkway thing you take to go to the plain there was a small asian woman who was saying something about a transfer flight to bangkok, so i told her i was going to bangkok and she quickly told me to go up the stairs and look for another lady, that i had to hurry because the flight was boarding, and she said a few other things in japanese. she was pretty frantic. so i got pretty nervous that i was going to miss it, so i started running. looking completely foolish no doubt, with a backpack twice my size jumbling around on my back and a purse full of nerds that were rattling with every step. so i find a line to security and a small japanese lady pops out of a crowd with huge eyes and says " o you fo' plain do ban-kok?" i said yes so she hurried me to the front of the security line, passed a woman in a wheelchair (my conscious will be heavy for years) and quickly to a group of three other people who were also on the flight. so we all started running through the airport, behind this woman who was no taller then me but still half my size with a sign over her head that said the flight number and gate. after about 5 min. of running like fools, peeking over bags and people to find the woman we were following we made it to the gate. we ran up to the counter, i was panting, and sweating (no big shock there) the person looked at my ticket and just said.."no no no- you wrong flih" hahahaha, i was not on that flight! there was a list of four people on this woman's list of people that were coming from my flight from seattle to the flight to bangkok so shortly after. i looked at the list and the woman was pointing to the name "flogarty" so i laughed and said im not flogarty im peirson! so she got huge wide eyes and put her hands on her head and started rambling in japanese, so she turned and ran back to the gate to find the real flogarty, while i found my real gate # for my flight and calmly walked there. it turns out my flight was delayed 2 hours. ahaha, isnt that just how it goes?
so i made it to bangkok at 2:00 am and had to wait there for 12 hours! for my flight at 2:00 pm the next day. i tried to get some sleep but i had all my bags with me because they didnt get checked through all the way to chiang rai, and i was too paranoid that someone would steal my 48 lb. bag right in front of me to go to sleep. looking back that was dumb. but i met some nice people while waiting. one man was about 85, he was thai...i could hardly understand anything he was saying but we talked sure enough for about half an hour.
so now im here! im at the school that im gonna be working at right now, in the library. its so funny to be writing to you all and hearing a gaggle of thai students talking to each other in the background. haha i guess i d better get used to it.
i'll write when i can. i hope you all are doing alright and that tacoma is recovering from my absence. i understand if youre all in shambles, i would be too. love to everyone! peace-anna
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Dear Charles,
last night i had my going away party..funny thing is im going to see almost everyone that was there again before i leave, (except for lucy wold, dang girl went to have an amazing experience in ecuador, and she didnt wait until after i left to leave...i love you to pieces lu) but sometimes you just need an excuse to party right? plus a dance party 2009 hadn't happened yet so there's reason enough right there. i can safely say that the party was the best of the year. some of you might be saying to yourself..."now, anna, isnt that a little presumptuous? that was only day 2 of the new year" well to you i say, no. not presumptuous in the slightest. im a pretty good judge of a killer party, that definitely was one. i had taquitos there for crying out loud! any party with taquitos is a darn good one.
now, im sure youre wondering why the beginning of this blog says 'dear charles'. its really a funny story so i'll start off with that. Charles Wilcox, whom most of you know, was among the guests at the party last night. we got talking about this blog, and he was telling me how much he was anticipating it to be humorous and well written, all the while the perspiration in my armpits getting more and more intense...anyways somehow we got talking about how i would entitle my first blog 'dear charles'. he didnt believe me, so naturally we put money on it. safe to say i have a crisp five dollar bill waiting for me when i get home in june....dont think i'll forget charles. in fact i think i'll do it one better....every blog from here on out will be written in a 'dear charles' format. so, get used to it folks. it'll be good for me, just like some people name their diaries so it feels like they're spilling their guts to a person as opposed to 60 sheets of college ruled paper.
As i enter my last week as an american, im taking time to appreciate the things and people around me that will be truly missed. two ply toilet paper to start..oh how i'll miss your soft touch. cloudy skies...moving on. origins 23 coffee shop, don't cry when i get my free WIFI from a coffee shop in thailand. and finally over-priced avocados. you've seen the last of me for awhile...but i'll be back, and when i am, you better be back down to at least a dollar a piece.
I'm so stoked to share my experiences with you all through this blog. i pre-apologize if any of them aren't up to your standards....(charles)...i'll do my best. i appreciate all your prayers as i take this incredible journey, i know it'll probably go by really quickly. but the sooner i come back, the sooner you all get your cool souvenirs. peace!
now, im sure youre wondering why the beginning of this blog says 'dear charles'. its really a funny story so i'll start off with that. Charles Wilcox, whom most of you know, was among the guests at the party last night. we got talking about this blog, and he was telling me how much he was anticipating it to be humorous and well written, all the while the perspiration in my armpits getting more and more intense...anyways somehow we got talking about how i would entitle my first blog 'dear charles'. he didnt believe me, so naturally we put money on it. safe to say i have a crisp five dollar bill waiting for me when i get home in june....dont think i'll forget charles. in fact i think i'll do it one better....every blog from here on out will be written in a 'dear charles' format. so, get used to it folks. it'll be good for me, just like some people name their diaries so it feels like they're spilling their guts to a person as opposed to 60 sheets of college ruled paper.
As i enter my last week as an american, im taking time to appreciate the things and people around me that will be truly missed. two ply toilet paper to start..oh how i'll miss your soft touch. cloudy skies...moving on. origins 23 coffee shop, don't cry when i get my free WIFI from a coffee shop in thailand. and finally over-priced avocados. you've seen the last of me for awhile...but i'll be back, and when i am, you better be back down to at least a dollar a piece.
I'm so stoked to share my experiences with you all through this blog. i pre-apologize if any of them aren't up to your standards....(charles)...i'll do my best. i appreciate all your prayers as i take this incredible journey, i know it'll probably go by really quickly. but the sooner i come back, the sooner you all get your cool souvenirs. peace!
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