Chun con Thai-a farewell

Ah how time has flown. I leave Thailand in exactly 10 days. I can't actually believe it. And though my laziness with regard to this blog has only increased since my last update, I feel I owe it to myself and anyone who's ever read this blog to put at least one final post.

I taught my last class on the 27th of February. I packed all of my things in Nan and then traveled south. I stopped in Bangkok, to handle visa issues, then (with Kathy and Helena) visited Cambodia for just over a week. I came back to Thailand to meet up with a friend from home (Ganga, who was visiting India and decided to hop over to Thailand) and now, short on money and time, I'm returning to Nan. I will be in Nan for my 6th graders graduation and I am so excited for it.

That being said, now is the time to summarize the experience; to tell all I've learned about the world and myself, about Thailand, about Asia and the West.
Honestly, I don't think it's all that profound or exciting, but here goes.
I think the first thing I realized is that I absolutely adored my students and teaching this year. I think I probably enjoyed it more than any of the other girls. I was truly blessed with two classes filled with (for the most part) well behaved, enthusiastic, hard working, and bright students. Most everyday was a pleasure to be in class and I am ever thankful for that. I can't say, however, that I'm cut out for teaching in the States. I know that the work I did this year can't possibly compare to some of the work done by friends of mine doing Teach for America all over the country.

I think the next thing I realized is how easy it is to become accustomed to what was once abnormal. Everything from wearing pink on Tuesdays, to standing for the King's song every time I see a movie, to watching my students brush their teeth after lunch, to 6 hour bus rides, to being stared at by the entire town has become part of a routine. In fact, I can only imagine it will be strange not to be stared at and not to have a color for each day of the week (it really makes dressing simple). And I know I'll miss the king's anthem (luckily it's on YouTube, oh the power of the interweb). And America is going to seem so much bigger when I'm forced to fly everywhere I want to go. It's truly strange how little repetition it takes for something to become an expected part of life.

The next thing that has come to the forefront of my mind is the fact that (even though I've missed home immensely this year) I love to travel and live in different places, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. It's been wonderful living a different life, a Thai life. I can only begin to imagine what a South African life, or Kiwi life, or Brazilian life would be like! I can't simply be satisfied with an American life!

In that same vein, living in Thailand (and S.E. Asia in general) has reminded me of both the blessings (religiously, academically, socially, economically) and burdens (spiritually, environmentally, materialistically, racially) living an American life affords you. From so many standpoints I am provided with more than those that I lived with in Thailand. I have the opportunity to travel many places, I have never wanted for many of the things they might struggle to obtain daily, I have never feared for my life, I received a stellar education (paid for largely by others), and daily I interact with people from all corners of the globe (as a working class citizen of this country).
Be that as it may, I also live in a country full of people who are obsessed with so many things I find irrelevant, that (in large part) are spiritually repressed, short sighted, and careless. I live in a country that is regularly involved in death and destruction all over the world, a place so caught up in the moment; we've forgotten how to appreciate it. It's much easier to see and overcome these things from afar, but it takes constant effort to get past them on American soil.

I think the last thing I'll mention is the title of this blog-chun con Thai, which means- I'm Thai (or I'm a Thai person). I have become quite protective and possessive of Thailand as a country. I very much consider myself Thai. When we visited Cambodia our tour guides told us of Thailand’s bloody history of war with and attack on Cambodia. When they mentioned it, I felt like I had personally committed the acts of violence, I felt bad for Thailand.

And so it is, that I leave this country, not drastically changed as a person, but accustomed to being stared at, with a wider world view (and a desire to continue widening it), a new nationality, an appreciation and better understanding of my own country, and 66 students that I cant wait to come visit again.

Thank you Thailand, most sincerely and humbly, thank you.

Just pictures (mostly)

I thought I would update my blog photographically. I’ve been busying myself with learning how to read/write basic Thai and improving my speaking a lot so I haven’t had as much time to write. I’ll just give a brief overview of the last month or so.


Christmas

On Christmas day we sang Christmas songs to the entire school over the loudspeaker. We also danced the cha cha slide (which our students absolutely adore) in front of the school. In class, we had a party. See below.













Sports Day
Every year, all over Thailand, students participate in Sports Day. Classes and grades are divided into teams based on the Thai equivalent of homeroom. There are students who run, students who play volleyball, students who play soccer, and students who play ping pong. The other students learn cheers for their teams and a much smaller group of students learn dances to cheer their team on.
So for the entire month of December the last hour of the day (from 3 to 4) was spent outside, preparing for sports day. It was a ton of fun for the kids but they missed out on a lot of academic instruction.
I participated in sports day in a few ways. First, I was asked by some of my students to teach them a dance. So I spent a lot of those out of class hours teaching 4 of my 6th graders dances to Thai and American songs. It was a lot of fun and it gave me an excuse to dance.
I was also asked (after bringing in my flags for show and tell) to teach a flag routine to my 5th grade class and Kathy’s 4th grade class. That proved to be fairly difficult and time consuming but ended up being a lot of fun.
Unfortunately I was enjoying my New year’s break when sports day occurred so I wasn’t actually there. But I got some wonderful pictures of all the kids parading around school in support of their teams and of the flags and dancers. See below.
















New Years
For New Years me and 2 of the girls I teach with, Helena and Kathy, and another foreign teacher in Nan, Sarah went to Koh Maak a small island about 5 hours south of Bangkok. It was absolutely beautiful. The island is still really underdeveloped so we spent a lot of time in the dark walking on the beach and using wonderfully cold bucket showers. They had fireworks at midnight and really amazing food.
We made a lot of both Thai and foreign friends (as is common in secluded places) and I officially obtained a Thai nickname, Ratree (pronouncing the second r is optional). It means “night” and it also refers to a flower that is open at night. Pictures of our trip below.

Birthday memories and the frankness of the Thai

Last week there were two deaths within our school’s larger family. My 6^th grade student, June, lost her mother (who used to be a teacher herself) and one of the 4^th grade teachers lost her husband. It appears June’s mother retired last year because of severe cancer. The teacher’s husband died from fluid in his lungs (in addition, according to one of the other 4^th grade teachers, to heavy drinking and smoking).

Everyone has been wonderfully kind and understanding, yet the openness with which they speak about the deaths it outright disturbing. Because the Thai find no qualms with stating facts (such as “you’re fatter than she is”, or “he’s the slow student in class”) they talk about the deaths with little emotional concern for those who suffered the loss. For instance, when one of the Thai teachers explained to us about the death of the other teacher’s husband, she had no problem essentially justifying his death because he drank and smoked.

My students came to class Monday morning (the day after June’s mother’s funeral) and explained to me that her mother died. They then told me how happy June was today and how she was smiling a lot. They then told me that at the funeral yesterday she had been crying a lot. They went so far as to imitate her crying! I was completely shocked but June didn’t look like it was hurtful. I was on the verge of tears when I told the other teachers what my students had done. I can’t even begin to imagine what losing your mother at the age of 12 must be like, let alone having your friends imitate your tears.

But it’s ok to say, I guess. June was (justifiably) crying at the funeral, and I suppose my students were just trying to tell me that. It all left me very disturbed. I could, however take solace in the fact that, when we wrote in our notebooks about all things we are thankful for June wrote that she was thankful for her mother’s funeral.

On a much lighter note, I celebrated my 22^nd birthday 2 weeks ago. I mentioned about a week before that my birthday was coming up. I had no idea what I was in for. On Thursday Kathy, Kelly, and Helena surprised me with a homemade apple pie! For some reason I had been craving apple pie and I mentioned it. Note, never attempt to make crust with rice flour, it doesn’t work. But hey, it’s the thought that counts and I really appreciated that they baked a pie for me, even if it wasn’t very good.

On Friday, in typical Thai fashion, I bought 80 pieces of cake for my students and co teachers. In Thai culture you give gifts (often food) on your birthday. However, I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my 6^th graders and my boss. I also got a pair of earrings from my student Kow (all of my students quickly recognized that I like earrings). On Saturday, my 5^th graders threw me a “surprise” party. I put surprise in quotes because they had been talking about the party all week. All of the students come to school for 2 hours on Saturday to practice English and math. Around 10:45 on Saturday morning, two of my students showed up at my house. We then rode our bikes back to school where the entire class sang an original song to me gave me lots of flowers! Then we ate a delicious cake that my (5^th grade!) student Nam-Pet made. There was a bit of a frosting fight as well. Then they gave me their gifts. I got food, teddy bears, a cute clock, and more food. It was a ton of fun. After giving gifts and eating cake we danced the cha cha slide for about 15 minutes (all the children love that dance!) and then we played bingo (they also love bingo). It was really great.

M and my co teacher Aj. Wandee and the beautiful flowers they gave me

The cake my 5th grade student Nam-pet made from scratch!

The chalkboard

Me, obviously

The wonderful things my students wrote.

Me and the students with presents

Culture Shock and Competitions

So there are many stages of culture shock. When we embarked on this journey they told us all about the many things that we were likely to feel and experience while living abroad. I think I have just successfully emerged from the “these people” stage of culture shock. This is the stage when you are essentially your angriest (and if you know me, you probably know that this isn’t very angry compared to the average person). This stage consists of lots of complaints and frustrations with the country and people, hence the phrase “these people.”

Overall, there isn’t a lot for me to complain about, I am truly living a great life here. But hey that’s what people are apt to do, we find things to complain about. The one thing that I can complain about is the language and all its glorious barriers. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Thai is a tonal language. The same word can have 5 different meanings depending on whether it’s said with a high, low, flat, ascending, or descending tone. The sentence “new wood doesn’t burn does it?” can be said using only one word. It’s really ridiculous. And as a foreigner, new to tones, the differences seem nonexistent to me. So when attempting to speak Thai I get a lot of crazy looks. Trying to order my dessert without (sweetened condensed) milk, I might be asking for my dessert to come with sagging breasts. Discussing water buffalo I might end up talking about a penis. Trying to call a child beautiful, I might call him or her unlucky. It sounds funny, and afterwards it most certainly is, but during such a slip up, you just seem like a moron.

The other problem with learning Thai is that because there are so few foreigners in Nan who speak any Thai, the people of the town are not used to hearing anyone make these mistakes. Since America is such an immigrant filled country, we are used to people mispronouncing words, using improper grammar, and struggling with vocabulary. If someone says they are going to the bitch, I can safely assume they mean they are going to the beach. If someone tells me to chake, chake, chake, it’s a solid bet that they mean shake. But in Nan if I say kow with the wrong tone, they might think I want knee with my meal rather than rice. The subtleties of the language are so intense that I have been in a room of students and told them that my favorite Thai food is pad thai, and they stared at each other for 2 minutes trying to figure out what I said! But hey, it’s all just incentive to get better at the language, so I can’t complain too much.

The other thing I like to complain about (that I really do appreciate being a part of despite the extra work) are all the English competitions that my students participate in. Thai people really like competing. They have all kinds of educational competitions: science math, computers, etc. But they take it to another level and they have competitions where the students are dressed like Jane Fonda and are doing workouts on stage, it’s really awesome. My kids are most often part of English competitions. At the beginning of the year I taught my kids the play Snow White. We have now performed it at two different competitions and have won 2^nd and 1^st place. I’m quite proud. Additionally the kids are part of spelling bees, speaking competitions, and general knowledge quizzes where they ask questions like “Which country is the biggest exporter of coffee.” It means lots of preparation from the teachers and driving hours to competitions in many different provinces, but the students like being involved so it’s all worth it.

The Queen and her magic mirror

Snow White, the 5 dwarfs (our cast is limited) and the random cat we keep deciding to leave in the play

The poisoned apple!

The Prince who falls in love with Snow White while she is "dead." Don't you love fairy tales!

Best Vacation Ever

We had been planning it since August. We knew where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do, who we wanted to see, and how we were gonna do it all. Well sorta. We had known abut our 3 week vacation since the school year began almost 5 months ago. We had general ideas about locations and activities but for the most part we wanted to relax, have fun, and see Thailand and we managed to do just that.

Ko Chang (Elephant island, named apparently for it’s shape as seen from the mainland)
I started my vacation by taking the infamous 11 hour bus ride from Nan to Bangkok (this was by choice, there are 1 hour flights from Nan to Bangkok every other day, but I don’t mind the bus ride and they are about 1/6 the price of the plane ticket). In Bangkok I met up with Helena and her family. From Bangkok we took the 5 hour bus ride (though some evil human told us it would only be 2 hours) to the coastal town of Trat to catch a ferry to ko Chang. Ko Chang is a really special island. The entire interior is a beautiful forest. In the forest you can do everything from elephant trekking to hang gliding. We even saw monkeys on the winding roads that cut through the island. The beaches are nice, though certainly not the best I’ve ever seen (Panama has them beat, hands down). But during our stay we mostly walked around town and swam in the pool. We hung out by the beach and took an amazing snorkeling trip as well. The water was bit murky but there was a ton of stuff to see. Pictures below.

A parrotfish we saw snorkeling

Ko Samet
From Ko Chang we headed northwest to the island of Ko Samet. Ko Samet is nice because it is just two hours south of Bangkok and there are just as many Thai vacationers as foreign ones. The beaches are much nicer than in Ko Chang. They are cleaner, clearer, and deeper. But there is less to do. The shores are separated by rocky shores and each beach is fairly separated from the next. Ko Samet is designed for complete and total relaxation. Massages, comfy chairs, a few hammocks, the sun, the sky, and the beach really made for a relaxing time.

The gorgeous beaches of Ko Samet.

Bangkok We were only in Bangkok for 2 and a half days. We took this time to be especially Western. We were a little nervous about doing too nuch traveling because we had been hearing news of large protests and violence around the city. Thankfully none of it came near where we were. We walked around town, visited the malls and made a few foreign friends. I’ll likely go back to Bangkok to get a better experience in it.

Kanchanaburi From Bangkok we traveled west to Kanchanaburi. This city is famous for a few reasons. The first is the film The Bridge over the River Kwai. During WWII the Japanese forced hundreds of thousands of American, British, Malaysian, Australian, Indian, and other S.E Asian POWs to build a railroad to send supplies and troops into Myanmar. Thousands died due to the climate in Thailand and the horrible treatment in the camps. We visited the bridge that they died building, one of the cemeteries in town, and a museum. It was a very saddening experience but really educational. We also visited the floating market outside the city. It was once used as an efficient means of transporting food and other goods between families living on the river. People set up mini restaurants and markets in their boats. It has now become a large tourist spot but was still fun to see.
The other reason we visited Kanchanaburi was for the Tiger temple. About 10 years ago some monks living in a temple about 40 minutes out of the city adopted an injured tiger. Since then the monks have been taking care of many more tigers, wild boar, deer, water buffalo, peacocks, and even a leopard. It is now a huge tourist attraction as people can come and take pictures up close and personal with all these animals. It is truly wonderful to play with a tiger cub and touch a full grown tiger.

Me on the bridge over the river Kwai

With a very playful tiger cub

Close Up

Ayutthaya
From Kanchanaburi we traveled northeast to Ayutthaya, a city popular for its ruins. The former capital city has over 300 temples many of which were destroyed when Burmese soldiers attacked the city. The temples are marked by crumbling prangs and pagodas and statues of Buddha with the heads removed.
From Ayutthaya we took a day trip to a small city called Lopburi. Lopburi is also a city with famous ruins that was once an extremely important city. It also experience skirmishes with the Burmese. However, today it is most famous for its long tailed macaques (small monkeys) that live freely in the city and at the temples. They were so cool to see. It was a little disturbing for Kelly (who we met up with in Bangkok) because her sister had a rabies scare when a monkey bit her in China. But all in all it was just really amazing to see the monkeys willingly interacting with humans.

One of the most famous images in the Ruins. The roots of this tree grew around this Buddha head.

A family of macaques chillin at the temple

Chiang Mai From Ayutthaya and Lopburi we headed far north to our familiar Chiang Mai. There we took some time to relax, see a movie, and take an amazing tour.
We finally went to visit my people, the Karen tribes. They are famous because of their long necks. The women wear gold rings around their necks. They start wearing (with the option to decline) at the age of 5. The rings (based on research and X rays) actually push down their rib cages in order to create the image of a lengthened neck. It is said that they were originally used as protection in case they were bitten by tigers or to make themselves less attractive to males so that they wouldn’t be taken from their village. It was really interesting to see how tourism has become an important source of income for them while at the same time they are not the least bit interested in us when we come. In addition to visiting the Karen “long necks” we also visited two other tribes, a cave with Buddha images in it, an orchid and butterfly farm, and a factory where they make paper products from elephant dung. It was a really great time.

A young girl from the Karen 'Long neck' tribe

We arrived in Nan on Saturday evening and we are very excited to get back to teaching.

Since I haven't updated in ages!

Hello to all my Western readers! This is not a true to form blog entry. I am in an internet cafe in Ko Samet (and island about two hours south of Bangkok) paying 2 baht a minute to use internet. For comparison, in my humble home of Nan it costs 10 baht for a hour of internet use, so you can see my need to be brief. I just wanted to let everyone know that Thailand is still amazing and I am still very much loving it.

The beaches are absolutely gorgeous. Clear water (for the most part), excellent snorkelling, mostly clear skies, and gorgeous mountains. It is the definition of a tropical paradise. The hotels are more expensive than some of the guesthouses we've stayed in in CHiang Mai but we haven't had to sleep on any restaurant booths. There are a lot of foreigners here. Mostly Scandanavians and Australians but a few Americans here and there. In Ko Samet, there are also a lot of Thai vacationers since it's so close to Bangkok. There are also a lot of lady-boys. Far more than we have ever seen in Nan. They are feminine, fashionable, and always willing to hand out compliments. It's actually really interesting to see. One of the most disturbing parts of vacation has been seeing hords of very old falang men with beautiful young Thai women. I mean you hear about the sex trade and you know the brothels exists. But seeing them in the pools and beaches with you (and by "them" I mean 55 year old Russians with 22 year old Thais) just makes things a little too real. But I suppose after a while you get used to it.

We get a total of 3 weeks off for vacation and I spent the first week on Ko Chang a less popular island to the south east. I'm spending 4 days on Ko Samet, the island near Bangkok, then a few days in Bangkok. The trip has been extremely relaxing but has made me miss Nan and my students a lot. When I get home I will share photos of the trip and tell you all about my students’ English competition, where we performed the play Snow White and the hilarious parties I had with 5th and 6th grade during the last week of school.

My Rediscovery

Surprises have become less and less common for all the people of Nan. The falangs come and go and everyone gets used to that. We are learning to speak more Thai and blending in better with the general populous. Our students high five us less frequently, though still pretty regularly. And the first black person to come to Nan is now part of the community. People still say hello and smile at us, but our celeb status has dropped significantly. Until now… I took out my braids and now I’m rockin my afro. And boy is the town in an uproar, the good kind of course, but an uproar nonetheless. My students, who surprisingly knew the word afro, were shocked when they first saw it. They smiled and giggled, but they called my hair beautiful in both English and Thai. The other teachers stared and pointed, then smiled. I let my students touch it and they really enjoyed that. When I went to the market to get my breakfast, people were really taken aback. Lots of women stared and then touched their own hair, as though it could have happened to them as well. One woman, holding a small child, walks up to me, and stares at my hair, gently grabs my arm, and moves my arm to touch her child. It was really weird. About a week later a man walks up to me and asks to take a picture with me because I am the first colored person he’s seen in Nan (that’s a direct quote). He spoke decent English because he had spent some time in the U.S. and apparently still retained some dated vernacular. Of course I gladly took the photo. People in the market make strange sounds when they see my hair and one woman sounded like she screamed. It’s really quite funny to see/hear. We are concerned that I might cause a motorbike accident.

I think the best part about the hair change is that people still seem to genuinely appreciate it, even though it’s not long and straight. Some of the students have been saying to me “Ajarn Karen beautiful,” unable to complete the full sentence. It’s kind of become a last name for me. This week my hair is in Bantu knots, I’m excited to see what happens.

Current hair , I think the kids will like it

A few other updates…

I’m really good at Muay Thai. We have been going regularly for the last few weeks and I’m pretty sure I’ll be a master by the end:). The language barrier still makes learning some things hard but it is getting better everyday.

Me on my first day of Muay Thai training

I'm good at kicking!

I have been recording some of the wonderful things my 6^th graders do. I am uploading a video of one of my best students Tor imitating a monkey. The song they are singing goes:

“Don’t wake a sleeping monkey, it will get up. It will stretch its legs. 1.2.3.4. It will open its mouth, it will yawn. And then it will chase, chase, chase, chase YOU!”

Tor is the sleeping monkey and Name is the student being chased.

Here is another video of one of the other people that trains with us at Muay Thai, my goal is to be like him!