Hung nam u ti nai kaa?

The title of this blog means “where is the bathroom” in Thai. I titled it that because this blog entry is going to be all about the logistics of my life in Nan. It’s a lot of information, so I sectioned it.

Nan
Nan is in the North of Thailand, population approx. 24,000. The streets do not have names, at least none that we’re aware of. People get around by bike, motorbike, car, or trucks with seats in the back. There are three markets that take place on weekdays. There is a morning market where they sell fruit, rice, friend chicken, flowers, and incense, and two evening markets. At one evening market they sell raw fish and fruits and at the other they sell typical Thai foods, like noodle soups and pad thai. There are seven 7-11 stores in Nan, but they don’t really sell much that is American, except a few kinds of chips and coke-flavored slurpees. Shops on the streets sell everything from bootleg DVDs (mostly in Thai) and handbags and flip flops to pizza and the Nan equivalent of a smoothie (nam sum). This week I started searching to find muy Thai (a Thai style of martial arts) lessons but have yet to find any.

Your average street in Nan, and a bike with an especially plush seat.

My bedroom, note the sink is outside of the bathroom.

My home
I live in an apartment complex with 7 apartments. My apartment has 3 rooms-a bedroom (the size of a small American bedroom), a bathroom (the size of an American closet), and a very small room in the front (about the size of an American bathroom) which currently holds my shoes and not much else. I live next door to the other girls I teach with (Helena, who graduated from Marist college in NY, Kathy, who graduated from Rutgers, and Kelly, who graduated from Vanderbilt with her masters.) Below and next door to us live high school students, who, in Thailand (or at least Nan), move away from their families to go to high school because the schools are far away. Next door on the other side lives the aunt of our landlady. Most people between the ages of 12 and 60 ride motorbikes. We ride bicycles that have been used by the foreign teachers at our school for the past few years.

Our apartment from the outside

andthe flower in the pond in front of our apartment

My school
I teach at Bandon Srisermkasikorn school. I teach grades 5/1 and 6/1. There are also 5/2-5/5 and 6/2-6/5 students, they are less advanced. My students call me Ajarn Karen, pronounced ajaahn. I have a desk in the English room, where I sit in between classes, but I do not have my own classroom. I travel between the two classes teaching English, as do all the English teachers. When I enter the classroom all the students stand up and greet me with “Hello Ajarn Karen. How are you today?” I respond and ask how they are. Then I have to tell them to sit down. Sometimes I forget and end up starting class with them standing. When class ends, they all stand and say thank you and see you tomorrow. It’s very cute, I will upload a video. I have a co teacher when I am in class. In both my 6th and 5th grade class my co teachers speak enough English to translate whenever there is a huge language barrier. Typically, however, they do not do very much. My biggest problems in class are students not being on task because they did not understand the assignment or directions. Oftentimes it takes a lot of explaining. Typically in class we practice pronunciation, speaking, and vocabulary. I can focus on writing with the more advanced students. Yesterday I taught my students a song/rap about the Three Billy Goats Gruff. It took them a while to be able to say the lyrics quickly, but they really enjoyed it. I hope to teach them dance moves soon.

Money
1 US dollar is equivalent to about 31 Thai baht. We will get paid for the first time on the 30th. We get paid 24,000 baht on the last day of each month, which is more than most teachers make at our school. Our rent is 2,500 baht. The average meal of noodles or rice is 25 baht. Smoothies or coke are 10 or 15 baht. A bottle of water (none of the water in Nan is drinkable, the Thai people do not drink it) is about 5 baht (which is less than a quarter!!). If we want non Thai food (like pizza, pasta, or hamburgers) it will cost more than 100 baht. Laundry (we don’t have washers or dryers) is 50-100 baht per load.

Noodle soup. The balls are pork, pretty tasty but a ton of sodium.Thai people eat by picking food up with the chopsticks and placing it onto the spoon. I’ve become very good at it.

A typical day
I wake up between 6 and 6:30 and am ready to go by 7:15. We ride our bikes to school, it’s about a 3 min ride away. It takes us an extra 5 minutes to get into the school because all the little kids stop us to say hello and give us high 5. We are supposed to be at school by 7:30. We sign in and then get breakfast of either sticky rice with egg custard and coconut milk or fried dough. At around 8 the English room fills with the sounds of young Thai children singing songs. They have a song for the King of Thailand, a song for Buddha, and a song for the school. Class begins at 9 am. I teach 3-4 hours a day (and I have one day where I only teach 2) for a total of 16 hours a week. In between classes we lesson plan, or write blogs, or play solitare, or practice speaking English with some of the students, whatever we desire. We leave school at 4 pm, unless of course they are spraying for mosquitoes because there have been cases of dengue fever and our classes are cancelled (which happened on Friday). After school we run errands-post office, laundry, internet café, etc. We usually get dinner around 6 or 7, we might bike to the night market, or the restaurant down the street from us, or try somewhere that’s been recommended to us. After dinner we might get nam sum and relax outside our apartment. I usually go to sleep around 11. I hope to add Thai lessons once a week, and muy thai lessons to the routine soon.


I think that covers most of the details. More blogs to come soon.