Christmas in Paradise???

Um, not so much. Island beauty, okay yes but resort, no! The resort I booked was to say the least not what I expected or where I expected. When I was there (Ko Samet Island) in November I thought I saw what was going to be our resort...Samet Villa Resort...but when we got to the island the other day I was informed that our resort Samet Ville Resort was on the waaaay south part of the island and the south part of the island is waaaaay secluded. So lets say hello to all the couples, lovers, and gag me with public display of affectioners. In order to get to our resort we have to take a taxi...let me see if I can explain this one road and taxi business to you...hmmf for starters its a dirt road, hilly, bumpy, a bunch of rocks EVERYWHERE, lots of holes and ruts in the ground, and you better hold on for your life or you will fall off the back of the pick up truck taxi.
When we arrived (all dusty and with our stomachs in our throats) immediately you could see my moms dislike. Great. Well we don't have a choice as I prepaid for the room weeks ago, on my credit card. Fine, we will deal with it and make the best of the place...it is after all our Christmas holiday. So we freshen up and go grab a bite to eat. Where oh where shall we go? Oh that's right the resort only has one restaurant...simply fabulous...not! Lets watch TV...oh 3 channels and all in Thai, lets go online...oh no Internet...ok, well then lets just call it a night. Tomorrow should be better.
Wake up Christmas morning. Awe my mom has some gifts for me. Lets go to the beach...oh boo its cloudy. (So sad I know, I know I know most of you woke up on Christmas morning to below zero weather and snow on the ground- fine I will quit my complaining about some clouds). We lounged on the beach for the better part of the day. Then we took the ever so wonderful pickup taxi to the main beach for our Christmas dinner. Now it just so happens that my friend Phil, from grammar school, was on the island for Christmas as well. So we met up and had Christmas dinner together.

The next day...instead of staying at our secluded beach with its one not so good restaurant and lovers lane resort we opted to go back to the main beach...AAH yes people, AAAH yes an oil massage, AAAH yes a nice beach, AAAH yes good food.

Okay fast forward to today. We get up early for breakfast and I have a momentary lapse in reason and I leave my wallet in the room (I'll get to that in a minute). After breakfast we ask if there is an earlier boat back to the mainland as we were scheduled to leave at 11:30am. Yes, 8:45am. YAY its 8:30am now. Great, we'll be right back with our belongings. Okay 8:42am ready for the boat. 8:57am where is the boat? 9:13 still waiting...9:28 finally! We get to the pier, now where is the bus station? We are trying to catch the 10:00am bus. Nope bus is full. 11:00am is available...yes I'll take two please. I grab my wallet, open it up to find 2000 baht stolen. MOM- DID YOU TAKE MONEY OUT OF MY WALLET??? No...OMG OMG OMG. When did that happen? Oh yah, my momentary lapse in reason when I forgot my wallet in the room this morning. Fuckers (sorry for the foul language) And I know exactly who did it too...the little weasel who was sweeping out front of the next bungalow. He saw us leave with no belongings. Bastard. My mom kept trying to put a positive spin on it by saying that things must have been so bad for the person that they had to resort to stealing. Chances are they must have really needed it. BUT STILL!!! BASTARD!
Needless to say, I am glad I am back in Bangkok and done with that resort. I had a great time regardless as I got to spend the Christmas holiday with my mom! We are currently packing up her belongings and getting things ready for her departure in a few days. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and a whole lot more.

We had a Wat filled weekend...well just the first day. First up, Wat Chiang Man. Here is where I learned about the 8 different Buddha poses...one for each day of the week (2 for Wednesday). Next, was Wat Chedi Luang, which at one time had the tallest padago in the northern region. Now its in ruins.

Wat Phra Singh, was next, it is one of the towns oldest temples. And finally, we went to what is probably Chiang Mai's most famous landmark: Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. I climbed the 304 steps to the top while my mom took a funicular up. Here we saw panoramic views of Chiang Mai.
After all the wats we headed to San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. Here was saw the "boilegg" hot spring...which literally had dozens of people boiling baskets of eggs in a pool of naturally boiling hot water (softboil 3 minutes, half done 9 minutes, welldone 15 minutes). There was a stream of the water for people to soak their feet in. Closest to the "boilegg" pool was the hottest but as you walked downstream the water cooled off. My mom and I soaked our poor puppy dog feet in the hot spring stream. Then had a half hour foot massage. Afterwards, we headed to a Chiang Mai's Night Bazaar (and bought lots of goodies).
The next day we started out early as we were heading 3 hours north to Chiang Rai. First stop was for some coffee at Cabbages and Condoms resort and restaurant (what? yeah...). Officially the first stop of the day was Wat Rung Kun (an all white temple). This is a relatively new Wat (additional buildings are still being built). We then headed for The Golden Triangle. The golden triangle is where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet.

*An important message for those that get car sick easily...don't do it.
Next we headed to a border town, Mae Sai and visited a Jade factory. This is also the northern most part of Thailand.

On Sunday, we took a scenic drive to Doi Mae Salong where there are various hilltribes. We were able to see the Akha and Padaung tribe women. The Padaung women are also known as the "longneck tribe". They wear these heavy brass rings around their necks. Legend says they wear the rings for protection from tigers. I was in complete awe of these women. At around the age of 5, girls start to wear the rings.

And finally we took a local longtail boat up the Maekok River before driving back to Chiang Mai for our flight back to Bangkok.

The Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaeo

My momma has safely arrived!! Yahoo!!!

On Monday, my mom, her friend Kumi and I headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo in Bangkok. The Grand Palace was gorgeous..so detailed and intrinsic. The Grand Palace was kings official residence from 1782-1946.

Wat Phra Kaeo is considered the holiest temple in Thailand as it is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The legend behind the Emerald Buddha is quite interesting...it is actually made out of green jade and not Emerald as the name suggests. It was for many many years just a simple stucco image in a temple in Chiang Rai until one day lightening struck part of the temple revealing the beautitful green image. Patrons visiting Wat Phra Kaeo are not allowed to take pictures inside the Temple, however there is a door open to allow patrons to take photos from outside (hence the pic being abit blurry).

After our day adventure my mom and I headed for massages. One hour long foot massages for less than $10 -absolute heaven, I must admit.
On Tuesday, I had to teach but was able to meet my mom up for dinner in Chinatown. Yum. And today (Wednesday) she was doing her own thing as I had to administer midterm exams...and tomorrow I have more midterm exams but then in the late afternoon we are headed to the airport for a quick weekend trip north to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. YAY!

Momma!

My mom arrives tonight! Woohoo! We have 2 and half weeks of jam packed fun and traveling...Yeah I get to spend Christmas with my mom!!! The only downfall is that I still have to work a few days. But its only a few days. We have plans to travel to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai next weekend and Ko Samet for Christmas. Sweet!!!

The Great Tuk Tuk Scam and Wat Pho

Wednesday was another holiday in Thailand- Constitution Day! YAY, another day off work! So the gals and I headed to Wat Pho- The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. But before we got inside... we got suckered into "the great Tuk-Tuk scam"

...we were trying to figure out what was the gimmick but couldn't figure it out right away... the tuk tuk drivers prey on tourists and tell all sorts of lies to get you to take a ride on their tuk tuk. And since we were playing "tourists" for the day we decided why not...so they say they will take you to several Wats but what they don't say is that they will also be taking you to a jewelry factory and a tailor shop (ah there it is). Two hours and two wats later (the Lucky Buddha and Golden Mount) we finally made it to Wat Pho (our original destination for the day).
Wat Pho is the one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok. The Reclining Buddha is one of the largest Buddha images and is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. These pictures can not even portray the size of this Buddha.




P.S. Happy Birthday Sean.

Koh Chang

Aaaah, island paradise....Shannon, Lauren M., Jenn and I headed to Koh Chang for a quick weekend get-away. Friday December 5th was the King's Birthday which was a holiday here in Thailand!. Sweet, no work! So we decided to head to Koh Chang (the 2nd largest island in Thailand). We took an 11:30pm bus Thursday night from Bangkok to Trat (about a 4 hour trip) from there we hopped on a 6:30am ferry to the island. Enroute to the island we were able to see an absolutely stunning sunrise. Heaven I say.

Once off the boat we took a 'Sawngthaew' (pronounced song-tail). A Sawngthaew is a pick-up truck with two benches in the back where people ride. The ride is bumpy but fun and you have a great view of your surroundings. And what a view! The blue-green water and the forest from the top of the island was gorgeous. 75% of this island remains untouched rain forest, not only that but the island has some breathtaking waterfalls.
So we found a bungalow to stay at, grabbed a bite to eat and played cards (Euchre) for a bit (all this before noon). We then got ready for a day at the beach. While chilling at the beach we decided to go kayaking. We rented two kayaks (for a 100 baht an hour = equal to about $3 usd) and headed to a close by little undeveloped island. Later that day/night we saw the sunset over the water.

Aaah man, a glorious sunrise and beautiful sunset in the same day...wow! I am one lucky gal. After dinner, we all were pretty exhausted so we decided on massages near the beach and calling it a night. Damn near perfect day, if you ask me!
Saturday we headed to Koh Chang Marine National Park to hike up to the Klon Plu Waterfall.

Afterwards, we ventured to the beach for an afternoon/evening of relaxation.
Sunday morning we got up and seriously had about 5 minutes of water time as we needed to be on the noon ferry to catch our 2:20pm bus back to Bangkok. Boo, time to get back to reality. But that's okay as Wednesday is another holiday (Thai Constitutions Day) and we have the day off. And then, and then, and then....this coming weekend my momma comes to THAILAND!!! YAHOO!

Thanksgiving and the weekend.

Celebrating a holiday in a country where no one knows what you are talking about was quite hilarious. Fortunately there is Sam from the International Programs office who is taking us under her wing (she feels so bad at the way we have been treated with our director)...She found a place in the city that was serving Thanksgiving dinner. YAHOO. Pass me the mashed potatoes...oh no there was none...but there was turkey! HECK YEAH TURKEY! It was delicious.

After we headed to RCA (Royal City Avenue) which is the hub of Bangkok nightlife. I may have had a little too much to drink but I had "an angel" Shannon who made sure I was okay. Friday as you can imagine I spent the day in bed. And in the evening six of us went to the movies, we saw Twilight. Saturday President Emeritus, Rev. Brother Martin scheduled a little long boat trip for us. We were told that Thailand used to be known as Venice of the East using their waterways as a means of transportation. Thailand's traditional life in rural settings has always been linked to the "Krongs" or waterways. On our excursion we stopped at a 100-year old market known as Klong Suan.


After the boat trip majority of the group headed into Bangkok to go to a Wine tasting. This was another event found by Sam. For about $9 American dollars we had 3 hours of unlimited wine...dangerous. Later we headed to a club and danced the night away. There was one point, on the dance floor, where I really missed some of my friends...I got some dance party friends at home and I wanted you here to shake your groove thing with me. Sunday a few of us went to Chatachuk Weekend Market. It is the world's largest weekend market, they sell everything under the sun...from antiques to animals. We were there for about 4 hours and only got through about 1/4th of the market. HUGE, I tell you. I bought a knockoff Gucci workbag for about $6 american dollars! Sweet.

On an unrelated side note, due to the unnecessary drama with housing, classes, etc. A group of four of us have decided to rent a townhome in Bangkok, right around the corner from the HuaMak campus. Sam (from International Programs office) went apartment hunting with us a few weekends ago. We are still keeping our rooms (dorms) on the BangNa campus but have this apartment for when we have to teach our conversational courses from 6pm to 8pm at the HuaMak campus. Have I mentioned, I am not happy with having to create yet another new set of lesson plans??? Not happy at all.

Anyways this place is somewhat furnished and we have been busy buying sheets, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. for our new pad. Over the weekend (Saturday night) we stayed at our place instead of having to commute an hour to BangNa from the city. I will be heading there tonight with one of the other gals as I teach tomorrow at 9 am over there and it is so convenient. Right now we don't have internet access but Sam is looking into it for us. And I am not even going to tell you how much my rent is...its sick...okay okay I will...my share is less than $100 American dollars....nice! More pics of the townhome are in the slideshow below.

Ko Samet

Early Friday morning half of our group set out for a weekend getaway trip. We headed to a little island by the name of 'Ko Samet'. The island is about 80% forest and is a national park. It was only about a three hour van ride with an additional 30 minute ferry ride to the island. BEAUTIFUL!

Thailand beaches have finally redeemed themselves, this was absolutely gorgeous! Perhaps one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen (and this island is supposedly not even one of the best, I have to travel further south for those). Friday night Shannon, Lauren, Jenn, and myself wandered around and found this cute place to eat on the beach...literally on the beach...mats on the sand, lanterns on the table, cushions as seats...adorable. After dinner we walked along the beach and heard a bar playing some good tunes and we gravitated towards it. It was a low key place where we befriended the two bartenders. We played Jenga with them as well as connect four. They gave us control of the music selection and taught us some bar tricks (how to get money from two bottles without touching the two bottles, etc). Here I flew my first 'khom loi' a.k.a. candle powered paper balloon lantern. It was awesome. We rounded off the evening with some sparklers, writing names in the sand, and a late night dip in the ocean...

Saturday, the rest of our group came to the island and we all went snorkeling. We got the entire boat to ourselves, sweet! On our 4 hour tour, we went to a fish farm, snorkeled the rocky uninhabited west side of the island, fished (many ate what was caught-I tasted), jumped from the top deck of the boat, and watched a glorious sunset. Lets just say that this day was near perfect. We continued on well into the night, starting with a group dinner then heading out to a couple beach bars where we spent majority of the night dancing. Fun Fun!

This morning was a rough one for some (me included...what?) but we sucked it up...got some grub and hit the beach before having to leave and come back to campus. I am telling you this place was wonderful! I am so excited to go back ...my mom and I are heading there for Christmas, YES!!!

drama drama drama

Unnecessary drama if you ask me...I have failed to mention some of the bs that has been going on over here (here meaning the university I am at). I had orginally planned on not saying anything as I wanted you to all believe I am living this grand life where its all sunny days and glorious. But I want this blog to be an accurate account of my year here. Let me assure you the drama has subsided and things are starting to get back to normal. Now what is this drama I speak of???????
Housing and 2 hour conversational courses!
I know petty little shit, right! WRONG! We live in the sticks, timbuktu, outskirts of any point of civilization...we have been fighting to move to the city campus since before we got here and its just gotten worse when we saw how far removed from society we are...before we came we were told we would be able to move 2nd semester but we have since found out how big of a fabrication that was...and now we are being told repeatedly that its not going to happen.
Then Monday ...poof... now 8 of us (oh but there are 15 of us) can move only if we teach this additional course. Some people are okay with it ... others like myself are not. I am not going to teach this 2 hour conversational class that is not part of my contract. Oh yah and it meets 6pm to 8pm, 5 days a week. UGH.
So I plan on making my voice heard but before I can....a meeting is called and now all of a sudden ALL of us HAVE to teach this conversational class. WHAT? YEAH! WHAT? YEAH!
Okay so I have been stressed with my two levels of lesson planning (thankfully I have a team of teachers here to bounce ideas off of and get ideas from and an amazing mom who continously sends me website resources) but now I get to throw a whole new lesson planning in the mix. ARGH! I am just not going to think about it right now. No, not right now.
It will be okay I have calmed down considerably. Today I went and worked out twice (once in the morning and once in the evening) to help bring my stress level down and really what else is there to do here???? I just need to remain positive and absorb all this...for christs sake I am in Thailand! I am living in Thailand! Yeah that's the spirit...and right now all I am thinking about is our weekend get-away trip to Koh Samet Island. I plan on forgetting all about this so called drama. Drama? What drama? Once again the infamous thai phrase comes so in handy here...Mai Pen Rai (no worries).

Loi Krathong

The other evening was the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month here in Thailand. Which is also called "Loi Krathong". In Thai "Loi" means "to float" and "Krathong" is a raft. People usually make little banana-leaf boats to float onto the river. They are decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, and incense sticks. They are intended to float away ill fortune as well as to express apologies to the River Goddess. One Tuesday the university had a Loi Krathong celebration and on Wednesday three of us went into the city to view the festivities.
I was so lucky that some of my students were performing at the celebration and I was able to take some pictures with them before they performed. Afterwards I headed to our little pond to view some of the students Krathongs.

On Wednesday night I bought a Krathong to float in the Chao Phraya River. I can use all the help I can get of letting go of some things in my life. If a little candle raft is going to help me get rid of some anger and grudges, so that I can start afresh and on a better foot then so be it!

At one point we were walking along a main street trying to find a way to the river and found a little alleyway that had a sign with a picture of a boat and a pier so we decided to walk down it. Good thing we did. We got to the pier right as the fireworks were starting and we had a front row view. It was beautiful. On our way back to the main road we stopped in this little restaurant for a drink and to stare at this weird looking fish (yes it's a real fish).


P.S. I have been in Southeast Asia a month now! Can you believe it?

My Top Ten Lists

My Top 10 list of things I wish I would have thought of or done BEFORE heading to Thailand!
10. Learn the basics of the Thai language.
9. Bought a pocket Thai/English dictionary.
8. Diversified my packing wardrobe.
7. Bought Keen Waterfront shoes.
6. Bought a better camera.
5. Researched where in the world is Bang Na Thailand.
4. Tutored ESL adults.
3. Map Quest & Google Map the heck out of Bangkok. Nothing worse than being lost in a city where no one speaks the English language and you have no idea how to get back to where you need to be.
2. Lost 20 pounds because all I am eating here is rice and noodles and inevitably going to gain 50 pounds!
1. Done research on ESL games and activities to help ease my now constant frustration of lesson planning!

My Top 10 things I have learned SINCE being in Thailand!
10. I live 45 minutes outside of Bangkok :(
9. Don’t drink the water.
8. Only get into taxi’s where the driver will start the meter.
7. The beach is not that far away.
6. I really don’t like seafood.
5. There is no rhyme or reason to half the stuff that is done here. Some things are done so ass backwards. I quit trying to figure it out.
4. If you ask 3 different Thai people the exact same question (directions for example) you will get three very different answers.
3. Everything is “Mai Pen Rai” <--- no big deal, never mind, no worries.
2. Skype is my best friend.
1. Carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer with you EVERYWHERE!!!

Cheap Cheap Happy Hour

This past weekend a group of us headed south to a little place called 'Hua Hin'. Why? Cause we needed it! My first week of teaching was pretty crazy. I am not a trained teacher...I just play one in Thailand. Its all a learning process...right? I suck at lesson planning though. Thankfully I have teamed up with some teachers and we bounce ideas off each other! You know the teaching part is not bad, these kids are so much fun...all we do is laugh. Hey I am getting them talking and seeing that I am teaching Conversational English I think I am doing a good job. So far so good! This semester I am only teaching 3 classes. All of which are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Which is a pretty sweet deal if I say so myself. The other days I am in the office and working on lesson plans. I don't like lesson planning. Blech!!
So Friday afternoon a group of us headed for a little beach get-away! We took a van to Bangkok where we hopped on another van headed for Hua Hin. After our two hour van ride we arrived to Hua Hin...

We found our guesthouse and quickly freshened up and headed out for some grub. And street pad thai was had. mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm. Following eating we walked the streets and bounced in and out of bars. It was fun. Saturday morning we headed for the beach. It was overcast and hazy but relaxing and just what I needed. We were there for a few hours before the storm clouds came barreling through.

We successfully made it to a bar before the rain hit. YAY! When the rain cleared we headed back the guesthouse to "shit, shower, and shave" (as my dad would say) before taking the town by storm again! While waiting for some of our group a few of us noticed an artist working across the street. We approached him and talked with him for a bit. He was working on this portrait and my picture does not show the many intrinsic details he had on it. He said he started this picture three weeks ago and would not be done for another four. Wow is all I can say! He let us look at some of his pencil sketches as well and oh wow they were so beautiful! So detailed. This guy was adorable, nice, and so genuine. He laughed and was all smiles! It was wonderful.

Saturday night we once again pranced through Hua Hin having a few drinks before calling it a night. Today (Sunday) we stopped off at the beach for a bit but it was windy, cloudy, and a slight bit chilly. We decided to take a leisurely stroll and window shop on the way back to the guesthouse before taking the van back to Bangkok. And then a cab back to Bang Na. Home sweet home.


P.S. The title of this post is dedicated to all the Thai beach venders who would come up to us and say "cheap cheap happy hour" to try to get us to buy the goodies they were selling.

Reporting to duty...Ajarn Heidi

I got my class schedule!!! I teach Tuesday and Thursdays at the Hua Mak Campus....which is about 45 minutes away from where I live. Remember I told you I live at the BangNa campus? I volunteered to commute to the other campus as did 2 other teachers. I'll admit, I volunteered for selfish reasons more than anything. I wanted to be in the city more and the Hua Mak campus is waaaaaaaay closer to the train station, downtown, and civilization.

Today was my first day! Today I officially became Ajarn (Thai for teacher/professor) Heidi. Thankfully yesterday I took the university van service to the campus for a dry run (as I have never taken the van service before and never seen the campus of where I was going to be teaching). Thank goodness I did. What a mess! I teach at 9:30 am and apparently there is no van service to the other campus until 11am. So what does that mean for Ajarn Heidi??? That means she has to either flag down a van and beg them to take her to Hua Mak campus (can you imagine the language barrier here?) or find this one specific Thai woman in a yellow shirt who will flag down a van for me. I chose the latter this morning (I also met up with a seasoned veteran teacher who has been here for 6 years, he was super helpful this morning, thank goodness for Clayton)! Anyways back to teaching...today I taught 3 classes. Two basic classes and one level one. My basic students just starred at me, I have a feeling they had no idea what I was saying...even though I repeated myself and simplified the language. Oh man this is going to be hilarious! My level one students were so awesome that the lesson I planned for today and Thursdays class they breezed straight through them...oh crap now I need to create new lesson plans for them for Thursday. Oh the joys of being an unepxierenced teacher trying to create lesson plans and activities. HA ha ha ha. Mai Pen Rai! Mai Pen Rai!

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster..."

It was more like two nights in Bangkok...but this was sung throughout the entire weekend! Friday night- Halloween!!! Okay so we had to work with what we had right?? So that limited our costumes a bit. Three of us were ajarn pirates, Griffin was a vampire, and Lauren L was a cocaine addict supermodel. Hilarious!

We ended up heading to a tex mex place for dinner...cause we all needed something different. MMMM Sangria. Anyways we befriended the manager there who told us about a dive bar with cheap drinks and a costume party. YAY! We immediately headed there. We sat in the bar drinking our two for one beers and playing a drinking game only to realize 2 hours later that the party was upstairs. HA. We head up there to find out the free beer just ended. Oh bummer. But we made friends and had a great time.

Saturday we sleep in (aaaah) and Shannon, Lauren M. and I plan on heading out for a bike riding tour. We get to the meeting spot only to find out we needed to make reservations. We put in our names for Sunday. Instead of cabbing it back to our awesome hostel we decide to walk. After about 45 minutes of walking we are all sweaty and gross we stop in a little tea house to relax and get a drink. We sit down and grab some English papers and start flipping through them. I found an advertisement for the 6th Annual World Film Festival and notice there was a free showing of Martin Scorsese's film 'Shine the Light' (about the Rolling Stones) at an outside area by one of the malls (Siam Paragon). So we agree to head there. We got there early enough to get seats. I was envisioning movie in the park but not at all, this was pretty sweet...we got free popcorn, several free beers, and a free movie! As well as a free laugh or two at the expense of the drunk guy dancing and singing along with the stones.


Sunday we along with Jenn and Lauren L head to take the bike ride. We start off at the southern tip of the city and took a boat across the river into what they called the Jungle. Lets just say it was beautiful, green, and breathtaking. For 70% of our ride we were on these narrow little paths above water. I thought I was going to bite it on the turns. Thankfully no one from our group fell...Jenn almost did but didn't. We stopped at the Bangnamphung Floating Market. Where I bought a coconut tree plant/seedling. YAY! After a quick stroll through the market we hopped back on the bikes and rode to Sri Nakhon Khuankun Park where we fed the fishes. Then we rode back into the city. It was so much fun and we found out that this company does several overnight biking trips too! YAY!

After our afternoon of biking we went to Tesco (the Thailand version of Walmart) bought some necessities and headed back to campus! Time to get ready for our first days of teaching!

Mai Pen Rai

It is taking some time to adjust to the different way of life here. And by saying 'here' I mean the compound, plantation, out in the boonies, Timbuktu, the sticks also known as the Bang Na campus. I feel so far removed from civilization. I am a city girl born and bred and have never lived outside of Chicago. I even went to college in the city. And now I have completely transplanted myself to a place where I am surrounded by rice fields and completely out of my element. In some ways I feel like I am an 18 year old kid and away at a small college town for the year. There is no public transportation anywhere near me with the exception of taxis. And I am not that brave to take one by myself. Even though this is a relatively safe country, you never know...especially when the driver has to take 3 back roads just to get on or off campus. Its a bit ridiculous. I am not liking the fact that I feel as though I am losing some of my independence, shouldn't this experience be the other way around? I guess I am just learning to deal with all this...mai pen rai...a common thai saying...which translates to no big deal, no worries, its okay, never mind, its cool. I must say that not for one moment have I ever thought twice about the decision I made by coming here. I am still very much happy that I am here and experiencing everything around me. But I will be honest I am sooooo excited and thankful that majority of us are heading to the city for the weekend. Tomorrow afternoon can not get here soon enough. Shannon was amazing and scored a hostel for some of us. She also found a 25 kilometer bike riding tour that I am going to do on Saturday. I look forward to wandering aimlessly around the city...oh and I have this sneaking suspicion that I am going to feel right at home! Until then...

Pattaya

Our group was so excited for our first trip to the beach on Sunday...well lets just say it was a bit of a disappointment. First of all the buses were an hour late picking us up, it was raining non stop, and we spent majority of the day at a tropical garden. The garden wasn't that bad. We did see an elephant paint a picture with its trunk, saw a tiger up close, and I saw these amazing statues throughout the garden.





We finally made it to the beach at 3:30pm. It was overcast, cloudy and the water was murky and not beautiful. I had very high expectations for the beaches of Thailand. I was quite bummed. But it was Pattaya...I have heard not so good things about the place. I heard it was seedy so I guess I just set my expectations too high for my first beach experience. That is totally fine as I am here for a year and I just need to do a little traveling and visit the islands and I guarantee Thailand will redeem itself. I have the faith.

So you know how I said that last week was our first week of 'work' and that this week would be our first week of classes....well I lied...apparently this is still the registration week and next week we will finally start teaching! Here at Assumption University I will be working in the Center for English Language Development. This is a brand new start up program (our group of teachers are the guinea pigs). First year students can take our basic or level 1 conversational English classes and by-pass the required verbal exit exam at the end of their 4th year, which from what we hear is pretty intense.
Their marketing for these classes didn't go over too well. They interviewed 6,000 of the incoming freshman and they were anticipating at the very least 2,000 to sign up and as of now there are only a few hundred. What that means is there are too many teachers and not enough students. So this week we are going into all the English classes to promote our program as well as setting up several tables around campus. Should be fun, good times.

KhaoSan Road

Yesterday morning we had to have our University required health exam (blood work, urine sample, chest xrays...the whole shabang). I received a clean bill of health for those inquiring minds. I felt like I was on Grey's Anatomy in this get-up.
Since the hospital was in Bangkok, we decided to spend the remainder of the day in the city. We ended up splitting up into two groups. One went venturing into the city as the other group (the one I was in) went to get a traditional Thai Massage....aaaaaaah. For 250 baht (equivalent to about $8.00usd) I received a one hour beating of a lifetime. This is not your typical calm, serene, just lay there and relax massage...no no no you are an active participant in this game. This petite woman used her hands, forearms, elbows, and feet to stretch me sideways. At one point she was completely on top of me kneading her elbows and putting pressure on certain points on my back...it was great!
Afterwards we trekked it up to KhaoSan Road to meet up with our other group. In order to get there we had to take a subway, the skytrain and a river ferry. The KhoaSan Road area is known for the cheap hostels and the place where international backpackers hangout. We met up with our group and were asked if we wanted to try the ants they purchased. Um, um, um...okay sure why not. They are a delicacy here you know. Those little creatures were flavored with lemon and onion and completely DISGUSTING!. I will never eat them again.
We ended up staying at this bar for quite some time and had full reign of the upstairs. The beer was flowing and the dancing was hilarious. It was a lot of fun. When a group of us were calling it a night we had to walk to the main road to catch a cab. And of course there were street vendors everywhere and I got what was probably the best pad thai I have ever eaten. What once was pizza or burritos at 1am has now officially been replaced by pad thai!

P.S. Its been 8 weeks and 5 days since I quit smoking. YAY ME!