Sawatdee Ka!!! (Thai “hello,” yeah . . .I guess you could say I’m getting pretty fluent).
After much anticipation, many airplane delays, and several Cup o’ Noodles, Erin and I have finally made it to Thailand.
For those of you who don’t already know, Erin and I met in first grade (supposedly on the first day, although we might have made that up to make it a better story,) and have been friends ever since. During Christmas break of our senior year of college we got to talking about teaching abroad, specifically with the CIEE program. I majored in education and was interested in teaching in another country, and Erin loves to travel and wanted to have a big experience before settling into the finance world. Nine months later, here we are! We’ll both be writing on this blog. Maybe later on we can have a vote about whose posts are more entertaining . . . just kidding.
We arrived in Bangkok late Tuesday night and have been taking part in a pretty intense orientation, getting the 90+ people in our group ready to teach kids from a culture most of us knew very little about and who probably speak little to no English. We had classes about Thai culture, the Thai education system, Thai language, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), as well as more practical lectures like Best Places to Travel around Thailand and Southeast Asia.
I would now like to break this post down into quick highlights from the first part of orientation week (in Bangkok).
1. Thai language lessons with Mai
Mai taught us Thai. Thai is a very difficult language. It consists of sounds that I have never made before in my life, as well as various tones that are impossible to remember. Mai liked to make us say things she knew we wouldn’t be able to pronounce (such as the “ng” sound at the beginning of a word) then laugh at us when we said something completely different. She especially loved to pick on people (Erin) and make them speak into the microphone so the whole class could laugh at them. We played many games including one where the loser had to keep drinking glasses of water. Mai would try to make the person laugh so they would spit the water out. So basically Thai language classes consist of Mai making fun of us. Here are two video clips of some Thai dances that Mai taught us. The boy is Yung, one of the orientation leaders . . . we are obsessed with him, his hair, and his braces – adorable.
2. Meet and greet with our coordinators
One night, a representative from each of the schools where we’ll be teaching came to our hotel in Bangkok for a welcome dinner and party. Erin and I will be teaching in the town of Hangchat, in the province of Lampang, (more to come on the geography and the feel of the town once we get there). Sutham (or Alex, his English name) is the head of the Foreign Language department at the Hangchat Wittaya, the secondary school where we’ll be teaching. He was wonderful, funny, and very welcoming. He told us that the Hangchat Wittaya is more of a “holiday school” rather than an academic school. After so much teacher training Erin was getting nervous about the intensity of our roles. We asked if we’d be handing in grades and he said we could provide him with “fake, made-up grades.” He informed us we’ll be living together in a “Jungle House” on the school’s campus – interesting. Again, more to come on this soon. We also got to watch some traditional Thai dances and then join in. Erin and Alex watched and laughed while I got some one on one dance lessons!
3. Khao Sarn Road and “The Club”
We finally made it out to the center of Bangkok for a night out with our fellow CIEE teachers and decided to hit up “Khao Sarn Road,” basically a place for foreigners and backpackers to drink and buy lots of things really cheap. One of the bars gave us French fries with our Singha beer, which was a plus. The music choices from the bars are fascinating, U.S. pop songs sung by very different singers and put to a techno beat, i.e. James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” sung by a woman, and put to a BUMPIN’ beat. Who knew? We finally made it into a bar called “The Club,” after loitering on the street for a while. I think we only wanted to go in there solely because it is called “The Club.” One “Songkram bucket” later, and The Club became awesome! There were CIEE participants dancing on the stage and doing techno light shows . . . who knew these people had it in them? I scolded some Irish people for always invading Boston and taking over my city. . .great job with international relations, Emily.
We are currently in the jungle in Kanchanaburi, on a mini vacation. Post on this to come soon! I miss everyone a lot and hope things in the states are going well. We will give our address as soon as we get settled in, in case anyone as the urge to send us things (chocolate . . .)
As you may have already heard, we got to go bamboo rafting on the River. The people who wore sneakers got the short end of the stick as our feet were pretty much submerged. I was prepared to sink, carefully keeping my mouth closed so as to not digest any illness-inducing Thai water, but we did in fact keep afloat! I really can’t describe how beautiful the river was, and a picture won’t do it justice. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been . . . NO noise whatsoever in any direction except for wildlife.
After the rafting, we headed to the elephant center to hitch a ride on a pachyderm. There was a sign as we climbed to the top of the tower that gave such warnings as “The trunk is a hand, a nose, and a weapon all in one.” Thank you, elephant center. An elephant trainer is called a “mahout.” I’m thinking of a career change. My elephant really took to me – NOT. Our particular mahout thought it was a funny joke to make the elephant go fast after I had slid down to its neck (that’s right, bareback on the elephant – there’s nothing quite like the feeling of an elephant ear flapping on your bare leg) The command for faster was “Boom Boom.” I repeatedly shouted NOOOO BOOM BOOOOOM! In my defense, an elephant is very large and when it walks, it really rocks back and forth in a big way. The neck is too big to really wrap your legs around. Needless to say I was very unsteady up there. Mr. Mahout happened to think this was very funny and proceeded to completely imitate me and make fun of me. Thanks. I had to request to get back into the seat, as we were descending into the river. The elephant “trek” took us around the small, very primitive village where these Burmese people lived. Absolutely surreal . . .it’s easy to forget that there really are still people who live in one room wooden huts. Children were running around everywhere (on a Monday . . .like a true teacher, my mind immediately jumped to – ‘why aren’t these kids in school?’). At one point, our Mahout even put his little son on our elephant. Baby Mahout did not like this and began bawling his eyes out! 
After dinner on the Kwai River, we went down to our hotel’s “Club” and got our daaaance on. It was a great time, seeing as our group members were the only ones there and somebody in our group replaced the Thai DJ with his Ipod and lots of great music. However, I have never sweat so much in my life . . .enough said. All in all, it was an amazing final night with some great new friends.
