Just Hangin’ in Hang Chat!

We finally arrived in the town we are going to be living in, Hang Chat (town), Lampang (province), on Tuesday. We flew from Bangkok to Chang Mai (about a 9 hour drive straight north from Bangkok, but only an hour flight). We were greeted at the airport by our coordinator Sutham and then immediately attacked by Pan and Lun, two other English teachers at our school, both female, who were apparently so excited to meet us that they volunteered to take the ride to pick us up. Pan literally jumped on me and Emily screaming “I’m so excited!”…it was pretty cute, she even brought us bracelets made out of flowers as a welcoming gift.

Side note: Pan is slightly obsessed with me because I like coffee and so does she, while Emily doesn’t. We take personal coffee breaks together at school and even when we were out to lunch the other day she took me away to a coffee shop with her. Pan’s enjoyment of our common interest often causes her to want to hold me around the waist while we walk in public and she even sometimes enjoys simply sitting next to me and looking at my face and smiling. I mean, she likes Emily too, but our coffee connection brings Pan and I to another level.

Addition to this post from Emily: Imitation of Pan: “eRIN, cofFEE, NOW.” Clap clap. “WE HAVE cofFEE woooooooooooooo” (completely ignores me . . .maybe I would enjoy a nice iced tea, Pan?

If you are feeling bad for Emily, don’t worry, when both of us were in the car with Alex the other day he told us that we are different than other Americans they have had teach at their school because “Emily is so nice and friendly!” (umm, what about me, Alex???).

Anyways, Pan and Lun really boosted our confidence for the hour ride that followed from the airport to Hang Chat, saying “The princesses have arrived” and telling us how beautiful we are. Emily and I agreed that if they were ever to meet an American model or beauty queen they would probably faint since our sweaty, post-planes selves were able to get them so excited.

We finally arrived at our house, nicknamed the “Jungle House” because of its location in a thick forest, around 9 pm. Our “house” is located right on the campus of the school we teach at which is very convenient. Our street consists of four “houses”: ours and three of the school’s janitors’, which has already come in handy as we had a small leak in our kitchen that one of our handy neighbors was able to fix. The house is a lot bigger than we expected and we have it all to ourselves. It has two floors which consist of: a sitting room without furniture (which does not make for much sitting), a kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower that has hot water (which not everyone is lucky enough to have) downstairs, and then Emily and I both have our own rooms on the second floor. The entire house also has beautiful dark hardwood floors, which was unexpected. Emily thinks we are lacking in decorations, although the past American teachers did leave up a Christmas banner and lights. One other problem is that we only have a microwave and a fridge and thinking of meals to cook with the limited appliances, especially in a foreign country where most of the food is unfamiliar, is very difficult. We expect many Cup O’ Soup dinners in our future. We know we will never be lonely though because we have many pets including ants, spiders, and geckos. As Emily likes to say, “Its like going on a camping trip that never ends”.