Final Goodbyes…

This past week was our last as teachers at Hang Chat Wittaya School, and a very sad week it was. Each day, one by one, we had to say goodbye to our classes. We gave out lots of candy and conducted intense photo shoots, getting full class pictures along with many, many candids. We hadn’t taken many photos of the students throughout the semester, because we didn’t want to seem like stalkers or distract the students during class time, so we did not hold back during our final week. Peace signs, framing of the face with the thumb and pointer finger (see above), and using arms to make hearts seemed to be the most popular poses. Many of the students were super sweet, seeming genuinely sad to see us go. They told us they loved us, gave us cards and candy, and didn't want to leave when the bell rang.

During Emily’s goodbye to her favorite class, M4-2 (10^th grade), she even broke down into tears (first of many occurrences). As she tried to arrange them for a class picture they all flocked to the chalkboard writing: “I love you Teacher Emily”, “We will miss you, please come back soon,” etc. As I came in to take the picture, Emily looked at me, pointed at the board, and continued crying. One of the students even took a bracelet off his own wrist, giving it to her saying, “Now you will never forget Thailand.” The class also organized and made a booklet full of all their pictures, email addresses, sweet messages, etc. to give her. Oh, it’s those sweet students that make leaving so hard! There were other students that were more apathetic, though. We weren’t quite sure if they didn’t understand that we were leaving or if they just didn’t care (the latter is much more plausible).

Friday we had to give a “goodbye speech” to the students at their morning assembly. The speech quickly turned from professional to ridiculous as Emily and I had dinner at Pan’s house the night before and she helped us write it. We decided we would do the speech together to reduce repetition, switching off line by line. For every sentence we said in English we did a short Thai translation, because Pan said we had to show the students the Thai we'd learnt. Our grand finale included singing the first line of the school song in Thai…“Hangchat Wittaya nam roaw cow loo lueng!” All the students were clapping along with us, thinking we were going to sing the entire song. Sorry guys, but we aren’t THAT good at Thai! Pan told us that all the teachers and students thought our speech was funny and they liked hearing us speak Thai though, so we were happy. At the end we were presented with huge bouquets of roses and one of the 9^th grade students came up and gave a “Thank You” speech to us on behalf of the whole student body. She had memorized the entire thing in English, all in one night. Impressive!

Not only did we have to say goodbye to our beloved students but also to our fellow English teachers, some of which we have become very close with over the last four months. Friday night Pan made everyone go to a steak restaurant for our “farewell dinner”, one of the few in the country I’m sure, because she thinks we’re obsessed with steak. Although we both love a good steak, Thai steak is not quite up to par. The other teachers ended up ordering random things off the menu…Sutham said everything he ordered was “arroy nidnoy”, only a little bit tasty. Dinner included Sutham randomly reading off sheets of chain email jokes which he busted out of shirt pocket and Pan, Emily, and I being the only ones drinking. At Pan’s request, we were continuously cheers-ing with our daiquiri-type drink that no one else was interested in. When everyone was finished eating, Sutham announced that it was time for the teachers to say their final goodbyes to us. Just the announcement made Emily start crying. For all we knew they could have said, “Goodbye, good riddance, your loud voices in the teachers’ room will not be missed,” but I guess Emily was anticipating more. She was right, as all the teachers had very nice things to say. The night ended with some presents and pictures and goodbye hugs for Noy and Ning, who we were seeing for the last time.

The weekend meant it was time for the dreaded task of packing. Every time we saw Lan over the weekend she would ask, “Did you put something in your backpack?” Yes Lan, we each put one thing in our backpacks... we are making such good progress! She clearly doesn’t understand how much chotch we’ve bought! For dinner we took a break from stuffing chotch into our way too small bags and went with Lan, Dart, and Dream to moo-ga-ta for one last food fest! This time we decided on limits beforehand, though. We would only get enough food for ourselves and not over-do it, and we each gave ourselves an ice cream scoop limit so we all wouldn’t feel like we were about to burst after, like last time. After eating, we forced Dart and Dream to sit with us on a seat swing made for children to take pictures. They humored us, probably because they knew that was the last time they would have to endure our antics. Thanks guys!

Sunday consisted of more packing. At night, as Emily and I were lying around taking a break, we heard some giggling from outside. Seven students from my favorite class, M4-1 (as you can see, M4 are clear favorites with us both,) came over for a surprise goodbye (they clearly didn’t want to be outdone by Emily’s tear-inducing M4-2 class)! They presented me with a poster board filled with pictures of everyone from the class, including the class picture I had taken with them. They also had a mini photo-shoot with me and Emily, who were both in our pajamas since we hadn’t known they would be showing up. Therefore I was left posing in short shorts and a tank top, neither very appropriate in Thailand and especially not in front of my students. I was so surprised and touched that they came all the way out to our house on a weekend night just to say goodbye. Gosh, I’m gonna miss them!

After they left, we went for our “goodbye dinner” at Lund Dang’s. Apparently goodbye meals are run of the mill in Thailand, because every time we ate at one of the places in our rotation for what we thought was the last time, the owners would all say “you must come back one more time for your goodbye meal”! Some goodbye meals consisted of our regular order plus a few extras things thrown in while some were special meals the owners cooked up just for us, but the common theme was that the meal was free. Lund Dang’s eyes teared up as we gave him a Red Sox t-shirt as a parting gift. Then, Emily surprised him by calling Nate on her cell phone (arranged through Facebook) and letting them talk, which they hadn’t done since Nate left in October, as Lund Dang doesn’t have a computer and it’s too expensive for him to call. He was so shocked that, at first, he didn’t believe it was actually Nate, throwing the phone back saying “I can’t speak English,” thinking we had put him on with Emily’s dad (who he also misses).

Monday was a day of gluttony. First, we had two “goodbye lunches” to attend, one at Cow Man Guy and the other at Lap. We didn’t have enough time left in Hang Chat to do one as a lunch and one as a dinner, so we refrained from telling Lap that we had already eaten a full lunch before we got there. That meant that lunch consisted of: sodas, an omelet, cow man guy, and soup first, then red curry, Chinese noodles, and pork for dessert. We kept saying we felt like we were in a hot dog eating contest…you aren’t there to enjoy your food, you are just there to finish it all. We felt pretty disgusting after, especially since Lan barely helped us saying the food wasn’t for her, because she wasn’t the one leaving. Thanks for adding to our expanding waistlines, Lan. Annie and her mom both gave us little parting gifts and the mom was tearing as we left. It was very touching!

Monday afternoon and night Pan claimed us. First she picked us up and brought us to Big C for some ice cream sundaes…MORE food, nooo! Then we went to her house where she made us our final dinner. Poon also showed me how to make sushi, which I love. She even had some of her own special recipes including rolls with omelet in them. After dinner, Pan called Mr. Janwit (Christmas designated driver) and made him drive us home with her so he could say goodbye. She had obviously caught him off guard because the parting gifts he gave us were clearly random things he found in his house…but it was very cute that he felt the need to give us anything in the first place.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early for our ride to the airport with Pan and Sutham. First we had to say goodbye to Lan, as she wasn’t able to accompany us. Thais are very unemotional and crying isn't something they really do, so although we could tell she was very sad and would miss us a lot, Lan’s eyes remained dry while both Emily and I cried and sniffed away. At the airport, Pan and Sutham walked us as far as they could before saying goodbye. Pan broke the Thai code of behavior and shed tears as we hugged her, a sure sign she will truly miss us. Sutham tried to give me a handshake as a goodbye, as man to woman hugging isn’t a norm in Thailand, but I turned that down quickly…you will not get a handshake after 4 months, you will get a bear hug, and you will like it! At this point Emily and I were really turning on the water works, which was cracking up the security checkpoint officials. I think this goodbye was especially hard because it was the first time either of us have ever had to say such an uncertain goodbye, when you really don’t know if and when you will ever see the people you are leaving. Thailand certainly isn’t close and who knows when we’ll have enough time off to return, while traveling for Thais is ridiculously expensive. I still can’t believe that we are really gone, but everything must come to an end at some point. It was an adventure we will both never forget and I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to experience it. Peace out Hangchat, we will miss you dearly, but you are forever in our hearts!

Travel update: Emily and I are safely in Cambodia, where we will be until March 7^th. Then, it’s off to Malaysia from the 7^th to the 11^th, Bali from the 11^th to the 20^th, Bangkok from the 20^th to the 23^rd, Hong Kong from the 23^rd to the 27^th, and home on the 27^th. We will try to keep up with the updates as long as we can find some Wifi along the way! Stay tuned!