Celebrating a birthday in Thailand was nothing short of a dream come true. I had my last day of TEFL classes but the other girls in my program surprised me with a birthday cake at lunch. The instructor Phil even had ‘happy birthday’ in Thai written on it for me. It was truly a surprise and so incredibly sweet of them. I wanted to spend the night relaxing across the street with a couple beers and call it an early night, but it being my birthday, my friends made sure that didn’t happen. After a complimentary birthday beverages were set in front of me, everybody took turns singing happy birthday in their native languages. English, Swedish, French, Welch and Danish! It was so heartwarming and something I will never forget. We ended the night at the bar next door, listening to a the latest international hits and sipping Mai Thais next to the river. It was a great birthday, as well as last night in Sing Buri.

My Thai birthday cake

The few days leading up to Monday morning I thought I was ready to leave. The other girls in my program and I talked about how we couldn’t wait to move into more permanent homes, truly unpack our suitcases and feel completely settled again. But when Monday rolled around all of the sudden I didn’t want to go. The Twinhouse had quickly become my home in Thailand and I had made a new family full of people from all over the world. The first two weeks in Thailand was the first time in my life where everything was 100% foreign to me. The Twinhouse became a place I could go that felt familiar and people knew my name and all of the sudden, I was being ripped away from that and thrown back into the uncertainty of solo traveling. But whether I liked it or not, I had to say goodbye.

Three other girls in my teaching program.  LtoR Megan (England), Ceris (Wales), Andrea (Australia) & Me

After an extended bus ride to Bangkok (our bus broke down and we had to wait for one to come pick us up) I arrived with not a soul to pick me up. I was told I was going to be meeting a representative from the school at the bus station who would bring me the rest of the way but when I called her, she said I had to take a taxi to the school. Awesome. My blonde hair and fair skin already attract attention here but add an awkward suitcase and me uttering the words “You want me to get a cab?” to the mix and taxi drivers flock. I was approached no less than 6 times while making my way to the taxi cue. Sometimes I wish I had brown hair.

Monday was a holiday because of Chinese New Year so instead of touring the school when I arrived, I spent the day with the director and her husband. They took me to lunch at the mall which honestly, was a bit of a culture shock after being in rural Thailand for 2 weeks. It was the first time since being here I had experienced air conditioning and no rice with my meal.  After lunch we went to the grocery store (I could write a post about the Thai grocery store alone) and I was shown my new place. My apartment is decent. It's simple and a bit dated, but the shower is hot and the air conditioning cold, so I'm not complaining.

I have a full week at my new school under my belt and honestly, it has been mostly uneventful. The kids are testing this week so instead of shadowing other foreign teachers or observing lessons I have been proctoring and grading tests. It’s a necessary evil of teaching but I’m looking forward to seeing a real class day and what the English program entails.

Heading to Bangkok for the night to see some friends from the Twinhouse and I'm really looking forward to it. Stay tuned for a post about it and more on teaching!

Love from Thailand

-Meg

Is it Friday night already?  This week has gone by in a flash and my days here at the Twin House are numbered.  As of now I will be leaving bright and early Monday morning to catch a bus to Bangkok. But this is Thailand so plans may change, possibly more than once, between now and then. 

This week we have mostly focused on our TEFL course which has left me feeling like I'm in school again, much to my dismay.  Maybe it's the heat, the new environment or the dry material but I'm finding it hard to concentrate for a full day again.  Thankfully on Thursday we took a break from TEFL and started a Thai culture course.  It's a requirement for all foreign teachers in Thailand, but the course isn't standardized.  Our course jam packs language, art & music, culture, etiquette and customs into three busy days. 

Thursday morning was devoted to language.  We learned basic phrases and some words that will be helpful in the classroom as well like "sit down" "great job" and "where is your book?"  Learning Thai is incredibly tedious since it almost needs to be translated twice.  The Thai language uses a different and very intricate alphabet (around 50 characters) so the word needs to be read aloud by a native speaker, then the sounds need to be translated into the English alphabet, then paired with the corresponding English word.  Confused?  Yea, so am I.  Basically, since you can't read the word in Thai for boy or dog, you have to focus on sound the word makes, so noting the rise and fall and length of time each sound is held becomes incredibly important.  Studying Thai is so daunting but I'm determined to learn enough to get around confidently. 

Thursday afternoon was not much of a break as we had a lesson in Thai etiquette. We started the lesson by receiving a thick packet with all of the different ways to perform a wai (pronounced why). The wai, or bow, is the traditional Thai greeting and takes a different form depending on the status of the people involved.  In simple terms, the higher the hands, placed in prayer form, are in relation to the head and the lower the bow, the more respect or reverence the giver of the wai is showing.  Hands placed on the forehead is reserved for the king (although they said you would most likely be on the ground in that case); hands between the eyebrows for a monk; at nose level for elders and bosses; and the chest for children.  In all honestly, it's a practice I find stressful and overwhelming.  I am so worried about forgetting to do it, doing it to soon, placing my hands to high or too low, not bowing enough, etc.  Seriously, how am I going to remember all this?  Children here learn to wai at a very young age so it comes natural to them, but I am still so intimidated
 by it. Three more months to practice!



Today as part of our culture lesson we visited a local school for their Activities Day (I used to call it Field Day) celebrations, and being English teachers we were there as distinguished guests.  As soon as we got into town were were rushed into the middle of the craziness.  We had sashes to represent our home country thrown onto our shoulders, flowers put on our heads and were swiftly shoved into the parade. We marched on forever carrying a banner and getting our picture taken by what I'm sure was every single person in town until we finally arrived at the outdoor assembly.  Since we were English teachers, we were invited to meet the school director (my first test at the wai - it could have been better) and sit in the tent with the other teachers and big shots.  The speeches were long, especially so when you don't know what they are saying, but I was just thankful to be sitting down and out of the sun.



The real fun started and the children performed a few traditional Thai dances, in full costume and make up in the 90 degree heat mind you.  It was impressive and beautiful.  Most of the children were wearing shorts and t-shirts, ready to compete for their respective teams, but many of the girls looked like they would feel right at home on the stage of a beauty pageant or the streets of Brazilian Carnaval.  They wore large headpieces; detailed costumes full of feathers and jewels; and loads of make-up.  The costume and spectacle for a school activity was new to say the least, but this is Thailand and they will find any excuse to have a party.

After all of the song and dance it was time to play.  The first game up was a form of hot potato, but instead of a ball, the children pass around a bottle of talcum powder.  Adding insult to injury, the one stuck holding the bottle when the music stops has to cover his or her face in a handful of the stuff.  Really hilarious to see.  I wish we could have stayed longer to watch more games but it was lunch time so once again we were whisked away.  The whole day was a bit surreal and strange but can easily be summed up by the mantra "just go with it."

One more day each of culture training and TEFL and then I'm off to my new school.  I'm sad to be leaving the comfort of the Twin House and all of my new friends but I am hoping to meet them in Bangkok for a weekend before they leave.  I am looking forward to not living out of my suitcase, having a real address again and finally feeling settled.  Stay tuned for a birthday post and more pictures.  For now I need to go study some Thai so I can go across the street and have a beer. 

Love from Thailand
-Meg

Bangkok - In a word, the city is chaos.  It's loud, vibrant, colorful and full of personality.  It's also incredibly hot!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do when April rolls around and temperatures can easily climb into the 100's.  Saturday morning was the start of our bike tour around Bangkok.

Andrea and I - tossing our bikes on the boat.

An early start gave us an opportunity to see the streets of Bangkok wake up.  We biked through the market, winding streets and back alleys. I still don't know how our tour guide didn't get lost.  It felt like we were constantly turning and weaving around corners, a new sight and smell at every turn. It's hard to describe everything that I saw but I was able to snap a few pictures along the way.  They are not the best quality unfortunately since my camera died and I had to use my iPod.  I had been using my camera so much all week and I forgot to charge it before we left Friday afternoon, oh well, lesson learned.

Our boat through the canals of Bangkok.

Cycling past rice paddies.

View from the the rooftop bar.

Saturday night the the other two women in the tour group (both also in the same teaching program as I am) and I had drinks at the rooftop bar of our hotel which gave us a great vantage point to see the city come alive for the night.  For dinner we took advantage of our excellent location and hit the hectic streets of Chinatown and had some authentic Chinese food and Tsingtao beer.  Yum!

Streets of Chinatown, already decorating for Chinese New Year.

Sunday was a day of travel back to Sing Buri, which for me means more opportunity for me to observe Thai life and culture.  As certain big picture things become more familiar I am starting no notice smaller details of Thai life, like the effects of the recent flooding that hit most of the country.  You can see signs of the flood on trees, buildings and road signs.  The bottom of  just about everything coming out of ground is a slightly darker color, stained from flood water.  In some places its only a few inches but in others its as high as three feet.  At times it looks as if the bottom foot and a half of the country just needs a good power washing.  The solid line is a constant and eerie reminder of what they say was the worst floods in fifty years.  Things are improving slowly but Thai's are notoriously slow about many things.  They also have a carefree and laid back attitude toward life so they certainly didn't let a bunch of water get to them.  They make do with what they have and get on with life.

The weekend came and went and Monday was the first day of our TEFL course.  Most of the course work is easy enough and fairly common sense.  It focuses on how to manage a classroom, writing lesson plans, how to keep kids engaged and how to break down the language into easy to learn chunks.  We went into more depth about Thai culture and values, the Do's and Don't of society and the school structure.  Too much to share now but I plan on writing a big 'Thai Culture' post soon.

The most exciting thing that we learned today though was what school we will be teaching at.  I was incredibly nervous about what my assignment was going to be, I had so many unanswered questions.  Where was the school going to be located? Where is my new house going to look like? Would I like the community?  Would I fit in?  My anxiety was not at all alleviated when I was told I was going to be placed in Bangkok.  Not only was I not expecting to be placed in the city, 2 hours away from my new home of Sing Buri, I was being placed alone!  I was the only one placed in Bangkok, three of the girls were going to be placed in Sing Buri at two different schools, and another girl is going to be in Chang Mai which is about 9 hours north of Bangkok. 

My fears were quelled when I got back to the Twin House, got on my computer and looked up my new school.  It turns out that I will be teaching at the largest bilingual school in Thailand!  It's located on the southwest edge of Bangkok but it's hard to tell just how far outside of the city.  The school looks more like a university, it has a half a dozen buildings, around 8,000 students and about 150 foreign teachers alone!  Definitely not at all what I was expecting but I am excited about this new opportunity.  Last I heard we are moving to our new schools on Saturday, should be exciting!  After seeing the school it has all started to get much more real.  In only a week I will have a new home and a classroom full of Thai children to teach.

Fun across the street I have to attend to! Cheers.

It's Friday afternoon and my introduction week is drawing to a close.  I had nothing less than a hectic week traveling all around central Thailand.  (Still can't believe I'm here sometimes.. wow!)  I saw ancient ruins, spectacular temples, played with monkeys and elephants, made new friends from all over the world and ate amazing Thai food.  I've learned about Thai customs, language, religion and history but I think it would be safe to say that during the past week I have learned the most while traveling to and from the various sites.  Sitting in the back of our truck has given me the opportunity to observe the real undisturbed Thailand.  It's raw, magical, beautiful and at times, sad.  Thailand in a word, is a place of opposites.  Thailand is a place where big box stores sit next to the local market stalls, shinny new cars wiz past a mother and her two children on a single scooter, Buddhist monks talk on cell phones, ornate and colorful temples stand in the middle of the harsh and dirty city.  Thailand is a country in two worlds at once, old and traditional yet at the same time new and modern.  I have so much to learn about this country and it's people, I wish I could give it more than the three months is deserves.  You could spend a lifetime here and not learn it all, but I guess that's true of anyplace.

Heading south to Bangkok for the weekend.  I will be on a tour with three girls from teaching program, Andrea from Australia, Avril from the UK who we are meeting in Bangkok and myself.  I am looking forward to spending some time in Bangkok since I was whisked away so quickly last weekend.  I'm also looking forward to getting to know the girls in my program better since I will be spending lots of time with them in the next couple months. They only have a boat and bike tour planned for us tomorrow so we will have plenty of free time to take in the craziness of Bangkok.

Love from Thailand
-Meg

Good Morning from Thailand.  Woke up early today so I'm sitting at the main house, sipping my coffee and feeling very content.  It's nice this time of morning, the the air is crisp and not yet too hot.  Kids bike past the house in clean uniforms on their way to school, the morning news is playing from a loudspeaker atop a telephone pole for everyone to hear, locals are watering their gardens and our 'house moms' are busy making breakfast in the kitchen.  It's an amazing time of day in Thailand, I think I might start waking up early every morning. 

Two more days left of introduction and I have no idea what they have planned for us.  Possibly a busy weekend too, as I might be heading to Bangkok with a few other volunteers, I haven't decided yet.


Love from Thailand
-Meg

Hello all out there!  I have been in Thailand for a few days now and every second has been incredible.  The journey here was unexpectedly stressful and long.  I accidentally missed my flight while in Shanghai... oops!  Mostly my fault, but I'm here now and all is well.  I'm just going to think of it as practice for The Amazing Race someday.  Arriving in Bangkok hits you with a sensory overload.  The city is hectic, lively, colorful, messy but still fascinating.  I was quickly whisked off to Sing buri, just north of Thailand, about 2 hours north of Bangkok.  My new home, called the Twin House, is located 10 minutes outside the city.  It is tucked into the community which really makes you feel like a local.  The complex is made up of a main house, which is open and is the common meeting area for everyone here.  The bunk houses are located behind the main house down a cute little path.  The whole complex is simple and charming, I plan on making a video of it soon so you can check out my new home. 

So far the whole experience feels like summer camp, just in Thailand.  There are kids from all over the world, mostly ages 19-22 and there are always people coming and going, staying for various lengths of time.  The most common nationalities here right now are Swedish and Dutch, which I guess is pretty common.  I am one of two Americans and there are only a few other native English speakers, we are definitely the minority.  There are also kids from Belgium, Norway, Korea and France but everybody speaks great English so communication is no problem.  Although, conversations do occasionally break out into Swedish or Dutch, and I am left listening to gibberish.  Once in awhile friends will accidentally start speaking Dutch to me because they forget I only speak English.  I think I should start learning Dutch instead of Thai.

Our 'summer camp' activities so far have kept us busy.  We have been to gorgeous temples in the city of Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand.  We have met some of the local children at a nearby school, they even came by the Twin House Monday night to give us a welcoming ceremony.  We've also gotten to do a little shopping and eat some amazing food.  Nights are usually spent hanging out at one of two bars across the street from the Twin House.  Relaxed atmosphere, warm weather and cheap beer have made for some great nights so far.

After this week of introduction, everybody in the group will disperse into various programs.  Some are going north to help at an elephant camp, some are going to help paint at an orphanage and others are going to learn about Thai culture and Buddhism.  My program is a little bit more involved.  After this week I will spend some time learning how to teach and get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate.  After that I will be placed in a school in Sing buri town, so not too far away from where I am now.  I will live there for about 2 and a half months.  There are four other girls in my program but we don't know yet what schools we will be teaching.  I don't know much yet, but not everybody in my program is here yet, so when they all arrive we will all get more information.

Many more activities planned for this week including Thai cooking lesson, visiting a monkey sanctuary, some Thai language lessons and visiting some more Buddhist temples.  I have to get going, the fun across the street is calling my name. 


Some pictures of life in Thailand so far. 

The Twin House- my new home for a few weeks.

The way our group has been traveling so far this week.

 

Giant Buddha on our way to Ayutthaya.  It was almost in the middle of nowhere

A Buddha at Wat Mahathat.

The school down the road from our complex, we visited and met a few of the children during our introduction week.

Welcome ceremony from some of the local school children.

Lighting insense to place at Phra Mong Bophit.

Phra Mong Bophit, the largest of its kind in Thailand, located in Ayutthaya.

Buddha head in tree roots at Wat Mahathat also in Ayutthaya.