Tales of a Mississippi Gal

looking ahead...

2012-01-15T00:12:00.005-06:00

I know some people who find the beginning of a new year to be a bit daunting, and I can’t say it is usually something I put too much thought into. I generally make half-hearted resolutions, almost always having to do with exercise, my fingernails, or a scale. But for some reason, I was really excited this time around for a new year. Maybe it’s because my mom was going to be with me in a foreign country for the first time ever, or maybe because while 2011 certainly wasn’t a bad year for me, it wasn’t what I’d call one of my favorites. I think resolutions can be a bit silly and I tend to not think too much about settings goals for an entire year, knowing that most likely I will last through about January (if I’m lucky). However, in the spirit of welcoming in the next 12 months, I’ve really thought about some changes I’d like to make in my life this year. Maybe I’ll stick to it, maybe I won’t. But I have enjoyed the thought process of looking back over the past year and then looking ahead to what I’d like to do a bit differently. In no particular order, this year I hope to:

*Learn about meditation. Growing up Southern Baptist, this word for some reason was pretty much synonymous with ‘new age’, which was pretty much synonymous with ‘evil’. However, I think a lot can be gained from spending time alone with your thoughts and focusing on breathing and tuning out the rest of the world for a few minutes. I know this is going to take some practice… the first time I actually tried meditating, I 1) couldn’t stop thinking about what I was going to eat for dinner, 2) peeked to see what was happening in my house, even though I was alone, about every 2 minutes, and 3) couldn’t sit in one position any longer than 3 minutes.
*Eat locally and naturally. I recently read In Defense of Food, and it really changed the way I view all of the foods that make up my diet. This year, I don’t want to focus so much on losing weight or maintaining a certain weight, but I want to really pay attention to what I’m putting into my body. Luckily, I live in a country where processed foods, although becoming more and more common, are certainly not the norm. It is much easier to purchase food that is organic and healthy than to purchase anything processed. The streets I walk every day are filled with trucks selling fruits from their farms, markets selling vegetables and meats that come from this province, and food that is organic without the label or the shocking price tag. Also, with the exception of one chain superstore and quite a few 7-Elevens, just about everything you can buy in Nakhon Phanom is sold by people from Nakhon Phanom, which means it directly suuports their families, not some large corporation hundreds or thousands of miles away. I really like that. I’m trying hard to only do my shopping at the mom and pop shops and stop my frequent trips to 7-Eleven, but slurpees and air conditioning sure it tough.
*Stop snoozing! I have a serious problem with snoozing in the mornings. Like, it isn’t uncommon to hit my snooze button for half an hour. This year, I get one snooze. That’s it. I mean, who really sleeps well when you are waking up every ten minutes anyways? Not me, but try telling that to my sleepy self at 7am.
*Enjoy this time of being somewhat alone and really far from home. This is probably the hardest thing for me. I have the greatest friends and family any girl could ask for, and sadly they are all on the other side of the world. I’m not too used to being without at least one person that I can always count on to go and have coffee with or go for a walk together or just go and share a meal. But this year, things are a little different. My dear WorldTeach friends are all gone, and while I really love this year’s group of volunteers, it is a bit different when you are the director. I’m trying to enjoy the quiet and take advantage of the time I have to myself, but I’m a people person and I miss the laughter and excitement of being with friends that know me so well. However, there is little I can do to change this situation, so for now I’m determined to make the most of not only Skype and the time I do have to talk with friends and family that I love back home, but also this time that is just for me- to sit and enjoy the quiet and time with my thoughts.
*Stay a bit disconnected. The iphone is quickly catching on in Thailand, even all the way up here in Nakhon Phanom. Despite the outrageous price, just about all of the Thai people I know have this phone. Every person I know in America has some form of a phone that keeps them connected to the Internet at all times, but me? My little Nokia brick phone’s greatest function is its color screen. When I was living in Houston last year, I was frequently laughed at for having a flip phone still, but it never bothered me. I like to keep my electronics separate, especially since I have a tendency to break anything that costs a lot of money. I like to have a camera, an ipod, a phone, and a laptop. I don’t need one device that does all of these things. That way, when I inevitably break one of them, I’ll still have the other things. Now, however, I’m starting to feel a bit of iPhone envy. I want one. Sometimes I can even convince myself that I need one. And then I have to remind myself that a) I break things often, and b) it really isn’t necessary to be able to post pictures immediately on facebook of something funny, and I really don’t need to have access to my email account every minute of the day. In fact, when I actually stop to think about it, I kind of enjoy being disconnected from the world at times. I like knowing that I can go to the river with just my ipod, and no one can bother me. No one needs to know where I am, and whatever someone might need can definitely wait until I am finished running or walking or whatever I’m doing on my own time. So this year, I hope to stay disconnected at least a bit. Luckily, this should be an easy one since I don’t make much money and certainly can’t afford any sort of fancy phone right now.
*See some new places. I live in an incredible part of the world, and I want to take advantage of every second I have here. I’m counting down the days (three months and some days) until I finally get a Cambodian stamp in my passport and see Angkor Wat with my great friend Valerie. And after that, who knows? The top of my list is a visit to Sumatra… I’m dying to see wild orangutans! Also at the top of my list? Mississippi! It may not be new, but it is certainly my favorite place in the world.

So, as you can see, 2012 should be quite the year for me. Who knows where I’ll end up or how much of this I’ll actually accomplish, but isn’t that what’s so great about a new year? Everything is fresh, and everything is possible.

*Stay tuned for a re-cap of the adventures with my mama throughout Thailand!

looking back....

2011-12-29T02:43:00.015-06:00

I had a friend who posted a blog about the important things that happened in his life over the past year, and I thought it would be a good way to reflect on 2011 and to get excited about the new year (and a good way to catch up on a year with very few blog posts). I feel like I experienced more changes than normal in this past year, so it is nice to see where I was a year ago and where I am now. So without further ado… a look back at 2011:

In January, my sister Carly and her husband took me in since I was basically homeless, car-less, and jobless. Getting to live with my sister again (and actually getting along this time around, as opposed to our childhood for the most part) was just a part of the great deal: I got to live in an incredible part of Houston AND hang out with this little guy just about every single day.

In February, I started working at Banana Republic in Rice Village, where I met some of my very favorite people in Houston. I also accepted what I considered my dream job at the time, working with WorldTeach again as the field director for the Bangladesh program, but luckily it didn’t start until July so I got to spend a lot more time in Houston with my family.

In March, I started tutoring for an incredible international company in Houston. My students came from all over… Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Ukraine, Egypt.. and I loved every minute of living somewhat of an international life in my own country. I also got to celebrate Hutch’s 2nd birthday party in Austin with my family, something I missed out on the first year. And last but definitely not least, I also was asked to be the godmother of this little fella… one of my proudest titles!
In April, my life got turned upside down just a bit when I learned that after two months of planning everything towards moving to Bangladesh, it wasn’t meant to be and my dream job was mine no more. During this time I learned that God, as always, has bigger plans than I can ever make for myself. My ticket to Dhaka was cancelled, and a new one to Bangkok was purchased. After spending 6 months away from Thailand, I was offered and accepted the job of field director for the WorldTeach program in Nakhon Phanom, a city I love more than just about anywhere I’ve traveled, and working for a program that I’ve loved and been a part of since the beginning.

In May, I went to Mississippi to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday! I love my grandparents to death, and it was really special to celebrate such a special day for my MeeMaw. I hope I look half as great as her when I'm 80! I spent a weekend celebrating my very best friend JoyBeth's upcoming wedding with the 6pack in Austin. It was a really great 3 days with some of my very favorite people in the world, and even more special since I knew I wouldn't be there for the wedding in October. I also left Houston and my sister’s family after living with them for 5 great months- I never thought I’d be so sad to leave a big city in Texas, but I think I cried halfway to Mississippi! I left behind a lot of great new friends, students I really cared about, and my family that I love more than I could ever put into words.
In June, I spent a great two weeks in Mississippi and packed up everything I owned from the only bedroom I really remember. My parents sold our house (I give myself total credit for this since I was the only one there during the new owner’s first visit), so I had to say goodbye to not only family, but also to my childhood home. On the 15th, I left Mississippi and spent a few days in Boston with great friends from my year with WorldTeach before finally flying over the North Pole and beginning another year in Thailand.

In July, I started my new job as field director and got to see so many old friends, students, and my Thai family after about 9 months away. Because work was a little slow this month, I got to travel to Chiang Mai with a friend and finally understood why everyone loves this city so much! I even got to have dinner with a friend from Yellowstone all the way in Thailand.

In August, I worked and started studying Thai (seriously studying this time around) with a wonderful teacher, Ajan Oa! I made lots of great new Thai friends in Nakhon Phanom and discovered even more things that I love about this city.

In September, the second WT group left Nakhon Phanom and I spent the month planning orientation with Heather, the wonderful assistant field director for the Thailand program. We also took a break and went to Koh Phi Phi for a little beach getaway! I also got my motorbike, Suzie the Suzuki!

In October, the new group of volunteers arrived! October was a blur of classes, trips around the province, and general mayhem. Somewhere in that month, I turned 27 (what!? How did that happen!?) AND adopted my sweet Thai puppy Naga! Two of my best friends in the world got married in Mississippi, so I have to say my heart was a bit broken this month to be so far from home and not at their weddings.

In November, things settled down a bit and we celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of food and friends here in Nakhon Phanom!

In December, I went to Koh Yao for a long weekend at the beginning of the month and celebrated Christmas! Best of all, I’m ending this month (and year) by meeting my mom in Bangkok to spend an entire week together in Thailand!

I certainly never would have predicted that I’d be where I am right now at the start of this year, but I am so thankful to be here in Nakhon Phanom once again.

Happy (almost) New Year! I hope it’s full of adventure and lots of happiness, love, and peace!

I’m thankful for…

2011-11-23T07:00:00.012-06:00

(my 6th graders list of things they are thankful for...)

*The chance to spend another year in Nakhon Phanom. I love this sleepy little town in Northeast Thailand, and I consider myself so lucky to be able to call such a wonderful place home for a second year.
*Naga- my sweet Thai puppy who constantly entertains me, snuggles with me, and gives me lots of sweet kisses.

* A new home in NKP! I am living in a wonderful new house- complete with an oven, hot water, and an air conditioner! It doesn’t get much better than that in Thailand!

* My family- It would be impossible to put into words how much I miss my parents, my sisters, and my nieces and nephews, but it sure is nice to be able to talk with them regularly and see those sweet kiddos as they get bigger and bigger. I try on a regular basis to convince my sisters to send their kids to me to babysit for at least a month, but I’ve yet to be successful. I’m anxiously awaiting the next time I get to see sweet Hazel’s smile, squeeze Ryder’s chunky legs, and chase Hutch around the backyard.

*My Thai family- It has been great to come back and spend more time with this wonderful family that has taken such great care of me ever since I arrived two years ago. I love being a part of this sweet family, and I am sure my experience here in Thailand wouldn’t be nearly as special without them.

* My job- I have a group of 9 wonderful volunteers, and I love everything about being a part of this experience for them. I can only hope their year as a volunteer will be as memorable and exciting as mine was!

*My friends- Words cannot describe the awesomeness of my friends- I am convinced there is nothing in the world better than an old friend, and I’m lucky enough to have several of them.

Happy Thanksgiving from Thailand!

I'm here.. and I'm happy

2011-07-11T09:36:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago tonight I took the night bus from Bangkok to Nakhon Phanom… a trip I’ve taken many times, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited to get to NKP as I was this night. My first trip here, over a year and a half ago, takes a very close second place, but I was a bundle of nerves and exhaustion that night after leaving my home for something so unfamiliar. This time around, however, the city lights of Bangkok and the bus TV blaring Thai and Korean pop songs didn’t faze me, and the green rice fields surrounding us as we got closer and closer to Nakhon Phanom just added to my excitement to get to a place I’ve grown to love so much. Two weeks later, I’m still amazed that I am actually back in NKP… if you’d asked me a mere two and a half months ago where I’d be right now, I’d have said I would be boarding a plane today headed to Chittagong, Bangladesh. If you’d asked me two months ago where I’d be right now, I would have probably burst into tears and just walked away, perhaps muttering an “I have no clue.” But despite all of that, here I am. Sitting in my new room in Nakhon Phanom, a week and a half after starting my new job as Field Director for the WorldTeach Thailand program. I’ve never believed more in the saying, ‘When one door closes, another one opens’ than I do right now. Yes, there are times that I still do not understand why the Bangladesh job was taken away from me, but right now, in this moment, I don’t want to be anywhere but Nakhon Phanom.

And in closing, a Bible verse that paints a perfect picture of this place I’m lucky enough to call home once again:

“You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power.. who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves… You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain… You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance… The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.”
-Psalm 65:5-13

Here’s to another year in this wonderful land… may it be a year crowned with God’s bounty, a year in the meadows that shout for joy and sing.

back in bangkok!

2011-06-17T06:41:00.003-05:00

Hi from Thailand! I can’t believe I’m writing from Bangkok, one of my favorite cities… but I’m back in my wonderful Thailand and extremely happy to be here! This might surprise you a little if you only read my blog, but to make a long story short my job was changed just a bit and instead of working in Bangladesh for the next year, I’m going to be the field director for the WorldTeach program in Nakhon Phanom. Lots of changes, but I can’t say enough how happy I am to be in Thailand for another year.

My job actually starts July 1st, so for now I’m hanging out in Bangkok with my Thai “sisters”, Nicky and Name, and waiting for a friend from my year of WT to meet me tomorrow. We have a little over a week before we have to make our way back to NKP, so our goal is to find a beach that isn’t being pounded by rain. I’ve missed the beaches of Thailand!

I’ve been a horrible blogger (have you missed me?) but the past few months were pretty busy for me… working at Banana Republic, tutoring international students, hanging out with my great friends and family, and of course, preparing to leave for Thailand. I spent almost all of my time back in the USA in Houston, living with my sister, Carly, her husband, Marc, and my sweet sweet little nephew, Ryder. To say I miss that little dude already would be a HUGE understatement! I also got to hang out with Lindsey, Jeremy, and Hutch a lot, especially since they were in Austin half the time I was home and then in Mississippi the second half! And then there’s Miss Hazel… I was lucky enough to be at the hospital when she was born right before New Year’s Eve. She’s still pretty tiny, especially compared to Hutch and Ryder, and she’s so sweet and laid back! Hutch and Ryder came to see me off at the airport, along with my sisters and parents, and it definitely made leaving harder than ever! Luckily, I can still keep in touch with them through Skype and pictures. Well, I’m off to practice my Thai with my new Rosetta Stone… I’ve realized in the short time I’ve been here how little I know/remember from last year. My cab driver insisted on talking to me just about the entire ride, and pretty much all I understood was that he’d been beaten up by a bunch of guys at some point. I only understood this much because of the scars he kept pointing out and the punching motions he kept making. Oh well… hopefully I will learn fast! Wish me luck!

Here are some pictures from my time back in America (in a totally random order).. enjoy!

Miss Hazel! How cute is she!?

I got to see Shelly and Amanda for a few days before they both left for Ecuador!

Hutch and me at the airport :(

Carly, Ryder, Hutch and I went to see Gran a few days before I left... I'm always happy to spend some time with her!

Hutch and Ryder with their cool new hats from Vietnam. Clearly this was taken right when I got home cause Ryder is so small!

I got to spend a weekend in Austin with the 6pack to celebrate JoyBeth's upcoming wedding!

My parent's sold our house! We've lived in Cobblestone for 20 years, so we were all a little sad when it sold, but happy for my parents and a new bigger house for when we are all home!

Another airport picture... my sisters and nephews!

my sweet Ryder!

MeeMaw turned 80 so we had a big birthday dinner for her in Jackson

Well, I guess that's about all from here. I promise I will try and get better at posting regularly... we'll see how that goes! For now I'm off to enjoy the Thai heat while it isn't raining outside (and then I'll study Thai).. bye!

While I'm waiting for things to make sense again...

2011-04-12T19:54:00.007-05:00

“You look around

It's staring back at you

Another wave of doubt

Will it pull you under

You wonder

What if I'm overtaken?

What if I never make it?

What if no one's there?

Will you hear my prayer?

When you take that first step

Into the unknown

You know that he won't let you go

So what are you waiting for?

What do you have to lose?

Your insecurities try to hold to you

You know you're made for more

So don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all It takes ”

-Britt Nicole

Do you ever feel like someone has taken your life, the life you have where everything seems just as it should be, and just totally shaken it up? That's probably the best way I can describe my life at the moment... or perhaps not even a shake, but a big, swift kick. Every part of me wants to scream, "Stop! Leave me the way I am... I'm perfectly content with where I'm headed." I know I have countless things to learn in life still, but I think one lesson that God will continue to have to teach me as long as I live is that despite the way things seem, He is in control of all of this. This huge mess that is my life at the moment may not make sense to me, but luckily I can be sure that it makes perfect sense to Him. I guess that's all that really matters in the end, right? Afterall, I can only imagine the chaos I would create if I was totally in control.

For some reason, when things aren't going so well for me, I tend to look for a little inspiration from Anne Lamott, one of my favorite authors. I'll leave you with her words of wisdom:

"I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right."

I'm headed back..

2011-02-17T23:38:00.003-06:00

... to South Asia! That's right. It's now official: at the beginning of July I'll be headed back to the land of rickshaws, crowds, and those famous not so wonderful smells. However, this time I'll be passing over that huge land I love known as India and landing instead in its tiny but crowded neighbor, Bangladesh.

After dreaming a thousand different dreams and imaging what my life would be like in a million different places and wondering what job would make me happy out of hundreds of different service related jobs... I'm proud to say that I've accepted a job working for an organization that I'm crazy about and a new, progressive university that I'm ecstatic to become a part of. So what exactly is this fabulous new job? Starting in July, I will be the new Field Director for the WorldTeach Bangladesh program.

WorldTeach is the non-profit orgranization that I worked for in Thailand, and over the year I spent as a part of this group, I grew to respect their vision for education in all parts of the world so much. I truly believe that education is the key to real change around the world and WorldTeach exemplifies this in everything that they do. What I love even more than this organization, however, is the partnership they have started with the Asian University for Women. I’ve been watching this university since it was first opened a few short years back and have always believed so much in its purpose and commitment to empowering women from all parts of Asia. AUW is a women’s university located in the large port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh and currently educates women from 12 different Asian countries. Some of these countries include Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Bangladesh. Probably my favorite thing about AUW is that not only are they educating women in an area of the world where education is not commonly valued for my gender, but they are also committed to educating women from backgrounds of limited financial resources and educational backgrounds. AUW provides FULL scholarships for about 50% of the student body and provides a one year academy for students with inadequate English and educational skills in order to prepare them to be successful at the university level.

As Field Director, I will be responsible for maintaining the program on a daily basis in Bangladesh. I will work with the volunteers, the AUW staff, and the WorldTeach staff in an effort to make the program as successful as possible. I will handle things such as planning the volunteer orientation, maintaining the budget (er, any accountant friends out there? I may need ya soon), and overseeing volunteer placements. Along with the administrative duties, I will also be a part time teacher. I am not sure what this will entail, but I have to admit… this is what drew me to this position. I am SO excited to meet the incredible women who have left their families and everything familiar behind in order to gain an education. I have already begun to imagine my classes… women from so many different backgrounds, with so many different beliefs, all joined together by their desire to leave a mark in this world. I find it so amazing that in one classroom you can have Muslims from Pakistan working beside Hindus from India and Tamil and Sinhalese students studying side by side, despite their long history of violence and civil war. Simply put, AUW is an amazing university that I am so proud to soon become a part of.

Luckily, this position doesn’t start until July so I have a good four months to spend with my family and friends! I have no doubt that living in Bangladesh will be difficult… when I look back on my time in India I can’t help but remember the horrible smells, the poverty everywhere you look, and, of course, the crowds of people everywhere. But I also can’t help but remember how incredibly happy and free I felt. It’s hard to miss the look of joy on my face in just about every single picture I took while there, and that is something I look forward to experiencing once again. Most people don’t understand why in the world I want to pack my bags, again, and move so far away. Unfortunately, Bangladesh isn’t known for its stunning beaches or its smiles or its beautiful landscapes like that great country I left recently, but I truly believe in the purpose of this university and this WorldTeach program and cannot wait to become a part of it. I am 100% positive I’ve made the right decision for myself as far as a career and personal move, even if I am a bit scared of what the whole thing might entail. I look forward to continuing to blog up until I leave (I promise I will try to do better!) and especially as I take this huge step and once again pack up, cross the Pacific, and start my life in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

If you have the time and want to learn more about these two organzations, click here to learn more about WorldTeach and here to learn more about the Asian University for Women.

A Merry Mississippi Christmas

2010-12-14T21:30:00.006-06:00

It's hard to believe that this time last year the holidays didn't go much further than my bedroom... my small, fully decorated tree, its spastic lights, and my Christmas playlist were about all I had to remind myself that it was the holiday season. Christmas celebrations didn't go much beyond Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Thailand ... although I feel it's necessary to add that the amount of people dressed as Santa Claus was unbelievable and I'm not sure I'll ever see something as adorable as little Thai children dressed up in Santa costumes riding around town on the backs of motorcycles. With that said... I'm embracing every part of the holiday season, from baking cookies to watching Christmas movies to attending any Christmas program I can find. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and looking forward to the next week and a half of holiday cheer!

Somehow... almost an entire month has passed since I left my beloved Thailand and arrived in Mississippi. Where has the time gone?? I feel like I was just leaving Nakhon Phanom to start on my grand backpacking adventure, and yet here I am sitting in my comfortable bedroom in Madison. Flying home right in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family seems to have been the cure to that horrible reverse culture shock I remember experiencing upon returning from India. I'll never forget how huge babies seemed to me or the overwhelming feeling of looking at an entire aisle of cereal choices and the softness of my bed after sleeping on little more than a table ... and all after only four months abroad. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I seemed to adjust back to life here in America this time... but also wondering if it would stay that way. Somehow, though, I've had only a few truly overwhelming moments since being back... mostly in social situations. I still find it kind of odd to be in a huge room of people that I know, all speaking English. My social circle in Thailand wasn't all that big... especially my English speaking social circle. It didn't go much beyond about ten people. With that said, there's also a few other things that kind of surprise me after living in Nakhon Phanom, such as...

*Am I really the only person over the age of 16 that doesn't own a car? And why do people look at me so strangely when I walk the two miles to the library?

* Cellular South charging me 50 dollars a month for my cell phone! I even got lucky... the "add a line" option saved me about thirty dollars... I think I would have fainted if I'd been asked to pay 80 dollars a month. My Thai cell phone may not have been fancy, but for about six dollars a month it was perfect.

* Four dollars for half of a cut pineapple!?!? I could buy so many pineapples in Thailand for four dollars.

* Where are all of the motorcycles, the bicycles, and the pedestrians?

* As weird as this is going to sound... I still find it strange that everyone calls me Haley. Yes, that is my name. But in Thailand... I was always Baibua. And I miss being Baibua. Who would've thought I would ever get used to being called a lotus leaf?

Obviously, there are a million things about life in Thailand that I miss. I miss my Thai family and my students more than anything, but it's been so wonderful to be home. While there are always things that I will miss about Thailand, there's just no place like home. And there isn't much that can replace...

* Target! My gosh I love that store. I could spend hours there. I love the clothes and the boots and the jewelry. I love their book selections and I love that there is a Starbucks right when you walk in. If I move back to Asia, I'm starting a committee to bring Target to Thailand. "Target to Thailand"... kinda catchy, don'tcha think?

*Mexican restaurants! Bangkok has a couple, but none with free chips and salsa. And white queso dip. And fajitas. I'm eating Mexican food as much as I want, guilt-free, until January since I went almost an entire year without it.

* The gym. I know, I am weird. Believe me, I'm not trying to sound like one of those people on the Facebook who updates their status constantly about how much they love to exercise and how they just ran 10.8 miles (does that drive anyone else crazy?). But for some reason, I just enjoy going to the gym. I like the classes and being around lots of other people. Again, I know I'm weird. With that being said, I would appreciate it if you didn't ask me how many times I've been in the month I've been home.

* Pandora... I have missed you. My music selection seemed to grow smaller and smaller (and more outdated) the longer I was abroad... now I can listen to great tunes. For free.

*Most of all... my family! I cannot even descibe how wonderful it was to spend the week of Thanksgiving with my mom, dad, sisters, brother-in-laws, and my two adorable nephews! I know everyone probably thinks they have the cutest nephews in the world, but they obviously haven't met Hutch and Ryder. I'm just in love with them and am counting down the days until I get to see them again.

So there you have it ... my first post-Thailand blog. In case you are wondering, as everyone else in my life is, what I'm doing next... I promise I'll let you know as soon as I know. And just so I can re-live the past two months of backpacking, I'll do my best to post some pictures and stories of my adventures soon.

Happy Christmas to all of you from a very cold Mississippi!

Confession of a Lone Traveler

2010-11-12T03:45:00.006-06:00

I landed in Bangkok a couple of days ago after 15 days of solo travel from the very bottom of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), to the bustling capital of Hanoi up north. I wish more than anything I could tell you that loved every minute of it and that nothing compares to traveling alone and being 100% in charge of what you do... afterall, those are the tales I hear from lone travelers that I've met along the way. "It's the best thing I've ever done!" "I've met the most amazing people that I never would've met if I hadn't been on my own!" All of these stories convinced me I'd be crazy not to travel on my own for at least a part of my journey through SE Asia. Now here I am, back in Thailand after 15 days on my own, and here is my confession:

I wanted to run, not walk, to my waiting friends in Bangkok. I smiled like a little girl on Christmas Eve when I thought of spending the entire next week with two girls that have become my great friends over the past two months of traveling through Bali and Sri Lanka. I finally don't have to make every single decision on own and now I don't have to spend my evenings alone at a restaurant with only a book and my thoughts as company.

Now, don't get me wrong... I had my moments of traveling through Vietnam that were amazing.. moments both alone and with other fellow travelers I met along the way. I'll never forget my midnight motorcycle ride through Hoi An in the pouring rain in search of noodles with my German friend Manuel or browsing the incredible shops of Hanoi with Anne, an 18 year old Dutch girl working in an orphanage and traveling alone before beginning university back in Holland. I'm sure if I hadn't been on my own I would have bonded quite the same with Catrin, a German girl traveling with friends who jumped ships with me one night in Halong Bay to sing "Dancing Queen" with the Vietnamese boat crew. I'll never forget the people I met in cafes and hostels and buses on the incredibly long journey to northern Vietnam, but I'm also not sure I'll forget the feeligns of loneliness that often consumed me as well. It certainly didn't help that feelings of homesickness slowly started creeping in as I traveled alone, both for my Mississippi home and what has become my Asian home, Thailand. It certainly didn't help that it rained almost the entire time I was in Vietnam, once with the flooding so bad I was literally dropped off (alone, of course) on the side of the road TWELVE hours before my intended stop, given my bags, and simply told to find a hotel and come back the next day because they couldn't continue driving. The towns I'd heard so many great things about were probably better navigated by boat as the water was waist deep in some places.

If you know me well, you've probably been a witness to one of my more dramatic moments (those that don't know me well, I know this is probably quite shocking for you.. hehe) that I like to think don't happen to often but I won't even try to lie... I became a queen at feelng sorry for myself in Vietnam. The rain would not stop and the stupid ponchos I kept purchasing just seemed to keep ripping. My buses were often canceled at the last minute and I seemed to keep finding myself in the weirdest positions.. such as riding a bike through the Mekong Delta with some girls I met and being grabbed by a small Vietnamese man with mental problems... or having my motorbike taxi driver/ tour guide in Mui Ne confess his undying love for me at a beach lookout only halfway into our journey... particularly my long curly hair. Awkward. And don't you know... those bad moments, the ones where I felt so incredibly alone and insignificant, were the very moments that heaps of friends in groups, all laughing and having the best time, would walk by, obviously rubbing in how great it is to be a part of a group and not sitting alone ordering chocolates and cakes off the menu in an attempt to comfort yourself. Not that I did any of those things... I mean, afterall, I'm certainly no drama queen.

So... my lesson learned is that I should probably travel with a friend next time I decide I'm ready to explore a new country. I'll certainly always remember my time in Vietnam and I'm thankful to have been able to explore such a unique place. I finally came to the conclusion that Vietnam and I just don't really get along so well... something I've discovered can actually occur between people and places.

Now that I'm back in Thailand, my wonderful wonderful Thailand... I can't help but wonder if I will ever find a place that I love as much as this country. I had the best welcome back from my taxi driver, Richard, who was delighted to meet an American teacher named Baibua from Nakhon Phanom. He dropped me off to meet my friends and promised to always give me a ride when I'm visiting the city. It wasn't until a couple of hours later, crossing a busy Bangkok street with all of our bags in search of a cab to the bus station, that I heard someone yell, "Baibua!" and there was Richard, waving at us and ready to give us a ride that I realized how truly happy I was to be back in a place that I love so, so much.

Even better than my Thailand homecoming, I will be back in Mississippi in SIX days!!! I can already taste the Thanksgiving casseroles and can hardly stand to think of seeing my family because I just get so excited. So this is probably it from Southeast Asia... for now, of course. See you in Mississippi!

Sri Lanka Tales!

2010-10-27T07:50:00.006-05:00

Hello from very crazy Vietnam! After the slow pace of life in Sri Lanka, I find the millions of motorbikes and people a bit overwhelming... my only hope of crossing any road without surely being creamed by a bike or car is by latching on to the first Vietnamese person I see. I try to be discreet...but I'm pretty sure I give it all away when I squeel if they start walking too fast and I have to run and catch up. Seriously... I'm not exaggerating about the traffic here. I decided to be brave this afternoon and take a moto taxi to a museum... again, a very scary experience, but not nearly as scary as my second moto taxi of the day... my driver's preferred method of traveling was the sidewalk and the opposite way down one way streets. I'm now happy to say I've survived my first full day in Vietnam and loving it, despite the hectic pace and millions of people.

Sorry I've been horrible at updating... finding Internet in Sri Lanka was harder than I thought and somehow we seemed to be busy most of the time. Granted, by busy I mean laying on the beach or enjoying long breakfasts with lots of tea... but busy nonetheless. I had the most fantastic time in Sri Lanka.. so fantastic that I cancelled my plane ticket the day before I was supposed to leave and spent an entire extra week frolicking on the beautiful beaches of Unawatuna. I don't know what it is about this town... but I'm pretty sure it can work it's charm on just about anyone. I am sure this is the place I will dream of on cold, rainy days back home... wishing for my beach chair that was steps away from my front door, beautiful sunsets, and nights spent at random parties set up along the beach. I can't upload any pictures because I don't have my computer with me, but here are a few from my friend Tiela of our time around Sri Lanka.... enjoy!

I think the best word I can think of to describe Sri Lanka is random... it often seemed like we walked into a completely different century when we walked in a place. Take this bar, for instance: The Pub Royale in Kandy. With it's Western saloon doors, Dominique the bartender in his tux (minus the jacket, unfortunately), and total lack of other people... it was really like another world. Another world that I loved. Tiela and Trish swore it belonged in the Old West, while I was convinced it was straight off of the Titanic. Yes, two totally different conclusions, but somehow both fitting. Welcome to Sri Lanka.

By far my favorite mode of transportation in Sri Lanka was the very crowded and very slow moving train. We made lots of friends on these trains, from the old women who would just stare and smile, to the young guys who would show us the best places to lean out of the doors to take in the amazingly beautiful mountains, to the dining cart men who pointed out the poorest villages that they regularly toss food into... every train ride was an adventure!
We spent a good chunk of time in Sri Lanka sitting around drinking tea, so we thought it was only appropriate to visit a tea estate while we were there. We spent an afternoon at Pedro's Tea Estate in Nuwara Eliya and it was really amazing to see the women picking the tea leaves and watch the process of how it's made. The tea leaves that are picked and then processed are sent to a tea auction in Colombo, where tea buyers from around the world (including Lipton and other popular brands) come and bid on it. So, the tea you drink at home very well could've come from this little corner of Sri Lanka!

We set out early one morning (2 am early) to try and conquer Sri Lanka's holiest mountain at sunrise... Adam's Peak. However, after a lot of rain, leeches, and a twisted ankle (why, oh why, am I the world's biggest clutz??) we had to turn back and return to our humble little guesthouse a short hour and a half later. Trish and Tiela tried again the next morning and made it to the top... I had to sit it out because my ankle was the size of a golfball and I can't even imagine what it would be like to attempt to travel SE Asia on crutches.

Unawatuna! Our favorite breakfast spot... Hot Rock. So close the ocean that at some point you will get splashed.

Our wonderful guesthouse and a random dance party in the lobby! After teaching our Sri Lankan friends how to do the train, our friend Sanka (next to me) stopped and shouted, "The train is broken! Everyone do the tuk-tuk!" The tuk-tuk is now officially my favorite dance move and I have every intention of bringing it back to the US.

My wonderful, wonderful birthday! Trish and Tiela are amazing friends and planned a fantastic birthday dinner for me that included balloons, flowers, fruit salad with candles, and even a little New Kid's on the Block song. The restaurant had a big party that night so we stayed and danced and had a fantastic time. Here I am throwing all of my flowers into the air because I'm just so happy. Please appreciate the flowers in the air because I'm obviously working very hard to keep them there.

Overall, I absolutely loved my time in Sri Lanka and hope to go back one day and explore some more... and, of course, spend a little time at my new favorite beach. Unawatuna was hit really hard by the tsunami and almost completely destroyed. It was amazing to listen to the stories of people we met about that morning... I can't even imagine what it must have been like to experience something that horrible. Two guys who became my really good friends during my stay were both on the beach the morning of the tsunami, and it was so surreal listening to them tell about clinging to coconut trees for half an hour in order to survive and rescuing people who surely would not have made it without them. Thanks to the generous time and money donations of previous tourists, Unawatuna has been almost completely restored. Despite the new and re-built hotels and restaurants, it's impossible to walk around and not be aware that something huge and tragic once happened where you are standing.

I have to go now, but I will try to check in again sometime soon... I hope all is well back home!

Haley

A quick hello...

2010-10-16T04:05:00.004-05:00

...from Sri Lanka! Things have been busy, and I kept finding myself in little mountain towns with no Internet access over the past week and a half. Now that I'm in a town with Internet shops, I'm having a hard time tearing myself away from my beach chair long enough to actually use it. We've been busy over the past week and a half...riding lots of trains, climbing mountains (okay, the plural form isn't completely accurate but more on that another day), drinking tea, and, of course, swimming in the Indian Ocean! I've loved just about everything in Sri Lanka and can't wait until I have time to sit and write more about this great adventure.

For now, though, I have a birthday party to attend so I must go and get ready. Much love from beautiful Unawatuna and your new favorite 26 year old gal!

Haley

(Photo taken, I kid you not, from my $5 a night room balcony in Unawatuna)

525,600 Minutes...

2010-10-04T00:36:00.002-05:00

.....How do you measure, measure a year?

Exactly a year ago, my bags were packed and I was on the way to LA to meet the people who would become my best friends for this year... my WorldTeach family. It's so hard to believe that only a year ago these wonderful people were not a part of my life. My mom tells me jokingly (I think) that the day I left she was completely devastated and that the least I could have done was look a little upset to be leaving... she says she remembers me turning back after going through security, just beaming as I waved goodbye to them. I do remember being so sad to tell my parents goodbye for an entire year, but I was so sure that I was heading into the greatest adventure of my life and doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing... and I was absolutely right. From the minute I met the WorldTeach gang at LAX, I knew we would become great friends. I am so happy they are a part of my life, and I know that we will all stay friends forever. There is something about experiencing a year abroad, with all of its ups and downs, that will bring you closer to people faster than you ever thought possible. I remember arriving in Bangkok, wide-eyed and trying to take everything in... from the many Asian faces that surrounded me, to the language that sounded so foreign to my newly arrived ears, to the spicy and strange looking foods that were everywhere we went.

Looking back a year later, I can still say that I did exactly what I was supposed to do and it was certainly the greatest adventure of my life so far. I experienced so much over the past year... from my first birthday in another country to my first haircut on foreign soil to knowing that every good night out would involve karaoke at some point. Now, it's no longer the Asian faces everywhere that surprise me, nor is the sound of a foreign language strange to my ears. It's the extremely tall tourists I meet and the shiny, super clean restaurants and speaking English and having people actually understand me that makes me stop and look around, wondering where exactly I am. A new group of WorldTeach Thailand volunteers arrived yesterday morning in Nakhon Phanom, surely as wide-eyed and anxious as we all were when we stepped off the bus. I hope they know how lucky they are to have found such a great program and place to call home for the next year of their lives. I will always be so thankful that I was given the opportunity to live and teach in such a beautiful part of the world, and I will be counting down the days until I can return to my wonderful Thailand. I can only hope that the next year of my life is as great as this past one!

Bali Bali!

2010-09-29T06:37:00.002-05:00

Greetings from Bali, Indonesia! I was sure when I left Thailand that I would never visit a place with friendlier people... and then I arrived in Bali and learned that there just might be another place in this world with people as friendly as those who have been a part of my life for the past year. The Balinese people have been absolutely wonderful, and I am sad to say that my flight is tomorrow night and I'll be leaving this tropical paradise! I've spent my days soaking up as much sun as possible, relaxing on the beautiful beach, and trying my hardest not to gawk at all the huge tourists who walk around the streets of Bali. After living so long in a country where the biggest guys were rarely taller than me, it's shocking to see people who literally tower over me as they walk by. It's also strange to hear English everywhere we go, and my first instinct when meeting a local is to speak Thai with them, which obviously doesn't get me very far. We also had a great time with some family friends that live in Bali... we got to stay in a beautiful home and were taken such good care of by the sweetest Balinese family. Thanks again, Sam and Trish!

Tomorrow I am off to Singapore for a couple of days before catching a bus to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia so that I can catch a flight to Sri Lanka! Life is great right now, and even though I feel as though a huge part of my heart is still back in Nakhon Phanom, I am loving the places I am able to travel and the great people I've met from all over the world. Hope all is well back home- I'll check back in soon!

See ya soon, Thailand

2010-09-18T21:54:00.004-05:00

I am leaving Nakhon Phanom tonight with such a full heart... the past 11 and 1/2 months have been some of the best months of my life. I have made so many wonderful friends, gained an entire Thai family, and learned that teaching English is something that I truly enjoy. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to spend this past year amongst such amazing people and in such a beautiful part of the world.

Thailand, I will always remember your smiles, your genorosity, and the kind way you have treated me. Thank you for being such a wonderful home to me. See you again soon!

Surprise!

2010-09-16T11:42:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching my sweet students here in Nakhon Phanom! I can't believe this day has finally come... my heart hurts when I think of walking home from school tomorrow, knowing that on Monday morning I will wake up in Bangkok and be nowhere near Anuban NKP School. I'm still getting really cute gifts, still tearing up often, and still having small get togethers with those who have played a huge part in this year for me.

Today, two my wonderful Prathom 6 students met me at the door of my last class to whisk me off to their classroom, telling me the entire way, "Teacher, very big surprise! Very, VERY big surprise! Teacher will like so much!" I got a little worried when I saw a blindfold, but I could hear their excited whispers as they led me (blinded at this point) into the classroom. After asking if I was ready, Justin Beiber of all people started blaring through the speakers, the blindfold was whipped off, and I was greeted by the entire class with flowers and balloons! It was the most adorable thing... the whole room was decorated with balloons that they had written little messages on, such as "Love you more than words can say" (a song Thai people love) and "We are love you very much!" and my personal favorite, "Here.. welcome you forever!" Their teacher was gone for the entire afternoon, so I found out later the students set the whole party up themselves, even leaving the campus during their lunch hour to go and buy balloons and snacks! So I'm sure at this point you are wondering what happens at a Thai surprise going away party?? Well, there was a lot a picture taking, a lot of hugs and promises to stay in touch, and, of course, a lot of dancing to the latest Korean pop songs. I was shocked when they asked me if I knew the YMCA, and they were happy to learn it was a popular party song in the USA. I was the shocked one when they told me they had the song on their Ipods... by SuperJunior, a hugely popular Korean boyband with a whopping THIRTEEN members. We danced the afternoon away, taking breaks to snack a little and take a few pictures.

I 'm completely overwhelmed at the thought of tellling my little kiddo's goodbye tomorrow. My heart aches when I think of giving them one final hug, not knowing when I will see their sweet faces again. No matter how many places I have been or how long I have stayed, saying goodbye is never easy. But I am sure I've never felt this way about another place... Nakhon Phanom will always be a home to me and when I leave on Sunday, a huge part of my heart will stay behind. Luckily, according to a popular Thai saying, that one dip I took in the Mekong River is enough to assure that one day I will be back.

I'll try to post again before I leave (since I have a ridiculous amount of things to do PLUS packing before I leave Sunday night, I'm sure I will appreciate the distraction) but if not, I'll check back in on my next stop: Beautiful Bali!

Kittung Mak

2010-09-14T09:28:00.005-05:00

These are words that I've heard repeatedly over the past couple of weeks, and words I find myself saying constantly... to the lady that makes me the greatest lime shakes at least once a week, to my favorite 5th grade teachers, to my ridiculously adorable students, to the owners of my favorite bakery.

I will miss you. So, so much.

I'm trying my best to focus on these last few days and live in the present, but it's so hard for my thoughts not to be completely consumed with the thoughts of getting on a bus and leaving Nakhon Phanom (for now). I had my first good cry about leaving today... at a restaurant with the 5th grade teachers at my school. It.was.awful. Tew read them a thank you note I wrote and I just lost it... and then I couldn't stop crying. And then they started crying. Needless to say it's going to be a rough week. I've been getting the most adorable gifts from my students... from magnets to scarves they knitted (they think America is the coldest place in the world) to lots of dolls with really big, curly hair (they love when I hold them up next to my head and say something like 'ah, same same Teacher Baibua?')... and, of course, the really hilarious gifts that the students obviously dug up from the bottom of their closets. They all make me so happy, though... wonderful little tokens from a wonderful year of my life. Here's a few pictures of the last couple of weeks in my favorite little corner of the world...

A string tying ceremony held for me and three retiring teachers at my school to send us off with wishes of happiness, a handsome husband (well, that was just for me I think), and a quick return to Nakhon Pahnom.

I spent an afternoon with my 5th graders, making sure to leave behind some great American games such as "Little Sally Walker" and "Down by the Riverside, hanky panky.."

The sweetest 4th grade class and their really cute gifts... a little purse and diary. As soon as I turned around, the boys were huddled together to give me a green (my favorite color) Nakhon Phanom shirt.

I stumbled upon one of my 6th grade classes in the canteen deep frying some chicken yesterday afternoon... they couldn't wait for me to taste their dishes, and with thoughts of death by food poisoning racing through my mind... I hesitanty tasted their creations and was pleasantly surprised! It's been a good 24 hours and I haven't gotten sick yet, so I think I'm in the clear! I couldn't help but think of how my students would have surely burned down the entire school last year if they were asked to fry chicken.

We had our last dinner together last weekend as WorldTeach Thailand volunteers

Some of my very favorite teachers at Anuban at lunch today... there's nothing like taking a lot of pictures when you can't stop crying.

I love my students. I love Thailand. I love my life.

Jump!

2010-09-12T04:53:00.004-05:00

In case there was any doubt that I do indeed have the cutest students in the world, here's proof for you:

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2010-09-08T03:40:00.009-05:00

In honor of my Dad's birthday, we practiced a little body vocabulary.... needless to say, it took us a while to get these pictures. Keep in mind, my little kiddo's are still learning English. But my students were super excited to help wish you Happy Birthday, Dad!

(Mr. Y was very dedicated to his role in all of this)

Here's five things I love about my Dad:

(1) He's a great cook! I remember very well looking forward to two things when we were younger and my mom went out of town: pizza nights with Laura and Dad's famous quesadillas! Seriously... these things are that good! He can put any Mexican restaurant to shame with his great chicken and cheese quesadillas! It doesn't stop there, though... I can't wait to get home and indulge in his trash mix, boiled peanuts, and my personal favorite, pulled pork.

(2) He's forgiving. When I accidently backed into the basketball goal in the driveway back in high school and somehow managed to take off my side mirror (oops!), my Dad just shrugged and pointed out the passing Ford F-350 truck and told me it was a good thing I didn't have one of those because the mirrors were monstrous! I can't say he did the same thing when I backed into a parked Mercedes, but hey, even I can admit that's a little too much to ask for.

(3) He's super funny. We are a family that loves to eat, so a good chunk of my memories growing up revolve around the kitchen table or the back porch (where we were waiting to eat most of the time)... and almost all of those memories involve so much laughter, usually as a result of something my Dad said or did. I am so thankful to have grown up in a family that appreciates humor... not to mention, thanks to my Dad I'm always able to recognize sarcasm and enjoy it!

(4) He's taught me lots of useful things. Without my Dad, I wouldn't know how to drive because my Mom refused to teach me, claiming she'd done her duty with my sisters. I wouldn't have been the star basketball player I was back in the day (hehe) without my Dad practicing with me in the driveway. I wouldn't know how to change a lightbulb, draw a really great elephant (betcha don't remember teaching me that one), or how often to get my oil changed!

(5) He loves me and supports me, no matter what. This goes for both of my parents, and regardless of whether they understand the decisions I make, they have yet to hold me back from doing something that was important to me. I remember very well when I went to the beach with my friends after graduating high school and got my nose pierced. Calling my mom to inform her of this was probably the scariest thing I'd ever done... until she said, "Well, you are going to have to call your Dad cause I'm not telling him." I remember trembling, literally, as the phone rang, and I just gushed out what I'd done and apologized before even giving my Dad a chance to speak. To my amazement, he wasn't upset at all and promised to help calm my mother down before I returned. I can't say she was exactly calm when I finally worked up the nerve to return home, but my Dad was right there beside me and never once got upset, claiming that there were many worse things I could do.

Dad, I love you so much and I wish I was there to celebrate your birthday today! I can't wait to see you in a little over two months!

Lots of hugs from Thailand, Haley

I'm just not ready...

2010-09-05T10:56:00.005-05:00

... to go. Somehow, nearly a year has come and gone since I packed my bags and crossed the Pacific to start my life here in Nakhon Phanom. In exactly two weeks I'll be on a bus to Bangkok, and 24 hours later I'll be on a plane taking me away from my beloved Thailand. I've been busy trying to cram as much as possible into what little time I have left, and it's so overwhelming to tell the people that I've come to love so much that I'm just not sure when I'll be able to come back and see them again. My students don't understand... school without their Teacher Baibua? Sure, I am going home, but in their eyes it's obvious that I will be coming back. I went home once before, afterall, so when I mention that I am leaving in two weeks they seem a bit sad but sure that I will be there in class when they return from the mid-year break in October. The night market ladies tell me how much they will miss me, the school custodian has made it his personal duty to inform every worker (from the crepe maker to the yardmen) that I am leaving, and Tew refuses to even talk about the day I will be going to Bangkok. I've been busy snapping pictures of things that have become the background scenery of this year for me, hanging out with my sweet students during my class breaks, and being out in Nakhon Phanom and around the people that have become my great friends. To put it simply,

I just can't imagine my life without...

being able to order my coffee, tea, and occasionally my dinner out of the back of a truck.

playing Hangman just about every single day, and my students never, ever getting tired of it.
rainy days and umbrellas everywhere!
ggoing on a field trip and cramming 90 (yes, ninety) students in the back of a truck. Without a back door. Or windows. Or 90 seats for the 90 students. And certainly not 90 seatbelts.

the most delicious pad thai in the world... all for a dollar.

and mostly, these little cuties greeting me every single day with hugs, high fives, and giggles.

I could write for hours on the things that I will miss about Nakhon Phanom, but the end result would probably be me curling up in a ball and sobbing. I'm doing my best to focus on spending the last two weeks embracing everything I've loved about this place... I plan on eating lots of good food, doing a lot of karaoke, playing lots of games with my students, hanging out with my Thai family as much as possible, and continuing to build the relationships I've made with many Thai friends so that I can be sure they will last when I leave here. I won't even mention packing, because that just stresses me out and I had enough of that with English Camp last week. For now, I'm off to sleep so I can rest up for the busy week ahead.

I hope all is well back home... enjoy the beautiful fall weather and college football for me! Oh, and go Bulldogs!

Look Who's Here...

2010-08-30T23:23:00.008-05:00

This little chunk of a man arrived last Thursday night in Houston... meet my new adorable nephew Ryder! I waited anxiously all Thursday night and woke up in a panic on Friday morning when I hadn't received a phone call from home... BUT I talked to my mom soon after and learned and that the little man made his entrance only a couple hours earlier, weighing in at a whopping NINE pounds! I'm now obsessed with checking my email and Facebook on pretty much an hourly basis, just waiting for new pictures of him. Luckily, Carly's husband takes more pictures than just about anyone I know so I'm rarely disappointed! And then, of course, there's Flashy (aka Jackie Boone)... she was given this nickname because we were all sure she was going to blind Hutch when he was born because she took SO many pictures of him. Never have I been more thankful, though! Being so far away is no fun at times like this, but I'm sure November will be here in no time. I'm sad to leave my home here in Thailand in the next few weeks, but these two little dudes sure give me a lot to look forward to...

Congrats again, Carly and Marc! I love ya'll!

Stress, Camps, Hula Hoops, and a Baby!

2010-08-25T10:37:00.004-05:00

Let me begin by saying that I do not get stressed easily. I should probably stress a little bit more about some things, to be honest, but hey, what can you do? I can probably count on one hand the times that I’ve truly been stressed here in Thailand… and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t need all five fingers. My first day of school was a bit stressful, which you can read about here, and I’ve had the occasional lesson where I knew my director would be stopping by to film me teaching. Besides that… life is pretty great here in Nakhon Phanom. Until today… I had one of those days that made me want to leave school immediately and head straight to 7-Eleven to buy and eat an entire pack of Double Stuff Oreo’s and a giant coke slurpee (this may or may not have happened on my lunch break that first day of school in NKP). I’m usually really great at adhering to the Thai way of thinking when I encounter struggles here… I might think about getting upset for a few moments, then I just shrug my shoulders and mutter a mai pen rai (the Thai equivalent of ‘no worries’)…. Until today. Let me start at the beginning of the week…a giant accumulation of stress and such a great insight into the way Thailand works, in case you were curious.

About two months ago, I talked with Tew, the head of the English program at Anuban, about holding an English camp at Anuban for the top five students in all of my classes in grades 3-6. She thought it was a great idea and agreed to talk to the director about it and get back to me. That was two months ago. To be honest, I kinda forgot about English camp and figured it wasn’t going to happen. Well, Monday night Tew told me that they decided English camp would be this Sunday. As in… less than a week away. So, not only did I have an entire English camp to plan (alone), I found out Monday that on Thursday I needed to drive to Bangkok with Tew to pick up her new car and come back the next day (BKK is about a ten hour drive). Because Tew does SO much for me, I find it nearly impossible to say no to her for just about anything. Because of our trip being at the end of the week, our English camp meeting with the staff had to take place today, Wednesday. Luckily, I got out of the trip to Bangkok in exchange for teaching Tew’s class Saturday morning for three hours (I literally almost cried about having to plan a 3 hour English class and working on Saturday)… but I think three hours of teaching will be much less tiresome than the long trip to Bangkok (even though I already planned my meal at McDonald’s). So that brings us to today… the day of the 12:30 meeting.

The morning started out promising. I had all the materials I needed for the meeting saved and ready to print. I left for my first class with these items printing and feeling sure I could prepare these items during my hour break before my eleven o’clock class. Well, I returned at 10 to find the printer NOT printing, but instead blinking with a message: “Paper Jam.” I swear, this printer jams more than it prints. I quickly fixed the problem, and the printing resumed. Forty five minutes later (and at least five paper jams later), the printer for some reason is still printing my packets that are finished and NOT the schedules and the materials I need for my class at 11. To make a long story short, I didn’t make it to my 11 o’clock class because I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and sure I would burst into tears if one student so much as looked at me the wrong way. Tew, of course, didn’t understand why I was upset at all. Our conversation went a little like this… Are you sick ,Baibua? No. Are you tired? No. I think you should not sleep with your air conditioner on at night…. Whaaat? I will order Iced Cappucino for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I arrived for the meeting on time to a shockingly (not) empty room. The teachers slowly trickled in, and it seemed we were ready to start at 12:40 (classes resume at one). However, the director was still missing. After she made it, we all sat around while everyone took pictures. Yes, pictures. Of what, you may be wondering? Well, of us acting like we were having a meeting about English camp. The key word in that sentence is acting, because I assure there was no meeting taking place, just a lot of posing. After the rounds of picture taking ended, we were finally ready to start…. twenty minutes after the meeting was supposed to begin. Thai time is incredibly unpredictable and so predictable all at once. Whenever you plan for something to start late, it’s almost guaranteed you will arrive to find the meeting started five minutes early or your ride will show up at least ten minutes before the time arranged. However, when you need something to start on time, don’t count on it happening.

The meeting went well once it started, and I left feeling much better about camp and life in general. I spent the afternoon with a delightful group of really dramatic third graders, an iced cappuccino, and making plans for Sunday’s English camp. The afternoon was a million times better than this morning, and I feel as though I can breathe again. I decided I’ve forgotten how to handle stress in a healthy way... something I should probably work on. I have a lot of work to do before the camp, but I’m excited to do this for my school and my sweet students! Wish me luck!

In other very random news, the hula hoop has made it to Nakhon Phanom. My students now spend just about every free moment hula hooping, and they love to laugh at me when I try and mine circles my body just long enough to make it to the ground. There’s a shop on the river that sells them, and it’s constantly full of women showing off their skills. I’m not sure what happened to bring the hula hoop here in such abundance, but I’m not exaggerating when I say there are at least 300 hula hoops at my school alone.

Look at 'em go...

Also- tomorrow I’m going to be the proud aunt of my newest nephew, Ryder! My sister, Carly, is almost a week overdue, so everytime my phone rings I jump to answer it, sure that she’s gone into labor. I even left class early once to run to the office after I saw a missed call from home, only to find her on Skype sitting in her kitchen. The wait will be finally over tomorrow… I can’t wait to meet the little dude on Skype and I’m counting down the days until I get to hold him in my arms!

NKP was pounded with rain all day yesterday.. it literally rained from the minute I woke up to the minute I went to sleep. Why? Tropical Storm Mindulle.
I walked into my 5th grade class yesterday and immediately thought all of my students were sick. Nope... the teacher quickly informed that they liked to talk too much and she was tired of it. Hence, all of the face masks... I think it's brilliant! Not sure how well this would go over back home, but I must admit my students were much quieter than normal yesterday!

Hope all is well back home…. much love from Nakhon Phanom!

What a Weekend...

2010-08-16T01:02:00.009-05:00

I had what is sure to be one of my very favorite weekends here in Thailand this past weekend... one of those weekends where you realize how great everything in your life is, and no matter what you wouldn't change a thing about where you are. It was so great, in fact, that it had me questioning my decision to move back to the USA. Don't worry (Mom, Carly, Lindsey..) I am coming home in November. But it just made me so thankful for where I am right now, and just really, really grateful to have found a place where I am so comfortable... I don't think many places feel like home after such a short time like Nakhon Phanom does for me. Because I'm not really in much of a writing mood, and because I love my new camera and took about a million pictures this weekend, I thought I would just share those and few stories. Be warned: once I started uploading, I couldn't stop.

I pass the Kodak photo shop every morning on the way to school, and this man is the father of the owner, Pi Nee. He's 94 years old, and I just love him! He waves to me every morning with a big smile, and I occasionally stop in and sit with him for a little while. He speaks Thai and French, and he likes to write things in old magazines in English while he is trying to communicate with me. Makes it a little difficult, but he's usually satisfied with a nod and an"ahh... I understand." He also gives me little goodies everytime I stop in, such as cough drops and young rice milk. Yummy! :)

Friday was my host dad, Pi Yut's, birthday. Nicky and Name, my Thai sisters, came into town for the weekend, so we had a big dinner that night at a local restaurant on the river. The food was great, and anytime my whole Thai family gets together it's a good time!
Of course the night ended in a private karaoke room at the ViewKong hotel... here is my beautiful Thai host mom, Pi Yot, giving a speech for Pi Yut.
A few pictures before the karaoke started..
We were, of course, required to take part in the speeches and the singing. Not that I need much encouragement anymore when it comes to karaoke..

On special days, it's part of the Thai and Buddhist culture to go and make merit. This usually involves a visit to the temple to donate money or food for the monks. I was told we would be going to the temple and then on to visit an art museum Saturday morning as another part of the celebration for Pi Yot's birthday. Of course, things were lost in translation as always, but I was quite surprised when we drove about 30 km to a village and saw tons of people and cars waiting. I had no idea what was going on, especially when a full Thai band started up in the back of a truck and then joined in our little caravan towards the temple. Turns out, Pi Yut donated a lot of money to this village because many of their employees are from there and he is building a new temple for the village. I don't think they see many foreigners... the minute we stepped out of the van everyone started screaming and clapping!

Waiting for the ceremony to start..

This was the head monk of the temple, and he was so cute! Everytime we took a picture he would come running up with his camera and laughing. This is inside the new temple that is being built.

Meet Non... my little Thai bro. Is he not the cutest thing ever?

A peek inside the old building that is being used as a temporary temple.

One of my favorite traditions is the string tying ceremony. Thai people do this to welcome you, send you off, wish you well... there are many times when this is done. The village elders had a string tying ceremony for us on Saturday, and it was a great experience as always to be wished well by so many adorable Thai village people.

After having lunch and taking lots of pictures, we headed to what we thought was going to be That Phanom, but actually just ended up at the local village convenient store for some wine coolers and snacks. I've learned to just stop asking questions and go along with whatever I'm told...

Thai people love to eat. They remind me a lot of my own family, to be honest, so it was no surprise when we drove about 70 km from NKP to eat baby pig. Yes, baby pig. It's called moo han, which translates to pig turn, because it is roasted over the fire and turned constantly. Luckily this was about our 4th meal of the day and I wasn't very hungry. I stuck with the grilled chicken... I couldn't quite stomach the baby pigs, especially when everyone found it so funny to find ALL of the pig body parts to show us! Something about pig ears and pig feet on my plate just makes me lose my appetite a little bit... luckily we were unsuccessful on the search for the pig snout.

One more stop... That Phanom, the famous temple about an hour from NKP.

After such a busy day and so much food, we decided it was time for a trip to our local hangout, The Duck Pub. We had a great night of dancing with Nicky, Name, and their cousin Ying and made lots of great new friends! The Duck Pub is one bizarre place, but I gotta admit... I really love it.

Name, Nicky, Ying, and me... I love these girls so much!
New friends! When I come home and throw up a peace sign during family photos... please forgive me. It just seems natural now..
I love my Thai sisters!
I can't believe it, but I'm actually leaving Nakhon Phanom exactly a month from today. From past traveling experiences, the end of my time in different places has always been so great and I'm hoping that Thailand will be no different. As sad as I know I will be to go, I'm excited that I still have a whole months to spend with my friends and family here.

Thankful for my Mothers

2010-08-12T10:55:00.006-05:00

Today is the Queen of Thailand's birthday, and as she is viewed as the "Mother of Thailand", today is also Mother's Day here. Because the holiday fell on a Thursday this year, school was closed today and the government declared tomorrow a holiday as well. I love four day weekends! We had a special ceremony at school yesterday...it was a really sweet service and many of the student's mothers came for the morning. There were different performances, and I'm pretty sure every song written about the Royal Family was sung at some point. They also had the sweetest part at the end where all of the students went and kneeled before their mothers and then told them how much they appreciated them. Respect is such a huge part of the culture here in Thailand, and I always love to see how the younger people show this to those that they care about. It was really neat to watch my students give their mothers flowers and hugs, many in tears as they spoke to their moms.

It's no secret that I have an amazing mother... one who supports me in everything that I do, whether that's sending me to college only to hear that I want to go and volunteer in SE Asia to sending me packages when I'm craving oatmeal so much I feel like I might cry. Being here on this special day of course made me realize how blessed I am to have such a special mother. I also was able to show my Thai mothers, Pi Yot and Pi Tew, how much I appreciate the way they've treated me as a part of their family this year. My host parent's daughters are in town this weekend, and I came home tonight just in time to be a part of their little family ceremony for their mom... they all knelt in front of her and gave her flowers, each taking turns to tell her what she means to them. When they finished I think they were all surprised when I said, "Wait! It's my turn!" I was able to tell Pi Yot, a lady that has done everything possible this year to make my time in Thailand comfortable and memorable, how much I love her family and how thankful I am to have her as my Thai mother. Pi Yot usually isn't very affectionate, but she leaned over and gave me a huge hug and told me that she loves me just like she loves her daughters! I was almost in tears... it was such a special time and reminded me how thankful I am for this year and for my Thai family. How am I so lucky to not only have a wonderful mom, but two Thai women who treat me as though I have been in their family forever?

Not in America, Anymore...

2010-08-08T07:08:00.004-05:00

I have many friends back in America getting ready to start a new school year teaching, so this post is mostly for you. I bet you won't see this at any point in your classroom this year...

La La Laos!

2010-07-29T09:12:00.011-05:00

Has it really been two weeks since I’ve written a blog? I know you’ve been anxiously awaiting my next blog post (at least this is what I like to think), so please forgive me for my absence! I’ve had a busy past couple of weeks, one with an English camp and I just returned from a very great long weekend in Laos. The English camp I worked was lots of fun, but nothing too exciting to report besides the fact that it was completely packed with ladyboys. I’m talking ladyboys (high school students) who showed up for a dance party in full makeup, wigs, and really interesting outfits. They also completely took over the stage at one point to do their best Lady Gaga interpretations. If I wasn’t in shock most of the time, I was doing my best to hold my own on their homemade “runway” that they paraded down pretty much every free minute we had. Let’s just say my model walk doesn’t compare in the least to these students. America’s Next Top Model could get some really great competitors from Thai villages, I think.

Just in case you didn't believe me..

How did I forget to mention perhaps the best part of English camp?! Pizza and free refill Pepsi!

Now on to a much more exciting topic… Laos! I returned yesterday from a long weekend in Vientiane, which is the capital of Laos. When you think of a country capital, you probably think of something that definitely isn’t Vientiane. It’s a slow paced, fairly quiet, and adorable. I loved it so much. We arrived early Saturday afternoon after a small border crossing fiasco and walked around in the rain looking for a guesthouse that was cheap and nice. We completely lucked out and found a brand new one right in the middle of the city… I’m pretty sure I’ve never stayed in a hotel or guesthouse with a nicer staff. Our rooms were really nice, too! Here's the view from our balcony...

Our first stop was, of course, the Tex Mex place we passed driving into town. We spent the afternoon feasting on chips, salsa, fajitas, and the famous BeerLao. It was delightful. We also had a great night out at a rooftop restaurant/bar on the river… we met some great new traveling friends and somehow managed to stay out until about 3am in a Communist country with a midnight curfew. I still can’t say I understand this curfew at all… we were definitely not the only people still out when midnight rolled around. It always helps to befriend the locals… they know the best places to go!

My favorite Laotian, Somsak!
I can’t actually say that I saw all that much of Laos because most of our trip was spent in coffeeshops and bookstores, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. We also found a bowling alley, so we of course decided to go and check that out. I’m still a horrible bowler, and even worse in Laos because they don’t have bumpers. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more competitive bowlers in my life, though… these Laotians were serious! On our last day in Laos we rented motorbikes and drove out to see some really old Buddha statues that are on the Mekong River. After I rented my bike and started driving, I began to question my decision to rent a motorbike in the CAPITAL of an Asian COUNTRY. No, Vientiane isn’t that big compared to most country capitals, but it is a capital nonetheless. Not only was driving in traffic (with seemingly very few laws) a bit difficult, but once you cross the border into Laos traffic switches to the right side of the road. I think I had finally trained my brain to always, always ride on the left side… I’d even figured out which way to look before crossing the street. All of that went out the window in Laos and I found myself having to continually repeat right right right to myself. It also started pouring about halfway to the Buddha garden, so we were completely soaked by the time we made it. I also swear it started hailing as I was pelted very hard in the chest by what I’m sure were hail balls, but not everyone seemed to agree with me on that. Maybe I’m just a baby. Whatever. Luckily¸ the many motorbikes and cars and people soon turned into potholes and herds of really cute goats as we got out of the city, so riding our motorbikes became much easier. The main traffic hazard for me was the absolutely adorable Laotian children who would scream “Sabaiybee!!” and wave excitedly as we drove past. The bikes were a lot of fun, and I still want my own!

Completely lost and soaking wet... we were great entertainment for the gas station workers!

We bought bus tickets to Thakek, the border town across for Nakhon Phanom, and were scheduled to leave Tuesday at noon so that we could get there in plenty of time to cross the river before the border closed at six. If you’ve ever traveled in Asia (we’re talking ground travel… not the fancy airlines) I’m sure you have some idea of what actually happened. Everything would have been fine had our bus left on time, but it actually left an hour later than we thought. All still would have been well, as the bus ride was only supposed to be four hours, but of course our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere Laos for two and a half hours. And then that four hour part actually turned out to be a little closer to six hours and before you know it was 9:30 pm when we finally arrived in Thakek.

I'm not sure it's necessary to point out, but please notice how colorful and crazy this bus is! Also, did I mention that despite the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere, about four women walked up selling grilled chicken, sticky rice, and cold cokes?! That's exactly what you hope happens when you are stranded... and it did!

Needless to say, the border was closed so we were stuck in Laos for an extra night. We did have dinner with a really adorable Italian honeymooning couple, both of whom oddly enough loved the South so we talked about Southern authors and the best places (in my opinion) to visit for their planned road trip across America. We woke up the next morning and finally got to see what Nakhon Phanom looks like from the other side of the river… unfortunately it was raining and foggy, so the view wasn’t all that great. What also wasn’t so great was our ferry ride across the river.. not only was it raining, but our boat had a leaky roof, no sides, and a hose that continually pumped water out of the bottom so we didn’t sink. I spent the entire ride laughing and praying we wouldn’t sink. Luckily, we made it and I crossed safely back into Nakhon Phanom.

The whole traveling disaster on the way home for some strange reason reminded me of how much I love Asia. No matter what point we were at on our journey… from sitting on the side of the road to crossing a river in the pouring rain… no one seemed to mind that everything took a lot longer than it should have and the situations were far from comfortable. It didn’t matter… eventually we all got where we needed to go, even if we arrived a little later and perhaps a little wetter than we planned. I dread adapting back to the pace of American life… I know on so many days I will wish for things to just slow down, for everyone around me to relax, and for people to stop expecting so much every single day.

Well, I’m off to sleep for now, so happy Thursday back home! xoxo from Thailand!

Farang! Farang!

2010-07-13T00:21:00.006-05:00

Farang is probably one of the most common words you will hear when visiting Thailand... it's impossible to escape this whispered (and often not whispered) Thai word. I suppose it's a bit like visiting Mississippi and hearing ya'll at least once in what seems like every conversation. After a while, you just don't notice it anymore. Farang (sometimes pronounced falang, as the l's and r's are interchangable in the Thai language... hence the mixup of Haley and Harry on a regular basis) is the Thai word for foreigner, and I am sure it's one of the first words that Thai children learn. I've heard it on the lips of just about every Thai person I know (and most that I don't know)... from those under the age of two to the old men and women who sit along the river. It seems like when I first came, I was always the subject of these farang peppered conversations. Why is this farang in our town? Who is this farang shopping in the supermarket? My favorite was when I walked by a group of young students and they all excitedly started nudging each other... it's pretty hard to miss the hushed whispers of farang! farang! I think the most hilarious is when they shout it to each other, and when I look up, knowing I am the farang they are discussing, they often look away in embarrassment and shock as they realize that I understand they are talking about me. Luckily, I've yet to meet a Thai person who uses this word in a negative way. Most often, they are just excited to see a different face walking the streets of their city... a face that has clearly come a long way to be here. The brave ones will start a conversation, but most often I am left with just a big smile, and sometimes a wave as I acknowledge that yes, I am a farang living in Thailand.

As with living in any place for an extended amount of time, I've started adapting to the Thai way of life. Time is quite flexible to me now (I'm sure my family is snickering at this comment... time has actually always been pretty flexible to me), it's often my first instinct to throw up a peace sign while taking pictures, and I think nothing of taking the stage alone while doing karaoke. I ride bikes with Nan sitting on my backseat, I wai every person I greet without thinking, and when a fly lands in my food (or has been cooked with my dinner... only sometimes on accident), I calmly use my spoon to take it out and keep right on eating. Probably my favorite part of being immersed in Thai culture is that those around me are starting to see me as a local now, also. I am no longer the farang... I am Baibua, the English teacher at Anuban. Instead of being the subject of farang conversations... I am now the one who excitedly whispers farang! farang! when I see a new foreign face in town. It seems like every day Tew is elbowing me impatiently as we walk through town, anxious to point out the new foreign face she sees across the street. I'm happy to say that I'm now much more than a farang in Nakhon Phanom... I'm just one of the locals.

To Nine Months!

2010-07-06T08:54:00.008-05:00

It’s pretty hard to believe that nine months ago I landed in Bangkok and started my life here in Thailand. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? I am still loving my life here in Nakhon Phanom and enjoying every day that I get to spend with my Thai family and friends. When I was traveling, I was sitting on the beach one day and thinking about how lucky I am to have had these amazing opportunities… from spending my summers in Yellowstone National Park to my post college months on the streets of Kolkata and of course, most recently, living life in a country where my vacations are spent island hopping in the south… sometimes I feel like it’s all just too much. This same day, I wrote in my journal, “How can my heart be so full? And for so much of my life? I feel as though I've cheated somehow, taken more than my share of happiness.” I don’t know how it’s happened… but if the past few years are any indication of the future, I can honestly say that I am completely in love with life.

In honor of my nine month Thailand anniversary, here are nine things that I love about this place!

1. Greetings
You would think that after teaching at one school for so long, your face would become really familiar to the students and they would no longer be all that excited to see you each day. Well, here you would be wrong. Every day I am greeted at school as though I’m the visiting celebrity that day…. “TEACHER BAIBUA!” The really cute waves and giggles and hugs that follow are my motivation to come to school each day. The younger students greet me with so much enthusiasm it often sounds as though they’ve just seen Santa Claus walking across campus. I’m still waiting for this effect to wear off… and secretly hoping that it never does.

2. Home Sweet Home
I have a house here in Thailand… a really nice house. I have my own room, a bathroom with hot water, a kitchen, and all of the other many things that belong in most houses. And on top of all of that, I have a family. My family here creates such a warm home environment for me… something that is irreplaceable and has been so important to me in my time here. I love that I have a place to go where I am waited for… a place to go where I am loved. From my crazy dog, Kai Dtun, to my adorable Thai grandmother… there is nothing that can replace the feeling of having a place where you feel like you belong.

3. The Mekong
Nakhon Phanom is situated right on the banks of the Mekong River, and I just think it’s beautiful. I love the aerobics classes that are held each night all along the river, and I also love that if you spend enough time there you will see the many break dancers of Nakhon Phanom in action. I also love my nightly runs along the river and passing the old women who clap for me as I run past them. It’s said that those who swim in the Mekong will always come back to Nakhon Phanom… something I’ve done already but plan on doing at least once more just to make sure I make it back one day.

4. Non and Dti Dti
My Thai parents are incredibly open with their home, and along with inviting me to live with them, they’ve also taken in a niece and a nephew. Dti Dti is 18 and in technical college, and Non is 8 years old and in one of my 3rd grade classes. I absolutely love them both… my favorite afternoons are spent playing volleyball or riding bikes along the river with them. I also love that Non cannot say Haley for anything, so he calls me Pi Lee, which means older sister. I also love Dti Dti’s ability to listen to Taylor Swift for hours on end, and her attempts to sing along are pretty hilarious.

5. Ahan Thai (Thai food)
I’m pretty sure I discover something new and delicious every week that I’m here. Most recently, my discovery was Monkey Ice… Thailand’s version of the sno cone. Let’s just say it involves a lot of condensed milk, chocolate cereal, and marshmallows. I’ve put myself on a strict “once a week” Monkey Ice rule. Luckily, Thai fruits are almost as delicious as the chocolate.

6. What’s your nickname?
This was pretty much the first question I was asked as I stumbled off the bus at 7am when we arrived in Nakhon Phanom. I had no idea how common and important nicknames were at the time… now it’s hard to imagine my life in Thailand without thinking of my Thai name, Baibua. It doesn’t seem strange at all to me anymore that my students and pretty much everyone close to me refers to me as “Lotus Leaf” until I really start to think about it. And then it just makes me laugh. How do my students take me seriously at all when all of their questions begin with “Teacher Lotus Leaf!” I guess in a country where nicknames such as Cucumber, Benz, Chang Noi (Little Elephant), and Violin are common… Lotus Leaf isn’t so strange. I will never, however, be able to say “Hey, Tiger!” and not giggle at least a little bit inside.

7. My ride
I have two modes of transportation in Thailand that belong to me… my feet and my trusty bicycle. I’ve been amazed at the things I’ve been able to transport on my little yellow bike… you can fit more in a basket and on a “back seat” than you would think! I’ve driven a car once since I’ve been here (probably not the smartest decision when you are visiting Bangkok), and while some days I miss it… I also love the feeling of living in a town where I can get anywhere I need to go using my feet or my bicycle. Sometimes I actually get really overwhelmed when I think that I used to own my very own car.

8. AirAsia
In the US, you have Southwest Airlines. In Southeast Asia, we have AirAsia. If you think flights are cheap on Southwest… you would be blown away by the deals of AirAsia. I spend a considerable amount of time on their website planning imaginary trips, but I’ve also turned those dreams into reality and booked two trips for my end of the year backpacking adventure: Sri Lanka and Bali! Both of these trips… round trip… cost me less than a hundred and thirty dollars! I will never be quite as impressed with Southwest due to its ability to only fly within the U.S.

9. Cherry and Pink
I love all of my students… really, I do. They could easily be the most lovable group of children you will ever meet. I wouldn’t say I have favorites… but I really, really love Cherry and Pink. They are inseparable best friends, and I think what I love about them so much is that they remind me of myself in elementary school. Wherever I was, you could be sure that my best friend Joy Beth was right there beside me. Joy Beth is still my very best friend in the world, and I think these two girls make me feel a little bit closer to her when I see them together. I also think they are going to be heartbreakers in the future… not only are they incredibly sweet, but they are both so beautiful! This list could go on and on… but I will leave it at that for now. Here’s hoping to another great two and a half months in this wonderful little corner of the world!

Waka Waka!

2010-07-02T11:00:00.007-05:00

Thailand has major World Cup fever right now, so my students were thrilled when I taught them the Waka Waka dance and then recorded them dancing. I think they felt like movie stars! I absolutely love the song, and I love that they are using it to promote education for ALL people. I also love how they encouraged others to create a video that expresses the power of global unity... one thing I think the World Cup represents well. You can watch the video here (still not sure how to upload videos to a blog)!

I hope you enjoy our video... it was a lot of fun to make! I teach all of the students in the video except for the little bitty ones, sadly! They are the pre-K class at my school.... I love them!

Also, did you know that...

*Current estimates place the number of out-of-school children at 93 million (the majority are girls).
*Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
*Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000... and yet it didn’t happen.

just another manic monday

2010-06-28T08:43:00.007-05:00

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather this weekend, but things are finally starting to look up! I’ve been feeling pretty crappy all weekend, but I figured it was just sinuses. I also have this strange rash that started on my neck and has slowly started spreading down my chest. To put it mildly, I was in pretty bad shape yesterday. My neck was scaly, red, and peeling, and all of the sudden last night I started feeling nauseous on top of the sinus problems. I came home from picking some things up for school, and Tew had biked to a new restaurant we discovered (with chicken nuggets! And fries! And hot fudge!) and bought me all sorts of things for dinner. When I say all sorts of things… I mean things like chicken nuggets, noodles, and pancakes. Random… but all really delicious. I felt so bad, but I told her I couldn’t eat or I was sure I would be sick (when I turn down chicken nuggets in Thailand… I am sick). She kept insisting, I kept insisting, and finally we compromised on one chicken nugget. Does it need to be mentioned here that I am, in fact, 25 years old? Ok, now that that’s been established… I ate my chicken nugget, and sure enough about five minutes later I came through with my promise of being sick if I ate anything. I’ll spare you the details… but it was not a fun night. Thai people are so incredibly hospitable, and if I become slightly sick it becomes everyone’s top priority to make sure that I get better as soon as possible. For instance, last night all I wanted was to get in my bed and sleep. However, Tew had to have a very lengthy discussion with our maid, Pa Dtoy (who is the cutest and sweetest lady in the world) about what medicines I should take. Finally.. I was given medicine and then followed to my room and told, among many other things, that I needed to open my window first thing in the morning and wake them up immediately if I “needed to go to the hospital.” This was only after I insisted it wasn’t necessary to take me last night. This morning, I woke up feeling much better but decided to stay home because I wasn’t sure that I should be teaching in the heat all day. I tried to go back to sleep, but was woken up all morning by Tew (in person AND on the phone), my host mom, Khun Ya (my Thai grandmother), and Pa Dtoy… all just checking to make sure I was still doing alright. It definitely cannot be said that I’m not well taken care of here! I spent all day in bed, watching movies and reading. It was wonderful! My stomach is much better, but I’m afraid I can’t say the same thing for my neck. Against my better judgement, I got a little bored and decided to see if I could diagnose myself using Google. I soon became convinced I had a life-long skin problem that was un-curable (in my defense, the picture looked exactly the same as my neck) and waited anxiously all day for Tew to come home and take me to see the dermatologist. Luckily, according to the doctor, I’m going to be okay and so is my neck! I didn’t mention to her my diagnosis, because this once led to a very embarrassing situation for me at my eye doctor’s office, so I’m deciding to trust her as she definitely knows much more than me and a random website. By the way… if you want to torture yourself, go and look at a slideshows of common skin rashes. Gross. Gross. Gross.

Can you believe that it’s almost July? I am shocked every time I look at a calendar these days. Time is flying… and I can’t help but wish it would just slow down a bit. I’m enjoying every minute here in Thailand (well, minus the recent sick ones), and I’m really excited to see what the next couple of months holds! I am sure that time will start moving even faster as September approaches, and along with it, my departure from Nakhon Phanom. Why does that always seem to happen? I have a lot planned for the next couple of months, including an English camp at my school for my students and a trip to Laos! I’ve spent the past almost nine months looking at the mountains of Laos from across the river, and I can’t wait to go and explore this new country on an upcoming holiday in July!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the first Thai school play I was able to attend last week. It was in honor of a famous Thai poet’s birthday… enjoy!

Ahh...Bank! How adorable is he? I couldn't exactly follow the story in Thai, but I do know that Bank saved the day when he rode in on his huge fake horse. I adore Bank... he's really smart, always listens in class, and gives me a high five every time he sees me. My student Tiger... whom I also love. Tiger (how can you not love a student who's name is Tiger?) is actually pretty bad, but in a really cute and mischevious way. Doesn't he make a good old man? I wish I could explain this to you. Really, I do. He was the villain and that's about all I could figure out. I do love this student, though... he regularly interrupts class with his squeals and announcements. Sadly, that is a wig and not his actual hair.

The "ghosts" in the story... I'm not sure what their role in the poem is, but their entire purpose in the play was a very random rap dance about halfway through the show. The little boy in the front (in the black cape) is my student Jef, who is pretty shy, or so I thought.... until I saw him leading the crowd in moves he only could have learned from a 50 cent rap video. I'm not gonna lie... this was definitely my favorite scene in the play!

All of my sweet, sweet 5th grade girls! They were also "ghosts" and did a Britney-inspired dance right before the boy ghosts came out.. and then, of course, they did a dance together before welcoming Bank and his horse onto stage.
Ok, this is not the play... but I had to include it anyways! This my crazy third grade class, and last week they were supposed to be working and all of the sudden they appeared next to me with a puppy and a bottle! Look at this adorable puppy! And how cute are my third graders?? The puppy apparently comes to school every day with their Thai teacher, because I spent half of their class this week holding him again!

Happy Monday... much love from a very rainy but cool Nakhon Phanom!

Teacher's Day: Thai Style

2010-06-17T02:44:00.004-05:00

Today was Wai Khru Day at Annuban. A wai is the traditional greeting amongst Thai's, where you place your hands together and lift them to various heights, depending on the amount of respect you want to show. Khru is one of the Thai words for "teacher", so essentially this is a day to show respect and love to the teachers at your school. My morning started around 7:30 when I arrived at school to find the stage filled with monks and a table ready to receive the students offerings of food, money, and flowers. Despite the fact that we actually arrived 15 minutes later than planned, the school area was oddly empty as the monks sat waiting to begin the ceremony. Thai people rarely get in a hurry for anything, and religious ceremonies are no exception. Around eight, the ceremony began as the students were still trickling into the building. I've always been amazed at the lack of seperation between church and state in Thailand. It doesn't exist here. Each day begins with morning prayers to Buddha, and every school campus I have visited has at least some form of a shrine on school grounds. Today was no different, and the students came prepared with offerings of food to place in the baskets for the monks. The monks walk around the city each morning to collect their food for the day, and I've found it to be a beautiful practice of depending on others to meet your needs. After the religious ceremony ended, the students went back to gather the flowers that they've spent half of the week preparing. Also in true Thai style, I had quite a few classes cancelled earlier this week for students to prepare for the Wai Khru ceremony. It makes perfect sense to cancel class for students to prepare flowers and to practice bowing on stage, right? Once again... classes don't always seem to be a priority here in Nakhon Phanom. The ceremony was very sweet, though, and I enjoyed seeing the beautiful flowers the students made themselves. The teachers sat on stage, and each class came on stage and presented the teachers with flowers and bowed before the seated teachers. They also sang songs (I, of course, didn't understand them.... but they sounded very sweet) and performed different speeches for the teachers. When the ceremony was finished, I was bombarded by my sweet students presenting me with roses and other little flowers that they brought from home. We did actually have class this afternoon, although after sitting all morning in the heat my students were less than thrilled to learn about opposites. It was a bit of a shock to see my usually very animated students sit so quietly... I prefer their talkative selves! That's something I might regret saying next week, but today I was missing all of the excitement that usually accompanies my lessons. Here are some pics I took this morning... I'm in between cameras so these aren't the best, but they will do for now! Happy Teacher's Day from Thailand!

Grades 4, 5, and 6... I teach almost ALL of these students, plus third grade!

Before they presented the flowers to the teachers, they prayed to Buddha.

Showing respect to their teachers

One of my favorite 6th graders... and one who might make me crazy by the time I leave. I'll let you decide who is who.

They may forget their homework.. but they never forget the peace signs when the cameras come out! This is one of my hilarious 3rd grade classes... there are two kids in the picture who go by the nicknames of Pizza and Violin, by the way.

Trouble!

Beautiful Flowers!

Hello Goodbye

2010-06-13T07:46:00.004-05:00

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent lately. I have lots of things I’ve wanted to write about, but I just haven’t quite found the motivation to actually do it. My mind seems to be a big jumble of thoughts lately, so please forgive me for what is sure to be a ridiculous and confusing blog post. It will, however, give you a glimpse into this very exciting and ever changing mind of mine. Thank you Mr. Faulkner for introducing me to that thing called stream of consciousness. If only I could write as well as you…

I went to a really fabulous barbeque last night at a house with an oven, a backyard, and a golden retriever. We baked cookies, brownies, bagels, and a funfetti cake. They were all pretty delicious, and I got to experience that delightful feeling of being completely overstuffed with cookie batter. I didn’t even eat a cooked cookie. I don’t regret that decision one bit, because that’s what I had for breakfast. Bagels with cream cheese and cookies. A-mazing. What was not so amazing was feeling really sick at 11 am. And also going for a run tonight after eating sweets I haven’t had in a really long time. Oh well… totally worth it and probably won’t happen until I get home in November. Only then it will be like ten times worse because it will be Thanksgiving and that means one thing: casseroles. Ahhh… I can’t even think start to think about those wonderful things. Speaking of home… I’ve been feeling much further away lately than usual. And at the same time Thailand is starting to feel more and more like home to me everyday. I went to the Duck Pub last night and ran into a lot of Thai friends (including my new ladyboy best friend… I have no idea whether to call him/her a he or she… luckily s(he) doesn’t speak enough English to know the difference) , and it made me so happy. I feel settled. I haven’t felt that in a really long time. I can’t believe I only have about three more months in Nakhon Phanom. I try not to think about it… I get very emotionally confused. Some days I can’t help but get so excited thinking about coming back to Mississippi (the casserole thing helps) and then some days the thought of leaving this great place makes me want to just cry. It’s pretty much breaking my heart that I’m not going to be there when my sister, my best friend, has my little nephew in two months. It’s also really killing me that I can’t go to her baby shower next weekend. Skype can do a lot of things… but unfortunately it can’t take me home for that. Sometimes I just feel like I’m so incredibly far away from everything that’s so important to me. But then I go to my school and see my students and realize there are a lot of things that are important to me in this world. My sweet students are one of them. I absolutely adore them. When they give me really great hugs and tell me I’m beautiful even though I know I’m a big, sweaty mess I just want to squeal with happiness. They’ve made this year so much more incredible than I ever imagined it would be. We're learning about opposites this week, and I'm playing the Beatles for them. I'm pretty excited about it. I’ve been watching the World Cup lately, mostly because Thai people love soccer. It also makes me happy to watch something that so much of the world is involved in. For some reason when I leave the country, I become incredibly patriotic. I don’t really have a clue how soccer works.. I just know the object is to get the ball in the goal. But last night I was really proud to watch the USA play England while we were out amongst a lot of Thai people. I was even prouder when I saw the US team captain. Umm.. hello. He is cute. After much consideration, watching the opening ceremonies, and a lot of Internet research… I decided Uruguay probably has the best looking team. But then I saw the US in action… I know who has my vote for cutest captain. The players make soccer much more enjoyable to watch. The World Cup also has me majorly itching to plan a trip to Africa. Perhaps after Christmas? Oh… what will I do with my life when I leave Thailand? That’s a topic for another day, I suppose…. But do know that this has been consuming my thoughts lately. And when I start thinking about it, not only do I get really overwhelmed because (a) I have no idea what I want to do and (b) everyone seems to want to know the answer to this, but also I feel like I’m somehow cheating myself and not enjoying this place I am in right now. So I’ve decided I’m just going to be for a little while longer. I’ll worry about next year when next year gets a little closer. You probably stopped reading a long time ago, but I’m finding this oddly therapeutic. I am, however, quite hungry so I believe I will go and roam the night market to find some dinner. Or perhaps I’ll just dig back into my bag of baked goods from last night. Hmm.. decisions. Until next time…. Haley

I'm Published!

2010-06-08T09:18:00.003-05:00

I love when I enter a contest, forget all about it, and then receive some sort of notification that I've won! It's kind of like finding ten dollars in your coat pocket on that first cool day of fall... very surprising and very exciting! Well, I received an email at the beginning of April informing me that I won third place in a writing contest I entered sometime in February and had completely forgotten about! My article was published on the sponsor's (Transitionsabroad.com) website recently, so you can check it out here if you would like!

Also- just so you know, they revised my title. I would never make the title of my article a run-on. Hope you enjoy! Goodnight from rainy Thailand!

The Beach

2010-05-31T09:13:00.009-05:00

I love the beach. Always have, always will. Whether it’s Destin, Gulf Shores, or an island in Thailand… give me white sand, a vast pool of salt water, and a chair and I’m one happy lady. I was lucky enough to get to spend three and a half weeks exploring the many beaches of southern Thailand, and let me tell you… we got around to a lot of them. In just three and a half weeks, I stayed in eight different hotels/bungalows/hostels/rooms with a bed and sometimes operating fan. In an effort to not bore you completely or start sounding like a Lonely Planet guidebook, I think I’ll just give you the highlights of my beach adventures!

Phuket
Phuket was my first beach stop, and despite its slight sleaziness, we had so much fun on this really large island. We celebrated the Thai New Year in Phuket, which is basically a huge country-wide water fight. Everywhere you go, literally everywhere, people are armed with huge super soaker water guns (and some little ones, like mine) or a bucket of ice cold water, ready to throw on the next passing person. The roads are also filled with trucks overflowing with people standing in the bed with gigantic tubs of water, all soaking each other and the people passing by on the streets. I think my favorite thing about this holiday is that everyone was participating. The young, the old, even the workers. The one lesson I learned? Never shoot water at someone who is carrying a much bigger gun than you.

Ko Phi Phi
This beautiful island is best known for being the scene of the movie, The Beach. The scenery around the island was absolutely breathtaking, but I have to admit that I didn’t care too much for the vibe of this small island. I was sure at any moment an MTV vee-jay was going to pop out amongst the throngs of barely dressed 18 and 19 year olds that came out every, single night. It was on Ko Phi Phi, however, that my fascination with Thai hippies and fire dancers began. Every night on the beach they have fire shows where Thai guys basically throw around ropes and poles with fire to the beat of different songs. Very entertaining. What was even more entertaining, however, was when they brought out a flaming jump rope and I got to watch people who drank a little too much participate and often run away a little singed. I wonder what it says about me that I enjoyed this so much… trust me, you would have found it entertaining I’m sure! Kelli and I also took a half day tour where we went to a monkey beach (for the record… small Asian monkeys really scare me because they are mean and will hiss at you if you get anywhere near them), went snorkeling, and cliff jumping. Snorkeling was pretty great because there was a lot of beautiful corral, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that the ocean just freaks me out. We were supposed to see sharks (small ones that supposedly don’t bite), and our guide apologized profusely when by the end of the day we hadn’t… I was pretty happy about it. I did see a barracuda and was terrified it was going to poke me with it’s long snout-like nose. It didn’t obviously, but I’m not sure I could have handled a shark. It was after snorkeling I decided I wasn’t too interested in ever getting certified to scuba dive. Call me a chicken. I don’t mind.

As close as I ever want to be to monkeys in Thailand..

The cutest captain ever! He was our guide on our snorkel trip.

Maya Bay! This is where they filmed the movie The Beach.

This is talent... he can swing a rope on fire and pose for pictures at the same time.

Beautiful water!

Ko Samui
Samui is basically a gigantic island that doesn’t feel at all like an island thanks to the roads and many beaches that you can visit. We didn’t do too much here… went on a very ghetto but hilarious ATV course, rode a really sad elephant, and did a lot of sleeping beside the pool. Kelli and I made two really good friends here, though, so we all had a great time getting dinner every night and hanging out on the beach. Unfortunately I have ZERO pictures of Ko Samui because I was camera-less and my friends haven’t sent me any of theirs. It looked like most beaches, if you can picture that… sandy, clear water, and a lot of rocks. It was also here that Kelli left me to go back to Missisppi. Very, very sad night for me… it’s a bit difficult to realize it will be another six months before you see a face from home again (one that isn’t on a computer screen).

Ko Phangan
Ko Phangan can be summed pretty well in just three words: Full Moon Party. This island is famous for it’s parties… whether its full moon, half moon, quarter moon, no moon… pretty much every night they have a huge party on the beach. I was really hesitant at first after my experience in Ko Phi Phi, but felt like it was something I should experience since I had the time and am living in Thailand. I spent six nights on this island, so luckily I was able to experience a lot more than just this world famous party. We spent our days swimming and laying in the sun and then each night we went to the beach to dance the night away. It was so much fun. They played great music, and even better than the flaming jump rope, they had fire limbo. Hilarious. They also play different games each night on the beach, and most of them are really entertaining. For example, our first night they set up a huge pole with rope tied around the top, and the Thai guys had a pole with fire on the end that they would blow and try to catch the rope on fire. Well, they asked for volunteers to come and try, and trying to be the slick person I often think I am, I excitedly pointed at my friend Debi to get picked. Next thing I know, I’m standing in front of a huge crowd and a Thai guy is telling me to put halogen in my mouth and then blow on the fire to create a huge flame! I was terrified of not only swallowing halogen but also catching myself on fire in the process… but thanks to my cheering friends and a very patient and nice Thai guide, I blew fire out of my mouth! As a teacher, I should know that trick about picking the person who’s doing all the pointing at everyone else. Oh well… it was pretty hilarious, and even though I’m sure I had a very puny flame (in my imagination it’s actually quite huge and just barely misses the rope), I now have a great memory of that “one time I blew fire out of my mouth in front of a huge group of people in Southern Thailand”. The night of the actual Full Moon party was just insane… people were absolutely everywhere on this small beach. They say each month between twenty and thirty THOUSAND people arrive on Koh Phangan for the Full Moon party. I didn’t believe that until the night of the full moon… there were people absolutely everywhere. I’m not sure I’ll be ready for another Full Moon party anytime soon, but I did thoroughly enjoy my first experience in Koh Phangan!

I wish I could say that was me... but I'm sure my flame looked something like that!

Proud to be one of the few Americans in Koh Phangan!
They have black lights everywhere on the beach so everyone wears body paint... this guy was nice enough to let me paint on his arm! I think he liked my self portrait!

Ready for the Full Moon party! Such a fun group of girls! Fire Limbo! I only let myself do it on the top notch... very smart decision as I could be the most unflexible person in the world.

Tonsai and Railay
The first thing you should know about Railay and Tonsai is that while it’s not an island, it’s quite possibly the hardest place in the world to get to. It’s unreachable by car and there isn’t a pier to be found anywhere along the beautiful shoreline. When I was climbing out of my longboat “taxi”, backpack and all, into knee deep water, I just remember thinking, “This place better be worth it.” The second thing you should know about Railay and Tonsai is that it’s also quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world. I stayed in Railay on my first visit, and I loved it so much that we decided to make the long trek back and stay in Tonsai for our final few days of traveling. I’m really not sure I can say emphasis enough what an absolute pain it is to get to Tonsai… we took a ferry from Phagnan to Surat Thani, a bus from Surat Thani to Krabi (a “three hour” bus ride that somehow turned into five and a half, all of which I spent on a backseat with about seven people AND a leaky roof), a tuktuk to Ao Nang, and then a long boat to Tonsai. I’m pretty sure that the journey of getting to Tonsai makes it that much better… I am absolutely in love with this beach. Tonsai is a rock climber/hippie heaven. Most of the Thai guys have longer hair than mine, and all of the bars have names like The Chill Out Bar, Peace and Love, and Freedom Bar. I’m pretty sure that some of the people I saw walking around stepped straight off the pages of my mom’s photo albums from the 70’s. Railay is also incredibly beautiful. Tonsai and Railay are separated by a cliff, and when we asked if it was climbable we were told that it was a very easy, twenty minute climb along a path. Thirty minutes later, we were lost on top of this so called cliff, and I was sure that I would have a heat stroke before I ever made it down to the other side and into the ocean. Luckily, a nice passer-by showed us the right direction and we somehow made it to Railay with only a few scrapes and bruises. For future reference: in a land of top notch rock climbers, never trust their advice when it comes to the difficulty of climbing cliffs. We spent our days in Tonsai swimming in the Andaman Sea, kayaking, reading, and even a little rock climbing. Yes, I went rock climbing! I also feel it’s very necessary to add that Railay happens to be one of the top ten places for rock climbing in the world! This is probably the one thing that made me sign up for the half day course… I felt I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to climb in a place so beautiful. It looked as though God created the huge cliffs and rocks as a playground for those who enjoy climbing. And let me tell you… I learned quickly that rock climbing ain’t easy. I won’t even pretend that I made it to the top on all of the climbs… but I did on some! Ok, I made it to the top on one. BUT… it was the tallest one and so difficult! I cursed the course description the entire way up… beginner course? I don’t think so! Luckily, our guide was great and everyone was so encouraging… I even had a little French boy who couldn’t have been over the age of twelve shout up directions to me and encourage me to keep going. Probably because he was below me and couldn’t move much until I got out of his way… I swear this kid had monkey limbs. It was a pretty awesome feeling making it to the top, though! Waking up the next morning, however, feeling sure I would need a wheelchair to go anywhere was not such an awesome feeling. My plan is to get in shape, go back, and hopefully climb again before I come home in November! I would love to see my hippie friends again and spend a few more relaxing afternoons on the beach in Tonsai!

Yes, that is our boat... in waist deep water. This is why you should never bring a suitcase to Thailand... please notice the poor guy carrying his girlfriend's suitcase on his head.

Ahh.. gorgeous.

View from our favorite restaurant

My hippie friends!

A very happy me

Days in Bangkok

2010-05-17T01:14:00.006-05:00

Turns out, writing a blog everyday is hard work. I only made it three days… sorry! But, I’m back and ready to tell a little bit about Bangkok! First of all, if you’ve watched the news lately, I’m sure that you’ve seen that Thailand is having a lot of political problems. My heart just breaks every time I check the latest news from Bangkok… as of this morning, 35 people have been killed and tons injured in just the past 4 days. It doesn’t seem like there will be an end to the fighting and protests anytime soon, and it seems to be spreading around the country a little bit. Luckily, my province is still very safe and hasn’t seen any fighting. If you want to read a bit more, this article in the New York Times is pretty good. Please, please pray for the leaders of Thailand and people involved in the protests. It’s always sad to see violence in a country, but especially in a place that feels almost like home.

Over the past two months, I seemed to keep finding myself in Bangkok. Before I left for Mississippi, my friend Alix and I spent the weekend in Bangkok with my host family’s daughter. We didn’t do too much (shopping, eating, the usual things you do in a city), but we were able to meet up with my monk friend Chokie. We went to the Marble Temple where he was staying, and we were given a great tour of the wat and even the monk’s living quarters! Chokie had snacks and everything for us… it was really nice! He is back in New York now, so perhaps the next time I see him will be in the US! After spending a couple of days in the city recovering from the flight from Mississippi, I took a train North (by the way, the trains in Thailand = amazing) and spent a couple of weeks in the mountains, near the border of Burma. I took the train back down south to Bangkok because I had a friend flying in to spend a couple of weeks with me. I’m not sure there’s a better feeling in the world than having someone from home come and visit while living abroad!! I saved a lot of my “tourist-y” activities in Bangkok for when Kelli came, because it gets expensive and I knew she would want to see some things. Unfortunately, we happened to be in Bangkok the first weekend the protests turned violent, so we weren’t able to do some things that we had planned. We did, however, get to go and see the famous “Emerald Buddha”, and for 300 baht we learned that the Emerald Buddha is in fact jade, not emerald. It’s also tiny. I also got to see a movie, eat at some good restaurants (including a Mexican place!), discover how much I dislike Bangkok’s Chinatown, and went shopping at the JJ Market (probably the world’s largest weekend market). I also stopped in Bangkok last week for a night on our very long journey back to Nakhon Phanom. My two day stop didn’t involve much more than sleeping in my air conditioned room and reading and writing at Starbucks. Oh, and we celebrated our SEVEN month anniversary in Thailand… with burritos and dipped cones! Here’s some pictures from BKK…

At the Marble Temple with Nikki and Chokie

And this is where monks live...

So, so happy to see a Mississippi face in Bangkok!

Trying to find the Emerald Buddha...

Still looking, but we found lots of interesting things on the way!

There it is... the not Emerald but Jade Buddha! Sorry the picture quality is horrible, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the actual temple. And like I said, it's tiny.

So this is what happens when you are in a major city and it gets too dangerous to go pretty much anywhere because half of the city has turned into a protest zone.. and it's all the places you want to go. You do face masks in the hostel! At least we looked good when we were finally able to leave!

Chinatown, I do not like you.

Yummy street food!

At the JJ Weeked Market... Thai New Year was the following week and it's pretty much a huge, country wide water fight. They started a little early in Bangkok, and I was really happy about it because Bangkok is hot. Always.

Ok, I started school today so I won't even pretend that I'm going to write everyday this week. But after Bangkok, Kelli and I headed down to the beautiful islands of Southern Thailand. I wil post stories and pictures as soon as I can! Hope you have a great Monday back home... much love from Nakhon Phanom!

I Love Pai!

2010-05-11T10:13:00.006-05:00

Oh Pai… I think Pai is one of those cities where pretty much everyone goes and just falls in love right away. I’ve been asked several times by other travelers what’s so great about this city up north, and I always have a really hard time coming up with the answer because I’m still not really sure what makes Pai such a cool city. Maybe it’s the motorbikes that you can rent for less than 4 dollars a day, or maybe it’s the Thai hippies that seem to be at every bar and restaurant in town. I know this… I was definitely sad to leave when my three nights were up and I had to catch a train to busy, busy Bangkok. To get to Pai, we took a really old bus from Chiang Mai (I’m not sure the door could even close, because it definitely never did on our ride) and although it’s only about 135 kilometers from Chiang Mai, it took three hours thanks to the 762 curves that you must first pass. Yes, 762 curves! We spent our days in Pai at coffee shops and on motorbikes, visiting local canyons and waterfalls where little Thai kids entertained me all afternoon as they shrieked and bravely slid down a huge rock into the small pool at the bottom. We inquired at a local shop about renting motorbikes, and after telling the owner that I had never driven one before, I found myself on the back of a bike and whisked away to a small, deserted road outside of town for my “driving lesson.” After being shown the brake and gas, my Thai teacher just pointed at the road and said “Ok, go.” Ummmm… I seem to remember my driving lessons back home going a bit differently, but you know what? Apparently just two quick drives down this small road certifies one to drive around the mountains of Northern Thailand, so I was taken back and given my very own Red Honda motorbike for the next 24 hours! Ahh.. one great thing about living in a land that pays almost no attention to laws! And let me tell you… I loved my bike. I was so sad to give it back the next day. I didn’t have any accidents on the bike, despite the many curves and big hills we encountered on our drives. I did almost run into some bushes on accident once, and when I screamed and braked quickly, my friend driving behind me lost control of her bike and fell off. Luckily, she was okay! Just a few scrapes and bruises, but at least she had a good story to go along with it. Pai was filled with people in casts and huge bandages, so I think we came out pretty well!

I was also very, very surprised when I got to Pai and met my first Thai hippies! Every bar is run by a guy with either really long hair or dreads and almost all of the shops have some Bob Marley paraphernalia on the walls. I absolutely loved the vibe of this city… it was so laid back and we met so many really great people. Pai is built around a river, and we had to cross this very rickety bamboo bridge every day to get into town. There was this really cute bar on the river that we would go to and they played Johnny Cash every night. It made me so happy! Also- we got to celebrate being in Thailand for SIX whole months in Pai! We had a great night out that included delicious pizza, the cute river bar, and mojitos! Pai is definitely a place I would love to visit again, but sadly it’s realllly far from Nakhon Phanom. Here’s some pictures from one of my very favorite cities in Thailand!

My ride to Pai...

I love Pai, Pai loves me

The bridge! I know it doesn't look very sturdy, but it got us into town many times.

The lovely porch where we stayed, a small guesthouse called Darling Bungalows. It was run by a Thai lady named, you guessed it... Darling, and her French husband Peter. Pretty much all I have to say about Darling and Peter is that they were really sweet and they loved to talk. A lot. Darling loved to tell us where to go find the "handsome man" and Peter just loved to talk about anything.

So happy to be in Pai!

My bike!

The canyon... a very scary hike but so beautiful!

The slide into the waterfall...

My new favorite Thai.... Curly! Isn't his hair amazing!?!

Cheers to six months in Thailand!

Probably the cutest coffee shop in the world...

Ahh... I am in love with this place!

Tomorrow: Bangkok!

First Stop: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

2010-05-10T09:47:00.006-05:00

I had free Internet in Chiang Mai, so I actually managed to write a blog a while back about the city. My stay can be summed up pretty well by saying that I am in no hurry to get back to Chiang Mai. Somehow everyone, seriously everyone, that I’ve met loves this city and cannot believe how much I disliked it. To be fair, I think I was re-adjusting to life in Thailand and being so far away from my family again. I guess if I was given the chance, I’d give it another try… but there are waaay too many other places that I want to visit so I don’t see it happening any time soon! I did realize that my picture with Sticky Rice, the tiger, isn’t showing up…. So here’s me and my new tiger friend!

After too many days in Chiang Mai, I took a bus to Chiang Rai to meet up with three other volunteers from Nakhon Phanom. Chiang Rai is a small town about three hours from Chiang Mai, and there isn’t too much to do there… but we had a great time! We stayed in the most charming guesthouse, Baan Rub Aroon Guesthouse, and it seriously made our stay there SO great! It’s run by the sweetest retired Thai lady, and she even cooked breakfast for us each morning! When most guesthouses say they include breakfast, what they really mean is that someone puts a box of corn flakes on the table each morning next to a loaf of white bread, so your options include yummy cornflakes or white toast with some jam. I’m not complaining… free is free. But at Baan Rub Aroon, we woke up each morning to banana pancakes, fried eggs, fresh fruit… all served on the most adorable little patio. Can you tell I loved this place? We spent most of our three days there just wandering around the city… they had a great night market, a clock that lit up in some crazy colors at 7, 8, and 9 pm, and I was also able to go to a local church for Easter Sunday! We decided we wanted to be a little active during one of our days, so we signed up for a 53 kilometer bike ride the next day in and around Chiang Rai. I know what you’re thinking… “Wait, 53 kilometers? Isn’t that like 33 miles?” Yes… you are right. It is. We even did the conversion in the tourist office, and not one of us thought to mention that 53 kilometers is a really, really long way. The conversation actually went a little more like this, “Well, that’s only 33 miles. We can definitely do that. It’ll be tough probably, but that’s ok. Where do we sign up?” Did I mention that it was advertised as a “Leisure Cycle Tour”? We had great bikes, and the morning portion of our ride was wonderful. It was cool outside, the scenery was beautiful, and most importantly, the trails and roads were flat. After lunch, when we were all starting to get a little tired (I don’t think it’s even necessary to mention how my bottom felt at this point… 29K into the ride), our guide casually mentioned that the last 6 kilometers, to the waterfall where we were supposed to end, was pretty much straight uphill. I’ll spare you the details… but it was rough. And I won’t even try to lie, I definitely had to walk my bike for a few minutes near the end. When we FINALLY made it to the waterfall, we all just laughed deliriously about why no one seemed to think that a 53K bike ride was going to be really hard. Pretty much the only thing that kept me going at the end was the thought of jumping in a waterfall and the pizza we promised ourselves for dinner if we all made it to the end (which we did). Our guide decided not to mention to us that the waterfall at the “end” was actually a good mile into the woods, all uphill of course. We all made it the waterfall, though, and it was really nice! I was pretty sure I’d drown if I tried to swim at that point, so I opted to just view the waterfall from the dry ground. One of the smarter decisions I made that week, I’d have to say. That’s about all from Chiang Rai… here’s some pictures from our stay!

Chiang Rai's famous clock

Our adorable guesthouse!

Before we started our bike ride... so ready to go!

We stopped at the "White Temple" halfway through the day. A very famous Thai artist (who we actually got to meet) designed the temple and paid for it with a lot of his own money. It was really interesting... the whole inside was a mural where you could find anything from Keanu Reeves in the Matrix to George W. Bush to a KitKat bar. Doesn't it look like a scene from a Disney movie?

Halfway there!
We made it to the waterfall!!
We discovered the most delicious Thai dish in Chiang Rai... it's called Kao Soi. Sooo good! It's pretty much egg noodles cooked in a coconut milk, and you can get any kind of meat in it. Sadly, they don't have it in Nakhon Phanom!

Next stop: The magical city of Pai!

I'm baaack!

2010-05-09T06:55:00.005-05:00

Have you missed me??? I attempted to update my blog a couple of times while traveling... honestly, I did... but all I could think about each time were the minutes ticking away and let me tell you, Internet ain't cheap in Southern Thailand. Ten minutes on the internet could get me half a banana shake, and I'm sorry to say that the banana shake always won out in the end. If you were here and could feel how HOT it is in Thailand, I think you would understand. And if you tasted one of these cold, fruity shakes you would definitely understand. BUT... I am back, and I have many, many adventures to share with you! So many, actually, that I got really overwhelmed on the bus ride back to Nakhon Phanom (my Ipod is broken, so I was left with only my thoughts and those bus rides can get really, really long... especially when you can no longer afford the the VIP, First, or even Second class tickets) just thinking about how I could possibly write a blog about traveling for six whole weeks. Lucky for you, I don't have school all week! So on this bus ride, I decided... I'll just write a different blog everyday about each place that I visited over the past month and a half! I have some pretty great adventures to share... Thailand is an amazing country filled with SO much beauty! I also have some pretty awesome pictures, though sadly not quite as many as I wanted, since I suffered a very sad loss when I was hit by a big wave in Railay. My camera and Ipod haven't worked since. Lesson learned: do not sleep on beaches where the tide is known to change quickly. And no, Mom, I didn't sleep all night on the beach. The tide changes here ALL day... it's crazy!

I made it back to Nakhon Phanom yesterday morning (Saturday) and had a few hours to shower and rest before I met up with the rest of the volunteers for our Mid-Service meeting here in NKP at a local hotel. It was really nice to see everyone... I hadn't seen a few of my friends since before I left for Mississippi! I can't believe it, but we only have FOUR months left of teaching. I can't really think too much about it, because I experience pretty much every emotion possible and I don't think it's healthy. And as much as I miss the beautiful, beautiful beaches of Southern Thailand, I can't even begin to describe how nice it felt to put my backpack down yesterday morning, knowing that when I unpack it (as pretty much happened somehow at every stop along the way for me), I would not have to re-pack it again anytime soon, nor would I have to use every bit of my stength to get it from the floor onto my back. Such a great feeling! Well, I'm off to sleep in my own bed for the first time in a while, and I'm pretty excited to sleep in an air conditioned room for only the second time in almost a month. Did I mention that it's hot here?? Ok, see ya tomorrow!

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world! I love you and wish I could zap myself home to spend the day with you!

"Welcome to my paradise...."

2010-04-19T03:36:00.002-05:00

I was sleeping on the beach in Phuket, and woke up to a little Thai man sitting next to me and this is what he said. I just smiled and thought, "What an appropriate thing to say!" Ive been down South for about a week now, and I'm loving it more and more everyday. It seems that each beach I visit gets more beautiful and more relaxed... something that I don't think is possible each time I leave!

I'm on Railay beach right now, and so far it is defintely my favorite. I saw the most gorgeous sunset last night and then danced the night away on the beach to a little Thai band playin lots of Bob Marley, James Taylor, and other great music. I've seriously never been to a beach with such beautiful scenery.

I don't have much time... the pool is waiting for me... but just wanted to say hello from one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! Hope all is well back home... much love from Railay, Thailand! xoxo

Peace

2010-04-11T10:10:00.002-05:00

Ever feel like you often end up in the wrong place at the wrong time? Welcome to my life. I have been traveling for the past couple of weeks, and have much to share but little time (living on a backpacker's budget = not much money for the internet). I've been in Bangkok the past few days because my best friend from Mississippi, Kelli, flew in late Friday night to spend a couple of weeks with me! I can't think of much that makes me happier than showing off this place I love so much to a great friend from home! We are leaving early tomorrow morning on a bus for Phuket and will be traveling all over the south of Thailand until she has to leave again.

You've probably heard by now that Thailand is having quite a lot of political problems at the moment. I can't say that I understand it compeltely, and I'm sure that you can find much better information on the Internet than I could provide. Put very, very simply, Thailand has two major political groups: the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts. The Red shirts (mostly from the area where I live... alot of farmers and rural people) are not happy at all with the current goverment and have called for the Prime Minister to leave and for the House to be dissolved. They've been having protests in Bangkok for about the past month which have all been peaceful, but things have escalated very quickly this week and in just two days there are 21 people dead and hundreds injured. It's been extrememly tense around the city, and so many things have shut down. I'll be glad to leave tomorrow, but I'm so sad that things have turned to this. I say all of this to let you know I'm ok, but mostly to ask that you all pray for peace in this country that has faced so many political issues lately.

I have many travel stories to share, but it will have to wait until another day. Hope all is well back home... enjoy the Spring weather while I nearly suffocate from the incredible Thai heat!

a not so pleasant stay in Chiang Mai..

2010-03-30T22:32:00.003-05:00

Hello from Chiang Mai!

I should probably begin by saying I've had a bit of a rough start to my trip around the county. I knew when I planned my trip back to Mississippi that it would probably be a little tough leaving all over again. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought leaving home, though ... I had a wonderful time, but I was excited to come back to a place that I've grown to love so much. I've never really traveled completely on my own, so it was a bit of a shock to get to Chiang Mai and find myself in a hostel surrounded by complete strangers. The hostel was much further away from things than I originally thought, and pretty soon I found myself just bored here. Every time I walked around the city, I got incredibly lost. I went to a HUGE market one night (where I once again got lost inside the market streets) and finally found a tuktuk driver to bring me back to the hostel. Well, he got confused about where I was staying and finally just dropped me off on the side of a random road, apologizing profusely but still not willing to get me back to the hostel. After spending the entire day feeling lost, it was all I could do to hold it together on the side of the road as people passed me. Turns out, thanks to another very friendly tuktuk driver I met, I was only a few blocks away from my hostel and was able to walk home. I got up the next morning determined to have a better day and to start liking Chiang Mai, only to talk to my sister first thing, which made me realize how homesick I was. I started crying, in the middle of this hostel (a room of strangers, basically) and had to run upstairs to avoid further embarrassing myself. I decided I needed to leave and find something entertaining to do, so I went into town and got a massage at the Women's Correctional Facility. Yes, the Chiang Mai prison. They have a cool program where they train the women in cooking and massages, and then all of the money goes into a fund for the women when they are released. I had a very sweet Thai women, and it was one of the best massages I've had here... and all for about 8 US Dollars! Chiang Mai has tons of things to do, but most of the things I'm planning on doing when I meet up with friends in the next couple of weeks (elephant riding, trekking, rafting, etc.) but they did have a very cool jungle tour that you can do. So I signed up for that, was picked up yesterday morning, and spent the entire day swinging through trees in the most beautiful mountains. It was such a wonderful and fun day... one of the greatest adventures I've been on! The guides were wonderful, also, and seemed to feel a bit sorry for me since I was traveling alone and they made sure I had a great time. I wish I could go back today!

I'm leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow morning to meet my friends in Chiang Rai... I think I'll be very happy to go. I just don't really like Chiang Mai.. and I don't believe it likes me very much either. That's ok, though... when you travel, I guess every place isn't going to be just wonderful. Here's a few pictures of some highlights of my stay here!

A real tiger! His name was Sticky Rice.. isn't he beautiful!?! This was really cool, but you know that feeling you get when you go to a zoo? Like, it's really awesome to see the animals but you can't help feeling sorry for them living in captivity? That's how this was... very cool, but a little sad.
Beautiful mountains! I took this picture on one of the ziplines.

My favorite zip line guides!

I'm off to see Thailand...

2010-03-25T10:03:00.004-05:00

I'm back in Thailand! After 26 long hours on either a plane or in an airport, I was so glad to finally arrive in Bangkok last night. Not only was my "long flight" almost 15 hours (Dallas to Seoul), but the plane was full of babies who did not want to sleep AND the sun never went down during the entire flight. This wouldn't have been much of a problem thanks to the windows that close completely, but the old man sitting across from me had to check just about every half hour to make sure the sun was still there. I'm not sure I've ever been so glad to get off of a plane, and even more thankful when the sun started to set on my last flight to Bangkok.

I'm setting out tomorrow on a huge backpacking adventure, and to say I am excited would be such an understatement. I'm starting up north in Chiang Mai, then headed to Chiang Rai and Pai for about a week. After playing up north in the land of beautiful mountains, rivers, and many elephants, I'm meeting up with one of my best friends from home in Bangkok and then heading South to spend some time on Thailand's beautiful islands. I plan to fill my days with kayaking, cliff jumping, and just doing a lot of nothing on some awesome beaches. Iamsoexcited!

Well.. I'm off to finish trying to cram all of my needs for six weeks into a small backpack.. goodnight from Bangkok!

Home Sweet Home

2010-03-22T20:51:00.007-05:00

I can't believe that two weeks has come and gone! I fly out early in the morning, so naturally my room is a wreck, my bags are half packed, and I have somehow found the time to write a blog. I'm sure I will regret this in a couple of hours, as I still have friends coming by to visit later, but really.. what else am I going to do on a 15 hour flight except sleep? My two weeks at home have been wonderful and so busy! I've eaten at all of my favorite restaurants (plus many more), danced with my favorite blues band, and stood next to my sister as she married a wonderful guy. The wedding week was crazy but so much fun. Carly was beautiful, as always, and I may be a little bias, but I'm pretty sure they had the best reception I've ever been to. Any reception with The House Rockers, Jackie Bell, and tambourines is pretty much a guaranteed great time, but then add one of my favorite places, Hal and Mal's, Marc's great and super fun family, and my family and I just don't think anything compares to how great of a time we had! I also got to spend lots of time with the most adorable little boy in the world, my nephew Hutch. I'm pretty sure he has quadrupled in size since I last saw him, and it was so sad to tell him bye again! I can't even imagine how big he will be when I get home in November!

The rest of my time at home was filled with seeing my friends and family, eating ALL of my favorite foods (something I'm already starting to regret), and the St. Paddy's Day Parade in Jackson. It's pretty hard leaving home again, but it's my summer break in Thailand so when I get back I have SIX whole weeks of traveling to look forward to! I'm starting in Chiang Mai and will finish up down South on some of the most beautiful islands in the world! Yes, my life is pretty great right now!

Here are a few pictures of my time at home. I think I took two pictures the entire time I was home, but luckily pretty much every member of my family is always armed with at least one digital camera.

oh my. I love this little boy.

So, so happy to be back with my sisters!

Yay! I have a new brother!

Hutch!

April, Carly's best friend, and me before the wedding

Wearing a dress, high heels, and eating a cheeseburger... all things I haven't done in 5 months = a very happy me!

The House Rockers and tambourines make me really, really happy!

St. Paddy's Day Parade!

Amanda, one of my best friends, and me at the parade!

Ok, it's time to finish packing. See you back in Thailand!

Headed to Mississippi with a Very Happy Heart

2010-03-04T23:35:00.008-06:00

Today is my last day at Anuban for this school year, and I think I've been given a very small glimpse of what it will feel like when I leave here for good in October.
My students are so incredibly sweet... everyday I am amazed that I am surrounded by people so full of love and I leave school often feeling like my heart might just burst with happiness. Thought I would share some pictures before I leave of my favorite thing about my life in Thailand: my students. Enjoy!

My wonderful 5th grade girls! These glasses appeared out of nowhere (they had no lenses) and before I knew what was happening they were on my face. All of the girls started yelling, "Sui! Baibua Sui!" Beautiful! I guess they like glasses?

A few of the 5th grade teachers.. they got together and got gifts for my family and me!

My crazy, crazy third graders
My 4th grade helpers... they always appear of out nowhere to help me carry my stuff from classroom to classroom.

I love this 5th grade teacher! She's so funny and always pops me when I walk by her for some reason.

This is my really sweet (and smart) third grade class.

We weren't very successful at getting a class picture, but that's ok. These are some of my 5th graders.

The sweetest 4th grade class!

This picture just makes me happy. I love these girls.

Remember me writing about my really bad 4th graders? Here they are! Don't let those sweet smiles fool you!

5th grade class

Well, I have successfully put off packing for another 30 minutes, so I better go! I leave for Bangkok tonight on the bus, will be there all day tomorrow (Saturday) and leave Sunday morning for the US! I will be in Mississippi only after I've spent a little time in airports in Bangkok, Tapei, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Houston. ohmygosh. Why is my home so hard to get to!? See you in Mississippi!

Conversations with Monks

2010-03-02T22:39:00.004-06:00

I’ve recently made a new friend with a monk from Thailand named Chokie. I should probably admit that I spent my first four and a half months in Thailand completely terrified of monks and doing pretty much everything possible to avoid an encounter with one. Mostly this was due to ignorance, and if I’m honest, a little bit of laziness. I didn’t know much at all about Buddhism, and I was so confused about what is and isn’t culturally appropriate when it comes to women and monks. Tew has told me often about a monk that she is friends with who now lives in New York, but I didn’t think much about it until she came over one night to announce that I would be joining her, some teachers, and two monks for dinner that night. I had no time to change, no time to prepare… she just whisked me away to her home for dinner and pretty much all I think about while we sat waiting for the monks’ arrival was how not to make a fool of myself and wondering how inappropriate it might be that I was wearing sweats and a tank top. Tew didn’t help ease my nerves when I inquired about this and she simply answered “no problem! He is from New York and used to sexy clothes!” Great… the first monk I meet and I’m in what Thai’s consider sexy clothes. I reminded myself that all of my Thai teacher friends use this word loosely and can be used to describe anything from a shirt that shows my shoulders to a dress that stops at my knees.

The two monks finally arrived, and the dinner turned out to be wonderful. Chokie has been a monk for twenty years… he became a novice monk at the age of 7 and four years later he became a Buddhist monk and is now 31 years old. He is considered a Buddhist Missionary Monk to the USA and lives in NYC where he teaches Thai language and classes on meditation. He was so laid back and spoke great English… it was really nice to talk with him about his travels around the US and his stories of life as a monk in my home country. If anything, that night helped me to view the monks that I see everyday as a person, just like me, instead of the men in orange robes who I’d made a habit of avoiding eye contact with. Last night, I went on a sunset boat ride on the Mekong River with Tew and Chokie and another monk that also lives in New York. We had such a great time, and I felt comfortable enough with them this time around to ask some questions about Buddhism and life as a monk. It was really nice to hear how fond they both were of the people of New York City and other Americans they’ve met on their travels around the country. Chokie just laughed when I asked him about the way people react to him and if Americans often do things, such as women touching him, that are considered inappropriate for monks. He smiled when he told us about his English teacher in the US, a lady, giving him a hug before he left to come back to Thailand and how she often pats on the cheek during their lessons. There have been so many times here when people have done things so contrary to American culture, and I’ve learned to just laugh it off and chalk it up to a cultural experience. It seems that Chokie has learned to do the same thing in America, and I was glad to hear that my country has treated him so well. I will be heading to Bangkok Friday night and spending Saturday there shopping and just enjoying life in that great, big city. Chokie will be there also, staying at a temple before he heads back to New York in a couple of weeks, and he’s offered to meet up with me and show me around The Marble Temple, a famous wat in Bangkok. I’m very fond of my new friend, and I’m excited that I get to spend some time with him again on Saturday before I head to Mississippi for a couple of weeks for my sister’s wedding. I enjoyed our conversations greatly yesterday about the differences in our cultures and religions and I am looking forward to learning a little more about Buddhism and hopefully sharing more about Christianity with him.

I feel like I am growing in so many ways here in Thailand. My travel experiences have certainly grown… I can proudly say I’ve swam in the Pacific, shopped on Khao San Road (supposedly a backpacker’s rite of passage in SE Asia), and learned the ins and outs of public transportation in Thailand. I am sure I have grown as a teacher. I’ve survived four months of teaching children who almost always have no clue what I am saying, and I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot with my sweet, sweet students. I’ve learned ways to get my point across, whether it be charades, picture drawing, or making funny sounds. I’m growing more and more independent by the day. I think nothing of making the 12 hour, overnight journey to Bangkok alone and am already looking forward to my month and a half long solo backpacking journey across SE Asia when I finish teaching here in October (Mom-pretend like you didn’t read that). Sometimes I worry that I’m not growing spiritually as much as I would like to be. It’s been hard not being surrounded by my Christian family and friends. I’ve been blessed with the most amazing Christian friends in the world. They are so open minded, so in tune with what I feel like Christ would be passionate about if He were still here on Earth with us… they fight for things that it seems most Christians have forgotten.. homelessness, immigrant rights, poverty. I miss them and their wisdom and encouragement more than I could even begin to put into words. But still I’m here… still trying to learn and grow a little more each day. It’s a daily struggle to make sure that I learn and grow in Christ alone, but I am trying.

I hope all is well back home… can’t wait to see you soon, Mississippi!

Sweet Dreams are Made of This

2010-02-21T08:11:00.000-06:00

Just a few pictures having fun with my WorldTeach Khru Assasamak... Happy Almost Monday!

By far the best 80's dance party to ever take place in a Thai Village...

We found Yoshi in Ubon Ratchatani!

This is what happens when you give 200 students baby powder...

The Duck Pub... our local hangout! A little scary that we are English teachers, huh?

Very happy to be in a working elevator in a super nice Bangkok hotel!

I love my Alix!

This is for you sister! I met Thailand's Johnny Depp!

Sook San Wan Valentine!

2010-02-14T08:50:00.006-06:00

Happy Valentin'es Day! In honor of the holiday, I thought I’d make a list of the things that I love most about my life here in Thailand. I’m not sure my heart could possibly be happier… I think I love my life here more and more everyday. Here are just a few reasons that I love this place:

*My students! I’m sure I have the sweetest and most adorable students in the entire world. On Friday, I was greeted in each class by students with roses, stickers, and chocolates. The teachers just laughed and shook their heads, saying “Student love Teacher Baibua very much.” Also, in one of my third grade classes I looked up after the students had been working for a few minutes to find two of my really sweet girls knitting scarves. I was very confused as to why they were making scarves (this is a tropical country, afterall, AND they were supposed to be working) and my partner teacher, Khru ToiTing, just smiled and told me they were making the scarves for me because they knew that it was very cold in America. I think my heart melted.

*My WorldTeach fam! I am so lucky to spend the year with such an amazing group of people! They understand like no one else when I have a frustrating day at school or when I want a cheeseburger so much I think I might cry. They are my comfort here and help me stay sane. They also love to have fun, and everytime we get together the end result is always hilarious stories, great pictures, and memories of this year that I’m sure I will never forget.

*Nakhon Phanom! I love this little town in NE Thailand so much. I love the river. I love the night market. I love how incredibly friendly everyone is. I love that I can’t go anywhere without running into at least 5 people that I know.
*My host family… I never imagined my living situation would be so comfortable and great when I first got to Thailand. I live with the greatest family that has done everything they possibly can to make my year wonderful.
*My school, Annuban. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement… I work at such a friendly school. The way the school is run is a little strange (and frustrating) to me at times, but the other teachers are just wonderful. Despite being so large, it feels like the school community is a big family.
*Thai fruits! They seriously have the best fruits here. And they are SO cheap. I’ve eaten so many fruits that I’d never heard of before, and then there are the delicious pineapples and watermelons everywhere. The other day I accidently ate a whole pineapple because they are just that good. And it was only 20 Baht (about 60 cents)!

These are just a few things that have me feeling all warm and fuzzy on this Valentine’s Day. I hope that yours back home is wonderful… enjoy the snow that I am missing!

Just Another Family Get Together

2010-02-10T23:40:00.007-06:00

My host family invited me to a company work party last Saturday, and if you know me at all you know I never turn down a party invitation! I went expecting lunch (it started at 10 am, afterall), some prizes (I'd seen the prizes accumulating in the office the previous week), and of course a little karaoke. When I finally made it home at one am, I couldn't believe how long (but great) of a day I actually ended up having! I wouldn't even know where to start so I will let the pictures do the story telling. I will say this... I love my host family more and more each day!

Alix, Matt, Tew, and Nikki (my host sister who lives in Bangkok)at the beginning of the day.

Khun Ya! Any party that involves dancing and my Thai grandma is pretty much guaranteed to be a good time!

My host mom, Pi Yot, and Nikki... beautiful family!

I would like to point out all of the things that I love about this picture: 1) The backup dancers on stage. 2) Khun Ya laughing hysterically at my attempts to do Thai dancing. 3.) The random cowboy in the picture. 4.) My host dad performing for the entire party (with backup dancers).

This is Pi A... he's one of Nikki's good friends from Bangkok and I LOVE HIM! I actually met him the first day I moved to NKP and I'm always so happy when he comes to visit!

After we were somehow talked into performing for the crowd (surprise! not) we were then interviewed by Nikki, as well as the stand up comedian in yellow who only knew how to ask Alix and me if we were single.

After most of the guests left (around 5 or so, a good 7 hours after the party started) they pushed a couple of tables together and took all of the other ones away and started a huge dance/karaoke party. I see the people who work for my family's company everyday when I'm coming home, but we rarely say more than a passing "hello", as most of them don't speak much English. I saw a completely different side of the very reserved people that usually are in the office! Everyone was dancing and singing and having the best time! I was really glad I stayed... it was nice to be included in an event that was just family and workers. The band and stage dancers stuck it out with us, too!

Around 8, I was sure it was time to go home until Nikki informed that we were headed to a hotel on the river to do some karaoke. Yes, more karaoke. So we piled in the car, and some other volunteers came and met us at the View Kong Hotel, a really nice hotel that sits on the Mekong River. It was so nice... they even had a piano man who played along with whatever you were singing and occasionally sang backup! I sang "Piano Man" and dedicated it to him. I think he appreciated it.

After singing our favorite karaoke tunes and cheering on the other Thai's in the restaurant, someone decided we all needed to go to the Duck Pub, our local nightclub that we've recently discovered. Despite feeling like I was going to collapse from exhaustion, I certainly wasn't going to miss out on any dancing AND my host dad even wanted to go!

Hope you enjoyed the story of my never ending party! Happy almost Friday from Thailand! We are having a big 80's dance party on Saturday night in one of the villages for my friend Val's birthday .... there isn't much that I love more than dancing and the 80's- I am SO excited! Yes, we are bringing the decade of big hair, great clothes, and even greater music to the smallest corners of Thailand! Hope you have a great weekend back home!

Karaoke: What You Didn't Know

2010-02-07T08:42:00.004-06:00

Note to Self: Karaoke is not always the safe and fun Asian past-time I once considered it be. Don't know if you read the New York Times or not, but if you would like to become a little more informed about the area of the world that is currently my home check this article out.

I would especially like to point out the part of the article that discusses a THAI man killing EIGHT people after singing "Take Me Home Country Road." Wow. If I come across people like the ones mentioned in this article I'm in trouble... singing out of tune has not kept me off of karaoke stages these past 4 months. Don't worry Mom and Dad... I'll be sure to check my surroundings from now on to make sure I don't see any gun carrying, grouchy individuals in the audience AND choose my songs wisely.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.... Go Saints!

Hello, Hot Season

2010-02-04T07:10:00.000-06:00

I am not so happy to report that it seems the hot season is making a slightly early arrival here in Thailand. I almost melted today. It’s really strange, though… Tew told me that in Thailand you often experience three seasons in one day, and I finally understand what she was talking about. Today, for instance, was ridiculously hot all morning and afternoon. So hot that you sweat when you are doing absolutely nothing. When I left one of my classes at three to walk to the office, it was beautiful outside and by 3:45 the sky was black! It poured for about an hour and a half (a storm from Vietnam apparently) and now it’s nice and chilly again outside! I’m sure tomorrow will be a repeat of today, since today was a repeat of yesterday. Storms mean the seasons are changing, and I’m just not too happy about it! Everyone loves to tell me that I will be able to handle it because I’m from Mississippi… the land of high temperatures and super high humidity. That’s true… but it’s also the land of air conditioners. In Thailand my classes come with fans and open windows… the fans are so annoying because they blow everything off of the board that I use in my lessons and I’m just waiting for the day that they blow up my dress as I’m teaching. It hasn’t happened yet… but I just feel like the day is coming. Things like that tend to happen to me on a regular basis for some really strange and annoying reason…

Because of the high temperatures, I feel like I’ve been a walking zombie this week. I helped out at an English camp this past weekend and I came back Sunday night completely exhausted, and today seems to be the first day that I’m feeling somewhat back to normal again. English camps are a lot of fun, but they’re also a ton of work and so tiring. Two of the WT girls and I went to Ubon Ratchatani to help out with a camp run by a group of young foreigners, and it was really fun to see a camp that is run so well and also just to hang out with some other foreigners that are close to our age. I was the leader of a group of girls who were so adorable… I had so much fun working with them and playing lots of games. We did a singing competition where we had to teach them a short song and change the words to have something to do with English camp. I chose “Baby Got Back” and I thought it was great! Sadly, my girls got a little shy in front of the 200+ crowd and forgot most of the words after “I like English camp and I cannot lie, you other students can’t deny..” It was still a lot of fun and I got a lot of ideas to use in my classroom! Another highlight of the weekend: a few of us were sitting in the hotel parking lot hanging out when we noticed this HUGE thing running around in the middle of the road. It was a RAT!!! Seriously… this thing was the biggest rat I’ve EVER seen in my life! I started screaming and freaking out, and all of these little Thai boys started chasing it and trying to catch the poor rat. We had all kind of forgotten about it (as much as you can forgot about seeing a ginourmous rodent) when this man comes walking up in the parking lot holding out a bag with a huge tail sticking out… he caught the rat! They all kinda poked around in the bag, and apparently decided he wasn’t good enough to eat (yes, they seriously eat rats here) and opened the bag and let him out. Only in Thailand do you pass the time watching small children hunt for really big rats…

So I have this one class, prathom 4/3 (prathom means grade, so they are 4th grade, class 3) and they are just horrible. I love pretty much all of my 5th grade classes. I really love 3rd grade because they are so dramatic and hilarious about everything that I teach them. And then there’s 4th grade. I teach four 4th grade classes… 2 of them are pretty good. There’s one class that I wouldn’t necessarily say is good… but the entire class is full of really funny and over the top personalities so they are a lot of fun to teach. And then there’s 4/3. I don’t know what it is about this class… they are just bad. They cheat on everything I give them (and somehow still do really bad). They run around the class when they are supposed to be working. They don’t pay attention. Ever. They are just horrible. Well, last week I left their class, as usual, completely exhausted and questioning why in the world I decided to become a teacher, and I decided that I had to try something or I may end up hurting one of those poor kids. Or myself. So I created this little poster for them called “English Stars”… basically whenever they are really good I give them a star and when they get 20 stars they get a party. Oh.My.Gosh. Tuesday after I explained the whole thing to them… they were little ANGELS!! They listened to everything I said. They did all of their work. Today I explained what they were supposed to do in all English (using a lot of hand motions and objects) and told them if one of the students could then explain it in Thai, I would give them another star. And one of the little boys did it! They are now up to four stars and so excited about their upcoming (hopefully) English party. And I am one happy teacher because my last class didn’t make me crazy today!

Oh, and happy February! I left home four months ago today!

“I represent for the dirty South…”

2010-01-24T07:11:00.004-06:00

I love weekends here in NKP because they are always filled with random and great activities. This weekend I worked with Alix and Nell at an English camp to help out Tew and it was surprisingly SO much fun! There were about 600 students from all over the province (most of whom had never spoken with a native English speaker so about half of them were completely terrified of us) and we were put in charge of games… coming up with games for students who can barely speak English and are too shy to do just about anything is a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we all three had some experience as camp counselors back in the day so we played some really fun games that the students actually loved. The highlight of the entire camp for me was when we taught all of the students the “Cupid Shuffle”… it was great (hence the title of this blog post- probably my favorite line in the song)! All of the construction workers at the next building even stopped what they doing to watch the crazy “farangs” dancing on stage to a rap song next door. By the end of the camp, most of the students had overcome their shyness and all wanted to shake our hands and all on the way out. They should also know their left and right in English now thanks to Cupid!

A lot of the volunteers came over to my house last night and we had an awesome karaoke party. We basically sat in the living room and sang every karaoke song you can imagine for about three hours…. it was great! I’m learning now what songs go over well and which ones are incredibly difficult to sing. You’d be surprised.. some that I swear are going to be awesome end up being total bombs. I’m making a list so that when I get home I can make sure that I’m ready for any karaoke stage… here’s a small look at my list so far.

My favorites:
1. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen… what’s not to love about this song? And it’s SO much fun to just belt out “Mamaaaa, ooooh!” Not to mention the incredibly bizarre ending…
2. “Lucky” by Britney… I know, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this. But it’s true… it’s a great karaoke song. The best part is the announcer voice… “I'm Roger Johnson for Pop News standing outside the arena..."
3. “Piano Man” by Billy Joel. Just a great song.
4. “Zombie” by the Cranberries… my friend Kate rocks on the song and it’s just a fun one to sing! And strangely everyone in Thailand knows it and can sing along.. even better!

Songs You Should Never Do:
1. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston… it’s a bad idea to ever try and sing Whitney. Period.
2. “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. If you ever travel to SE Asia the chances of you being asked to sing this are pretty high. I’d actually pretty much guarantee that it will happen to you. Say no.
3. “YMCA”… this experience comes from home… a long time ago. But I remember it well… it was horrible. You’d think it’s a sure crowd pleaser, but you are wrong. Trust me on this one.
4. “I Swear” by All 4 One… this is probably self explanatory. We didn’t even make it the chorus.

So there you have it… my list of karaoke favorites and karaoke songs you should never attempt. It’s nice to spend a year in a country of people who think that no matter what song you sing you are great. It gives me a great chance to try out all of the songs I’ve always secretly wanted to do but was too afraid to try in public! I’ll let you know if I come up with any more great songs! Well, I gotta go and plan for my kiddos tomorrow. We just finished studying body parts and are starting a unit on family tomorrow. Hopefully by this time next week all of my students will know the difference between a brother and a sister! Hope you have a great week back home!

new year, new adventures

2010-01-18T07:27:00.003-06:00

The past few months have been full of new and exciting things for me. Sure, I’ve missed home on many, many days and there’s never a day that passes where I don’t think of the many people that I love and miss back home… my family and friends who, no matter how great of a journey I am on, will always be missed. It’s easy to dwell on the things that I miss when I’m having a bad day. I know, I know… me? a pity party? Haha… well, it may have happened once or twice, but I’ve learned through those times that no matter what, I’m on a huge adventure here and am so lucky to be doing what I am doing. The past three and a half months have been a time of many, many firsts for me. From haircuts to language learning to karaoke… life is always exciting and adventurous here in Thailand. Here’s some things that I’m proud to say I have done for the first time in my life…

*I successfully packed up my life into two suitcases. Very, very difficult… luckily my sweet mama mailed me the things that didn’t seem so important when I left but came to realize that I need very much. Such as my white pants. And oatmeal.
*I got on an airplane, left my home and everything familiar behind, and moved to Thailand… all by myself.
* I started learning a new and very difficult language (my two years of French in high school do not count as the only thing I remember is “Bonjour”)! I’m nowhere near fluent, but still am very excited when I manage to say what I am thinking without everyone in the room laughing hysterically at my pitiful attempts at speaking Thai.
* I got my first haircut in a foreign country! I’ll admit it… I was terrified. I was able to enjoy an a-mazing head massage, but as soon as the scissors came out I started to panic a bit. All seemed well when I left… today I put my hair in a ponytail and realized that for some reason one side is a totally different length than the other side. It’s days like today that I am so thankful that I have curly hair.
* I sang karaoke… alone! I’m one of those girls… you know what I’m talking about, the ones that do karaoke in groups. Never, ever have I had the nerve to do it alone (if you've heard me sing you will know this is a good decision). Thai people, however, love karaoke as much as Americans love, I don’t know… watching college football? It’s done at parties, at bars, in living rooms… and I’ve discovered that they have this awesome button or something that they push and it’s like a miracle button…. it makes everyone sound good. I don’t know what it is, I don’t really care what it is… I just know I love it. I’m going to have remind myself when I get home that the magic button sadly does not exist, or I could seriously make a fool of myself.
*I’ve eaten a grasshopper, fish (maybe not a big deal for you, but it is for me) and chicken tendon soup!
*I rang in the new year in a new country, without my best friends from home… for the first time in ten years.
* I rode sideways on a motorbike! Moto’s rule the road here in NKP… I don’t ride them often because I live in the city and can walk pretty much everywhere I go. The few times I have ridden one, however, have all been times where I’ve been wearing a skirt. Not a problem here… you just hop on, hang on for dear life, and pray that you don’t hit a bump and fall off. I feel very proper (except when I get nervous and squeal really loudly) and like I’m riding a horse in the 1800’s- minus the hoop skirt and very uncomfortable corset.
* I swam in the Pacific Ocean!
*I’m proud to say that I’ve experienced pretty much all modes of transportation. From rickshaws to camels to bikes to elephants… I’ve used a lot of things to get around. This year, however, I had my first experience driving a tuk tuk! It didn’t go very fast and it did awkwardly lead to the actual tuk tuk driver confessing his love for me, but I didn’t run into anything (this may or may not have happened when I attempted to drive my friend’s rickshaw in India) and it got me where I was going!

I can’t imagine how much this list will grow over the coming months. I remember writing that I’m only happy when my life can be described as nothing less than an adventure… this journey that I am on here in Thailand has not disappointed. I’m so happy and very content to be where I am right now in life. I may not be earning a lot of money and I may not be moving very far ahead in my career, but I’m making memories that I will cherish forever with people that I will never forget. I can’t wait to share more stories of 2010 and life in Thailand… sawadee ka!

Family Vacation!

2010-01-13T07:22:00.004-06:00

First I just want to say that I survived my second Thai aerobics class tonight! I know, I know.. it’s been awhile since I wrote about my first one. So yes, it’s been awhile since I’ve been to aerobics. But it’s a new year, a new me! I love the beginning of a new year for reasons like this! It makes me feel slightly less guilty for totally skipping aerobics for the past month or so. And I was scolded by the aerobics instructor (who for some reason I see EVERYWHERE… and always reminds me how much I do NOT come to aerobics) when I left- on the microphone- about how she better see me “tomorrow, not one month!” So it looks like I have no choice but to make aerobics a part of my weekly routine! Hey… it can’t be a bad thing, right? OH… and tonight I almost FROZE during class!! It is seriously pretty chilly here today! When I say chilly, I’m embarrassed to say that I mean the temperature is in the high sixties (I think). But.. the low is actually in the 50’s tonight!!! It’s a pretty funny sight… all of my students were in scarves and big coats today! And when I asked what the weather was like today, they all screamed COLD!!!! Granted, they do this anytime its remotely not hot outside, but I thought today was well deserved because it is actually pretty cold for Thailand!

Now... on to the reason for this blog post- I went on my first semi-family vacation this past weekend and had a great time! I was invited to go and visit my host mom’s family in Buriram (about 5 hours from NKP) and decided it would be a great chance to spend some more time with the people that so graciously let me take over a floor of their house! I cannot say enough great things about my host parents… they have been absolutely wonderful to me and I could not have asked for a more comfortable living situation. Not to mention that they are both hilarious and such a cute couple. My mom, Bpi Yot, speaks pretty decent English and always remembers the words that I teach her, but her husband, Bpi Yut (yes, their names are way too similar, and yes, I often call them the wrong name and its really embarrassing) isn’t quite as good at English but is not shy at all about trying to talk to me. It always makes for really hilarious dinners... he is always trying to tell me a story and he’s so dramatic and acts everything out, and she just laughs at him and makes fun of him when he messes up the words. It is pretty funny, especially when he makes mistakes like calling children “chickens” and his charades skills are quite impressive.

Anyways, we drove to Buriram on Saturday morning and it was so nice! Her family lives in a village, so it was nice to go somewhere that is pretty quiet (minus the squawking roosters camped outside of my window) and so relaxed. Bpi Yot’s mom was adorable… she just sat on a mat outside the entire time I was there and chewed tobacco and cut up green beans. Her two nieces were there also, and I just fell in love with them! Their names are Cream and Kate… how cute is that!? I really wanted to bring Kate home with me… I’m not sure I’ve ever met such a cute and charming (and really bad) little girl! They took me around to all the local sights and I ate SO much good food! Here’s some pictures from our weekend trip…

A giant Buddha! And my host mom and dad!

Cream, Khun Ya, and Kate!

sweet, sweet family!

My host parents again and Cream and Kate! Isn't my host mom beautiful? She is so stylish... I'm alway jealous of her great clothes and bags!

Ahhhh! I want to bring them home with me!

Well, I guess that’s about all from NKP! I have a pretty easy schedule this week… all of my fifth grade students left today on a trip to the temple where they will learn more about meditation and Buddhism. I don’t really understand what’s going on… just that they are staying at the temple until Friday. Next week, the fourth grade is going so it will be another pretty easy week. I’m not going to know what to do with myself when I get home and have a normal week of school. I’m slowly becoming the most laid back teacher that ever existed (well, the most laid back non-Thai teacher). I think this could be a problem when I get home… but I’ll choose to worry about that when the time comes. For now I’m just enjoying being a part of a culture where the people are so friendly, so welcoming, and so relaxed. I think I love life in Thailand more and more everyday that I am here. I hope all is well with those of you back home and that you are staying warm!

Sawatdee Bpi Maa from Thailand!

2010-01-06T08:36:00.010-06:00

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that you’ve had a wonderful holiday season. From what I hear, it sounds like things are pretty chilly back in the US, even in Mississippi! I can’t even imagine cold weather right now… I am so excited when the temperature just dips below 80! And I’ll admit… I’m living in fear of the upcoming hot season. If this is winter, what in the world is summer like?

Christmas in Thailand was absolutely wonderful! I was in a big parade on Christmas Eve and I’m not even sure how to describe my costume. See picture below. I will say this- I was at the “beauty shop” at six am and left looking ten times worse than when I got there. I did learn to never let a Thai person near my curly hair again. Or to learn how to say “I have curly hair. Get that brush away from me now” in Thai. The parade, however, was so much fun! It was just what I needed to put me in the holiday spirit. I should also add that this was no average parade… there were at least a hundred Santa Clauses and I’m pretty sure all the girls started their day at the beauty shop as well. I went to Christmas Eve Mass at the local Catholic church and it was so nice. They had a huge parade (notice a theme, here?) that night with these big stars and then a huge party outside of the church. Christmas day was great, as well. I woke up to Tew walking into my room dressed as Mrs. Claus with a gift for me, and when I got to school about half of the students were dressed up as Santa Claus. It was SO cute! We had a huge, two hour Christmas party with ALL of the students where I was forced to lead the singing of Christmas carols. Keep in mind I am one of about 5 people who can speak English at my school. Luckily, “Jingle Bells” is a very popular song that almost every student knew. “Silent Night”….. not so much. It was a really fun party, though… chaotic, but a lot of fun! I went to a Christmas party/funeral that night… so random and so Thailand.

I left the day after Christmas for a trip to Pattaya and Bangkok with eight of the other volunteers. Pattaya was described to me before I left as the “Las Vegas of Thailand,” which made me a little nervous… and it did not disappoint. We spent three days in this beach town, and I was more than ready to catch a bus to Bangkok when we left. Pattaya is probably the center of Thailand’s prostitution ring, and it was impossible to escape the signs of this while we were there. The beach was actually really nice… we took a boat out to an island called Kho Larn for two days while we were there in an attempt to escape the greasy, speedo wearing 60 year old men who frequent the beaches of Pattaya. I really enjoyed the beaches, but I had a hard time forgetting all of the beautiful, young Thai girls that we saw everywhere on the arms of these very same men. If anything, the problem of Thai women entering into prostitution became very, very real to me during these three days. Someone told me the majority of prostitutes in Thailand come from Isaan, which is the region of Thailand where I live. I realized how important my job here is… without an education the girls I teach could end up the same situation as many of the young girls that I saw in Pattaya.

After leaving Pattaya, we took a bus to Bangkok to begin the New Year’s celebration! Ahh Bangkok… I am in love with this city. I’ve always been a city girl at heart, so I’m not sure if it was Bangkok that I loved so much or just being near so many things that remind me of city life after living in such a quiet, small town for the past three months. The big buildings, the Sky Train, the MALLS (ohmygosh- Bangkok has the most amazing malls), the restaurants…. I loved all of it. Here are the highlights of my time in Bangkok:
*I ate a pizza, a burrito, chips and salsa, a cheeseburger, and had Starbucks! And no, this was not all in one day…
*NYE! We went to a humongous party at some club in Bangkok and danced the night away. It was so much great being with all of my friends on such a fun night!
*Central Mall- the biggest mall I’ve ever been in. Seriously. I went New Year’s Day with a couple of friends and decided to wander around a little while on my own. I was SO tired and didn’t even have the energy to look at a map… I figured I would eventually wander towards an exit. WRONG. That’s how big this mall was… I got very lost inside but eventually found a way out. Did I mention it was seven floors?
*I love public transportation. Don’t know why… but I do. So the Sky Train and boats that serve as public transportation in Bangkok made me very, very happy.
* Starbucks. Sadly, pumpkin spice was no longer available, but I did discover that Toffee Nut is just as delicious. It was so nice to sit in a coffee shop with my ipod, journal, and a book….. so nice that I did it twice.
*Khao San Road…. Maybe my favorite road that I’ve discovered in another country. It’s just a road of shops and shops and shops. And backpackers. And cheap street food. I spent entirely too much money here, but I had a great time doing it and came back with some fun stuff!

Now I’m back in Nakhon Phanom and am getting back into the routine of teaching again! School is crazy… just as crazy as it was before I left. It seems something comes up everyday that keeps me from meeting with at least one of my classes, but I’m slowly taking on the Thai mentality. They don’t stress about anything… mai pen rai. No problem! When in Rome, right? But I’m having so much fun teaching… my students are adorable and make my job so much fun. I guess that’s about all from Thailand for now… I hope that 2010 is off to a great start for you as well!

Like my dress?? I thought quite a few times that the day would end in the hospital when I collapsed from a heat stroke।

Santa's everywhere! I'm pretty sure there is nothing cuter than seeing a little kid dressed up as Santa riding around on a moto with his parents... they were everywhere in NKP for the holidays!

Most of the third grade dance team that I was put in charge of for some reason. But, hey... they rocked "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"... even if they all did wear red and black shirts when I told them to wear brown so they'd look like reindeer.
Pattaya! And a starfish!

Beautiful!

i.love.islands.

Kho Larn

Khao San Road in Bangkok!

Busy, Busy Bangkok

Happy New Year!
Out with my World Teach family to celebrate 2010!
What is Joy? This was in the mall in Bangkok and they had huge block letters that you could write on...

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

2009-12-24T21:54:00.007-06:00

We are all so happy that Christmas is finally here!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas back home! Christmas in Thailand has been so busy and surprisingly perfect. I miss the holidays in Mississippi but am very glad to spend this Christmas with my Thai family and friends! Sook Son Wan Christmas from Thailand!

Love, Haley

It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas…

2009-12-21T00:48:00.007-06:00

Can you believe that Christmas is only four days away?? I am shocked everytime I look at the calendar and realize how close Christmas actually is. This is probably due to the fact that I’ve yet to wear a sweater, attend a Christmas program, or wrap my first gift for Christmas day. Despite all of this, I’m still having a great time and have managed to feel very much in the holiday spirit! Do you like how I even made this blog a little more festive by making it red?? Ah.. how I love Christmas! I went to my first Christmas party last night and had a fabulous time! My friend Radha knew I was feeling a little homesick and so she offered to have a party at her house… I don’t know what I would do without the great people I have met so far during my stay here! I went over early yesterday on my bike (with my cute little tree in the basket and all) and helped cook and decorate. Her house was so festive... we hung lights around the house and my tree was the perfect addition for the party! We ate TONS of food… including pizza, sandwiches, and salad. I introduced everyone to cranberry sauce… my Mom sent a package over and I was SO excited to open the first can! Luckily, everyone thought it was a little weird so I got to eat most of it by myself! Ha! I also made “baked beans” on the stove and they were surprisingly very good! It was a lot of fun to share some of our traditions with my new friends here. There were only about 12 or 13 people at the party, but five countries were represented! This will definitely be a Christmas season I will never forget!

I’ll be in NKP all week and then I’m leaving Saturday afternoon for the beach and then Bangkok! I’m super excited to get away for a little bit and see the famous Thai beaches! I’m also super excited to ring in 2010 in Bangkok… I think it’s gonna be a great time! Happy early Christmas to those of you back home! Here’s a few pictures of the holiday season here in Thailand… enjoy!

One of my lessons on Christmas... my students LOVE pictures! There was an audible gasp from the class when I pulled out every single picture. So, so cute!

Christmas Word Scrambles.. one of my third grade groups

They love games, especially when they are about Christmas!

My bike and Christmas tree!

Delicious cranberry sauce! It's just as great without the turkey and dressing!

The talent show begins..

Do You Hear What I Hear?

2009-12-16T03:47:00.004-06:00

I cannot believe that Christmas is less than TWO weeks away!! I got a couple of packages from home yesterday (thanks Mom and Jan!!), and my little Charlie Brown tree looks more festive than ever thanks to the true ornaments that now hang on her branches! Before it was just the little gift boxes and balls that came in the box with the tree (along with the crazy lights that make my room resemble a small disco at times)… now Elvis, Santa Claus, a star, and some reindeer can be spotted among the lights and candy canes. I love it! And so does Tew, my Thai aunt, who I learned last night apparently loves Elvis. Good to know…

I only meet with most of my classes one more time until Christmas because next week we are having a huge sports festival at our school. I’m not entirely sure what happens at a Thai “sports festival”… honestly¸ I’m a little afraid to ask. What I do know so far is this: I have somehow been placed on the staff volleyball team (despite being very clear about how terrified I am of volleyballs when they fly in my general direction), I’m on the Pink Team (and now have a very pink and very ugly jersey that I have to wear everyday next week), and get ready… I’ve saved the best for last… I will be Snow White in a parade we are having on Christmas Eve and seven students will be my dwarves. I’m sure you are probably thinking… wait, what does Snow White have to with Christmas OR sports? I wish I knew the answer… I’ve learned to not ask questions anymore and just go with things! I’m sure it will be pretty hilarious, though… sometimes I really wonder how I end up in these situations! It will be a Christmas Eve I’m sure I will never forget!

I’ve been teaching about Christmas this week, and it’s been a lot of fun to teach about a holiday that I love so much. My students have really seemed to enjoy it, too! I asked the first class if they knew why Christmas was celebrated, and after many confused looks, one of the girls said it was because of the birthday of Jesus. I was so happy she knew the answer, and so was the entire class. They all started clapping and shouting, and the little girl stood up and started bowing. It was so cute and funny! Using the help of many pictures (I love the Internet), my very limited Thai skills, and my very non English speaking “translator”, I somehow managed to tell my class all about Christmas! From Jesus to Santa Claus to gingerbread houses… we covered just about everything! They were in awe of the gingerbread house… a house you can eat? And I must say I agree… does it really get any better than that?! We also listened to the song “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and I’ve never seen them so quiet and focused on something! I had a poster with all of the words and some of them blanked out and they had to fill in the missing blanks… they did SO well! The looks on their faces when they could understand the words were so adorable and made me so thankful to be here! I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s little things like this that make me realize I am exactly where I am supposed to be and it makes being so far away from home during this time a little bit easier. I so wish you could meet all of my students… they make my job so much fun and so rewarding!

I’ve been a little under the weather the past couple of days, and it’s just no fun to be sick when you’re not at home. I am sure my Thai family is convinced I am on the verge of dying and are seconds away from whisking me off to the nearest doctor. I wasn’t hungry at all yesterday (a sure sign something is wrong with me… this is very rare), and Tew was so, so worried when I didn’t want to eat dinner and even more worried when I didn’t want breakfast this morning. I didn’t go to school today, and woke up around eight to KhunYa (my Thai grandma) bringing plate after plate of food into my room. When you’re sick and have zero appetite, there’s nothing like waking up to bowls of rice and eggs and Vietnamese dumplings and fish sauce next to your bed for breakfast. I had to sneak to the bathroom and flush some eggs down the toilet so they would think I ate a little bit! In case there was ever any doubt, I am very well taken care of here! Speaking of KhunYa, here’s a picture of us from a wedding here in Nakhon Phanom. Isn’t she adorable!? Gosh… I love her।

I never thought this time last year I would be spending Christmas on the other side of the world with a family so different from my own। I also never knew when I came to Thailand that I would become a part of something so great… I love my family here more than I can say। Sorry for the sappy ending to my blog, but that’s what the holidays are for, right? Remembering what you are thankful for…and this year, I feel more blessed than ever!

Some things I’m pretty sure I’ll never understand..

2009-12-08T08:08:00.002-06:00

-which side of the road to look before crossing.. this has almost resulted in my death/serious injury on many, many occasions.
-how I can move to a developing country and somehow manage to gain a few pounds. Thank you, sticky rice.
-why other countries don’t see how amazing dryers are… washing machines are really great, but I can officially say that I love dryers more. Mostly because I despise ironing, which isn’t necessary when you have a dryer.
- why people in Thailand think it’s ok to discuss my weight in front of anyone and everyone. Most days I actually find this pretty funny. I mean, I’m not stupid… I know I’m bigger than you are. It doesn’t take much to be bigger than just about everyone here. Like I said, most days this is pretty funny. But on a bad day… hearing this really makes me want to slap someone. Don’t judge… you would feel the same way, I’m sure.
- the thought process of a Thai parent before they ride on a motorcycle. Is it really okay to wear a helmet while your two children hang on for dear life with zero protection? And really… I just don’t see how cramming your entire family on a motorcycle could ever be a good idea. Especially when your children are all under the age of five.
- when to “wai” someone and not to “wai” someone. This is the traditional Thai greeting, where you put your hands up to your face and bow/nod to the person you are greeting. You aren’t supposed to wai children, but you are supposed to receive their wai… you are supposed to wai older people in a certain, more respectful way... and then there’s the wai for monks. I always forget to not wai my students. I always forget to wai Khun Ya in the morning because I’m still half asleep when I stumble down the stairs for breakfast. And these are just two examples of my common misuse of the traditional Thai greeting. Luckily, Thai people are so gracious and don’t seem to hold this against me at all.
- how people can eat chicken/fish/anything when the poor animal is sitting on the plate just staring at you. Gross.
-what people are going to do with the millions of pictures they have taken of my friends and me. I went to a wedding this weekend with Tew and KhunYa… never met these people before… and somehow I ended up in one of the official wedding pictures. People take pictures of us doing the most normal things… eating, having a conversation, walking, etc. I can now say that I sympathize a little with Britney and all those other celebrities.

These are just a few of the things that stump me on a daily basis here in Nakhon Phanom. I’m sure the list will continue to grow… I feel like I’m in a constant state of being confused and not having a clue what’s really going on. Luckily, I’ve gotten pretty used to this and it doesn’t really seem to bother me (on most days). I’m headed tomorrow to Ubon Ratchathani, “the heart and soul of Isan”, for a competition with my school. I’ll be there until Thursday… I’m excited to get away for a couple of days and see another area of Isan. Hope all is well back home… it’s actually starting to look a little like Christmas here in Nakhon Phanom (which makes me so happy) thanks to the many, many Christmas trees that have appeared at random places around town. I’m off to pack now… sawatdee ka from Thailand!

what do i know of Holy?

2009-12-02T22:13:00.004-06:00

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love…. These things I have spoken to you ,that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full .” –John 15:9 ,11

To say that I have the greatest friends in the world would be an understatement. Before I left, they got together and came up with something for me to open every two weeks that I’m going to be here in Thailand. I cannot even begin to say how much these letters mean to me and how much I look forward to opening them every other Sunday. We are a strange group… one you would probably never put together as we all have incredibly different personalities. But somehow it works, and has worked well since we were all about 14 and became known to everyone as “The SixPack”. It’s been amazing to read the things they wrote me so far in advance of when I would be reading them… everything I’ve read has been so needed at the time and somehow fits perfectly into what I’m going through here in Thailand. They’ve made me laugh, remember a lot of great times, and often cry … but mostly they just help me remember how much I am loved back home and the incredible family that is thinking about me and praying for me everyday that I’m here.

I opened a letter from my friend Deanna this past weekend, and the entire letter was based on John 15:1-11. I would be lying if I said that I have constantly been abiding in the love of Christ since I’ve been here. Or for a while, actually. I know what it’s like to live fully for Christ… to experience “full joy” in Him. And I know what it’s like to live apart from that. To make decisions that clearly don’t reflect who I am in Christ and to just make a mess of things. I’ve been praying for a while now that somehow God would take the mess I’ve made out of my life and turn it into something beautiful. I’m still waiting, hoping that even though I feel like I’m a bigger mess than ever at times, something beautiful will eventually surface.

"I made you promises a thousand times,
I tried to hear from heaven but I talked the whole time,
I think I made you too small, I never feared you at all…

If you touched my face, would I know you?
looked into my eyes, could I behold you?
What do I know of you ,who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood, but the shore along your ocean?
are you fire? are you fury? are you sacred? are you beautiful?
What do I know.. what do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured you out,
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about how you were mighty to save,
but those were only empty words on a page...
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be,
the slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees,

so what do I know of you who spoke me into motion?
where have I even stood but on the shore along your ocean?
are you fire? are you fury? are you sacred? are you beautiful?
what do I know... what do I know of holy?
-addison road

It’s been harder than I thought living in a country with a completely different belief system than me. I haven’t been to church in over a month. I feel like I go days at a time without truly stopping to think about who I am in Christ and how incredible the God I serve really is… how sacred and beautiful and holy He is. My biggest fear is that over time the stories I’ve heard my entire life and the things that I’ve come to know as truth will become nothing more than empty words on a page. But then I have those moments… those glimpses of who Christ is… whether it’s in the face of one of my adorable students or the beautiful mountains of Laos that He’s created or in my Thai grandma’s smile each morning as she serves me breakfast.. and just those hints of Christ and his creativity and incredible love for us brings me back to the most important part of who I am. I know that I’ll never stop making mistakes, and I’m sure my life will always be somewhat of a mess. But I guess that’s the beauty of Christianity… despite the mess, I know that my joy will always be full if I just abide in His love.

Thai Aerobics

2009-12-01T08:16:00.004-06:00

I just finished my first Thai aerobics class! It was surprisingly difficult, and I'm pretty sure my brain got as much of a work out as my body. Alix and I run along the Mekong and met some women yesterday from an aerobics class that meets at a public stage on the river. They were so excited about us exercising and wanted us to do aerobics so much with them. We promised we would come back, so today we went running and stayed for aerobics. I should probably begin the story with this... to say that I'm completely uncoordinated would be an understatement. I'm fine when I move my legs... I can even do little routine things (kick, tap, knee, double kick, etc..). I mean, I'm no stranger to an aerobics class. I can do arm movements just fine. It's when you put them together that I just get completely thrown off. In America this isn't generally a problem... it was really easy to just blend in at an aerobics class (and there's always that one person who is thankfully just as bad as you.. or even better, that person who is much worse). "Blending in" is definitely not a term that I would use to describe my experience tonight. The instructor even did special steps for my uncoordinated self! She finally told me I just didn't need to worry about my arms... just to focus on one thing! Ha! It's great when the instructor talks to you on the microphone in a group of at least 50 women. She tried so hard to speak English to help us, but it was impossible to miss her use of the term "farang" (foreigner) often during the class... I can only imagine the things she was saying over the microphone about us. The whole class was hilarious... just picture about fifty middle aged Thai women outside on the bank of the river dancing to a bunch of Thai songs (although they did play the occasional Micheal Jackson and Madonna songs) and all the instructions given in broken English/Thai. I'm sure we provided many women with their dinnertime stories for tonight. Ahh... blending in is just not something we are so good at here in NKP. So... why all the exercising??

On Saturday we had our volunteer Thanksgiving in a village outside of the city! It was so nice, and the meal actually turned out really well! Our field director was the hero of the day, as she managed to get a very hard to find turkey. I'm not sure if this turkey was extra delicious or just tasted much better because it was such an unexpected American holiday treat, but it was awesome. We had mashed potatoes and gravy, cole slaw, green bean casserole, stuffing (no, not dressing), fruit salad, and some other goodies. Pretty impressive for a group of Americans without a single oven, don't you think? What was my contribution? Cookie dough! I didn't let the lack of an oven stop me from a delicious after dinner desert. And everyone knows the cookie dough is always better than the actual cookie... here's a few pictures from our day together.
Probably one of the best turkeys I've ever had...

Our dinner table! The meal wasn't quite ready yet,but this was most of the food.

We are getting ready to celebrate the King's birthday in Thailand! It's on Saturday, so school is closed Monday! Yay for birthdays! I promise to post soon more about school and how the whole teaching thing is going... that is why I came here, afterall. And I have some pretty cute pictures to show of my students. So until next time... have a great week!

Sook Son Wan Kerd Mom!

2009-11-25T03:39:00.003-06:00

Happy¸Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Elephant Kisses

2009-11-24T00:51:00.008-06:00

I'm back from a very exciting and tiring trip to Surin to see the famous Thai elephants! My weekend was great and filled with many surprises... including sloppy elephant kisses, a trip to McDonald's, and a tour of what seemed to be most of Northern Thailand. The elephant festival was amazing.... over 280 elephants who work around the world in circuses, zoos, and many other capacities come "home" to Surin every year to participate in this amazing festival that has been going on for over forty years. The stands were packed with both locals and many,many foreigners.. I haven't seen so many Westerners since I left LA... and the elephants put on an amazing show for us. Before it all started, we got to walk around for a little while and were able to meet many of the adorable elephants that were the stars of the show. I even got a really sloppy kiss from an elephant! I thought he was just going to put his trunk up to my cheek... oh no. This elephant definitely suctioned his trunk to my left cheek and then let go with a huge "SMACK!" It was hilarious and really gross... my cheek was covered with dirty elephant slobber but so worth it! How many people can say that they've had a true kiss from an elephant!? The show was filled with many different acts such as an elephant soccer game, a re-enactment of an important battle for the people of Surin that elephants played a big part of, and a lot of traditional Thai dancing. It lasted about three hours and was very entertaining. I left, of course, thinking of the ways I could somehow get my own elephant... I've yet to come up with a plan but I'm sure something will come to me! The people of Thailand love their elephants... they have played a huge role in Thailand's history and it's really awesome to see how much the Thai people respect and love this giant animal. Leaving the show, we had to be careful walking in the crowds of people as all of the elephants had finished with the show and were also walking around with us. I never thought that by the end of the day it would be completely normal to walk side by side with the world's largest land mammal! Also... did you know that during the Civil War the King of Thailand tried to send Abraham Lincoln a ship of elephants to help out the Union because they had been so helpful to the Kingdom of Thailand in previous battles? I can definitely say that I loved Thailand even more after I heard that story. Here's some pictures from my weekend!

Every year before the show begins, they place a makeshift temple on the fields and the village elders come and pray to Buddha for protection of the elephants and the people participating in the show. Buddhism is a huge part of the culture and can be seen in just about everything that is done here.
My first elephant kiss!

All elephants (as in all 280 or so of them) came out on the field to really loud and dramatic battle music. It was so exciting and great! The babies were my favorite!

For one act the elephants did all sorts of tricks and even danced to a pop song- so cute. The cutest part was watching their little drivers dance with them. It's reasons like this that I am sure I need my own elephant.

We made an unexpected stop at a really old and famous Hindu temple in Buriram called Phanom Rung. It was built over 1200 years ago and sits on top of an extinct volcano about 70 stories above the rice paddies below. It's said to be the largest and greatest restored Khmer monument in Thailand.

Just having some fun on top of the mountain! I love these girls... do we look like tourists or what??

And last but certainly not least, this is the van that took us all over the place this past weekend. It was really comfortable (although, how comfortable can any vehicle be when you spend about half of the weekend with twelve other people crammed inside?) and we had a really nice driver who took us everywhere. You know how cars may have a no smoking sign inside of them? Well, this van had a whole list of hilarious "no's" inside... including no octupus, no durien (a smelly tropical fruit), no pets, and of course, no pooping pets. WHAT!?! Have you ever seen something more strange?? Oh Thailand.. you make me laugh on so many days.

I hope that before I leave I have many other stories to tell about my run-ins with Thai elephants. I absolutely love these animals- hopefully I will have many elephant kisses to write about! In other news, we are getting ready for our makeshift Thanksgiving lunch on Saturday. We all have to teach on Thursday so have moved our holiday party to Saturday in one of the villages.. hopefully it will be fun! Being the only Southerner in the group, I tried to explain to everyone that there was indeed a huge difference between dressing and stuffing but being that I've never cooked it I didn't have a very good explanation (my explanation of "stuffing is gross and dressing is delicious" did not go over so well)... I didn't even know what dressing is made of. Any of you good Southern cooks... can you help me out on this??

I got super sad on Sunday coming home about the holidays and I don't know why... I was listening to Christmas music (bad, bad idea when you are tired and slightly homesick) with one of my friends on an ipod and when a song about snow by BoysIIMen came on I just started crying! I've never even heard this song before and we all know it rarely, if ever, snows in Mississippi.. but for some reason I just got so sad! I'm sure my friends were all concerned about my sanity- I guess that's what happens when you are extremely sleep deprived and realize how very far away you are from home and pretty much everything that represents the holiday season. At least I do have a great group of friends here to spend the holidays with... I'm sure it will be very different but great in it's own way. Also.. Tew, my "aunt" and a teacher at my school, saw my Christmas tree box in my room and told me the school has a big thing on Christmas day, including a huge tree. And then she pretty much told me I was going to be Santa Claus at school that day. WHAT!?! I laughed so hard I didn't even have time to explain to her that Santa is a man... my goal of the week is to clear this up with her and convince the foreign German teacher at my school to take over this job.

Happy Thanksgiving to you back home... eat lots of cranberry sauce and dressing for me!

off to see the elephants..

2009-11-19T07:57:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow I'm headed to Surin, a town on the border of Cambodia, for the annual "Elephant Roundup"... I can't wait to see the what it looks like when the famous Thai elephants all get together for the weekend. I've heard rumors of elephant dances, elephant art shows (apparently some elephants can even write "Long Live the King" in English AND Thai- impressive and very appropriate for this small and great Kingdom), elephant rides, and my favorite- the elephant breakfast. Jealous?

My Heart Will Go On...

2009-11-17T08:36:00.005-06:00

I will never understand the Asian love for Celine Dion and Titanic. All I know is this... Rose, Jack, and Celine have played entirely too large of a role in my Asian karaoke experiences. Tonight after dinner (which I helped cook, by the way) I looked up when I heard music playing in the living room and my host parents were standing at a microphone doing a duet to a Thai song. It took pretty much everything I had in me not to just burst out laughing... everyone but me seemed to think this was a completely normal after dinner activity! It was all really funny until I was pushed to the computer to pick a song and somehow ended up singing "Eye of the Tiger" by myself. Even that wasn't so bad... I was having a really great time doing lots of fun songs until I heard the dreaded words..."You know Titanic Haley?" I tried my hardest to pretend to not understand... didn't work again. My memories of this song include me singing alone (as in no music or anything) to a class of about fifty Chinese students and almost dying of embarrassment. Luckily, my host parents love this song as much as all other Asians I've met and sang backup. I can't help but wonder how often these after dinner karaoke parties happen... and I can't help but hope that it's often! Another thing I learned tonight: it's never, ever a good idea to do karaoke to any song by Whitney Houston. It's about like singing a Celine Dion sing- embarrassing.

Classroom Distractions: From Mississippi to Thailand

2009-11-16T07:58:00.003-06:00

If you've spent any time with me over the past year or so, you've probably heard one of my many stories from my time as a teacher at Pecan Park. My students were hilarious and so bad... but I absolutely loved my time there and love telling stories about the funny things that seemed to happen just about everyday in my classroom. I'm pretty sure I spent at least half of my day trying to control my class of 27 really wild inner city children... there wasn't a day that went by when pretty much every lesson wasn't interrupted by some really hilarious/inappropriate remark by one of my students. I was sure this was something I wouldn't deal with here in Thailand... I very incorrectly pictured a class full of really sweet and attentive students. My students are really, really sweet and for the most part attentive (especially when I happen to say the wrong word in Thai and they get to scream it at me at least five times before I get it right) but the classroom disruptions seem to happen just as much as they did back home, just in a little different way. For instance, a typical lesson back at Pecan Park would be interrupted by one of my girls with a "real important" note about how the person next to her stole someone's library book, sat on it, and "lost his manners" on it. Interruptions here in Thailand seem to happen just as often, if not more, than back at home... but they are a little different. Today in class, right in the middle of my lesson, I was talking about different types of weather when one of my 4th grade students just walked right up to me and gave me a rose. And pretty much everyday when I'm teaching there will be a group of about five students huddled around the door outside waving to me and just stopping by to see what's going on in English class. I have one class that's on the first floor, and it meets from 11-12 (when about half of the students are supposed to be eating lunch but instead are allowed to roam around the entire campus and do what they want = chaos) and it's not rare at all to see little heads popping up in the window as the small students jump to see what we are doing. It's pretty hilarious and I have to try really hard not to just start laughing everytime this happens. FYI teachers, the distractions don't stop when you leave America... but they do seem a lot better when I look back and remember the many, many days I wanted to scream when I couldn't get through a lesson at Pecan Park and smile... I mean can you really be upset when a student interrupts class to tell you that you're beautiful or when you see adorable little Thai students literally jumping to see what you are doing? So in case you were wondering... school is still crazy, but I love it more and more each day.

Tuk Tuk Driving 101

2009-11-15T08:09:00.004-06:00

Friday night I successfully talked my one tuk tuk driver friend, TongSai, into letting me drive his tuk tuk around town for a few minutes! I was quite proud of my Thai speaking skills… I’ve been working on this for a little while and he never understands me! I ran into him while I was walking through the night market to meet some friends at our new favorite bakery, and as always he tried to talk me into riding in his tuk tuk and I insisted that I was just going to walk because I wasn’t going far. And then I was like… wait, can I drive? So of course, he thought I was asking if I could ride until I finally got my handy talking dictionary out (this thing has made my life so much easier on so many days) and said “Chan khap, Khun khi rot” (I drive, you ride) and he just started laughing hysterically and then, much to my surprise, just said, “OK!” Keep in mind the night market is pretty much the center of the city, everyone here drives like a maniac, and tuk tuks are pretty much like a standard go-cart (and no, I don’t know how to drive a standard). Somehow I always think things like this are a great idea until it actually happens, such as the first time I talked my friend into letting me drive his standard truck and ended up in the middle of downtown Hattiesburg with a lot of honking and upset cars behind me. Who knew driving a three wheeled little cart would be so difficult?? Certainly not me… but it was. I’m pretty sure the tuk tuk never went over like 2 mph and I pretty much just laughed uncontrollably the entire time. My next goal is this: get much better at driving a tuk tuk and then have a tuk tuk race with my friends! How fun would that be?!? It’s days like Friday that are full of volleyball with adorable Thai students, teaching really, really cute ten year olds the days of the week to the tune of the theme song from “Adam’s Family”, and driving tuks tuks that make me think about how much I absolutely love my life right now!

"Teacher Baibua!"

2009-11-08T05:10:00.006-06:00

This is what I hear pretty much all day, everyday… at my school, Anuban, and just about anywhere that I go in the city. I moved to NKP a week ago today, and I think we are settling in pretty well! I’m sitting in a great coffee shop with wireless and just finished a wonderful mocha shake and ate too many banana chips (delicious). I’m not sure I’ve been so glad to see Friday since I started at Pecan Park last year… I forgot how exhausting teaching is! Where do I even start on my crazy week? I guess I'll start with my great, great Thai family…

I could not have asked for a better living situation! Minus the major communication issues that seem to come up on a daily basis, I am absolutely loving living with a Thai family! They have made it super easy to feel at home and comfortable and are so sweet to me. They have a HUGE family… I’m pretty sure I meet a new cousin or sister or something pretty much everyday. And my Thai grandma.. Khun Yai… is so, so cute. I’m pretty sure she knows two words in English: egg and beautiful. I have breakfast with her every morning before school and I just love her! The first day I had breakfast with her (after the cold pizza was all gone) she had about ten dishes on the table. From sticky rice to bamboo soup to pork to spaghetti to eggs, I have had quite a spread for breakfast everyday this week. The first day I ate with her, I finished SO much food and then she gave me birthday cake and wouldn’t let me leave the table until I finished a piece.. not that I’ve ever been one to turn down any kind of cake! I try to eat just the rice and eggs because I have a hard time eating all of that food at 7 in the morning, but she usually manages to get me to at least try about 5 different things. I love eating with her in the mornings… she is SO cute and just pats me and hugs me the whole time. It’s a pretty great way to start the day! She also won't let me leave the table until I finish all of my milk. Everyone else in the family is great, too… I’ve been super busy so I haven’t been able to do much with them and I’ve felt a little bad about that. I meet Alix most nights to do something, either dinner or just hanging out. It’s nice to speak English with someone who understands! AND… she got a new bike from her school that has a seat on the back, so one night this week we figured out how to ride it. My memories of riding with two people on a bike consist of a really painful and scary ride on the handlebars… Asians are much smarter and put a whole seat on the back for another person. It’s super easy to ride once you get the hang of it… riding in the traffic here makes it a little more difficult because I’m pretty sure it’s an unspoken rule to double the speed limit on any street AND they drive on the other side of the road. So far so good, though…

Anuban (my school) has gotten much better, too! I have really enjoyed teaching my classes, and it’s definitely been interesting to see how schools are run over here. It’s a completely different than my experiences back home… but I have really, really enjoyed teaching English! I teach ten different classes twice a week… I have almost 400 students! They are all adorable, though… they seem really excited to learn English and we had a lot of fun last week in class. On Friday, I was so tired of singing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” I was sure I would scream if I heard it again. Some days I just sit back and laugh and the situations I end up in. For instance, on Friday I couldn’t get in my office at the school because the building was locked and the key was nowhere to be found. It seems like that’s something that would be kept in a safe place… and maybe have a copy of? On Thursday, one of the teachers grabbed me after morning announcements and the prayer to Buddha and brought me to the assembly room, where all of the students had been gathered. There was a huge poster of the King in the front of the room, which is nothing out of the ordinary. If you know anything about Thailand it should probably be that the people here LOVE the King. I’ve only been here a little over a month, and even I love the King! You just can’t help it… there are pictures of Him everywhere you go and he really does seem like a great man. Anyways.. apparently he has been sick so we had this “well wishing” ceremony for him one morning where ALL of the students and teachers had to sign a sort of get well card for him. All 1200 students. This was still going on at lunch! Luckily I got to leave after I signed the card.. I felt really bad for the ones who were last! It was an interesting ceremony, though… I’m pretty sure at the beginning they sang every song written about the King and Thailand, and the teachers would all like curtsy and bow together at certain parts and I was completely lost and off. My goal of the next assembly is to sit in the back instead of right at the very front. Well… I’m off to do lesson plans. Hope all is well back home and that you have had a great and restful weekend like me!

One of my fourth grade classes

Assembly for the King

Morning Assembly... they do this each morning (there's a marching band that you can't see that scares me to death every single morning). They do the National Anthem, raise the flag, say prayers to Buddha, and have morning announcements.

My sweet host sister, Nikki, at one of the many restaurants she took me to while she was in town.

This is my host family's dog.... Money. I accidently keep doing really stupid things at my house (such as locking myself and Alix out on the roof one day) and yesterday I somehow let the dog out into the night market. My friends Tricia and Val tried to get him while I tried to translate his name, Money, into Thai so he would understand me. I can only imagine what the workers in the night market thought of the strange foreign girl who was yelling "Ngeun!" (incorrectly I'm sure) at a very non responsive dog. Eventually Val and Tricia picked him up and brought him inside. I am sure that I am constant entertainment for the workers who live outside of my house.

This was at a festival, Loykaton. It's held during the Full Moon and the people place these floating candles on the water for good luck, I think. We went to a village party for this and had a great time!

Also at the Loykaton festival... we were given costumes to dance in and were not at all happy about it. Especially when we saw the ginourmous stage that you could see from forever away. Luckily, we managed to get away with just introducing ourselves but still had to wear these ridiculously hot outfits. This is how we entertained ourselves while getting ready...

Hello, Culture Shock

2009-11-03T02:47:00.005-06:00

The past three days have been completely nuts. I remember culture shock being described as extreme highs and extreme lows. Welcome to my life this week. I moved out Sunday morning, and I cannot possibly say enough great things about my new family. They are wonderful. The daughter of my family (Nikki) was in town from Bangkok and she picked me up around noon on Sunday with her mom. My stuff took up the entire trunk and part of the back seat- embarrassing. I was wishing I hadn't decided to purchase those two huge baskets! They took me to lunch, which ended up being about a three hour meal because her friends were in town from Bangkok with her and we were just having a great time. They were all so funny and welcoming, and I'm not sure I've ever seen so much food on a table! It was a really cool restaurant... little private huts on a really pretty lake. Unfortunately, every thing they ordered was fish... yum. I have survived life in Thailand so far thanks mostly to my friends... when I get fish, I just pass it quietly to them. Sunday I had no choice but to eat it myself... and I did! It wasn't horrible, but I may have to break the news to my family soon that I am just not a fish eater. After this, we went to a museum and then to a Vietnamese restaurant. Yes, this was a whole two hours after we left the fish restaurant. After we ate really delicious Vietnamese food, we walked to the coffee and cake shop next door. And we ate again. And then they ordered street food... phad thai (yummmmy) and these huge (and not so yummy) sausage on a stick things. I could hardly even walk up the stairs to my house when I got home because I was so full. And then... as soon as I walked in my "aunt" who lives next door proudly showed me the FOUR boxes of pizza she brought home for me! All I can say is it's a really great thing that my family has a gym on the top floor! I wasn't able to eat the pizza then (for pretty obvious reasons) so they gave me cold pizza for breakfast! It made me so happy! If anything makes me feel like I'm back in America, it's cold pizza at breakfast.

And now my extreme lows- my first day at school yesterday. oh.my.gosh. When you think of a school in SE Asia, don't you see very well behaved kids who are attentive and listen to the teacher? I did. (note: past tense) I won't go into much detail... but my classes are crazy. I left school yesterday with a splitting headache and questioning what in the world I had gotten myself into. First of all... I didn't know until late Sunday night that I was even going to school Monday morning. We all thought it was a holiday. Wrong. Second.. my field director told me it was ok just to observe the first day. It was all I was supposed to do. Wrong again. I was told to introduce myself and then left completely alone for the next 45 minutes with about thirty Thai children who can't speak any English. This happened THREE times to me yesterday! Today was MUCH better... but I really cannot believe how unstructured my school is and how the students are allowed to behave. Where are you when I need you, Harry Wong?

I hope next time I write I have much better things to say about my new school here in NKP! I hope you are enjoying the fall weather back home... it finally seems to be reaching Thailand, too!

Packing = Procrastination

2009-10-31T09:03:00.007-05:00

It's times like tonight I'm really glad that I have a blog. None of my friends or family are on Skype (hint, hint..) and I've checked my email and Facebook at a rate that I'm a little embarrassed to admit. Tonight is the dreaded night: packing to move tomorrow morning. To have been confined to one room and a porch, my stuff sure seems to have not only multiplied, but also to have grown legs and walked away to little remote corners of this place. I have stuff everywhere. So here I am, doing what I do best: putting off packing for something a litle bit more fun. We just had an ice cream sundae party and I decided I just wasn't quite ready to get back to work. Packing has been a pain. My stuff doesn't seem to quite go back into the suitcases I brought with me (luckily I bought a couple of big hand woven baskets today) annnnd I've had to keep my bags and clothes outside. It's upstairs on a porch type thing, and yesterday I was folding all of my clothes (I would like to point out that I did technically start packing yesterday) and I opened a pair of pants and found a gazillion HUGE red ants. These pants came out of my suitcase. Where I keep pretty much all of my other clothes. I'm itchng now just thinking about it!! I think I got them all, but Im sure I will have a few waiting to surprise me tomorrow when I unpack. I'm sure my host family will love me for that. I should get back to packing... the daughter of my host family that I haven't met yet is picking me up tomorrow around noon and I'm so nervous! I'll let you know how it goes when I get settled in... I'm SO sad about leaving my friends. It's kinda like leaving home all over again... luckily I'm just not going so far this time. No more lazy afternoons and staying up late... orientation (which still seems like camp) is over. I'm a little sad about it, but still really excited to get settled and meet my students!

Also.. the hightlight of my weekend was this: we went to a dinner at one of our Thai teacher's homes last night. The ENTIRE evening consisted completely of eating and karaoke! It was awesome- my favorite part of the night by far was when I sang "Achy Breaky Heart" with my very favorite Thai teacher. In case there was any doubt, don't worry... I'm representing you well, Mississippi.

This was for a Friendship Ceremony where we led an English Camp this weekend. They give you sticky rice, bracelets, and a boiled egg and they all symbolize something (just not sure exactly what). It was a really nice ceremony- until I somehow ended up with two boiled eggs and was expected to eat them. The word hate doesn't even come close to descriing my feelings towards boiled eggs. I got really nervous and panic-y until I remembered my skirt had two pockets. Yes... I hid my boiled eggs in my pocket and felt like I was five years old again. It still works like a charm!

One of my favorite girls from English Camp this week... she was so cute and so sneaky (which of course made her even cuter)!

Eh and Apple... two of the girls that live with us. They are adorable and always help us with our Thai!

Yayyy for ice cream sundaes!

An Elephant, a Fish Festival, and a Chicken Foot

2009-10-28T09:22:00.006-05:00

I went to a fish festival today and saw my first Thai elephant! Does it seem strange to anyone else that this was a fish festival and the elephant was the star of the show? Just wondering... The highlight of the festival for me was some delicious iced coffee we discovered (their idea of a coffee drink includes about half a can of condensed milk-yumm) and then the entire row of carnival games we stumbled upon! I learned my addiction to fair games has not faded one bit... nor has my frustration when I can't seem to pop enough balloons to win a really tacky stuffed animal. Apparently in Thailand when they give you seven darts you have to actually pop seven balloons. What happened to having a least one free shot, if not two? I walked away sad and empty handed. If only they had a goldfish game-that's my specialty! Seems like it would have been appropiate being a fish festival and all... guess they don't do that sort of thing over here. Now about this elephant... my previous experiences with Asian elephants has been great. I am positive that Mootie Parson (the coolest elephant ever that I got to go swimming with in Nepal) loved me as much as I loved him AND loved his life. . This poor little elephant, however, was just pitiful. He had scars on his ears and he looked absolutely miserable. I've been thinking about him all day and trying to come up with ways that I could have rescued him. Anyone have any experience with cheering up/rescuing elephants? I hope all Thai elephants aren't so sad!

This, just in case you were wondering, is what I found in my soup last night. Yes... that's a chicken foot. Yummm!!

Oh, by the way.... I move into my host home in FOUR days!!!!! I kinda freak out a little bit when I think about it (especially since my Thai language skills haven't progressed much beyond colors, numbers, fruits, and talking about the weather) but I am super excited.... mostly about hanging up my clothes and that fabulous AC that is waiting for me!