Amy (and Monica) Take Thailand: Week 5 Part 1

     Sunday morning I wake up, pack up the last of my things, have a gchat date with my parents, and load my things into a car to go travel with Thao off to what I thought was Lat Yao.

This is the sub-district my town is in.

     My official location is more remote than that. And trust me, people already don't know where Lat Yao is. The explanation: Nakhon Sawan is a province in the northern(ish) part of Thailand. Lat Yao is a district in Nakhon Sawan. I live in the sub-district of Lat Yao known as Sarhicoadphewoprf. It has a real name, I just can't be bothered to look it up. And I can't say it right anyway.

Google doesn't even recognize where it is.

     So this car ride is mostly silent because between Grace and I, Grace knew how to talk to the people who worked at our agency more than I did. I asked Thao a few questions here and there. Some of them worked, others resulted in one-word answers. And I spent the car ride hoping I wasn't making it awkward by existing.

     I have no exciting pictures for this portion, I just want you to imagine, me sitting the passenger's seat (of a BACKWARDS car, for the record), we're driving on the left side of the road, and every 10 minutes or so I'll ask a question like, "So, ummm, you like Taylor Swift?" Her response, "Yes, she is very beautiful." And when we finally got to the point where Lat Yao appeared on the distance signs, she pointed out how much farther we had every time.

     We got to town. I think first we went to my house. Which I guess I'm glad I was prepared for with pictures because maybe it would have been more of a shock if they didn't tell me it was sparsely furnished. And then I ended up walking into a house with literally nothing except for a pedal bike downstairs. But upstairs in my room I had a mattress pad!! It was a pleasant surprise.

My bedroom

     After a quick tour of the house and a meeting with my landlord (where I stood awkwardly because guess who doesn't speak Thai?!), Thao took me off to meet my department head. She lives literally down the street from me, but she wasn't home. So we went off to the school to meet her.

     My department head is really nice. I dressed appropriately, no one said anything about my pirate shirt that I thought was too frilly, and she introduced me to one of the other teachers there. Jokes were made, I was told what classes I'd be teaching, and she asked if I was married (this is apparently a common question in Thailand?)

     I am teaching Matayom 4, 5, and 6 which in the grade level system relates to grades 10, 11, and 12. So high schoolers. And for Matayom 4 I am teaching them English for Daily Use 2. Matayom 5 I am teaching them English Drama. Matayom 6 I am teaching them English on the Job.

This is my grade book with their names in English since I can't read Thai.

     With the meet and greet all done, Thao takes me to get noodles and to the 7-11 to get anything I need for my house. She drops me off back at home and says she has to go, she has a class to teach back in Uthai Thani. And I am left all alone, in a town where no one really speaks English, and I can't even have a conversation with my landlord.

     To describe my house, it is a two story town house. The front "doors" are roll-up metal doors that are extremely loud when I move them. The downstairs living room/open area has a high ceiling with spiders in all the corners. You can walk through a door downstairs to the kitchen area. And off to the left is another door that leads to a bathroom. This bathroom has a squat toilet (I believe) and I don't know what kind of shower. The only thing I noticed as I opened the bathroom door was that in the water trough that is usually filled with water you spoon into the squat toiler is a big spider. It's body is about the size of a half-dollar (maybe?) and with it's spindle-y legs all flattened out like it was, it is at least the size of my hand. There was no way I was killing that spider, but I figured I should check on it to see if it moves to decide if I really needed to worry.

Spider webs on my front "doors"

Sometimes all those things keep me up at night.

There's a lot of them.

BUT THIS IS WAY WORSE!

     I also have a backyard that I share with the landlord and since I have yet to use it, they have taken over the space.

     Going up the stairs, the first door you see is to one of the two bedrooms. This one is the front bedroom and is closer to the street. It also has no air conditioning unit and no fan in it. Granted, the fan is easy to move, but it was apparent by the placement of the mattress pad that I was expected to sleep in the room with the AC unit. Both bedrooms also have balconies. The upstairs bathroom has a regular flushing toilet --hooray!!-- and a shower, but no hot water heater. Also, there are no mirrors in this house. Item one I need to buy. And the final bedroom is my room, which is filled with my two suitcases, a mattress pad, a short table, and an array of odds and ends I am slowly accumulating. But no spiders! There are no spiders in this room. They are in all the other rooms, but not in my room, so the world is okay.

Backyard shot.

Attempted balcony shot.

Pretty sure this is a sunrise shot.

     That first day, I checked on the downstairs bathroom spider three times. It never moved. But the third time I went to check the bathroom, I looked up and saw a SECOND SPIDER! This one had a brown body and looked to be slightly lumpier than the black and gray one in the water trough. I then decided to hell with checking on the spiders. I have a whole other bathroom with a regular toilet upstairs. I only need to worry about them if they leave the bathroom. Which, to my knowledge, they have not. OR an even better alternative is that they left the bathroom and then left the house.

Again, this fucking thing. He's spider number 2.

    Once I got hungry, I ventured out of my hovel to the first food station I found and got some noodles. I sat and watched as people drove by. This town is literally on the main road. My street I live on branches off directly what I believe to be similar to a highway, like the California 1 -- it goes through towns and the speed limit slows, but once you leave the town the cars start racing off again. I watch the cars and people go by, I eat my noodles, and I think about how I'm going to start learning Thai and learning it fast.

     I go back home and try to discreetly take pictures of my house and do my MTV Cribs style video tour. I got a visitor around 6 PM, he is one of the Thai teachers at the school I'll be working at. His name is Teacher Ton and he basically ends up taking me under his wing. Our initial meeting was strange though. He asked if I had eaten and I told him I got food. And somehow the conversation got to how I should not ride my bike to school because of the dogs along the way. It switched from the dogs being a problem to not knowing Thai traffic laws. So tomorrow, I would ride with the department head. He told me that if I needed anything from my landlord to just ask him and he will talk to my landlord for me. And since I had already eaten he went on his way.

     I locked up my house and returned to my room for the night.

     The next morning I woke up, bright-eyed and eager to start teaching. I showered in the morning and realized that will not fly. But by 7:30 I have locked up my house and I'm sitting on a bench, waiting for my ride to come.

     I get to school, get shown to my desk and introduced to more teachers. Every morning, at 8 AM there is an assembly. First the King's song is played (it is polite and respectful to stand still, straight, and not move during his song) then the students are gathered in the area and announcements and stretches and things happen, but everything is said in Thai so I understand like 10 words out of 30 minutes. But this morning was special because I was the new teacher and I got to get up on stage in front of the whole school and introduce myself. Which I was obviously really good at:

"Hello, my name is Amy. I come from America. I am very excited to be here in Thailand and to teach you."

     Then I was given fake flowers to put on my desk and posed for photos with the head of the school and other important people.

     The first week of teaching was pretty simple. Well, by simple I mean I didn't have to prepare much because I was told that it's all introductions all week. I have 15 classes. I meet each of them one day a week for a total of 55 minutes. And the class size ranges from 20 - 45 students? So I have a lot of students who I need to A) recognize, and B) know their names. I'm still working on that one. And they're all in the age range of 15 - 18 years old.

     Day 1 of teaching took FOREVER to go by though. Not a lot of people were talking to me, everyone else was in the groove of the school year already and I just kind of got to watch while I waited to teach my classes (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). It was also a little sad, Teacher Ton was very busy and could not eat with me, so I ate breakfast and lunch at the canteen (cafeteria) all by myself. It felt like high school where I was the new kid that no one wanted to hang out with yet but everyone was more than willing to stare at. Jill said that if it had been her, she would have been upset. I just kind of went with it.

     At the end of Day 1, Teacher Ton came by my house again with Teacher Nan. They took me out to get food and to make sure I had all I needed. Teacher Ton also gave me an iron so that I could make sure my shirts "looked polite."

My first question: "Where does the water go?"

     And thus began my polite lady lessons.

Polite Lady Lesson 1: When riding on the back of a motorcycle, you shall not straddle the motorcycle for optimum body coverage on the motorcycle no matter the ridiculously long length of your skirt. You shall sit side-saddle, hold the bottom of your skirt to keep it out of the wheel with one hand, and hold tight onto the driver with your other hand. But don't death grip hold her, because then you'll make her nervous.

Polite Lady Lesson 2: Your knees, your shoulders, and you cleavage shall be covered while teaching ... and maybe even while you walk throughout your quaint town. And your clothes shall "look polite" meaning that they are ironed and tucked in.

Polite Lady Lesson 3: When bending over to open your roll-top garage doors, realize that you are a lady. Ladies do not bend at the waist, they bend at the knees so as not to point their buttocks at people who are driving by. Once you have unlocked the lock, you may stand up as you pull your roll-top door up.

     Day 2 of teaching went much faster. I had 6 classes. So from period 2 through the end of the day, it was nonstop teaching (or introductions). And Teacher Ton ate lunch with me that day!! Overall Day 2 greatly outweighed Day 1.

     Day 3 was an interesting day. It was the day of the Father's Day activities for the students at the school. Father's Day is the King's Birthday (December 5th) and Thailand honors the King, not necessarily their fathers. The amount of devotion to the King is awe inspiring. When children draw pictures of themselves with their father, they'll draw themselves with the King. I don't want to misinform you on exactly how it all plays out, but I can tell you that it's cool. Sociologically and culturally, I find this stuff really interesting and am excited to learn more once I'm an expert I'll send you my papers. For the Father's day celebration, student's fathers came to campus and were given the honor of awards that their students had received (I think?) And there was a ceremony and all the teachers had to stand in the middle and watch as some stuff happened and it all looked really cool but I couldn't tell you what actually happened because it was all in Thai. But I took pictures!!!

The students being attentive.

Teacher Ton and I.

Teacher Lucy and I.

     Because Father's Day is such an important holiday, after school on Day 3 marked the beginning of a six day vacation that I was given. The following Tuesday is also a holiday called Law Day and my school decided that they would give us a holiday from Thursday (Father's Day) through Tuesday (Law Day). After school, I got a ride from a fellow Thai teacher to the bus station in Nakhon Sawan and bought a bus ticket up to Phayao to visit Monica!

     But that adventure is Part 2.