Amy (and Monica) Take Thailand: Week 7

     Sunday starts with a new ritual with my parents: 7:30 AM video chat. My computer, even thought is is plugged in to the internet, still finds ways to make it difficult, like turning off my sound and have slow, lagging internet speeds. (Okay, so only one of those is really the fault of my computer). But we make it through and I take notes for the next time, like how to turn my sound on. I switch to video chatting with Brendan until he's off to bed and then I decide to face a day filled wit a language I don't understand.

     My town is small, I don't know if I've expressed that yet. As I walk out of my house onto the main busy road, I get maybe 500 meters of shops and buildings before I hit 7-11 which can be considered the "end of town" or beginning, depending on your direction. I go for a stroll. My plan is to wander around and explore the market but as I'm walking across the street from a somthaew (songthaew?) [it means papaya salad] stand, I hear "Teacher! Teacher!" And immediately look around. There are three women across the street from me and they're waving for me to come over!

Another view of my street.

     They invite me to sit with them. One of them is named O, she is my age; the next is Nun (I think?) and she is probably around her 40s or 50s; the last is Dune and she told me she's 63. Their invitation to sit with them turned into the possibility of an immediate friendship, I stayed with them for one whole hour. They brought out English/Thai books and started asking me questions. They listened to the little Thai that I knew and seemed overjoyed that I could say anything. Dune runs the songthao shop and said that the next time she'd make me non-spicy papaya salad. [For the record, papaya salad can be pretty spicy]. I leaven them, ecstatic that I have made my first group of Thai friends and that they are so nice. And as I leave they say, "See you again!" Which makes me even more happy. They like me, they really like me!!

taken from : http://media.maangchi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/plate.jpg

     Monday and Tuesday are normal. Except one of those nights (I think?) I went out to dinner with Teacher Ton, Teacher Lucy, and Teacher Sally. We got hot pot. Which in Thai is called moogatak. And hot pot is like Thai-style barbecuing or something. All I really know is that it's delicious and I would eat that every night if I could. Basically you get raw meat that you put on the frying/grilling portion of what looks like an oversized metal juicer. The meat cooks on top, and in the moat section you can put in broth and vegetables and glass noodles and have a soup to eat too. It's delicious. If you come to Thailand you must eat it. It's definitely a sharing food though, so don't go there by yourself.

     On Wednesday things start getting exciting. It's the beginning of the Christmas week celebration!! Yaaay!! Really the celebration is a bunch of English speaking, writing, reading, and listening competitions that Teacher Lucy and I as well as some of the Thai teachers in our department get to judge.

     The greatest day was Friday afternoon though. The final English competition for the week was a singing contest. Everyone competing had to sing English songs, but it started with Teacher Lucy singing "My Hear Will Go On." Then Teacher Ton comes along and asks if I can sing. I say sure because if Teacher Lucy did it, then I can totally do it. He asks me what song I'll sing and I freeze up. My brain goes, "Oh no! It's time to make a decision? BURN EVERYTHING!"

     To buy some time, I tell Teacher Ton I'll think about it and he says he'll come back. The students start singing. One sings "Baby," another sings "Jingle Bells," and the last one sings "Que Sera Sera." I thought the last one cheated since it's not a total English song but he was the only boy in the competition and the teachers said he sang the same thing last time and almost one so maybe he's just been practicing really hard for a year.

     Teacher Ton came back, as promised, and said "You need to pick a song you can sing without music." I panicked. Not only would I sing in front of the whole school (and sing poorly) I wouldn't even get to have music to drown out at least some of my voice! And it would have to be a song that I know by heart, which my brain already burned those out of existence and planted seeds of doubt in the ashes. I knew I knew a lot of words to many songs, but did I really know all the words to any song?

     My palms were sweaty (knees weak, arms spaghetti). I thought back to my short-lived karaoke/rock band days:
                         "Wonderwall? No, the second time I sang that I sucked.
                           Rolling in the Deep? No way, Adele is crazy good!
                           Killer Queen? I could never get that intro right ...."

     Then it hit me: We Are the Champions. And lucky me, they did have the music to that one! All that worrying for nothing! So I went up on stage, I sang my heart out, I danced and did many fist pumps and I felt like a champion!

     It wasn't until later that it was brought to my attention that none of the students (and even most of the teachers) had no idea what song I had sung. But they really liked my performance. That is the level of English comprehension at my school. They loved what I did, they thought I was hilarious and cool. They just didn't have the slightest clue what song that was.

     So brain, you were wrong! I didn't need to worry! I could have picked a more obscure song and made up the lyrics and no one would know.

     Still, I finished the day on a performance high.

     Saturday was really exciting. I went back to my new friends, got some free papaya salad. Talked some English with them. And did laundry!! Oooooh. For the record though, there are no dryers in Thailand. All clothes are hung dry. Which only suck a little bit when you are so proud of your engineered hooks and hammock ropes hang-dry system, only to learn that the hooks can't support the weight and now all your clothes are on the ground. Now I hang my clothes on curtain rods to dry.

     I also met the father of the girl I will be tutoring every Sunday. Overall, the week ended well. Unfortunately, the entire week is almost picture-less because I didn't know I was allowed to document such things as the activities we did.

     In Monica's world at this time, she's dealing mostly with coworkers leaving and changing positions. Oh, and she also is enjoying things that Amy doesn't have in her town. Like a lake, having more spaces to wander about in her town, being able to wander freely. Getting to wear pants when she feels like it and maybe even slightly less "polite" clothing. And hot showers. Monica also is enjoying the cold because Thailand does get cold, and living so far up North, she actually deals with it and needs sweaters!!
     This week is also the beginning of Monica and I discussing (briefly) our next reunion trip, New Year's Holiday Break.
     As far as Monica has led me to believe, things are well in Phayao.