Blue's father picks me up on a motorbike. I hope on the back and we take a short ride down the street to their house that also seconds as their store. He's a pharmacist. There are two or three pharmacies in my town, and now I know which one I'll be going to if I ever need anything. I meet Blue for the first time and Blue is very nice. She's in grade 11 and goes to a high school in Nakhon Sawan and she actually likes learning English, so that's a bonus.
I end up blowing through all the ideas I had planned to teach her in about an hour. And our tutoring session is two hours. But before I can have a real panic and worry that I will be completely hated and they'll never have me back, Blue pulls out her English-Thai books and we start going through the conversations in there and develop the rest of our lesson based off of that. It all works out great. The lesson ends on time at 3 PM and I get my first dose of hospitality from her family. First, I get to hang out at her place for as long as I want. They have TV and turn on some Thai variety show and we watch that and have random chit-chat about whatever. Her mom makes me coffee and brings snacks out. This includes fruit and cookies and it's all delicious. Blue invites me to have dinner with them that evening and I do not turn it down. She also invites me to join her family over the vacation to go to the beach with them. Basically I feel extremely loved and I am pretty happy about it.
Before I have dinner with her family, I have her mom take me back home. But before I go home, I get to go to the market and her mom takes me over. They see what fruit I buy and recommend some that I haven't tried. I go home and hang out at my house for a bit until her mom returns to get me for dinner.
And the dinner is awesome. There is some soup that's only a little spicy. Grilled (I think) fish, fried chicken, different dipping sauces, and fruit. I eat dinner with Blue and her mom -- her father is apparently on a diet. During dinner we continue the chit-chat. Blue tells me that I am more than welcome to come over whenever I want to watch TV or use their internet, and Blue's dad says that maybe we can be friends. Most of Blue's friends go to school with her and don't live in this town, so we can be good company for each other since not many people in this town speak English and I'm lonely. It's a win-win situation.
Monday rolls around and since the last week I have been waiting for some packages to be delivered from my loving family. Apparently the post office thinks it is best to not actually deliver to my house or to only deliver when I am working at school. So I've been missing these packages. And I get Teacher Ton to talk to my landlord to accept the packages for me. After school on Monday, I have one package that my landlord accepted handed to me. It makes me happy, I document the contents like nobody's business. I even got wrapped presents!! And since Christmas is on Wednesday, I choose to wait to open them. One of these days, my landlord has also come out and given me a slip of paper that says I have to pay 1000 baht for my second package from my mom. Teacher Ton is there and is just like "What could you be getting that would cost so much? Why is your package so heavy?" I know why, but I tell him I don't. My mom is sending me all of my leftover packages of Mac & Cheese, so on Christmas I can have a truly American meal of Mac & Cheese (and any other eight times I wish to enjoy my favorite college meal). He agrees to take me to the post office the next day.
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| What's in the box?! |
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| SO MANY THINGS!!! |
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| Festive!! |
Tuesday comes and Teacher Ton takes me to the post office in Lat Yao at lunchtime so I can pick up my package. I get it and get to drop it off at my house before we return to school. As the school day is winding down, another Thai teacher tells Teacher Lucy and I that for Christmas the next day we will be dressed up like "Santalitas." We stay later after school setting up all the Christmas decorations. There is a tree, a huge display of Christmas cards that have been made by the students, and a display of Christmas posters that students have made. Keep in mind that this is Thailand. They're a Buddhist country, do not celebrate Christmas, but we are putting up a Christmas tree, dressing up like "Santalitas," and giving gifts to the students tomorrow. This is all because even thought they do not celebrate Christmas in Thailand, since it is such an important holiday in Western cultures where they speak English, they believe it is important to understand the holiday.
Tuesday night we went out again for hot pot. It was Teacher Ton's birthday and so that was how we celebrated. I tried to pay for hot pot, and the woman who runs the hot pot shop tried to reduce the price -- it was his birthday after all -- but Teacher Ton said that he was happy to pay it all. After hot pot, we went to the gift shop to buy a gift for the teacher gift exchange on Thursday.
AND THEN IT'S WEDNESDAY!!! IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!! Because of the occasion, I ghcat with my parents in the morning (their Christmas Eve). I open up my presents from them: penguin earrings, nail polish, and a chocolate scrabble game! And we talk for a little bit. I get picked up early to go to school so that I can be prepared for my big presentation with Teacher Lucy as "Santalita." Teacher Lucy and I are dressed up in this fantastic get-up for Christmas cheer, and then are told to wait in the office ... for almost three hours.
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| CHOCOLATE SCRABBLE! |
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| The contents of package number 2! |
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| DOCTOR WHOOOOO!!! |
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| DOCTOR WHOOO!! |
The finally tell us we get to go. Teacher Lucy and I are riding in the front of this motor cart that is driven by another teacher who is dressed as Santa. Our job is to wave like Miss Universe and then hand out the gifts to the students. It all goes off well. The ride was sketchy. First it took a bit to get the motor started and then once we got on the field, the ride was very bumpy and I worried about falling off. After we had dispersed the gifts to the students , the students are released from the assembly and now the older grades (M4, M5, and M6) get to present their activities for the ASEAN countries.
ASEAN stands for Association of South(E)ast Asian Nations. The countries in ASEAN are: Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. Two students representing each country dressed up in the country's native attire. I walked around and checked out each country, won some free candy, gave it away to students, and took pictures when I could.
These activities took place until lunch time. And then after lunch I actually taught a class! I was also monitored during this class to see if my teaching practices were up to par. No pressure or anything. The class went relatively well. I had one student who showed up late which was frustrating, and they didn't completely understand what I was trying to teach them, but after a few tweaks I got it right. The teacher who monitored me gave me a piece of paper that mostly was written in Thai. The only English word I found was "GOOD!" So that's nice. Before I found it I showed the paper to Teacher Ton to ask if I did a good job, he just said, "You keep that." I said, "I know, but did I do well?" He sounded dismissive and just said, "Yeah." So I left him alone.
On Thursday, teaching went well. I have learned that my 6/4 class that I have on Thursday mornings is usually very small. Most students don't show up for class or show up relatively late. It's usually a relaxing class to teach, which is nice. I don't have another class until right after lunch. While that class can be a little more troublesome, it also has a small number of students who initially show up. I've been working on my discipline skills, but apparently there's only so much they understand and only so hard I can try to enforce the rules. Oh well. I also have an English club that I conduct in the final period on Thursdays. This day we made 3D snowflakes and that went really well. I had wanted the students to keep them for themselves, but they gave them all back to me. So now I have a collection of 3D snowflakes on my wall.
Thursday night was the teacher gift exchange/white elephant party. The only bummer about this party was that the teachers who actually lived on campus got to go home and change and put on pants or a different shirt. I, unfortunately (in this situation), live off campus and depend on others to give me a ride home and my ride did not want to go home and come back. So I stayed at campus and had to spend the time at the party while the mosquitoes come out to attack in my pencil skirt and a without a jacket.
But the party was fun. The food was delicious, and there was alcohol! Each table was given a bottle of whiskey to share. I sat at the table of non-drinkers and so they gave away the bottle of whiskey and I didn't get a drink until they offered me wine. I was overjoyed when they said they had wine. Wine?! I love wine!!! Except in Thailand, "wine" means "wine cooler." It was better than nothing.
There was a lot of dancing. Teacher Ton told me to drink more so that I would dance more. There was karaoke. And gifts were exchanged. I got a blanket and a cup and saucer set. The blanket was ideal because it does get cold at night. And I also have almost no dishes, so I was glad to get the cup and saucer set as well. I don't get back home until around 10 or 11 PM. It makes me a little sad, knowing that I still have to go to work on Friday. The week has felt rather carefree since Christmas and once Friday is done, I'm off to reunite with Monica again!
Friday goes by as fast as it possibly can. My plans are finalized for travelling up north with two teachers who live in Chiang Mai on Saturday. The best part was discussing the pick-up time. "Oh, maybe 7 AM. Or 8 AM, or 9 AM, or 10 AM." Oh Thai time, how I love you. Friday night I pack and wonder if I can even sleep, I'm so excited to see Monica again and adventure through Chiang Mai and Pai with her!
Saturday was an interesting day. I wake up, ready to be picked up at whatever ridiculously early time they tell me I'll probably be picked up at. And then around 8:30 I get a call from Teacher Ton telling me that the teachers that are picking me up are running late (obviously) and maybe they'll be there by 9 or 9:30. Awesome. I share the news with Monica and feel bad because she's already on her way to Chiang Mai. For her, this trip is 3 or 4 hours. For me it's 7 at least.
And it was way more than 7. Literally EVERYONE in Thailand is travelling. It's the New Year Holiday and most of Thailand has it off and many people want to travel north apparently. We spend the entire day travelling. It was fun, don't get me wrong, the teachers I travelled with are super nice. One is a Chinese teacher and the other is a Thai teacher, so we spent part of the car ride teaching each other different words in our languages. The Thai teacher has a dog that was brought along and I rode near so I took pictures of it. But I also had a deadline and as the deadline loomed closer and Chiang Mai still felt so far away, I stressed. A lot.
I needed to be in Chiang Mai by 5 or 5:30 to get on the last bus that would take Monica and I into Pai. I almost didn't make it. My ride drops me off at the bus station and I run to get to the van that is already leaving. Monica had called me and was like "I'm stalling them as much as I can. Where are you?" I got in the van after it had pulled out of the bus station and was already on it's way off. The important part was that I made it. Monica and I were very relieved. We talked for a bit, but Monica was also sick and so she slept some. I read. When our van stops in the middle for a bathroom break, I didn't realize I had to get out of the van for the monk sitting across from me to get out (there was a whole empty seat in between us). So I'm talking to Monica and he's looking at me and I don't know what's going on. Then I get out of the van and he gets out. I practically smacked myself for being so stupid.
We make it to Pai. Monica calls the man who's house we're renting (booyah for AirBnB!) And we meet up with him. He takes us to the place and we pretty much drop our stuff and crash. Especially Monica. Because Monica is sick.
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| My back seat companion |
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| This is my stress face |
