U.S.A.

So up until this point, we have met very few Americans here in Thailand.  We have met a couple backpackers and a guy from San Diego and that's about it.  I guess Americans don't come here because it's too far or maybe I just haven't run into the ones that are here.  When we refer to the United States, we have to say America because Thai people don't know it as the United States but instead as America.  Weird but we've gotten into the habit.  Anyways, I know that some countries don't like the United States for various reasons but I am totally shocked how many people actually hate our country and Americans in general.  I've had a couple people say "Ugh, America",  the Philippino teachers at my school just said "Ohhhhh" and turned away when I first said where I was from,  some people ask me twice just to make sure I actually said America and I had one person say "I feel bad for you, America's the worst"  WHATTTT    Don't get me wrong, there are people that are like "America's awesome" "New York City is so cool" "My dream is to go to Vegas" and things like that but after going abroad to Australia where they love Americans, I guess I had no idea how much we aren't liked in general around the world. 


I have a friend Amy from South Africa that I teach with and the other day I asked her to tell me truthfully what people in South Africa think of Americans and that I wouldn't be offended.  She said that the general perception of Americans from South Africans is that we are stuck up, selfish and don't care about anywhere else in the world because we are so caught up with our own country.  She said it nicely but also said she has no desire to ever come to America and her dad who was visiting said he used to think the same thing until he came to America and then his opinions totally switched after spending time there.  So at least people's minds can be changed.


It's not that big of a deal but it's weird to not know if people are going to automatically have bad first impressions of me when I say where I'm from or if they are going to have good ones.  Some old guy came up to me at the gym today and asked where I was from and I said America and he was like "Oh I really don't like America, they say it's a free country but it's actually the most unfree country in the whole world."  REALLY?? ARE YOU FORGETTING THAT CHINA EXISTS??  After talking to him, I learned that he is from Germany and has lived in Thailand for fourteen years and played professional backgammon for thirty years...


Well tonight is New Years Eve and we are going in full USA attire.  I had been on the hunt for a sparkley USA tank top to wear tonight and after failing to find it, Nancy gave me a USA cut off tee for Christmas, which is awesome.  Then this week, we decided to go 80's themed for New Years Eve because Thailand is the easiest place to do 80's because of all the crap you can find at markets.  Then our theme turned into going as a mix between 80's and USA and we all have USA shirts, red scrunchies, red and blue earings, red and clue nail polish and other good accessories.  And if anyone says anything to me tonight about how horrible America and Americans are, they're in trouble.  Will post pictures tomorrow...

Christmas in Phuket

Christmas in a far away place wasn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be.  We actually had a very nice weekend but it was still very weird to be sweating in Decemeber rather than freezing my butt off.  Christmas Eve day, Nancy and I went to the beach after fixing my flat tire on my motorbike - that was a nice Christmas present from Thailand.  We always go to the same part of Kamala beach and on Saturday, we decided to change it up and go to the completely opposite end of the beach.  It actually felt like we were on a totally different beach because one - it took us 10 minutes to drive there, two - the sand texture was totally different, three - the waves were huge, and four - we had a different view of Kamala.  We lasted not even two minutes in the water and decided that laying out in the sun was not on our agenda and we headed to a bar that I had gone to Friday night and loved.  It was at the very tip of Kamala beach and was set up in the rocks and trees so it felt like a treehouse.  We proceeded to drink yummy tropical drinks for the afternoon, hang out with the Thai bartender, listen to his music and play cards.  It actually felt like we were far far away on vacation somewhere exotic. 

Christmas Eve afternoon

 Christmas Eve was spent at the Phuket Town night markets about fifty minutes from where we live.  We arrived thinking it was going to be like all the other markets we go to but it was far from that.  It was the most massive market I have ever been to and literally sold everything from puppies to board shorts to DVDs to beautiful clothing to used sneakers to scrunchies.  And the food was amazing!!  When I first arrived in Thailand, the smell of the markets made me incredibly nauseous and I had to leave immediately.  Now I love the smells and I bounce from vendor to vendor trying everything I possibly can before I get too full.  For those that know me, know that back in the US I could have been considered a picky eater. Not anymore.  Now, I literally eat anything I can that looks remotely safe and that doesn't have flies on it.  I have absolutely no idea what I eat most of the time here because even if I knew how to ask "What is that?" in Thai, I wouldn't understand the answer so I just hope for the best.  My meal on Christmas Eve consisted of some sort of chicken, yellow noodles, a cup of corn, a piece of bruschetta (not very good) and a chocolate ball.  Total cost - $2.85  Best thing about the markets is that food is cheap, unlike if you buy it in a store or at a restaurant, so if I hate what I'm eating, I can throw it out and try something else.  At this market, it was probably 95% Thai people that were there and Nancy and I decided to keep the Christmas spirit up so we bought Santa hats for three cents before we went and rocked them the whole night.  Once again, just blending into the crowd - NOT.  Definitely got some funny looks but overall vendors said Happy New Years to us and smiled. 

NOODLES!!!  My favorite kind is all the way to the right

Where has this vendor been at all the other markets I have gone to?!

Dessert Lady and her tree

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day I woke up at 7:30 am and skyped my whole family that was at my aunt and uncle's house because it was 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve there.  That was really nice but also very wierd because half the time people couldn't hear me.  However, it was very cool to "be there" when my little cousin pulled her tooth out.  Didn't open any presents from my family on my Christmas morning because I wanted to wait until it was Christmas morning Boston time so we could all do it together how we always do it.  Instead, Courtney, Nancy, Shawn and I did a little gift exchange before we headed to the beach for the afternoon. 

Christmas Day Thailand style

 Christmas night turned out to be a little eerie around here because there were high winds like I've never felt before and not only was it the eve of the anniversary of the tsunami but the Thai people were actually anxious and told us that the winds were exactly like what it was like before the tsunami came seven years ago.  After talking about where we would go if we heard the tsunami alarms, we decided that another tsumani hitting the same beach on the same day of the year was too crazy so we put it out of minds and enjoyed our dinner.  I was determined to have anything but Thai food for Christmas dinner so I had chicken fingers and french fries in a duck basket - not always an easy task finding American food around here so that was the best I could do. 

My awesome pants that Courtney gave me for Christmas

Christmas Dinner

8:45 pm sharp I called my family on skype and Jacquelyn carried the computer through our normal Christmas morning rituals of running down the front stairs into the living room and opening our stockings.  Luckily, her stocking for me reached me in time so I had something to open on Christmas, which was very nice.  Then we headed to the other living room to do presents from under the tree and see what everyone gave each other.  I was so happy that my electricity didn't go out because it had gone out four times earlier in the day, so I could be there for all of Christmas morning.  Headed to bed and woke up and it was still Christmas at home!  I have promised myself that I am never missing Christmas again!

Christmas Party

As promised, I took lots of pictures on Friday at my school for the Christmas party.  You may be wondering why we are celebrating Christmas in Buddist country but we have a lot of mixed children at my school, unlike the normal public schools, so the school wants to make sure the children get the full Christmas experience.  And I think they also like to have an excuse to decorate the school and have fun activities. It was nice to have all the parents there so I didn't have to chase after the kids and could enjoy the day.  And the food was so good!!  It was a potluck where every child in the school was supposed to bring something for the big lunch and it was a feast.  There was everything from KFC chicken buckets to pasta and salmon and tomato cream sauce to pad thai to cupcakes to sugar cookies to a lot of things that I didn't know what they were....YUM  Since it is Christmas morning right now and I'm waiting for Nancy to wake up I'm just going to post quickly.  Here are some photos from Friday's Christmas party. 

The Stage

Lovely Decorations

My little ones

Dam wasn't too happy about the Christmas party

Santa came! And I have no idea where they found a Santa costume around here

Performing Jingle Bells

Leo is the CUTEST

Can you spot the five English teachers??

Club Leswane

Well hospital visit #4 on Monday went a little better than the last few.  I'm feeling a lot better but the fluid in my ears won't go away so I'm still on meds and the doctor now has me going local pharmacies to save money because I think she feels bad for me because I've spent a lot of money on visits and meds.  She prescribed a new one which I went to get yesterday and I went to four pharmacies trying to find it and no one had it.  Finally at pharmacy #4, the pharmacist spoke very good English said that as of December, it is banned in local pharmacies because the chemical make-up is too similar to ecstasy and when made incorrectly, can actually be ecstacy so it has to come directly from a doctor.  That's literally the first time since I've been here that I've heard about a law being enforced but I am very glad that it is.  But after looking it up, it seems as though she meant crystal meth instead of ecstacy but either way, I won't be taking that drug.  I am very surprised I haven't had a horrible allergic reaction or died already from all the different meds I've been taking.  I'm still on a no flying order so my ear drums don't burst, which stinks bc I have ten days off starting Friday and can't get off the island like I realllyyyy wanted to...


School - Got a new girl in class named Shia and another one coming in January.  We have our Christmas party on Friday so I'll be sure to post pictures from that.  It is actually incredible how ridiculously decorated the school is.  I laugh every day I walk in the front door because more and more pink and blue garland seems to appear overnight and today the jungle gyms had fake snow taped all over them.  I think I'm the only person in the whole school that has ever seen snow and everyone, including the teachers from Australia and South Africa, think it's so cool that I live somewhere where it snows and they can't wrap their head around it.


On another note, I finally am well enough to join a gym!  One of my fellow teachers took my yesterday and I joined for $32 a month and then decided I was too tired so I didn't even attempt to put on my sneakers and went home.  I haven't done one bit of exercise since my Boston Sports Club membership in Providence expired two months ago and I feel gross.  How I haven't gained more weight than I have, I have no idea.  I spend my days eating thai food and my kid's snacks and have a bag of M&M's every night after dinner because chocolate is a staple in my life.  Not the healthiest lifestyle I've got going on.  However, I did eat pad thai twice today so even though I was exhausted, I made myself go to the gym aka 'Club Leswane' on the way home from school. 

Now you probably hear "gym" and think of exercise classes, lots of machines, weights, mirrors, stretching mats, personal trainers, etc.  Not exactly how gyms work over here.  First of all, I have been searching for one since I got here and the closest one I could find is 25 minutes away from home and 45 minutes from school so I never would have gone - gyms are very few and very far between.  Then one of the teachers told me she went to one that is part of a hotel, could get me a discount and that it's the only gym around and not joking, I walked in and saw two people I know (the guys we rent our motorbikes from).  Seeing that I know about five people in Phuket other than the three I came with, that was kind of funny.  You definitely have to know about this place because it's literally down a dirt road, past a chicken farm and I never would have found it on my own.  It's kind of on my way home from school so I am going to try to make myself go a couple times a week.  There are two treadmills, two sit up bikes and two eliptical like things that are called "Natural Runners" and a lot of weights and some weight machines cramed in a tiny room.  Funny thing is that everything is Kilograms and Kilometers so I'm going to have to work on my conversions a bit and I laughed to myself when I realized that America is so not with the rest of the world on measurements.  But it is seems clean, the machines work and there are two yoga balls and a sauna and steam room that apparently get turned on once in a while that I can use if I want.  Another good thing is that with my gym membership, I get to swim in the pool at the resort and lounge on the chairs if I'm really lazy and don't feel like working out.

Basically, Club Leswane has everything a gym should have - air conditioning, (tiny) lockers, a shower, free drinking water, towels and exercise equipment - just in a very small space but I'm okay with that because being there today made me feel like there's something actually normal in my life here.  And the I drove home and had to stop for three stray cows to cross the road and remembered where I really am.  .

Me and My Motorbike

My motorbike and I had a bit of a rough week this week.  Started off on Monday driving about an hour to the other side of the island to go to a massive Thai warehouse store called SuperCheap, where my fellow teachers said was the best place to get school supplies.  So I went and so far, I haven't really had any trouble driving on the other side of the road but driving the opposite way around a rotary for the first time definitely confused me.  Let's just say I had a few near misses with a pickup truck.  I proceeded to get caught in the rain and when it rains in Phuket, it rains harder than I've ever seen, so pulled my bike over for a while because I couldn't see anything and when I saw Thai people pulling over, I figured I probably should too.  Of course I was wearing a white tank top and my eighty cent rain poncho doesn't actually do much so when I arrived at the store, not only was I the only white person there, I was wearing a soaking wet white tank top and a damp flowered skirt. Awesome.  Blended right into the crowd.

Tuesday, I headed to the hospital after school to get checked up on and got in my first motorbike accident.  Except I'm not sure if I would consider it an accident but I did hit someone.  I was at a stoplight and it turned green and everyone went and the lady to the right of me decided she wanted to go left so she swerved in front of me and then she decided she wanted to go right so she cut in front of me again (this is all in a matter of 4 seconds) and I hit the back of her bike.  However, I'm starting to think this is a normal occurance because she didn't even stop she just looked at the back of her seat and kept driving so I was like okay I guess I'll just keep going.  Not such a huge deal?  Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, I was driving myself to a Thai hospital and I get in an accident (kind of), I parked my bike and when getting off my bike, I accidentally brushed up against the bike next to me and burned my leg on their exhaust pipe. What a lovely day. 

Wednesday, I went through THREE red lights!  One of them right in front of a police station.  Might I add, I ran them all purposely because most times it is actually safer to go thru red lights then to stop because the likelihood of someone hitting you from behind for stopping when no one else does is pretty high.  I survived the rest of the week and I think me and my motorbike are back on good terms.  I should name him.

I realized that I haven't actually really posted pictures of my house except for one of my bedroom the first week so below are pictures of our street, Nancy and my house and Courtney and Shawn's house, which is three doors down from us.  It's a nice dead end street that seems to be safe and has a number of young families.   Normal sights for our street include little Thai boys running up and down the street shooting each other with toy guns and running into our driveways to try to shoot us when we're in our house, about ten cats that try to get into our house every night and sleep on the seat of my motorbike, and multiple squished, dead frogs on the street.  I think that pretty much defines Jasmine Street.
 

Jasmine Street - ten minute walk to the beach



Nancy and My House

View from our front door

Our kitchen - cabinets would be nice but hey it's Thailand, we're lucky we have burners to cook on

View from the kitchen to the front door - Nancy's room, my room and the bathroom are to the right

Sad display of Christmas in our house - a tree I brought from the Dollar Store in Providence, stockings mailed from Jacquelyn and decorations from Nancy's mom

Mail from my mom, dad, sister and Auntie Jo!  THANK YOU! It's beginning to look like my wall in Australia

Courtney and Shawn's House - pretty much the same set up as ours

I'm Alive!

I've been really bad at writing but it's because I haven't really had the energy but I'm going to try to get back in the habit of writing every few days.  I went back to the hospital yesterday and was diagnosed by yet another doctor who put me on five more meds (brings the count to 16 different medications in the last two and a half weeks) and I'm PRAYING that they work this time.  If they haven't worked by next Monday, I'll have to be admitted into the hospital for them to give me intravenous antibiotics and drain my ears.  But no worries, I had a good feeling about this doctor and hopefully I will be back to one hundred percent soon...

Because let me tell you, having a classroom of kindergarteners for 9 hours a day and feeling like crap is not the best situation.  And that leads me to my next topic - NEW SCHOOL!  Like I said before, my school is an all kindergarten school and I have the youngest class or as they're known, "the babies."  About two weeks before I got there, they split the youngest class into two separate classes because the enrollment numbers had increased significantly for the second semester.  I have the smallest class with nine little ones and since the school wasn't really prepared for the increase in numbers, my classroom doubles as the library and is connected to the front office.  The good things about this is that I have books everywhere to use and that if I need anything like materials or extra assistance, I can ask the two administrators for help.  The bad things about this is that I don't have a blackboard or wall space to hang anything or storage space.  I also don't have a CD player, which is a huge downfall because having kindergarteners from 7:45 to 4:30 without any music is very hard and not as fun as it could be.  I did borrow one for my last class of the day today and it was amazing, they paid attention for a surprisingly long time before scattering and I think the administrators noticed that the presence of music was a good thing because they told me that would get me one after January 1st (definitely won't believe it til it's sitting on my desk).  Apparently they are building two new classrooms starting in March so maybe I'll have a real classroom eventually.  But seeing that it's Thailand, not too much runs according to schedule so it could be a while before they actually get built.  I can't even describe how different this classroom is compared to the other four classrooms I was bouncing between at the old school.  I would post a picture of the previous ones but it's not even worth it.  There is a picture of my classroom at the bottom of this entry.

I am the classroom teacher and I teach English, Math and Social Science and my Thai teacher teaches Thai.  They have one extracuricular class a day - art, sport, song and drama, computer and KLC (not sure what it stands for but we go to a big room with lots of toys and they're supposed to play nice with each other).  I also teach "Extra English" for an hour after school for parents who make their kids suffer through more classes - just kidding, we usually just review stuff and color and sing.   My kids are very young but they speak and understand more than my previous 130 kids combined.  I get a "Good Morning Teacher Ana" and a hug every morning.  Unfortunately, I'm going by Teacher Ana because Annaliese is a bit too much for them. 

Let me introduce you to my class:

Suri - one of the littlest and one of my favs because she always wants hugs

Lily - doesn't really say much but is well behaved

Gianni - my half Italian, half Thai little devil

Eye - The bane of my existance, don't let the smile fool you.  She's the youngest student in the school and yesterday she peed her pants four times because I threw her in the shower each time and she likes the way the water feels.  I made her wear a diaper today. 

Sarah - doesn't really talk and I think she's scared of school

Luca - another one with a cute smile but is definitely NOT the definition of an angel - he does have a lot of potential but all the Thai teachers in the school are obsessed with him after he hits someone or something, they pick him up and say "no" but he likes being help so it's kind of counterproductive

Dam - haven't quite figured him out yet, rocks a ponytail so that's cool

Leo - Love of my life, he's actually ten times cuter in the morning because he comes with a mohawk

Ethan - biggest spoiled brat I've ever met, am I allowed to say that? But is actually super smart and when he feels like paying attention, he brings a lot to the table.  However, he bites to get his way and that is definitely no good. His mom is Taiwanese, his dad is from Finland and they speak Chinese and English to him so he is learning Chinese, English and Thai right now.

Teacher Maiyan - My Fillipino assistant teacher who actually teaches computer class and song and drama class to the whole school but assists on a lot of my lessons and she is the best!  Speaks very good English and definitely knows what she is doing. 

Teacher Tudktuk - My Thai teacher who helps assist with some of my classes and teaches my class Thai.  She doesn't speak too much English but is really good with the kids and is laughing all the time - not sure if she's laughing at me or herself but I think herself and that's why I like her.  

Two of my little nuggets 

My Classroom - not a full shot of it but most of it minus my desk, Teacher Tudktuk's desk, some cupboards and bookshelves

I stayed at school today until 5:30 because I wanted to make my room feel more like a classroom.  Since no one had really used it as a classroom before me, it doesn't really have much in it that is personalized for our "Panda" class (all the classes are named after animals).  So I made a bulletin board out front with a panda border to post our schedule and all the children's photos and a class picture that we took today.  Another good thing about this school is that Christmas is in full effect here because we have so many foreign students and students with mixed backgrounds.  Literally, the school looks like Christmas threw up on it and it's awesome.  Imagine all the tacky decorations you possibly can and more garland than you have ever seen in your life - I had no idea pink and blue garland was so popular.   Teacher Tudktuk made a Christmas tree out of garland on our door and today Eye's mom brought us a little white fake tree that I decorated with ornaments from Ethan's mom and put it outside our room.  We'll have to see how long it takes for it to get eaten or knocked over - I'm guessing by 9 am tomorrow.  We have a large (fake) tree in the center of the school and Santa is coming next Friday the 23rd!  I'll be sure to take more pictures when everything is fully decorated...

Update

I know I haven't written in a while and it's because I've done nothing but lay in bed for the past 10 days and be sick.  After the meds from the clinic I went to were doing nothing and things were getting worse, I ended up going to the hospital on Saturday where I saw a doctor that prescribed a whole new set of medications and some weird cough syrups to drink.  I got x-rays on my chest and on my face to see what the problem is but they couldn't really come up with anything other than bronchitis and a "nose and throat" infection even though my throat doesn't hurt in the least and the only thing that really hurts is my ears.  The doctor didn't speak too much English and six days later, I haven't improved and I still can't hear anything out of either of my ears.  I keep waiting for all of this medication to work but since it hasn't, I guess I'm headed back to the hospital this weekend.  I did start at my new school yesterday because I had to, but let me tell you,  I am more exhausted than I have ever been in my whole life!!  I'll take pictures soon of my kids and my classroom (yes I have a classroom) and give more details on my school days as I figure them out.  Since I can't hear much out of my ears, it has been very difficult to understand what is going on around me but I will slowly figure it out.   It's six pm and almost time for bed for me!