So I'm not very good at blogging lately...

I realized that I haven't been blogging AT ALL.  Last time I blogged is when I found the Winnie the Pooh poster and meant to blog the next day when I went to a massive Wal-mart like store a good drive away from my house and it was filled with Winnie the Pooh stuff!  It was so weird, they had everything Winnie the Pooh - comforters, workbooks, cups, shirts, everythingggg.  It made me so happy.  I was also pretty happy when I found zip-lock baggies, scotch tape and a potholder!  YAY I've been searching for those three things since I got here and they were on my list of stuff for my parents to bring.  The little things make a big difference.  Now if I could only find Cheezitsssss.  I meant to just browse the store and ended up spending $40 on stuff, which included a hardcore, massive motorbike helmet that I felt I needed to invest in after a guy that lived near us died on his motorbike because he wasn't wearing a helmet.  I could have gotten one for $5 but I spurgled and spent $15 and got one with padding- that may not seem like a lot of money to spend but when you're on teacher's salary in Thailand, that's some serious cash. 

School is going well, I still don't have a Thai teacher so my days are crazier than they should be and I have zero time to do anything during the day.  Finding two minutes to find someone to watch my kids so I can go to the bathroom is a process.  I've been busy with mid-term progress reports that were due today and getting everything ready for the teachers that are going to have to cover for me on Thursday and Friday this week because.....I'LL BE IN MALAYSIA.  We have to go to Malaysia tomorrow night and  I say "we have to go" because we actually do.  Nancy, Courtney and I have to leave the country by Friday because our visa expires and we have to leave in order to get a new visa so we can stay here for another 90 days.  Business visas/work permits take months to get the paperwork done so I have to go get another tourist visa while I wait for my paperwork to come back from Bangkok.  So tomorrow, we are getting on an overnight van for ten hours to Malaysia, going straight to the embassy when we arrive in the morning, hang out at a hotel for 24 hours while our paperwork processes, get it Friday morning and take a ten hour bus back during Friday day.  Sounds lovely.  Hopefully it all goes smoothly and my back doesn't spaz out during the ride. 

I have bus duty in the morning so I'm headed to bed - I'll try to update more often, I have just been living life like a relatively normal person without much to report....

Koh Phra Thong

I know I need to get out more during the week when the most exciting moment of my week so far was finding a Winnie the Pooh numbers 1-10 counting poster in a cupboard in the Pre-K classroom next door today.  I really can't tell you how excited I was.  Winnie the Pooh in Thailand!

On another note, this past weekend I went off the island of Phuket again - this time to another island up north called Koh Phra Thong, one of the first islands of the Similian Island chain.  Koh Phra Thong is also known as Golden Buddha Island and is named after a local legend. The story tells of a precious stolen golden buddha statue buried on the island by pirates which was never recovered. It was a pretty last minute trip and I actually didn't know where I was going until I got there but it was better that way because I didn't have to do any of the planning and I didn't have to worry beforehand about things going smoothly.  My friend Amy from school invited me to go with her and eight of her friends from South Africa that are also here teaching English and I didn't have any plans for the weekend or our day off on Monday (Teacher's Day) so I said yes.  After waiting at the bus stop for an hour and twenty minutes and then a MISERABLE five hour bus ride that was only supposed to be three where there were no seats and I was sitting on the floor in the aisle, I was starting to doubt my decision to come.  After getting to the bus station in Kuraburi, the owner of the place where we were staying - Mr. Chuoi, pronounced "Chewy" came to get us and we hopped in the back of his pickup truck and headed to the pier.  Then we sat on a longboat for another hour and finally we were there.  There being a deserted island in the middle of the ocean that turned out to be a hidden gem. 

Our accomodations were grass huts in the sand a few hundred feet from the ocean.  Pretty awesome.  Amy and I definitely got the best of the four huts as one had large bugs, one had spiders and one had wasps.  We only had frogs so I was happy about that.  This was definitely a place where snakes were plentiful and since there was only electricity from 6pm to 11pm, walking in the dark wasn't my favorite thing to do. 

There was actually a need for this sign

Our hut for the weekend

Saturday when we got there, we walked the beach and sat down for dinner at Mr. Chuoi's place.  We actually thought there was no one else on the island beside Mr. Chuoi, his sister the cook and her son named "Boy".  Mr. Chuoi was a character to say the least but I guess you have to find ways to amuse your self when you live on an island.  His favorite word was "technique" - don't know who taught it to him but he used it for everything.  We came to find out that Mr. Chuoi's was pretty much the only place on the island to serve food so there were a couple of other people that came from the other "resort" to eat, either couples or scuba divers.  Apparently, the area we were in is one of the best scuba places in Thailand.   One guy we met had arrive three days prior and was staying on the island for seven weeks to get his scuba certificate.  He came directly from Manhattan where he had been living for ten years and somehow ended up on Koh Phra Thong - talk about a serious culture shock. 

Sunday, we got up and walked the beach right in front of our place that we did the day before and then decided to see what was around the bend and we found an even more beautiful beach!  Then went around the next bend and there was another even more beautiful than that last two. 

Mr. Chuoi in a nutshell

Boy

Monday, we decided it would be a good idea to try to swim to one of the islands that we could see from land.  Maybe not the smartest decision but we actually made it there and back.  We got eaten alive by sea lice, which are like mini jellyfish that pinch your skin and it stings for a while, so that was no fun but the swim definitely woke up us.  We explored the island for a bit, got bitten by hoards of red ants, found a shirt buried in the sand and made a flag with it to mark our territory and headed back to mainland.   

The island we swam to - it was actually way further than it looks

We headed out after one because we didn't know how long it was going to take us to get back and we didn't really believe Mr. Chuoi that the bus came at 3:20.  And it didn't, 2:30 and 4:30 - he must had just picked a random time and thought it was funny.  We made it back to Phuket fairly quickly and for $65 total including round trip bus, taxi and boat, two night accommodations, snacks, meals and drinks - I'd do it again for sure....

Ratchaprap​a Dam, Khao Sok

I know I'm a little behind on my posting - I've been busy!  As I mentioned in the previous post, the weekend of January 7th, we went to the Ratchaprapa Dam up in Surat Thani Province with my friend Peem and his whole family, about three and a half hours north of Phuket.  It was so beautiful!  Nancy and I got up there fairly quickly on a van on Friday night, stayed in a hotel in the "city" of Surat Thani and got picked up at nine am on the dot by Peem and his family.  We headed to a Chinese breakfast and I ate far too many weird pasteries and who knows what else.  I thought we were headed right to the Dam but instead we went to pick his grandmother and her posse of twenty up at the airport and found out we had a whole day of adventures planned for us.  His grandma and her friends went straight to the golf course (mind you, they are well into their eighties) and we went on a little tour of the area.  First, we saw a meditation center and then headed to the most amazing seafood lunch ever on the ocean.  Seriously, my best meal here yet and somehow the dish I ordered of fried seafood tasted exactly like Trader Joe's orange chicken - don't ask how, but it did and I was obsessed. 

Then we went to a tiny town in the countryside where we saw where they make real Thai silk and I had to buy some of course.  I got three silk scarves for under $10 total - I should have gotten more!  But good thing we were with native Thais because number one - we never would have known about this place, number two - we probably wouldn't have gotten to go out back behind the stores and actually see them weave the silk and number three - we got Thai prices, which are so rare for us because we weren't getting ripped off for once. 

Our last stop of the day before the Dam was to a beautiful Buddhist temple that was surrounded by water, which is apparently very rare and Peem actually said he had never seen one before.  I got a little bit of information on temple and the Buddhas surrounding it and I definitely have a lot more to learn about Buddhism. 

We got to the Dam around five and headed to our villa on the water.  Yes you read that right - villa!  We got so spoiled this weekend!  Saturday night dinner was very good and after listening to some Thai men sing karaoke, we headed to bed.  Sunday morning, we woke around very early and were on a boat at 6:30 am for a morning cruise around the Dam to watch the sun rise and the mist surround the mountains.  Pictures don't do it justice and it was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. 

Sunrise

Peem's 86 year old grandmother climbed up there herself and was posing for pictures while the boat was flying through the water

After breakfast were the bat caves!  The young people definitely had an adventure in these caves as there was only one flashlight and someone slipped and fell into a mud hole every few minutes.  After that, we headed to a local community park outside of the Dam (which is a national park) and saw hot springs and quick sand holes before we started the journey back to Phuket

Bat Caves

I could go on and on about how amazing this place was and how I did not want to leave or about how our trip home took seven hours but it's well past my bedtime.  I'll post tomorrow about this past weekend and how I slept in a grass hut with lizards and frogs for three days in the Similian Islands...

Back to Reality

Pictures of our New Years outfits are at the bottom of this post.  Sadly, I dropped my camera in the ocean that night so I have to get a new one so who knows when that will happen, hopefully soon!

Wednesday morning I woke up after 10 days of not working and DID NOT want to get out of bed.   I pressed snooze twice and kept thinking of all the things I would rather be doing (mostly just continuing to sleep) but finally remembered that I had a job and actually had to get myself up.  I got to school and before I had even put my bag down, my coordinator came up do me and said, "Um, there's something I have to tell you...Teacher Tuktuk (my thai teacher) quit over break and moved to Austria."  I'M SORRY WHAT????  And Austria?!  Could you get more random? She couldn't have given a little more notice so they could find me another assistant/thai teacher?  Nope!  And have they found me a new teacher?  Nope.   Apparently Thai teachers are relatively hard to find because you have to have a full education and they don't make very much money.  I really hope they find me one soon because having a classroom of little children and no assistant to take them pee or make them sit down while I am trying to teach a lesson is pretty counterproductive. Whatever, I guess my kids will be doing more playing than usual because it's not my fault that they haven't brought someone it to help and I can't teach them Thai lessons or that if nothing gets done when no one is around to help when one little one runs out the door and another pees themself and two others are punching each other all at the same time (happens often).  Today during math, I almost felt as though the children felt my anxiety because they sat and listened like they never had before.  We went an entire hour without an incident (minus Eye pooping herself twice in 15 minutes) and it was an amazingly calm and functional lesson.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  Math and English back to back in the morning for two hours is a lot for them to handle. 

Nancy, Shawn, Courtney and I are off to Surat Thani for the weekend to go to Ratchaprap​a Dam with Peem and his lovely family.  His grandfather designed all of the dams in Thailand and sadly passed away last year so his family is meeting at one of his dams to honor him and have a nice weekend.  They generously invited us and WE ARE SO EXCITED!  We're getting on a 4-5 hour bus ride tomorrow after work and we'll come back Sunday night - I will be highly impressed if our bus shows up on time tomorrow or at all but we are hoping for the best.  The celebrations go until Monday but unfortunately we have to be back for work so we can't stay.  Check it out it looks amazing!  www.ratchaprapadam.com

I am deliriously tired because I had bus duty this morning which means I was at school at 6:30 am having to function and talk to people so I am headed to bed.  Goodnight!

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??