Korp khun kub, laa la gorn.

Thank you for reading this blog. It has been a pleasure chronicling this eleven month journey. I am sad to end this, but there are other things to do now. Hopefully I will find something half as interesting as my experience in Thailand to write about and, consequently, bore you with. I encourage everyone to go abroad at some point. If you really want something different than the good ol USA, go to Asia.

Although things seem sharply familiar back at home, my outlook on all things cultural and social is forever changed.

Thank you, and goodbye.

Chok Dee, Suksanaree(No Tears...)*

As my time here in Thailand comes to an end, I am left with the feeling of already being gone, of looking back on the many experiences I have had in poignant reflection. Many of these experiences have taken place at my school. It has been interesting learning how to adjust and actually become a part of school life. In a way I feel like I have earned a certain amount of respect from the entire school, and that is very gratifying. This is important to me because I have taken this job, or at least my interactions with Thai students and teachers, very seriously. I wanted to be more than just some dancing bear, placed on display for everyones amusement(an exotic creature, if you will). I feel like I have surpassed that standard as a teacher and that maybe, just maybe, people take me somewhat seriously. It is kind of ridiculous, the whole thing. They throw 2 or 3 foreign native speakers in the mix at a school that is 100% Thai and expect some natural bonding of spirits and meeting of minds. I may be overstating the case a bit, but this expectation, or anything near it, is simply impossible to meet. In all honesty, it has been a struggle, a challenge, and, most optimistically, an opportunity for personal growth. I have had ups and downs, but overall I feel like my tenure at Suksanareewittaya School has taught me many invaluable lessons. Not only have I learned to work with people who are from a completely foreign place, but I have also learned to understand the social nuances of the culture which, in many ways, resemble any other society. Life for many Thai's is quite demanding. The good thing about Thai people is that they do not need much to be happy, so the students, for the most part, keep a positive attitude and light-hearted disposition. Many of the students come from lower socioeconomic standing, and I presume that their life at home is not ideal. It is obvious sometimes in the classroom when these students are acting out or just possibly escaping the woes of their domestic situation. But I am sure that this is an element in public schools all over the world. I have learned to take the good with the bad, to embrace the joy of teaching and let go of the more troubling aspects that are, at times, shoved in my face. This is the essence of what I have learned by teaching these students: to be driven by the positive aspects of the experience of teaching and not distracted by the perplexity of instructing a diverse body of people. There is no escaping certain difficulties when you're dealing with thousands of young students, but the rewarding aspects of being a part of their education certainly outweigh the more disturbing ones(student deaths, violence, alienation, indifference). I love this school, and I am sad to be finished here. Today I walked around the school, in and out of seemingly abandoned classrooms that, during school hours, are hardly able to contain the constant outflow of frenetic adolescent energy. I feel like I have already left because, in many ways, I am gone. Goodbye school.

*Chok dee= Good luck.

*Suksanaree= Suksanareewittaya School

Things Thai People Like (and Dislike)

As I have stated over and over again throughout this blog, Thailand is a very unique place. Of course, my only basis of comparison is the good ol' land of the brave, but the differences are so astounding and downright addling at times that it is crucial to sometimes sit back and objectively take a look at what I am and have been experiencing. I recently came across a great blog, Things White People Like, and was almost immediately inspired to do something similar with my limited experience in Thailand. Now first and foremost, this is in no way meant to be offensive. In fact, most of these characteristics are at the very worst eccentric and at the very best flattering. Thai people are so culturally centered and, while allowing a healthy amount of foreign influence, very proud and pleased with their distinct way of life. I am merely embracing this way of life by pointing the humorous observations of a few foreign admirers. What follows is a list of 50 things that, in my and several consultants' opinions, most Thai people seem to like. I wanted to present a lengthy list of things Thai people do not like, but I struggled to come up with more than 10. After all, as my friend Liz Jewett put it, "they are very agreeable people." This is intended to be a light-hearted look at the Thai people and is probably slightly geared toward the 13-25 year old age group seeing that I have had more direct contact with this bracket. Please keep in mind, this is intended to be an endearing look at a people who I consider to be, now and forever, my dear friends. I would also like to thanks a few collaborators for this entry, friends of mine who have been here and marvelled at the interesting and sometimes peculiar way of the Thai people. Thank you Caitlyn Scherer, Gerry McAndrew, and especially Liz Jewett. And one last thing. I apologize to those of you who have never lived in Thailand as you may not be able to appreciate this fully. So, without further ado, I present...

Things Thai People Like:

1) Online computer games

2) Ice cream sandwich, literally with bread

3) Taking photographs

4) Karaoke

5) Being in photographs preferably while suspended in mid-air

6) Colored contact lenses

7) Umbrellas

8) Pork

9) Umm, rice

10) Football

11) Cellular telephones

12) "Hello"

13) Online computer games

14) Meat on a stick

15) Prison Break

16) Foreigners attempting to speak Thai

17) Foreigners attempting to do anything Thai-ish

18) Ring tones

19) 6 hours of sleep, max

20) "I'm fine, thank you, and you?"

21) Motorcycles

22) Thailand

23) Impromptu dance parties

24) Foreigners dancing

25) Thai food

26) Light heartedness in dire situations

27) Beauty

28) Drinking soda out of a plastic bag

29) 555( 5=ha in Thai language...Thai equivalent to LOL)

30) Thai soap operas

31) Online computer games

32) The whiskey drinking ritual

33) Superstitious beliefs

34) Loudspeakers set to medium volumes to avoid shouting(vendors)

35) Chatting online while being in the same room with you

36) Japanese anime

37) "Hero"- Mariah Carey

38) Action/ Sci-Fi movies

39) Taking photos on the beach while simultaneously avoiding sunlight

40) Weird homemade candy

41) Wearing heals for women(and, well, for some men)

42) White people(literally, the whiter the better)

43) Drive-by dance parties

44) Extremely disturbing and violent horror movies

45) Online computer games

46) Khao San Road(you would think they wouldn't like this because it is very touristy, but many of my Thai friends love it)

47) Dancing, singing, every, any, and all competition(s)

48) Slapstick comedy, Thai style

49) Straws

50) Baby Powder

Things Thai People Don't Like:

1) Ghosts

2) The sun

3) Shorts

4) Loud people, places, or things

5) Stares from strangers

6) Cell phone etiquette

7) Being solitary

8) Laziness(mind and body, that is...computer games take a lot of energy actually)

9) Public displays of affection

10) Meals that are not shared

I LOVE YOU, THAILAND. SAWASDEE KRAP.

Spanish Is Chicken

I've been here since May. In that time, my interest in Thai language has certainly evolved to a level of pining for knowledge, accuracy, dare I say fluency, whereas at first I was only concerned with basic, practical communication. Just because you pine for something, (or someone), does not mean that you will succeed in attaining it. This is how I feel everyday. I feel like I'm on the losing side of unrequited love. Could I possibly want to learn Thai more than my brain is willing to give? Maybe it's just the language itself that alludes me purposefully, as I must have done something that has caused it to be totally turned off by me. Ha ha, right? This whole love metaphor is hysterical, eh guys? Well, it may be hyperbolic, but it is how I feel sometimes. There have been days where I feel like I am doing quite well with learning Thai, and then another day comes along and I realize that I really know nothing. And, I'm studying almost every day. Maybe this is a result of years of laziness. You can ask any lazy person out there. When we actually decide, or by some random force of God act in accordance to some prescribed requirement, to exert the proper amount of effort into anything, we expect immediate and unmitigated results. What any regularly hard working individual will say is that every task takes patience, in labor and understanding.

Thai language is fascinating. It is quite different from English, beginning with the fact that Thai has a completely separate alphabet. The Thai alphabet derives from the Khmer script, which is composed of a writing called Vatteluttu. There are 44 consonants and fifteen vowel letters, which combine to form almost thirty vowel sounds and five "tones". And this is the notable difference between Thai and English, besides the difference in alphabet and linguistic influences: the tones. Now, I realize that we use tones in English. We may say "what?" if we do not understand something that has just been said, or we may say "whaaaat!?" if we are in disbelief of something that has just been said. But this kind of tone differentiation has no real bearing on the meaning of the word itself, unlike Thai language. For example, the word "mah"(transliterated of course from the Thai alphabet to form the closest possible Latin- letter phonetic equivalent) can mean five completely different things, depending on how it is pronounced. It can mean "to come" when it is pronounced with no emphasis, also called the mid tone. The high tone changes the meaning to "horse", the rising to "dog", and two others that I do not know. The word "khao" can mean rice, mountain, white, or he/she/it. I was talking to a Thai friend about how difficult I found the language to be, especially when compared to a language like Spanish. I got cute, and muttered "Spanish ngai", attempting to say "Spanish is easy". She looked at me curiously and asked why I thought that "Spanish is chicken". Ha. There you go. Chicken, or "gai/kai" in Thai, is not even close in meaning to "ngai", or easy, yet there I was, standing proud after declaring the Spanish language to be equal to a delicious leg, or breast, of (let's say fried) chicken.

I have been trying to learn Thai for sometime now, and there are times when I feel like I am making progress. I usually then realize how much I do not know, perhaps after an attempt at speaking Thai becomes a source of uncontrollable laughter. I am lucky to have many patient Thai friends who seem happy enough to help me out. Thai is just a difficult language. English is much easier, believe me.

The Road Lest Travelled

It all started on a train from Bangkok, the first of several legs of travel that would eventually lead us to Laos. We had planned this trip months in advance. This is what foreigner teachers in Thailand do. We teach for 3 and a half months and travel modestly when a good opportunity presents itself, a long weekend perhaps. We get paid an ample salary, in my estimation. It would not stretch too far in the U.S., but the affordability and convenience of Thailand enabled me to put aside a healthy sum of money for holiday travels. I am particularly fortunate because my break in between semesters has lasted over 6 weeks. I start back next Monday, November 2nd.

We arrived at Hualampong Train Station in Bangkok on the evening of October 4 with my old friend Clair McCalla and her friend Sally Wilson, both of whom have also been teaching in the land of smiles. The trip began with a delay. When we arrived we found out that a train en route to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, the same rails we would be following, had suffered an electrical malfunction and would be delayed several hours. We later found out that this accident resulted in multiple deaths, all Thai's in 3rd class. This set back sort of established a tone for our entire vacation, a trip that would involve many legs of hectic travel and unpredictable "twists and turns". We finally boarded the train, and 13 hours later, after a poor night's sleep, arrived in Chiang Mai in northwest Thailand. Laos has two main regions: Northern Laos, the area directly north of Thailand; and East/South Laos, the area that runs vertically east of Thailand. Our destination was N. Laos. Our train train departed from central Thailand(BKK), and, as I have said, arrived in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. From this point we took a 5 hour bus ride to Chiang Kong, the last town in Thailand before the great Mekong River that divides Thailand and Laos(and also runs through Cambodia). In fact( I think, at least), the region comprised of N. Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia is also referred to as The Greater Mekong area. We spent the night in Chiang Kong and woke up early to get a jump on to our slow boat trip up the Mekong to Luang Prabang, Laos. When we crossed the river and entered Laos, we met a nice Laotian who advised us that the slow boat venture was not only exhausting(1.5 days), but also somewhat dangerous, as the hostels are notorious for a lack of security and a variety of tourists scams. We were persuaded to hire a minibus to drive us to Luang Prabang, and here is where our misadventures on the road really began. The man advised us that while it would be faster to take the minibus to Luang Prabang, it was still going to be a bumpy ride because 90% of the roads had been completed. This, according to our advisor, would leave an insignificant portion of the path pitted. Boy were we deceived. The ride, which took almost 14 hours and only covered a distance of ~100 kilometers, was turbulent, uncomfortable, and strange. The only route available is through the mountains, and the road is maybe 75% completed, at best. This leaves at least a quarter of the road tantamount to mere jagged terrain. There was hardly room for the van to maneuver. I was glad that I decided to not drink a considerable amount of fluids before departing. I don't think I would have been able to suffer gladly had my kidneys been busy during this snailing along of a road trip. Mai ben rai, no worries. We made it into Luang Prabang around midnight and checked into the nearest available guest house. I was expecting Laos to be a mirror image of Thailand, but this was not the case. Laos was colonized by the French(after Thailand relinquished the territory that is now current day Laos to avoid colonial occupation itself), and the French influence is well pronounced. Luang Prabang is the best place to see and experience this peculiar western impact on Asia. There are coffee shops at ever corner and other western-style foods that are difficult, if not impossible, to come by in Thailand. We were able to enjoy these western conveniences as we pleased and were also able to explore the mountain and village life of this extremely rural and primitive country. Though I may be focusing on the negative aspects of our excursion through Laos, I must say that its physical geography is stunning.

We spent a few days in Luang Prabang and then headed south to Vang Vieng a small back packers' haven famous for its drunken tubing and secluded caves. OUR NEXT LEG OF TRAVEL was then, of course, underway.

We took a "VIP" bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. This, as advertised, was supposed to be an air con bus that would have us in Vang Vieng in 5.5 hours. Before we boarded the bus, we were immediately alarmed. It was packed to the brim, there were stools in the aisle for passengers that we would pick up along the way, and one of the conductors was trying his damnedest to figure out a way to load a motorcycle onto the top of the bus. There were sick little kids spread throughout the bus, coughing and crying. Some of the adults, one in particular who chose to sit by us in the back, were coughing up flem(spelling?) of the most unsavory variety. And they handed each passenger a plastic bag before we departed. We didn't know until after the trip what these bags' purpose were, but they are used for the collection of urine and other fluids that I'll avoid mentioning as not to taint the decency and innocence of this blog. Clair and I both got sick within 2 days of this bus trip. It was disgusting, and, to boot, the ride took approximately 8 hours. Whatever, never mind, forget about it. We try at all times to maintain a Thai disposition. Mai ben rai, I guess. These could be my last words one day.

Vang Vieng was very nice. We stayed for 5 days, which I guess is proof of its appeal. Honestly, there is not a whole lot to do, minus the tubing and random outdoor excursions. We rented motorcycles and explored the countryside. A couple of those days were spent doing nothing, just relaxing and enjoying the fact that we had nothing to do. I'm still not sure why we spent 5 days there.

We kayaked down a tributary of the Mekong River to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. This may have been the smoothest leg of travel for the entire trip, and it was via waterway. We arrived in Vientiane, had some dinner, and then hopped on a bus to Bangkok. I think this was the 11th or 12th day since our original departure from Bangkok. It was quite a journey.

I have a new found appreciation for Thailand. I remember seeing the first 7/11 as we entered Thailand and feeling overwhelmingly glad to be home. We stopped at a cheap VIP convenient store/ restaurant for a quick bite. Oh how I was delighted to taste the spice of Thai food again. I don't know how I will ever eat any other food again. Bottom line, I was happy to be back. Laos was great. It really is a beautiful country with some very friendly people, and I was with two lovely young ladies with whom I had the privilege of spending almost 2 weeks with. Laos is a very different place than Thailand with a distinct identity.It has an independent set of values, a complex history, and a different outlook as a result. I look forward to traveling to other SE Asian countries so that I may discover what it is that makes each one of these places unique.

October

Will be out of for most of this month. I just returned from our annual English Camp in Hua Hin. Beautiful beach town, and just in time to beat the busy season. I doubt I will post anything until I get back to Bangkok. I know there are some of you who are committed readers of this blog(hey mom), and I apologize for not posting lately. I have been busy.

I am traveling to Laos for two weeks, and then I will help out with OEG Teach in Thailand October Orientation. Hope all is well.

Sawasdee

Heart Water*

This past weekend I traveled to Surin Province, a small rural village in the Northeast region of Thailand. This area is known for its primitive environment, and the people, who speak a different dialect than the universally spoken "Bangkok" Thai language, are unique in lifestyle and culture. Most ostensibly, the major difference is the rural countryside these people inhabit. Surin is a village community, and the village I visited, one of the larger ones in the province, has a population of 973 people. I was invited by a family who owns and operates a small "Esan"(moniker for NE Thailand) restaurant near my apartment. These people feed me 4-5 nights a week for a very modest price, and I try to help them learn English with mundane chit chat(although I must say it is difficult to have successful small talk between people who do not speak the same language). Nevertheless, they are my friends. When they asked me to go with them to Surin, I jumped at the chance. What could be more rugged or adventurous than to travel with a Thai family to a strange place in the middle of nowhere? Answer: not many things. It was one of those trips that I thought would be good to have in the books, to talk about later on down the road when I'm back home sitting comfortably in my living room talking with family members. In other words, my chief motivation was to secure yet another story to tell. I wanted to be able to say "Yeah, I did that...I hopped in a car on Friday and took the train back on Sunday...I slept in a cottage with 7 people on the floor...I rode water buffaloes across the pond to the rice fields...I ate "Indian style" for 4 straight meals and felt bona fide...etc., etc., etc..." I did in fact do some of these things, but that is not the point. What I missed is something I often miss, as I often get caught up in the selfish thrill of an extemporaneous experience(side note: while I had 3-4 weeks notice of this trip, I tried not to think about it so that I could approach the weekend as a spur of the moment decision). One of the best mottoes in life that I fail to adhere to is to live outside yourself; that is, to consistently think of the thoughts and feelings of others around you so as to achieve a heightened sense of fulfilment and/or gratitude. I am usually so preoccupied with my own convenience and comfort that I miss the essential beauty of the experience: the people. A common theme I have written about in this blog is the kindness and generosity of the Thai people. Now, I once again return to it. The family I met and stayed with for 24 hours in Surin accepted me warmly into their home, and while we were unable to communicate verbally, there was a kindness, a feeling of love even, that I will keep with me for the rest of my life and remember always.

Sometimes I find myself most comfortable in unfamiliar environments, in places where I have never been and will most likely never return. These fleeting experiences have a certain romantic appeal. As I said, this appeal is related to a certain spirit of spontaneity, a lack of adequate planning and a complete absence of expectation. However I build it up in my mind beforehand, or even perceive the experience as it is happening, the memory takes on a life of its own. This may seem like an obscure idea, but, to me, there are three time-related aspects of experience: a) build up/expectation(or lack thereof), b) the actual experience, and c) the memory. Sometimes I cannot fully appreciate something until it has passed and all that remains are fragmented thoughts and feelings that enter my mind at random moments in my life. Although it has only been three days since I walked the dirt roads of Surin, the memory has already taken form and is getting stronger by the minute. I have had some experiences that, at the time, were profoundly distressing. But now, looking back as a different person, I cherish everything that has happened in my life, good and bad. I feel lucky now to be able to continue accumulating new life experiences and even luckier to have found some of the most beautiful people in the world. Streams of heart water overflow in the land of smiles.

* The Thai word for "kindness" translates literally in English as "heart water"