Paparazzi Session Number 2

The smell of incense, fried food and exhaust greeted me as I turned the corner of Soi 5 Ratchatiwi. I tried to squish swiftly through the typical melee of street vendors, cheap clothes sellers, and commuters on the broken-up sidewalk. At one point, a businessman dashed by me like a sprinter to catch the faded orange bus before it pulled away from the curb. Then a lady boy wearing bright red lipstick and a short skirt swooshed by, getting on the bus right after the businessman. Oh Thailand.

This morning I didn’t get as many of the usual stares when I walk through the street life to the park. I expect the stares, I mean I do sort of stand out. A white girl wearing shorts, tank top and running shoes, while everyone else is dressed for work or school… and of course most are mainly Thai. But today I seemed to blend in a little more, or so I felt. I thought, “Ahh, maybe I’m slowly looking more Thai without even knowing it…”

After about 5 minutes I made it to my refuge, the idyllic park on Soi Ragnam. It feels like a Central Park, manicured peace nestled in the midst of a chaotic crazed city. I breathed a sigh of relief as I started off my first lap around the walking path that circles the small pond, playground area, and picnic tables. Today the fountains were still and silent, but once I was lucky enough to get to watch them do a choreographed dance to inspiring classical music. It was so random it made my day.

I have created a little game for myself as I run at the park. I like to gaze at the people looking bored on the benches that border the walking path and figure out what they are doing and why they are there. I saw one man looking entranced with his cell phone, I assumed he was waiting for his girlfriend to call and she was taking forever. Then I came across an older, slightly overweight man running the opposite direction, wearing a sweat stained grey tank top, punching the air rapidly. I assumed he was an old Thai boxer, still trying his moves, which now aren’t quite up to par.

The next group was three university students sitting on a bench. I could tell they were in university because they were all wearing the traditional university uniforms. The two girls had shorter black skirts, brown belts with a funky clasp, and a white shirt with large silver buttons with the special emblem of the university. The guy had on black pants with the same style shirt. Each one also had a huge camera, which looked like one someone in the paparazzi totes around. I guessed that maybe their professor had asked them to take pics of the flowers arrangements or something. I agreed that the new potted poinsettias mixed with the vibrant green grass was a good contrast for photos..maybe I should have told them..but I sprinted by without another thought.

It was hot already, even though it was only 9:30 a.m. I thought I would be able to miss the heat, but it felt like it was 85 degrees edging its way to 90. The sweltering weather took away some of the pleasure of my run, and led me to beginning to become nice and sweaty, looking a little like the old punching man I had seen earlier. But I didn’t think much about it because it wasn’t like anyone else cared.

I was a few strides away from the photo peeps on my third lap, and noticed that this time instead of staring at their cameras, they were all looking at me with expectant faces. Oh boy.

Suddenly the girl with long dark hair with brown highlights smiles and stands up and waves me over. My good pace came to a stand still after she gave her request,” Can we take your picture?”

Of course I was looking so radiant with sweat slipping down my reddened face. My straggly hair was falling out of my loose ponytail. My shirt was splotched with sweat marks all over, looking like I had been attacked randomly with a hose. My black shorts had ridden up and looked more scandalous than they really were.

Why wouldn’t I want them to take a pic of me?

So there they stood, all three of them, cameras ready. I was told to stand closer to the edge, nearer to some nice bush. I wondered if maybe I should have been in a running position or something, just to spice things up, but no, I stood there awkwardly and smiled as best I could. Then they all grinned and nodded, allowing me to continue my run.

I’m thrilled that the whole photo class at their university gets to analyze and stare at those pics of me, that’s awesome.

And on my next lap around the track they were gone. I suppose my assumption was wrong. Maybe their real task was to go find the sweatiest foreign girl in the park, take a pic, and then once you do that you can return.

I’m glad I helped them out.

LIVING IN A MANSION

yes, the time has come to leave the days of having maids come in every day to make my bed, give me fresh towels and wash the dishes. now im on my own and must fend for myself...yet again. and I LOVE IT.

i knew since i arrived that i could only stay at good ol' Evergreen Place Service Apartments from the beginning of august-the beginning of december, so i have always been on the look out, wondering where i would wander to next.

my dear friend mariha, who is an apartment finder extraordinaire, helped me discover my new home, KT Mansion. it is about 2 sky strain stops further away from my work, which is really only like 10 minutes more of a commute--not bad at all. two of my friends live down one of the sois right next to mine, and another lives the next skytrain stop over. so it is nice to have my friends as neighbors. and it is cheaper! it is about a little over a $100 cheaper to live here! so it is nice to have some more money to save...or travel with..

it was an adventure living in Evergreen with international students who wanted to make the most of their few months in bangkok. i loved the girls i lived with, they were all chill and we never had any fights or anything. they were sweet to me, but it is nice to not be woken up by them coming home late and seeing random boys on our couch when i walked out in the morning on my way to work. ahh...but i will miss those wacky days a wee bit.

my goal for my new place was to make it homey, a place i wanted to come home to because i discovered living in a hotel isnt exactly ever homey. so to aid the homey factor, i put up all my posters of pictures of my lovely friends, a colorful collage one of my friends made for me, and picture frames...pretty much the room screams sherri once you amble in.

the colors and one of my favorite parts, the bedspread, also add to the sherri-ness. there isnt much variety of cheap bedspreads in bangkok, but i actually found an original one. it is green and blue with flowers and fairies on it. i always wanted to be a fairy, so it makes me happy whenever i look at it. the ruffle around the edge goes a little too far, but other than that it's all good.

my room consists of a small neon green table with two modernistic chairs. i have a black wooden armorie, which matches my TV stand, and vanity desk. my bathroom is old school thai style. the shower is a removable head above the toilet. so there is no shower curtain. so when it is time to shower the whole bathroom becomes a shower room. so it is sort of like i have a walk in shower. hehee..

the only odd part is i dont have a window. no, surprisingly that doesnt mean i live in cave. there is a window in the random storage room where the a/c sits and makes tons of rattling noises. and frosted windows in my bathroom that let in light. but i dont really mind the non-window. the sun always wakes me up anyways, so i thought it would be sort of nice to not have a window for light to stream in at 6am. but oddly, i still wake up automatically at 630-645 everyday, even though my room is totally dark. i have only slept past 645 three times these past 4 months of living in bangkok. what is up with me? i think i might have eternal jet lag or something.

oh, but there is one more odd part. i live right next to Dunsit Commerical College, which means the shortcut through the college closes at 930pm every night. so the other night i walked with my friend home, and then went toward my place, i arrived at the gate a little before 930 to discover it was already locked. i felt like someone during the holocaust who missed curfew and was stuck oustide the ghetto until morning. im not even sure if ever they really did that, but that is what it felt like.

but luckily there is more than one way to get home. but it took an extra 15 minutes of walking fast down a random soi, instead of 2 minutes through the nice safe campus. oh wells! i will learn my lesson...maybe.

so we shall see what adventures lie ahead of me in KT Mansion. woohoo!

KANCHANABURI FLURRY

DECLARE INDEPENDENCE

I was excited because two weekends go Alice and I had made plans to go to Kanchanaburi, which is about 3 hours north of Bangkok. I had wanted to go ever since my roomies told me about the waterfalls you hike to and go swimming in, and my co-worker related stories to me about how she pet tigers at the tiger temple. So cool! I have decided that traveling is the way I relax, and I needed some of that…

But then Alice couldn’t go because she had a hard week and just wanted to chill in Bangkok. It was understandable, but I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to the trip so much and talking about it all week.

Then one of my friends was like, Sherri, don’t let people stop you from your adventures. Just go on your own! So I was like, yeah, why don’t I!

So even though some people thought I was baa (crazy in Thai), after work on Sunday I packed my small backpack and side bag and then stood on the street to get a taxi to take me and myself to the Southern bus terminal.

After a long, traffic-ful ride, we arrived and I was shoved onto a bus headed for Kanchanaburi. I was the only farang on the bus the entire three-hour trip, which meant I received the usual stares and assumptions that I’m just another tourist. Oh well…

Once we got to Kanchanaburi, the terminal was rather empty, except for this one annoying man who kept telling me that he could take me where I needed to go. I tried to ignore him, and found a taxi man who said he would charge me 80 baht to go to the guesthouse.

The annoying man had tagged along, and said he could do the trip for 40 baht in his bicycle taxi. I got him down to 30 baht, and went with him. He wasn’t so annoying after all..

We rode along through the quiet streets to Apple’s Guesthouse, the one that my Lonely Planet guidebook had raved about. But when we pulled up to the friendly premises, they were dark. The bike-man told me they were full because there were soooo many tourists around, and said he could take me to somewhere else. I didn’t really believe him, but the other place he gave me the flier (he so conveniently had in his back pocket) was a guesthouse I had also read about, Blue Star, and the price for one room was cheaper.

Once we arrived, the owner was so genuine and kind, I thought, why not stay here, plus the room he showed me was so cool… on the outside..

JANE BUT NO TARZAN

It was like a tree-house in a jungle. The bottom floor had the small sketchy bathroom with geckos running amok on the non-flushable toilet. The bedroom was reached by climbing steep steps. It had a nice little porch with a wooden cozy bench and leg rest. So welcoming.

The inside was more like a room a 12 years old stays in when roughing it at summer camp. All it had was a double bed, with no sheets, just a threadbare blanket folded at the end. Then next to the bed was a stool with a small mirror over it. That was it. The screened windows had curtains that looked like they had shrunk over the years and barely covered the windows.

One of the most intriguing parts of the room was the lock on the door, it was just one of those you slide over to keep the door in place, like you find on a bathroom door. Wow, and my number one concern had been finding a room where I felt safe…and the adventure begins.

I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WAS A DATE

I chatted with the nice owner and once I said one thing in Thai he got so excited. I didn’t really chat of course, just said a few words which showed him I was trying to learn his tricky language. One thing I said was that I was hungry. The vocab I know the most has to do with food because it is the most important part of life in Thailand.

The owner said since I was hungry, that his friend who had been staring at me during our convo, could show me to town where I could eat, since he was on his way home. I thought oh, he will walk me to the road and be on his way. That’s cool.

But of course that didn’t really happen. It turns out he was going to take me on his motorbike. He took me to what he called an original Thai place, pretty much a normal food stall on by the road. He ordered minced herb pork with just enough spiciness and an egg over rice. As usual, the food was delicious, which was pretty much our main topic of convo, since I have perfected the world delicious in Thai.

The whole time I would try to say something in English, and he would say, speak Thai. So we had this constant banter of confusion of Thaiglish the whole night. Wow, I was working my lacking Thai skills like mad.

I had mentioned earlier how I wanted to go to the night market. Yet again, I assumed he would drop me at the curb of the market and be on his way. Not so much.

He wandered around with me and seemed to know everyone who worked there. They all pointed at us, and he would say girlfriend. I would sort of chuckle and try to ignore the comment and wanted to escape everyone looking at us. So I browsed everything as quickly as possible while trying to look interested.

After a nice round of girlfriend comments, he asked me how old I was. I said 22. He said he was 33. So then he switched and started to say, “Sister!” This I nodded to and said, “Brother!” in Thai.

Ahh, much better. But still every once in awhile he would say “Girlfriend”? And I would say quickly “”Sister!”

So we left the shopping for another stop at a place where we listened to a live band for a little while. The band was delighted that I was taking pictures of them, and kept telling me each pic was 20 baht. Then the owner got them to play for me the only Thai song I know. Everyone was so nice! Ahh, but finally after many pleadings of “Nuay mak” (very tired) to my tour guide, I got to go back to my lovely tree-house.

Finally, the friendly Thai man left me once I started talking with my neighbors in the next tree house over from Germany. I think they were a couple, and the woman seemed tickled by my enthusiasm and would giggle at how I said things.

It turns out they were in the police force together, which they said is a lot less exciting than the police life in the States, from what they see on TV. Heehee..They were happy when I told them I had German ancestors and told me I needed to learn German. I told them the only word I know is my last name which means Angel. Oh well, that’s something!

Then I had a sleepless night in my camp room, and woke up feeling amazed I was safe and sound. But I thought about how even though I had a fairly non-existent lock on my door, at least I had German police next door to protect me. Who needs secure locks when you have them?

FALLING DOWN

Banana, pineapple and honey pancake. Wow. I was in such heavenly bliss during every bite-ful of my breakfast that morning at Blue Star’s restaurant. The warm slices of banana melted in my mouth with the tang of pineapple to give every bit some zing. The pancake was so thick because of the bananas and pineapples that some of the inside didn’t cook all the way through. Usually I wouldn’t like that, but this even added to the perfection because the gooey sections tasted like cake batter freshly licked from the bowl. Wow. I definitely told the owner, that breakfast was alroy mak (very delicious).

Then after my delightful morning of eating bliss, I made my way to the waterfall. I stood on the road at the designated spot to wait for the bus to come. Right when I was starting to lose hope that I was in the right place a man came to ask me what I was waiting for. He told me the bus was coming down the road and flagged it down for me. I love when you travel alone and little angels pop up to help you at just the right time..

After an hour and a half of bumpy bus ridin, we made it to the Erawan National Park. I started wandering on the muddy trail that would lead me to the first of the seven levels of waterfalls. The park was cooler because of all the trees and there was a constant soundtrack of water gurgling. I was the only one on the path for awhile. I felt like I was one of the fellowship from Lord of the Rings, making my way to Rivendell.

Eventually I came upon four Thai girls taking pictures in front of the first fall I came to. I asked them if they wanted me to take their picture and they merrily accepted my offer.

Then it was as if that one small favor had turned me into their best friend forever. They all wanted pictures with me. One of them took my camera and took pictures of me with them. Then they grabbed my hand and brought me along the trail with them. They were smiling and holding me and excitedly talking to me in English, asking me where I was from and what I do.

I felt so loved, it was so sweet! They were from Krabi, a town in the south of Thailand and were on holiday from their work as nurses. They were all wearing cute shirts, flip-flops and bright make-up. Their attire didn’t really fit the hiking environment, and made me giggle.

After a few levels I said farewell to them because they weren’t going to the top. We hugged and I was on my way.

It really felt like I was in a fantasy land. The water was green blue and see- through. The falls were so gentle, not roaring massive ones, but instead calming for the soul.

Once I made it to the top I went swimming! The pool was not cool and felt so nice on my muddy legs. It was like a magical cleansing pool. What a perfect reward for my efforts…

Once the rain that had been dripping through the leafy top began to drop harder, I remorsefully decided I should head back. So I made my way down the slick trail to where the bus had dropped me off.


TIGER TEMPLE

Thankfully there was a food area there because I was famished. I tried to order from the random man who I thought was the server because he was giving the cooks a lot of orders. He looked at me strangely, but then after I spoke in Thai and he gave the cook my order.

“You speak Thai!” He said excitedly. We spoke some more together and then he invited me to sit with him and his friend. Oops, so he wasn’t the waiter..

It turns out he was the leader of a tour group. They had just seen the waterfalls and were on their way to the Tiger Temple. He asked me if I was going to see the temple the next day. I told him I was leaving that afternoon, so I couldn’t go and was sad.

He was like, no, you have to go! He thought about it for a bit and told me that I could go with his tour group to the temple and then they were going back to Bangkok that night, so they could take me with them if I wanted. The price was about the same or a little cheaper than if I made my way back on my own, and it was much easier, so I was like sweet and agreed.

The driver and the tour guide were so excited I was joining them, and kept trying to talk in Thai to me the whole time. There was about 7 other tourists in the spacious, quiet van. It was delightful, a much more relaxed riding environment than the bouncy, noisy bus.

Wow, the tiger temple was crazy! This monk who wanted to start a wildlife sanctuary opened the tiger temple. The tigers are so calm that you can just walk around them and get your picture taken right next to them. They are so chill because they have been hand-raised by humans so they don’t fear people.

I had heard rumors that really the tigers are drugged, and until I went there I believed everyone. But I really don’t think that is the case. The reason is that a lot of the volunteers who work there are from North America and very much the hippie activist type. I highly doubt that type of people would work at a place that drugged tigers, so I’m pretty certain the cats are just relaxed.

Then I even got to see tiger cubs! They were so cute and a little more active and jumpy than the big cats. The handlers know them so well and would tell us to back off when we needed to. I even got to kiss one, as you can see…

It was such an awesome weekend.

Traveling isn’t about the places you go, but the people you meet.

Yay.

VIETNAM VENTURES

FIRST IMPRESSIONS WITH AN ELF MAN

One of our first discoveries in Vietnam was that traffic is louder and crazier than that of Bangkok. Yes, it is possible. By our last day we yearned for the miles of cars, which sit silently on the streets, waiting to for their turn to go at the hour-long red lights.

In Hanoi, no one waits, and everyone honks. Honks. Honks. And honks. I felt like the city was made up of a million broken horns that would randomly go off for no reason. Then there were swarms of motorbikes everywhere. It felt like they were killer bees, waiting to attack innocent tourists on the streets if they step the wrong way.

After a honk-full, almost crashing into a million motorbikes drive in the taxi to the center of Hanoi, we soon discovered our driver didn’t really know where our hotel was. Hmm..neither did we.

Our problem was solved when a man who reminded me of a Vietnamese looking Christmas elf came up to our window. He told us to get out. I was freaked out at first. I thought this little man who was a few inches shorter than 5'3 me would take us to a sketchy place in Hanoi and do something evil to us. I wasn’t going to budge.

It turns out he was just the owner of Ocean Star II (the hostel where we had booked our stay) who had used his magical powers to find the taxi. And I really do think he has special powers.

Right away, our elf friend, who turned out to be a boisterous, lovable ball of energy, was eager to help us book a tour for Halong Bay the next day. The problem was he didn’t speak English well. For some reason the way he said sacts, instead of taxes was pretty much the funniest thing in the world to me at the time and I couldn’t stop laughing. This was probably due to lack of food and sleep. Thankfully, he seemed oblivious to my snickers or just thought I was a freak American with laughing issues.



To make matters worse, Vietnamese dong boggled our famished minds to no end. After what seemed like 30 minutes of explanation in broken English we understood that 16,000 dong equaled one American dollar. But trying to add up these huge sums of money that really equal hardly anything is rather exhausting for the brain. It led to even more laughter from me when he was trying to type everything in the calculator, and we kept looking at him with puzzled stares after his lengthy explanations.

Yet the next few days after rest and food, I became saner and the elf man took a liking to me for some reason. He started to call me his girlfriend. I wanted to say you are too short to be my boyfriend, but didn’t want to hurt him too bad. So he had fun telling people I was his girlfriend, giving me hugs, dancing with me, and kissing me on the cheek.

Now I can say I had a Vietnamese Christmas elf guy for a boyfriend. How delightful! He really made our stay a silly, fun time. So much so that the annoyance soon vanished away that our water didn’t work much, a cockroach ran over Ja one morning and our room was made for a one and a half person and not three.

BAY BABES



The next day we rode in a van for about 3-hours outside of Hanoi to Halong Bay. We passed by farming towns, and stared at men and women working in the rice paddies with the famous straw cone hats. At first I thought these hats were worn for the tourists’ sake, but they actually do wear them for a purpose.. to keep the sun off and to stay cool.

Our van was full of characters. Our tour guide, yet again was lacking in English skills, even though his occupation is an English tour guide for Halong Bay. We had four guys from Switzerland who right away I knew were going to make things fun.

I guessed they were in a hardcore band when I first saw them because of their skating shoes, tattoos, and punk hats. I had never heard punk people speak elegant French before, so that was a cool combo. They are on a tour of the world for 20 months, if their money lasts that is..I was so inspired by them and wish that one day I can take a few months off of life and do the same. Wow, we shall see…Anyone want to join?

When we got on our boat at the bay, it felt like we were on an ancient Asian vessel, prowling the waters. First we went to a fishing village. I was so in awe because people actually live on houseboats, in the village. They don’t live on the land at all. They go to school in a building in the middle of the water. So crazy! We were discussing how boring it would be to live there if you weren’t used to it. The most exciting thing would be to swim over to your neighbor and talk about the catch of the day. Whoa, thankfully I wasn’t born into the life of Halong Bay fishing village…more power to the people who were..

Then we went into some caves, which were part of the UNESCO world heritage site. They were full of stalagmites lit up by different colored lights, like fluorescent green, purple and blue. It felt like we were in a club turned into a cave.

Our tour guide kept pointing at different stalagmites saying, “This is a dragon, do you see the dragon?” And all ten of us would look at each other, trying to decipher what he said and would be like. “No….” And then the Swiss guys would start yelling “Dragon, dragon!” And we would all laugh and stare and still not see it.

Once he told us one of the funky rocky things was Romeo and Juliet in the duck. What? We all looked at each other. What is he saying? Duck? Duck? Hmmm dark? But still it didn’t make sense. At one point he said, “Am I confusing?” I thought of saying yes, but didn’t think it would help much, so I just smiled and said “No! You are fine.” Yet another delightful character to add to our mix.

BIG TV



We were going to spend the next day going around Hanoi and looking at the sites of the city. First of all we shopped and bought cutesy Vietnamese hat decorations. Then we went to some cool gardens and the first Vietnamese library, where the books are huge stone tablets that have Chinese characters engraved in them. Eventually we went to the Ho Chi Min museum. That was interesting because none of us were quite sure who he was, and the whole modernistic, funky museum was very supportive of him.

But eventually we were so exhausted after walking around the whole city for hours that we needed to relax. We decided to try to see a Vietnamese movie at the theater. We found the nice little man who had been taking us around the city in his little bicycle chariot where he drives in the back and we ride in the front.

It is perfect because you have an unblemished view of the city streets---the huge tall trees lining the roads amidst the tall, slender, elegant French-style architecture, the women carrying poles on their backs laden with fruit baskets at each end, and the Vietnamese on lunch breaks chowing down at street stalls.

So we told him, “We want to see a movie.”
“Oh! You want to go shopping?”
“No, we want to see a film.” (We begin pantomiming watching a film.)
“Oh! You want to get food?”
“No, we want to go to the theater.” (Pantomiming even more exuberantly now.)
“Oh! You want to go to hotel?”
“No, we want to go to the cinema.” (Giving up pantomiming)

This banter continued for a while, much to everyone’s frustration. Finally I said, “We want to see big TV!”
“Big TV! Oh yes! Big TV! I know! I take you!” He pantomimes a big TV.

We all giggled at the fact that it took him so long and were ecstatic to finally have broken the language barrier.

We got in two different bicycle chariots and after about 20 minutes we realized after passing the same spot we had been picked up, that our faithful driver didn’t know where he was going. Yet, after awhile, he finally stopped and said, “Big TV!”

Ahh, we looked over and saw a TV store selling Panasonic TVs, not just any TVs though, big ones.

NO, no! We tried to tell him that it wasn’t what we wanted. “But big TV!” he pointed. A man on the street tried to help us too, but he had never heard of the word movie theater either. Eventually we gave up on the movie option and decided to try to have him take us to somewhere close by on the map, we pointed at a theater where they put on plays and asked him to take us there.

He seemed to know where that was so we drove along for another 20 minutes until he pulled up to a bookstore. NO! A bookstore?! We started to tell him it was wrong, but finally decided to just get out.

We gave him 30,000 dong, the first agreed on price, but he was annoyed as well. “No! More money! I drove around and around!”
“But you didn’t take us where we wanted to go!” So we made a dash inside the bookstore, to hide-out from the disgruntled driver.

We never found our movie theater, but a sweet lady in the book store immediately knew what we were talking about when we asked. It was too faraway to go to, but oh well. We learned overall in Vietnam that even if people appear to speak English, looks can be quite deceiving.




SAIGON YUM

I know you must be astonished that I haven’t spoken about food yet. But I saved it for now because I wanted this blog entry to have a nice ending.

The night we arrived, my first sight of food stalls added to my laughing problem. Many people in Hanoi sit on little tiny chairs at the street vendor stalls. It looks like the adults have pulled up to the kid’s table at Thanksgiving. It was so cute to see the stools, and we couldn’t get over them. Look for pics online…

The first night we walked to the first food stall we saw and sat down on the wee chairs. For about a dollar each, we feasted on Vietnamese style BBQ. Each table had its’ own grill with a Bunsen burner like thing under it, where we put beef and cooked it ourselves. They also gave us green onions and tomatoes to add to the beef. With our chopsticks we pushed it around on the grill until it was just the right shade of well-done but not too burnt. Then we dipped it with a tomato in a rather Thai tasting spicy, flavorful sauce, and it was perfect! Or maybe it was also that we were starved, either way it was fun.

We also saw the French influence because they served us baguettes with the meal, so different from Thailand where bread is scarce at most food stalls. Then for breakfast at Ocean Star II we also had baguettes with eggs, as well as Vietnamese pho.

Alice was super excited about foo, a noodle soup with chicken and herbs, because she had it all the time at home in Calli. But she was disappointed because she said it tastes better in Callifornia. Heehee..I didn’t think it was too bad, but I enjoy Thai soups better cuz I think they have more flavor. Maybe I will just have to eat pho in California though before I decide Thai noodle soup is better..

Oh man! And the coffee! So good! I was eager to try Vietnamese-style coffee that I had heard about in the States. One morning after eating some dough bread for breakfast we went to a café, which even had the mini-chairs. The coffee was brought in a small clear glass with a spoon in it. I mixed the coffee with the sweetened condensed milk that was at the bottom of the glass. It had such a rich, strong taste. It was like eating a brownie minus the chocolate.



Later on we indulged at a fancy café where I got my own mini-press pot of coffee on top of my cup. Then I after letting the coffee seep for about 5 minutes I mixed it with the milk. Yet again it was amazing. Of course since caffeine and me are mortal enemies, I was up all night after my two coffees in one day. But hey, I’m only in Vietnam once, so I don’t regret it too much..

Our last food delight was when we treated ourselves to a nicer restaurant. We got a dish where they give you circular sheets of rice paper, which looks just like wax paper, and we put sticky green, and white noodles, basil, cucumbers, pork ribs, and a spicy sauce and rolled it up like a wrap. Wow, so cool! Ahh, as one of my co-workers says, the joys of being mortal, being able to indulge in delicious food.

NEXT STEP

I hope I survive another week of intense work. If I keep thinking about elfs and big TVs and laughing..I think I can make it through.

Woohoo!

ON HOLIDAY...for a day

DETOX

Hmm, I think this was one of my hardest weeks at work so far. I thought in Thailand I could escape the stress and pressure America puts on me, but I was not so elusive, because this week my enemy found me once again---no fair.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we started Jr. Elite this past week. I enjoy teaching the kids writing, doing silent reading, helping them with their homework and doing a book club on Charlotte’s Web, but it is for 3 hours on Wednesday and Friday. I used to spend that time planning and preparing for my other classes, the 9th and 10th grade book club and intense SAT writing. Yeah, so since I didn’t have as much time to plan and another class to plan for, I was freaking out.

Somehow after much journal writing at how stressed I was and going out with my friends and not thinking about the pressure, I made it through. Ahh, but the best detox from the stress I got was yesterday…

At work on Sunday, Ja, my director, was like, hey, what are you doing tomorrow? I wasn’t really planning on doing anything, except not thinking about work. She said, “Let’s go to the beach for the day, want to? I think we need it.” Wow, these words gave my body and soul such joy I was about to start break-dancing in the office.

The next day, Ja, Alice and I groggily jumped in a 15-passenger van at 7 a.m. to take us to Hua Hin, a beach about 2 hours and 40 minutes away from Bangkok. I munched on my just ripe enough, juicy, the perfect shade of yellow pineapple as we bumped along in the van which by some miracle was speeding along, evading most of Bangkok’s horrendous traffic.

Ahh, thankfully Ja has been to Hua Hin four times, so Alice and I didn’t have to go through our usual intense time of arriving somewhere, jumping off the bus and feeling completely lost. Our first hour typically consists of showing pictures from our guidebook to taxi drivers while using our Thainglish to ask them to take us there. What a blessing local friends are to directionally challenged people..

Of course we needed food to give us the necessary strength to lay on the beach all day, so that was our first stop. Ja told us Hua Hin is apparently well known for their pork satay, or moo-satay, in Thai. The roasted strips of pork on a stick are dipped in a thick smooth peanut sauce. The sauce goes perfectly with the pork, as most sauces do in what is my favorite culinary world.

Moo-satay was one of our appetizers included in our feast of chicken and rice, and prawn noodle soup we gobbled up at a typical street restaurant. These mom and pop-like diners are open-air, with concrete walls and floor. The Thai customers sit on the faded multi-colored plastic chairs pulled around metal rusted tables that always have a few containers of spicy seasonings to add to the already catch-your-mouth-on-fire-with-flavor dishes.


Our next mission was to find our spot in the smooth slip through your fingers sand piled up in front of the calm, lapping, not-to-warm-not-to-cool waters. First we had to navigate around the rows of beach chairs for rent, bypassing all the sellers of grilled corn, jewelry, bags, and juice. Horses were dotted all over the beach, standing still, guarded by their owners who pleaded you to take a ride down the beach for 50 baht. But eventually after getting through the melee, we rented a straw mat, and found a covert spot under the shade of a beachy tree.

I was with Alice, and Ja, who like many Asians will do anything, even put on whitening lotion, to get whiter. As a result they wanted to hide away from the sun. Of course, me being white, I wanted to get darker. Why are we never content with who we are? But I didn’t mind the shade. When I got tired of the shade, I laid out my towel in the sun. I tried to be extra careful to control my desire for the bright rays so I wouldn’t turn into a deliciously red lobster like I had at Pattaya.

For quite a few moments yesterday I felt as though I had sneaked into paradise or at least that I was on the border, getting a sneak peek. The ocean breeze danced over us as we lay under the tree, where we lost ourselves in books and chocolate ice cream cones.

After our intense relaxing on the sand, it was time for swimming lessons with Sherri in the water that was so still it was like a pool. Alice and Ja don’t know how to swim, so I tried to help them out a bit. I think they made progress; they were almost floating and even dog paddling. I was proud…but they weren’t quite as impressed with their new-found skills. Oh well…maybe I should learn how to teach swimming, that might be my next venture.

Of course we had to pee after awhile..but in Thailand the most silly form of exploitation happens when it comes to toilets. The places where it is a must to use the toilet, such as bus stops and beaches, you have to pay a few baht to use them. Even though these bathrooms are always the worst. It really makes no sense to me to pay to use toilets that are equivalent to the sanitary conditions of a greasy gas station combined with a Kenyan outhouse. But of course we had to succumb because we had to go, so we brought our 5 baht and began the trek.

An inviting resort caught our eye on our way…The southern plantation style buildings, with an expansive garden of trees carved into elephants, birds and giraffes, inspired me. There had to be toilets here—free, nice toilets. Alice and I walked with purpose past the guard, and decided to make it our goal to find a toilet. We uncovered our prize next to the refined patio, and casually strolled in. There was no one there, and there was even real hand soap and towels---two things which are a rare commodity in any toilet in Thailand. But after our second time of la te da walking in, the guard seemed to catch on. I think when we went back with Ja, she threw him off because she was the only non-farang on the premises. She decided if he tired to speak to her she would pretend like she didn’t know Thai. But right when he was about to say something to us we quickly walked out and scampered down the beach. Heehee..

But Ja wasn’t the only one getting caught for being Thai. When I asked in Thai to the Thai coconut seller how much the coconuts were, he said, “Wow, are you from Thailand?” Of course I’m sure it is easy to mistake me for being Thai. I mean my light brown/blondish hair, pale skin, and round eyes could fool anyone, but I was still surprised at his comment. I quickly assured him I was American, and he was like, oh, ok. Hmm..maybe my Thai is better than I thought…

Wow, then the perfect end to our perfect day. An soul satisfying meal overlooking the ocean. I didn’t know crab curry, chicken in coconut milk, and vegetables in oyster sauce all mingled and mixed with rice could make me feel so content.

We were sitting, scraping our plates as we watched the sun pinken the sky, discussing how life is meant to be enjoyed and not just breezed through. Im glad that God wants us to rejoice, to eat drink and be merry.

Now I go to work tomorrow. Hmm…can I handle it?

Vietnam in 6 days.. =)

all over the place

INTENSE

this has been a crazy last two weeks...our new program started up this week and i feel rather overwhelmed and am wondering if i can really handle this whole teaching thing. but i love the 3rd and 4th graders im teaching. they are so eager to ask questions and be responsive to whatever i do. they are quite unlike some of my 9-11th graders who sit there looking too cool and not answering when i ask anything. but of course i like both classes, each one has its' own challenges and joys or whatever...

im going to post a new entry today or tomm, but i wanted to just give the link again to anyone who wants to see a few more pics...snake farm, and autthaya..fun stuff!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

will blog soon! =)

DISTURBERS OF THE PEACE

DEFACING AYUTTHYA

ahh! my thai class ended last friday. i left good ol' krhu pussadee's classroom with bittersweet feelings. i was sad that i wont be learning new thai everyday, laughing at my khru's impersenations of all of us (she always made fun of how i laughed, yawned a lot and would say, "what??!" when i was confused) and hanging out with my korean and japanese classmates. but i was oh so happy to finally have days completely off to do whatever i want! no way!

so with my new found freedom, three of my closest bangkok friends and i decided to go on a small adventure to the old capital city, ayutthya, to see the ruins of wats (temples) and the old grand palace. we hopped a small minivan for 60 baht, equal to a few dollars, to drive us about a little over an hour north of bangkok.

we saw the ruins mainly as a large playground. we clambered up their steep steps to the top where people left goodies for the gods, like milk and doramen stuffed animals. we saw a towering golden buddha in one of the temples, and a buddha head wrapped up in the roots of an old tree. he was all over the place.

one of the last ruins we went to had many buddha statues in a line, all of them were so ancient that the heads had worn/fallen off. so of course, we thought of the brillant scheme, why dont we take pictures with our heads as buddha's head, since he doesnt have one. how fun that would be!

neal, mariha and i got in position just right so that only our heads were popping up over the stone statue. as alice was preparing to take the shot, i see a security guard man come running up to where we are. i smiled, thinking, oh, he is amused at what we are doing. he thinks it's funny and cute!

but as he got closer, he didnt look so delighted. actually he wasnt laughing, but yelling, "no! give me your camera! 200 baht, 200 baht!" we scattered. but he chased us, taking two of our cameras, pressing buttons frantically.

another guard runs up, digs behind the statues to pull up a rusty faded sign that has scrawled on it, "dont climb on ruins" and maybe something else was on there too about taking pictures.. and waves it in our faces. i wrenched my camera away, showing him we deleted the picture, yet he was still yelling, "200 baht!" we kept saying, "no, no!" and scurried away into a clearing. he followed us for a bit like a stray dog hungry for meat, but eventually he lost interest and decided we werent worth the effort and went back to his task of guarding the headless buddhas.

i was sufficently freaked out and kept thinking he was going to get us and send us to the police or something. we didnt want to go back and contemplated jumping the ruin wall and scaling the bushes on the other side to reach the road, but the barb wire fence didnt seem so inviting. instead we just speed walked to the exit and breathed a sigh/laugh of relief once we left.

lesson learned! dont pretend to be buddha. ever. one of our friends was aghast when we told them what we did. wow, it's like if you saw someone pretending to be jesus, stretching your arms on a cross and taking pictures merrily. oh man, when you put it that way it just sounds so bad. oopps..at least we can claim ignorance...

ELITE TIMES

teaching is hard! but rewarding. i have heard that so much, but now i finally truly believe the cliche.

my first few weeks of teaching book club didnt go so hot. the cell book i wrote about earlier that i said i was going to teach, was loved by my students almost as much as i loved it. which wasnt much at all. as a result two students dropped out of my class, one called the director and said she cried everyday the first week of book club after attempting to read the book cuz she didnt understand it. oh the guilt that burned in me! but we didnt chose the book, the main Elite in the states choses the books, and we just do them. so they kept saying it wasnt my fault, but still! i made a student cry my first week! ah!

then after another student dropped out, the education director told me we were going to drop hard cell book no one liked, and do short stories instead. what a relief! and the director had done them before so she already had a lot of lesson plans.

i thought it would be better but this week two more students dropped because they thought it was silly to do short stories and not a real book. oh my goodness! but they said they will come back fo the next book in three weeks. wow, so here goes the new teacher dropping enrollment like crazy.

then at our staff meeting the topic came up on how we dont have as many students registered for classes this month. which means low profits, which means not making budget, which means not being able to give as much money to the non-profit we support as we need to. the discussion led to how the teachers need to make our classes fun so that students want to stay because of loyalty to the teacher. so i was feeling a bit pressured, but i realize that its not really up to me. i know God will give me the strength i need and wisdom for fun ideas. i hope He does at least, cuz i need it bad.

but i really enjoy helping the SAT students, especially when they have questions after class or about their essays. it is sweet to try to help them and then seeing them do better. wow, i guess it is cool to see the whole process of teaching work, you tell them something, they apply it, they improve. what a cool concept when it actually all flows like it should.

FUN STUFF BLURBS:

-i went to the snake farm! we saw snakes get their venom sucked out, and i got to have a heavy smooth rubbery feeling python chill on my shoulders. fun times!

-today i went to the bangkok refugee center to help teach english. i went with alice, who is the other teacher at Elite, and a woman from my church. we went to three different classrooms to teach kiddos. we sang songs, and helped work on pronounciation of tricky sounds like "th", "l", and "r".

most of the refugees are from laos, china, sri lanka, nepal, and congo. i was so excited to see two of my former students i taught during my CELTA training there! i will hopefully be going back every tuesday i have free to teach for an hour or so. but it is so hard to be there, to think of the refugees and how they are stuck-- jobless and homeless, waiting for hope. yet, it is a joy to be there and have a chance to try to love on them and give them a taste of the hope they are waiting for.

-im going to vietnam!! im so excited. ja, the director of elilte, alice, and i are going nov. 4-6 fot the weekend. ja found a super cheap ticket on air asia one day and was like, want to go to vietnam? sure! so were going! im so excited to experience another place...its so sweet how close all these places are that you can just go to another country for the weekend. i feel so blessed..i cant wait!

mondays in bangkok

SI LUAN (yellow in thai..im learning something!)

i was peering over the second level of the skytrain stop, gazing at the sun already high in the bluer than normal bangkok sky. i always like to look out over the street vendors starting up their sales with the regulars while i wait for the train to come. i feel like a spy, trying to capture every detail so i can report on it later. as usual, after around 5 minutes or so the train arrived..

i stepped over the gap, into the skytrain car. it was 730am, which means everyone in the entire city of bangkok is on the skytrain going to work or school. this is where my old mosh pit skills come in handy, squeezing into a mob of people and standing strong. i try to shift my body weight with the movement of the car, so i dont go crashing like dominos into the sea of yellow engulfing me.

yes, yellow. this is the king's color, and every monday most thais don some sort of yellow polo shirt to show their love and honor for the king. there are many variations, but most have a pink, golden, blue threaded emblem of the king on the left side in the design of what i think looks like a little palace turret. some polos have sky blue collars, others orange. on the sleeves of some, like mine, love the king is embroiderded, or long live the king. and most every thai person wears them, it's like the country is in uniform on monday.

once i got off the train at 8am on in one of the busiest skytrain stations. i started to walk toward my exit, but all the sudden the yellow sea around me was frozen in place. it was like i was in a play, and the other actors froze around me, and i was in the spotlight, the only one still moving. i realized quickly that i should stop too, and that i hadnt noticed the traditional thai music blasting in the station. this is what had triggered the stop in time. at 8am everyday and 6pm music is played to honor the king and pay respect to him by stopping what you are doing until the music stops. good to know.

i had just gotten cozy in my red chair, rocking it back and forth a little. the previews so far had lasted about 25 minutes, most of them promoting local thai films, many of them looked like cheezy teenage flicks, or weirded out excessively gory horror movies. then the lights got darker, ahh..the movie was finally starting. but no...everyone begins to stand around me. i of course follow suit, hoping to avoid being the stared at forienger who doesnt know what she is doing. the familiar, but different melody of traditional thai music drifts gently out of the surround sound. we all are staring at a presentation showing the benevolence and kindness of the king, in all aspects of life. after 2 minutes or so it ends and we sit. the film now has permission to officially begin.

his face is everywhere. emblazzoned on skyscrapers, his portrait is in restrooms, restaurants, even gas stations. he is always sitting there, watching us all in bangkok. yet after awhile you dont really notice his presence. he is just another part of daily life.

it is odd to hardly ever hear anyone talking bad about the king, like i hear people in the states talking bad about the president or anyone in power in the states. it was almost eerie at first for me to see people giving such honor to a person in power. my american self isnt used to such respect for authority. but i must say, he really is a good king. he cares for his people so much, and has been known to go to villages and hand out food to the people there. treating them like they are just as important as the political people he meets with everyday. because they are.

yeah, but it is still weird for me on mondays. i always forget what day it is, and then im gently reminded every morning as im squished in the yellow. it is still hard for me to understand, but i guess i dont really need to. i just need to make sure i stand still when im suppose to, stand up when i should, and never ever ever diss the king.

PRESSING ON

thanks for your care and prayers for me while im trying to grieve. it doesnt seem as real now as it did last week that my aunt is gone. i guess that is how things go. i wanted to be grieving with my fam for awhile, but i know i need to be here. even though it is hard. please continue to pray for my fam..that would be great. it's great to feel love even miles and oceans away from friends. such a blessing..

refining

of course, life is hard at times...cuz that is life. we weren't created for an easy pain-free existence. we were created for more. that is what i have learned this past week after hearing on wednesday that my aunt beth, who was in the car accident a few weeks ago, passed away.

i cant really describe the weirdness of having someone die when you are so faraway. it is hard to say good-bye when in my mind she could still at home. im not there, how do i know she is really gone? it doesnt seem real. it was a painful few days of feeling so alone and like no one understood what was going on, but God has given me encouragement. after finally sharing with my friends here what happened, God has comforted me through them and through my amazing friends from home who have emailed me love and hugs, which is what i really needed right now.

i wasnt able to attend the funeral, but i wrote something that was read at the memorial service. i dont like being all open and gushy on my blog, but i think i will post what i wrote. i dont think it's that great because words seems so shalow when stuff like this happens. but i want to post it so everyone can read about my aunt, and why she meant so much to me and everyone she came in contact with. i want her example to live on forever.

MY AUNT BETH

About four weeks ago I was eating a lunch of spicy green curry at my Thai friend’s house. She was telling me about her aunt and how successful she was and how she admired her so much for working her way up the business ladder. This of course made me think of my Aunt Beth and how proud I am of her for different reasons. While my mouth tingled from my lunch, I began to boast to her about how amazing my Aunt Beth was.

I told her of my Aunt Beth’s typical day. She stood for her 8-hour shift as a cashier, scanning any garden supplies someone may need while blessing everyone who was lucky enough to go through her line that day. Driving away from Lowe’s, her fingers clutching the wheel were stained brown from the potting soil of the flowers that she found on sale to bring to my gardening mother. She zoomed home to switch cars to drive the handicap van to pick up my Aunt Rachel right when she finished working at the library. After walking in the door, she put a scrumptious dish in the oven right away, such as chicken a la king for dinner. Then she washed the stack of dishes that never seemed to disappear, while she picked up anything dropped on the floor during the day that my aunt or grandma couldn’t reach. If there was any time left before going to bed she might call up her dear friend since childhood who works in Pennsylvania to see how she is doing. Or maybe she could make cookies for her nieces to send them since they are all away at college. Or she might make a snack to bring to Sunday school the next day for church. Oh tomorrow is her day off! That means she would have time to pick up her friend who can no longer drive and take her out shopping and then get lunch.

She never stopped, but what is even more amazing is she never complained. I’m sure there were days when she got upset, when she didn’t want to go anymore, when she just wanted to quit, because Aunt Beth was human. But even if she felt like that, she still persevered. She might not have seen any reward for all her hard work day after day, never getting the praise she deserved. But that is not what she was living for, so maybe that is why you didn’t hear her complain much.

When I told my Thai friend about her she was in awe. But I hope she doesn’t see just that my Aunt Beth was so serving and giving, but I hope she sees that she didn’t do it for herself but because she lived for more than herself. She wasn’t living for the customers at the store, or her co-workers. She wasn’t living for her mother, her sisters, her brothers, or any other family. She wasn’t living for her friends. She was living for God. She wrote me a note when I went to New Zealand that she put in a present that said, “Open this when you feel lonely.” It says: “Sherri, I love you. I hope you’re enjoying yourself. Remember, God is always with you and He loves you very much. Aunt Beth.” That was her motivation for serving, not to try to win God’s love or the love of others, but to simply show others how God loves them very much.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen in eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Teach the teacher..

DAY ONE DONE!

i taught for the first time at elite prep on sunday! ahhh! i was freaking myself out for most of the week. i was thinking, wow, how am i going to do this? i know NOTHING about how to prep people for the SAT..except for the fact that i wore a superman t-shirt and listened to classical music the night before i took it my second time because that was suppose to help you get a better score. yeah...and my score only went up 10 points after such efforts. astonishing!

yet, the place that we get our material from to teach our classes is so awesome. they give us all the grammar lessons we teach, so our job is to prep like crazy so we can become pros when instructing the 11th and 12th graders...acting as if we know what we are doing. at least that is what i was doing.

so i taught two different sessions for an hour and a half..even though i thought i wouldnt be able to fit everything in, it went by super fast, and i did have time to do stuff i didnt think i would be able to do.

i thought i would have to be really mean so i could keep control in the class, but most of the kids are pretty quiet and didnt give me any trouble...yet..but if they do such things as speak in a language other than english there is recourse. they have to eat a harry potter jelly bean, one of the gross flavors like vomit and boggers. they have to tell you what it tastes like too cuz if they dont they might have just swallowed it. i told the kids, i love harry potter, so i would be eager to spread some harry potter fun if i hear any other languages. most of the kids just looked freaked out after i said that, but someone in the second class laughed. how nice of them.

now i get to prepare to teach book club on saturday. i hope i can come up with some good curriculum for this 3-hour book club class on lives of a cell. how do i make a book about how all the world is like a cell exciting? im sure i will find a way...at least i hope so. i dont want the kids to hate me right away for giving them a boring book. maybe later, but not immediately.

GETTING TAUGHT THAI

i started my thai class yesterday. its going to be mon-fri from 8am-noon. it's intense! there are about 12 students in the class, most of them are korean, two are japanese, one english dude, and then me and my korean american friend from work. my khru (that means teacher in thai-- its not her first name which is what i thought for the first hour of class) is so hilarious! she will make fun of us when we say things funny or weird, but in a good way that makes the class lighthearted and not stressful. so she has been having lots of fun with me.

i usually am unsure about how to pronounce the vowels and constonants, and the five different tonal sounds, so when it's my turn to speak i say my answer in a confused, unsure way. khru kept laughing at me, and told me she loved me. at least i bring her some amusement! my homework is to learn my thai numbers. we have to go around and say how many problems we got wrong after we do an exercise, and i was the only one who couldnt remember how to say the numbers in thai. so i kept asking my friend secretly..khru caught on..oh well, she said next week if we speak in another language than thai we have to pay her 15 baht to go toward her future trip to hong kong. at least it's better than a harry potter jelly bean.

to bed i go...leave some love. =)

shake it like a polaroid picture

yes, these are little bunnies wearing outfits. this is at jj mart, a ginormous flea market where they sell everything from bunnies to jewelry to living room furniture to cute bags.

see a wee bit more pics, including pattaya...http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

Life does exist outside Bangkok!

FLEEING THE CITY

i have been pondering, do people live outside of the bustling city of bangkok? is there really more to thailand?

i discovered on monday there is! yeah, it's pretty amazing. i had the day off and of course i wanted to travel somewhere. especially since next week i start my thai language course! im so excited because elite, the place where im working, want the new teachers to go so we can adjust better to thailand. i cant wait cuz maybe after the course i will know when thai people are talking about me, so i can say something smart to them! oh, and it will also be nice, so i can show them how i want to learn their language too..

but i will be taking the course mon-fri in the morning before work, which means i dont really have any days off completely for a month. so if i wanted to see something...i had to do it now!

of course it is hard to find people to travel on mondays and tuesdays since most people are working. but my friend mariha, who is from england, said she would love to go somewhere with me! she arrived in bangkok a week ago to try to find a teaching job. then we met randomly at my friend's hostel. she just got a job, and hadnt started yet, so i got a travel buddy for the day!

i wanted to go to the beach so badly just to chill out. so we took the bus to pattaya, the closest beach...it was suppose to be a two hour journey, but it turned into four hours since the man with a lazy eye who worked for the driver kept leaping off the bus every 5 km to get more people to come on or he would buy food or chat with someone. it reminded me of kenya bus transport, at least there werent any chickens on it.

but we left early, so we still had time to relax on the beach. but first we got mangos with sticky rice and coconut milk!! it is a famous thai dessert, but i hadnt really seen it at many places yet. but they had perfect yellow mangos everywhere on the streets. so we stopped and had some for lunch..instead of dessert, but when you are on holiday anything goes. it was such a great combination-- the sticky, slightly salty rice with the sweet, soft, juicy mango and the smooth coconut milk to top it off. wow, i was in heaven for a little while.

then we chilled out on the beach for like five hours. so pattaya is more on the myrtle beach type of town since it is rather touristy and the tourists like to leave their trash behind on the shore. but i didnt mind, it was a beach and it was warm and i had a book. it was perfect, just what i needed. the only annoying thing was as we sat in our rented beach chairs, vendors would wander up to us trying to sell ice cream, perfume, fake coach bags, and fried spring rolls. i would look at my book and try to ignore them, but they were like flies that buzz around and even when you flick them away they just keep coming back.

ahhh...then we reached the point where we thought our arms were about to burn off, so it was time to go home. it only took two hours to go home. wow, but im so burnt. i couldnt sleep last night because i felt like my body was on fire. ahh...and i even wore sunblock. but it wasnt a bad price to pay for my first venture outside the city of life.

WORKING GIRL

so i completed my first week of a full-time job...and i enjoyed it! no way!

wed-fri i worked 11-7, which is perfect for a morning person like me..i can just make the most of my time. so nice..

since my first week was mainly observing, wed-fri i piddled around the office, asking my director if she needed any help. i did random stuff like define 190 words for one of the books i will be teaching at a book club. but even stuff like that i enjoy cuz i love words.

so i guess i should give the basics of what i will be up to. wed-fri is when we prep for the weekend when we teach. on saturday im going to be teaching a book club in the afternoon for three hours to 9-10th graders. the book club is suppose to help prepare them for the SAT without them knowing it sort of thing because its fun.

i thought i was going to teach two book club classes on two different books, so i read both of them intensely this past week. then my director walks in today, sits down to tell me that one thing she has learned while living in bangkok is how to be flexible..so im not going to actually teach those two classes, but teach another one and teach on a different book.

i was down with that because this morning i had attained a state of "oh my goodness..how am i going to prepare to teach two different three hour classes on the same day?! ahhhh!" so after she told me the change in plans, i felt more peace. yet, it was too bad i read those other books and im not doing them. i really liked one of them. "the unwanted" by kien nguyen. it's quite a graphic memoir of the life of a vietnamese american boy and his escape from vietnam after the war. so good, it really makes you appreciate freedom.

now i get to read and do a book club on "lives of a cell", which is just about as exciting as the title sounds. but it's ok, it might appeal to some of the kids, and that is all that matters. i can make it fun! at least that is what i tell myself..

then on THIS sunday i get to teach two one and a half hour classes on SAT writing. i love writing, but explaining all the grammar rules and such is going to be tough. especially to these crazy smart kids. when i was observing this one class this one girl just kept asking why why why...and i was like, wow, im glad im not up there trying to answer. but then i remembered i will be there this week. wow, at least when im weak, God is strong. =)

ok, im tired and not really going to read over the blog before i post it so please excuse the grammar mistakes and if my thoughts dont connect well. im going running tomorrow with a girl i work with at the park with the weird lizard so i have to get my rest in case i have to defend myself. thanks for reading..it makes me happy!

i will post pics soon...

im CELTAFIED

DIVINE VACUUM CLEANERS

so i taught my last observed class on tuesday. i was worried about it because i wanted to end on a good note. i wanted to feel like i came into the course knowing nothing about teaching at all, and now feel like i had learned a thing or two.

amazingly, my lesson went better than i thought it would, there were only a few mess ups…the reading i chose for the students was about buddhists monks in malaysia and how they couldn’t kill fire ants that were harming them during meditation because monks cant harm a living creature.

i wanted them to read the article to find out the method the monks used to try to get rid of the ants. it was with a vacuum cleaner. yet, i didn’t realize that in thailand, not many people use vacuum cleaners, since everyone usually uses brooms. so the students didn’t understand the question since I didn’t pre-teach vacuum cleaner…the things you learn when teaching in this land..

then one of my true/false questions was, if someone did kill the ants the monks would say it was the will of God. it was false, because the monks said it was the will of the universe, not God. yet, every student had it as true. this is because for most of them, since they are Buddhist, the universe and God are the same thing. yet, to me, they are totally different concepts. the students looked at me like i was a freak, when i tried to explain that it was false...go sherri, way to confuse innocent students yet again.

but it turns out, even though i had some lacking-in-awareness-of-the-culture-of-your-students-problems, i still got an above standard for my last lesson!! i was so excited and so relieved! i learned something!

WORTH IT?!

so all in all the course definitely was a GOOD thing, and i learned soooooo much through the intense, crazy four weeks. many of my classmates have been teachers for awhile, so the class radically changed a lot of the ways they look at teaching and helped them get rid of bad habits. yet, i now have this foundation of new methods of teaching, and not too many bad habits to get rid of yet...so it was even a plus, in some ways, to not have much experience. now i feel more confident to teach here in bangkok, and now i can go anywhere in the world and use my CELTA to teach...im glad i held out and struggled through. but soooooo glad it's over!!

i really loved my students!! our last day was sweet. we played review games, then we had pizza hut and dunkin donut holes. we had a huge picture taking fest, and the delightful pics can be found here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

im going to miss my students, but we all have emails. and it's sweet cuz i have already hung out with some of the students because yesterday they wanted to go to church with us. i learn so much from them, i feel so blessed!

HIGH LIGHT

after i finished my course i decided it was necessary to do something celebratory...which has included watching harry potter 5 at an i-max, getting good coffee, eating at an amazing salad buffet, pizza, and getting ice cream shakes.

but then yesterday i finished off my celebrations-of-surviving-celta-sessions by getting my hair cut and highlighted!

ahh! i was a lil freaked out, cuz i didnt know which hairdresser would know how to cut non-asian people's hair, and if they would speak English well enough to know what i wanted. but two of my classmates got their haircut at a place, and thought they did a good job. so i got a 50% off card from one of them, was given a name of who to ask for, and went for it!

i just walked in, said changa, and then he came right over to help me out. i told him i wanted layers but my hair to not be much shorter, and highlights. he comprehended what i was saying...at least i hoped by his clear english response that he did. then he directed me over to a row of computers sitting behind swivel chairs. he told me to sit while they highlighted my hair. so i got to email for an hour or so while my he and another worker spoke in thai the whole time while putting tinfoil all over my head. i wondered the whole time what they must have been saying about this weirdo american girl...

then for the next hour he cut my hair and kept up his convo with his other worker. he is definitely an artist, and even told me he sees cutting hair as art. which i think is what a good hairdresser should believe. anyways, i came out with an asian look to my golden brown locks. he straightened it, and i put that pic online, but i dont think its going to look straight again for a year because i didnt bring a straightner with me. i like curly better i have decided..anyways, im still trying to get used to the layers, but i think im going to like it.

my doorman was the first person to notice! he said, "oh, your hair is different color! i like!" this was after he said, "hello teacher"...

=)

so this week, on wednesday, i get to start my job! im excited! i hope that i can catch on to teaching at elite and how to get my head around the SAT and how to explain it to these super smart kids..im excited for the next adventure!

by the way..thanks for all your words of encouragement while i was doing the course! it really pulled me through. i love you all so.

oh another day in the life of sherri...

SPILLAGE

so all i wanted to do was to break my 1000 baht bill. it is hard to get change for large bills at street vendors, so i was like, this is the perfect opporotunity for me to go to an american place, au bon pain, and get my favorite breakfast treat--muesli and yogurt.

i order it, and sit down with my delight and smile. ahh... i try to mix the layers of pink strawberry yogurt in with the layers of museli, so i can get the full effect in every bite. but then i suppose i got a little too excited because my spoon went in the air, and about one-fourth of the strawberry goo-ness flies out of the container to land on my black skirt.

i quickly glanced around to see if anyone noticed, thankfully all the thai businessmen were still focused on their newspapers and coffee. i used the two measley napkins i was given to try to wipe it up, then i tried to use my spoon, to scoop it off. yet i was still left with a prominent stain on the front of my lovely skirt.

so i went up to the counter and asked the server for a napkin. she pointed me over to the side counter. i looked and all i saw was a water pitcher. i got some water, to help the whole removing stain process--but still had no napkin. i asked her again, napkin? thinking maybe i didnt see the napkins. she nodded not understanding, and got the other lady. and i told her, napkin? she said, napkin!!

yes! i felt so excited that someone understood. she then took my cup of water out of my hand, put some ice in it, and handed it to me, smiling merrily. alas, napkin and ice must sound the same in thai or something. at least i helped her feel pleased with herself for thinking she understood me. i just had to sit down and laugh for a lil while after that...

then i got to ECC and was working away in the teacher room. as i reached over to get my page from the printer, i knocked over a water bottle, and it spilled on the floor. ahhhh! no way! and of course there are no readily available paper towels to clean it up.

so then i had to go and find one of the sweet thai office girls to tell her i spilled water. then she and i went to find the sweet thai cook lady, who wouldn't allow me to take the rag and clean it up, but went all the way to the room, and got down and cleaned up my mess.

wow, one of my classmates, after telling him my mornings happenings said my life sounds like a john cleese movie. hahaha..dont you wish you lived my life?? no, he said, not really.

nothing new

YOU TEACH?

yeah, so the other morning i was walking out my apartment building, and as usual the friendly thai doorman was trying to make conversation with me. he said, "where are you going? to school?" i said, "yeah, im a teacher." he stared at me for a second, then he burst out laughing!!

i was miffed and frowned at him (probably with my hand on my hip) and said, "why is that so funny??" he said, "you're a teacher! you are so young! you should be a student!" thanks a lot buddy.

then the other day when i came home he opened the door and said, "hello teacher!" with a slight giggle.

i will show him!

ONE MORE WEEK!

one of my classmates, a fun irish man, was describing how CELTA had taken over his life this month, but...he said, "there are three things CELTA cant deny me, food, sleep and alcohol."

ha! well, CELTA has taken over my life too, to the extent that it has denied me anything worthy to blog about.

CHECK MY BLOG FRIDAY

i will let you know if i survived.

until then--pray...

Far far away

WISH I WAS THERE

so i think when you travel to other countries something happens to time. it warps in such odd ways. i know i have only been here three weeks, but all that i have experienced in the last three weeks is enough to fill a few lifetimes it seems. well maybe not that much, maybe only one and a half, but you know what i mean.

a little over a week ago my dad emailed me to tell me my aunt beth was in a major car accident. my aunt beth is an amazing woman..she is the care-giver for my grandmother and my aunt rachel, she also has a full-time job. i have always been in awe of her faith in God, and how she is constantly serving and helping others. i have always wanted to be like her in that way.

so it turns out she drifted into the other lane when she was driving to work, and her car was hit. and then her car was hit again. she was stuck in it for 40 minutes. then she almost died as she was airlifted to the hospital.

she is still in a coma right now, and the doctors arent sure why. if i was there i would be at my grandmother's helping her and my aunt as much as i could, but obviously i cant be there. i dont like to think about it much because i feel so helpless and like i cant do anything. but i know im suppose to be here for some reason, even though im not sure why...so if you pray, please pray for my aunt and family. they need it, more than they need me to be there to help..

GO CELTA GO!

on a lighter note..

so my classmates have decided that i must have been a cheerleader in a former life. whenever i teach enthusiasm gushes out of me. the first week i would jump up and down and do a sort of dance whenever i would drill the student on different words, i didnt really notice this. then i would also swing my arms around to make them shout the words louder. one day we were doing a game, and it was one team against the other. i kept yelling, go team A!! whenever my team got a point. i guess most people dont get that into such things. heehee..now my classmates tease me all the time about my "like-you-can-do-it" spirit.

one of the things my tutor told me i needed to work on, which must come from my former cheerleading life i never knew existed, is grading my praise. he says it is lovely how im always praising the students. but apparently i tell the students GREAT JOB!! WOW!! at everything they do. the example he gave is once i was showing the students a picture of a car, and asked them what it was. they said, car. i was like YEAH!!! YOU GOT IT! WOW!

but these students are pretty smart, it isnt that hard for them to point out what a car is. so apparently if they had told me that the sentence i wrote on the board was in past perfect progressive, that would be the perfect time for such an elicitation of excitment. so i have tried to work on that..its hard though! i like to be excited about everything i suppose.

on monday i did a lesson, which i didnt think went that great. i was like, oh well, hopefully i will get to standard. you can either get not to standard, standard (which is what everyone usually gets) or above standard. it turns out my tutor thought my lesson was good! no way! i got an above standard on it! mainly cuz i just used all the ideas he told me to do. so that made me oh so glad...it also resulted in my other classmates high-fiving me, and then one of them even bought me my new favorite delight. an irish creme blizzard with kit kat from dairy queen! they are quite amazing, and just the right size. the large ones here are the size of the small ones in america. ahhh...it was an amazing day.

but then my other two lessons were at standard. but they both went better than i thought they would..i just hope i survive these next two weeks. im learning so much though! that is what i keep telling myself...


MOTHERS DAY PIGGY

my friend ja invited me to have dinner with her family on mother's day! which was the day after the queen's birthday this past sunday. we went to this amazing chinese restaurant. i had never been to such a place. they had this lazy susan sort of thing in the center and kept bringing plates and plates and plates of food. one plate consisted of a pig which still looked exactly like a pig. they were bringing it to the table and i was like, what is that? and then when they placed it down they were like, pig..and as they placed it on the table, i saw the lil snout, eyes and ears, and was like, yup, it sure is. so we picked off the pig skin and dipped it in some sauce. i actually didnt mind it! you can look at the pics of the friendly pig feast here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907373@N00/

MOTO BIKE BABE

this weekend i got to tour the new place where i will be working--elite prep. my director called to give me directions, and said i had to take the sky train, then the motorbike taxi. i was like what? no way! i have seen these motorbikes zipping around pedestrians, whizzing in and out of stopped traffic and squeezing between huge buses, and i would get to ride on one! i was excited, cuz it seemed so life-threatening.

once i got the right station, i found a man sitting on a motorbike wearing an orange vest and assumed that he might be a taxi man. i told him asoke tower, he nodded and i got on. i didnt know what to hold on to so i just touched his back the whole time. it was such a rush, i felt like i was in the chase scene of some action movie. then when i got to my stop he was smiling so big at me, i gave him some baht and smiled back, wondering why he seemed so pleased.

i told someone about my adventure, and it turns out you arent really suppose to hold on to the motor man, but the handle behind the seat...oopps! so i guess he thought i enjoyed the ride a lot..haha!

anyways! i love the people i met at my new work. they are all very welcoming. i will be working with thais and americans, most of them are in their 20's. then today i went to observe a class i will eventually be teaching-- SAT writing-- and wow, it is intense! the material is so in-depth, and there is so much to cover in an 1 hour and 30 minute class. the kids are super smart though, and seem to catch on quick. they ask hard questions, like about grammar rules and such.. so i will prepare my best, but i think i might be employing the, "im not sure of the answer, but i will get back to you" line a bunch. oh well! im eager to see what it will be like...

HELLO GOODBYE

my new roomie from germany was here. for a week, with her boyfriend from australia. he was searching for a place to stay while he is here until decemeber, and didnt find one until yesterday. so he was staying at our place the past few nights. yeah, interesting times! but my roomie is super sweet. she is 26 and just finished an internship in bangkok, and will now be studying at the university.

but last night i came home to an empty room and a note that said she moved to her boyfriend's place and will stay here sometimes but not often. but she will still pay for her part of the rent. ok with me! i have my own room now. how fun...

so i have to teach two lessons this week, one of them will be 55 minutes, and then one more next week. i also have two assignments due, and i will go to my new work twice this week to get trained. ahhh! i need some strength.. step by step. =)

1/4 of the way through! woo!

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

it turns out the CELTA course really is a reality show. im not sure what station it's on, they are rather secretive about it.

one day we wander into class, and one of the 12 isn't there. he was a newbie like me, he had never taught before. we all ponder what could have happened, my tutor says he hopes he isnt lying under a car somewhere. this was said in his british accent, so it sounded even more dreadful. or could it be...the pressure was too intense? could he not handle it?

the day goes on..he was incessantly emailed..and called, still no reply. we all imagine him under the car, or someone else thinks he could have fallen in a man hole. hmm...

but then after much anticipation, and a day later, he responds. the course was too much for him, he just couldnt handle it. wow, who will be next...

then two days later one of the 11 comes in the morning, and then leaves early because he was ""sick". is he really? he left his locker key on his shelf, insinuating he won't be coming back. wow...will i be next? ahhhhhh

OH DEAR ME

ok, so i went to UNC, so i should be able to handle any intense hardcore schoolage after that pressure-filled land right? right..

that is what i keep trying to remind myself in my daily you-can-do-it-sherri pep talks. as well as this course is only four weeks of my life and there is another world that exists outside of CELTA, and i will somehow find that world again when august ends. at least i hope so.

i have taught three days so far, and each time i leave feeling like i ruined these innocent people. they seem so happy and merry when i teach them, some even say, you good teacher. yet, they dont know the truth. they dont hear what my tutor says after they walk out the door, and how they will forever never know the english language properly because of me. it's not the greatest feeling ever.

well, it's not really that bad of course. my tutor is quite encouraging, regardless of the fact that i did call him fat and old. plus, his criticism is needed to make us better teachers. (yeah yeah..) but we all get praise and then dished out, it isnt just me thankfully. and it could be so much worse.

so after this week of feeling like i didnt do that great, my tutor says, oh, and dont forget i was easy on you all this week. most of the lessons that passed this week would likely not pass if you had done them on week two. but dont worry, you will do great. yeah, thanks..

but it has been really fun to get to know the other people. we are all struggling together and hang out all the time. it is nice to have people to support you and let you know it's going to be ok. i just hope more people dont drop out.

CULTS MAKE YOU PRETTY

one of our assignments was we had to interview one of our students and assess them to learn about their English language background and how it affects them now, and then find out activities to help them.

so i chose to do this sweet Chinese lady. she doesnt speak English very well at all. it took me forever to get anything out of her. i forever was trying to get her to answer the question, why do you want to learn English. finally after twisting and turning it into another form she smiled so big and was so eager to tell me. "world people dont know falun gong, i must tell them. 80 nationalities know. i must tell them."

i had no idea what his falun gong thing was so i asked her to tell me about it, plus it would help me to see what her other speaking problems might be. she goes on to tell me, "falun gong will make you beautiful." i said, "oh so i need that to make me beautiful?" "Yes."

so it turns out, after asking my classmates, that falun gong is a cult in China. the woman in our class escaped from China because she was a member, but wasnt allowed to practice it. so now she is here, trying her best to learn English so she can get some world people to join. the next day she brought fliers for us all, and little paper roses with falun gong bookmarks tailing off the end of it.

but talk about blow to the self esteem, i have to join a cult to become beautiful. thats just great.

THAILAND WANTS TO KNOW IF IM ALIVE

so i had to get my medical permit for my work visa today. i was all concerned cuz i didnt know how to find the hospital, and yeah, lets not discuss again sherri's sense of direction problem. so i was standing on the street near the hospital with my map, looking quite helpless i assume, and a sweet british man comes over and says are you lost? he helped me find my way, and i didnt get lost. i was proud.

i was a little nervous about what the thais would do to me at the hospital. i mean, i dont speak thai, so they could really just take me and do what they want since i wouldnt understand. but once i told the nurse, "medical permit for work visa," i was directed past the hello kitty merchandise booth (in a hospital? only in asia..) to a physical exam room. the nurses were wearing all pastels--blue pants, purple coats, and pink and green shirts--i decided they looked like Easter bunnies. they weighed me, i waited. they took my blood pressure. i waited. they took me into the room with the doctor. she took my blood pressure again, and checked my heart beat. then she signed a paper, i paid 140 baht, which is like 5 dollars and was done. so i guess as long as you know someone has blood going through their veins and a heart beat, they can work in thailand. good to know.

ROOMIES?!

finally one of my roomies has arrived. i came home tonight and the power was already on. its weird, in thailand they are all about saving power, so you have to drop your keycard in this slot on the wall everytime you come in to turn on the power. it is really cool, cuz you are saving so much energy and also you never forget where your key is. those brillant thais.

so the key was already in when i got back. then i peeked in the other room and saw bags on the floor and a body under the covers sleeping.

wow, she just wandered out! she is from portland, oregon. so far she seems outgoing with a strong, open personality. i think she will be fun to live with. the other girls, one from germany and one from canada should be arriving tomorrow. im excited to meet them..i just hope we all get along and it is drama free ya know.

ok, so tomorrow i have to work on my assignment about my chinese cult friend, and finish my lesson plan for monday. so i suppose i should sleep now. sorry this entry isnt terribly exciting. CELTA has drained me of any creative-ness. thanks for reading, it makes me happy to know peeps care.. =)

SHERRI A TEACHER?!?!

CELTA SURVIVOR SEASON PREMIERE

i had been wondering for awhile whether i should really do this whole CELTA course thing after i signed up for it. i have heard how INTENSE it is, how it takes over your life for four weeks, how you are so engulfed in learning how to teach english that you forget another world exists outside grammar and lexicon. yeah, pretty frightening. well the terror began yesterday, and im still alive at the moment to share. so that's a good sign!

THE CAST

yesterday it was so fun walking into the classroom for orientation cuz it was full of such a variety of people. i am am the youngest, then the next oldest is like 25 i think. the oldest is probably in their late 50s. there are five Americans, two Irish, two Londoners, a Trinidad and Tobagoian, a middle easterner, and an Argentine. they are all so fun and such funny, unique characters who make me smile. it makes me feel like im on a reality TV show. like all these quirky people are placed together to struggle for 4 weeks to see who will survive. it's so exciting!

the first person i met and bonded with right away was a lady who grew up in Georgia! she is in her 50s-ish, and such a sweet, outgoing lady. she was so excited to meet another southerner! she taught home economics for 30 years, then she and her husband decided to move to china and work for a non-profit there and now they live in laos. she has taught english in both places. it seems like out of our class of 12 people that half of them have had at least a few years of experience teaching english, or teaching, and wanted to take the course to brush up. im trying not to let that intimidate me though cuz the tutors keep saying how they won't compare us. they are just seeing how we improve as an individual. nice to know, but it is hard to remember..

SHERRI'S INSULT SESSION

but the first thing we did was we had to write our name backwards on a name tag with three numbers that related to us. then we had to go around the room and meet people and figure out their names and what the numbers signified. i went up to this one guy who had 44 on his tag. first i guessed it to be his age, but then right away, i thought ooops, he doesnt look 44 at all. he was like, NOOO! then i said, hmm..is it your waist size? not knowing that is a really large waist size...and he was like NO! wow, you just keep the compliments coming dont you? it turns out it was his shoe size in thai. i was so embarassed though, and my face turned bright red.

then later i discovered he is my tutor!! one of the two tutors who will be grading us to see if we do well enough to pass the course. yeah, so i will have to work extra hard now, to get over telling my teacher he is old and fat. go sherri!

HAPPY LEARNERS MAKE HAPPY TEACHERS

so the people we will be teaching are so great. they are from laos, china, thailand and sri lanka. some of them are refugees, others just don't have the money to pay for a normal course. after a morning of learning about teaching methods, we had to do our first 15 minute lesson!

the students were so eager to participate and want to learn, so that helped things. yet, i didnt feel that i did very well. i was so nervous at first, but then i gained more confidence as the minutes went on. apparently i did really well drilling them, so thats cool. but i didnt feel like the class time flowed very smoothly. hopefully i can improve on that tomorrow during my 35 mintue lesson im teaching..ahhhh! i never realized how hard it is to be a teacher. i now have a new respect for you all wise teachers...please send along some advice soon.

RANDOM!?

so two days ago im standing in this photo store to get a passport size photo for my work visa. as im waiting for it to print out, i see this south asian tourist sitting at a chair speaking french while waiting for whoever he was with to finish printing their photos. i sort of saw that he was eyeing me. i didnt think much about it as i was flipping through some post cards. then i see him get up, meander to the security guard who was standing near me, and give him his camera. THEN he comes right next to me, puts his arm around me and gets the security guard to take a picture. then he smlles at me, and sits down.

so this random south asian man is forever going to have a picture with me in a photo store in bangkok. i have NO idea why he wanted a pic with me. had he never seen a girl with curly brown hair before? i was bewildered and wanted to laugh sooo hard after it happened, but i had to keep waiting and pretend like that happens all the time. wow...so weird! i just keep asking, why would he do such a thing??

im off to bed so i can be fresh for my next lesson...stay tuned..email me about how you are..i miss hearing from the home land..jesengel@gmail.com