Random shots

A night shot of our local City Pilar Shrine, always beautiful, no matter the time of day.

Elephants really do walk down the street. We took this photo on the back of a "bus" we were on as we drove around the elephant. Behind the elephant you can see the other typical form of transportation in the area, a bike taxi.

Amye with one of her classes. The peace sign for photos is a BIG thing with Thai kids.

The inside of a mangosteen. Range in size from golf ball to baseball, with a hard purple outer shell, bright red inside with white fruit that literally melts in your mouth... mmm, so good!

One of the many fruit vendors on the streets of SiSaket. In the foreground are just two of the MANY motorbikes that line the streets by the market at night. Both of the fruits for sale are common to the region. Durians on the left and rambutian on the right.

A close-up photo of the rambutian fruit. It looks prickly, but the green spikes are soft and the inside holds a white jelly-like fruit.

The view of rice patty fields from the train. This was on our way to Ubon from SiSaket.

Getting ready for some time by the pool during our trip to Ubon.

The sunset in Ubon from our hotel room. Sunsets here are always incredible, especially when there are some thunder clouds on the horizon. --Pictures cannot do it justice--

Spending some time by the pool in Ubon.
Amye walking by the pool in Ubon.

Corn: not just a vegetable but a sweet used in many desserts. Take for example, the Corn Sundae (yes, really) at KFC.

Working hard for the Baht

First of all, sorry for the long time since the last update!! All is going great here in Thailand and we're enjoying ourselves immensely. The typical week is 5 days at school and teaching about 18 hours a week. On the weekend we try and travel to a nearby town or city. We've been to Ubon Ratchachani (to the East) and Surin (to the West), both by train. Surin is known as the Elephant City and hosts the annual elephant round-up in the Fall. Although we did not see any elephants in Surin, we have seen 4 on the streets of Ubon--although only from a distance, and one baby elephant up-close and personal in front of our hotel during the Sunday night market.

It's hard to believe that we've been in Si Saket for over a month already, and we're amazed at how many people we've come to know. It's already hard for us to walk through town without people staring and parents pointing out the foreigners to their kids, but know we know people when we're walking through town.
The group of foreigners in town is not overwhelming, but we have the ability to spot them in the crowd easily. We've already found all of the European/Western type restaurants for our go-to when we're just not feeling Thai food, or we need something to get our stomachs back on the right track--if you know what I mean. We have found a unique variety of packaged foods available here that just aren't available elsewhere. Examples include Pepsi Green, Pringles with Garlic and Basil, and shrimp flavored chips. And something that Amye loves, is the availability of locally grown sweet corn. Although available on the cob, it is most often served with shaved coconut, vanilla sauce, or as a dessert item like the Corn Sundae at KFC.

Last week we were treated to the first teacher-appreciation dinner at our school. It was complete with an 8 course traditional Thai meal, which was great. The beer kept flowing all night, as did the karoke singing. The director of the school (the big kahuna) very much enjoys talking to the two of us and making sure we're happy. He spent quite a bit of time at our table and sang us a karoke song. Touching as it was, it was humorous when he finished and then asked us to sing him a song. Well, the next English song that came up on the screen was "Tears In Heaven" .... we'll just leave it at that. Here is a photo of the two of us with our boss in the Foreign Language Department (Bob) and the Director (the Director). Neither of them caught on to the fact that we were acting up:

One final note of this posting... to Amye's sadness, my beard is now gone and as she says "you look naked." More photos to come soon. We're having difficulties with the internet at work right now and we're having a hard time uploading.

I Teached English Now

Last week we began our new careers as teachers here in Thailand at Sisaket Wittayalai School (on the left if a photo from our first day). Not knowing what to fully expect, we dove right in! Right away we’ve noticed how different schools in Thailand are from those in the States.

Both at school and in the community, teachers are highly respected and students bow and “wai” (folding of the hands in front of/below the face and lowering the head as a sign of respect) at us. One of the most unusual experiences has been our weekly gate duty. Once a week we are expected to stand at the gate of the school in the morning as the children walk in. We are joined with a few Thai teachers as well, and students are expected to stop and wai us before walking in. Those students who are on motorbikes—which is a lot of them—must stop the bike at a designated spot, turn the bike off, lift their visors or take their helmet off, wai to us, walk their bikes past us, and then they are permitted to turn their bikes back on and continue.

The role of the Thai teachers out front with us is to ensure these steps are taken by each student, as well checking uniforms. The Thai teachers here are allowed to smack students without concern, especially if their shirt is not tucked in properly or if they are not wearing the correct uniform for the day. Each day here seems to have a different uniform regulation. Some days are dictated by gender, some by class level, some by participation in “Boy Scouts” or “Girl Scouts,” and sometimes it’s just a normal day. One day last week we were surprised by the very colorful uniform shirts each student was wearing—a different color for each class. To us it looked like a bunch of Easter eggs.

When we mention the unusual expectation of students bowing to us, we’re not talking about a class of 30 or a school of 300, there are 4,000 students at this school and they all assemble every morning outside for a morning assembly. It really hits you when you see all 4,000 students in front of you…it’s a lot!

The morning assembly involves the raising of the Thai flag, Buddhist prayers, and plenty of announcements in Thai. Since we can’t understand the announcements, the foreign teachers are excused once they begin. Being Thailand, 8:00 a.m. is hot enough to make you sweat and 10 to 15 minutes of standing outside is long enough.

We’ve been told that Thai culture has it’s own sense of time and planning. The other teachers have told us to expect classes not to show up, for a week here and there to not have any classes, or for students to have other commitments during the class period. Hey, we’re not complaining!

Each of us has the same teaching schedule of 18 hours per week (no more than 4 hours per day) and we’re always teaching the same grade level at the same time. Luckily for us, we have only 3 classes and each for 6 hours a week, with a max of 30 students. Other teachers may have 18 classes of 60 students each and only see them once a week. Amye and I are both teaching Matium 2’s and Matium 5’s which amount to 8th and 11th graders in the states.

So far we’re having a lot of fun but still trying to learn the ropes. Some classes surprise us with how much they know, while others look at us with blank stares. Sadly, students in this system are automatically given at least a 70% which is a 3.0, so not everyone is up to the same level, but there are always a few bright bulbs in the class. Parents pay 40,000 Baht (about $1,200 USD) a year for their students to be in these classes, so they continue on to the next level even if they don’t know how to say their name in English. This for sure poses a challenge for us. ☺

We’ll be sure to post more of our teaching experiences as we get into the swing of things, and post some photos of the school soon.

(Sunset at the small park across from our hotel)

Si Saket... Heads are turning!

from May 10, 2009:

We are now in Si Saket which is a city in the Northeast bordering Cambodia and Laos. The city has 30,000 people in it and very few are foreigners. We are living in the “city center” which is near the daily outdoor food market, and weekly Sunday street market. Although we’re living in a hotel, the room is quite spacious and has great accommodations, including daily change of sheets and towels!! We can’t beat the price either, one month’s rent is about 1 night at a city hotel in the States.

We have done a lot of walking the streets of Si Saket and have been to the ‘grocery store’ almost everyday but yesterday we decided to explore a bit further. We took a bike taxi to a local park called ‘Si Nakarin Garden.’ It was the most relaxing and refreshing area in the entire city. It was off the beaten track down a few gravel roads, but most definitely worth the trek to get there. We wandered around the many tree-lined paths in the park (in the park there are 50,000 Lamduan trees) and watched families as they picnicked and enjoyed the serene setting. We did a little research before going to the park and found out there was a little zoo if you crossed one of the bridges in the park. We wandered around and stumbled upon the zoo (which if we wouldn’t have known better we wouldn’t have known it was there), we paid our 15 baht (less than 50 cents) each and entered the zoo.

(The park)

The zoo isn’t quite the equivalent of a zoo in the states, we are finding most things don’t really compare so one must just learn to say ‘Ciest Le Vie’ and accept things as they are. The zoo had quite a variety of animals including: a camel, ostriches, monkeys, hippos, bears, cows, peacocks, pigs and piglets, and lots and lots of deer and birds. Tyler and I’s favorite animal was the cow with the protruding lower lip and teeth. The animals were in their natural, or somewhat natural habitats, but we unfortunately noticed that one of the monkeys was missing his eye and other things I will not mention here. All in all, the zoo was a fun place to visit. *One other note about the zoo: we had a nice little videotaped interview from some local Thai teenagers who wanted to practice their English, which was pretty entertaining!

No matter where we go in the city, we stand out. Thais will blatantly stare and stop what they’re doing when we walk by.

In the evening we sat down to a nice meal on the bottom level of our hotel. We decided to go out and see what kind of night life Thailand has to offer. On a Saturday night there were very few people out but we stumbled upon a bar called ‘SugarPub’ where we sat and listened to some live music. The main singer in the band was an evident hippie from the states and played Bob Marley amongst other American songs. So we sat and were entertained while drinking ‘Leo’ the local beer which would be equivalent to Budweiser. We have found much better beers here, mostly lagers but the bars only seem to serve Leo and Heineken.

Today has been a very low key day. Yesterday I was just telling Tyler how blessed we have been to have everything fall into place perfectly and how blessed we have been that neither of us have been ill. I spoke too soon! I was violently ill from the food last night and spent most of the day in bed. By the evening I was feeling better so we walked outside of our hotel and low and behold a flooding of people in the streets.

Every Sunday there is a night market in the street right outside of our hotel. The street was blocked off and everyone brought their local goods, clothing or food to sell. There was everything from baskets to unidentifiable meat (which we tried) to endless sweets to hamburgers in a baggie and there was even popcorn! I needed my fill of corn (being from Iowa and all) so we picked up a bag of popcorn and I also tried a cup of corn with vanilla sauce on the top, an interesting combination. We also tried a sweet rolled up crepe with coconut and cream in it, delicious! Tyler was feeling ambitions so he tried some fried meat of some sort, I don’t think we will eat it again but it was edible. We even had some delicious chicken satay. The food that we have eaten from carts and in the streets seems to be the freshest and best tasting.

(Amye enjoying some time by the water in the park)

Bangkok...Wetting Our Appetite

Well, after hours and hours of traveling, we’ve made it to Bangkok! Already we have had three and a half days of exploring and falling in love with Thailand. Right now we’re staying in the touristy area near Khaosan Road which is great for people watching, but also like swimming upstream when you walk through the streets. It’s a lively place with many street vendors, restaurants and some great pad thai carts (I’m partial to the lady right by our place, Amye is partial to the guy to the right about 50 ft.—we’ve eaten at both more than once).

Some of the best experiences we’ve had have been when we’ve traveled outside of the immediate Khaosan area. Two days ago, we were exploring the side streets and came across a guy who we expected to ask for money. Instead, he offered some great suggestions for Buddhist sites away from the tourists. This turned into our first Tuk Tuk experience. A Tuk Tuk is a local mode of transportation that would not fit into an American equivalent. It’s a 3-wheeled covered motor bike with a bench attached to the back. “Taxi” is a loose term but it’s an efficient mode of transportation and doesn’t need to stay within the lanes of traffic.

Our first stop was the giant standing Buddha (Wat Indharaviharn) which words cannot describe. A massive gold statue rose from in between buildings on side streets to reveal an incredible site where locals went to pray at the feet of Buddha. These feet are about 8 feet wide each.

The next stop on our Tuk Tuk journey, was at the “Lucky Buddha” garden (Wat Sakhet) where we met a very gracious Thai gentleman who not only took a moment to show us around but to also tell us some of the history and meanings behind the statues. The incredible thing was that he kept thanking us for coming to Thailand, for coming to the garden, and for allowing him a few moments to teach us. This gentleman did not work at the garden, he was just a visitor who was spending some of his day off to pray and talk with the monks.

Saturday we had a goal for our travels: a Typhoid shot for Amye and Japanese Encephalitis for both of us. We made our way via public transportation on a boat and then the sky train--which were great ways to see the river and new parts of the city. After some shots at the hospital (which looked more like a hotel) we spent some time at the Lumpini Park which is by far one of the best city parks either of us has experienced. In the middle of a busy city, a large public park with multiple bodies of water, outdoor exercise equipment, childrens play areas and many tree-lined paths made for a great afternoon.

We’ve also spent some time relaxing and taking it easy after our travels to Thailand. The downtime in the parks and walking through the streets has been great. We’re preparing now to move on to our new city and school. It sounds like the teaching positions in Chainat have been filled so we’re going to NE Thailand to a city called Si Sa Ket which is quite a journey from Bangkok. Si Sa Ket is about 70 miles from Ubon (with an airport) but located on the rail line, so we’re likely to take the train there tonight or tomorrow night.

From what we know right now, the school already has 7 English teachers there from our program (AYC) so we’ll have some company. However, it doesn’t sound like there will be much in terms of Western restaurants and shops like we’ve found here in Bangkok. It sounds funny, but 7-11s are all over and we’re really hoping there’ll be one near us.

We’ll try and update again once we’ve arrived in Si Sa Ket with more information and an update on where we’ll be living.

-Tyler & Amye

Bangkok

We have made it to Bangkok and are really enjoying ourselves.
We will update our blog soon. :)

Here are a few pictures for now:

Test Run Complete...

We are not yet in Thailand or on our way. We are a little embarrassed to admit that we booked our flights for Wednesday the 29th at 1:30am NOT Tuesday the 28th. Tyler's mom drove us 2 and a half hours to the San Francisco airport, the anticipation was rising and we were finally ready to go. We got all 7 pieces of luggage (yes 7!!) stacked up on a cart and waited in line at the San Francisco airport for 45 minutes. We made it to the front of the line and the Chinese check-in attendant kept repeating "China Airlines?," and we kept saying "Yes" all the while thinking what is wrong with this guy. He proceeded to say he didn't have us booked, we handed him our itinerary thinking okay man you have to get us on this flight. He then tells us that we are scheduled for tomorrow, sure enough after actually reading our itinerary we don't fly out until tomorrow. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry but laughter and jokes seemed appropriate at this time.

From canceling our flight, to going to the airport a full day early we have high hopes that the third time is the charm. We plan on leaving tonight for the airport (again).


Funny Facts:
*Tyler's job has been to book flights and plan itineraries for the past 2 years and has never messed up until now. :)
*The organization we are going through emailed us and said see you on Thursday and I asked 'Tyler why did he say Thursday when we arrive on Wednesday?' Tyler made up something like 'Oh well maybe we won't meet with them until the next day' when they had told us they would meet us at the airport the day of.
*I emailed and printed our itinerary 3 times the day before leaving but never double-checked the dates.
*Test run complete.

On the way back home, we got hungry and stopped for Taco Bell's 4th Meal, only to find out .... what an "inconvinient!" When asked "If that was all?", Tyler proceeded to politely order a side of beans.