Village Life

We pretty much just went back in time...at least it seemed like it anyways.  A friend of ours studied abroad in Thailand two years ago with a program that organized home stays in small northern Thai villages.  He got in contact with the program and set up a trip for five of us to go stay in a tiny, little village way up in the mountains for 5 days.  The whole thing was like nothing I've ever experienced before, and will never experience again.

The transportation required to get up there was an adventure in itself.  First we had to take a sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.  The train was actually pretty nice and comfortable and made the 13 hour journey tolerable.

 
We then had to take a six hour van ride from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son, on a road infamous for the number of turns and curves it has.  Let's just say that a windy road, mixed with a lack of AC, with a big hangover thrown in does not make for a fun ride.  After making it to through that leg, we had to take yet another windy, curvy ride the next day. It was literally a single track dirt road at some points, with super steep inclines and no guard rail separating us from falling off the road to our deaths.  But we safely made it to Huay Tong Kaw and our "village experience" began.

The village of Huay Tong Kaw has a population of about 200 (though it seemed a lot smaller).  It's pretty much self sustained, with little exchange of money.  They grow rice, raise animals, weave clothes and have a blacksmith.  Some of the people speak Thai, but most speak a different northern dialect, and no one speaks English. Other than a few outdated solar panels, there is no electricity and only one hose with running water. Everything about the village was so authentic that it seemed fake; we kept saying it looked like an exhibit at Disney World. Here is a video: Village. As you can tell Cyrus has obviously been practicing his narration since he's been here.

The five of us stayed with a host family, Patti (the dad) and Mugah (the mom).  They also had a few other family members that visited a lot.  Patti is the medicine man in the village, and he's pretty much the coolest man alive.  He knows how to do anything and everything, and is a master with a machete.  Every day we ate on the floor, and they made rice with pumpkin, greens, omelets, cabbage and other things. The food was simple, but really, really good.

We tried to learn a few words in their language, like "sequi" which we thought meant "delicious". During every meal we would say, "sequi, sequi", thinking we were telling them it was really good....that is until Patti told us that it really meant "banana".  So while we intended to complement them on the delicious food, in reality we were just saying nonsense.  They must have thought we were idiots. Just imagine someone coming to your house for dinner and repeatedly telling you, "banana, banana!". Eventually we figured it out, but Patti didn't let us forget about it.

We slept on the wooden floor in their raised hut houses, and I got to sleep right above where the pigs slept (I could literally look through the slits in the floor and see the pigs).  But we became bff's by the end of the trip, so it was OK.  Since there is no electricity we went to bed around 8 or 9 every night, only after we either read or played rummy by candle light (like back in the good old days).  Then at around 5 am or so, the roosters began to crow and it was time to get up.  Here is another video of the home we stayed in: House.

During this time of year, rice growers practice "slash and burn agriculture".  Every so often, they burn the rice fields to refresh the soil and as a way to alternate their different fields.  It's a little controversial though, seeing as the Thai government hates it because it pollutes the air a lot, but the villages and farmers have been doing it forever, and it's good for the land.  The fields were already burned in Huay Tong Kaw when we stayed there, so we helped them gather logs and branches that didn't burn all the way and piled them up to burn some more. It was just a huge field of ash, and it didn't feel the best knowing all of that was going into your lungs, but we definitely did some work and "got our hands dirty".

Another day we went on a hike to a waterfall, but this was no leisurely hike through the woods. At some points the path was straight up or down, in addition to being covered in ash from nearby fields, making the footing a little treacherous. Of course our guide was climbing effortlessly with his plastic loafers and multiple smoking breaks. The hike was a little long, but the waterfall was worth it.

Our days in the village were also spent making bamboo cups, teaching the kids how to play frisbee, seeing a Muay Thai fight, and helping Mugah shuck rice (see the picture below). By the end of the five days, we were ready to be back in civilization and our butts were ready to not sit on the floor anymore, but it was an amazing experience and I would definitely choose to do it again.

 

On the way back from Huay Tong Kaw we stopped in Mae Hong Son and Pai, smaller northern towns popular for their mountain scenery.  Unfortunately though, because of all the slash and burn going on, we just saw a lot of smog.  We hiked up to a look a point and this is the view we were supposed to see:

And this is what we actually saw:

Even though it wasn't as pretty as it would've been without the smog, it was still kind of cool...like looking into an abyss or something.  Or for all you Game of Thrones fans, it was like standing on the Wall (winter must be coming).

After touring the north for awhile, we got back on the sleeper train to Bangkok.  Next week we are going back to Chiang Mai for Songkran, the Thai new year, which is essentially just a country wide waterfight. So that should be a good time.

Lots of love to everyone at home!

More Visitors

Not too long after Cyrus' parents left, we were fortunate enough to have a few more visitors. After weeks and weeks of planning and anticipation, Linda and Debbie finally made it to Thailand.  The whole trip went pretty smooth, though we had a few bumps and sunburns along the way, but nothing too dramatic (well except maybe when Deb was almost stuck in Thailand for a few extra days!).

Cyrus and I met them at the airport in Bangkok, looking only the tiniest bit disheveled. Thankfully my Mom went over every single scenario of us not being able to find them beforehand, so we spotted them right away. We saw the major sights in BKK, and I must say, those two were troopers if I've ever seen them.  They battled through the heat, jetlag, and culture shock like they were traveling pros.  Most of you have already heard the tales from Linda, so I won't go into too much detail. We tried to give them a real "Thai experience", eating at roadside stalls and walking down the not so picturesque streets. We were pretty impressed with how they kept up, and if they were disgusted at all, they didn't admit it...though by the end of the trip we knew Linda was not a fan of all the trash.

I think I have to say that my highlight of BKK was taking those two to Khao San Road (the backpacker/party spot) and at the end of the night, when Cyrus and I were ready for bed, Linda was still trying to get us all to do shots...we were outdone by my mom :)

After spending enough time in the "big city" we headed south to visit the islands. Cyrus and I hadn't been down south yet, so we were pretty excited.  Our first stop was Krabi, just a beach town and jump off point for some of the other islands.  And to be expected of any vacation with Linda and Debbie requiring nice weather, after being in Thailand for 4 months without a drop of rain, our first night in Krabi it poured...for hours. But we still had a good time, and ate at the market and played some Euchre at our hotel.   

Then we took the ferry to Koh Phi Phi, which as everyone refers to as "the island from the movie 'The Beach'" (here's the trailer for those who don't remember it: The Beach). Even though it was super touristy, the island was really, really beautiful and we got to walk in Leo's footsteps.

We stayed in a nice hotel with an awesome view, and basically 'lived the life' for a few nights.  The hotel had a good restaurant (and strong cocktails) so we filled ourselves with seafood, curry, and rum.  I want to give a little shout out to Deb for introducing me to the Singapore Sling...my new drink of choice. We went on an awesome sailboat "booze cruise" around the islands, which was definitely one of our favorite things we've done in Thailand.

After the touristy feel of Phi Phi, we headed to the smaller island of Koh Jam. At first, it was looking like the island was a little too small...aka nothing to do.  But we got into the groove of doing absolutely nothing, and it felt good to just relax and read for a few days.

Don't be fooled though, we were traveling with "the general" so she made sure to schedule in some activities for us to do (participation was mandatory).  We took a trip to the little town on the island, walked along the beach, and did some kayaking.  Continuing with the bad weather theme, it rained almost every day, but it actually wasn't too bad.  We played more euchre than I've ever played, I finished Game of Thrones (which is not the shortest book in the world), and ate lots of good food.

When our island adventure came to an end, we headed back to Bangkok to drop Debbie off at the airport.  I'm sure the story has already circulated through the family, but let's just remind everyone to make sure you are 100% positive on the day your flight leaves.  Thankfully everything worked out, and Debbie got back safe and sound.

Then it was off to Suphan with Linda to tour her around our 'stomping grounds'. Cyrus and I showed her all the sights: the night market, pad thai lady, the coffee shop, and the grocery store.  Everything was an adventure for her, and it was nice for us to see things in a new light after being there for a while.

Then Cyrus went to meet some friends on another island, and the "mother-daughter adventure" officially began.  We had an action packed week, with trips to Ayutthaya to see ancient ruins, and Kanchanaburi for some waterfalls and WWII history (and one bus ride from hell).

My mom and I spent the last few days back in Suphan. She got to see my school and we had a good time seeing some more sights and fitting in her last meals in Thailand.  Then, sadly, it was time to take her back to BKK to catch her flight.  We met Cyrus there, and at my and Cyrus' request, we had a farewell dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant (you have no idea how bad we crave tortilla chips and burritos). 

The three weeks flew by, but we packed a lot of things into the time we had.  I'm glad I got to show my mom and Debbie around, and I think they had a good time...for the most part.  It was also nice to see things through their eyes, because we kind of forget after being here for so long.  Sorry for the lengthy post, but trust me, this is just a fraction of all the things we "saw and learned about".  Thanks again to Linda and Debbie for giving us a really good trip!

Sonny and Lenora Take on Thailand

Hello world, 

Finally getting caught up on some of these blogs over here. We've been doing a lot of traveling so were backtracking on some of these things. Everything has been going good over here though outside of the MSU loss. Luckily we were traveling during the time so I missed the whole game and any news that had to do with it so that made it a little bit easier to get over. 

But about a month and a half ago we had a couple visitors here. My mom and dad were able to make it over pretty unexpectedly. They were taking a trip to Pakistan and right before they left they figured that since they were already 3/4 of the way to Thailand they might as well just finish the trip and visit us. It was really nice to have them here just to be able to see them face-to-face for the first time in however many months. We were still in school so it was kind of a weird schedule but we were able to do a few things with them and they did a little bit of traveling by themselves as well. 

It was pretty funny because the week or two before my parents got here I kept telling my dad to try to get to the library or look up some things he wanted to see or do in Bangkok. His reply email read something like this: "I wish I had time to go to the library and look at books. You figure out what to do and we'll be happy with it." That of course made it very easy for me (not really). But the funny part about it was I laid out an itinerary for us about a week in advance and sent it to my dad to see what he thought about it. He was in Pakistan by this time so he had a lot more time on his hands apparently and proceeded to make and request about 20 changes to the plans. It ended up working out alright and they got to see a lot of different things, but it was ironic (if thats the right use of the word) how he had no cares about the plans and all of a sudden he was the master of planning.

When we picked them up at the Bangkok airport, it was pretty early in the morning but they didn't look too stressed or travel weary surprisingly. It was a little bit easier for them coming from Pakistan because they didn't have as much of a time change making the jet lag a bit less of a problem. We decided to stay in Bangkok for a couple days and see a few of the temples and attractions there. It got to be pretty boring for both Paige and I because we have already seen a lot of temples and after a while they all become the same. But after we had been to one temple and halfway through the next one, my dad surprised me with a "lets get the hell out of here, these are all the same." 

Being in Bangkok can be fun but it is also a hard city to stay in very long because of the amount of trash, people heckling you, and general stress/tension you feel when you are in the city. My parents started feeling this same way too and were relieved when we went back to the airport and sent them to the island of Koh Chang after about two days in Bangkok. Like I said Paige and I were still in school so we weren't able to go with them unfortunately. This was the end of the semester so some time on the beach would have been a welcome trip. It sounded like my parents really enjoyed the island though. 

After my parents got back from the island they came to Suphan for a few days. The first day they got here they came into the school for about an hour and checked it out. They met a lot of our teachers, saw the classrooms we teach in and met a few of our students. The interactions between my students and my parents was pretty funny just because of the language barrier. Since we were in school it was hard for us to do much of anything with them except for go out to dinner in the evening and check out a few markets. They did a bit of exploring on their own and liked our small town. I think my dads favorite thing about the whole trip was the amount of mangoes he was able to buy and for how cheap he could get them. Anytime we left our apartment building it was like he was on a hunt to find mangoes. I have no idea how many he ate in total but I wouldn't be surprised if it was around 100 for the whole week.

After Suphan it was back to the airport in Bangkok. Their flight was early in the morning so we said our goodbyes and they were back on their way to Pakistan for another couple days before returning to the US. Although their trip was only about a week long they got to see a lot of the main attractions of Thailand in Bangkok and when going down south to an island. Even though it was such a short trip, it was great to have them here. I hadn't been planning on them coming to visit so it was just an added bonus for them to come and was definitely a great experience to be able to share with them. 

Last Week of School

Our first semester of teaching finally wrapped up the last week of February.  We were excited to be so close to our "summer break," but the last few weeks were far from a leisurely coast.  Cyrus and I both decided to give oral exams to all of our students.  A teacher before us suggested it, and it sounded like a good idea, seeing as we wouldn't have to grade over 700 tests....little did we know that asking the same 5 questions to over 700 students isn't much better.  Though it was a little repetitive and rough on my voice, it was good to actually talk to each and every one of our kids (people tend to get lost in a class of 40).

I asked my students basic English questions and a few that had to do with what we learned throughout the semester.  Some of my questions were:

          What is your name?
          What is my name?
          What is one thing you do in the morning?
          What time do you go to bed
          When do you feel excited/angry/scared?

I took the students in two's and three's out into the hall to give them their test:

 

 

Two students (Teen and Nut, see below) goofing off as I was giving the test to other students outside in the hall:

The answers ranged from dismal to impressive, and I always knew it was going to be a long session when the kid struggled to answer "How are you?" (which is something they stand up and say at the beginning of every class).  All in all I was glad I gave a speaking exam though, because a lot of kids who never talk in class are actually really good at English (and alternatively there were a lot of kids who knew next to nothing). It gave us a good idea of where we'll be next year, and how we can improve our teaching styles.

I also had all of my students write their names on a little card and then I took a picture of them holding their names up so I can try to remember them for next semester. Some of my favorites students...

 

 

Now that we're done with our first semester a part of me misses home, but I'm definitely not ready to leave yet.  I look forward to spending another semester with my students, because I feel like I just started getting to know all of them and getting a hang of the whole teaching thing. Here's a little snapshot of some of the kids.

A group from my smartest class:

This is Toppy, one of my more entertaining students.  He's a little bit of a trouble maker, but he always makes me laugh.  The first day of school when I had everyone write their nicknames, he wrote "Toppy....like party, love coyote".  I didn't know what it meant then, and I still don't, but I proceeded to call him that every time I took attendance.

The class watching "Up" during our last day.

These are three of my favorite students: Teen, Nut, and Chai.  They love to come talk with Cyrus and me, and like to joke around with us.  And they speak English pretty well, which is always a plus.

Now that school's done we'll be doing some traveling and hosting my mom for a few weeks.  We start school again in the middle of May, so we have a nice, long break to prepare ourselves.

Paige


Paige summed up our last couple weeks of school pretty well. I decided to give an oral exam just like she did and while it was easier to ask questions than grade a test, asking the same five questions over and over for two and a half weeks straight gets really old. The questions that I asked were:
          -How are you?
          -What is your name?
          -What day is it today/tomorrow/yesterday?
          -What month is it right now/last month/next month?
          -When are you happy/angry/sad/excited?

It seems like it would be a really easy test and for most of the students it was. But when you get some students who don't know how to answer "What is your name?" it can become really hard to not get a little bit frustrated or mad at them. But overall it was a good experience. I got to learn a lot more about the students individually and actually talk to all of them as opposed to only a few who raise their hands every class.

One of the other perks of asking all the questions was I actually got to learn a bit of Thai. Whenever I asked the students a question, they would say the question in Thai just to think about it. Eventually, after hearing the same question in Thai about 800 times I picked up how to say the questions and words in Thai.

Sorry we've been pretty slow with the blogs. But we are planning to post a few in the next week or so and catch all of you up on our adventures. Hope everyone is doing well back home and go State.

Cyrus

Cyrus Bball

As Paige mentioned last time, I recently made my big Thai NBA debut. Well...not really but I did play in a basketball competition in a nearby city. 

It came about pretty randomly. One day I went with Paige to the school right next to our apartment where she was going to do some running. I usually just go there and shoot around for a little bit but this time there were a few kids playing (who were awful) and a teacher who was playing with them. They asked me if I wanted to join in with them and I had nothing better to do so I said yes. The teacher playing with them actually turned out to be pretty good and we went back and forth a few times between watching the kids run around in circles with the ball. 

When we were finished he came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play in a basketball competition with him the next day. He spoke decent English but I still had a hard time understanding what he was talking about. From what we could gather, there was a competition about 100 km away and that the games started at 10 PM, but he wanted to meet at the school we were at around 6 PM. So I ended up just saying yes and figuring that I would find out what the deal was the next day when I met him. 

The next day I showed up to the school and he asked me again if I wanted to play in the competition that day and I said yes. We jumped in his truck and we were on our way...or so I thought. We ended up driving for ten minutes to a court in Suphan. When we got out he introduced me to a few of his friends that were playing and told me that they were on the team with him. We ended up staying at the court for about 2 hours and then he finally told me that we were ready to go. For real this time. Talking to him in the car on the way I found out that the competition was at a university which was 100 km away. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. I don't know what I was really expecting but when we got there I was really surprised.

When we walked into the gym the first thing that I noticed were the referees, scorers table, scoreboard, and shot-clock. I have played a lot of basketball games since middle school (shout-out to my 3-peating IM team!) but none of them since that time have involved any of the above amenities. The first day we just played one game which we ended up losing by about 10. It was a lot of fun playing a sport in an actual competition again but it was hard just because of the language barrier as well as the way that they play. Not to get all basketball nerd on you but they did a lot of isolation trying to beat their man off the dribble versus a lot of screens and cuts like I am used to. One of the weirder things of the whole game was stepping up to the free throw line. I literally have not shot a free throw in a game in at least 10 years.

If any of you guys needed lessons on shooting form, here you go.

The second day Paige decided to come back with me. We met at the school again at 6 and were on our way...or so we thought. Instead we had to pick up 2 other people. We rode for about an hour and half all squished into a pick-up truck. It was a pretty uncomfortable ride but we made it. For our game that night we played against one of the better teams in the competition. We hung around with them for most of the game until the 4th quarter. They ended up winning by 30 or so. All while wearing purple jersey's.

You can see the other team in their purple jersey's.

Overall, it was a really cool experience to have been able to play in a competition over here. Thinking about a lot of the situations I might find myself in before I left America, I don't think this one would have ever crossed my mind. Also, I never ever, ever, thought I would see a Thai person throw down in-person. The teams we played against were surprisingly big, strong and athletic.  

Hope everyone is doing well back home. Looks like State basketball is playing good so that's awesome. Everything else is going well over here and we are just finishing up our first semester and looking forward to our summer break and also the trip we have all been waiting for from Linda and Debbie. 

Cyrus and Paige

PS. In case you were wondering my debut stat line was 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and 1 TO (maybe). I'm no Draymond but I'd say those were pretty solid numbers. If anybody can get a hold of Coach Izzo, I think I might still have eligibility left for the basketball team. 

Festivals and Suphan

Hello, Hello!

Cyrus and I have been back to the grind ever since we got back from our two week winter break.  This means our weekends are limited to hanging around Suphan, and finalizing our lesson plans for the end of the year.  We don't have any big adventures or trips to write about, but I hope these snapshots of "Suphan Life" will be entertaining enough...

Thai people love festivals.  It seems like they have one every other weekend. The first couple festivals we went to were fun and exciting, but I feel that once you've seen one, you've seen them all.  Every Thai festival includes the following things: stupid carnival games (almost always involving popping a balloon), vendors selling anything and everything including $2 watches, used shoes, t-shirts with bad English on them, colored contacts, car cleaner, and stalls and stalls and stalls of meat on a stick.

You can also buy bunnies in dresses if you want...

And sometimes there are elephants...

This is a picture of one of our favorite people in Suphan (the woman on the left).  She is fondly known by all of the Western teachers as "Pad Thai Lady", but her real name is Mon.  Her restaurant doubles as the family living room, and it's not the cleanest place I've ever been, but her pad thai is "the bomb" and there are hardly any other restaurants that make it.  We go at least 3 times a week, and a meal there sets us back 30 baht....or $1.

This is the night market in town.  It's just a road with a bunch of food vendors.  Some of our favorite things to get are pad see ew, sushi, green curry, spring rolls, mango and sticky rice, and pineapple smoothies.

People will drive right up to the stall on their motorbike, order, then take the food back home in plastic bags.

On the back of a "song tow", a.k.a. a pickup truck with benches that drives people around.  Needless to say there are no seat belts.

This is the road our apartment is off of.  If you walk 100 yards you will get to Pad Thai Lady's restaurant.

We spend a lot of our Sunday mornings at this coffee shop.  A super cool woman named Banya owns it.  She speaks English really well and makes a deeeeelicious Thai iced tea.

We only have three more weeks until our big two month break, so we are just counting down the days. Hope everything is good at home!

Paige and Cyrus

p.s.  Look out for the next post detailing Cyrus' Thai basketball debut....