Monkeys for everyone!

This weekend we put on our adventure caps and took our first trip outside of Suphan.  A big group of people from our program decided to meet in Lopburi for the “monkey banquet”.  The town of Lopburi is famous for having monkeys running around everywhere, and once a year the town throws a huge feast for the monkeys at the temple they all hang out at. I wasn’t too excited about the monkeys, but I wanted to see everyone else, so we joined in. 

We traveled with about 5 other people from our town, and we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for making it to Lopburi with no major setbacks.  The bus was 80 baht (less than $3) and the hotel/hostel we stayed at was 100 baht each (so a little over $3).  I was pretty surprised by how many monkeys roamed around.  Our hotel was right by the temple where most of them are, so we got to have a lot of quality time.  I will admit, I wasn’t the biggest monkey fan.  They had no fear of jumping on you to try and steal your snacks or water (and no one steals my snacks!), and a few people got little bites and scratches.  I tried to keep my distance, and let everyone else have fun getting climbed on.

 

We joined in on a tour that other people were going on, which included a sunflower field, a lake, and a bat cave.  It sounded like a pretty good deal for 200 baht, but it ended up being somewhat lame.  The lake was reminiscent of Lake Lansing, and the bat cave wasn’t very active….but the company was good, and at times that’s all that matters.

That night we went out with everyone, and the majority of people had one too many Changs (the beer of choice here).  Maybe we were trying to make up for missing the "day before thanksgiving night out".  The following morning, we went to the banquet for an hour or so, and then took the bus back to Suphan.  It was a brief, but fun trip.  Although getting up for school on Monday was a bit of a challenge.  Next weekend we are heading to Koh Chang, an island in southeastern Thailand.  We are definitely in need of some beach time.

 

Paige and Cyrus

Two temples and a football game

This weekend we took a few field trips around town.  With no breathtaking waterfalls or significant ancient temples, Suphan isn't too well known in Thailand.  I guess you could call it "plain jane".  But if you had to name something worth noting about the city, it would most likely be the huge dragon temple on the city's outskirts.  It seems like it would be a semi-popular tourist attraction, but it's not in any guidebooks and barely anyone knows about it...but it's definitely there.  I was surprised to see how big it was (that's what she said), and as you can imagine it looked pretty out of place. The dragon is actually a Chinese museum, with a lot of other little Chinese temples in the same complex.

And no, I'm not actually doing the "asian peace sign" seriously:

 

Cyrus standing at the foot of the dragon:

After the dragon, our friend took us to a lesser known temple that he visited before.  He randomly befriended a monk, Utai, the last time he went, so we were able to tour the temple led by a monk that lives there.  The site is over 700 years old and has hundreds of Buddha statues. Being there made you feel like you really were on the other side of the world, in a place that has a history very different from your own.

Utai also showed us how to do a traditional Buddhist prayer, by lighting incense and a candle, and then placing a gold leaf on the Buddha statue.  We bowed three times, then another monk splashed us with water for good luck.  The experience was pretty awesome.  It was one of those things that we didn't want to do at first, because we were all tired from seeing the dragon temple, but it ended up being one the best experiences I've had here so far.

Later that night, we went to the soccer (aka football) game of the professional team that plays here, Suphanburi FC.  The Thailand professional league is nothing to call "ESPN deportes" about, but it was definitely a fun time and it felt good to just blend into the crowd for a while.  It was an exciting match to watch, but Suphan lost in the final minute of play.  Fortunately, the soccer games are free to go to (awesome), so although we didn't get a win, we at least got our money's worth.

The people standing up in the pic below are the Suphan FC cheering section.  They brought drums and had organized cheers, as did the other team's cheering section across the stadium.  It's funny that you don't need to understand the language to know exactly what the guy in front of you is yelling after the ref makes a bad call.

 

It should also be noted that in Thailand beer is drank with ice, and occasionally through a straw.  This may seem outlandish, but I won't lie, it's actually kind of good. And I might bring the ice thing back to the US for those hot summer beers.

 

It was a good weekend, but we're ready to explore some new cities next week. Another American girl who lives in our apartment has a boyfriend that owns a restaurant in town.  All of us are going to meet there for T-giving dinner and grill some good ole' American food. It will be sad not being home, but at least we have a lot to be thankful about. If only we could watch the Packers - Lions game....

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and go Packers!

Oh, and Cyrus says go lions.

Paige and Cyrus

 

Loi Krathong Welcome Assembly

 Last week at school we had a welcome assembly for Cyrus, Sam, and me.  We had to stand in front of the school during morning assembly and say a little speech about ourselves and how we like Thailand.  At first, the thought of speaking in front of 2,000 people made me a little nervous....but then I realized  no one would know what the hell I'm talking about anyways.  So it was pretty painless, although my feelings were hurt when Cyrus got the biggest applause out of anyone. I wasn't surprised though.

Here is a picture of all of the English Department teachers.  They are all really nice and helpful, and make being in the office a little more enjoyable.

This is us and our coordinator, Wattana.  She is amazing, and is really good about helping us out when we need it.

Loi Krathong also took place last week.  It's a Thai holiday that celebrates water, so everyone makes these little floating rafts out of flowers and banana leaves.  They push the rafts (they're called krathongs) out into a lake or river and say a prayer.  Some students were making them at school, and taught us how to make our own.

 

So, this is how big of a celebrity Cyrus is around here.  These girls are actually lining up to take a picture with him.  Literally waiting their turn.  He said he took at least 40 pictures with people.

  

We met up with some Thai people from the other school in our town, and a group of us went with them to a local festival for the holiday.  There was a stage with dancing and singing, and lots of vendors with food and random stuff.  Everyone pushed their krathongs into this little lake, we even said a prayer!

Go Packers!

Love Paige (and Cyrus)

Getting there...

We’re beginning to get into the groove of life in Thailand, and especially here in Suphanburi.  Suphan is considered a small town, though it seems relatively big to us.  This past weekend we made a journey to the grocery store, the weekend market, and the mall.  Those may all seem like mundane activities, but doing even the simplest thing here, like taking the bus for example, turns into some sort of unorganized adventure.  In Thailand they have the saying, “Mai pen rai” which translates to “just let it go” or  “don’t worry about it”.  We have found ourselves repeating the mantra many times over the past 2 weeks.

Here's us on a tuk tuk (a motorcycle with a cart on the back).  Key in on the side mirror.

On Friday a group of teachers from our apartment went out to sing karaoke, a popular past time here.  I was expecting your typical karaoke bar, with drunken renditions of decade old songs sung to a crowd of your equally drunk peers.  Well, in Thailand you rent out your own little room and sing with only the group you came with.  At first I though it was a little weird, but we all got pretty in to it.  The fact that they had the most out of date and random selection of English songs made it even better.

School is going pretty smoothly this week.  We thought up our own lesson plans; I’m working on the pronunciation of R and L words, since every student has trouble distinguishing between the two.  I’m enjoying teaching a lot actually.  The kids are so precious and fun, with the only exception being the constant, non-stop, incessant, frustrating amount of talking in the classroom.  I wouldn’t care if they were whispering, but it gets to the point where I have to yell so everyone can hear me, and I don’t think my voice can handle that for very long.

This week in class I started reading off the attendance so I can get to know at least a few of my 730 kids’ names.  They each pick a nickname (most of them are in English) to be called at school.  I have no idea how or why they choose the names that they do, but some of them are so random that I have to try not to laugh as I’m reading them off.  Here are just a few examples: nut, tiger, boss, safe, gun, hygiene, bank, touch, first, pop (a popular one), shop, tony, mix, god, book, golf, beer, ice (another common one), benz, sweden, bill, mike, field, cake, Neptune, mighty, and gift.

Also, in Thailand every day of the week corresponds to a certain color.  Tuesday is pink, and it represents something to do with the king.  The king is pretty much “the man” here.  His face is on posters everywhere, and all the people love him.  So, on Tuesdays all of the students and teachers, us included, wear pink polos to school.  Awesome.

Lots of love

Cyrus' First Week of School

Paige did a good job of summarizing the first week of school. Walking into the school for the first time was a pretty crazy feeling. I think that's when it really hit me that we are going to be in Thailand for a year teaching English.

On the first day of school I had five classes scheduled, but ended up only having to go to four of them. I was sitting in the teachers' lounge dreading going to my first class and speaking in front of all the kids. Going into class I had no idea what to expect from the kids in terms of their level of English, behavior, or attitude,  but it ended up going pretty well. Most of the kids are well behaved but of course there are a few troublemakers. The biggest problem that I have with the classes is just how much all of the chat with one another. It's crazy to think that kids in American schools are well behaved, but these kids just chat it up alllllll the time. As soon as you turn to get one group of kids quiet everyone behind you starts talking. Overall it was about what I expected. Their English isn't great but it isn't horrible. Managing a class and teaching a lesson plan is tough but I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it.... and I will always have hangman to bail me out.

Here is a link to the video of our morning assembly.  Every morning all of the students stand around the courtyard for announcements and to sing the national anthem.  Morning assembly

Paige already told you guys about our schedule and everything so I will keep it nice and short for you.

Paige's first week of school

Getting picked up for my first day of school at Kanchanapisek was like to going into high school for the first time.  It’s sort of like walking by a group of kids talking in the hallway and they are all looking at you, but right when you look towards them, they turn away and all start laughing.  Except multiply it by 2000. 

I taught 3 classes the first day, and fortunately they got progressively better.  My first class was taught to 40 blank stares, who didn’t seem to understand anything I was talking about.  No one spoke when I asked a question, and I received zero nods of recognition.  But I stumbled through until the bell rang, at which I patted myself on the back for finishing my first class.  The following classes got a lot better once I realized that for the most part they did know what I was talking about, but were too timid to say anything.

We each teach 17 classes a week, and each of those is a different group of around 45 students.  Half of my classes are the equivalent of 6^th graders, and the other are 9^th graders. The rest of the week included some really good classes, and some really bad classes.  But the moments when I can actually share a joke or a laugh across cultures, make up for all the not so inspiring ones.   

Oh, just enjoying a popsicle during my break:

The kids love to say, “Hello” as we walk by.  And whenever we return the “Hello” they turn and giggle in their little groups.  All of the girls loooove Cyrus; one of the other teachers even told him he looks like a TV star.  The students are well behaved for the most part, but the biggest problem is constant talking.  Five seconds after you get the class quiet a group starts talking again.  They also love games. I played hangman in all of my classes, and the shouting of letters would get so loud I thought the whole school could hear it.  Despite the noise, it’s really fun seeing their excitement over a stupid game like hangman. 

Cyrus and some of his many admirers:

Overall, I would call it a successful first week.  I didn’t cry, nor did I make any kids cry … so it’s a win for everyone.  This weekend we are just going to relax and explore Suphanburi a little bit.

Love you all,

Teacher Paige

Suphanburi

Here’s a few more pictures of the town we’re living in. 

This is from the welcome dinner we had with our coordinator, Wattana, and two other teachers from school:

Wattana also took us to a market about a 15 minute walk from our apartment.  It had countless food vendors selling everything from smoothies, to sushi, to various forms of meat on a stick. 

There is also a fresh food market with fruits and vegetables: