End of School

Our year of teaching has come to end.  It's had it's ups and downs but overall it was a great, if not brief, experience. The last week of school brought out a lot of emotions...we were happy to do be done, sad to leave our students, excited to see our families, and nervous to get back into "the real world".  Our students were so cute, a lot of classes made posters, or sang songs, or gave us little parting gifts.  I may have shed a tear once or twice, ha.  And of course we took hundreds and hundreds of pictures (if you hadn't already noticed on my facebook page), once one student asked to take a picture with them, then they all got into a line to wait their turn.

We had to hurry up and finish our grading on Friday afternoon.  It was emotional for me to walk out of school, just knowing that I'll probably never be back there again.  But fortunately, we had things to look forward to so I could think about those instead.

We finished school on September 20, and then hung around Suphan for a few days to say goodbye to all of our friends.  Now it's time for our final hurrah/SE Asian adventure. Our plan is to visit northern Thailand again, then tour Malaysia, Bali and Singapore before heading back to the states.

We stayed in Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) for a few days before leaving Thailand, because we really like the city, and we used it as a sort of post-teaching congratulation/relaxation/celebration time. We always wanted to take a cooking class, so we finally signed up for one, we also went to some our favorite restaurants, and did some shopping and temple touring.

The cooking class was on a farm, so Cyrus got to wear a farmers hat

Grounding up the spices

Curry and stir-fry: Cyrus' was actually pretty good

We even got to watch the Packers-Seahawks game....and we all know how that turned out

View from a temple

Temple on a mountain

After Chiang Mai we boarded a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we'll hang out and explore for 10 days. Hope everyone is happy and healthy at home!

Paige and Cyrus

A Day in the Life...

A major case of procrastination has kept us from writing this post, but as we're starting to get ready to leave, we've been thinking a lot about our daily life and how different it will be when we get back.  So join us....on a day in the life of teachers in Thailand.


6:45 am: We wake up, eat breakfast, and get ready for school

7:20 am: We walk down to wait at the bus stop

Cyrus patiently waiting for our van driver

7:30-7:45 am: Our van driver picks us up (along with some other kids) to take us to school.

The two little boys in the front never stop talking (even at 7:30 in the morning)

8:00 am: We get to school and sit in the office until classes start at 8:30.

8:30-11:15 am: We teach anywhere from 1-5 classes a day. Each class is 55 minutes, which usually turns into 40 minutes after all the late comers show up and everyone gets into their seats.

11:15 am: Lunch time. A plate of food costs 20 baht (about 66 cents), which is actually a big hike from last semester when it only cost 15 baht.

Paige's favorite lunch counter

Enjoying our lunch

Fried rice and chicken for Cyrus

Paige's usual lunch of stir fried vegetables and rice

The cafeteria gets really crowded at the "peak" lunch time

12:00-3:50 pm:  More teaching

4:15 pm: Our van driver picks us up from school.  We usually get home around 5:00.

5:00-6:00 pm: Relaxation time (aka nap time for Paige). Try to get the sound of children talking out of our head.

6:00 pm: Exercise (sometimes).  We usually try to go to the school next to our apartment to run or play basketball. But not so much lately.  This usually just gets blended into relaxation time.

7:00 pm:  We go out to dinner almost every night.  It's cheaper, easier, and tastes better than cooking at home.  Once in a while we'll make pasta, but that's the extent of our culinary endeavors. It's funny, but because all the restaurant names are written in Thai, none of us have any idea what they're actually called.  So we have to make up names ourselves.  For example: pad thai lady, baumee hang (noodle) guy, blue chair place, white chair place, the place next to white chair, Tom Ka (coconut soup) place, the place behind nasa mall, etc....  And everyone who lives in our apartment knows exactly what restaurant you are referring to when you say any of these 'names'.

Blue Chair Place

Tom Ka Place

8:30 pm: "TV" time.  Since we don't have cable, we stream or download all of our shows. Since getting to Thailand, we've polished off  every season of Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy, Arrested Development, two seasons of Top Chef, Workaholics (Cyrus finished Sopranos and Homeland) along with quite a few movies.

9:30-10 pm: Bed time.

Weekend Edition:  When we're not traveling on the weekends, we usually take the time to do all of the "domestic" things that need doing.  Such as going to the grocery store (Tesco Lotus), doing our laundry (which we hang up to line dry), eating at some of our favorite restaurants that are only open during lunch, cleaning our rooms, and so on. Lately Cyrus has been giving me Tennis lessons, and we've been making drastic improvements.  I'll be ready to take on any challengers when I get back (I bet if I trained every day for a year I could make the pro tour).  Sometimes we go to the pool, the mall, or the movie theater, and other days we just bum around at home.

Here's a few pictures of our apartment:

I hope you enjoyed yourselves picturing us in this daily routine.  We'll try to follow up with our last week of school!

Paige and Cyrus

Sports Day

We just finished up Sports Day at school. Classes were canceled for two days to have a school wide sports competition, including basketball, soccer, volleyball, ping pong, bocce ball, and running.  Here are a few pictures of the whole experience:

The students were split up into 4 teams: red, blue, green and pink

The teams competed in different sports and cheered for their atheletes

Each team had their own cheering section

The opening ceremony included a parade and a lighting of the torch

 

 

 

Every team had "cheerleaders" who performed dances in between the sporting events

More "cheerleaders"

Do you recognize Pee from the teaching video? Of course he's the best volleyball player in school

Football

Baitong, which is really similar to bocce ball

Cyrus had his football debut in a teachers vs. students match

He even scored the game-winning goal

We also participated in a teachers relay

Paige took home the silver medal

It was really fun to be a part of, and was good to see students having fun outside of the classroom. 

Lots of love to everyone at home!
Paige and Cyrus

Cyrus and Paige au Cambodge

Hello World,

I know its been a long time since I've written anything on here but we haven't really been up to that much lately. As you read in Paige's last post we've been dealing with these animals in the classroom for the past couple months without much of a break. And then seemingly out of nowhere, we were granted a week of much needed vacation.

First we were headed to Bangkok for a race. Paige and I signed up for a race a while back for some motivation to exercise. It was a 16.8k race which comes out to around 10.5 miles so we had been training for a couple months leading up to race day and were pretty excited. But there was one downside: the race started at 4 am. We got to to the race area at around 3:15 in the morning which, looking back on it, is a ridiculous time to be running. But they had to do it early because of the heat and because its pretty hard to shut down Bangkok traffic for even a couple hours. We were a little bit surprised by the organization of the race when we got there, it looked really nice and seemed to be running smoothly. And about 10 minutes before the race was starting they even had group aerobics for all of the runners at the start line! It was more ridiculous than it sounds because Paige and I were pretty much the only people not participating. But the feeling we had that the race organization was too good to be true was correct. On the course most water stations were completely out of water. When they did have water they didn't have it poured and so you had to stop and wait at every station for them to pour you a glass. Afterwards there was no snacks or drinks and getting our bags back was a mess as well. But overall it was a good experience. It was a lot of fun being able to run through the streets of Bangkok (even though it was dark for the whole race) and doing something competitive. For those of you wondering neither Paige nor I got first place. The Kenyans were a bit too fast for either of us this time, but if we trained for a year I think we could beat them pretty easily (maybe).

After recovering in Bangkok for a day, we were finally off on our big adventure for the week. We decided to finally make the trip over the Eastern border to Cambodia. We had heard some good things about Cambodia so we were pretty excited to go over there, especially to see Angkor Wat. We took a bus from Bangkok to the border and had to get out to go through immigration and customs and all that. As soon as we  were out of the bus I immediately wanted to go back to Thailand. The border town was called Poipet and was one of the dirtiest, shadiest, nasty places I have ever been to. There was trash everywhere, people were getting carried across the border in huge caged cars and the touts were unbelievable. Paige and I were trying to figure out our plan for getting to our next city and were trying to talk to one another but could not even hold a conversation because of taxi-drivers right up in our faces asking us questions and telling us where to go. We ended up taking a "taxi" from Poipet to Siem Reap (which was our final destination) When we got to Poipet I was like this but when we left i was like this.

The weirdest thing upon entering the country is the currency they use. Instead of using Cambodian currency they only use American dollar bills. All of the prices are listed in dollars on menus and at stores. When you looked at a menu it is amazing when you can actually see in USD how cheap what you are eating is. And it also just felt weird to have American money again. It was the first time we had really seen it in almost a year and it looks a lot different after you've been looking at Thai money for that long. 

Coming into Siem Reap we had heard good things so we were expecting to be impressed. When we arrived we were blown away. The city had a completely different feel than any city we've been to so far in SE Asia. It had a European influence but was a lot classier than some of the other European-styled cities we visited. It was such a stark contrast from Thailand that it was hard to believe at first. The first night we just walked around the town and repeatedly talked about how awesome it was there.

Walking through Siem Reap at night

Dinner in Siem Reap at the same restuarant Mick Jagger ate at (their claim to fame)

We spent the next three days exploring Angkor Wat which was an amazing adventure. Basically Angkor Wat is an ancient city from around 1100-1200 AD. All the ruins that are there are huge temples that were dedicated to different gods and different kings. We were expecting the temples and ruins to be similar to what we had seen in Thailand but they were completely different. Instead of being Buddhist temples the temples at Angkor are more influenced by Hinduism. The architecture was different as well as the gods that were depicted. After seeing so many of the same kind of temples over and over again in Thailand, seeing these Hindu-Buddhist fusion temples was interesting and refreshing.

Here are a couple videos of us walking through some of the temples on the compound:

The setting of the whole Angkor complex was fun as well. Most of the temples were covered with trees and bushes in the middle of the jungle. It is where they did some of the filming for Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider if that gives you a better sense of the scenery. While they are doing a great job conserving and restoring the ruins, the way that nature is seemingly taking over the compound was beautiful. Even with the amount of people touring the sites it was very easy to imagine stumbling upon these huge ruinous temples as the first adventurers however many years ago, as Linda would say. During our trip we took many "adventure" posed pictures because we felt like explorers the whole time we were there.

Paige and I exploring the ruins

Nature taking over

Overall we came away from Cambodia being very impressed. It definitely lived up to its expectations and even surpassed them in my mind. If we had more time over here in this side of the world I might even go back again just because of how much fun the city of Siem Reap was. For those of you keeping track at home we have been here for ten months already which means only a couple more until we come back. Time has been flying by for us over here but we are starting to actually get excited to come back (a little bit at least). We are done teaching in one month! Crazy how fast this whole thing has been going.

For more pictures of our trip you can click on this link and it will take you to an album.

Hope you all are doing well and have been having a good summer!

Cyrus and Paige

PS. I know you guys are all getting excited for another great season of Lions football!

Precious angels or devils in disguise?

Almost every day, I have a debate with myself as to whether my students are good or bad.  Are they genuinely trying their best to learn, or are they putting all of their effort into making my job as trying as possible?  I put together a little collection of stories and descriptions about our students, so you can be the judge….  

I once had a girl sitting in class, turned completely around with her back towards me, getting her eyelids shaved by the girl behind her.  Why she thought that was OK, I have no idea?  Why she was having her eyelids shaved is the even bigger mystery.  I’ve had boys popping pimples at their desks, kids stand up and go talk to someone across the room while I’m teaching, girls just casually taking pictures of themselves right in front of me, along with countless other gross and ridiculous things.

And then there's always the constant, non stop talking. It's like a tick they can't control.  If it's not talking, then it's drumming on the desks, messing with the window blinds, or throwing things at other kids. I literally have kids put their hands over their mouths, and even that only lasts for a few minutes. Those are the kids that make you really wish hitting students was OK. But words just can't do justice to the kind of chatter we have to deal with, so here is a video for you to enjoy.  This is one of my lower classes (knows the least English), and they are a little rowdier than most, but not by too much.  Yes, they always talk this much, and no, they never stop. Prepare yourselves (it's really long, but you only have to watch about a minute to get the idea): Paige's Class

I'm sure you noticed Donut and Pee in the video (Pee is the very flamboyant one, and Donut is the pudgy one), my two little class leaders/lady boys.  They take it upon themselves to hand out papers, quiet the class down, and make sure people aren't copying.  When they aren't standing in front of the class doing something ridiculous, they're over my shoulder as I check other people's papers making comments about them.  Most days they just  make me laugh, but last week I actually had to send Donut out into the hall for being a little too disruptive.

I played a “What do you know about America?” game with my students. For some of the sections I would have them write down all the athletes or singers they knew.  Check out some of the spelling interpretations.

Joh Double U Wood

Team Harward

Wing Carter

Reddy kaka

Robot Jam

Can you guess who they were trying to write?  Well if you guessed George W. Bush, Tim Howard, Vince Carter, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James then you are an expert at Tinglish (Thai-English). They always hear the names, but probably rarely ever see them in writing.

M2 class (Freshman level)

Every other class or so I have them do a worksheet or writing assignment, and I go around to each student and have them read something out loud to me.  There are a few kids that just crack me up every time.  They (on purpose) will yell and emphasize every singe world, instead of just reading like a normal person, "APPLES! ARE! RED! BUT! BANANAS! ARE! YELLOOOOOWW!" You want to be annoyed, but you just can't help but laugh.

I taught a music lesson, and asked students why they did or didn't like certain genres of music.  I asked one student if he liked pop music, to which he responded, "yes".  And I proceeded to ask "why?".  He thought that was the wrong answer so he changed it to "no".  And I asked "why?" again. He couldn't come up with any answer, so he just sat silent for a few moments, then out of nowhere came up with "no comment". I had to turn my back because I was laughing too hard. This is coming from a class with very low English (they can barely answer "how are you?") so it's really funny that he picked up that phrase from some movie or show.

Thai students are very competitive, so even the most simple games get taken to the next level. I was doing a 'describing people' lesson, and I would show a picture of someone on the screen.  The two teams would take turns saying a sentence to describe the person and the first team to mess up loses. I had one kid doing warm up push-ups before it was his turn and Tiger Woods-esque fist pumps when his team won.  That's one of my favorite things about the students, even stupid games become really fun.

 M5 class (Junior age) doing a skit

The students do other little things that you just have to smile at. They love to mock you (in a playful way) when you’re talking.  Whenever I say, “good good”,  “OK”,  or “very good” I get a whole chorus yelled back. And then there's my favorite part of class....when they leave.  Not only because it means I'm done with that class, but also because they each have some comment to make on the way out.  Which range from, "teacher beautiful" and "i love you", to "next week game?" and "hello, goodbye, 1,2,3".

Well there's a little glimpse into the life of Teacher Paige. Hope you enjoyed it!

Laos

After we were finished with Songkran in Chiang Mai we made our way towards the Laos border the next few days. This was our first trip outside of Thailand so we had been looking forward to it for a while and were excited to finally be on our way. Laos is a pretty small country with a population of around 6 million and the biggest city is close to the size of Grand Rapids. But it has become a bigger tourist destination in the past 10 years and there are generally three main stops that travelers visit on their loop through Laos. We had heard a lot of mixed reviews about Laos so we were eager to check it out for ourselves and see what it was about. Needless to say there were definitely some very cool things about Laos but there were also some things that were very weird and hard to get used to. 

The very first part of our trip into Laos was probably some of the hardest traveling that I have ever been a part of. In the Northern parts of Thailand, Thailand and Laos are separated by the Mekong River which is one of the biggest rivers in Asia. To cross the border we had to take about a five minute ferry ride across the river. However, to get to our first destination, Luang Prabang (LP), we had to take a two day boat ride down the Mekong. While the scenery was beautiful on the ride, the conditions were pretty rough. It was at or above 100 degrees for both days on the boat with a bunch of hot sweaty people for eight hours the first day and eight hours the second day. We stopped for the night in a small town called Pak Beng. The town's sole existence was predicated on this boat stopping there once a day and people being stuck there having to stay in their guest houses and eat at their restaurants. People jumped on the boat trying to sell us their hotels and food before we even made it to the dock. While this was a really rough ride the scenery was awesome as we were riding down the river surrounded by sandy beaches and huge mountains. Here are a couple videos of our time on the slow boat. My video and Paige's video. Paige narrated one and I narrated one but I'm sure you already know whose is going to be better. It has become my goal to wave as many times as possible during these videos. 

Some of the scenery on our slow boat ride down the Mekong. 

The actual slow boat we were on for two days. 

Laos was colonized by the French a little bit before 1900 and LP was the capital during this time all the way up until 1975 so it had a huge French influence. This was actually really refreshing to be around because we had gotten so used to everything in Thailand. It was nice to see some European architecture, languages, and food for a little while. The biggest cuisine difference was the presence of all types of bread and baked goods which was awesome. We had real sandwiches! There was a bakery/coffee shop right by our guesthouse that we went to probably three or four times in the three days that we were there because we were so excited about it. But the biggest thing for us was the architecture and the feel of the city. The whole time we walked around the city we could not stop mentioning the architecture. It almost seemed as if we we were on a French Caribbean island because of the way the buildings looked and the French on all the signs and menus.  

Some of the French architecture.

View over the river in Luang Prabang.

Floating down the river. 

The second city that we stopped in was Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a really small town that is a pretty big "backpacker" destination. The big attraction is tubing down a nearby river. The river is lined with bars pretty close to the whole way down and they all try to reel you in with free drinks, beer pong, free food and so on. But they literally try to reel you in with people dressed as spider man throwing ropes across the river to drag you into their bar. We decided to go all in and dress exactly like everyone else there. We bought the "Tubing in the Vang Vieng" tank tops, wore our fake ray bans and floated down the river all day. It was a lot of fun and some of the bars on the river were just ridiculous. They have huge water slides, zip lines, and the most absurd signs for their bars. All-in-all it was a good time and the scenery as you went down the river was unbelievable. 

The view on the drive to Vang Vieng.

Stereotypical outfits. 

The last city that we stopped in was Vientienne which is the current capital of Laos. Vientienne was your typical big city and while there are a few things to see, it was simply just too hot for us to even go outside. During the day it was around 115 degrees with the heat index so while we tried to see the attractions, anytime we stepped out of the AC'ed hotel into the heat we would immediately be drenched in sweat. We did get out at night to see some of the city but everything closes at 11:30 in Laos so it was hard to do very much at night.

One of the few things we were able to get out of the hotel to see in Vientienne. 

Laos was a lot of fun for us to visit, especially since it was our first trip out of Thailand. It had a little bit of everything some of it good and some of it bad but it was definitely different than Thailand. The landscape was definitely beautiful and it was cool to see some of the French influence in a Asian country. But I cannot end this post without mentioning...Laos is a communist country. We did not know this before we visited and it took us a while to fully realize it. At first we noticed that all of the signs were the the same style. All of them for hotels/restaurants/stores looked like this just with the different store names. There was a national curfew for stores and hotels to close which was 11:30. But the hardest thing had to be the lack of chain stores like 7-11. Coming from Thailand where you can hardly walk down any street without running into one of them, this was actually a pretty big problem for us. While it was fun while we were there, I could feel the oppression lifted off my shoulders once we finally stepped back into Thailand. And our first quest once we got back in a free country was to stop at a 7-11. 

Hope everyone back home is doing good!

Cyrus and Paige

One of the perks of Laos: a different and better beer.